Congratulations Marilyn Coleman, owner of MJ Travel on being this month's Featured Business and thank you for your 35 year membership with the Irondequoit Chamber!!  Check out our Q&A with Marilyn:

Business Name:  MJ Travel

Owner:  Marilyn Coleman

Years in Business:  37 years loving every day that I did this kind of work.  It never seemed like work to me just plain joy.

Type of Business/ Services Offered:  Plan travel vacation for groups and families all over the world.  All of a sudden people were coming to me and asking me for advice.  I knew right then and there this was the career I wanted.  I was working as a guidance counselor in the school system.  As a hobby I would help the teachers plan their school breaks.  That is when I realized this is what I wanted to do, to get in to the travel business. 

How Did Your Business Come About?  What made you choose to open your business:  From working part time for a travel agency.  37 years ago I decided to go out on my own as I developed my own clientele  that came to me asking for help to plan their vacations.  I fell in love with this type of work and knew someday I would have my own agency.  There it was MJ Travel, I loved  what I did and was very good at doing it. 

Why Choose Irondequoit for Your Business Home:  I knew paying rent for an office and equipment that was needed meant I had to hopefully have enough clients just to get through those expenses. That also meant charging my clients more.  So I decided to work from my home office to save my clients extra charges for their vacations.  So if I worked from my home office I could do their vacations for far less, giving them more vacation for their money. 

What Do You Want Customers to Know About Your Business:  I love what I do with a passion.  It has never been work for me, just joy of planning vacations for my clients.  

What Community Service Has Your Business Been Involved In?  What Organizations do you support:  I use to belong to Lions Club and several local business clubs.  I belong to several travel organizations.  I support and donate to St. Jude.  I also support women's shelters with clothing and donations. 

Are There any Events You are Hosting You Wish to Tell the Community About:  Since 2006 I have had groups going on the Royal Clipper Sailing Ship every year.  This is a big beautiful sailing ship the length of a football field.  It has 54 square rigging sails.  It does both directions of the Caribbean each season.   Most of my clients have sailed this beautiful ship many times with me.  It truly is my most favorite way to relax and enjoy my vacations.  I will be doing a group February 24th to March 2, 2024 to Barbados doing the Grenadine Islands.  It is filling fast, I have 10 cabins filled so far. 

Check Out Our Q&A with Picture the Best Owner Natalie Best

Business name:   _Picture The Best_

Owner(s): _Natalie Best 

How many years in business? _Twelve years! I opened Picture The Best in 2010 in Gates and relocated the studio in 2016 to 655 Titus Avenue after my family and I moved to Irondequoit. 

Type of business/services offered? Picture The Best is a photo studio specializing in newborn, family, event and wedding photography. We’re there for our families through every exciting stage of life!

How did your business come about?  What made you choose to open your business? I’ve been interested in photography since my first darkroom class in high school.  I love connecting with people and working to create images that tell their story. My sisters had their senior photos taken a few years apart from one another and the backgrounds and poses were identical.  I wanted to create a place where each person was seen as an individual. I went to college for Film and Photography and created Picture the Best shortly after graduating; and made my dream come true of a studio where you can get photos that are uniquely you.

Why choose Irondequoit for your business ’ home:    Irondequoit’s business owners are so incredibly warm and welcoming. They have a genuine interest in seeing fellow businesses succeed, and I absolutely love that. Irondequoit isn’t just home to my business, but home to my family as well and we wouldn’t have it any other way! 

How many employees does your business employ?  Are any local Irondequoit natives?  I’m Picture The Best’s only full time employee, but I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of help and support from family and friends over the years.

What do you want potential customers to know about your business?  We offer many different types of photography.  Business photos, product photography, corporate events, school photos and many more. I love running a business because I have the opportunity to wear many hats and keep my days varied and interesting. Offering many types of services is one way to keep my creativity flowing. 

What community service has your business been involved in?  What organizations do you support/donate to?   We annually support Irondequoit High School’s football team. 

Are there any events you are hosting you wish to tell our community about?  We host private party events called Sips & Selfies. It’s one of Rochester ’s newest group-night-out activities. It’s creative, fun and right here in Irondequoit!  We’re also co-sponsoring The Haunted Carnival Walk Through at The Venue, 657 Titus Ave this October. 

We are celebrating 50 years with Tile Wholesalers of Rochester by making them our newest Featured Business!  Check out our Q&A with owners Dave and Kathy Firkins:

Business Name:  Tile Wholesalers of Rochester

Owner(s):  Dave and Kathy Firkins

Years in business:  50!!!

