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BY TIM PENNINGTON EDITOR iDeal Solution for Florida Powder Coater Manufacturer relies on vendors' expertise for new system. 22 NOVEMBER 2015 — pfonline.com POWDER/LIQUID Sometimes the best business plans aren't created in a paneled corporate meeting room, or even in the hallowed halls of a prestigious Ivy League university. They often arrive by coincidence, fate or just plain old friendship amongst parents standing around a sandlot watching their kids play tee-ball. That was the case for Michael Siegel and Doug Brady, who found themselves standing around watching their son's baseball practice one day and struck up a conversation about a shared dream of one day owning their own business. Today, that dream is a reality in the form of iDeal Aluminum Products, which designs and manufactures aluminum fences, railing and gates for customers all over the U.S., with a new powder coating system that can handle parts as long as 55 feet. It was in Atlanta in the summer of 2000 when they started talking about the crazy idea of being entrepre- neurs. Of course, careers got in the way. Siegel was a lawyer and a certified public accountant, and Brady worked in building materials, both on the operating and the financial side of the business. They remained friends over the years—even after Brady moved to Florida—and kept talking about their dream. Becoming Business Owners "It was a passion each of us had to own a business," Brady says. "We complement each other very well; what Michael does well I don't do so well, and the same with my skills. We just matched up well, and we like each other." They got serious about their endeavor a few years ago when they decided to seek out companies they could buy and then put their own print on it. In 2010, that life-long dream became a reality when they joined to purchase out of bankruptcy the assets of iDeal Aluminum Products in Deland, Florida. iDeal was started in 1998, but business suffered during the early part of the new millennium. When the company owners declared bankruptcy and were ordered to sell the business, Siegel and Brady studied the fencing industry and realized they could make iDeal a success with what each brought to the table. Brady was born, raised and educated in Florida, and he began his career in the building materials industry after finishing college and receiving a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor of science in accounting from the University of South Florida. Before he and Siegel purchased iDeal, Brady was the chief financial officer for Baker Distributing, a distributor of HVAC parts and supplies in Jacksonville that had $750 million in revenue. Siegel was born, raised and educated in Georgia, graduating with