Well, my story is rather simple. At 22 I graduated from UT with a psychology degree. Originally I wanted to be a counselour- well frankly I got too many of my own problems and really think most people deserve a good smack when they come up with their petty stuff to whine about. Add to that their is no agreement on treating people and the people who have serious mental problems are basically untreatable. So, I started a LFS. Well, talk about a bad investment. Not too long after we got rolling the economy tanked. I realized from the beginning to survive we had to be unique and as a lifelong hobbyist I was tired with the inferior junk on store shelves. We started selling Tunze from Burleson, after a year he went out of the aquarium business and I called Tunze to get parts. It was really a bizarre twist of fate as I called Germany on a lark on a Saturday at 2pm CST. Making it Saturday at 9pm in Penzberg. Axel Tunze answered the phone and said he was coming to the US next week and wanted to meet me. He was at his office finallizing preparations for the year 1999 Backer show. At the time every dealer who carried the product ordered seperately. Axel could always count on me to do as he asked and I sold more product than anybody even though I was only a LFS that dabbled in internet and the big mail order outfits sold half the product. Further, I knew how to fix the stuff so when a problem came up whether it was from one of my customer or not I could be called on to fix it. Every year I visited and became friends with the family. Axel says it is unique to my personality as he considers most Americans proficient BS salesman and I was someone who appeared very straightforward, honest, introspective and sincere. In general wholesalers are not highly thought of in Europe as they usually copy the products and make their own, they also are seen as people who make money for doing absolutely nothing, they neither made the sale or made the product. My case is unique in that Germany is so far away that it is honestly cheaper for them to give a new pump than to repair and return a pump to the customer. In my position I agreed to a very slim margin that is not a living wage but with my LFS income and some odd jobs I do is enough. This gives them somebody here to take care of any problems and handle tech support as a proficient English speaker. Also, somebody who has some understanding of the market but I have to emphasize only some as I don't think like a typical American and have no problem paying for quality. I am not part of the disposable American consumer culture and have learned buying an expensive high quality article will save you alot of money down the road. So, I will never be a master of mass marketing or tagging along on Nemo pop culture but I can fix stuff and understand the product. I also get a great deal of enjoyment out of being able to attend annual brainstorming sessions and invent new products or help solve the problems of an existing product or product that is in development. I also like attending the large trade shows in Europe and helping develop the catalogue icons and photographs- we literally do everything in house, every manual, catalogue and brochure will have Axel Tunzes own personal hand in its production. I have a tremendous amount of respect for this because big American companies snub their nose at you and couldn't care less- just buy it and shut up is what they want. As a high school kid I invented new engine designs for automobiles, waste water filtration systems, I would write t the companies and all I ever got back were form letters if anything. The same as a LFS owner, I would suggest filter design A and the manufacturer would come back with- well, we sell more cartridges this way and our marketing studies show this and that. Well, marketing gurus can burn in hell, I want what an engineer has designed not what a focus group designed. Anyway, time for lunch.
