Success-Stories - Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida

Green’s Eco Air Conditioning and Heating

Running a small business can be a lonely journey that is not without roadblocks. Many owners discover that, at a certain point, the challenge of being ultimately responsible for the success and growth of one’s business can feel isolating, but timely and meaningful support can spark growth and bring fresh perspective. Collaborative learning – especially alongside other business leaders – often becomes the catalyst that helps entrepreneurs break through barriers. For Joshua Green, founder and owner of Green’s Eco Air Conditioning and Heating, that kind of collaboration has been transformative. His participation in the Florida Small Business Development Center at Daytona State College’s (FSBDC at DSC) – a sub-center of the FSBDC at UCF – Growth XChange program has played a pivotal role in his company’s rapid expansion.

Green launched Green’s Eco Air Conditioning and Heating five years ago with a commitment to honesty, quality, and reliability. The company provides air conditioning, heating, duct cleaning, insulation, and mold assessment services throughout the Daytona Beach area. “We pride ourselves in our honesty and ability to get the job done right the first time,” Green explains. “All of our technicians are NATE certified, which means they can go above and beyond in customer service and doing the repair. Our biggest accomplishment is being the ones who get out there when our customers need us, whether it’s a Sunday or even Christmas.”

That dedication has helped Green’s Eco Air stand out in a competitive market. However, as the business grew, Green recognized he needed additional support to strengthen his leadership skills and scale the company effectively. “When I started my business, I was looking for ways to learn how to run my business, and the FSBDC gave me the tools I needed,” he recalls.

In addition to one-on-one consulting and business training, Green joined the FSBDC’s Growth XChange—a peer-to-peer executive roundtable modeled after the center’s award-winning CEO XChange program. The Growth XChange brings business owners together monthly in a confidential setting to discuss challenges, opportunities, and trends. The goal is simple: help leaders make better decisions and grow stronger companies.

“The Growth XChange really helped me grow as a business owner,” shares Green. “It helps you connect with other business owners like yourself. They have a lot of information to share and that’s absolutely invaluable. It’s really great to have people who understand you as a growing business owner. It’s why I keep coming back.”

The impact has been significant. Green credits the program with helping him to sharpen his strategy, stay accountable, and gain insights he couldn’t have found on his own. “If you’re looking at joining the Growth XChange, it is a wonderful experience to be in a group and be accountable, to have your questions answered or just get advice from other people,” he affirms. So wonderful, in fact, that Green has been promoted, on the strength of his business success and contributions to the program, up to the FSBDC at DSC’s senior executive roundtable, the CEO XChange.

The results from Green’s participation in the FSBDC’s programs speak for themselves. “Since I started with the Growth XChange, my business year-over-year has increased 100%, I’ve added 5 new employees, and we have really, really grown,” Green reports. “I attribute that to those Growth XChange meetings and the FSBDC. You’re not going to find that anywhere else, where you can sit around the table with other business owners and the staff of the SBDC and they all just really help you grow your business.”

For information about Green’s Eco Air Conditioning and Heating, please visit https://greens-eco.com/.

Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream

Starting and growing a small business takes vision, courage, and a steady belief in your own decisions. Even when the business is thriving, many entrepreneurs still seek reassurance that they’re steering their company in the right direction. For Kelly and Scott Seidl, founders of Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream, finding trusted guidance became essential as their beloved Central Florida brand expanded. That search led them to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) and its two flagship programs for second‑stage companies: the Advisory Board Council (ABC) and CEO XChange.

Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream began with a simple craving. After moving to Central Florida, Kelly and Scott were surprised to find no local homemade ice cream shops. Kelly—who had scooped ice cream throughout high school and college—started experimenting in their dining room. They shared early batches with coworkers, then moved to farmers markets, then to an ice cream truck, and eventually to their first brick‑and‑mortar shop. At every stage, customers responded with enthusiasm.

