Three years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, Michael Worth almost lost his business. Crew Tags Int'l, LLC (www.crewtags.com) is one of many small travel-related businesses that saw sales plummet after 9/11. While many of those businesses were forced to close their doors, Crew Tags has crawled back to profitability. And now, almost exactly three years after the 9/11 tragedy, Crew Tags is making plans to celebrate serving its 10,000th customer.
Boise, ID (PRWEB) September 9, 2004 -- Three years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, Michael Worth almost lost his business. Crew Tags Int'l, LLC (www.crewtags.com) is one of many small travel-related businesses that saw sales plummet after 9/11. While many of those businesses were forced to close their doors, Crew Tags has crawled back to profitability. And now, almost exactly three years after the 9/11 tragedy, Crew Tags is making plans to celebrate serving its 10,000th customer.
Only one sale came in the morning of the 11th, and that was the last one Worth would see for a while. For three months, he, his wife and 2-month old daughter lived off of savings. Then, just when he was ready to give up, 12 friends pitched in to help keep the business afloat for one more month. As reports came in about 250,000 airline employees losing their jobs, some of them Worth's friends, sales also plummeted. It quickly became obvious that tough times were ahead; "My friends were losing their jobs, and I started to wonder if I was going to lose mine as well."
Small businesses are often the invisible casualties of an industry downturn. "I don't think I realized right away how much of an impact this would have on my business. It was about April of 2002 when sales returned to a level that would keep us alive," Worth says, "In January of this year, sales finally reached the level they were at just prior to 9/11, and this past August was a record month."
Associates' confidence in Worth's abilities helped bolster him. "I had faith that Crew Tags' superb quality would pull them through the rough times," said Randy Cassingham of This is True, Inc. (www.thisistrue.com), and designer one of Crew Tags' best-selling - and most controversial - tags, the Get Out Of Hell Free (GOOHF) Card. "So many other companies failed, so for them to reach 10,000 customers is terrific! It's an achievement I'm proud to be a small part of."
Crew Tags is looking forward to continued growth, and the projections for 2005 (and beyond) are very promising. "Reaching this 10,000th customer mark really shows us that we have come a long way from that day. We have been able to rebuild our business one luggage tag at a time."
Crew Tags Int'l, LLC (www.crewtags.com) is the world's largest manufacturer of luggage tags for airline flight crews, and confident travelers, currently serving customers in more than 50 countries around the world.
Contact:
Michael Worth
Crew Tags Int'l, LLC
Phone: (208) 412-7055
Fax: (208) 362-2205
10k@crewtags.com
http://www.crewtags.com
# # #
|
