Writer Aldous Huxley said that experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. No matter how organized you are, or how well-trained your crews, inevitably there comes that first really big special event job in which you just don’t know what to expect.
And that’s your trial by fire: You plan and re-plan, shuffle resources, try to imagine all that might happen or go wrong. But in the end, you’re out there, just doing the best you can on a moment-by-moment basis.
Smart PROs make it a point to benefit from that first experience and build on the hard-won knowledge they gain from it. Eventually, they come to work out their own systems, based on the unique blend of staff skills and personalities, equipment and relationship with the customer.
The end result is a tried-and-true strategy for preparing for those large events that tax all those resources. Here, several PROs talk about preparing for such events, in hopes that the end result is big profits instead of big trouble.
Thomas Denniss’ family business, Denniss Portable Toilets, serves local events like fairs and festivals. For a smaller company, “large event” can be a relative term. Occasionally, an event will require more than the two regular employees. In such cases, beefing up staff is a simple. “We just make the kids help,” he says, with a chuckle.
Beefing up inventory is another matter. As soon as the call comes in, he’ll immediately place an order for as many new units as he may need. “We’re growing all the time anyway, so we’ll use what we get,” he says.
There’s no trend in his territory for event producers to require hand-wash stations or flushable units as in some other areas, so that hasn’t been an issue in Denniss’ planning. However, he has experienced this with his agricultural customers. Several large operations, including tomato and cabbage growers, insist on hand-wash trailers.
“I’ve built all those myself,” Denniss says. Each side of each trailer has two spigots, allowing four people to clean up at the same time. The design accommodates 55-gallon drums, one each for freshwater and graywater.
Jason Meyer heads up the rental division of a hardware and home center in Stoughton, Wis., about 10 miles southeast of the state capital, Madison. Portable restrooms are just part of the rental offerings, and he’s always thinking about how he’d handle a large special event order.
“We’re still trying to get our foot in the door of some larger events,” he says, explaining that restrooms are a relatively new addition to the rental line. “If we did get a contract, the first thing I’d have to do is contact our distributors to make sure they have enough units on hand for the event we want to service,” he says.
As for other resources, he says, “We have enough trucks and equipment to deliver and service the units. Plus, we have a large, very diverse company, so we’d be able to borrow personnel from other divisions if we needed to.” He admits that ad hoc drivers and operators would need to be given “a crash course” in technical and safety training for these types of site services. His company is sensitive to making sure their customer service can focus on performance and not spend precious time cleaning up unnecessary messes or losing needed personnel to injury.
In its northern suburb of Omaha, Abe’s Portables Inc. is a fairly good-sized operation with an inventory of roughly 500 units. About 20 percent of their summer business is special events. Preparation for several large outdoor concerts includes pre-ordering supplies about a month ahead of time and filling out service crews with family and friends. “We just really plan ahead on the scheduling,” says Patrick Quinlan, the company’s operations manager.
With his large inventory, company president John Klabunde rarely has to buy more restrooms, but he is prepared if he needs to borrow holding tanks or other equipment. “I have it lined up with some friendly operators in our area to borrow whatever we need,” he says.