“We love making homemade ice cream, serving the community, and serving up special treats you can’t find in your grocery store,” Kelly explains. “We make all our own flavors in-house along with our mix-ins here in Altamonte Springs. We just love serving the community with sweetness.” Scott adds, “My favorite thing is making people happy. We enjoy being in the shops and seeing families sit down together to enjoy our ice cream and each other.”

Today, Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream has grown far beyond its dining‑room beginnings. The company now operates six shops across Central Florida, serves ice cream at 41 Foxtail Coffee locations statewide, and runs two iconic pink‑and‑white ice cream trucks that appear at events throughout the region.

With rapid growth, however, came new pressures. That’s when the Seidls turned to the FSBDC at UCF. Their first step was joining the Advisory Board Council, led by program manager Jill Kaufman. ABC provides a customized, no‑cost board of volunteer experts who offer strategic guidance tailored to each business.

“We were part of the Advisory Board Council a few years ago,” Kelly recalls. “They were an amazing group of individuals who helped guide us. They really helped strengthen us and challenge us. For me, it just gave me more confidence—confidence in how I speak about the business, in how we set goals, in our own expectations.”

After graduating from ABC, Scott joined the CEO XChange, the FSBDC’s peer‑to‑peer roundtable for high‑performing CEOs. “The thing about coming together with other business owners is it lets you know you’re not alone,” he shares. “There are other people going through or who have gone through similar things, so they’re able to help. Group problem solving has been very helpful; we’re able to use the brainpower in the room to solve problems and get advice from people who have been there and done that before.”

Scott sums up their FSBDC experience simply: “If I had to use one word to describe our time with the FSBDC, it would be ‘confidence.’ We are all somewhat alone as business owners, and it’s great to connect with experts or other business owners who help you feel confident that you’re on the right track and doing the right thing.”

For information about Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream, please visit https://www.kellyshomemadeicecream.com/ .

BWH Plant Co.

Entrepreneurship is alive and well at BWH Plant Co. With an origin story right off the pages of Entrepreneur, Fast Company, or Inc. magazines, the company has catapulted from pop-up to a multi-million-dollar e-commerce enterprise. What began as a weekend side-gig created by three recent UCF graduates has grown into a multi‑million‑dollar e‑commerce brand shipping rare and unique houseplants nationwide. With rapid growth, however, came operational challenges. To sustain this growth and take their business to the next level, founders Carlie and Jason Paluzzi, along with former partner Kyle Kroeplin, turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) for guidance and support.

BWH Plant Co. specializes in growing and shipping distinctive houseplants directly to customers across the U.S. “Our whole aim is to make gardening fun for the next generation of plant lovers,” shared Carlie. Jason added, “We grow hundreds of different varieties, multiple different genus, and we’re always exploring the best and newest products.” Carlie emphasized their commitment to quality and service: “We’re very proud of the quality, consistency, and variety we offer, as well as the accessibility and affordability. No matter what happens in transit, we’re going to take care of you. When you’re shopping with BWH Plant Co., you’re going to have the best quality, the best price, and the best customer service.”

The tale of the company’s launch is as modern as it is entrepreneurial. “As a side‑gig opportunity, we decided it would be fun to do a little pop‑up shop, but something different in the market,” Jason recalls. “There are a lot of floral pop‑ups, so we said maybe plants. You don’t see those too often.” The pop‑up became a mobile trailer, then a website. When they launched online in October 2019, they sold out in three hours. Months later, as people sought to brighten their homes during COVID lockdowns, demand exploded. “That was the trigger that turned what was a passion project and side hustle into a full‑fledged e‑commerce business,” Carlie affirmed.

With success came complexity. Managing live inventory across multiple greenhouses proved challenging. “Because we were having operational challenges with our live inventory, the idea of connecting with our alma mater and possibly working with consultants to help us investigate and problem solve introduced us to the FSBDC,” Carlie explains.

BWH Plant Co.’s FSBDC journey began with the Small Business Institute® (SBI®), where UCF MBA students – guided by FSBDC consultants – conducted an in‑depth inventory management project. From there, Carlie was encouraged to join the FSBDC’s CEO XChange, an executive roundtable program for growth‑oriented business leaders.

