You’re not just going to wake up one day with your dream job — at least that’s what moms have been saying since the very first teenager refused to get off the rock sofa and apply for jobs at the local tar pit. So, at the top of 2015, we take a moment to explore how the people of our hard-working Valley shape years of personal experience into notable careers. For the eclectic bunch of professionals profiled in these pages, the new year brings fresh innovation, deepening expertise, and some damn good advice.
JUDITH FINE, owner of Gazebo, Northampton
Choose something you’re passionate about, because you’re going to be devoting your life to it.
With big-name department stores in the mix, it’s a wonder any small, local lingerie store survives. Judith Fine, owner of Gazebo in Northampton, says it boils down to staying positive, to providing a unique service and commitment.
About ten years ago, when retail stores started losing their business to online shopping, Fine says she had a momentous realization that allowed her to compete. She saw that at her shop, Gazebo in Northampton, bras were her biggest seller and were a difficult product to successfully sell online.
The majority of the space in the store was at the time devoted to sleepwear, so she shifted her focus to bras and lingerie.
That flexibility, she says, allowed her to stay in business. Fine says to be a successful business owner of any kind you have to be able to stay positive and change with the times.
“I’m an absolute, ridiculous optimist,” Fine says. “When something has been thrown in my path I’ve turned it upside down.”
At the same token, she says, you have to provide a unique service. Fine says she realized many women had come to depend on the one-on-one experience in the fitting room — there is no industry standard for bras, she says. From year to year and style to style, even bras of the same size can fit differently, and experienced fitters offer expert advice that make an otherwise tricky bra-buying experience more manageable.
Fine says she works hard to maintain the level of the one-on-one experience offered in her shop. She customer service is key to any business’s success. Whether customers have had recent mastectomies, are crossdressers, whether they’re transgender or even if they’re in buying a bra for their mistress, she says she and her staff create a welcoming environment.
“Customer service is your number-one product,” Fine advises.
Now, at 64, Fine says she’s ready to “pass on the torch.” Her eyes and ears are perked, ready for the right person to come along and take over the store she’s cultivated for more than 30 years.
Fine’s love affair with lingerie began in the 70’s with nude modeling days. It was then that she first began thinking about nudity, the in between, and about coming to terms with your own body.
She advises any new entrepreneur to choose a business they’re willing to commit to.
“Choose something you’re passionate about because you’re going to be devoting your life to it,” Fine says.
DAVID HOOSE,
attorney at Sasson Turnbull Ryan & Hoose, Northampton
Listen. Really listen.
Though David Hoose — one of the most in-demand criminal defense lawyers in the area — is humble about his achievements, he attributes his good fortune to knowing exactly what he wanted to do at a young age, strong training, trusting colleagues, and his focus on the client.
Hoose says he remembers the precise moment he knew he would become a lawyer. That “aha” moment, he says, propelled him into a prosperous career. If you’re lucky enough to have such a moment, he says, follow your instincts and carry it through.
Hoose says he was working as a VISTA volunteer under a public defender when he had the realization. He remembers helping a public defender speak for a poverty-stricken man, found sleeping by the side of the road, in the courtroom one day and feeling a sudden rush.
“I thought, ‘that’s it. This is what I want to do,’” says Hoose.
Hoose says he’s fortunate to have gotten into the field at a great time to learn. Starting out in 1980, Hoose says, he was on his feet constantly examining witnesses. Back then, young attorneys had more opportunities to learn more quickly, he says.
“Young lawyers today spend years to get the experience that I got then in one day,” Hoose says. “It was like a crash course.”
But that’s just good timing. Hoose’s advice for young defense attorneys: listen to your clients. It sounds simple, he says, but it’s often overlooked. Care about your clients, he says. Bond with them. As he frequently meets clients in prison, he says asking them if they like their roommate, if they’ve gotten to make calls, if they’ve had visitors, and if they need anything can make a big difference. It shows clients he cares, Hoose says, and builds a sense of trust that helps win cases.
Hoose adds that he has been fortunate over the years to have good partners who complement him and that surrounding yourself with people who make you better is important to anyone’s success.
JOE SERRAZINA,
owner of Shu Fix, Northampton
Work harder than the other guy.
For more than 70 hours a week, Joe Serrazina — owner of Shu Fix on Hawley Street in Northampton — works, sleeps and breathes shoes. For that reason, he says, he remains successful as one of the area’s only cobblers.
“Hard work,” he advises. “If you don’t work hard, you don’t survive.”
When Serrazina, 64, says to work hard, he’s not talking about your standard forty-hour workweek riddled with Facebook breaks and lunch with colleagues — he’s talking about long, back-breaking days filled with multitasking.
The twelve-plus hours a-day he spends there entail no dawdling. He works on several pairs of shoes at a time, pulling them up onto poles, yanking off their damaged soles and replacing them with new ones, trimming the rubber with fell swoops of his knife. Calls pour in from customers. He answers but does not stop working — he holds the phone to his ear with his shoulder, talking and slicing simultaneously.
The dizzying fumes appear not to faze him. He’s worked with shoes all his life, he says. His father owned a shoe factory in Portugal and by the time Serrazina began working at the factory as a teenager, he already knew how to make shoes from watching his father, which brings us to his next point of advice: know your work.
For you to be in the business of fixing something, Serrazina says, you have to know how it was made.
“If you don’t know how it was made, you’re in trouble.”
ADAM HAZEL,
owner of Shop Therapy, Northampton
Reinvent yourself every 10 years.
