Pete catches up with Ryan Granger from Acadian Sanitation in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA.

Ryan launched Acadian Sanitation in November 2019 with 25 toilets and recently purchased  25 more.  He talked with Pete about how he started the business, the challenges he faced, his business strategy and his hopes for the future.  Over the course of the conversation, Ryan and Pete share experiences and ideas and have a few laughs.  To learn more about this week's guest, please visit www.acadiansanitation.com 

Hello and welcome to Get Flush, the world's favourite sanitation podcast.

I'm Pete.

Way back in the introductory episode, I said I wanted Get Flush to be about the people who make up the portable sanitation industry.

Sure, it's been great to talk about equipment and the technical aspects of the job, but it's the human element that holds the most interest for me, and I hope that other listeners feel the same way too.

The monthly special will run for about an hour and each episode will feature a different operator or business.

The idea is really simple.

I'll visit them in person, call them by phone, or arrange a meeting online to get them to talk about their business.

There is no script.

I've not got a list of preset questions.

The show really is all about them.

Picking the first operator to appear on pumantels was really easy.

I wanted to talk to someone who was relatively new to portable sanitation, someone with a new business who started from scratch, someone with a small operation who could explain how and why they got started and perhaps inspire some other entrepreneurs to have a go.

My idea was that lots of people will identify with this story if we start small, and that will give us a great platform for looking at bigger businesses in the future.

And so, with the introductions out the way, let's get going on the very first episode of the Pooh Man Tales.

This episode features Ryan Granger from Acadian Sanitation in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Ryan's been in business since November last year and he started Arcadium with 25 toilets, which has just increased to 50.

He runs that fleet as a sideline to his main job as a fabricator welder, and that means he works evenings and weekends to keep his customers happy.

I'll point out that I've never been to Lafayette and until a month ago I didn't know Ryan.

It turns out that he'd listened to an episode after I posted a link on Facebook and he messaged me to say he'd enjoyed the show and learnt quite a bit from listening in.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've spoken a few times and I've persuaded him to appear as today's guest.

And I've already sent him a Get Flush mug to say thanks for taking part.

In a non Covid world, I would have found a way to jump on a plane and go visit Ryan in person, but sadly that's just not possible these days, so we've had to talk by phone.

Now I'm in New Zealand and Ryan was in Louisiana and the first time I called he was actually outside There's a little bit of wind noise in that call and I'll apologize.

I've tried to edit it out, but you may find that a little bit distracting.

The second call was much clearer and the audio quality is much improved.

Hey, brother.

How are you?

Good.

How come you're working at the weekend?

Well, we had some weekend rentals.

I had two graduation parties this weekend.

I dropped off on Friday and then we pick up on Sunday.

So, Ryan, can we start with you telling us just a little bit about Acadian Sanitation and how long you've been in business?

We've been in business, I'm gonna say nine months.

So what were you doing?

Welding and fabrication.

Okay.

I still am.

I still.

I work full time and I do my portable toilet business after.

After hours.

So talk me through your setup.

What did you start with?

Number of toilets and truck, etc.

We started out with 25 toilets.

Brand new units.

Yeah, I bought a truckload.

I bought 24 standard units and a wheelchair accessible with one self contained sink.

That was my truckload.

I started out with.

I started, I still have.

It's a Ford 550 and I have a 300 gallon tank.

300 wastewater, 100 gallon fresh water.

Mounted it on the back of a farm truck and that's what we're still using today.

Two weeks ago, I placed an order on my second load of toilets.

Cool.

Before the newest truckload came in, I had three of those parties rented out.

What I'm trying to do in this episode is explain to people that it's actually.

I won't say it's easy, but it's relatively straightforward to start in business.

And it gives you enough, hopefully to earn enough money and to make that transition into full time once you get really well established and people know that Acadian Sanitation is here to stay.

Correct.

And that basically was our strategy to start out and learn the business as well as the business learns us and just have a great foundation, two feet planted firmly on the ground and be able to build from there and exactly what you said, they can learn that we're here to stay.

Growing from the bottom up.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but if it goes wrong and you decide it's not quite for you, you've bought polygen and you'll definitely sell those should you need to recover some of your cash.

So you've actually mitigated the risk a little bit by choosing a brand that you could be able to move on.

It's not in the agenda, but you Know what, What is in the agenda?

There's.

There's no plan at this point.

Who would have thought two years ago that you'd have been the king of the toilets in Lafayette?

Correct?

Correct.

I know, I know.

Myself for one, would have never guessed it.

What did the family say when you said you were going to start a portable toilet business?

Right, that's the story.

Here's the great thing came about.

My wife has her own shop.

She's a dog groomer.

One of the guys that she grooms, the dogs, we know him, he picked up late one evening and he said, I started something a while back.

It was a portable toilet.

You know, it makes pretty good money.

And first thing is, like everyone else who Portal is, wow.

She said, man, it's not that bad.

He said, it makes money.

It's not hard work.

And if you do right, you get.

Get good customers.

So he walked us through the entire process of what you do.

How to clean a toilet, how to set it up, on and on.

The guy stayed at our house for three hours, just talking.

