Inc.com:

“Greg Wittstock, who likes to be called the Pond Guy, built his first pond at the age of 12. Today, more than 20 years later, Wittstock runs a thriving empire that not only builds backyard ponds, but supplies and teaches thousands of contractors every year on the latest and greatest Aquascape techniques.

“I built the first pond out of concrete and it cracked during its first winter. The filter systems clogged and turned fish to sushi, the pond turned green, and my turtles started escaping. That was the beginning of my odyssey. I MacGyvered up my own classroom to experiment with new techniques until I got them right.

“After I got things working, people got interested. In 1991, after my sophomore year at Ohio State University, I launched Aquascape Designs to build ponds for customers. I printed up some business cards and took out a few classified ads. I sold five jobs that summer and got $21,000 for three months of work. My gross profit was $11,000, which was a heck of a lot more than I made as a lifeguard the summer before. It was a fun way to make money.

“Today, my business model has completely changed. We’ve scrapped the mail order and now sell only through our 300 distributors. We decided to pick a horse, since our mail-order business was in competition with our distributors. We also train more than 5,000 contractors a year through our monthly training sessions, where we teach them to build both ponds and their businesses. We work with them to teach budgeting, sales, and construction techniques. That’s part of why we dropped the ‘Designs’ from our name. In the end, the biggest value we can sell is our ability to help our customers grow their businesses.”