About me: I have a blog called Pondemonium. It's about all things related to life and work in the water gardening business, and more! Check it out!!!
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The Pond Guy Bio:
Greg Wittstock (born May 23rd, 1970 in Summit, NJ) is the founder and CEO of Aquascape, Inc., located in St. Charles, Illinois. Wittstock is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and author. He has appeared on HGTV, MSNBC, and CNBC’s “The Big Idea with Donny Duetsch.” Wittstock earned his B.A. degree in Interpersonal Communications from Ohio State University in 1994.
In 2005 Greg Wittstock was named one of America’s Best Bosses by FORTUNE Small Business Magazine and Winning Workplaces,,. In 2006 he was inducted into the University of Chicago’s Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame.
Founded in 1991, Aquascape made the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies four years in a row (1999-2003) and featured articles on Wittstock's business culture and strategy several times. A photo of Greg Wittstock swimming in his backyard pond graced the November 2003 issue of Inc. magazine. The company was then featured in the August 2007 issue of Inc. magazine.
From building backyard ponds to house pet turtles to building ponds to make money over the summer, Greg Wittstock, aka "The Pond Guy,,", has been experimenting with water gardens since the age of 12. He began with a concrete creation and evolved to the ecosystem ponds that Aquascape is known for. After experimenting with ponds for over eight years, Wittstock went on record to explain how the idea of Aquascape came to mind in a "light bulb" moment during a drive home from a summer job during college in 1990. The next year, he began building ponds during his breaks in the school year.
In 1992 Wittstock got a call from a freelance reporter working with the Chicago Tribune. A letter, business card, and photographs sent by Wittstock the year before gained the attention the reporter and an article was run about Aquascape in the Tempo section. The result of the article was hundreds of phone calls and 82 ponds sales.
From there, Wittstock got involved in many a business venture. While at school, he used architecture students as interns, earning credit hours and resulting in cheap labor. He finished his degree in Interpersonal Communications at The Ohio State University and was soon entertained by the idea of franchising his business. After several attempts to work out a deal, Wittstock decided that it wasn't feasible and continued to work on the success of Aquascape.
Wittstock decided to begin mailing out catalogs to prospective customers, buying a list of 26,000 names to start out. Soon, Wittstock was leaving the building of ponds to his employees and concentrating on the front office work. More catalogs were being mailed out each year and sales were steadily increasing. Next thing he knew, Wittstock was out on the road, educating contractors about the great profit margins and satisfaction that went with water gardening.
Franchising may not have worked for Wittstock, but signing on a group of Distributors was turning Aquascape into a company with many different locations to buy product from. Distributors became the local pond dealer, selling to contractors as a mini-Aquascape, without all the franchise fees. Seminar tours continued, with Distributors beginning to lend a hand and before Wittstock knew it, his Distributors comprised much of the business ... a great future was ahead! In 2002, the Certified Aquascape Contractor program was formed, providing marketing opportunities to the best of the best contractors and connecting them with potential pond owners.
In 2003, Aquascape ventured into retailing by acquiring Water Creations, one of Aquascape’s largest competitors. Now the ecosystem pond would be available to do-it-yourselfers, thus bringing a whole new customer base on board.
The Water Garden Excellence Program was created in 2005, teaming contractors and retailers up to train and educate each other and their customers about water gardens. The program includes marketing materials and seminars that aid the contractors and retailers in promoting water gardening and educating potential and current pond owners. The program caught on like wildfire and has proved successful for everyone involved.
At the end of 2005, Wittstock's vision of a workplace utopia came true as the company moved to Aqualand. Aqualand is a 256,000 square foot LEED certified building that houses office and warehouse space. Aqualand is constructed from Green-friendly materials and is home to the largest sloping green roof in North America.
2006 saw the acquisition of PondSweep Manufacturing, owned and operated by Wittstock’s father, Gary. This acquisition allowed The Pond Guy,, to make headway into the irrigation market. Wittstock decided to change the company’s distribution model in 2007 and grew the distribution locations from 72 to over 350 nationwide in just the first year after the change was made.
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