Portable toilets, where you order them from, where you get the tank, what kind of tank, what it entails, everything.

Later that evening, we're laying in bed and I'm on my phone.

My wife's on her phone or reading a book.

We get to talking and she looks and I have a portable toilet website brought up.

And she says, oh, boy, you can't be serious.

I said, what's the look?

I mean, what's it hurt?

She said, okay, you go ahead and look and think you're gonna conquer the world with some portable toilets.

I said, okay, well, goes on a few days.

And I told her I made a call.

I called into a portable toilet manufacturer, talked to the guy, stayed on the phone with him 30 or 40 minutes.

She says, you don't think this is something we're really going to be able to get into?

I said, I already have the truck.

You know, I didn't have to buy a truck to get in the business.

I already had a 554 wheel drive farm truck.

She said, no one is going to be crazy enough to give us any money to get started.

She said, but follow your dream.

Okay, fast forward two or three more weeks.

I got in touch with some other portable toilet people.

I called up the tank manufacturing companies, two of them getting quotes.

And then I made an appointment with the bank because I got all the numbers ready and what I needed to open up.

She said, you can cancel it.

We're not going to do it.

It's not going to happen.

It's just.

She said, you've gone far enough now.

You know what, what money you're looking at.

She said, but we're going to have to wait about a year.

So I said, okay.

And I went to the bank appointment and talked to the guy and lo and behold, my wife calls me while I was in the bank.

I didn't answer.

Naturally called her when I left and she said, hey, where are you at?

I work 15 minutes from home.

I'm usually home at 3:30 in the evening.

Well, this was 5:30 and so she's where yet?

I said, well, I told you I had the meeting today.

I told you that last week.

Today was the meeting.

Oh boy.

She said, you went make a fool of yourself.

There's no way you went put you.

She said, anyway, even if he does give you a loan and he's crazier than you are, we're not signing on it, okay?

The guy calls me back three days later.

You're approved, man.

Pete almost wrecked my truck.

I just, I let off the gas, just idling, staring like I can't believe this is true.

This fellow really is crazy.

He gave me money, got home.

We were going on a camping trip.

We have a travel trailer and we were going camping.

I didn't tell her anything.

We're going down the road.

We passed the construction site, we saw a portable toilet on site.

I said, look at there, that could be us.

She said, yeah.

You ain't heard back from your guy at the bank, have you?

It's been what, almost a week?

You haven't heard from him?

I said, actually I did.

She said, what do you had to say?

I said, well, we approved.

She got mad.

She said, first of all, I didn't want you over there.

Now of course he's going to give you money.

You got to pay it back or their garnished wages, they can't lose.

You're crazy.

It's not going to happen.

Well, the rest is history.

Now there's a big difference between getting approval for finance and turning that into real live action.

So I asked Ryan what happened next.

So this is what I did.

I called a guy up.

I said, man, how long do I have?

How many days is this approval good for?

He said, 30 days.

The next day I called the tank people.

How long before I get a tank in four to six weeks.

I said, perfect.

Do I need a down payment for an order?

He said, we usually require at least half down.

He said, what are you looking at?

I said, well, here's my strategy.

I don't want to sign on the bank loan today and owe money before I even have my tank.

I want to order the tank today, and by the time I owe money, I'll already be able to be in business.

He said, I tell you what, if.

If you can get me 10% to put down, I'll put it into production.

I said, done.

Send him a credit card number.

Gave him 10% to have it down.

Got the tank rolling.

Call up the portable toilet manufacturer.

How long we're going to need before we see toilets.

He said, I'm a week out on shipping right now.

That's a little soon.

Give me some time.

I said, I'll call you back in three or four weeks, but we will do it.

I said, I've got a bank approval.

Everything's good.

So I started making calls to customers.

I'm going to be in the portaled business.

I'm going to be in the portaled business.

I got two guys to tell me, we'll do business.

I'll try you out.

Two days later, called and ordered my toilets, you know, and the ball got rolling from there.

And then I had to tell the real boss, you need a sign here.

I'm going to get the money.

She says, well, here's what it is.

She said, there's too many things are lining up perfectly to turn back now.

I'm no preacher, but I'm going to be honest with you, it's been a blessing ever since.

It's a cool industry, Ryan.

It really is.

It really is.

I enjoy what I do.

I've got my best friend since second grade.

We're 40 years old.

He comes with me.

He comes every day.

He can, work permitting.

Sometimes I'm working, he's off.

He'll take the truck and go run the route for me.

He's passionate about it as I am.

We've had really good customers, really good clients, really good feedback.

People call us and tell us thank you, and it's the weirdest thing ever.

You're paying me, but you're telling me thank you.

As a new operator, I asked Ryan how he'd got himself up to speed.

I'm new in the business, but what I want to do is, I'm going to call it, revolutionize the industry around here, at least locally.

Giving people the service that they deserve, something they're not used to seeing competition, for lack of better terms, you know, they're just not friendly.

So you can't ask anyone in the business.

So I'm basically going on what?

A friend of mine has told me in the past that he used to have a business doing this.

And so it's your podcast.

