After more than 20 years at General Electric, Anthony Cracolici found corporate life stifling. The corporate environment was unpredictable and left him with little energy to devote to his young family. "When he was home, he wasn’t really here," recalls Tammy Cracolici, 31, who had quit her accounting job to stay at home with their son and was also feeling restless. "He was preoccupied and wrung out from being in that kind of pressure-cooker environment."

In the spring of 1996, Anthony Cracolici was terminated. "The corporate life is like an umbilical cord," continues Tammy. "You don’t want to cut it, but you have to if you’re going to move on with your life. We’d always talked about owning a business, but we needed a kick in the pants to take a risk and do something that would be more rewarding." Neither had ever owned a business, but they were determined to have a life where they’d be able to spend time as a family.