Sam Hoff started Patti Engineering 3 weeks before his wedding day and his new bride, Patti Hoff, joined shortly after. These two are reflecting on three decades in business: their best decisions, lessons learned, and some life updates.
When asked what their vision for the company was 30 years ago when it started, Sam replied, “I didn’t have one! This was just supposed to be a temporary solution!” But a couple of years later, when the bigger projects started coming in and the first employees were hired, Sam and Patti began to realize that this could be something bigger. “It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day or in thinking that this needs to be a company with hundreds of employees but it has been a good run and it is going to continue to be a good run,” Sam said.
“We’ve built this and we are still really true to who we are,” said Patti. “We can put our heads on the pillow at night and be comfortable with the decisions we make.”
“We’ve always wanted to operate our business with the highest level of integrity,” said Sam, “and we’ve never wanted to sacrifice our integrity.”
Best Decision
What was the best decision Sam and Patti have made for the company? Looking back, hiring the first employee, of course, made the decision to grow. That set the company on its path from “temporary stopgap” to “actual, career-long company.” Deciding to make that first hire felt a little scary and a bit risky, but it got easier with time. Sam was only 27 years old at the time of that first hire. They are glad they took that risk then, because with age comes caution.
“All of the great people who have passed through Patti Engineering’s doors - current employees and Patti alum - have led to the culmination of who this company is today,” Patti remarked with gratitude.
“A lot of our former employees are now our clients,” said Sam. “I’m proud of that because I think it says something about the level of integrity that we operate with.”
Lessons Learned
The first lesson that Sam had to learn after starting as a one-man-show was to delegate and trust. Without coming from traditional management experience, it was an important lesson to learn to be able to grow the company.
Reflecting now, they say one of the best lessons they learned was to say no. Not every project is a good fit and not every chance to expand is a good opportunity. Experience has taught them to balance out the risks - whether financial, stress level, or otherwise. Often, deciding to say no is driven by their third lesson: listen to your gut. “If something doesn’t sound right or doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.”
Life Updates
This 30th anniversary is marking a lot of milestones for their family! “We are staring straight down the barrel of being empty nesters,” said Patti. Their youngest, Sammy, just graduated high school and will start at Kettering University, his father’s alma mater, on July 12. Their daughter, Payton is also having an exciting year. She got married last September, graduated law school from Indiana University Maurer School of Law this spring, and is currently studying for the bar. She plans to join Barnes and Thornburg in Indianapolis this fall.
“Time goes by quickly, quicker than you can imagine,” said Patti. To celebrate their nearly concurrent wedding anniversary, Sam and Patti are planning a trip to wine country in California. What’s on for the next 30 years? They both laughed, “Hopefully retirement!”
