PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Running a Porta Potty Business

Growing Construction Accounts in a Porta Potty Business

Construction accounts are the backbone of most portable toilet companies. A good builder rents units on every job, every year, and pays monthly. One solid contractor with steady projects can keep a truck busy several days a week. The trick is winning the first site and then earning all the others.

Why Construction Is the Base

As covered in Seasonality in a Portable Toilet Business: Construction Season vs Event Season, construction work is the steady part of the year. Event work spikes and drops. Construction keeps the weekly routes full and the bills coming in on schedule. If you want a business that pays you every month, construction accounts are where to build.

What Contractors Actually Want

Talk to enough supers and you hear the same list:

• Units delivered on the day promised, where the super asked
• Weekly service that happens every week, without a phone call
• Extra pump-outs when the crew gets big, the same day or next
• Units moved when the site layout changes, without a fight
• Pickup when the job ends, not three weeks later
• One clean bill they can pass to the office, coded by job

Price matters, but it is rarely the reason a contractor switches. They switch because someone missed service two weeks in a row, or because sorting out the invoices took more time than the units were worth.

Winning the First Site

The first site is the hardest. Visit active job sites in your area and talk to the super, not just the office. Leave a card. Ask what they would change about their current service. Most supers can tell you in one sentence. Then follow up in a week, by text or call.

When you get a first job, treat it like an audition. Deliver on time. Get placement right. Service every week. Send the on-the-way and arrived texts so the super knows you were there. The driver app sends those automatically when the tech starts and completes the job, and photos stay with the job in case anyone asks.

Make Site Changes Easy

Construction sites change constantly. Units need to move as the build moves. Crews grow and shrink. New phases need more units, or an ADA unit, or a hand wash station. A high-rise job may need units lifted by crane.

In PortaPottyBossPro, each client can have many job sites, each with its own address, site contacts and gate or access notes. Each job carries the unit type, quantity, unit numbers and placement notes, and those show on the tech's phone. When the super texts that the units need to go by the new trailer, the office updates the placement note, and the next tech to visit sees it. Two-way texting keeps those requests in one place instead of on someone's personal phone.

One Bill, Every Site

Contractors with several sites do not want a separate invoice from every site every week. Monthly account billing solves this. A contractor set to Monthly gets ONE statement each month covering every job at every one of their sites, with each line labeled by site address. Their office can code each line to the right job. Sales tax is handled per site.

This is often the feature that turns a single-site customer into an account. Once the bill is easy, it is easy for them to call you for the next job too.

Keep Rentals Honest

Construction jobs run long, and units often stay past their rental period. Track it. PortaPottyBossPro records the delivered date, the days included and the per-day rate after that, and the lists show how long each unit has been out. Extra rental days are added to the invoice automatically. Contractors expect to pay for the time they used. They do not appreciate a surprise catch-up bill months later. Billing as you go keeps both sides honest.

Grow From One Site to Ten

Once one super trusts you, ask for the next job. Ask the super who runs the company's other sites. Ask the office whether they have projects starting in the next few months. A contractor who has had a good season with you will usually say yes, especially if you make starting a new site as simple as a text with an address.

Keep in touch between projects. A short check-in before spring, or a note when you see their sign on a new lot, keeps you on their list. Tag them as Contractor so you can find all your construction accounts in one filter.

Know Which Accounts Pay

Not every contractor is a good account. Some pay slowly, some ask for constant extras without paying for them, and some leave units on finished sites for months. Look at your reports at least monthly: revenue per account, past-due balances, and extra services billed. Put the most attention into the contractors who pay on time and grow with you.

For more on the tools behind contractor work, see the Porta Potty Business Software page.