By Rich Monetti
Growing up, Patty DeFelice wanted to teach and eventually earned her MAT in Education. Her plans, though, detoured when her father had a heart attack in the early 70s. Needing someone on the phones at his West Putnam Avenue bodyshop, DeFelice answered the call and never left. “It was a long phone call,” she joked, and the Greenwich native really put the past in the rearview by establishing her own patio furniture restoration company in 1995. DeFelice did eventually sell Patty’s Portico Outdoor Furniture Restoration in the 2000s. But the business remerged in Port Chester in 2016, and making success of the address change was a pretty easy turn for her.
“When you have positive energy, it comes back to you,” DeFelice assured.
So it’s fitting that her entrepreneurial beginnings radiated from similar kinetics. A local surgeon requested a restoration of his patio furniture, and DeFelice responded in kind. “He was such a nice man, so I said, ‘Ok, I’ll give it a try,’” she remembered.
The finish came out beautifully so she sought out the possibilities. DeFelice placed an ad in the paper and got plenty of responses.
Getting things together while doubling with Louis DeFelice & Daughter, she found a 100 percent EPA approved process. Involving a crushed polyester that is heated in the oven, the frame is encapsulating in the dry paint. “You don’t get any drips or runs,” she asserted.
At 140 Highland Street, Patty’s Portico also provides sandblasting, welding, metal stripping, sling replacement, iron railing repair and even the restoration of iron radiators. “It goes on and on,” she boasted.
Even better, the closer a piece is to the finish line, the happier the customer will be. “The older the better,” DeFelice said, because the good-as-new restoration is much cheaper than buying a brandname, she added.
Her work doesn’t stand pat either. Motorcycle and car part refinishing allows customers to show off the shine as they go. “We offer a variety of colors and textures,” she said. “You can do a neon, lime green, silver metallic or midnight black.”
Patty’s Portico also has a softer side in its Teak Wood restoration. Over time, the surface can fade, get mossy and look dingy and dirty. “We hard sand everything and oil it,” she said. “So it will look beautiful.”
And size doesn’t matter. Patty’s Portico can handle large and small furniture projects and scale services to meet specific needs.
However, she does leave the handy work to her restorers and remains on the business end. An acumen she credits to her bodyshop beginnings. “I learned customer relations, how to build confidence and really create a business relationship,” DeFelice said.
Still, DeFelice did have to overcome being an inexperienced young woman in a male business. She didn’t go to college for nothing, though. “I soon learned how to deal with people using my background in psychology,” DeFelice revealed.
On the other hand, relations now extending into cyberspace can put high tech twists on today’s changing business landscape. For instance, negative social media comments can hover over a business, and while this has never happened to her, DeFelice still recommends going old school. “The business needs to respond to the person,” she said. “I think what happens is their issue is not addressed, and then customers post, because they feel like they weren’t heard.”
The constant contact of email and smartphones also forces businesses to stay on their toes. She welcomes any any and all pings, nonetheless. “When I get a text message or a phone call, I love it,” she said. “People leave me messages off hours – being in communication – it’s the best.”
On the other end, the conversation means more when the customer has the full attention of the sole stockholder. Shopping local giving customers an edge, she said, “You see the working process and you can see me and ask questions.”
Of course, DeFelice doesn’t overlook the importance of keeping the dollars spent in town and contributing to the tax base. The same goes for the way in which small shops join local causes and operate in a more environmentally sustainable manner.
Conversely, the shopping convenience of point and click puts real human resource at risk. “Greenwich could be a ghost town,” she said.
Racing down the aisles at an Amazon warehouse doesn’t do much to give rise to the next entrepreneurial class either. At local businesses, she says, high schoolers can learn a trade, acquire business management skills and maybe someday open their own business.
As for young women who may shy away from male dominated businesses, DeFelice offers the encouragement of someone who been there. “If you’re dedicated, you put in the time, you pay attention to your business, you’ll get it back,” she concluded.
