Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joshua Halter. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Joshua, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

When I founded my business in 2017, I started with just myself and my wife. After about 6 months of 60 – 70 hour work weeks and my entire house becoming the shipping station/business product creation/customer care office I was able to expand into my first commercial space. That is when I decided to finally bring in some staff on a 1099 (contractors). I did that for about 60 days, then quickly realized you will not get good help from a 1099 – so I hired a payroll company and brought on my first W2 employees. One of them is still with them today, and his name is AJ. The initial recruitment was rough, as my path was still being carved and I was still learning the ropes. There was no training, it was this is how you do it, figure it out and you’ll thrive here. It took me a significant amount of time to establish training programs and backend SOPs to setup my staff for long term success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started the Bio Dude back in 2017. I have been in this industry as an entrepreneur since 2010. I have been keeping these types of animals since 1996. It has always been my passion and I love animals. I grew up in Pennsylvania (I am now living and operating in Texas) and some of my fondest memories are trudging through the marsh and finding tons of different amphibians and turtles. I have always been an outdoorsman, and If I did not own my own business I likely would have became a game warden or a fisheries worker.

My brand is a product of passion, tenacity, sacrifice, risk and reward. I have put every part of my being into the bio dude and now I have grown it to be a multi million dollar business which employs 20+ people with benefits.

The Bio Dude is a small business located in Houston, Texas that specializes in reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate products. We offer substrates, lighting, plants, botanicals, captive bred reptiles and amphibians, live feeder animals, terrariums and more.

The Bio Dude strives to go beyond basic care by utilizing research-based techniques. We have been featured on Animal Planet and work with many AZA accredited facilities in Texas. In addition to our website, we have a brick and mortar store, and distribution around the contiguous 48 to many retail stores.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I started this on the heel of a failed business venture with my brother. My credit score was barely above 510, I had close to $6000 in credit card debt, a broken car and no direction. After my first business effectively failed, I was backed into a corner.

On December 14, 2016 I met with my close friends Mike and Kody + my wife and we talked about what I could do to salvage what I did before and transfer it into a winning business model. So that is what we did. 7+ hours of binging I came up with what is the Bio Dude today.

I took out 2 credit cards both with an interest rate of around 25-30% and sold my car to givemethevin for 2500 USD. Used that money to buy a beater van, a deposit on a storage unit/insurance, EIN submission/tax submission and website development.

Within 2 weeks I had a fully designed website, brand and products from scratch.
The rest is history.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Upon begining my brand i created a Youtube channel, facebook page and Instagram page.
I utilized my followers that I built from my prior business and moved everything over. From there I created video content that synchronized with my brand and what my clients wanted to see.

Believe in yourself!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebiodude.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatbiodude
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebiodude
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBioDudeJoshHalter
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-bio-dude-webster?osq=the+bio+dude

Image Credits

Original images from The Bio Dude Inc