Oneonta Garage Doors, according to its website, “makes coming and going easier.”
Jon Ferris, 41, owns the business at 8851 state Highway 23 in Oneonta, established by his father, also named Jon Ferris, in 2002. Ferris, a Sidney native and Oneonta resident, began with the company in 2009, taking over following his father’s 2020 retirement. Oneonta Garage Doors offers installation, repair and maintenance of garage doors.
“After I got out of the army, (following a deployment to Iraq), I decided I wanted to stay in Colorado, so I stayed for a few years and originally worked in the medical field, as a radiology tech,” Ferris said. “But, basically all of my friends there had deployed to Afghanistan, so I came back to New York … and my dad offered me a job, so I took it.
“The main thing that kept me out of (returning to) radiology was, it was inside and the same thing every day,” he continued. “The thing I enjoy about this is, it’s different customers every day, different locations every day and there’s a lot of variety, and it’s outside and outside work is enjoyable.”
Customers, Ferris said, represent a mix.
“We work on all brands of residential and commercial garage doors and electric operators, and we sell them, repair them — both doors and electric operators — and we service them,” he said. “Generally, it’s Otsego, Delaware, Chenango and Greene counties. We try to keep it within a 60-mile radius of Oneonta, but we do go up to Binghamton.
“It usually ends up being about 50/50 (residential versus commercial clients),” Ferris continued. “We do a lot of service contracts for New York State Department of Transportation and counties like Delaware and Otsego’s garages, and we do Country Club Motors and all the car dealers. But also, about half our time is spent dealing with residential customers and fixing operators and doors at their homes. And (the feedback) is good. They’re happy that someone called them back and that we show up when we’re supposed to; that’s a hard thing around here.”
Ferris said Oneonta Garage Doors provides niche, but necessary, services.
“It’s fairly (specialized); there are a few other companies that do garage doors, but there’s not very many,” he said, noting that Oneonta Garage Doors has seven full-time employees.
Ferris attributed the company’s longevity to furthering his father’s vision.
“It’s our customer service,” he said. “We make it a priority to get people out of whatever situation they find themselves in. If they’re stuck in their car or their garage, we make it a point to get them going pretty quickly, and that is something my dad started from Day 1. It’s all about reputation, so, if you can do it correctly and fairly, you continue to grow, and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve been growing massively over the last six or seven years (because) we’ve just been focused on growing and going above and beyond for people, and I think that’s really helped us.”
Ferris said he hopes to continue broadening the company’s reach while remaining committed to the area. He said Oneonta Garage Doors is “always” accepting new clients and his wife, Jessica, handles the company’s administrative branch.
“We plan on hiring a few more techs and we like to get those guys all factory trained, so we send them out to the factory and they go through courses, which a lot of companies don’t do,” he said. “And then just continue to slowly expand. I’ve considered moving a lot, but we like the area, so I don’t think we’ll be moving any time soon. And it’s a good place to raise kids. There’s no rush in it, I just want to keep growing.”
For more information, visit oneontagaragedoors.com, call 607-278-4107 or email oneontagaragedoors@live.com.