By the end of the second year, the business grossed $12,000 and Ms. Goodman felt she had to take the next step.

The business was grossing about $90 thousand a year.

He figures his business will gross about $5 million this year.

At its peak in the late 1960s, his business employed an estimated 5,000 people and grossed $30 million a year.

At the time, the business consisted of one Atlanta store and grossed $196,000.

Last year, the business grossed $60,000.

"In 2000, our mail and express business grossed $122 million, again a record," he said.

As of 2005, the business grossed nearly one million dollars per year.

The business grossed $20,000 a year in its first few years of operation.

"To some companies, that means the business can't gross more than $5,000 a year," he said.