La Mesa Engineer Restructuring His Life Around New Realities

When Aaron Steele decided to quit his job and go into business with a friend in 2007, he had no idea the country’s economy was about to dive into the muck.

Or that he would soon become a father and scrap plans to remodel his home.

He simply knew it was time to take a leap of faith.

Four years later, the business is still standing (and so is Steele), his second child is on the way, and he and his wife, Summer, live in a new home in La Mesa—one they could afford thanks in part to the collapse of the housing market.

None of it could have been foreseen in 2007. In some ways, Steele has been hurt by the recession. In other ways, he’s benefited. Through it all, he’s counted his blessings—and his expenses—and forged ahead, saying he tries to stay positive and hasn’t lost any hope about America’s future.

He knows so many others have been hit much harder than he, but sees the country “pulling through this.” His vision of the American dream remains intact, despite today’s challenges.

“I think the thing for me is just the freedom that we get,” says Steele, 35, co-founder of Aark Engineering in La Mesa. “I don’t know if I dream of becoming wildly rich or any of those things, but sort of that pursuit of happiness. … I have that opportunity to start my own business and to run it how I like.”

His Situation

In 2007, Steele and co-worker Mark Van Bibber, both structural engineers, decided to quit the company they worked for and open their own business. (Aark is a combination of their first names, Aaron and Mark.)

As the two planned the new venture, Steele says one of the exercises they went through involved examining the worst-case scenario: that they’d flop and lose all their money. “And we said you know what? We both have families in town. They’re not going to let us starve to death. We’re going to have a place to stay … and we realized that even the worst was not devastating. We had this tremendous core of support right here in town.”

So they rolled the dice. Little did they know the roof was about to collapse on huge segments of the economy. “I didn’t realize what I was getting into when I did,” Steele says, laughing.

The Business

Aark Engineering, a consulting structural engineering firm, is on Third Street in a beautifully reconfigured Craftsman-style home. Aside from founders Steele and Van Bibber, the company has three full-time and one part-time employee.

The company works mostly on designing or redesigning commercial, medical, educational and utility properties. Getting the company through normal growing pains would have been tough even during high times, Steele says. In its early phases, Steele for several months was putting money into the company rather than taking any out.

Changing Times

Business, however, has been surprisingly good, Steele says, though the company’s focus has shifted. While some work has faded because of hard times—many companies “grabbed their purse strings and pulled them tight,” he says—work on medical facilities has filled the gap.

From a share of 20 percent to 25 percent of their time originally, work on medical buildings is now about 50 percent of what they do. State laws require hospitals and medical facilities be built or upgraded to current seismic safety standards by 2030, “so there’s a lot of work and there’s a lot of hospitals in San Diego doing it.”

Staying Competitive

While Aark has been busy, Steele says the company has had to look for ways to keep costs down to stay competitive, especially with larger firms—searching to find more avenues for revenue—now going head-to-head with them, an unexpected development.

“So, we’ve had to stay efficient, and fortunately for us we have a nice, small group of dedicated, talented people who help us do that,” Steele says.

Businesses, he notes, are always re-evaluating their fee structures, overhead and efficiency, and Aark has done that constantly in its four years.

On the Home Front

About the time Steele was starting his business, he found out he was about to have a child. While he and Mark were planning to make the big leap, Steele returned from a hiking trip in the Grand Canyon.

“The first words out of my wife’s mouth were, ‘I think I’m pregnant.’ ”

Suddenly, there was another person in the equation. The couple also had saved some money for a remodel on their small (900-square-foot) house, but was having trouble getting it processed with the city when it occurred to them in 2008 that buying a bigger house might be possible.

“We started realizing—hey, there’s a whole lot of for-sale signs out there and a whole lot of stuff that’s not selling.” So they stood by, watched prices drop and directed their savings toward buying a foreclosure. They did, however, need to make some improvements.

Watching Their Expenses

With a new business, new baby and new home—plus Summer cutting back on her job to three days a week to spend more time with their son—the Steeles cut costs. They canceled their home phone and their cable TV and became more aware of what they spend.

“You just start to realize what’s really needed,” Steele says.

The Bigger Picture

While Steele is thankful Aark has had plenty of work, he says he’s seen many small and midsize engineering and architecture firms struggle or close.

“I’ve seen people that we’ve worked with lose their jobs and strike out on their own,” he says. He also notes that the jobs-listings section of the newsletter of the San Diego chapter of the Structural Engineers Association shrunk from several pages of jobs to just two or three listings, total.  And he noticed that when Aark advertised its job openings, they saw a “tremendous” response.

Looking Ahead

Steele is optimistic for his company and the economy in general. One of the reasons he believes Aark is well-positioned is all the infrastructure work that is needed.

As he scans the economy and looks for improvements, he says, “I just hope we learn some things from this and fix some things so we don’t end up in the same situation.”