Tammy and Greg Crabtree always wanted to own their own business. They wanted to use their knowledge and skills to make money for themselves and not someone else, be in control of their own retirement plan and have the ability to pass something along to their children. When the opportunity presented itself in 1998, the Crabtree's purchased a specialized machine shop in New Carlisle, Ohio.

The ISO 9002 certified company manufactures complex machined parts for the aero space, automotive and medical industries. With the help of an SBA loan through KeyBank, the Crabtree's were able to purchase the state-of- art Swiss style machines that can transform a bar of stock into a precision finished product in one operation. Through some proprietary technology, their machines can perform milling, drilling and tapping, turning, broaching and some 3D operations in a single operation.

The company has grown from 3 to 6 employees and is selling their orthopedic products nationally. The company has taken advantage of a number of SBA and State programs to assist them in the company's development. In addition to using the SBA loan program, they also used assistance from the Ohio Women's Business Center which helped the company become a WBENC Certified Women Owned Business and also used assistance from the Ohio Procurement Technical Assistance Center Program (PTAC) to obtain government contracts.

Tammy Crabtree stated, "We really felt that the Small Business Administration's loan program made all the difference in obtaining our loan. The assistance from KeyBank, Joan Mitchell, and the local PTAC was instrumental in our ability to start our business. Without them we would not have been able to start our business."

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