Plug the holes

The method some plumbers used to survive the recession, a combination of retreat and reduce, didn't register with Karen LaPensee.

The owner of Holmes Beach-based LaPensee Plumbing & Pools, with customers from Sun City to North Port, LaPensee instead sought to expand to survive. The contrarian approach was to diversify the business offerings based on one part untapped market niches and one part gut feeling.

The risk was nonetheless thick for LaPensee, who co-founded the firm in 1985 with her husband, Michael LaPensee. The expense ledger grew at a time when work orders were hard to come by. “A lot of businesses were falling by the wayside,” says LaPensee.