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

Alright, Otha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

We operate on a more personal level. We do not use salesman, but instead we have installers evaluate each customer request for work. We do not send someone out to sell you something you may not need, and the owner personally supervises the entire operation. Honesty when working with our customers is everything. We are completely family owned and we put our customers first. Customer service has always been a top priority in our business, and we believe it is a huge part of what makes us stand out as a small business in Ocala FL. There will always be large corporations that we will have to compete with but trying to speak to someone in those companies is always a battle. We take a personal approach and build a relationship with our customers. Their time is valuable and each one of our customers have very unique needs/wants. It isn’t just a business for profit, but for us it is our name and our lifestyle.

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?

I was in the Navy Prior to starting up my own business. Soon after returning home, I started working for a General Contractor in The Villages Florida. I quickly made rank up to foreman and before long was running my own crew. About a year later I met my wife and my stepdaughter. I was turning 30 and I felt it was time to start my own business. I just wasn’t sure where to start and was comfortable at the moment. Fast forward a year later and my son was born and long story short was born with medical problems that required my wife to quit her full-time job and be with him. I did not really think about it much, but I began doing small jobs on my off time from work working 60-80 hrs a week to help support my family during this chapter of our lives. My son had required a few pretty extensive surgeries and I was determined to take some of the pressure off of my wife. I decided it was time to quit my full-time job and start full running my business full-time. My wife was a huge part of marketing for our business we worked as a team to get our brand out there. I knew I wasn’t merely selling a product but instead I was marketing who we are and why we are different. We offered more than just gutter and pool screen remodeling, but we offered a personal friendly approach. We wanted to make sure the customer was a top priority and always felt heard. If a problem did arise, we made sure to fix it as soon as possible. When a customer calls in to set up an appointment, they speak with someone knowledgeable and friendly to help them with whatever they need. We started with only doing screen repairs and re-screens on pool enclosures and to set ourselves even further apart we vowed to never use a pushy salesman. We also, would not only do repairs but we would clean aluminum frames and make sure to pay attention to those little details that would make the job stand out. After 2 years we started to offer 6-inch gutter installation and now 6 years later we offer 5,6, and 7-inch gutter installation. For residential and commercial. We love our customers, and we appreciate all of the love we have received from our community. Family is still a big priority and we have set strict boundaries when it comes to family time, which took some time to get used to. I am extremely proud of how just myself and my wife started this business from scratch. We took out no loans and we literally built this from the ground up. We are extremely dedicated, and it reflects in our work. This business is my name and I want it to be known for the quality of work we provide. We prefer to hire veterans and we do aspire to stay a small business. We hope to serve out community for many years to come. Providing exceptional quality and honest work.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My business partner is my wife. She has not only help me start my business, but she still currently runs the office and ensures things run smoothly. With help from her stepmom, they are friendly voices who take care of all of our customers. They schedule all appointments, keep track of the books, run payroll, order material, and take care of all marketing. My wife dedicated many hours to advertising when we first opened. We could not afford to pay someone so quickly she took on the role of head marketing director. I will say I would have missed a lot of calls if not for her.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Initially this started as a side Hussle. I was working 40 hrs a week building pool enclosure for a general contractor and started doing this on the side. This was originally because my wife had to stay home to take care of our son who had urgent medical needs for the first 2-yrs of his life. I wanted to provide a way for her to be able to not only take care of them, but I wanted more for us. I put in a lot of work to provide my family a stable life. I can still vividly remember working every Saturday and Sunday trying to get my name out there. I would get off work and drive an hour to Williston to provide a quote for someone interested in my services. It was overwhelming to say the least and once we started booking a month out I decided it was time to go all in. I have always believed that Failing was just a part of life and I knew if I didn’t try for fear of failing than that itself was failing. Im not scared to start over. If I fail at this, I will start something else. I believe it’s about your drive and ambition. My family is my fire and I will always strive to do the best I can for them. Of course, we had our struggles, especially within the 1st 2 years. We had to compete with large companies that had the funds to buy more material and get to jobs faster than us. We also take out time and will only use the best quality of products. Therefore, dealing with shortages and large companies buying the material in order to cut us out of the equation became a problem. I believe our customers word of mouth kept us going. They knew the quality of our work and quality is worth waiting for, you wouldn’t settle for sub-par work only because its faster, would you? Quality and customer satisfaction is what got us to where we are today, and we will continue to operate with the same principles that we started with.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.browningsaluminum.com
• Instagram: @browningsaluminum
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrowningsAluminum

Image Credits
I took these pictures of my completed jobs Otha Browning Jr