By Lorraine Gonzalez

My family business has been a part of my life since it was started. I have decided that I want to give back to the man that made it possible for me to be here, and what better way to learn than to lead and someday take over the business that he started from scratch.

I conducted an informal interview with my father (The Boss), and asked him a number of questions about the business. I wanted to find out what goes on behind the scenes besides what I see. I wanted to hear from him that it took to build “Gecko Enterprises” and maintain it to keep it going for as long as he has. I found out that it takes a lot more than what I had anticipated.

My father has worked for the City and County of Honolulu for over 25 years and presently has the highest grade of license involving waste treatment. It took many grueling years and hard work to achieve this license, which originally started out as the lowest grade. My dad has always had a drive to go the extra mile and so he decided to take his job a step further. He decided to take what he learned those 25 and some odd years, and put it to use in creating his own self-employed business, thus came Gecko Enterprises.

Gecko Enterprises is a family owned and operated business, based on wastewater treatment and services. Our business services include sewage plant operations and maintenance, septic tank installation, cleaning and repairing, homebuyer’s septic/cesspool inspection, sludge removal and cesspool pumping. We are state certified and have a contractor’s license. The company also does plumbing repairs, Roto-rooter services and sewer line maintenance. Our slogan is simple: You flush ‘um, We pump ‘um!

Gecko Enterprises owns a small fleet of equipment including 3 vacuum tankers (honey-wagons), 1 Backhoe, 1 New Holland bobcat, 2 dump trucks, and 2 trailers. Our warehouse is located on the North Shore of O’ahu, in the little town of Waialua. Gecko does business island-wide and is hoping to venture into business on the neighbor islands. We are open 7 days a week from 7 a.m. through 8 p.m. We are however on call 24 hours for sewage plant services and emergencies.

My dad always said that consistency wins the face, and Gecko’s track record speaks for itself. With over 100 pumps a month and 3 – 4 septic tank installations, we have never received a formal complaint regarding our business. There is a 1-year guarantee on all installations. We are totally covered by insurance and certified with all the necessary licenses required to deal in this particular venue. Gecko Enterprises is a law-abiding company, which will not break any state, government, or department of health rules and regulations.

If you are interested in our field of expertise, let me inform you that there are other companies out there that offer the same services as Gecko Enterprises. What makes us different from the rest is that my father (The Boss) has the greatest knowledge about wastewater treatment and services because he has dealt with it for so many years. Unlike the other companies out there, we stand behind our services and use certified engineers who actually come to the job site and quote prices based on what they see and not just what they hear over the phone. Some companies try to give you great deals to make you choose them and that’s fine. The problem is that you don’t know if they are actually capable of completing the job, if it will stay in tact once they complete it, and if any guarantees are offered on their work. Gecko is just the opposite. We do the best work and stand by it.

Selling Gecko Enterprises hasn’t been very hard to do. All our past clients do most of the work for us. As we all know, O’ahu is a very small island with a large population. When you do a good job for someone, they will definitely tell their friends and that has helped us out a lot. Customer referral has been our #1 marketing tool along side the yellow page ads, web page, and the ads painted on the sides of our tanker trucks. We feel that our work speaks for itself.

With all that has been said, Gecko Enterprises is a very sincere and dedicated company. A lot is put into keeping this business going and there is still much to do to make it even greater. I have learned a great deal of information that has helped me to understand what it takes to operate this business. I hope that I can take this knowledge along with what I learn in college and someday run the family business.