There’s something about talking to guys who work in the elements that hits differently. When I sat down with Kevin Stonitsch, owner of Adirondack Customs and Bison Facility Management Services, we started the conversation like two old friends — talking snow, gear, and the kind of mornings where the coffee freezes before the truck warms up.
Kevin’s a builder in every sense of the word. He started out framing and crafting custom homes across upstate New York. But somewhere around 2015, a buddy called and asked if he wanted to get into commercial snow.
He laughed at first — “I already plow my driveway, there’s no money in that.” Then he met a guy from North Country Snow and Ice, jumped in a truck, and before long he was out there at 2 a.m. salting parking lots out of five-gallon pails. And just like that, he was hooked.
It wasn’t about the money. It was the challenge. The chaos. The sense of being a first responder for businesses — taking a site from unsafe to safe before most people even wake up.
What I love about Kevin’s story is how he keeps finding new storms to walk into. He named his new company Bison for a reason. The bison is the only animal that turns into a storm instead of running from it. That’s how he leads and that’s how he builds.
When his clients started asking for year-round support, he didn’t say, “We don’t do that.” He figured out how to do it. He turned a residential homebuilding business into a facility management company that now stretches from Albany all the way up to the Canadian border .
His philosophy is simple — if your customer calls, you show up. Whether it’s snow, salt, tree trimming, or a roof about to collapse under ice, you find a way to say yes. That is responsiveness and entrepreneurship the old-fashioned way: one handshake, one opportunity, one long night at a time.
What makes Kevin’s story powerful is his grit and creativity. When most companies were looking to expand by adding new branches, Kevin found a smarter way. Instead of signing big leases or building new facilities, he partnered directly with customers. He turned their sites into hub locations, storing equipment and materials right where the work happens. It reduced overhead, cut risk, and provided clients with faster service. He calls it a hybrid model, but I call it what it really is: smart.
That move allowed him to scale his footprint across the state without adding unnecessary costs or losing control of quality.
And control matters to Kevin. He’s proud to self-perform most of his work not because he’s anti-subcontractor, but because he believes in accountability. As he told me, “If your name’s on the job, your word should mean something.”
That philosophy runs deep in his company and in his faith. Kevin’s one of those guys who can talk about profit margins and snow routes in one breath, and then shift to life and purpose in the next.
He’s a husband of 23 years, a father of four, and a man who doesn’t hide his faith. When I asked him what message he’d put on a billboard for the world to see, he didn’t even pause:
“Don’t ever give up. Because even when we walk the other way, God never gives up on us.”
That right there is Kevin: tough, grounded, faithful. He’s not chasing glory but instead building a legacy one contract, one client, and one storm at a time.
🎧 You can hear my full conversation with Kevin Stonitsch on The Entrepreneurial Journey Podcast.
It’s a reminder that real leadership isn’t about avoiding the storm — it’s about turning into it.
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