This is the story thats going to be in Pumper Magazine. Not sure of the date when it will be out. But i will post a link when it goes to print.
profile: B. Martin Wastewater Services LLC
By Ken Wysocky
Like many young operators in the septic-pumping industry, Brandon Martin is a one-man band with big ambitions. And after a little more than one full year as the owner of B. Martin Wastewater Services LLC in Garnet Valley, Pa., he’s off to a good start, courtesy of some shrewd marketing techniques, a savvy approach to service vehicles and great customer service that generates word-of-mouth referrals.
Since March 2012, when he jumped into septic pumping full-time, Martin, 28, estimates he’s increased his customer base by almost 20 percent, to around 625 accounts from about 525. That’s no small feat, considering the state of the economy and the stiff local competition – about 12 other operators, including two large companies with dozens of trucks on the road.
“I think it helps that it’s just me, myself and I,” says Martin, a former dump-truck driver who bought an existing septic-pumping company in August 2011. “I’m the sole owner, the sole driver, the sole secretary – whatever needs to be done.
“It seems like people enjoy supporting small-business owners, and I think they feel that because I’m the owner
and the route driver, they’re going to get a higher level of service because I’m more accountable,” he adds. “It’s my name on the line, as opposed to a driver who hands them a bill and drives on down the road to the next job.”
Driving trucks is second nature for Martin, whose father and grandfather were independent dump-truck operators. After graduating from high school, Martin drove a dump truck for a road-paving company, and planned to be a full-time, independent dump-truck operator. Those plans began to shift one winter when, while on a seasonal layoff, he saw a want ad for a vacuum truck driver at a local septic-pumping company.
Tired of getting laid off each winter, Martin gave the septic-pumping job a spin. And although he ping-ponged between driving dump trucks and pumping septic tanks for the next seven or eight years – and even bought his own dump truck – he remained intrigued by the latter career. So in 2011, when he heard that a local, part-time septic pumper wanted to sell his business, Martin was all ears.
“I really wanted to do septic pumping, but never went out on my own because I thought it would be to hard to start from scratch,” he says. “The guy I bought the company from was doing it only part-time, but he had a good customer base – enough to give me a nice head start. So I bought him out, and drove my dump truck during the day and pumped tanks during late afternoons and early evenings and on Saturdays.
By March of 2012, Martin reached a point where septic-service calls increasingly conflicted with his dump-truck driving. So he decided to focus 100 percent on septic pumping and sold his dump truck. “It was the best thing I ever did – no regrets at all,” he says.
Today, residential septic-tank pumping accounts for about 65 percent of his company’s gross revenue; pumping commercial holding tanks generates another 30 percent; and the balance come from pumping grease tanks.
getting the word out
After buying the business, Martin focused on a very simple but effective and inexpensive form of marketing: Sending a letter to all the company’s existing customers explaining the ownership change, along with a business card and a refrigerator magnet that provided essential contact information. He estimates that about 90 percent of the customers were residential homeowners with septic systems.
“First of all, I had repainted the company’s green truck white and re-lettered it, and I didn’t want existing customers wondering why a white truck was turning into their driveway instead of a green one,” he explains, noting that he felt his blue-and-green logo looks best on a white background.
“Some customers hadn’t had their tank pumped in a while, so the letter generated a lot of calls,” he says. “My phone was ringing off the hook…that letter definitely helped out a lot in the beginning. People tend to throw away letters, but they keep the refrigerator magnet.”
Martin also aggressively pursued word-of-mouth referrals. After each job, he asks customers if they were pleased with his service, and if so, to please tell neighbors and friends about B. Martin Wastewater. The approach has worked; Martin estimates that 70 percent of his business comes from word-of-mouth referrals.
Martin also paid a company to develop a simple business website, and also created a Facebook page for the company to maintain a larger digital presence. While those two pieces of his marketing strategy don’t generate the bulk of his service calls, he says an Internet presence helps establish the perception that his company is progressive and modern. Moreover, both efforts were relatively inexpensive.
“The website primarily generates emergency calls,” notes Martin, who does not spend money on telephone-book advertising. “Every company should have a website. I didn’t spend more than $600 on mine…I just wanted something simple – nothing too crazy – to tell a little bit about my company. It’s paid for itself many times over.”
Martin says he spends between $1,500 and $2,000 a year on advertising, which includes sending postcards and sales letters to commercial accounts. That doesn’t yield anywhere near the amount of service calls the referrals do, but he says direct-mail efforts generate enough work to pay for the mailings.
But one of his most effective marketing techniques takes a page from the home-contractors, politician and real-estate agent advertising playbooks: yard signs. He had about 20 of them made for $25 apiece; they feature the company’s name, logo, website address, phone number and its main residential services – septic and cesspool pumping.
“I keep a couple signs on the truck,” he says. “When I finish a job, I ask people if they’d mind if I put up a sign up in their yard for two weeks in exchange for a $5 or $10 discount on their pumping charge.
