Lessons Learned

Standard operating procedures at businesses went out the window as the recession barged in. Some companies couldn’t shift gears quickly enough and closed down. But many others have found ways to adapt and survive—and even thrive, albeit with tighter margins and smaller bottom lines. The failing economy forced local business owners and managers to rethink their practices. Six of them, representing different industries, explain what changes they’ve made and some of the lessons they’ve learned.

More Products, New Markets
Dino Longo started Longo Construction and Longo Realty in Naples in 1996, and happily rode the homebuilding wave as it swelled and crested in 2005 and 2006. He added to it by launching Siltech Inc., which makes windowsills and other home-finishing products out of acrylic sheets, and found good business for them in his own projects and as a supplier for national homebuilders working in Southwest Florida. He expanded, opening offices in Lakeland and Jacksonville, and figures the companies grossed around $60 million over several years, peaking around 2005-2006.

“We had a good run on the construction side from 2003 to 2006, and then the lights turned off,” he says. He closed the Jacksonville office the same year it opened, in 2008.

Siltech took a hit, too, and plans to build a manufacturing facility in Georgia were shelved. “In 2006, we did almost $3 million in windowsills,” Longo says. Since then, gross sales have dropped about 70 percent.

Even so, Siltech has moved front and center while Longo’s homebuilding and realty businesses wait for an industry revival. “I have been forced to bank my construction experience and direct it into a business that’s more subcontractor-based,” he says.

Longo has found new markets for Siltech’s products in institutional and government construction, marketing to suppliers and general contractors who bid on those projects. “You might have 10 general contractors bidding on one job,” he says. “Siltech bids to each of those 10.” His company also is working to become a vendor for LG, which manufactures the acrylic sheets. That promises more visibility and market share for Siltech. “We don’t have much competition in the niche we supply in,” says Longo.

And it continues to diversify its products, now making Fillet Away fish-cleaning tables and considering uses for acrylic-sheet scraps.

Siltech has dropped from 27 employees to “six doing the job of 12,” he says. The company handles installation through its Naples and Lakeland offices, and Longo plans to grow its out-of-state business, focusing on drop-shipping orders and creating franchises that would buy and install Siltech’s products.

The most important lesson? Put aside more reserve funds when money is flowing in, and have a longer-range plan, says Longo. “The life lesson is: Fortunately, I still have a job and the opportunity to move forward.”