What type of business/services do you offer?   Retail and wholesale ceramic, porcelain and natural stone

How did your business come about?   Tile Wholesalers of Rochester was founded in 1972 by Alan Firkins. Alan believed relationships were the key to success and built a company based on superior service. In the early years of the company, the tile business was conducted on a wholesale level, working directly with contractors or tile installation companies, hence the “Wholesalers” in its name. Today, Alan’s son Dave applies that same philosophy of providing superior service to not only contractors, but architects, designers and homeowners as well. In 2021, Conor Firkins joined the company and the third generation is now here to carry on the customer service focus that has been our hallmark. 2022 marks 50 years for Tile Wholesalers of Rochester!! Cheers to our past, our present and our bright future!

Why choose Irondequoit for your business?   It's centrally located with easy access for truck and customer traffic.  It is also a welcoming area. 

What do you want potential customers to know about your business?   That our customers are our number one priority!

What community service or organizations does your business support?  Thread for a Cure, Laura's Gifts and Habitat for Humanity

Tile Wholesalers of Rochester has a beautiful showroom and 20,000 feet of warehouse space where they house samples and in stock products. You can find them at 1136 East Ridge Rd in Irondequoit and online at https://www.tilewholesalers.com/ .   Make sure to follow them on social media including Instagram and Facebook.

Our Newest Featured Business!

When walking in to Mad Hatters Hide Away Smoke Shop we were immediately obsessed with all the fun and unique décor.  The shop, located on Culver Rd near Norton is far bigger inside than it appears from the front.  We caught up with owner Nick Stebbins for a little Q&A to learn more about Mad Hatters Hide Away. 

Business Name:   Mad Hatters Hide Away Smoke Shop

Owner(s):  Nick and Rocco Stebbins

How many years in business?  11 Years in August

Type of business/services offered?   For cigars we carry over 200 different varieties of the top-rated brands throughout the world. Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, Punch, La Liga, and many more.  The largest selection of pipes in Rochester. Our collection includes one-of-a-kind pieces from the east to the west coast, as well as the most popular brands nationwide. For CBD we carry our own premium brand, Wonderland CBD. In addition, we also carry CBDMD, Koi, Green Roads, and more! E-Cigarettes we have Smok®, Regis, Ooze, and more. If you need it, we've got it. Wraps, cones, papers, Ryo supplies, pipe tobacco, hookahs, grinders, candles, incense, and storage containers. Anything you can think of we have it. We are also a licensed Xikar and Zippo dealer.

How did your business come about?  What made you choose to open your business?     We grew up with a father that renovated properties through Rochester to rent out or sell. Some of these properties he opened businesses in. This set the framework for us to want to have our own businesses at a young age. We had several different businesses over the years but once we opened Mad Hatters that ended up hitting better than anything we had done before. We first opened with a small inventory not knowing a ton about the smoke shop business. We did a ton of research became very knowledgeable along with building up the products that we carried. We have always given great customers service and our customers have rewarded us by coming back again and again. This has allowed us to keep expanding and growing. We are approaching 11 years in business with us winning Rochester’s best the last five years in a row.

Why choose Irondequoit for your business’ home:  We have always liked Irondequoit it’s a great town with a lot of character. The town and all the residents have always treated us well. The location of our building also has really helped our business grow. We have 104 up the road from us along with 590 around the corner. This allows us to get customers from all over Rochester and the surrounding areas. Culver Rd. is a great way to head downtown so we have a large number of cars passing us daily which has also helped our business grow quickly.

How many employees does your business employ?  Are any local Irondequoit natives?   We have 12 employees with many of them that are lifelong Irondequoit residents.

What do you want potential customers to know about your business?  Our store is over 2000 sq feet which from the road you would never think that. If you haven’t been in come, check us out. We have the largest selection of smoking accessories in New York State. Our expert staff is knowledgeable on all the products we carry and will treat you right. Just check out our google listing and you will see the number of happy customers we have had over the years. We also have our very own glass studio in downtown Rochester. A large amount of the glass art we carry is made right in our studio or other studios in the area. We even have some of these amazingly talented glass blowers on our staff at the store. The art that we have in our store is a must see for anyone. It is truly mind blowing what these artists can make and you can see it in full display in the back half of our store.

What community service has your business been involved in?  What organizations do you support/donate to?  Over the years we have been involved with many events and organizations. We have donated to The CF foundation, Toys for tots, The Asthma foundation, and more. We have also donated to police, fire and other organizations for there charity events they have thrown over the years.

Are there any events you are hosting you wish to tell our community about?   We do different events through out the year. At the store we do events/sales on black Friday, 4/20, and our yearly anniversary on August 1st. We have also started an event called the Roc City Flame Off. This event pits glass blowers against each other making a one-of-a-kind pieces of glass art. We threw our first one last year and will be doing it once a year. There is a few more events that are in the preliminary stages of planning. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to stay updated on everything we have going on.

Mad Hatters Hide Away Smoke Shop is located at 2334 Culver Rd, Rochester, NY 14609.  You can find them online or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.