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Straight Lines Inc., Lafayette, IN, began life just as many small contracting firms in the pavement maintenance market do—almost by accident. But little has been accidental since then. In fact, the 3-person,16-year-old pavement marking firm now has itself firmly established in the west-central Indiana market. And in addition to be the striping contractor many clients turn to for striping work, they have expanded to become a traditional pavement maintenance firm, offering sealcoating, crack repair and pavement repair in addition to pavement marking.

But that wasn't the initial plan. In 1989 Jim Minniear was working as superintendent of maintenance for Fairfield Manufacturing Co. A contractor who performed maintenance work for Fairfield had reconditioned an old Kelly-Creswell striper and tried to sell it to Fairfield so the manufacturing operation could do its own striping. Fairfield wasn't interested in performing that service itself, so declined to buy the machine.

But the offer did start Minniear to thinking. Minniear's son, Alan, was a junior in high school and on the lookout for a summer job. So Minniear bought the machine for Alan "to see what he could do with it as a part-time and summer business," Jim says.

Alan started by repainting warehouse and parking lot lines at Fairfield. He also did some basic market research, calling businesses and sealcoating contractors to see how they got their pavement marking done and who was doing it. He learned that many -- if not most -- of the properties and contractors were striping pavement on their own. That summer Alan Minniear grossed $12,000 in three months.

"When I realized that I thought, 'maybe there's something here," Jim Minniear says.

After high school father and son decided to pursue a pavement marking business. Jim provided necessary guidance until 1994 when he left Fairfield and joined Alan.