It's the Portable Toilet Network on Facebook group has really helped me tremendously.

Oh, well, I'm glad you found the podcast.

And it's been useful for you.

It has been.

It has been very useful.

Matter of fact, the guys talked about revving the engine up on the donkey motor, and I was doing exactly that.

I would start my motor, then rev it up all the way, go and take care of the unit and come back and throttle it down and then turn it off.

And so now I start.

I just leave it right in the middle.

Just, you know, not all the way low and not all the way high, and it works just fine.

I'm really keen to find out where your name and your color scheme came from.

Okay.

The name came from here in South Louisiana.

We have an Acadian background, and Acadians are known for good hospitality, hard work, strong family and stuff.

So with that in mind, I integrated that into our game of sanitation.

And so it kind of had a little rhyme to it, and it's sort of what we do as well.

And Cajuns or Acadians came from Canada that were settled into South Louisiana back when the country was first developed.

And as I've looked at your Facebook post, I see that you've got your blue and pink doors for male and females, but then gray sides and back walls.

What made you go for that combo?

We went with gray all the way around just for durability and longevity against sun fade.

We went with the blue doors to kind of match and accent the logo.

Yeah, and then I did pink just for if we had a birthday party, girls, graduation, young kids, stuff like that.

The logo that we have is actually the Acadian flag, if you would look it up.

And the city flag for la, the city of Lafayette, is that Acadian flag.

I just turned the right side of our logo has the old style outhouse building in yellow on the Acadian flag.

It's actually a small castle design.

So you just adapted it out.

Right.

One of the other issues, and we've just touched briefly on this in messaging, is the admin and the paperwork side of the business.

How are you coping with that?

That's mainly after hours.

When I get home, I tend to the billing paperwork and stuff.

That's what I do in.

In the evenings and after routes, maybe in between at lunch times and stuff.

You know, when we have downtime, I'll Take care of it at that point.

Not really much software.

I just take care everything basically the old way by hand.

I have enough toilets to where it's not too much on a route.

I can still do them on paper and have locations or nicknames of locations to where.

I know our friend of mine that helps me out, he knows where they are.

We pretty much group one section of town in one day.

Yeah.

And then another section of town another day.

Or we have long runs we'll do outside parishes or counties or however your city's divided.

And then what I'll do is I'll make the long distances one day.

Yeah.

You know, if I have one toilet here and one toilet in a different parish, I'll catch those on that day.

Although it may be two or three toilets.

But it fills my apple.

Yeah.

And you know Ryan, I think that's a very cost effective and straightforward approach for the volume that you're working with.

There'll come a point where you start to look at software packages and I know from my research that one of the problems you'll encounter there is just the cost of those packages.

Exactly.

And that's why we're not on software yet.

Because they're not designed at all for part time operators like I am.

I don't even have an E Signature subscription because the cost is way too much for someone ourselves.

You're right.

No one's doing that for the small scale operators.

And they're a really important part of the market.

The big boys might not like them, but they're in the market and they're providing good service in terms of equipment.

I know from looking at your photos you've got your truck and your tank.

You've got a trailer as well.

Did you need to buy or lease a yard to put all of your gear in?

No, sir.

I currently live on four acres and so I already have farm equipment and stuff and in a limestone yard where we park implements and stuff.

So I basically started stacking them out in the back.

And if wind picks up or summer storm or whatever may come through, I have a lean to shed that I could rope them all off to any time.

Sure.

And I don't want to get you in any trouble.

Is there any local ordinance that you had to follow to get permission to store your toilets or operate the business from the property?

No.

An at home business, there's no ordinances for where I live outside of city limits to operate a home based business.

And it's there.

Again with numbers.

Once you are turning over your cash Flow so much X amount of dollars.

But once you cross over into that then you're not considered home business anymore.

You considered a full established business.

This place now becomes your place of business, not your residence.

And at that point we transfer over to different ordinances.

The main thing that I'm aware of is a occupancy license if I have an office.

Because we're not running any extra power.

We're not putting in a separate structure.

We don't have any sewage facilities or employees.

You know.

So it's basically an extension of our home.

We're just operating this one residential property.

In terms of carrying septic weight, did you have to get any licenses or license conditions?

Correct.

We had to get licensed through the Department of Environmental Quality in the state of Louisiana.

Yeah.

And had to apply for a license.

It's called a hauler's license out here.

And it's an annual fee.

And you have to record where you dump and that they're accredited business with those folks and they follow their guidelines.

And we have paperwork in the paper trail of how many gallons pumped and how many gallons the other place receives.

You know, the dump facility.

And as long as you keep up with your paperwork and file your annual report is all you're good.

It covers.

How straightforward was it to get into the dump station.

It's actually a private owned facility.

Yeah.

And all I had to do was go over there and give them my information, proof of insurance, stuff like that and show that I actually applied with the state through DEQ and then they approved me.

Because that's the missing part of the equation that you can do everything else yourself except dispose of the septic waste.

Correct.

And it has to be documented of where you're disposing of the waste.

Barriers to entry are really low.

Let's not minimize it.

It's not easy.

But it's not really difficult to get started.