“Now, the signs can be a pain in the rear, because sometimes they get stolen, and after two weeks, I’ve got to drive around and pick them up,” he points out. “Because of that, I only put them in yards that are within five or 10 miles of my yard. But I’ve received a fair number of service calls from them, so they’ve more than paid for themselves. Some customers even let me do it without the pumping discount.”
great service is essential
Of course, word-of-mouth referrals don’t occur unless Martin provides great customer service. He does that by following a basic philosophy: Do a job good, be fair and treat customers well. He also educates customers whenever possible, explaining how septic systems work, how often tanks should be cleaned and so forth.
“One of the main things I do differently is to try to hit customers on the same day they call, if at all possible,” he explains. “If someone calls me at 10 a.m., I tell them I can get to them that day…even if it means working until 7 p.m. Now, some days it’s just too busy to do that, and I have to do it the next day. But whenever possible, I don’t put off jobs because it leaves time open for when the next customer calls or an emergency job pops up.”
To provide better service, Martin also strives to keep his service area reasonably small. The treatment plant he uses is close to his yard, so keeping customers within a 25-mile radius helps him, as he puts it, “turn and burn” more loads. “It’s a term I learned in the trucking business,” he says.
“With so many competitors in the area, I’m very sensitive to providing good service,” Martin says. “If a customer is unhappy with your work, all they have to do is Google ‘septic-tank pumpers’ and come up with six guys right off the bat.”
Despite all the competition, Martin says price low-balling is not a problem. There are times when he’ll consider matching a price on a commercial job if he can still turn a profit on it. But for residential jobs, he declines to match prices, noting that customers who price shop aren’t as loyal as those willing to pay his standing rate.
To generate additional small revenue streams, Martin also performs small septic-system repairs – things like installing risers and replacing baffles and tank floats.
“I always push installation of risers because it pays off in the long run, knowing right where the lid is going to be, rather than spending an extra half hour digging it up,” he says. “I make money on them, but it’s not crazy money.”
To improve efficiency, Martin uses QuickBooks software, made by Intuit Inc. Among other things, the software allows him to compile a customer list where he can record information like customers’ tank location, capacity, whether lids are at grade or below grade and so on.
“That way, if I eventually hire someone, I can give that driver the best information possible to boost productivity,” he says. “For example, if I know the capacity of a tank before hand, I know whether I can handle one more pumping or if I need to make a trip to the treatment plant first.”
envisions future growth
Martin would like to grow his business to three or four trucks and several employees, and branch out into more commercial work, including hauling treatment-plant sludge in a tractor tanker. He’s also considering ways to further diversify his business, citing portable-restroom rentals as a possibility.
“But that’s pretty far down the road,” he says. “I want to get three trucks on the road before branching off into other things.
“I’m a risk-taker,” he adds. “I’ve always wanted to own my own business. When you work for someone else, you’re limited. But when you work for yourself, you put it all out there and try to go big with it, and either sink or swim.
“One thing I underestimated at the start was how hard it would be to get work,” he continues. “I always thought that if I built a website and sent out some postcards, customers would come to me like there’s no tomorrow. It hasn’t quite worked out like that. But I keep telling myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day, either. It all takes time.”
SIDEBAR
Heavy-Duty Rig Pays
Off In the Long Run
Years of driving dump trucks gave Brandon Martin a unique perspective when it came to buying a vacuum truck for his business, B. Martin Wastewater Services LLC in Garnet Valley, Pa.
“I wanted a heavy-duty truck,” he says. “I see a lot of guys buy semi tractors, rip off the sleepers and bolt on tanks. That makes it cheaper, but it’s a light-duty truck. I wanted something that I could depend on for the long haul.”
After two months of searching, he found just what he was looking for: a 2002 Mack RD688 truck. Then he hired Transport Truck Sales in Kansas City, Kan., to outfit it with a 3,400-gallon steel tank and an HXL400WV pump made by Masport Inc.
“I really wanted a Mack truck because the dump truck I used to own was a Mack,” he says. “It’s an all-around good truck. Having been in the trucking industry, I knew what to look for and what to avoid.”
Martin’s Mack features many heavy-duty components, such as a double-frame chassis; a 350hp E7-350 diesel engine, 44,000-pound-capacity rear axles on Camelback suspensions; and an 18,000-pound-capacity front axle.
“I know it’s more than I need, but I believe you can never over-spec a truck,” he explains. “With this heavy suspension, it’s never going to wear out because you’re never working it to its limits. Sure, you pay more for the heavier components, but if you plan on keeping a truck for 10 to 15 years, you pay back your original investment through less downtime and maintenance and less parts replacements – things like bushings, kingpins and suspensions.”
B. Martin Wastewater Services LLC, Garnet Valley, Pa.
FOUNDED: August 2011
OWNERS: Brandon Martin
EMPLOYEES: one
SPECIALTIES: septic-tank, grease trap and holding tank pumping
SERVICE AREA: 25-mile radius around Garnet Valley, Pa.
WEBSITE: B. Martin Wastewater Services, LLC
