By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Brian Souza has been a passionate angler since childhood and as a student at Illinois State University, he knew he wanted to major in something business-related. He'd also tinkered around with making his own rubber worms in his parents' garage and had even sold a few.

However, he never really thought much about starting a bait company until he was assigned a project in a marketing class.

"I had to come up with a fictitious business and write a marketing plan for it to show everything I'd learned throughout the semester, so that's what I went with," he said. "Illinois State also ran an entrepreneurship program that was like a mini-Shark Tank (the TV show) that gave a $20,000 prize package to the winner, and I did well enough to win it."

That was 5 years ago. In the interim, Souza relocated to the Charlotte, N.C. area and launched Bizz Baits, which currently has seven models in its lineup. Those include several craw imitations, a Senko-style soft stickbait, a frog and a finesse worm.

With the Bassmaster Classic coming to his virtual back yard this year (Lake Hartwell near Greenville, S.C.), he sprung for a booth at the Outdoor Expo and introduced his offerings to a lot of fishing fanatics who hadn't heard of the company.

"We had a real good show and met a lot of people and made a lot of connections, and time will tell how much impact those will have. But just for the sales alone, it was worth going, for sure."

Change of Scenery

Souza and wife Ellie (a nurse at a Charlotte hospital) grew up in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Ill. Some close friends of his parents owned a resort in northern Wisconsin called Wildcat Lodge where the family vacationed every year, and as a teenager he took a job there.

"(The owners) were like a second family and there's where I really got addicted to fishing," he said. "Whenever I had free time, I'd take a jonboat and go out and throw frogs and worms."

The North Country was great in the summertime, but the couple desired a warmer year-round climate for their permanent home. Ellie did a lot of research and they eventually settled on Denver, N.C.

"We were looking for a change in lifestyle," said Souza, who founded the competitive bass fishing program at Illinois State. "Where we ended up has some similarities to suburban Chicago, but the fishing's a lot better than what he had there."

Norman is his home lake and he competes as a co-angler in the BFL North Carolina Division. He finished 12 on the 2017 points list and qualified for the regional event.

A Little Short-Handed

Souza is currently the only full-timer at Bizz Baits. A couple of good friends and a local college student assist him with pouring baits on a part-time basis.

For packaging, he relies on a firm called Rowan Vocational Opportunities.

"They deal with people who have a mental disability or a handicap who can't be part of the general workforce, but they can do good work when they're coached. We use them to package all the baits and put the bar codes on them. There's no way we'd be where we are without them and it's a nice little community outreach that we're able to do."

Five of the company's seven offerings are now available through Tackle Warehouse. Year-over-year, sales have doubled for each of the past three and Souza will soon have to decide which direction to take in order to keep up with demand.

Either of his options will require a serious financial outlay.

"Our mold-maker does sort of a mini-mass production setup that we could get into and that would allow us to move along quicker, or we could jump in with other brands (at one of several mass-production facilities). It's quite a barrier to make that kind of jump and we're trying to set up some funding and create some income.

"So far, the growth we've had has been enough to keep it going, but it's still relative – we're not talking gigantic numbers at this point. We're bigger than the hobbyist level, but we have to find ways to produce much faster."

Notable

> Souza said his parents (Bob and Linda) have been extremely supportive of his venture from the start. "In the wintertime before show season, they'd let me take over half their garage to do what I needed to do," he said.