It is not.

It is not.

And that's why our big competition doesn't want anybody in the business.

So because he doesn't want the secret.

Out that it's fairly easy to go in.

Yes.

But the trap is.

And you, you seem to have avoided that.

The trap is people go in and they think that the only way they can compete is on price.

And, and therefore they try and do it cheaper than anybody else.

And that ultimately leads to them doing the worst service.

You can't provide proper service for any cheap.

You can't just can't.

You can't.

I mean I've got 30 toilets rented out.

We're Fairly local.

Yeah.

My fuel bill is a hundred bucks a week.

Yeah.

Fuel is the cheapest it's been in seven years around here.

And if you go further than that, Ron, you've got to charge mileage, and.

People don't get well do outside of.

So in Louisiana, we have parishes.

Yeah.

Everywhere else in the world has counties.

Yeah.

So I have Lafayette Parish, and that's like my local.

So for entry level, for pretty much an introductory rate, I won't charge a delivery fee.

Yeah.

I go out and I bring you a toilet.

No delivery.

If you're outside of Lafayette Parish, I have a minimal delivery.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is fair.

And they say that's fine.

And because everyone else is charging the delivery fee if they're going to block or across town.

Yeah.

I started charging delivery fees this month on my event rentals, small weekend rentals and stuff.

I charge a minimal delivery fee, but it's because of the setup.

It's not so much as just to deliver.

And I explain this to folks.

You start out with a fresh air freshener.

You start out with two fresh rolls of toilet paper.

You start out with a fresh urinal screen.

It's brand new from the start.

And so there's a little bit of cost involved.

And there's no guarantee we're going to get any of that back.

No.

You may use up both rules of toilet paper.

Running your own business.

It's your name on the door.

People will know that that's you, Ryan.

And if you leave them opening the door and thinking, oh, I don't want to go in there.

That's right.

They're gonna say, ryan's toilets are nasty.

Yeah.

It's exactly what they're gonna say.

I get it.

Guys don't get it, though, Ryan.

That's the shocking part.

They don't.

They don't.

You're right.

And.

And when someone tries to come in and do a better job, instead of upping their game or being cordial about it and saying, let's do something about it, no, they want to knock you out.

So no one knows what good service.

And they compete on price, which is just mental.

It's just a crazy.

It is.

It is.

I've act.

I've had customers ask me, man, what can you do on price?

And I tell them every time I said, the price you're getting is a more than fair price right now.

It's a very fair price.

Any less than that, we can't provide the service we plan to provide.

Yeah.

Now, I've driven a truck.

I'M quite fit.

I ride my bike, I go running, I use the gym.

When I've dragged that hose off 25 times, I'm absolutely done.

How these guys are doing 50 services a day.

A, in a nine hour day that gives you like six minutes to do each service.

B, you've got no driving time.

And then just the physical lift of the hose on and off the truck.

And pulling the water in and out, in and out.

Right.

These people doing it, Ryan, there's just no way they're giving a good clean for that.

They're not.

They're not.

Like you said, they're not even.

That's not even.

You're not even calculating drive time.

Six minutes at a toilet is cutting it short.

I spent close to 10 minutes at a toilet, but I, I do also think I'm spending a little bit too much time.

I haven't got my process refined yet.

I do a lot of back and forth to the truck.

You will iron that out.

And they just don't wash the cabins.

So you go in and you run your finger across the shelves, all the surfaces and there's just thick grime.

And that's a really terrible thing to.

Say, but it's the truth.

You walk in a unit that he cleaned out two days ago.

There's no toilet paper.

There's a pile of dung in there, which you said maybe a gallon or two of water.

The water thing is, that's the difference between that driver going home at four in the evening or six in the evening.

Yeah.

In one of the earlier episodes, I talked about toilets being supplied to residential construction, civil projects, events and the agricultural sector.

As we carried on talking, Ryan told me that he was supplying another market too.

You mentioned the agricultural industry uses portable toilets, the equestrian industry as well.

We have some toilets at people's barns where they may do some team roping or they have, you know, horse bow racing and stuff, but they're not there every day.

They're not there every day.

And so they're not going to plumb up to their barn.

They need a service once a month.

So we can prorate that.

We're not going once a week.

If you get it wrong as a sanitation provider, people get sick.

Correct.

That's what I said.

We are in sanitation industry.

It's not just providing a place for someone to use the restroom, it's providing a healthy place for someone to use the restroom.

I think a lot of players just miss that completely.

They're horrible.

Driver don't give a shit about that toilet as Much as you do.

So if you don't care about it and you own it, how will your employee care about it?

That's where I plan to get it right first.

And if we make a little money in the end, great.

By this point, I started to get a really good handle on Ryan's values and his approach to being in business.

Unfortunately, in many industries, these people that own businesses, their customer is not their first priority.

The dollar they make from is their first priority.

Yeah.

And they've gotten to where the customer thinks we're all out to get their money, where we just want what's best for us.

You know, everybody has their own saying.

When someone says, what the hell's made you into this business?

My answer when someone says, man, what really?

What made you think of this?

What gave you this idea?

