Do you remember your first big job you ever took on? You probably remember how nervous you were and what went through your mind as you tried to figure out all the details: deciding how many restrooms and hand-wash stations to deploy, coordinating the trucks and employees, and interacting with the event officials.
It can be daunting to take on a large event, but many of you have done it without any trouble. So have both contractors featured in this issue of PRO. One had serviced the same event in past years, while the other was going through some restructuring.
In our PROfile, you’ll read about the Valles family. The three siblings — Ricardo, Andres and Victoria — became owners of Desarrollos y Servicios Viva in Chihuahua, Mexico, when their father passed away in August 2015.
Three months later, the siblings had the chance to bid on the 2016 papal visit, requiring 1,500 units for the public Mass in Ciudad Juarez. They knew the eyes of the world would be on this high-profile event, so everything had to be perfect. “It was kind of a final exam for us, not having my father to guide us and just having to wing it,” Andres says. “We felt it was something we had to do to prove to ourselves that we could do it.”
The company handled the event and earned many other jobs because of it.
Dean Enterprises, featured in On Location, is a septic and portable restroom business in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The company, owned by Richard and Peggy Dean, is split up into three divisions — septic service, route work and events.
Last July marked the second year the company has handled the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture event in Oshkosh, one of the world’s largest air shows. Dean Enterprises had helped the previous contractors who serviced it. Changes at the previous contractor led to the EAA putting the project out to bid in 2015.
Being familiar with the event and being one of the few companies with resources to handle all the liquid waste it would generate, Dean Septic secured the bid and earned praise for its performance.
FINDING AND KEEPING
Finding those big events can be tough, and event coordinators aren’t just looking at the bottom line when they solicit service providers. In an online story PRO ran in 2015, we talked to several event coordinators who told us what they look for.
“Cost in business is always a factor,” says Gerry Van Harpen, coordinator for Hodag Country Festival in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. “As is the work being performed in a clean and timely manner, including all the proper paperwork.” Van Harpen’s event is a weeklong country music festival in northern Wisconsin typically drawing 20,000 people. The current portable restroom service company is entering the sixth year of its contract.
Besides making sure you do all the work you’re hired to do, it’s good to be friendly and professional out on the job site. Lora Knowlton, an event consultant in Colorado, says what she most appreciates about her service company is the personable customer service.
“They’re ‘people’ people. Some of the other portable restroom companies I’ve worked with for other events, it’s just people out there delivering potties and it’s like they’ve been told, ‘Go out and drop them and don’t talk to anybody, and then leave.’” On the other hand, her provider does the job in a friendly way, talking to the festival attendees and other crews working there.
That “little” stuff shows that you care about your work and will likely help you secure a big event.
YOUR WAY OF DOING IT?
How does your service company keep its big events? Do you have tips you can offer to other PROs? I’d like to hear some of them. Email me at editor@promonthly.com or call me at 800/257-7222.
Enjoy this issue!
