Todd Watson's new business is no normal venture. Only seven other commercial enterprises in the United States can do what he does. He says it is a valid reflection of his life.
Watson spend his early years living with his mother and five others in what he described as a condemned one-bedroom shack in Ogden. After graduating from high school, Watson decided to leave a life of poverty behind to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1984. There he learned how to build and repair helicopter hydraulic systems designed to change the pitch of the rotor blade.Little did he know then that only a handful of people could perform the trade he had learned in the service. Later he would learn that even a smaller number did it as a business.
BOSS Aerospace Hydraulics Inc. is the culmination of Watson's decade-long dream to open a shop to repair the distinct helicopter part. It's a dream that Watson and his wife, Beverly, found much easier to accomplish than they had originally anticipated.
"We were originally planning on spending around $250,000 to start the business," Watson said. "Even our bare-bones estimate was around $110,000."
But the Watsons used some smart business moves, a lot of elbow grease and a little luck to open a shop for only $3,000 in Spanish Fork. It is the only one of its kind in a multistate region that has a Federal Aviation Administration certification to repair the parts on a public basis. Despite starting small, Watson foresees a much larger future just over the horizon.
"It has already started to take off," Watson said. "People take note of us because we can keep prices down and get things done in a hurry."
Watson also said he will charge customers up to $7,000 less per repair. It's no wonder that several repairs from across the nation already await service on Watson's bench. Repairs on a typical unit cost anywhere from $1,000 to $25,000, depending on the repair.
Although BOSS will only serve a specialized clientele of private helicopter owners throughout the nation, Watson and his wife plan to use excess money to help serve the people of Spanish Fork.
"We are not doing this for a personal financial gain," Beverly Watson said. "This business will be used to facilitate other dreams that we have - like the construction of a homeless shelter, one that will not turn people back to the streets."