High Capital Investment
In order to get started in this business, it requires a lot of capital to get started. The first expense will be the portable toilets that you are going to use to rent out to your customers. Each toilet will cost you between $600 – $800 new. If you can find used toilets in good condition in your area, it is possible to get them for about half price. To get a business up and running, I recommend getting at least 10 units. If we use the low end of the average cost, that puts us at a $6000 initial investment.
Next, you will need a way to service and clean the units. It is possible to subcontract this service out, but you will end up paying the majority of the rental cost you are charging to the service provider. In the long run, you will need to purchase your own vehicle to continue to grow your business. New, customer service vehicles cost between $130,000-$160,000. Popular manufacturers in the industry are Flowmark and Keevac. If you look for a used truck, you can still expect to pay $60,000 or more.
My recommended option for a budget start would be to purchase a used truck chassis and a slide-in vacuum tank. Slide-in tanks are mobile and can easily be installed on a truck bed. If you buy a smaller vacuum tank, you can install it on an F350 or similar. A used F350 flatbed can be found for around $35,000 and a new slide-in aluminum vacuum tank will cost about $15,000.
Now after finding your initial toilets and vacuum truck, you will be about $56,000 in the red. You will need to build your budget for your monthly expenses in order to run the business. This includes expenses like rent, chemicals, disposal and paper supplies. You will need to find a property in an industrial area because of the nature of the business.
Once you start renting out the units that you initially purchased and start generating cash flow, you will need to continue to reinvest in additional inventory to get to a breakeven point. You can expect to purchase an additional 40 – 50 toilets to get to this point.
Before starting this business, be sure that you have sufficient capital available to grow your revenue to the point that you are able to cover your monthly expenses with the toilets you have available to rent. I also recommend creating a one year proforma to plan out your goals for revenue, expenses, and to find your breakeven point. I have a template that I use annually for my business. Reach out to me and I will send it to you for free!
Hard Work
Any service based business is going to come with its share of hard work, and this industry is no different. Unless you have extra disposable capital, you will not be able to afford labor to help at the start. You will need to be the driver and the service technician. Every time a customer rents a toilet or a service, it needs to be delivered and performed by you. There is no such thing as an easy sale. There is always going to be a lot of labor associated with the business.
In addition to being the driver for the company, you will also have to handle the rest of duties that come along with running a business. To drum up new business, you will have to be the face of the company. You will also need to handle customer service, accounting, dispatching, and more. When I started my first portable toilet rental company, I was working 12 hours, 7 days per week until I could afford to hire a driver to help me out. As soon as you have the revenue to support it, I recommend making that hire.
Reputation & Perception
Let’s be honest, no one dreams of working with porta potties when they grow up. They have a reputation of being gross, smelly, and it is known as a dirty job. People never believe me when I tell them that cleaning a portable toilet is really not as bad as it seems! That being said, that doesn’t change the reputation that the industry has. It isn’t glamorous or high tech. It is not something that you will be able to brag about that others will envy.
As I mentioned, when I started the company I was the driver delivering and cleaning toilets every day. I can remember being talked down to multiple times by homeowners or employees at the jobsite because I am just the porta potty cleaning guy. There are times that I felt like saying something and yelling back to them – “Hey by the way, I am the owner of this company!”, in order to prove a point. But at the end of the day, that is something I know that comes with the business and something you need to be ready for.
In order to do good work, you need to be proud of what you do. Other people may not see it, but portable toilets are an essential service. You have to be able to filter out the noise around you and focus on providing a good service to your customers. No matter the reputation of the industry, focus on creating a good reputation for your company.
Schedule
This business does not stick to your normal 9 to 5 schedule. On a normal operating day, my company’s start time for our technicians is at 5 AM. The drivers start early so they can get on the road before traffic starts. Our office hours start at 7 AM and we are open until 5 PM. Drivers are usually finished with their routes by 3 PM. We also have an afternoon shift that help to prepare everything for the next day. Their schedule is from 2 PM to 7:30 PM. Our offices are closed on the weekend, but we have one driver that works each day. As the business owner, if you have an employee working, that means that you need to be available. You never know when an emergency will arise and you will need to solve a problem.
Since we are a service business, the job doesn’t stop because of a holiday. Similar to garbage companies, we have to make up all of the cleanings that we miss when we are closed for a holiday. After federal holidays, you will be left with more routes to make up and customers calling to see when their services will be made up.
If you decide to handle events, remember that most events are taking place when the majority of people are off from work. This means doing installations and removals on the weekend or on holidays. When most businesses are closed for New Years Day, that is one of our busiest days of the year. We are slammed picking up all of the events that happened on New Year’s Eve.
0 Comments