“I have been a part of the CEO XChange for a little over a year now and it has helped us in so many ways,” Carlie highlighted. “It has been such an amazing network and community and resource for me and for our business.” Jason agreed: “Carlie’s involvement in the CEO XChange has brought a lot to the table. There’s been a lot of relationships she’s made and resources that have really helped us drive and grow our business.”

“The Florida SBDC has really benefited us,” Carlie concluded. “Mainly for mentorship—having someone to reach out to for things like contract agreements, business valuations, questions about really anything in terms of business.” Through no‑cost consulting and programs like SBI® and CEO XChange, the FSBDC has helped BWH Plant Co. evolve from a pop‑up passion project into a thriving national e‑commerce brand. “The SBDC truly has been an amazing resource for our company.”

For information about BWH Plant Co., please visit https://bwhplantco.com/ .

McCarthy Fabrication

Leading a small business can be one of the toughest jobs in the world. Customers rely on you, employees depend on you, competitors chase you, and the pressure to grow and stay profitable never relents. And for many owners, the saying “it’s lonely at the top” rings true—there are just some challenges you simply cannot share with your team.

For Charles McCarthy, founder of McCarthy Fabrication (MFAB), and general manager Eli Ramirez, staying isolated wasn’t an option. They turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) and its award-winning CEO XChange program to help them guide their fast-growing company.

MFAB occupies a unique space in Florida’s metal fabrication industry. The company is large enough to handle major commercial, government, and industrial projects, yet nimble enough to deliver small, quick turn jobs cost-effectively. With the ability to 3D scan, design, engineer, fabricate, coat, and install—all under one roof—MFAB offers customers a true “one-stop shop” solution. “We’re great problem solvers for our customers,” shares Ramirez. “That’s what has earned us really good relationships with them.”

McCarthy launched the company in 2015 and soon realized that he needed help managing its rapid momentum. He called his college roommate, Ramirez, to take a look. Ramirez remembers walking in and seeing the phones “ringing off the hook.” His reaction: “Dang, this guy solves the biggest problem I had when I was trying to run a business: finding customers. I’m in.” From three employees at the start, MFAB has grown into a multi-million-dollar operation with 36 team members.

Growth brought complexity, and a friend recommended the FSBDC and CEO XChange as resources to help them navigate it. McCarthy and Ramirez reached out and quickly saw the value. One of the first things that stood out was accessibility. “Something that’s important to us in our relationship with the FSBDC is that it’s no cost,” Ramirez explains. “It makes it a lot easier to seek out resources when you don’t have to have the pressure of asking, ‘What’s the bill going to be?’”

The CEO XChange soon became an essential part of their leadership toolkit. Designed for second-stage companies, the program provides a confidential forum where CEOs and owners can discuss challenges, opportunities, and trends with peers who understand the weight of leadership. For MFAB’s leaders, that peer perspective has been invaluable.

“The CEO XChange has been very helpful for us,” affirms Ramirez. “Just giving us additional perspectives from other business owners and helping us solve problems that maybe we were stuck on. You get so accustomed to listening to yourselves that you get stuck. Having that outside perspective from someone who can actually relate to the stress and the pain and the triumph you’re going through—it makes it all easier.”

McCarthy agrees. “Those couple of hours at the CEO XChange are some of my favorite hours every month because I am able to take off the armor for a little bit and get good advice on difficult problems. You have nobody selling you anything, nobody trying to pitch something to you, and you’re able to get honest answers where people truly care about your success.”

For information about McCarthy Fabrication, please visit https://www.mccarthyfabricationllc.com/.

