guys in field, justin can design on designing new tanks and new quotes for opotential clients. and bringing brian in, clients had to get used to the idea that not all questions required justin s personal attention. i have had a hard time letting the clients know that calling me is the not the best thing to call me or when you have a leak or issue, because you have to call the service person or the 800-hotline number. but there are certain calls that justin always handles himself. it is almost like being an aquatic vet and i m a biologist and some of the staff are very, very good but there are questions that they cannot answer, and that is where i step in, in those moments. besides allowing him to take on more clients delegating has freed up justin s time for side projects. we did a lot of movie sets actually. we did men in black iii and
trust that has to be there that you will get serviced and get what you pay for. that can mean when nemo is feeling sick, justin is on the end of a late night 911 call. fish can be sick at 4:00 in the morning or 7:00 a.m. or on the weekends. i have to make myself available and respond to e-mails within 30 seconds. like many small business owners, justin started out as a jack of all trades. in 2001, it was just me. i was founder of the company, the designer and i did my own drawings and i serviced all of my own aquariums. after a while, it became too mu much. he soon realized that in order to grow the business, he needed to hire help and delegate some of the work. so his first hires were qualified people who could help maintain the aquariums. i really have to be able to let my service company take on the service, and not worry about
client calling me for every sick fish or algae that was not cleaned in the tank. but finding quall the ti workers who jus ttin can trust keep up the integrity of the brand is not easy. i have gone through ten years of learning how to interview people, and learning to find what works and what doesn t work for a service individual. and even if justin is not doing the servicing himself, he still needs to make sure that the work done is at the level his clients have come to expect from city aquarium. it has always p been a struggle for me to let somebody else clean my clients fish tanks, just because i can always do it better. so i always request e-mails and photos of before and after each cleaning so i am still very much hands on even though i am not there servicing the aquariums myself. and justin hired a general manager to help him stay on top of everything on the office side of the business. i handle the financial side of the business and including the invoices and the reg
also the recent wall street. when it comes to movie sets, those are my projects and i will spearhead those, and you can t have martin scorcese dealing with dead fish, so it is a lot of money they put into the aquariums so nothing can go wrong. but justin knows at the core the connection of the clients is one he is not willing to sacrifice for the sake of growth. i think that every aquarium is a relationship and a lifelong relationship, and i is important to establish really close relationships with my clients. the golden rule is to hire the right people and make sure that the clients have faith in not only your judgment but their judgment as well. david earnhoff is a partner with fly partners and kimberly is the
hi there, everyone. i m jj ramberg and welcome to your business the show dedicated to giving you tips and advice to help your small business grow. as ben affleck walks the red carpet at the academy awards, will he be thinking will my fish be okay? well, probably not because we will speak to man whose services are in high demand. but to grow his business he has to master the art of delegating and getting the clients to trust his employees as much as they trust him. i got a fish in my dish i can put any fish tank in my house, but i wanted a piece of art. justin mere is founder and owner of fish aquariums in new