Anoosheh Oskouian launched Ship & Shore Environmental 25 years ago, transitioning the company from a sheet metal fabrication business to a manufacturer and installer of pollution control equipment for industrial facilities.

The firm has grown from 10 employees at a single office in Signal Hill to 75 employees and five locations, including in China, India and Thailand. Today, Oskouian and the staff at Ship & Shore Environmental are trying to navigate treacherous waters as the imposition of tariffs threatens to upend the business. Oskouian discussed these latest challenges, as well as the hurdles she faced as a woman business owner and the twists and turns of launching the business.

What made you decide to start your own business?

I didn’t set out to start my own business – it just sort of happened, and very suddenly.

I had joined Ship & Shore as an engineering consultant in the 1990s. In those days, it was a sheet metal fabricating company strategically located close to the shipbuilding and ship maintenance yards at the ports. I was aiming to become a partner. But then one day in the year 2000, the owner told us he had decided to take the sheet metal business away and that if we wanted to continue the company, we would have to pay him x amount of dollars and switch to a different business line.

What did you do then?

After recovering from the shock of this announcement, I realized I had some money saved up through a 401(k) plan from my days at (the engineering and infrastructure firm) Fluor Daniel (now Irving, Texas-based Fluor Corp.) I used every penny of that to buy out the two projects I was working on, and I and another gentleman decided to transition the business to pollution control. I didn’t even ask my husband for money – it was just my own funds. This was a giant leap of faith on my part.

Why pollution control? That’s a leap from sheet metal.

The two projects I had just bought out both involved complying with EPA pollution reduction mandates and they needed pollution control equipment. With the way things were going at that time as reducing pollution was becoming ever more important, that seemed a natural focus for us.

Sounds like this all was very challenging.

Yes, it was. One of the biggest challenges was that the old sheet metal facility was a union shop and we as the new owners decided the business going forward would be a non-union facility.

You keep saying, “we,” though you are now the sole owner.

The gentleman I bought the business with was truly a great mentor to me. Eventually, I bought out his stake and became sole owner. He’s now 87 years old and semi-retired.

Did being a woman business owner pose any challenges?

This was an extremely male-dominated industry back then as it remains today. All of my competitor CEOs even today are men. In the early days, some of my clients weren’t ready to have a woman tell them how they needed to conduct their business. Many clients at that time assumed I was the secretary taking notes about the meeting. I had to reassure people that just because I was not a man, I still had the technical ability and the entrepreneurial skill to pull it all together.

Yet you still continued with the business…

Yes. As the demands and laws for clean air have become ever more prominent, there is more and more need for pollution control equipment. We entered new industries, such as the pharmaceutical business. During the (Covid-19) pandemic, we helped them produce more drugs – an awful lot of chemicals go into that process. And then there’s all that plastic packaging.

Did you ever have to borrow money?

It’s all been organic growth. Besides my initial 401(k) funds, there’s been no injection of funds from anywhere over the past 25 years.

What are the challenges keeping you up these days?

Finding qualified engineers is always a challenge. But now, the biggest challenge is the continually changing tariffs. Besides affecting the pricing structure we offer our clients, it’s difficult for us to project the amount of resources that have to come from abroad. We have managed to work closely with our partners, but nevertheless, something that cost $10 a year ago now can be $100. How do you pass on the cost? Sourcing our parts is also difficult: some components we use are only made in China, which means paying much more for them.

How are you coping with all this?

We’ve used our preferred relationships with our suppliers to try to keep the price increases down. And we’ve also let our clients know that if there’s a cost overrun, we will have to share the cost with them. Also, this has forced us to be more innovative, developing and testing substitute components. In the long run, this could prove beneficial.

Looking back on the last 25 years, is there anything you would do differently with regard to the business?

If I had the funds available, I would have bought the land around us – it’s so much more valuable now.

What is your advice to future entrepreneurs?

Always believe in your own strength and capabilities and don’t let the word “no” stop you from following your dreams. There will always be a “yes” somewhere. Also, listen to that little voice inside of you that is trying to guide you.

You were born in Iran. How did you end up here in the Los Angeles area?

I came over right before the Iranian revolution of 1978-79. I was 14 at the time. My family was against my coming to the United States and I had to convince them. My dream was coming to America. Once I got to this country, I first went to Denver. I moved to California after I graduated in the late 1980s. Eventually, several members of my immediate family came to the U.S.