TO WATCH (Sarasota-Bradenton): Sean Murphy

ENTREPRENEURS TO WATCH: SARASOTA/BRADENTON

ELITE FENCE GROUP

Sean Murphy

Sean Murphy, founder of a Bradenton-based fence company with 12 offices in four states, spends most of his working days in constant motion, a cross between a hands-on problem solver and a big-picture visionary.

He's been known to get in his truck and drive to a company facility in Charlotte, N.C. or suburban Nashville, Tenn. to handle a customer situation. But he's also been to known to come up with ideas that can turn into company revenue-boosters.

Murphy's latest Big Idea: Get into the fence extrusion business. The move has the potential to reshape the Elite Fence Group, which, up until 2007, had relied on the residential housing market for most of its revenues. That had been enough to foster massive growth: Revenues jumped 183% in 2006, for example, from $12.3 million in 2005 to $34.85 million in 2006.

But the company took a step backwards in 2007, dropping in sales for the first time since Murphy founded it in his backyard with a retired Massachusetts cop as his partner in 1994.

One solution was to follow other businesses that had previously leaned on residential work into the commercial side of the real estate industry. The company did that, but it wasn't enough. That's when Murphy, 40, decided to get into the fence extrusion business, which is the process of manufacturing vinyl and aluminum fences.

Now the company can build significantly more fences and fence parts in its spacious 110,000-square foot facility in Bradenton. It's using the products for both its own projects and to sell the pieces wholesale to other fence companies.

Elite Fence Group bought its first extrusion machine earlier this year from an auto-parts company in Michigan. An extrusion machine normally costs about $1.2 million, but Elite paid about $500,000 for this unused model, as the company decided it didn't need the new machine.

Murphy projects the machine could be worth an additional $8 million in revenues in 2008, with more to come in the next few years. The company is hiring employees to handle the increased workload and Murphy hasn't ruled out buying another extrusion machine.

"It should work out well for us," says Murphy, whose dad and uncle were both in the fence business on the east coast of Florida. "This gives us an opportunity to go for sales we've never had."

Entrepreneurial TIP:

Q. What mistake have you learned the most from?

A. "The importance of accounting and banking," says Murphy. "Being able to have enough capital through the banks" to make investments in equipment and buildings.

BY THE NUMBERS

ELITE FENCE GROUP

Year Revenue % change

2005: $12.30 million

2006: $34.49 million 183%

2007: $32.00 million

Employees

2005: 62

2006: 149

2007: 165