We were lucky to catch up with Brian Lott recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brian , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the toughest parts of scaling a business is maintaining quality as you grow. How have you managed to maintain quality? Any stories or advice?

As a fairly new company, quality is the #1 goal for every project that goes out the door. I’m an avid fisherman and the main reason I started this business was that I had an extremely difficult time finding a company to build well crafted aluminum components for my boat. When I did find a company that lived up to my standards; the pricing would be outrageous. I knew somewhere in the middle there was room for top quality work for a reasonable price, and so Custom Tubing Concepts was created. Everything that leaves my shop is hand built by me and if any component isn’t 100% I will immediately remove or replace it regardless of time or cost.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Brian Lott and I am the owner of Custom Tubing Concepts. I’ve owned multiple businesses over the years, mostly tied to the construction industry, but never really loved what I did. This new venture was created out of a need for better quality aluminum work for my boat. I fish 10+ tournaments per year, so this is very important to me. I’ve been a fabricator most of my life and so far haven’t been able to find something I couldn’t build. Aluminum tubing work, when done correctly, is difficult and precise which is why I enjoy what I do… I love the daily challenge. I specialize in components for saltwater fishing boats, but I’ve built roof racks for UTVs, Jeep components, and currently working on the worlds largest shark fishing rig. Typically, if it is possible to build and the customer is willing to pay for it, I can get it done.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Back in my mid twenties I acquired an existing granite countertop business and it was paid for through a few different sources. The first 5 years or so were care free money wise. The business was highly leveraged but there was so much cash flow that monthly expenses weren’t much of an issue. But instead of paying off the loans with the profit, I was reinvesting into other new companies. It was stressful but was going well until the economy in my area took a sharp downturn. The cash started drying up and I was left working 70+ hours per week just to cover all my financial obligations. There were several other factors that compounded this issue and it took multiple years to finally pay off all the debt. I still own the granite company, but it is paid for and my monthly overhead is very low. Moving forward I decided that I would never leverage myself like that again. Custom Tubing Concepts was and is continuing to be built with 100% cash. It’s taken longer to purchase equipment and I’m currently working to get a new facility built this year, but at the end of the day it’s all paid for and much less stressful.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I’ve spent a lot of my adult life managing people within my companies. It’s not that I don’t like people; but most of the time it ends up being more like babysitting. I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands and being challenged, so for the last few years I took what fabrication skills I already possessed and fine tuned them until I was happy with the end result. I personally custom build every project that comes out of my shop so I know it’ll be the top quality I expect.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://CustomTubingConcepts.com
• Instagram: custom_tubing_concepts
• Facebook: Custom Tubing Concepts