Yellow Tarp EMS

Fighting a wildfire demands exhausting, focused teamwork in a harsh, smoky landscape where heat, noise, and urgency press in from every direction. With risk everywhere, having dedicated emergency medical services on scene is essential for such dangerous situations. Yellow Tarp EMS—founded by Garrett and Kathleen “Katie” Cooper—exists to provide that critical support. They realized that, to keep their medics equipped, insured, and ready to deploy, the company required significant funding. To solve this, the Coopers turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) in Lake County, where they discovered the guidance and resources they needed.

Yellow Tarp EMS specializes in medical support for firefighters and personnel working on or near active wildfires. Their teams monitor crews for heat illness, smoke exposure, dehydration, and injuries, and respond immediately when someone needs treatment or evacuation. They also assist with medical planning, track crew health during long shifts, and help ensure that local EMS agencies—often unprepared for wildfire conditions—aren’t overwhelmed.

It’s a distinctive business model, and one that depends on collaboration. “We have a lot of allies in our space,” shares Garrett Cooper. “We don’t look at other companies as competitors. We’re on a team to provide medical care for our wildland firefighters and provide the service they need and they expect. What does differentiate us is that we are very consistent with the quality of the product and personnel we provide to the government agencies and their firefighters that we serve.” That consistency, however, requires substantial investment – one of the reasons that Yellow Tarp connected with the FSBDC.

“We originally sought out assistance from the FSBDC because it’s very expensive starting and running a business,” Cooper admits. “We had lots of insurance we needed to pay for, lots of equipment that needed to be bought, and it’s very hard as people working in the medical field as paramedics and EMSs to come up with the money that’s required. We needed funding and we reached out to Jose [Jose Molfino, FSBDC Consultant and Lake County Area Manager] and the FSBDC.”

Molfino worked closely with Katie Cooper to assemble financial documents, build a complete loan package, and identify lenders. “It’s mostly Katie who worked with Jose very heavily on coming up with the spreadsheets, coming up with the projections, putting them in the formats that were what we really needed to have,” Garrett recalls, “in order to apply successfully for some loans.”

Their efforts paid off. “Ultimately, by the time we were approved for a term loan that we’d been going through a long process to get, we no longer actually needed that loan,” Cooper explains. “But we did still need a line of credit, and, because of the FSBDC, we were able to get that line of credit which is very beneficial to help us to cover our payroll needs. In our industry, you need a big, fat stack of cash and then you spend it all and then get it all back a few months later. The better the payroll that we can have, the more successful this company is. In large part, because of the FSBDC, we were able to come up with what we needed.”

“If you care about your business,” Cooper concludes, “you should be willing to go in and see what the SBDC can offer. For us it was very valuable. Honestly, Katie and I, we couldn’t believe this was a free service. It’s kind of wild that so many people have access to this but they are not using it. Even if we hadn’t taken any money from it at all, it was still a very valuable process to have Jose line up our projections and a lot of grown‑up business types of things that we weren’t really ready to tackle on our own yet. It was all so very helpful.”

For information about Yellow Tarp EMT, please contact them at 480.695.6081.

Blezoo

Owning a business is an expedition into the unknown. Markets will shift, surprises frequently emerge, and even the most capable leaders eventually confront the limits of what they know. The old adage “it’s lonely at the top” resonates for a reason—especially for second‑stage business owners navigating growth challenges and opportunities that only they can ultimately address.

This was true for Dean Caravelis, founder and CEO of Blezoo, a creative branded merchandise agency. When he needed a sounding board and a trusted community of peers, he turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) and its award‑winning executive roundtable program, the CEO XChange.

Founded in 2008, Blezoo built its reputation on creativity and experiential marketing. While the company specializes in the education, finance, and healthcare sectors, its clients vary in size and span a wide variety of industries, each requiring unique solutions and personalized attention to detail. Blezoo’s promotional products range from rubber ducks to engraved glassware to branded apparel, and the firm is especially known for its “Experience in a Box” kits. These custom collections of items such as hats, t‑shirts, and mugs are designed to bring a client’s brand to life and delight recipients. The company’s mission is simple: help customers engage, delight, and promote their brand in memorable ways.

