Meet Colin Hower | Owner Hower Built, LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Colin Hower and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Colin, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I didn’t want to work for anyone…I think differently than people and I wanted the opportunity to do my own thing. I had been dreaming up this camper design for years and so I just decided to build the first one. I quickly learned more lessons than ever expected so I built the second and then the third. After 3 prototypes I felt very confident that I had “figured it out”.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
At Hower Built we push ourselves hard to constantly evolve our product, we truly desire to build the best possible camper unit. Our campers lift assembly and redundancy is what I am most excited about, we build our units to lift heavy loads so all of your gear can stay up top. We also build our units to last, we think about every piece of hardware and how it interacts/reacts to other parts and the environment.

This has been a very long road to get where I am today, it took 5 years of 80 hour work weeks. It took testing my personal relationship with my wife and friends. It took every spare penny we had to, it took everything I had but perseverance was the only option at this point.

The biggest lesson I took from starting Hower Built is that I have to maintain life balance; this is an even harder feat but I feel I have started to understand it. Locking yourself in a shop until a project is done is just not productive…you need personal time and leisure time. I used to guilt trip myself about going skiing or white water kayaking but I need these things in order to act/operate as a human. The end goal is important but don’t kill yourself to get there.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Meet at our cabin in the woods and catch up for a night. We would then hit the road and explore/camp around SW CO and Utah and we would not tell anyone about the good spots as that’s how they stay good!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My wife and parents where a huge motivation to starting Hower Built. It was a big step to make and it cost a lot of money to get going. I was working full time for a company and then I would go to my shop and work full time…it was a brutal 3 years but after we had built up enough work I was able to transfer full time for Hower Built. Without the help of these 3 people I may have never attempted such a thing or held the motivation/ confidence to persevere through this growth.

Website: Www.howerbuilt.com

Instagram: @howerbuilt

Youtube: Hower Built

Image Credits
Austin G White and Chelsi Hower