{"id":28562,"date":"2016-07-13T13:30:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T17:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=28562"},"modified":"2021-04-23T17:07:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:07:10","slug":"dreams-growth-require-business-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/dreams-growth-require-business-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"When Dreams of Growth Require a Business Shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes the business you\u2019re in is not a business you can effectively scale, and the ambitious business owner broadens her focus. That\u2019s a calculation Kryshon Bratton has made — twice. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2006, she transformed her husband\u2019s lifeguarding business into a company that builds and maintains swimming pools. Today,\u00a0Bratton Pools<\/a>\u00a0brings in $2 million in annual revenue mainly by building custom aqua playlands for Houston homeowners, often now also ringed by lovely patios and outdoor kitchens and accessed via driveways it builds. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s no small shakes, but installing high-end pools in a hot city flush with pool-builders only gets you so far. So in 2015 Bratton started Piper Whitney<\/a>, a second business named after her daughters, to expand the driveway-offshoot business Bratton Pools had started. Piper Whitney builds parking lots, drives and walkways using permeable materials that are durable and more environmentally sustainable than traditional asphalt and concrete. The new company brought in about $500,000 in revenue in its first year, and Bratton expects to reach $750,000 this year and $1 million to $1.25 million in 2017. <\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s an open road from there. While Bratton is pleased with her pools business, Piper Whitney offers greater opportunity for this Houston native, whose drive to succeed she acknowledges may be the result of a childhood marked by poverty<\/a>, including a period of homelessness in the 1980s after her family home was foreclosed. Entrepreneurship has been her avenue to success, and Piper Whitney now promises both growth and the kind of safety and stability diversification can bring — while preserving the time with her husband and daughters she holds dear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scaling up Bratton Pools, she says, would require expanding geographically. For her high-touch, design-heavy business, that would mean an unacceptable amount of travel time — \u201cthe last thing I want to do as I\u2019m getting older,\u201d she says. On top of its geographical limits, Bratton Pools mostly plays in the residential market, she adds, \u201cwhereas Piper Whitney, there\u2019s a greater potential.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

A Bigger and Less Competitive Market<\/b><\/p>\n

Bratton is already taking Piper Whitney beyond Houston — indeed, beyond Texas. She has inked projects in Austin and San Antonio, and by year\u2019s end she expects projects in Louisiana. The company is doing both residential jobs — think driveways, walkways and even synthetic grass yards — and large commercial parking lots and drives.<\/span><\/p>\n

While she and her husband, who takes a leading role in the fieldwork, are supervising non-local projects now, Bratton intends to hire representatives to handle jobs outside of Houston. Already, she\u2019s preparing to open a satellite location in San Antonio.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bratton sees a green field for Piper Whitney thanks to growing interest in the permeable materials it uses. In a part of the country notorious for downpours and regular flooding, these materials offer a solution by allowing water to seep into the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, some clients are digging deeper for project funds because of its environmental strengths. One recently told Bratton that the 12,000-square-foot commercial truck area Piper Whitney \u201cpaved\u201d had no flooding issues after a recent storm, while \u201deverything else was mud.\u201d She\u2019s preparing a contract now for the 20,000 square feet they didn\u2019t do originally.<\/span><\/p>\n

The business potential is different for pool building, which is a well-established and saturated industry in Houston. There are no less than six pool builders in walking distance from Bratton\u2019s Houston offices, she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Easier, Steadier Money<\/b><\/p>\n

Less competition means that Piper Whitney\u2019s jobs tend to be more profitable than Bratton Pools\u2019 projects. Parking lots and drives also have the virtue of being simpler and less risky because there\u2019s less design work and aesthetic rigor and because construction takes less time. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of job length, if you have solid good weather, you\u2019re looking somewhere around a 45-day range to build a pool,\u201d Bratton says. \u201cBut we can do a commercial parking lot or a commercial drive or what have you in 10 to 14 days, depending on weather.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The work appears to be less susceptible to economic troubles as well. During the current period of low oil prices and resulting economic pressure in Houston, Bratton Pools has lost some projects, while Piper Whitney has mostly just seen delays, she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

A New Need for Capital<\/b><\/p>\n

The trickiest part of the move into this new and more promising business has turned out to be a psychological one for Bratton: relinquishing a bit of control. She is coming to grips with the need to delegate more to employees, she says. Even tougher, she\u2019s contemplating taking on debt for the first time — namely, a $75,000 line of credit from her bank that she can dip into to purchase equipment, buy a company truck, hire some more people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bratton has entirely self-funded her businesses up to now. \u201cI tend to be more on the conservative side,\u201d she says, a caution that stems from the financial hardship she experienced as a child. \u201cIt\u2019s very important to me to not be over indebted,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to manage that to make sure we\u2019re on a steady path, not just for my family but for my employees who I\u2019m responsible for,\u201d Bratton adds. \u201cWhen a small business goes out of business, it\u2019s devastating — not just with the owner and the employees, it has a community impact. I didn\u2019t dream this, I didn\u2019t realize this just so it could sustain me and further me along and have it not further along other dreams.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n\t\tRead Full Transcript<\/i><\/span><\/a>\r\n\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t

