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When Perrysburg Sealcoating was sealcoating 3,500 driveways each season in the late 1990s, partners Eric Seaman and Troy Heckman decided it was time to reassess the company's direction.

"Residential was our bread and butter and commercial was just extra, a bonus for us when we got it," says Seaman, who started the business out of the back of a station wagon in 1979. "But that's a lot of driveways every year, and it requires a lot of planning, scheduling, and employees."

So in 2000 they sold the residential business to concentrate on the commercial market.

"We got out of residential work for the same reason many paving contractors get out of doing driveways," Seaman says. "You get to a certain point and it becomes very complex. In commercial work we bid less per square foot but there are more square feet, so the margins are better."

Seaman and Heckman had been competitors, deciding in 1993 to join forces because Seaman needed equipment help and Heckman needed office assistance.

"We complement each other real well," Seaman says.

Initially business slowed following the sale, which was fine with the two partners.

"We had been working awfully hard and our goal when we sold the residential side was actually to slow down and have a life, but that hasn't happened yet," he says.