Tough times require complex solutions. “Everybody was doing what was rational, and I didn’t see it working,” says Glenn Martin, owner of Master Plumbers and Septic in Bradenton, Fla. His solution was to do the opposite.
In 2009, 90 percent of Florida onsite companies were in some state of distress, but Martin opened his onsite, plumbing and gas business anyway. He began by purchasing 250 aerobic treatment unit maintenance contracts from another business.
The slow economy provided opportunities to buy quality equipment very inexpensively, for cash, from companies that had gone out of business. The strategy enabled Martin to add one used
