New meaning to recession survival

The downturn has certainly pounded any Gulf Coast company connected to construction, but David McCulla, founder of Lakewood Ranch-based International Construction Consultants, has taken recession survival to new heights.

In short, McCulla's teenage son, Greg, and his wife of 30 years, Margaret, both were treated for cancer just as the recession began to metastasize. Greg was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma over Memorial Day weekend in 2008. Margaret McCulla was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer a year later.

More heartache: Greg McCulla's cancer came back in summer 2010. Then, while the teenager underwent a complicated and painful stem cell treatment, David McCulla learned his sister, also named Margaret, was dying. McCulla's sister, like his wife, had breast cancer.

McCulla's sister died in fall 2010. But McCulla's wife and son survived. Greg McCulla even rejoined his high school basketball team, and is now enrolled at State College of Florida in Bradenton.

“You have to look forward, not back,” says the British-born McCulla. “You get to a point where you try not to think of anything negative and focus on the positive.”

Still, business wasn't exactly a respite for McCulla while his family suffered through multiple cancers. His firm, which does everything from cost-risk analysis to feasibility studies, wasn't getting a lot of new work locally, courtesy of the downturn.

So McCulla began to seek work outside of Florida, like many other businesses. He had some success, too, finding jobs in Connecticut and California. The seven-employee company also recently opened an office in Dallas. Annual sales have hovered around $1 million.

McCulla says the business survival was a matter of necessity. He says thinking of his employees, and their families, was motivation when his son and wife were sick. Says McCulla: “You can't just sit in a cocoon and not carry on with your responsibilities.”