Caravelis often says that “creativity takes you to different corners of the universe.” But creativity alone doesn’t answer tough business questions or provide the candid feedback a CEO needs. For that, he sought out the CEO XChange, the FSBDC’s facilitated peer‑to‑peer roundtable where high‑performing, non‑competing CEOs collaborate, problem‑solve, and strengthen their leadership.

“It’s been ten years since I first connected with the FSBDC and the CEO XChange,” Caravelis recalls. “I first joined because I was interested in community and the CEO XChange had an immediate impact on me. I was able to fulfill that need for community and at the same time I was able to get other benefits as well. It would be naïve to think that we, that anybody, knows it all. Just being in a room with other smart people, that’s fun as it is, but at the same time to be able to introduce issues or challenges or even opportunities that you’re seeing and be able to access that brain trust, I think is priceless.”

The structure and facilitation of the CEO XChange particularly stood out to Caravelis. “I look forward to the CEO XChange,” he shares. “Hal (Program Manager and FSBDC consultant Hal Thayer) facilitates the group in a way where I think everybody feels heard, everybody feels like they are a part of it and they’re contributing. It’s also fun to be able to celebrate the victories of other members and to support each other when someone’s going through a rough patch.”

For Caravelis, the value is both personal and professional. “For me, it’s important to be part of a community like that because sometimes it can be lonely being a business owner. I think living on an island is foolish. It’s a lot more fun when you have a community and the CEO XChange gives you that.”

For information about Blezoo, please visit https://blezoo.com/.

MC Aesthetics

Regardless of a company’s size or industry, growth requires capital. Milestones such as expanding facilities, adding equipment, and increasing staff demand funding, and cash flow from operations often falls short in financing such new developments. This was the case for Melissa Castro, founder and owner of MC Aesthetics Laser & Wellness Center (formerly MC Elite Aesthetics). In seeking additional capital to expand her business, she turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) and found the guidance and support she needed.

MC Aesthetics Laser & Wellness Center specializes in anti-aging services and offers high-quality skincare products, aesthetic injectables, medical weight loss programs, vitamin IV drips, and FDA‑approved PDO threads. As an experienced medical provider committed to helping clients meet all their aesthetic and wellness goals, Castro prioritizes medical-grade care in a modern, cutting-edge environment. “Our patients love coming to us because we provide a wide range of services,” she explains. “We’re able to combine science with a mixture of beauty and strive to provide high quality patient care with great results.”

When Castro decided to expand her practice, she connected with the FSBDC at UCF and began working closely with consultant Jairo Batista through the center’s no-cost, expert business consulting services. Together, they mapped out the steps needed to elevate her business. “I was able to see local resources that were able to assist me in obtaining a Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed loan for small business growth,” she recalls. “Some of the resources provided to me by the FSBDC was assisting with my business plan, future growth plans, and connections with lenders.”

Working with the FSBDC proved invaluable to Castro. “My experience with the FSBDC was amazing,” Castro shares. “Jairo was very attentive to my needs. If I had any questions, he was always very knowledgeable and always available for me. I would say to future entrepreneurs to definitely look into the FSBDC as a resource. You would have an incredible team that’s able to guide you through the process. It is an amazing opportunity.”

With the SBA-guaranteed loan she secured—assisted by the FSBDC—Castro achieved the expansion she envisioned. “The changes I have seen since working with the FSBDC has been significant growth within my practice, especially by obtaining a new building – a commercial property where we are able to expand our services for patients and add new devices. I just want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone that assisted in the process of helping me grow my business,” she concludes.

For information about MC Aesthetics Laser & Wellness Center, please visit https://mceliteaesthetics.com/ .

EME’s Food Hall

The food service and hospitality industry often attracts culinary-minded entrepreneurs eager to be their own bosses and to share the food they love. Jamie Farnell is one such entrepreneur. With energy, creativity, and goodwill, he turned a novel restaurant concept into a thriving business in Clermont, FL: EME’s Food Hall & Commissary Kitchen. His journey, however, was not a solo effort. Alongside support from friends and family, Farnell turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) in Lake County for guidance.

