In 1983 Alan Lethers purchased Patio Pacific, a 10-year-old business that specialized in Pet Doors. He could have never imagined the journey he was starting that day or the roads that it would take him down. Like most entrepreneurs, he had the vision but he couldn’t do everything by himself. By building a great team with both outsourced specialists and employees inside his organization, Alan has found success right here on the central coast.

Like all businesses, Patio Pacific had some very challenging periods, especially in the early days. Patio Pacific was built on print ads in various publications including the LA Times, Sunset Magazine, House Beautiful, and others. In those days Alan thought that simply breaking even on his marketing was a good thing since he was building the business. When Alan first bought the business it was doing $120,000 a year in sales and the products they made cost $57 to make and sold for $59.95. As you can imagine, getting costs under control and boosting sales were high priorities for Alan at the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey.

As Alan reflects back on his 25 years in the business, he points to a fundamental shift in his thinking that caused the business to go from barely surviving to highly successful. Alan learned to engage people that are better at doing what they do than he is and utilizing them in his business.

In 2001 Alan met Scott Ganaja, an engineering graduate from Cal Poly, through a referral from a local machinist. The two of them would go on to reinvent the pet door manufactured by Patio Pacific and create what is arguably the best pet door in the market today. Pet doors, as it turns out, are far from the simple product one might think. Pet owners love their pets, but getting them in and out of the house without having to personally tend the door certainly is an objective for many. Poorly engineered doors are a source of aggravation and danger to the pet because bad ones can and do severely injure pets. Patio Pacific Doors are engineered and exhaustively tested using tooling and test equipment designed by Scott. They look great, operate flawlessly for years, and insure the safety of the pet.

In 2002 Alan engaged Your People Professionals to address the growing organization’s need in Human Resources and he has never looked back. Alan stated that; “It’s great to be able to pick up the phone and get help in HR.” As a business owner, Alan has realized that outsourcing his HR has allowed him to focus on the business of his business. It has especially helped him with recruiting by professionally handling the process while still giving him executive control over the hiring decisions.

In 1996 Alan discovered the Internet and it changed his business forever. Over the course of the next 5 years Alan would lead his business through a fundamental shift from direct marketing largely in print to e-commerce on the Internet. While the path was not always clear, Patio Pacific now receives 90% of their business from their web site. Patio Pacific ranks in the number one position on Google for pet doors, and with a web site name like www.petdoors.com that is probably not going to change any time soon. Starting in 2001, e-commerce started to grow the business at more than 20% per year. The growth drove revenues from $850k to $3.5 million, and today e-commerce represents fully 90% of the business volume. The Patio Pacific team successfully navigated the transition from direct marketing to e-commerce, something that many dotcom businesses failed to do.

To capitalize on the importance of the Internet to his business, Alan’s list of external experts now also includes another YPP client, Dennis Clevenger of Clever Concepts. Dennis is well known as one of the top web designers in the region and has developed web sites for hundreds of local businesses. Dennis and Alan are collaborating on the next generation web site to increase the value the Internet is bringing to Patio Pacific.

On top of outsourcing Human Resources and IT, Alan gets legal help from Tom Lebens from the Law firm of Sinsheimer Juhnke Lebens & McIvor. Tom helps him protect the designs and intellectual property being created in-house at Patio Pacific.

All the outside help in the world can’t help a business if it isn’t strong at its core. Critical personnel inside the business like his Operations Manager Cheri Segovia and his bookkeeper Pam Loan help keep Patio Pacific running and profitable. It is the well-run internal business that gives Patio Pacific the opportunity to invest in creating more competitive advantage.

Alan expects to continue to expand his internal and external team of experts because the strategy works and the results speak for themselves.

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