Success Stories

Blue Streak Couriers

"The assistance I received from the SBDC and SBRN helped me tremendously and was critical to my company growing the way that it has."

Harold Boyett began his career in the delivery business at UPS when he was 18 years old. He worked his way up through many positions to a higher management level. Boyett participated in sales and operations at UPS, exceeding his goals every year, no matter what the position required.

While working at UPS in 1997, he met the previous owner of Blue Streak, Glynn Barnes. With Boyett’s top priority being to serve the customer, he sought out Blue Streak, a company that was an agent for UPS Sonic Air. The two companies worked together to meet the customers’ needs. Boyett liked the culture of Blue Streak, because they shared a similar philosophy on how best to treat customers. Over the next several years, they continued working together to provide customized solutions for UPS and Blue Streak clients.

As time went on, they talked about Boyett joining Blue Streak, and soon the discussion focused on Boyett purchasing the company. After considerable due diligence, Boyett decided this was the right opportunity. The next step was to negotiate the terms of sale and selling price. Small Business Resource Network (SBRN) member Ward Rainnie of American Enterprise Bank referred him to Cathy Hagan, Certified Business Analyst at the SBDC at UNF. Together, Hagan and Boyett analyzed Blue Streak’s historical financial statements and fine‐tuned the cash flow projections. With this information, along with advice from other professionals, Boyett returned to American Enterprise Bank and closed on an SBA loan to purchase the business. In February of 2005, the transaction was complete and Boyett took ownership of Blue Streak Expediting.

Blue Streak is the only local courier company with drivers in full uniform complete with picture identification, neatly groomed, clean cut, friendly and polite.

Utilizing SBRN has played a big role in Boyett’s success. Sandra Brooks, president of INCOMM International, worked with Boyett on marketing; Joe Lemire, ELYK Innovation, Inc., designed and hosts Blue Streak’s website; Frank Wallmeyer, Safeguard Business Systems, provides printed items; John Matteson, Cornelius, Shou, Leone & Matteson, P.A., provides accounting services; and Howard Caplan, Attorney at Law, handles his legal needs.

Blue Streak’s sales have tripled since he took ownership, and the office staff has grown from four with 38 drivers, to 26 with over 140 drivers. Blue Streak has also moved from a rental property to a new office facility they purchased to accommodate the company’s growth. They now operate in several southeastern states and also have facilities totaling more than 25,000 square feet of warehouse space throughout our network.