I say, well, I've always wanted to be a chemist, and this is my way.

I'm going, I'm turning shit into gold.

They call that alchemy.

You got to change the name of your company.

Alchemy.

Sanitation.

Alchemy Sanitation.

But it's a cool industry and it annoys me that people just don't understand the fundamentals and they get it wrong time and time again.

And then everybody, you know, I've said in some of the episodes, you open the door and you just think, whoa, whoa.

Exactly.

Exactly.

We have festivals here.

I don't know if you've ever heard of Mardi Gras.

Yeah, Mardi Gras is.

It's huge.

And it's just filthy.

It's disgusting.

Yeah, it's filthy.

And so when that's what people refer to portable toilets is the units they see over at Mardi Gras.

And I'm out to change their perspective of it.

I'm telling you, I tell folks this every time they call me, every time I go bring a toilet out.

The folks I went to today, when I got to their place Friday afternoon, they were like, wow, this thing is nice.

I said, I'm out to change people's minds about these things.

Yeah, they're great.

I went pick up today.

Both husband and wife met me outside to first thank me, next to tell me every one of their guests were impressed.

They have never seen a toilet like this ever in their life.

A toilet to toilet.

You know, as well as I know, they're just a different shape.

This was a fancy, high class, nice, well put together unit.

Yeah.

No, it's just the care that went into it.

Seven gallons of water in the toilet, not four.

Yeah.

If you're on a Dump station that charges by volume.

It's going to cost you more money to dump those seven.

It does.

And I am on a dump station by volume.

I also make my money by volume.

So the more toilets you have on rent, the more money you make and.

The better the experience, the more toilets you're going to have out.

Exactly.

It's simple math, my uncle would say.

We call that common sense.

One of the biggest challenges faced by many small businesses is cash flow.

There's an inevitable delay between the invoice being sent and payment being received.

And I asked Ryan how he was coping with the administrative side of his business in order to maintain a healthy, positive cash flow.

I still do paperwork stuff.

You know, I still my rental agreement still on paper and paper.

And it's proven to be a task to get the customer to do it.

The E signature software is just expensive.

It's just too expensive for me to use right now.

It's 30 bucks a month for five signatures.

It goes up to 100 something and then you get 30amonth.

With toilets on construction sites, you very rarely see anybody.

So especially my personal business is done after hours.

And the guys on the side don't want to talk to you.

The guy, you know, it's hard.

And then if you mail them, it takes so long to get it back because you're sending it to most of the time their billing address is their corporate headquarters.

It's not the person.

It doesn't go to the correct person.

Well, by the time they figure out who the correct person is, months have gone by.

It's irrelevant at this point.

Just on that.

Are you getting paid regularly?

Is that.

We have been.

I've had two customers that kind of.

A little slow.

Yeah.

But never refused payment.

You called them up?

Oh, I'm so sorry.

I forgot.

Whatever payment shows up, no problem.

I haven't had any issues with that.

Like I said at the beginning of our talk, I've been blessed with great customers as well.

And that's good.

They're on a regular payment schedule.

And you know, I always feel you can say no to customers if there's somebody you don't want to supply.

There's no shame in saying I'm sorry.

I just can't help you at this moment.

You can always find an excuse.

Correct.

There's always an excuse.

And you know, and I'm sure in time it'll happen.

Will come across those guys.

Yeah.

You know, you try to be as nice as can be, even if they're two or three months behind you you're gonna catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so if you just keep hounding them by being friendly about it, they don't think you're hounding them.

But you're always going to be on their mind because you call them every.

Every other week or so.

They can't forget about you.

They know.

They kind of know why you calling.

But you chit chat with them.

Yeah, yeah.

And it just, you know, just pinch, bolt, pinch, bolt, nudge.

Pinch, bolt, nudge.

It's my strategy.

I can't say it's going to work.

It's just.

No, I think you're going the right way.

And, you know, it's nice to hear you say that the podcast has made a difference to you because that was the plan.

Biggest asset to the podcast and to the Portable Toilet Network as well is you actually have people that are actually interested in doing a good job.

Yeah.

Interested in the industry.

Interested in what other folks are doing.

It eliminates the guys who don't give a damn.

Yeah.

You're not going to have nobody call you that's not passionate about what they do.

No.

And you're not going to have people that want to do interviews like you and I are doing, like the past people used to.

Those people are interested.

Yeah.

They're going to help anybody.

Like you said, the guy you spoke to, you want to get me connected with.

He could be a half a world away as well.

He's just interested in helping.

I'm the same way.

Is the kind of folks that you are going to put the rest of the industry in touch with.

Yeah.

So.

So you telling your story is not going to hurt anybody else.

No, absolutely not.

You know, but I may say one thing about what we talked about this whole time.

Someone on the other side of the continent or on the other side of.

My state, because we've got listeners of.

The world either way.

That's right.

It could be on the other side of the.

Or he could be on the other side of the street.

Yeah.

Someone may pick up just one sentence that I said learn something and better his business.

The end of the day out of all of this is we want to satisfy our customer better.

Yeah.

And the more you learn about it and the more tips and tricks of the trade, the customer wins in the end.

