In honor of Women’s History Month, all month in our Upstate of Business report, NewsChannel 13 is highlighting women in the Capital Region business community.

Sonya del Peral and her son started Nine Pin Ciderworks in 2013. Located in Albany, it’s New York’s first farm cidery.

“It was really my son, Alejandro del Pearl, who, sort of saw that the cider industry was ripe, no pun intended, for development,” she said.

After more than 25 years of practicing law, Sonya retired from the practice of law in 2018 to manage Nine Pin full-time. Now that she is a business owner, she said she understands why business owners sometimes don’t always take their advice.

“Sometimes businesses have to just take risks,” she said.

However, her background often comes in handy.

“It’s a highly regulated business. So, we are constantly dealing with compliance issues on the federal level as well as the state level,” she said.

Del Peral says you often see children joining or inheriting their parents’ business, but it was the other way around for her.

“I have never had more fun in my working life, and I’ve worked all my life, than I have working with my son. I think it’s a really interesting family dynamic when you are a parent and a child who start a business together,” she said.

She tells other women looking to succeed in business to use the resources that are available to them, and try to find a mentor.

“I’ve worked all my life, and most of the women I know are the hardest workers I know. So I would just say to use that energy, and stick to it,” she said.