High ceiling

The tactics roofing entrepreneur Gary Curry used to survive the recession, from mass layoffs to forgoing a salary, weren't some secret sauce concoction.

But the meat-and-potatoes approach, combined with a rebound in the Sarasota-Bradenton real estate market, definitely produced some extraordinary outcomes. Indeed, Curry's business, Sarasota-based Roofing by Curry, has grown sales more than 600% over the last four years, from $1.7 million in 2009 to at least $12 million in 2013. The firm's payroll is up from a low of around 10 people in 2009 to more than 100 at times this year. There are currently around 90 employees.

“It's nuts,” Curry says. “It's crazy. I didn't anticipate this, but I'm going along for the ride.”