If mere enthusiasm were enough to sell you on a photographer you would probably pick Sue Sheerer.  And that's before you see the quality of her work.  Sheerer specializes in catching unexpected, joyful moments in her work, whether it is in a portrait taken in her studio, or an unrehearsed moment at a wedding.  She especially enjoys working with small children, catching their sense of innocent wonder.  "I do what clients want, but my style is that of relaxed, candid photography," she says.  "Especially with younger children."

Her studio is full of props and backdrops to lend variety to her photo shoots, and to allow her to match an object with her subjects.  In one picture a small child wearing an engineer's cap plays with a toy train.  In another a baby wearing a chef's hat plays with a pizza and a rolling pin in a triptych that captures three different moods.  Another shows a toddler 'having a ball' in four shots with a beach ball. "I started specializing in maternity and newborn pictures," she says.  "I still have a passion for that.  I've become so fixed on capturing the beauty of a baby.  A baby is an amazing subject."

You may need some extra storage space for the summer, or a place to keep things that don't fit in your hose.  or you may need more storage for your business, or even a place to work.  That's where United Storage comes in.  It is a locally owned business that provides secure storage for all kinds of uses.  Aside from mini-storage units, a couple of tenants store landscaping materials.  An electrical supplier and painters use the facility.  A skate board company occupies one building.  Borg Warner and Ithaca College store things there.  Another tenant hand-forges knives and swords.  The company prides itself on providing friendly service.

"We're definitely here to help do whatever you need or maintain the facility," says Kimberly Budd, who manages the storage side of the business.  "People normally like palettes in their units.  Dana is our right hand man who takes care of that.  We make sure the doors are functional, take care of snow removal -- all that kind of stuff.  We try to make our billing as easy as possible.  There is a pay button on our Web site so you can pay online.  or people can call in with credit cards or mail checks or stop by -- it's up to them."

Last year Frank and Melanie Towner tried an energy and vitamin supplement drink called Vemma (vee-ma).  The product is a replacement for handfuls of vitamin and supplement pills, based around a rare Southeast Asian fruit called mangosteen.  They liked it.  In January they started selling it.

"With our fast-paced lifestyle we realized that pizza and pasta weren't giving our family the nutrition that we needed," Melanie says.  "It tastes good and we liked the business aspect of it, the whole binary multi-level marketing approach.  This has got all the vitamins, all the minerals.  It's got antioxidants.  It's something that's good for us.  We tried the product and liked it and decided to take it to the next step to introduce it to other people."

Verizon WirelessYou have likely seen the Verizon Wireless kiosk in the Pyramid Mall or their new store in Ithaca across from Lowe's.    They cater to individuals who want cell phones and services from the company.  A third location, situated in the Cornell Business & Technology Park near the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, handles business accounts.  "We are the business sales side of Verizon Wireless," says Corporate Sales Manager Tracey Austin.  "We handle corporate accounts, and employee-liable accounts (accounts for employees who get discounts on the service) out of this office."

Austin says her company's local presence gives them an edge over the competition that allows her team to forge personal relationships in the community and provide better, more personalized service.  "We're right here," says the Lansing resident.  "We know most of the people that we support and work with."  Being part of the community and involved with people and events here is important to her.

Wearable ArtSome businesses come from detailed business plans.  Others evolve, and that's how Robin Schuttenberg's Wearable Art came to be.  She started painting dinosaurs onto T-shirts for her two sons 20 years ago, and then for their friends.  Soon she was selling her shirts at craft and juried shows.  Three years ago she began to draw large, detailed pen and ink images. "I started drawing dragons and the dinosaurs and all other sorts of creatures," she says.  "A friend of mine looked at them and said, 'Boy, you should send these out for tattoos or for museums to put on T-shirts.'  And so I did."

Today her designs are for sale in museum shops including the local Museum of the Earth and New York City's Museum of Natural History.  She starts with a pen and ink drawing about 20" x 14".  The designs are intricately fine lined, but must be distinct enough to be reduced to about 12" x 11" to be printed on T-shirts. Her shirts have a smaller second design on the back.  "On the dragons right now I'm in an eye mode, so different kinds of dragons' eyes on the back of the shirts," she says.  "Sometimes it extends more and you get more of the brow, and some of the nose, and sometimes it's just the eye, and sometimes it's in a box and sometimes it isn't."

When you think about heating and air conditioning  Wheaton's comes to mind.  The company has been part of the Tompkins County landscape since 1936, when it started as a family owned heating, plumbing, and sheet metal business.  While it has gone through several makeovers over the years, it continues to focus on heating, plumbing, and air conditioning.  But today the company has two major focuses: to offer affordable green technology to residential customers, and to offer comprehensive, responsive service for homeowners.

"We've rebranded Wheaton's," says Sales Manager Kellie Eldred.  "We're more of a green company looking to service whatever needs any homeowner has.  We're available to do most anything."

Gvozden Dokic likes to solve problems and make things work.  Specifically he solves computer problems for businesses and help them strategize to get the most out of their technology.  He optimizes systems and processes employed in using them, sets strategies for backing up, and customizes hardware to best fit with a business.  For the last 12 to 13 years XOrca, Inc. his consulting firm, has hired out to big banks, and small businesses, making problems go away so businesses can concentrate on what they do best.

"They don't see me," Dokic says.  "The businesses are busy with the business, and they are not busy calling me a million times to fix problems."

The name of one of the beginner classes is telling: 'Easy, Light and Fun Yoga'.  The class aims to make yoga accessible to anyone.  Yoga Farm owner Christopher Grant says that yoga can be accessible to anyone, which he calls 'yoga for everyone else.'  He says that his down to earth style brings yoga to people who wouldn't normally practice it.

"It's a simplified version of effective practices," he says.  "It's actually very effective.  It's not impossible postures and hard work for two hours.  We open the body and clear out stale energy, then let the body settle and have a short meditation.  People go away with big smiles on their faces.  You don't have to be a flexible twenty-something for most of the classes I offer here.  Most of the yoga is very simple.  It's really quite fun."

If you were going to launch a top-40 station but you don't have a studio or on-air talent ready yet, what would you do?  Z95.5 's General Manager Frank Lischack pulled a stunt that was guaranteed to get attention.  The station just played songs, 10,000 of them with no commercial interruption.

"I had the contractor build a closet," Lischack says.  "We put a couple of computers in and sealed the door with tape so the dust wouldn't get in.  Our program director programmed all the music, and every two or three days he would go in and update the programming, add new liners and jingles.  So we just existed in the closet for the first few weeks."