Calculated Risk

Sue Englander is a calculated risk taker. It's why the former sales manager for electronics distribution organizations decided to start her own business in 1993. “I wanted to be more in control of my destiny,” Englander says. Contrary to popular opinion, Englander wanted to start her own company so she could have more time with her family.

But she didn't jump in to entrepreneurship until she was certain that she'd be successful. She went out to her existing contacts in the defense and aerospace industry and asked, “If I go out on my own, would you give me a chance?” The prep work enabled her to be profitable from day one, providing electronics distribution support to her first customers. EEI Manufacturing Services was just two employees in a 300-square-foot office to start.

Twenty-four years later, with Englander as president, EEI Manufacturing Services has grown to a full-fledged manufacturing, engineering and training company with 42 employees in a 25,000-square-foot facility. The Clearwater-based company sells products and services exclusively to the aerospace, defense and homeland security industries. Englander says the products are all “life critical, flight critical ... they have to be 100%. Someone's life depends on it.”