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.”