Ninety miles south of Key West sits a socialist country forbidden from doing business with the U.S. for 57 years. Now it’s on the brink of being opened to American entrepreneurs. Meet the ones hoping to cash in first.
dTHE FRIDAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN, Josh Weinstein was set to take his first trip to Cuba: bags packed, visa in hand, leased Beechcraft turboprop booked for Sunday pickup at Sarasota Bradenton International. Then the dispatcher called. We have verbal approval to fly to Havana, he told Weinstein, but we’re still waiting on one last stamp from the Cuban government. Don’t worry, he explained —this happens all the time. Unfortunately, the government offices were now closed for the Tweekend. “We’ll keep pushing,” he promised.
Weinstein is president of Witzco Challenger, a $12 million family business that builds heavy-haul trailers in Sarasota, Florida, and ships them all over the world. Witzco lost about half its sales in ’08 and ’09 during the Great Recession. That was not long after Weinstein, former treasurer of his local stagehands union and grandson of Witzco’s founder, took over the company from his aunt and uncle, and he’s been scrambling to recover ever since. Exports are a big part of his business, about 35 percent, but they’ve been slipping lately. The stronger dollar hasn’t helped.
This story is from the February 2017 edition of Inc..
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This story is from the February 2017 edition of Inc..
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