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SubscribeWe were lucky to catch up with Brian Hoover recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
Owning a business can be rewarding, discouraging, aggravating, and enjoyable at any given second. As you cycle through the emotions, one thought is always wouldn’t it be great to just be an employee of my company. Sometimes it might sound great to do what you enjoy for a living and be able to turn it off when you get home. When Covid-19 lock downs began, the world was turned upside down at the blink of an eye. The mass panic that was created by so many unknowns made unique situations with clients and businesses. My company is responsible for caring for hundreds of live animals, hundreds of pumps, lights, and thousands of gallons of water. When people left their offices for the lockdown, they left in a mad dash leaving behind giant aquariums full of fish in offices. My phone began exploding with we need to take the fish and move them away until lockdown ends. Since that was not possible, my company had to adapt and overcome essentially overnight. We switched the routes around, so workers drove in vans alone. Entering clients’ houses required a homemade hazmat suit. We wore gloves, booties, glasses, masks and whatever we could do to prevent the spread from our clients to our employees and vice versa. The covid-19 pandemic changed the way the world operated, and businesses adapted. We lost 20% of residential accounts due to clients not wanting to be potentially exposed to the virus and 80% of commercial accounts went away. Without having employees in large offices, the fish tanks went away. After the roller coaster of a year 2020 and 2021 was I must have asked myself 500 times, why are you doing this, something beyond control yanked 10 years of building clients right out from underneath you. Wouldn’t it be nice to work from home in your pjs like most of America that retained their jobs were doing? This mental fatigue of realizing how fortunate you are to still have some clients, along with the realization you have a decade of hard work to get back to where your company was in February of 2020 was crippling. One day I snapped out of it and thought okay game on, start fresh, build it bigger, faster and stronger. So, the answer is yes, I am a happy business owner and sometimes I have thoughts of a regular job, but my dreams include expanding my career.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Brian Hoover and I started Aquatic Contractors with a dream, a bucket, an algae pad in my parent’s garage 22 years ago. I graduated from Cal Lutheran University with a degree in business. My company builds and maintains aquariums for clients from all walks of life across southern California. We work on aquariums from 5 gallons to 4000 gallons (about half the volume of a large U-Haul truck) on a weekly basis. In 2013, I started working on the Animal Planets hit show Tanked. Aquatic Contractors worked on over 30 episodes and helped install aquariums and provided fish care for the biggest celebrities and athletes in California. My company stands out from others because of the knowledge and care we provide for each client. With over 20 years in the industry, I have invested over 40,000 hrs. perfecting my craft, troubleshooting aquariums and bringing smiles to clients’ faces when they see their beautiful aquatic habitat. The thing I am most proud of is taking such a small niche business that’s located in the town I grew up in, to expand and be filmed on TV. Animal Planet loves to run “Tanksgiving Day” marathons, so my Face makes it on an episode of tanked every Thanksgiving. I create tanks sort of like a living painting-all the colors and the balance between, coral, fish, etc., create a vision of tranquility for my clients to enjoy.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Existing Clients have always been the best source to generate new clients. When you make the people happy that employ you, they love sharing your company with friends. When you are referred by a client the trust building, relationship growing comes very naturally. Receiving a call from yelp, websites, or advertisement puts a lot of work on the company’s plate. Now you have to win their trust in a very competitive bidding market, sell yourself and your company on why you should get the job and how you see this business relationship going forward.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I built my reputation in the aquarium world by looking at my career as a marathon, not a sprint. Before I worked on Tanked, I was your average fish guy with a strong work ethic. I always tried to make more friends than enemies. As the seasons of the show went on, my social media presence took off, at the end of the day I met a ton of fish guys all over the country. I have always been one to answer questions for other colleagues to help them out just like I am not afraid to ask any of them for help with a question. If you have a good working relationship with your competitors, you will work together to make both your brands expand and prosper.
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