We recently connected with Ryan Walz and have shared our conversation below.
Ryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?
I believe revenue is the number one goal for small businesses to focus on, Generating revenue is the backbone of your company, when bootstrapping a product or business its necessary to have a decent margin in the beginning, to cover all operating cost and still be able to reinvest profits back into your business, I think it is important to streamline your sales channels and get consistent with selling your product before switching focus to trimming cost. I am currently focused on acquiring customers that consistently return and place orders to have a solid baseline of monthly revenue. As a manufacturer a lot of our cost savings will come with investing in different machinery that will increase the output of products and allowing us to become our own supplier of material.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Ryan Walz, I was born and raised in Ohio and relocated to Florida in 2022. I grew up in a small town outside of Dayton, Ohio and attended the university of Cincinnati studying Real Estate and Finance at the Linder College of Business. After my first year I was in debt in the 10’s of thousands due to student loans and was very annoyed with the excess classes I was required to take that I personally felt were useless for my degree. After that first year I dropped out and started pursuing my first failed business creating men’s dress shirts that used temperature regulating materials similar to astronaut suits. I decided to pivot due to the startup cost of manufacturing being in the high 5-6 figures and joined the Ohio Army National Guard which offered 100% tuition and went back to school after training. Fast forward a few years I was pulled for a deployment with the Army and had to put life on pause. During my Time in the military I gained valuable leadership skills and learned some good life lessons. I served 6 years and ended my contract as a 31B (Military Police) Sergeant.
After I moved to Florida, I purchased Purity Air from an older gentleman who has been operating it for several years as a small side gig in his garage. Personally I had no experience in the HVAC or filter industry but my father has been and is still currently in the industry so I can utilize his knowledge when I need to. I saw an opportunity to take a small operation and take it to the next level with E-Commerce and expanding from the local market he was operating in, to the national market available to us through the internet. Currently the industry standard and largest market share is controlled by disposable filters which are not sustainable and produce large amounts of waste every year. Our current product EverFilter™ is the first step into reducing that waste in the air filter industry. EverFilter™ is a re-usable filter frame with a high airflow backing that eliminates the metal and cardboard waste that normal disposable filters would produce. On top of waste reduction our EverFilter™ filter replacements cost a fraction of similar disposable filters allowing homeowners to save money and maintain contaminate free air in their HVAC system.
Our mission is to make sustainable, low environmental impact air filtration solutions by providing affordable, re-usable, eco-friendly products. As we grow and expand our product line our ideal solution is to have reusable filter frames and biodegradable filter replacements that are better than the current options available today.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
As I mentioned before I purchased this company, I had saved up a decent amount doing roof inspections as a 3rd party vendor for insurance companies. The insurance industry is a wild but lucrative industry with many facets to make money. We are still small and I do not want to stunt the growth of the business by pulling money for my personal use so I currently do roof sales to fund my personal life and continue to fund the growth of the business on top of the income it already produces. I think it is vital to pay your business until it is large enough to pay you if you want to break out of the “side hustle” category and have a self-sustainable operation.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
Our founder Calvin started manufacturing our product by hand back in the 2010’s before upgrading to more efficient manufacturing equipment. We deal with cutting and bending metal which isn’t very easy when doing it by hand. It was a slow start but it laid the foundation of the business. Eventually with some design and local connections with a tool maker he built the first version of pneumatic presses and machinery we use today. While the current equipment is okay for our output right now as we grow we will have to invest in larger more automated and efficient machines. This will be one of the more expensive but largest improvements to our business when that time comes. Not only are we manufacturing the products but we are also continuing to improve on our manufacturing process and equipment.
Contact Info:
- Website: purityair.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purityair_co
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/purityairfilters
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/purity-air/