Absolutely.

And that's the complete antithesis of everyone just pushing the price down.

Because it ruins everybody.

It ruins the whole.

It ruins everybody, Right?

No.

What we call them around here.

Cutthroats.

Yeah.

And no one wins with a Cutthroat.

Not at all.

Including the cutthroat.

Yeah.

Hey, eventually what's going to happen?

And it's sad, but it's already a crowded market.

Someone's going to lose that.

Yeah.

And it's not going to be the guy who's doing the good work.

It's not going to be the guy that's got thousands of toilets.

It's going to be the ones that fall in between that are trying to do this for a cheapskate price.

Yeah.

That just can't keep up.

Well, they just can't keep up with.

It, you see, because they can't provide the service with that volume.

You need to hire more drivers, you need to hire more passionate people.

You can't hire more people because you're not charging enough for your service.

One, it's, it's a circle.

It goes a full circle.

Can't have one without the other.

And it's, it's sad.

You know, if I get a urinal that's overly used on a site, I've got a brush.

I'll go in there and, you know, brush it out ahead of time before it gets scaly.

I haven't got to the point yet where it's scaly.

Yeah.

Because we stay on top of it.

Yeah, yeah.

It should never get scaly.

I like the screen.

It stops the splash.

Yeah.

It lets out a more fragrance odor rather than the spicy of the, of the disc.

The urinal screen is good for 60 days.

Yeah.

I leave them in for six weeks.

They'Ll get thrown in the bowl.

Right, right.

So especially events, you know.

You do?

Yeah.

I mean, who touches that stuff to throw them in the bowl?

But, you know, we got crazy people all over the world.

Yeah, we do.

You know, as far as construction site wise, that's really helped us out a bunch.

It minimizes the splash.

Yeah.

It doesn't get as much all over the floor on the outside of the tank and stuff.

Like I said, it's good for two months, but a month and a half, I change them out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The ones I bought were Circo.

Yeah.

Was I bought way before I knew Tammy or your podcast and stuff.

I actually bought them from an outside vendor and I love them.

I told her, I said, listen, before I even spoke to you.

I've used your products is why I'm calling you.

Yeah, they're great.

I noticed the difference immediately when I used the urinal screens.

Deodorizing discs.

I was in two minds about.

I do use those.

I put them on the toilet Paper roll.

Okay.

So when the guys put them in the vents, all the smell goes out through the vent and they dry out.

Especially in the summer, they dry out.

And then if you get rain, as soon as water hits them, it dilutes them.

So there's, they sell a holder which you can put down low on the wall.

Right.

And you pop them in the holder and then the smell permeates up.

I stopped using them in the end because they just ended up everywhere.

I don't know what it is about people in toilets.

They can't leave anything alone.

And I mean, like I said, who wants to touch anything in a deadly toilet anyway?

But I hang mine on the rod.

But outside of the little toilet paper.

So you're using the toilet paper holders that came with the toilet.

Correct.

Yeah.

See here in New Zealand we have to build our toilets.

They all come flat packed.

Okay.

They tend to use jumbo rolls.

So they're a really big roll and.

That'S what I use.

A nine inch roll.

Yeah.

So they get a single, a one and a half or a double holder.

Okay.

And most people use a single.

Well, the problem with that is when you're down to less than half a roll, you have to make, you have.

To swap it out.

Yeah.

Right.

So you end up with a truck full of half used rolls.

I use the one that comes with it.

I do use the 9 inch rolls.

It's not the jumbo jumbo rolls, but I have two rolls at all times on it.

So I, I always tell people to put in a double jumbo.

So you get a full one on this side and then a half one on that side.

Right, right.

And that seems to work pretty well.

If you run out of paper, you're going to get the call and then you're going to spend $10 in gas driving out to a job to put in a two dollar roll of toilet paper.

And then you get a bad name.

Yeah.

Because they're going to repeat that forever.

This guy ran out of toilet paper on me.

It's a pretty traumatizing experience when you're taking a crap and there's no paper.

Well, you know when it's happened because you find socks, open the door and.

Holler out at someone.

You find socks in the tank.

You're right, you're right, you're right.

Sure sign they've run out.

I can believe that.

It's never happened in my units, but I've heard talk of it.

It'll come, it'll come.

Oh, it'll come.

I'm sure, I've yet to see the worst of it, but that's what it is.

What it is.

You keep doing events and you'll see everything.

Honestly, you see everything.

You're right.

So if you were going to start again, what would you change?

I'd have to say if I would.

Start again, I would shoot forward, starting full time rather than part time simply because of the struggles between juggling a full time job and your afternoon job, which is your own business.

Yeah.

And then you know it, it brings about.

The biggest struggle I find is the getting out to go and visit with potential clients to actually gain business.

It's tough to get out to gain the business.

Yeah.

Folks a lot of times like to visit over lunch or have a, you know, a little sit down and hello meet and greet and it's just most of the time not an option for me because I'm either at work or running a service route.

The drama is that you're upscaling fairly significantly because I'm guessing you offset your living costs by your current job and then any extra time and any extra money you've got goes into your business.

