Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Halter.
Hi Joshua, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have been an entrepreneur for about 10 years. When I first started breeding poison dart frogs and tree frogs when I was 20. During this time, I was a college student and a Veterinary Technician while working 2 part time jobs + operating a full time business breeding amphibians and selling dry goods. When I started to grow the business, I decided to move to Texas from Pennsylvania (my home state) and give my business my all. Unfortunately, it did fail; however, I refused to give up and started a new brand with a completely different business model called The Bio Dude. When I closed my first business, I was about 10,000 in personal debt, had a credit score of 510 and was a month behind on my rent, electric and my car was completely busted. My parents begged me to come back to PA right before shutting my first business down. So, I sold my busted car and paid off my rent (with help from my Dad) and bought a beat up Van, rented a storage unit and started the BioDude.com with the little capital I had left. I got two credit cards, One from Capital One and from Home Depot, both had a 30%+ interest rate on them. Leveraging my credit cards (even though my credit was just terrible), I hustled for 8 months straight, working 75-80 hours a week, barely getting paid enough to get by. Thankfully I had my wife, Danielle, and my Pug Wicket as my support system. Then came the growth. Within the 1st year, I was able to move the business out of my house and into a commercial space. Since then, I have been featured on Animal Planet, Invented over 30 SKUs, Own a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and operate with 20 full time staff with excellent benefits. I take pride in where I am, I am not afraid of failure; in fact I embrace it and use it to fuel me to accomplish more. It has been a journey. As of now, The Bio Dude is about to close our 5th year in business; which is a huge accomplishment.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Challenges? That is what being a business owner is all about. Everyday. Every day, there is something new, something stupid, something I don’t understand…but, you accept, grow, overcome and use it to your advantage when the opportunity arises.
I have had some very bad staff members come through, one, in particular, cost me over thousands of dollars in losses in losses and sold our proprietary information to competitors to start their own business like ours (they failed at this though but we still lost all the capital).
Owning a store during the peak of the pandemic in Houston was hard. My ingredients and parts to manufacture my products doubled in price. To import, the cost of my containers went from $3,000 USD to $30,000 USD in 6 months. Government-imposed tariffs for all imports went up drastically. Since we manufacture LEDs, the USA wanted 20% of gross for all my imports of LEDs, which typically costs me between $60-70,000 per shipment, so with the inflated shipping, inflated material costs and inflated tariffs, I saw my costs increase by over 50% across the board.
Supply chain issues was a major deal for us. Some of our ingredients for our soils completely disappeared, or if they were available, went from $10.98 a bale to $39.98 a bale…overnight. This is not the only instance.
The cost of staff has increased dramatically. I am so very proud to offer very good HMO and PPO Health Care Plans, Life insurance, dental insurance, paid holidays, 401k matching, PTO up to 3 weeks for seasoned staff. While starting my warehouse competitive with Amazon, Target and Kroger. For this, the cost of my staff increased (including the stupid taxes) by at least 30% in 6 months and an additional 15% 6 months after that since mid-2020.
Meeting the demand of the general consumer has been a challenge. Being an online business + POS business the consumer expects almost free shipping, arriving within 2 days, automatic refunds with no explanation, social media threats (which if you look at us, we are nearly flawless, except for Yelp!, but it is Yelp! so it is expected) so ensuring that we as a business are meeting those expectations while operating a profitable bottom line has been very hard, but we have grown and are hitting it out of the park!
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Bio Dude?
The Bio Dude is a smaller business located in Webster (Houston), Texas. The Bio Dude is a specialty niche business that specializes in reptile and amphibian products. From substrates, lighting, live plants, and even feeder insects, the Bio Dude strives to provide the best care, rather than the basic care utilizing research practices and techniques. We are a very goal-driven, hungry and aggressive business that has grown substantially since our inception in 2017. We have been featured on Animal Planet as well as work with many AZA-accredited facilities in Texas. We have a full-service website (www.thebiodude.com), store (The Bio Dude Houston) and distribution around the contiguous 48 to many retail stores and platforms. This business was started out of dust and created from love, determination, grief and tenacity.
Here at The Bio Dude, my passion is natural vivarium ecosystems. I want to personally help each customer create their own bioactive, enriching, self-cleaning, natural ecosystem in their animals’ homes. My products are designed to make your animals healthier and happier. I want to make animal keeping better for the animals as well as their owners!
Since the age of thirteen, I’ve worked to make my animals’ enclosures as perfect as their wild habitats. In these types of setups, their unique behaviors and adaptations come to light. You will see the full potential of your animals in a natural environment, acting as they have in the wild for thousands of years. You will save money and time with your self-cleaning, self-sustaining ecosystem, all while enjoying your herps as nature intended. My website will give you all the information you need to be successful in giving your animals a better life.
Oh, for the record, many people ask me, what’s with the name? It’s because “I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, his Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
My mentors through the years have been the business professionals that I have met on my journey. I follow these key principles when choosing my mentors and advice.
1) Have a good lawyer, on retainer
2) Have a good accountant
3) Have a good financial advisor
These 3 are keys to success when growing, operating, and managing your business. All of them are my mentors, and I talk to them weekly.
Looking outside the box, close friends who can provide a 3rd party, non-biased opinion.
Business marketing events and tradeshows are another great places to meet others in your space. Just because they are your competitors does not mean you can’t learn a thing or two from a positive conversation!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thebiodude.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebiodude/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThatBioDude/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEXAgkTwA5q6tW6vWZvzwg
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-bio-dude-webster?osq=the+bio+dude
- Other: https://g.page/r/CZODbqZ1NS–EB0/review
