A Big Lift

Dr. J. David Holcomb has seen two massive drop-offs in client counts at his Sarasota-based facial plastic surgery business since he founded it in 2000: Once after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and again after the credit crisis and markets meltdown of September 2008.

“Both times,” says Holcomb, “the phones just stopped ringing for months.”

In 2001 and into 2002, Holcomb just hung on and hoped for the best, as he kept on marketing his business locally to snowbirds and full-time residents. Then the Gulf Coast building boom that began in 2003 elevated Holcomb Facial Plastic Surgery to new heights. Patients, many of whom were seeing real estate-fed bank account boosts, were coming in for multiple procedures and spending as much as $15,000 per appointment.