Kryshon Bratton \u2013 Owner \u2013 Bratton Pools<\/p>\n

Kryshon Bratton (KB): We didn\u2019t start out with the idea that we were going to build pools. We uh had a friend who said, \u201cI wanna have a pool but I don\u2019t want anybody else building it for me. Will you do it?\u201d And we did and from there we uh did their pool in 2009, and then the next year we did two more, and the next year we did four more, and the next year we did these.<\/p>\n

CARD: Kryshon Bratton \u2013 Owner \u2013 Bratton Pools
\nHouston, TX USA<\/p>\n

KB: Bratton Pools uh is a pool builder, renovator, re-plasterer. Uh we, we upgrade pools. We uh take pools out. We also are building outdoor kitchens and pavilions.<\/p>\n

CARD: Kryshon was born and raised in Houston, the oldest of 3 girls.<\/p>\n

CARD: When she was 7, her parents divorced.<\/p>\n

KB: My mom all of a sudden became a single mother with three children, all under the age of ten. She\u2019s a, a really inspiration because she, at one point, was working three jobs to support my sisters and I. We lived in-, with friends, with family, sometimes we spent time in the car, right in someone\u2019s driveway. Swimming was my passion. It was an escape.<\/p>\n

CARD : Kryshon worked and saved for college from an early age.<\/p>\n

CARD: In 1997 she started studying political science at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n

CARD: In 2000 she married Michael Bratton.<\/p>\n

KB: I didn\u2019t graduate. I\u2019m, I\u2019m 10 hours shy of graduating. I got pregnant with Piper and it was a difficult, complicated pregnancy and I just never went back and finished the hours.<\/p>\n

CARD: Kryshon started working with Michael.<\/p>\n

CARD: He owned a lifeguarding company, staffing and maintaining pools all over Houston.<\/p>\n

KB: I was in charge of all the teenagers, all 500-plus teenagers and, I loved what we were doing together at that point but it was not family focused. There was no time for family.<\/p>\n

CARD: In 2006 Kryshon became pregnant again.<\/p>\n

KB: Mother\u2019s Day, I\u2019m very pregnant with Whitney, I\u2019m at a pool, I\u2019m dealing with other people, and it kind of hit me that I wasn\u2019t with my own child. It really got me thinking, \u201cIs this what you want to do? How can we have a business and be successful but still have the family as the focus?\u201d<\/p>\n

CARD: Kryshon decided she and Michael should pivot to building and maintaining pools.<\/p>\n

KB: Thankfully he bought in and he said ok. There\u2019s a path for success.<\/p>\n

CARD: At the end of 2006 Kryshon registered Bratton Pools, and she is the sole owner.<\/p>\n

KB: It\u2019s a better lifestyle choice. And we get better financial benefit from it.<\/p>\n

CARD: Bratton Pools has annual revenues of about $2 million.<\/p>\n

CARD: But it has turned out to be largely a seasonal business.<\/p>\n

KB: We started to working with permeable on the side yards or the offshoots of the pool itself. And that kind of grew away from swimming pools and into driveways and parking lots.<\/p>\n

SOT: It\u2019s a little windy so far.
\nSOT KB: Right, we\u2019re just going to have to make it work
\nOnce we get the fabric down then we\u2019ll, uh, start laying the grid.
\nRight.
\nSo-<\/p>\n

KB: We all at one point have dealt with flooding in Houston and it\u2019s never a question of \u201cif.\u201d It\u2019s always a question of \u201cwhen.\u201d Permeable uh allows for proper drainage. So whenever you have concrete water goes everywhere. But with permeable it\u2019s all going back into the ground. So it\u2019s cleaner. It\u2019s environmental friendly.<\/p>\n

CARD: At the end of 2015 Kryshon started Piper Whitney to build walkways, parking lots and drivable lawns.<\/p>\n

KB: I just love the fact that it\u2019s green. I love the fact that it\u2019s responsible, and this is my city. This is my town. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I\u2019m creating something and it may be a parking lot, and it may just be a sidewalk, but I created something that\u2019s gonna last and it\u2019s going to have value.<\/p>\n

SOT KB: Actually I\u2019m in the middle of something but I\u2019d like to touch base with you, what\u2019s a good time?<\/p>\n

KB: My goal personally is to get to a point where I can tell my mom, \u201cWe\u2019ll take care of you. don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d But to get there it\u2019s gonna cost a lot of money and it\u2019s gonna take a lot of hard work. And this is how we\u2019re gonna get it done.<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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