Industry Champion

As it turned out, the position at Avery Label turned out to be a real job, lasting ten years. More importantly, it provided him with solid knowledge of the tag-and-label industry—knowledge that he used to branch out on his own.

In 1981, he founded McDowell Label and Screen Printing as a broker-style company. Starting a company is always a challenge, but within the first year of business, McDowell had to deal with a divorce, along with the bankruptcy of the fledgling company's largest customer. However, relying on perseverance and salesmanship, he overcame these challenges. During the 13 years McDowell Label operated as a brokerage he counted the Dallas Cowboys and Apple Computer as two noteworthy customers.