Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Hoover.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I worked at a fish store starting at 15 years old, however my love for fish began around age 5 with memories of my parent’s fish tank. Over the years of working in a retail store, my passion for aquariums began to grow. I formed Aquatic contractors officially in the summer of 2001 when I graduated high school and realized I was not the type of person that could were a suit and tie to work. I attended California Lutheran university, where I pursued my football career my freshman year. That summer I quit football to follow my dream of being on top in the aquarium world.
After graduating from CLU in 2005 with a business degree, I really switched into high gear and focused on my business full time with no distractions. I was able to convince my mentor, Kevin Shiotani, to help me build this dream and he has been a valuable asset to my company since day 1. Since Kevin had his own full time job I quickly realized I needed to know everything to do with an aquarium and running a business without help from anyone. By 26 years old I was running meetings with celebrities and billionaire clients all over Los Angeles. During the summer of 2013 I received a phone call at Disneyland while I was with my family that changed my life forever. Brett Raymer from animal planets hit TV show tanked gave me a chance to help on his show with a few California projects. Since that phone call my team and I have traveled the country and assisted on over 20 episodes with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. My new relationship with the largest aquarium manufacturer in the world enabled me to take my Aquarium company to new levels. I was able to grow my company that started with an idea and my parent’s garage into 7 employees and 4 work trucks moving all over southern California daily.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Running a business is the hardest thing anyone will endure. Fulfilling the American dream of business ownership has an incredibly rocky road. When you start a business, you hear visions of setting you own schedule, working short hours, making a ton of money. That is the farthest thing from reality. I learned over the years being self-employed is really just being a prisoner to your business. Your own schedule quickly goes away and short work day dreams are followed by 60 hour work weeks constantly. If you don’t strive to be on top and work harder than you ever have, the next guy is just going to swoop in and fill your shoes. There will be hundreds of times over the years where you question your ability to own a business and why do you put yourself through the pain. One of my first high end jobs, the doctor told me “Brian, you are going to be tested so hard over the next 5 years, keep your head up, maintain composure and keep learning and you will succeed” That quote is something I turn to remind of what I did to get here and why I keep moving forward. So like anything in life, if it’s too easy and seems too good to be true it’s not going to last long term, but blood, sweat, tears and hard work will.
Please tell us about Aquatic Contractors.
Aquatic Contractors specializes in service, design and installation of aquariums in homes and commercial setting. We specialize in all water features but our market niche has definitely been the man made fake reef tanks. I personally have hundreds of hours researching different tools and brushes to keep these artificial, reefs spotless like them day they were installed. The artificial reef is becoming very popular with aquarists because you are not limited on what fish you have in the aquarium and being able to make the reef designed to exactly what the client wants. The thing that I am most proud for as a company is my employees, your company is only as strong as the weakest link and my crew puts in the hours day in and day out to progress in a multibillion dollar industry. What sets Aquatic Contractors apart from others in the industry is the amount of knowledge that’s underwear my work shirts. My project manager has 30 years in the aquarium industry, I have 20 years in the hobby, my service manager has over 10 years and all my technicians have between 5-10 years in the aquarium world. When you add that up we have over 100 years of watching fish swim in people’s fish tanks and we have defiantly learned the correct way to sustain a healthy aquarium. WE are also able to use all those years of fish tanks to solve any problem with an aquarium we have in the fastest time possible.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
There is not one thing I would have done differently with starting my business. Failure isn’t failure, it’s the information we need to succeed. All the mistakes I have made were learning experiences and have molded me into the man I am today.
Contact Info:
- Website: Aquatic-contractors.com
- Phone: 18056600924
- Email: [email protected]
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