And it's about numbers, isn't it?

You get to a point where you've got enough potties out that you can actually say reduce your hours or give up the day job completely or find.

A different day job where the hours vary or maybe transition into two part time jobs, which is not optimal, but it leaves many options on the table.

Like you said, it's a numbers thing to transition over into the full time toilet business.

I don't plan on staying part time forever.

I plan on being full time.

I wish the Lord would bless me and be able to have employees under my belt.

But if you treat your employees as well as you treat your customers, they'll have no reason to cut your stuff short.

I'm not gonna say I'm the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm no dummy.

I wouldn't have started the portable toilet business if I wasn't prepared for the pushback.

And it's plain and simple.

Listen, you can push me out if you want or try to push me out.

Doesn't change the fact that you're not satisfying your customers.

Wouldn't it be easier to just provide satisfied customers and then I'll disappear no matter what because I can't compete with your values.

Their way to try and push you out will be to lower their price.

My strategy to backdooring me per se is I groom the customer first.

I don't want to know who you're with.

I don't care who you're with.

I care that you call me.

Yeah.

I care to provide utmost service to you.

I care about you.

I care about your guys.

They're going to call you and offer you free toilets or half price or sign a contract for a year, no cost to you.

You're gonna get worse than what you had before.

See?

Oh, don't even worry about it.

Never, never would.

We wouldn't be switching if price was an issue.

We'd be calling around getting prices.

When you dial our number, you're gonna talk to me or you're gonna talk to my wife, my business partner, no one else.

And we make it happen.

I'm gonna come out to you, your job, My wife's gonna come out to your job or my best friend that helps us.

Yeah.

My customers have met every one of us.

We are the people that you call.

We answer the phone, but we're also going out to your job.

And that's really hard to compete with, you know, because it is.

You're building relationship.

You're not just providing.

And even when we get to where we can have a driver and have someone and have two trucks on the road, if I get a call for a complaint, I'm coming.

We're going to make it right, right away.

My business plan is to leave some cushion in the day for me.

I'm not going to have a full route.

I'm going to do quality control and I'm going to do answering calls, a flip over, whatever it may be.

I'm going to have the time to get off route and service that as well as visiting customers and saying hello, and we're still here.

We're still alive.

We realize you're still alive.

The folks are not doing it.

It's not.

I'm no salesman.

I don't like to be a salesman.

Doing is being passionate, and I do it now.

I call the guys up.

Hey, Mr.

Such and Such, this is Ryan Granger.

I have a toilet on your job.

Yes, sir.

Just call in to check, make sure you guys are still doing well.

And you'd be amazed at how often.

The guys are like, can't believe it.

And you could tell because this gets silenced for a minute.

They're like, okay.

I said, is everything okay at the job site?

Great, man.

Listen, everything's fine.

I'm just checking, make sure everything's good on your end.

On your business, everything's good.

Your employees are happy.

We got a virus going around.

Y'all are still doing well.

Family's safe.

I don't know their family from Adam, but it means something to get that car.

But so many portable restroom operators don't get that.

They don't do it, Ryan.

It's just, they don't, they don't somehow, right.

The industry has lost sight of the fact that we do customer service.

Our main business is customer service.

That's all it is.

You're looking after people.

And like you said, Pete, it's somewhere along the way they lost sight of.

That's what our entire job is, to provide service.

Yeah.

And you know, stories like yours are exactly what I want the podcast to be about.

That if we didn't have the virus, I'd be out in the truck, I'd come along for a ride along with you and you know, I can't wait.

We just talk, clean some potsies.

Well, talk shit.

We'll pump shit.

That, that's awesome.

And listen, I do some talking.

I get in trouble for talking too much.

People are going to listen in and say, hey, that was something different.

That was really interesting to get Ryan's view and hear Ryan's story.

And, you know, you might inspire some people to have a go.

You might inspire some people to change.

The way they work, to change the way they're doing.

Correct.

You might just entertain.

My brother in law listens to the podcast.

He knows nothing about toilets, he works in shipping.

And he just keeps saying, hey, that's really interesting.

Listen, who would have thought.

It is.

And that's, that's great news.

That's great stories.

Yeah.

You know, I'm super pumped about this.

I told my buddy about it as soon as I talked to you in private message.

I called my buddy, I told you, my best friend and, and said, man, I just got off the phone.

I said, not off the phone, but I.

Private message guy started a podcast.

Podcast, very new.

I got in to talk to him and private messages, he actually answered me.

My buddy, he sat down, he was like, you gotta be kidding me.

He said, man, you getting world famous.

I said, with my 30 toilet, go ahead.

Huh?

I'm world famous.

You won't believe the countries we've got listeners in, like Greece, Italy, Spain, Timor.

Lies.

I don't even know where that is.

Cambodia.

I don't either.

This is awesome.

You know, Bahamas, Antigua.

This is great, man.

You're doing awesome for the entire, entire industry around the world.

You're actually giving us something to listen to.

Yeah.

Whether it be entertaining or informational.

Yeah.

And, and I'm just super excited to be a part of it.

Well, I'm grateful that you've agreed to come and have a chat.

