Age: 55
Hometown: Baton Rouge
Serving as a volunteer firefighter in Central set Chris Ferrara on a path he had never envisioned. After he and other young firefighters built their own tanker truck to save money for the department, Ferrara—tasked with shopping for parts—spotted a market niche. In the early 1980s, with $1,800, he founded a firefighting equipment and supply distributorship, which he ran nights and weekends from his home. It was so successful that he quit his full-time job as a pipefitter/fabricator in a refinery to devote himself to the fledgling business. At the outset, Ferrara heard a lot of “no.” No, his business plan wasn’t going to work. No, he couldn’t secure a loan for that. No, he wasn’t going to be able to find enough skilled workers to build such high-tech equipment. No, he shouldn’t build a manufacturing facility in Holden. Today, Ferrara Fire Apparatus ranks among the top five fire truck manufacturers in the nation, building custom and commercial fire trucks in its 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for firefighters around the world.
Over the years, I have developed a tremendous passion for the fire service.
Building a company from scratch, over 31 years, into what it is today. Also, developing so many new products that are accepted worldwide.
I was a bag boy at Baton Rouge Meat Supply at the age of 13.
Never give up on what you’re trying to achieve. You really can’t take no for an answer. There’s always a way around the situation.
I admire people who really started their businesses from scratch, so to speak, and have developed new products or technology that have done well.
I can’t say that I would change jobs with anybody. I have the best job anywhere. The people who work for me and the team that we’ve built over the years have been great, and I enjoy what I’m doing.
Starting the company. I actually started it with $1,800 around 1981. Initially the biggest challenges were getting financing for the business and developing a business plan. A lot of banks didn’t want to loan money in the early years, and in the early 1980s we in Louisiana were in an economic downturn. If you didn’t have a track record, banks were very reluctant to loan you money to make a business work.
Maybe map out a better plan for what I’ve done. But not much else.
Never give up on anything you set your sights on. You want to always try to give it your best. I’m a firm believer that what you put into something is what you’re going to get out of it. I don’t know of any business out there that’s easy. If it were easy, everybody would do it. It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication and a lot of passion for any business to succeed. If you don’t have that drive and determination and passion, someone else will.
How Can I Help You? The Most Important Question in Business and in Life, by M. Walter Levine.
Always with the family.
I guess Sean Connery, for an action-packed life. If you run a business today, it’s always demanding, exciting, challenging.
Fishing, horseback riding, and working at a farm where I have tractors and other machinery. Just getting away from business.
Offshore fishing.
No coffee. Just Community Iced Tea, unsweetened.
Wicked Tuna, a National Geographic Television reality series about fishing for tuna off the coast of Massachusetts.
I guess like anybody, my iPhone.
Working. I just love to work.
The image. In Louisiana we’ve come a long way with our image. In earlier eras, with different politicians, we weren’t known to be credible, reliable, trustworthy. Yet we’ve changed that. I’d like us to have a better image across the world than what we’ve had before.
I hope we provide a safe and healthy environment for our future generations to thrive in. And that industry continues to grow and prosper, and we build Baton Rouge and the surrounding area into a positive, vibrant place for our children.
A downturn in the economy, especially with the oil and gas industry—or any industry—in this area, that would really impact a lot of people’s lives.
