A Career Sparked by Serendipity
For Kathy Carlton, a 24-year journey as an entrepreneur started with a temporary receptionist job in Panama City, Florida. Straight out of high school with no financial path to college, she entered the workforce through a temp agency and soon found herself answering phones for a peanut manufacturer. That job led to an unexpected introduction to the freight forwarding world, a field she instantly found fascinating.
She joined a 100-year-old New York company opening a branch office in Florida, learning the business from the ground up. Geography, international commerce, and the complexity of global shipments captured her imagination. Over the next two decades, she grew into a branch manager role for major logistics companies in New York, New Jersey, and Texas.
The Turning Point After 9/11
When the 9/11 attacks devastated the air freight industry, Kathy suddenly lost her job. She had a newborn baby, a new husband, and no safety net.
“I didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur,” she says. “But it was sink or swim.”
Despite having once explored starting her own business with little help or financing available from the SBA, she had never felt ready. Now, the necessity has replaced hesitation. Borrowing money, she bought a computer, secured export and customs brokerage licenses in just a few months, and launched K. Carlton International from her home with five or six loyal clients who trusted her work ethic and integrity.
She worked until 1 or 2 a.m. nightly, juggling childcare, paperwork, freight management, cash flow, and customer service. Failure was never an option.
Surviving the Recession: A Six-Year Climb Through Hardship
From 2002 to 2006, the business grew steadily until the recession hit. Revenue dropped from $4 million to under $1 million, and the team shrank from ten employees to two. For six years straight, the industry declined with no clear end in sight.
Kathy relied on a $100,000 line of credit to stay afloat, watching the available balance shrink to less than $10,000. Her resilience was tested daily. Yet she refused to give up.
“It finally turned in 2013,” she recalls. “But those six years taught me more than anything I’d learned in the decades before.”
From Recovery to Momentum
After 2013, the company began rebuilding. Revenue rose again to $4 million, then $5 million, then $6 million. Kathy set a long-term goal: reach $10 million in annual sales.
For years, the company had hovered around $5–6 million. Nothing seemed to break that ceiling until the global pandemic unexpectedly produced the conditions for structural change.
When COVID hit, Kathy feared a repeat of the recession. Instead, she used her hard-earned lessons to make swift, decisive staffing changes, retaining only the highest performing, fully committed employees. The PPP loans provided much-needed stability, but it was the disciplined reshaping of the team that unlocked rapid growth.
“We had no slackers, only hardworking people,” she says. “And when that happens, the whole company rises.”
In 2024, K. Carlton International finally reached its long-awaited milestone: $10 million in revenue. By year-end, the company was on track to exceed $12 million, marking its strongest performance in 24 years of business.
A Culture of Anticipation, Not Reaction
- K. Carlton International operates like a boutique agency; hands-on, responsive, and remarkably proactive. Kathy teaches her team a simple but powerful philosophy:
Know what the client needs before they ask.
From real-time shipment updates to immediate communication about delays, customs clearance, or delivery milestones, the company focuses on preventing customer anxiety and eliminating uncertainty.
Clients never wonder where their cargo is. They never sit in silence waiting for information.
This approach, paired with the old-fashioned practice of answering the phone no automated menus; no AI voice prompts has earned the company more than 175 five-star Google reviews with zero lower ratings.
The service experience is simple, direct, and personal. It feels like logistics, the way it used to be.
Finding and Keeping Exceptional People
The logistics industry requires fast thinking, accuracy, and a problem-solver’s mind. It has its own language and rhythm, and not everyone can thrive in it.
“I’ve gone through a lot of people to get the staff I have today,” Kathy says. “But now I have the best in the business.”
Most of her employees have been with the company for nearly a decade, including two of her children. Her son, now branch manager, brings a hospitality background that fuels strong internal culture and client care.
Kathy believes deeply in the impact of recognition and appreciation:
“An appreciated employee will do ten times more than a regular one.”
Quarterly bonuses, year-end bonuses, and competitive compensation reinforce a culture of loyalty and excellence.
A Culture Defined by Loyalty, Compassion, and Doing What’s Right
For all of K. Carlton International’s operational discipline and logistical precision, the heartbeat of the company has always been its people. Kathy has built a team where loyalty is mutual, compassion is non-negotiable, and doing the right thing comes before doing the easy thing.
That culture revealed its strength in 2022, when one of her newest employees just a year into the job was diagnosed with childhood leukemia at age 39. A husband and father to two young children, he suddenly faced chemo, radiation, a bone marrow transplant, and more than a year away from work.
Kathy never hesitated. She continued paying his full salary for the entire duration of his treatment. No questions. No conditions. And when he was finally able to return with a compromised immune system, she ensured he could work safely from home part-time while still receiving full-time pay.
Today, he is one year cancer-free and remains profoundly grateful that his employer removed the financial fear that so often shadows families facing medical crisis. Stories like this don’t appear on spreadsheets. They live in the quiet moments where leadership becomes humanity.
Adapting to Remote Work Before Remote Work Existed
Years before the pandemic, Kathy experienced a five-day hurricane power outage that left her scrambling to access systems and keep the company running. Determined never to endure that again, she moved the entire business to the cloud.
When COVID struck, the company transitioned seamlessly to remote operations. Today, K. Carlton International is almost fully virtual, with plans to evolve into a hybrid model as new talent joins. The flexibility has helped retain critical employees, including one top performer whose spouse relocated out of state.
Diversification Built into the Business Model
The company moves freight for a variety of industries:
marine manufacturing, grocery importers, industrial filtration, and specialized machinery. No single client represents more than 10 percent of revenue as a deliberate strategy that protects the business from sudden market shifts.
New business comes from targeted outreach using import/export data and from strong customer referrals. Many clients have stayed for decades, reflecting the firm’s consistency, dependability, and trust-based relationships.
Florida: A State That Champions Entrepreneurs
Kathy considers Florida one of the most supportive places in the country to start and grow a business. She has lived in the state since age nine and credits its tax structure, entrepreneurial spirit, and community support as essential elements of her company’s success.
She also emphasizes the critical role of SCORE, the national volunteer mentorship organization. SCORE mentors helped her write her first business plan, secure financing, navigate the recession, and eventually acquire and later purchase her office space. She continues recommending SCORE to entrepreneurs facing challenges or uncertainty.
A Life of Service, Mentorship, and Empowerment
Beyond her day-to-day work, Kathy dedicates considerable time to supporting women and young people. She currently serves as President of NAWBO South Florida, honoring the legacy of women who fought to make entrepreneurship accessible and equitable.
She has also mentored through Big Brothers Big Sisters, served with Women of Tomorrow to guide at-risk high school girls, and today volunteers with Girls on the Run, helping elementary-aged girls build confidence through running.
Having grown up without a mother and built her career in a male-dominated field, she is passionate about empowering the next generation of women to see possibilities in themselves.
Wisdom for the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
Kathy’s advice is rooted in the lessons she has lived:
Entrepreneurship requires a relentless commitment to customers and employees. She stresses the importance of staying connected to clients, serving them before selling to them, and maintaining strong relationships over time. She also believes that investing in people truly seeing them, appreciating them, and supporting them is essential to sustainable growth.
Equally important, she says, is confronting problems quickly: removing underperformers, addressing issues head-on, and protecting the culture that high-achieving employees thrive in.
“Your customers and your employees will make it or break it for you,” she says. “Your job is to support them.”