Portable toilet rentals for small construction sites
Twelve units, one pickup truck, one Saturday route. Boring, ugly, and prints money once contractors know your number.
How it works
Every residential remodel, roofing job and small commercial build needs a portable toilet on site. Big national suppliers ignore jobs under 3 months. A one-truck operator undercuts them by 20% and wins on responsiveness. Units cost $600-900 and rent for $175-225/month.
Step by step
- 1Register an LLC and get a $1M commercial general-liability policy plus commercial auto insurance ($150-250/mo total).
- 2Buy 12 new units from PolyJohn or Satellite Industries at $650-800 each. Add hand-sanitizer dispensers ($40 each) — contractors love them.
- 3Buy a used 3/4-ton pickup with a hitch and a $6-9k slide-in service tank (300-gal fresh, 300-gal waste) from a truck outfitter.
- 4Line up a licensed septic disposal site and confirm dump fees per gallon. This is a legal requirement, not optional.
- 5Build a list of 60 small general contractors, roofers and remodelers within a 40-min drive. LinkedIn, Google Maps, and the local home-builder association.
- 6Cold-call each with a two-line pitch: '24-hour delivery, weekly service, $189/month flat.' Follow up with a text and a Google Business link.
- 7Standardize service: weekly pump-out, deodorizer refill, TP restock, exterior wipe-down. 15 minutes per unit if organized.
- 8Route all 12 units on one Saturday morning. Use Circuit or Routific to optimize the drive.
- 9Bill monthly via a simple Stripe recurring invoice. Contractors who go 30+ days late get pulled — never chase money for a $200 rental.
- 10Reinvest first year's profit into 12 more units and a second truck before hiring a driver at $22/hr for the second route.
Discussion
The 'boring but lucrative' king. My neighbor has 80 units and drives a Raptor.
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