Norm Brodsky

Mentor

About Norm Brodsky:

Norm Brodsky, an out-of-area mentor for the Biz Owners’ Ed program, is a successful long-time entrepreneur who has started and developed numerous companies, including a three-time Inc. 500 company. Norm began writing the Street Smarts column in Inc. magazine with Bo Burlingham in 1995. The column has proved to be enormously popular with readers of the magazine and has received many awards. Norm co-authored the book Street Smarts, published in 2008, with Bo Burlingham.

In 1979, he started Perfect Courier, a messenger service based in Manhattan. Within a few years, it was a thriving enterprise with offices around the country, appearing on Inc.'s annual listing of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in America for three consecutive years.

He next launched CitiStorage out of a rented warehouse in Long Island City, N.Y., later moving it to the Brooklyn waterfront where he began building warehouses of his own.

In 1999, Brodsky launched a secure document destruction business, U.S. Document Security, as an adjunct to CitiStorage. In December 2007, he sold both those companies, plus the delivery business, to Allied Capital for a reported $110 million. The combined entity is still run by the management team hat Brodsky and his wife, Elaine, developed over the years.