Entrepreneur starts anew, despite woes

Count Mathew Anderson as one of the entrepreneurs who follows the creed that the recession shouldn't be an excuse to hide and wait out the bad times.

Instead, Anderson, who can trace his business linage back to his grandfather A.M. “Mickey” Anderson, a longtime engineering and manufacturing executive for General Electric, recently launched his own marketing business.

Anderson's new company is Sarasota-based Milestone Marketing Associates, which is targeting software companies for total marketing makeovers. Anderson says his firm will work with clients on everything from logos to business cards to Web site redesign.

Software has been Anderson's niche going back to the mid-1990s, when he founded Quest Solutions. That firm focused on selling software products and services for the construction industry.

Anderson built Quest into a $10 million enterprise, peaking during the building boom. He sold the firm at the right time, too, in 2007, just as the construction industry was on the cusp of entering a long recession.

Anderson considered working for other companies after selling Quest, but he always felt that he would do better on his own. “Rather than a get a job and go work for someone else,” says Anderson, “I decided I wanted to get back to running my own business.”

Milestone is just finishing up its initial startup phase, including the launch of its Web site, www.milestone-marketing.com.