How did you end up working in the family business?
I was on the corporate finance end of things until the recession when I lost my job like everybody else. When I left college I didn’t really have a lot of experience, and I knew that eventually I could come back and work for the family business. I’ve actually worked here since I was 13 years old on and off, as most people do in their family business. I was sweeping floors when I was 13.
What do you love most about being a part of you family’s business?
The challenge of being the little guy up against the big corporations. It’s trying to figure out how to do more with less.
What are the biggest challenges that you’re currently facing?
We don’t know how this whole water rationing is going to affect us or our customers, because we have a lot of customers who use a lot of water in agriculture. That could be a threat.
As far as business climate goes, California is not an easy state to do business in regulatory-wise, taxation-wise, but you do have a set of demographics here that make it very desirable. Our biggest challenge is just making sure we stay ahead of and know about all the new regulatory requirements coming down the pipeline.
How do you stay ahead of the regulations?
We’ve hired a full-time compliance officer to stay on top of that. His job is to basically go to seminars, conferences, be constantly looking at new things that are coming down the pipeline and how we can adapt to them to make sure we’re compliant.
What is your involvement with NFIB?
Currently, I am the vice chair of the leadership council. I got involved with NFIB about four years ago, and I really liked what they were doing. I could see there was a lot of involvement that I could get myself associated with, and so I tried to make time to actually go into the capital and lobby with our legislative director. NFIB is a great organization as a member, but I think you get a lot more out of it when you put more into it.
What do you like to do off the clock?
I’m a big golfer. I have a single-digit handicap. That’s one of the things I enjoy because it’s the type of sport that you’re entirely dependent upon yourself, and there are a lot of similarities in business. You have your ups and downs. In business and in golf it’s how you react to the different situations that you’re in and come out of it in a positive way.
