Laura Walker outside her business on Sentinel Road, Lake Placid. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — After 38 years of owning and operating her own business, Laura Walker can now say that Laura’s Custom Artworks is officially recognized by New York state as a woman-owned business.

Walker, originally from Fulton County, has done business in Lake Placid since 1990, and she started her proprietorship in 1983 at just 17 years old. She said a lot of people over the years have asked her if she has a woman-owned business, and she always said, “Yes.” Located at 5975 Sentinel Road, Walker built Laura’s Custom Artworks from the ground up, but she never got the certification to show it.

“I was like, ‘Why don’t I have this?'” Walker said.

Walker started her application for the Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) certification with the state in July 2019. On April 1 of this year — nearly three years later — she finally got the certificate in the mail from Empire State Development that says she’s a licensed, “Women Business Enterprise” in New York. The designation is provided through ESD’s Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development.

But why the three-year application process? Aside from some pandemic-related delays, Walker said she had to complete hours of “grueling” paperwork, providing details from all the way back to the start of her business 38 years ago.

Laura Walker, owner/operator of Laura’s Custom Artworks in Lake Placid, holds a certificate from the state of New York certifying that she owns/operates a woman-owned business. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

“It’s just document after document after document,” Walker said Monday, May 23, at her shop, pulling out a thick green folder that was bursting with her application materials. The folder opened onto the shop counter with a thud; its pockets were heavy with packets of application instructions and other paperwork.

Walker had to work her way through several layers of state departments that had to verify her various business receipts, vehicle inspections, checking accounts, invoices from 2010 — you name it, Walker had to provide it.

“This is my life,” she said of the application.

The application process is stringent because minority and women-owned businesses are often sought-after to complete projects funded by state or federal grants, which can require a certain amount of the work be completed by a minority-owned business; the state has to vet out people who are applying for the certification just to get the benefits. That means cross-referencing finances and business history, and even asking applicants how they got the funds to start their business in the first place.

But for Walker, her business history isn’t so cut and dry. She set up shop when she was fresh out of high school. She scraped some graduation funds together to buy paints and brushes, then sold a few pieces to friends. As she slowly made more money, she’d buy more supplies. It wasn’t a party building up to the business she has now, but that’s what makes the certification all the sweeter.

“I feel so proud that, for 38 years, I’ve had this business all by myself, 100%,” Walker said. “And it wasn’t easy. It was a struggle.”

Walker is a single mom, and she said her family doesn’t live nearby. So when she gave birth to her daughter, Autumn, at the age of 39, she was back working in the shop two weeks later. She put a playpen in her office and brought Autumn to work every day. Baby Autumn was attached to Walker every day with a front pack, or laid on Walker’s knees while she was typing. When Autumn got older, she was put in a backpack while her mother painted signs.

You do what you have to do, she said, because you never know what business will come through the door the next day when you’re self-employed.

“Sometimes we were on a shoestring, and sometimes we were like, ‘Oh let’s go away for a weekend!'” Walker said.

Now, Walker said, being seen as a woman-owned business in the eyes of the state, she feels accomplished. For so many years, she did the work without full recognition. Walker said it’s especially empowering as a single mom who’s a living example for her daughter.

“She sees that she can do anything that she puts her mind to, and she also sees how passionate I am about what I do,” Walker said.

Walker wants young girls to be unafraid of showing up in male-dominated spaces. She often represents clients at planning board, Adirondack Park Agency and other board meetings where she’s generally the only woman representing someone. But women are “every bit” as good as men at what they do, she said.

“It doesn’t have to be a male-dominated world,” she said.

When she started her business, Walker said it was hard to get people to trust her and take her work seriously — partially because of her age, and partially because she was a woman. Sign making was mostly a male-dominated industry because it involves physical work.

Walker does both custom signs and framing now, but when she first started, she was only making signs. Walker often deals with cumbersome, heavy materials like metal, and she’s the one who’s digging post holes for signs and working up a sweat. She said she’s interviewed a few women to work at the shop over the years, but they only wanted to do the framing side of the business because the signs are so labor intensive. But, Walker said, making signs keeps her young.

Walker grew up learning the value of discipline and hard work. Her father was in the Navy, and she was one of six kids. Her parents worked alternating shifts to keep everyone fed. Walker took an unpaid internship with a sign maker while she was still in high school, and that’s what got her started with Laura’s Custom Signs in the 1980s. She said she’d love to apprentice someone to eventually take over her business. She’d really like Autumn to take over the business side of the company, keeping the business in the family and woman-owned.

For now, Walker is staying put, and it’s clear she loves what she does. Sure, there are sunny days when her kayak and her motorcycle are calling her away from the shop, but Walker said she’s an “antsy traveler” who usually can’t wait to get back in the shop after a weekend away.

Walker’s business is built on forming relationships with her clients, and she said that’s why she works so much — she’s delivering, designing, installing, and generally being there through the end of every business process, because she’s genuinely passionate about her work.

“It’s in my blood,” she said.