What started out as a way to earn a little extra cash has grew into $11 million sales this year for the Stein family.
Lake Forest-based Principal Technical Services Inc. provides engineers and designers to companies such as Amgen Inc. and Sempra Energy.
“We focus on placing people into the traditional engineering fields such as civil, chemical, and electrical engineering,” said Russell Stein, the company’s vice president of finance and operations.
PTS also provides technical workers to the entertainment industry and provides payroll management services to clients. The company was the up-and-coming winner of the Family-Owned Business Awards presented by the Orange County Business Journal and the Family Business Council at California State University, Fullerton.
June and Ronald Stein started PTS out of their house in 1995, with little intent of turning the business into a full-time job. Patriarch Ron, the company’s chief executive officer, has an electrical engineering degree and 25 years of experience in engineering. He spent three years working for Universal Studios, where he gathered insight into the entertainment industry.
“Through people I knew in the industry, I had a good understanding of how the system worked,” Ron said. “Because I had tech temps during my time at Universal, I had a good grasp of what type of help that clients need.”
The Steins soon found they had hit upon a niche in the staffing business. By the end of 1995, the business generated $500,000 in sales, with 20 people placed into an assortment of industries. By early 1996, sales stood at $3.5 million. That’s when the whole family became involved.
First to join was son David, the company’s director of information technology. Russell came on board not long after. While David still owns his own business, Russell quit his job at KPMG to work full-time for PTS. Matriarch June is the president.
Currently, PTS has more than 200 people placed in companies across California. Besides the four family members, PTS has two sales managers and one recruiter who work out of their own homes.
“Of the staffing firms in this area, most do a sub-standard of providing staffing for engineering firms,” Ron said.
While PTS has grown in the past five years, the Stein family still runs it from their Lake Forest home.
“The business is still small enough to run out house,” Russell said. “However, if we grow to a size that requires us to hire people for payroll and human resources, we will move out of the house.” n