You know, it's when travel restrictions in.

You're more than welcome to come.

You come once a month.

I don't give a damn.

We can do more podcasts down the line, you know, I mean, and seriously.

My plan is we want to go on the road, and if I can spend a couple of days a week recording podcasts, half a day.

What a lovely life.

If we can make a few dollars along the way to pay for gas, then that's all good.

And if we can't, then, hey, we're having fun.

It's.

It's sure to grow and it's sure to be a hit and do right.

Because you're passionate about it.

Yeah.

And you just like we're passionate about what we do.

That's.

And the people who damn and want to poke and stick fingers up, well, they won't listen to the show anyway.

So what?

Doesn't matter, Kurt.

Doesn't matter.

Like, my grandfather would say, good luck to those folks, you know, hey, listen, good luck.

Yeah, that's cool.

Now, I've got a friend in Texas who every time I talk to him, he wears his steps.

And I'm gonna have to go and buy one because I'm feeling underdressed.

Well, if you end up doing video podcasts or video chats and you say it's because of Ryan and the other guy.

Yeah.

Robert absolutely beat me down because I didn't have a top.

He'll probably sue me copyright.

He wears his hat every time he does a video cast, so.

Right.

Well, you just tell him you got grief from your other friend on the other side of the globe that gave you grief for not having a top on.

Denmark for some reason last week went nuts.

Loads and loads of listeners in Denmark.

Now, I can't promise that they'll phone you to book bodies in, but listen.

I can make it happen.

If they need the Potty King and Lafayette, I can make it happen.

I'm not sure if they'll be proud of the numbers I provide for, but I can provide.

Yeah, perfect.

Be heavy on the shipping and maybe not the same day delivery, eh?

Correct.

Correct.

How can people get in touch with you?

We have.

Our website is acadiansanitation.com we can also be found on Facebook at acadiansanitation.

Or email.

My email address is acadiansanitationmail Give us a call, leave us a message on Facebook or text our business phone number or directly from the website.

You can contact us there as well.

Yeah.

Hopefully you'll get some traction as a result of coming on the show.

You know, that was the idea that the first of these monthly poom entails is telling the story of operators from the ground up and your entry level been in business since November last year.

An ideal profile for that very first one.

And, you know, maybe there's some other listeners who are listening in who think I could do what Ryan's done.

I'm not saying it's been easy, but you've done it, man.

You're in business and you're a sanitation provider.

You know, hard work, determination, and just a willpower, sheer willpower is very possible.

It is very possible.

I'm really pleased that you reached out and you've taken part and hopefully we'll help you grow your business.

Right, well, thank you.

I appreciate it.

I've loved the opportunity to be able to even do this.

You know, it's just I never thought in a million years that, you know, we'd be here right now doing this sanitation business, much less speaking to someone a world away and being an actual part of this community.

You know, it's amazing to me.

No, it's good.

And, you know, certainly the feedback I've had from other listeners is that people are willing to share and they love hearing about other stories.

So credit to you for taking part.

That's a brave move because you're exposing yourself and you never know how people are going to react.

But well done.

Well, thank you.

Cool.

We'd like to leave you with our.

And I'm sure you've seen it on our website, Acadian Sanitation.

The name to know when you gotta go.

Excellent.

I'll make sure that that's the closing remarks for you.

I hope you enjoyed listening to that as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Ryan was a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll be talking to him again further down the line.

Ryan has shown that it's relatively easy to start in portable sanitation.

There aren't really too many significant barriers to entry once you find the money and you can start small.

Equipment is pretty standard, and other than a truck, a tank, and the toilets, you don't really need an awful lot more.

The key to success seems to be having a passion and a drive to get out there to find your customers and deliver really great service.

Of course, low barriers to entry mean that the threat of Competition is never far away, and that applies whether you're a new starter or an established operator with a large fleet.

As a new business, you need to compete to attract customers and secure your share of the market.

As an established provider, you'll need to compete to retain the customers you've worked so hard to win and protect your market share.

How you do that is a matter of personal choice.

Choosing to go head to head on price seems a really common strategy, but for me it should be the last resort.

It undermines the value of what we do.

Poor sanitation can be life threatening and I just don't understand how any operator can provide a top class service for a rock bottom price.

Surely it's better to charge a fair price for good service and top dollar for a premium service.

We've learned from COVID that the costs of poor hygiene are colossal, but in my experience, portable toilets seem to be the first target for cost cutting when any project overruns its budget.

If Covid had been transmitted through wastewater, our industry would have come under huge scrutiny.

And some of the toilets I've seen tell me that some operators would really struggle to defend the way they work.

But it's not all bad news.

People like Ryan show that some operators do understand the importance of proper hygiene and that they value good customer service.

I just hope he doesn't take his eye off the ball or let his bright shine rub off as his business grows.

Okay, that brings us to the end of our very first monthly special.

If you've enjoyed the show, please leave a five star review and remember to tell your family, friends, colleagues and strangers to listen in.

Once again, thank you for your time.

I've been Pete and you've been listening to Get Flushed, the world's favorite sanitation podcast.