Elisa Irvolino founded her business, The Drapery Lady, from her Bay Shore home five years ago, and as a self-taught decorator she knew that to expand and develop in her market, she needed to do something unique.

There is strength in numbers, so Elisa and her mother, Nereyda Aybar, a tailor and owner of Nereyda Originals, sought the assistance of Assemblyman Phil Ramos. The mother and daughter applied for two grants through the Tri-Hamlet Community Development Corporation and and were awarded $6,000. “We wanted to work together in one store,” says Elisa. The entrepreneurs set up shop at their current location on Pine Aire Drive in Bay Shore a year and a half ago, with Nereyda overseeing the tailoring and dry cleaning shop and Elisa’s business, The Drapery Lady, operating in the back.

“We wanted to work together in one store,” Elisa says about how they combined their grants. Elisa now employs a carpenter and bookkeeper and Nereyda’s business includes a large amount of contract work.

As a decorator, Elisa says that she is always perfecting new techniques. “Friends started asking me to help them and it snowballed after that. Most of my work is gotten through referrals.” Elisa travels all over LI to private homes and businesses, providing her services for many types of decorating projects. “I love to make big, beautiful curtains,” Elisa says. “That’s how I got my name. People would say, ‘The Drapery Lady is coming today!’

“[My services are] more for the everyday person. I know all the places that you can get fabric for $4 a yard. My clients want something custom-made, but don’t have a high-end budget,” she says.
Elisa has been recognized as one of the top 200 mom-owned businesses in Startup Nation’s 2009 Leading Moms In Business Competition. Startup Nation wanted to recognize the achievements of mothers across the U.S. who run outstanding businesses and who continue to build those businesses while managing a family, career, home and self.

Elisa used social networking and the latest online marketing techniques to win the competition. “I used Facebook, Twitter and blogs, and it worked. I got people to vote for me,” she explains. She continues to use the new mediums to grow her business. She was recently traveling on the Fire Island Ferry and Tweeted that she was going to a restaurant to give an estimate and got another job from that Tweet. “Everyday the phone is ringing,” she says happily.

In addition to running her business, Nereyda and her husband, Gedeon, are worldwide missoinaries and pastors at the Marantha Church in Freeport.
“We decide where we are going [to travel] depending on the need. Our organization’s churches [God’s Love in Action] are all over the world,” Nereyda says. The Aybars and their fellow missionaries teach people everyday living skills so after they leave the native people can be self-sufficient. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime,” she says. Nereyda is now starting a community center in Greenport. Together with her church in Freeport she is impacting thousands of lives every year.
Elisa and Nereyda’s business is well-known throughout the Bay Shore area. “We all chip in and help each other,” Elisa says. Their store is a drop-off and pick-up donation location for the needy, and they will soon be offering workshops, including sewing classes for local women. “We want to teach women how to be more independent and to show them that they can have their own source of income,” Elisa says.

Elisa says that everybody can have a beautiful home and by being creative, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. As for the future? “I want a full home-decorating studio,” she says. “I want to show my kids that I can do it.”

For more information contact Elisa at 631-513-1716 or www.thedraperylady.net or Nereyda at 631-328-4810.

If you know a super woman who deserves good Fortune—and a profile—e-mail your nominations to Beverly at bfortune@longislandpress.com.