Limber Lumber

The door slammed shut into Daryl and Maggie Alsum's construction business last year.

The company, which makes high-end doors and related millwork products, mostly for luxury homebuilders, had six to eight jobs a week in the boom years of 2004 and 2005.
By 2011, however, that count dropped to six for the entire year.

Another slam at the firm, Sarasota-based Real Woods: Annual revenues dropped 50%, from $1.3 million in 2009 to about $650,000 in 2010. Sales inched back up in 2011, to $700,000. “Our (profits) in 2010 were horrible,” says Maggie Alsum. “It was bad.”

But the five-employee company, which the Alsums, high school sweethearts, founded in their garage in 2001, survived what it hopes will be its toughest two years ever. And now the Alsums are on the cusp of an expansion, to add a 4,800-square-foot retail center to their millwork and wood crafting shop, just north of downtown Sarasota. The shop is about 10,000 square feet.

The business produces raw or pre-finished doors, beams, cabinet doors, and sometimes furniture.

“There seems to be a real need for lumber,” from homeowners and local tradesmen, Maggie Alsum says. “I think it will really round out our business.”
Adds Daryl Alsum: “We are trying to add cash flow any way we can.”

The search for cash flow led the Alsums to seek business counselors at Manasota SCORE, a local chapter of the nationwide business-help organization.

Manasota SCORE paired Richard Radt with the Alsums. Radt, pronounced like rod, is a Sarasota retiree who worked in the paper and forest products industry for nearly 50 years. Radt was president and CEO of Wausau Mosinee Paper Corp. from 1977 to 1987. The Mosinee, Wis.-based firm now surpasses $1 billion in annual revenues.

Radt brought some hard-line business principles and advice to the firm. The Alsums, meanwhile, were humble enough to take advice from an outsider. “Neither of us went to business school, and we don't have a degree in how to run a business,” says Maggie Alsum. “(Radt) has been real helpful. He has a different way of looking at things.”

That way started with a simple task, yet one that can be tough for small business owners. It's the dreaded price increase. Radt, though, told the Alsums a price increase is how tough-minded companies survive downturns. The Alsums ultimately raised prices last year, and didn't lose any business because of it.

Radt then helped Real Woods find ways to make money on things other than doors. He and the Alsums analyzed everything that came and went from the shop, down to the sawdust, and they soon found new revenue streams. Scrap lumber was turned into one excess product. The company also began to sell leftover wood from projects to a local picture-framing business.

The new revenue lines are a departure for the Alsums, who were used to their niche, but they will remained heavily focused on producing custom doors. “Anything custom and wood,” says Maggie Alsum, “we can do.”