Born to Ronny Hazel — founding owner of the longstanding Shop Therapy chain that began with a shop in Provincetown, Mass. — Adam Hazel grew up in retail and has learned some tricks along the way. Hazel, who is the proprietor of Shop Therapy – The Vault in Northampton, says he advises anyone going into retail to know your market, build an atmosphere and keep it fresh.
Hazel, 40, says he heard from tourists on the Cape that Northampton was a cool place and decided to check it out. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, he says he wanted to open a Shop Therapy store somewhere between New York and Boston. He decided to scope out Northampton — walk the streets and get to know people — and quickly saw Northampton was a good fit for the family brand, so he set up shop on the corner of Center and Main Street.
Hazel says he’s proud to have brought the family Northampton, and his business — which specializes in alt lifestyles items, such as smoking implements, incense and tapestries — has done so well that his father recently opened up a second shop downtown to handle the traffic.
“I think you should start out small, and then expand,” Hazel says.
Hazel advises retailers to “keep it fresh” — to always have a cutting edge item to highlight at the door and to constantly rearrange to store. Right now, he says, “e-juice”and vaporizing pens as a smoking alternative are all-the-rage. He highlights the various flavors in a large glass case at the front of the store.
Hazel says it’s important for stores to maintain an atmosphere. While the store frequently gets repainted and rearranged, he says, the “vibe” stays the same — he lights the same incense and keeps the mood, music laid back. His store’s unique atmosphere, he says, brings people in and keeps them coming back.
SUSANNAH HOWE,
director of Smith College’s Engineering Design Clinic, Northampton
Create a work environment for yourself that is ripe with possibility.
“Teaching engineering at a women’s college is really the best you can get,” says Howe, who came to Smith in 2003.
Howe teaches the senior design course for engineering students, coaches student design teams, and works with graduates as they transition into the professional world.
“We take students interested in pursuing engineering as a career and we give them a mini version of that in a year.”
Currently, students are designing a spur for the Norwottuck Rail Trail. They’re working on rehabilitating an earthen dam near Marlboro. They’re helping to design a laparoscopic surgery device. And they’re looking at waste heat recovery systems in the oil and gas industry.
“Engineering is a very broad field,” she said. “There are so many paths you can take.”
Last year, while on sabbatical, Howe visited two dozen companies, noting the skills they look for when hiring entry-level engineers. She found that in addition to a solid technical foundation, companies want young engineers who can communicate, work as a team, and get flexible with new projects and topics.
In class, then, she has the opportunity not only to hone students’ skills but to shape their expectations.
“As you’re planning a career, it can feel like you are planning the rest of your life in one fell swoop. But careers take all sorts of twists and turns.”
In other words: be open-minded. “You can create a work environment for yourself that is ripe with possibility. We live in a different time now, and people are moving around a lot for work. That can bring you into a lot of opportunities.”
JOE FRIGO,
Frigo’s Foods president, Springfield
Work hard, but be good to people.
For Joe Frigo, it’s no struggle to balance work and family life — his work is his family.
Frigo’s Foods opened in Springfield’s South End in 1950, and the family-owned shop is now run by the third generation.
When asked how the operation keeps running smooth and strong, Frigo’s answer is simple: “Work hard. That’s it. We work hard seven days a week.”
“We’re proud of the tradition we’ve built here,” he said. “We’ve kept a little family market going in the South End for 65 years. It’s not even about the money — it’s about satisfying everyone and making sure they want to come back.”
He listed some points of pride: food made from scratch, quick carry-out lunches, fresh vegetables, walls of specialty wines, meats, and pastas, and a wide variety of imported groceries.
When asked about his first responsibilities in the shop, one memory jumped to his mind instantly: “They used to make me oil the cheese. We kept big wheels of Parmigiano down in the cellar, and I had to go down there and coat the cheese in hot olive oil.”
The chore, which softens the rind and adds flavor to the cheese, wasn’t glamorous. “You know that show Dirty Jobs on TV? I should have been on that.”
But Joe Frigo seems to have attained a sort of zen state over time. “My grandpa always said: Charge them 10 cents more, but always give them the best there is,” he added. “If you want to run a place like this, work hard, but be good to people. That’s the only way it comes together.”
T. SCOTT COOK,
Wildness Experiences Unlimited camp director, Southwick
Make it your lifestyle first. See if you like it.
Growing up, Scott Cook escaped into nature. “On Saturday mornings, my parents would tell me get lost. I just had to be home by streetlights.”
That doesn’t happen much anymore, he explains. “Kids are so programmed into blocks of time. Our camp tries to fight that.”
Wilderness Experiences Unlimited opened 34 years ago as a summer camp, but it now provides swimming, hiking, kayaking, SCUBA, and other outdoor programs for adults and kids.
Scott, who holds a Ph.D. in outdoor leadership, takes a holistic view of recreation. “My father once told me that if you love the outdoors, there’s no reason to ever be bored. I take that as my mission.”
Outdoor people, and outdoor leaders, have big entrepreneurial spirits, he says.
“If you want to do the outdoors for a living, you don’t find a lot of job opportunities without relocating somewhere. If you want to make it happen where you are, you usually have to start your own company.”
But a word of caution: Try it before you buy it. “It’s not just something you can leave at 5 o’clock. It’s a lifestyle choice. So, make it your lifestyle first. See if you like it, and see if you can share it with others.”
That being said, Cook has seen his former campers take jobs as teachers, paramedics, park rangers, and even environmental police. “You don’t have to start your own business. If you love being outside, it can take you anywhere.”•