EME’s Food Hall is distinctive a virtual food court and commissary kitchen serving multiple purposes under one roof. For the public, it offers a takeout-only food hall featuring multiple restaurant brands, including Beef Heads with smashburgers and chopped cheese, EME’s Chicken and Seafood, Spice Wings, and Fornaro Pizzeria. For food truck operators, caterers, and food manufacturers, the commissary kitchen provides professional-grade equipment and resources to prepare products and sustain their businesses.

Farnell takes particular pride in supporting fellow entrepreneurs. “The commissary side has been a very great blessing to our business because we’re meeting and guiding new entrepreneurs,” he explains. “We help them along the way with every process, whether it’s filing their LLC, acquiring their food permit, or getting their serve-safe certifications.” For Farnell, EME’s Food Hall is as much about giving back to the community as it is about serving great food.

When asked why he sought help from the FSBDC, Farnell reflects: “I was pretty much prepared with everything I needed. I had my business plan. I had my pitchbook. But I was lacking in certain areas, including my financials. I needed a little guidance. I reached out to the FSBDC and they had the resources for me. Not only did they help me with my financials, but they introduced me to disaster relief grants and helped me along the way to my SBA loan.”

The impact was immediate. “Since working with the FSBDC, I’ve seen a lot of improvements, economic changes, in my business,” Farnell continues. “For instance, we went through our books and found discrepancies. My food costs were off. I wasn’t really making any money. We went back, we came up with a game plan, and from there on we’ve been profitable.”

Central to Farnell’s success has been his collaboration with FSBDC consultant John Doramus. “My journey with the FSBDC has been great,” Farnell asserts. “Working with my FSBDC consultant John Doramus has been a great experience. He’s helped in every aspect — putting together my projections for the SBA loan, helping me access capital, providing business coaching, the list goes on and on. Anything I’ve ever imagined that I could ask from John and the FSBDC has been delivered. I would recommend to anyone that’s seeking any kind of help to come to the FSBDC.”

For information about EME’s Food Hal& Commissary Kitchen, please visit https://www.emesfoodhall.com/.

High Point Academy

Launching a business in a new community — especially one far from home — can challenge even the most seasoned entrepreneurs. Unfamiliar markets must be understood, new relationships must be built from scratch, funding must be secured, and a fresh team must be hired and onboarded. For Deilys and Daniel Calzadilla, the wife‑and‑husband owners of SCHOOL 499 Inc. d/b/a High Point Academy, a decade of success acquiring and revitalizing underperforming schools across eight South Florida locations didn’t guarantee confidence as they prepared to open a brand‑new school from the ground up in Ormond Beach, Florida. They knew they needed local insight and support, which led them to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF).

High Point Academy is a combined preschool, elementary, and middle school built on a distinctive educational philosophy. Blending the structure of traditional schooling with the child‑centered Montessori method, the Calzadillas emphasize hands‑on, self‑directed learning. “We favor a ‘learning through play’ model,” explains Deilys Calzadilla, “where activities are very real world and hands on. For example, in preschool, they are learning to measure and mix ingredients; in elementary school, they are doing woodworking with real tools in age‑appropriate developmental activities; and in middle school, they are running a business, including recording their own content and making commercials to sell products, all while calculating their profit margins, their break even and start up costs. So it is very real world, not just being sheltered and learning the basics.”

Despite their extensive experience, the Calzadillas encountered new challenges with their Ormond Beach project. “We are very experienced in this field,” shares Daniel Calzadilla. “We’ve been doing this for a long time and been very successful doing it. But High Point Academy in Ormond Beach is the very first school that we were starting from scratch. So we felt we needed help from the FSBDC in doing the business plan, putting the financials together, and connecting all the pieces so we can be successful.”

