Andrew Blitch, 39

Save up money, buy a business, triple its revenues: It’s exactly the kind of story a business publication looks for when handing out awards. 

Andrew Blitch and his wife, Angelique (who frankly deserves a trophy of her own based on the way Andrew tells it), were working in Houston when they decided they needed to take a big swing in order to change their lives. She was temping at a law firm; he was an officer with the Houston Police Department, which is kind enough to let its employees work a second job on the side. For Blitch, that meant a role as director of security at a K-12 private school.

Photo by Mark Wemple

But two full time jobs means 80-hour work weeks, which was just doable - until their daughter was born. 

Beyond getting into entrepreneurship, the Blitches wanted out of Houston. Ideal would be a return to Naples, where Andrew was born and where he met Angelique (both are graduates of Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers). And the Blitches figured they might be most successful owning a business that was somehow security-related, given Andrew’s experience.

“A” Locksmith checked all those boxes and then some. “The employees were kinda running the business,” Blitch explains today, suggesting a visionary owner could quickly drive growth. (Some of the lowest-hanging fruit may as well have been on the ground: “The previous owner didn’t have a website,” Blitch explains.)

The Blitches updated the company’s vehicle fleet, ran advertisements, and “put a fresh coat of paint on everything,” Andrew Blitch says. Four months later revenues were doubled. From there the company added a second location and doubled their staff, which again increased revenue by a similar amount.

As the company continues to evolve, Blitch enjoys driving a collaborative culture among employees. Those few remaining employees that have been there since the Blitches bought it are now teaching the new hires how to use old-school locksmithing tools, while the new hires show the old guard how to manage smart homes with iPhone apps.

Blitch is also motivated to follow in the footsteps of his entrepreneurial grandfather, a man he never had a chance to develop a relationship with but whose litany of accomplishments — including owning an NBA team back when the league played games in Sheboygan, Wisconsin lead Blitch to consider him a life mentor.