Description:   Sarah Beatty was pregnant with her first child when she learned toxic mold might be spreading beneath the floorboards of her newly renovated Manhattan apartment. Although the scare turned out to be a false alarm, the former MTV marketing executive became concerned about health risks posed by materials in her home. Because her husband, Mark Buller, had decades of experience selling construction supplies, Beatty had wrongly assumed he’d be able to tell which ones were potentially harmful. “We truly didn’t know what was in a lot of stuff, and we didn’t know how to find out,” says Buller, who co-founded national distributor Marjam Supply with his brother in 1979.

Source:  Businessweek.com

Date: Apr 11, 2013

Link:  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-11/with-eco-friendly-building-supplies-green-depot-thrives-in-the-construction-rebound#r=nav-r-story

Questions for Discussions:

• What are the lessons for small business managers?
• Do you think small business can penetrate the building materials supply chain by focusing on niche product categoies?