The couple began working with Margaret Incandela, the FSBDC’s Ormond Beach‑based consultant, and quickly tapped into the center’s no‑cost consulting, market research, and business training services. “Maggie came in and helped us produce a wonderful business plan, very in depth with a lot of information,” Daniel highlights. “She helped us with marketing numbers, projections, and knowing the community and its growth. It was an excellent business plan and, because of it, we succeeded.”

Incandela also played a key role in helping the Calzadillas secure the financing needed to launch the school. “The bank approved our loan and we moved forward with funding,” Daniel reports. “Thanks to Maggie and the FSBDC. I thought I was going to get a little bit of help but I got a lot of help. She was amazing. We highly recommend working with them; it exceeded our expectations.”

Reflecting on their experience, Daniel offers a single word to describe the FSBDC: “Power. The SBDC gave us so much power and support to our business plan and to our thinking, and they gave us ideas that made for stronger solutions. We learned so much and gained power as business owners to be more successful.”

For information about High Point Academy, please visit https://www.thehighpointacademy.com/ .

World Housing Solution

For entrepreneurs and small business owners, a strategic pivot can mean the difference between success and failure. But executing that pivot often requires expert guidance. Ron Ben-Zeev, founder and president of modular shelter manufacturer World Housing Solution, made just such a bold shift — from targeting the disaster relief market to supplying the U.S. Department of Defense. To capitalize on this new direction, he turned to the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF), where he found the support he needed.

World Housing Solution was born in 2010 in response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti. The company developed durable, sustainable shelters designed for rapid deployment in disaster zones. Despite the need, the market wasn’t ready. “No one cared at the time,” Ben-Zeev recalls. “We were met with a lot of skepticism and a lot of the word ‘No’. Then the Department of Defense discovered us and we pivoted. The U.S. Navy challenged us to make the shelters bigger and allowed us to actually start selling our ideas and inventions.”

That pivot proved transformative. “The main differentiator between us and our competition is that we truly listen to our customers,” explains Ben-Zeev. “We live and die by the fact that no one cares about our solutions; they only care about their problems. What we’ve been able to do is intersect our capabilities, our solutions, with problems the Department of Defense is facing when deploying in remote or austere environments.”

Yet navigating government contracting was unfamiliar terrain—and notoriously complex. That’s when Ben-Zeev turned to the FSBDC and its government contracting affiliate, the Florida APEX Accelerator at UCF. “The FSBDC as a resource has become invaluable to us,” he says. “Working with the Department of Defense and the U.S. government is truly byzantine. It is a difficult process, filled with traps and issues and acronyms. The folks at the FSBDC have been absolutely amazing in guiding us through the maze of doing business with the government.”

The FSBDC’s support extended far beyond contracting. “The assistance that is provided by the FSBDC is just endless,” Ben-Zeev raves. “Every time I speak with folks in the office, I discover new ways and other things that they’re doing to help business flourish and thrive. For us particularly, it has been phenomenal in learning how do we market abroad? How do we improve our online presence? How do we leverage other smart people in the Orlando ecosystem?”

World Housing Solution also participated in the FSBDC’s award-winning Advisory Board Council program, which assembles a customized board of expert volunteers to advise and guide businesses over 18–24 months. In World Housing Solution’s case, the Board was comprised of volunteers with expertise in government business development, accounting, the law, finance and operations who helped Ben-Zeev explore those and other facets of his business and its strategic plan.

But for Ben-Zeev, the biggest win came from working with Steve South, manager of the Florida APEX Accelerator at UCF. “Thinking back about how Steve took the time to better understand what we do; how to narrow our NAICS Search codes, for example; how to be able to take those codes and target them through the APEX Accelerator so that, when opportunities arise out there, we get alerted as quickly as possible. Then, going back to Steve, and leveraging his know-how and his capabilities, to decide if we respond and how we respond, and then maximizing our ability to then win the bid or get in front of the right person. All of it has been extremely helpful to us overall and has been instrumental in the success of our company in Florida.”

For information about World Housing Solution, please visit https://worldhousingsolution.com/.