Jay Paige had never been inside a restroom trailer when he purchased one sight unseen in 2017 to start his business, Rockstar Rental LLC, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, near Detroit. At 27, he was restless doing maintenance work and wanted to start a company that provided a service. After talking to a friend who worked in the restroom business, Paige researched online to learn more about the industry and who the competitors were in his part of Michigan, specifically serving wedding venues.
“I thought it was a good business because [the need for] it will never go away. People always need to use restrooms and people are always getting married,” he says, adding he enjoys driving trucks and hauling trailers.
Paige set up an LLC and purchased liability insurance before making the 3 1/2-hour drive to Indiana to pick up a three-station unit from Rich Specialty Trailers. Back home, Rockstar Rental had a rocky start. There was more competition — about half a dozen businesses in the area — that Paige hadn’t known about and no one rented his restroom trailer the first couple of months. His friend, who had put up half of the money for the first trailer, decided to exit the business. So the friends worked out a payment plan for Paige to buy him out.
With social media exposure, Paige booked his first rentals the third weekend of June. They set the tone for the variety of events he would contract with — one was a graduation party and the other was a VIP rental for the rapper Big Sean at a Detroit event. He finished his first year with 25 rentals.
By 2018, he was ready to add another trailer and expand services. In 2020 he had booked 165 restroom rentals.
PAY ATTENTION TO REQUESTS
“What changed for us is that we were getting lots of calls for tables, tents and chairs,” Paige says. So when he learned about a rental company going out of business he purchased those items to add to Rockstar Rental.
“That’s what helped us take off the second year. Customers like that they can call one vendor, write one check and deal with one crew,” he says. “We’re all in now. We love the wedding industry.”
He credits his fiancee, Chelsea Owens, for the work she does on social media and the website for leading clients to Rockstar Rental. She is also part of the working team, right along with the guys, cleaning, setting up tents and transporting trailers.
Paige does that too, plus answers the phone and handles all the bookings.
While weddings are their main focus, the couple does corporate events and has rented to film crews, the Detroit Tigers, a PGA golf tour and concerts such as the Aretha Franklin Tribute at the newly named Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre in Detroit, where Kanye West led a Sunday Service performance. Clients find Rockstar Rental through positive reviews online.
BUILD ON YOUR STRENGTHS
One reason for the good reviews is quality service and quick response to calls. Paige relates how Owens’ sister was frustrated when she was planning her wedding and businesses didn’t answer the phone or return calls. If Paige isn’t available to answer the phone, he makes sure to call right back and responds to emails promptly.
He has more time to answer phones and take care of other parts of the business because he doesn’t deal with one job most restroom businesses have — pumping the restrooms. He either takes the trailers to the storage yard with a dump station that he rents or he hires a septic pumper to pump them on location.
Though it’s an extra cost, it works for the business.
“Trucks are expensive and it’s one less truck to insure, one less license,” Paige says of his choice to not deal with pumping. “We focus on what we’re good at.” However, as the business continues to grow, he notes he will likely be adding a vacuum truck in 2022.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
“One thing I stress is building solid relationships,” he adds. That includes the pumpers he hires as well as competitors in the area.
“I don’t view them as a threat. You never know when you need them, and you can trade work in each other’s area,” he says. Though he’s a fairly new company, he’s reached out to a couple of even newer businesses, and they’ve traded work and helped each other during busy times.
In 2020, Paige and Owens expanded to include their fathers, Jim Paige and Greg Owens, who found themselves without work after the established companies they had worked for closed.
BE UNIQUE
That focus includes continuing to respond to clients’ needs and offering something a little extra.
For example, Paige’s building skills came in handy when he came up with a bar design using recycled pallets. The bar can be hauled in a pickup and is narrow enough to go through standard house doors.
They are popular add-ons with restroom trailers, and during slow times Paige offers the bar as a bonus with a rental. One customer liked the bar so well he purchased one, and the other three bars stay regularly rented during the wedding season.
He also made cornhole and football bowling games that are popular in Michigan. Paige also offers coolers, dance floors (oak, maple and pine), lighting, generators and a golf cart (rented from a rental company). Because they were inexpensive, he purchased popcorn, ice cream and snow cone machines available to rent.
“It’s just something else to offer. They go out two or three times a month for birthdays and graduation parties,” he says.
STAY CONSISTENT
While Rockstar Rental offers a variety of add-ons, the restroom trailers are the heart of the business.
“We like to keep them as elegant as possible,” Paige says. But the trailers are all very similar, so other than size, he doesn’t offer different levels of amenities. That keeps it simpler and eliminates room for negotiation if customers want a different model that’s already booked.
After purchasing his first trailer, Paige learned about and attended his first WWETT Show, which educated him about build quality and details. Paige developed his own customized list for trailers he’s purchased since then — porcelain toilets and pedestal sinks, Corian countertops and neutral interior colors. None have hot water, because of the cost and it’s one more thing that can go wrong, Paige says.
His fleet includes trailers from Rich Specialty Trailers — a 2017 three-station and two 2019 two-station trailers. He also has a 2016 two-station and a 2018 two-station from Comforts of Home Services. The most recent purchase was two 2021 four-station units from Comforts of Home. Paige bought an enclosed trailer and built it out as a refrigeration trailer to complete the fleet.
He pulls the trailers with four Ford F-150 pickups and a Chevrolet 2500, all with gas engines.
PANDEMIC SOLUTIONS AND THE FUTURE
The refrigeration trailer was a good investment during the COVID pandemic when a Meals on Wheels program rented it for six months. It’s also popular with restaurants when coolers break down and around Thanksgiving when room is needed to store turkeys.
Like other wedding venues, Paige had many cancellations in 2020, which he resolved by giving customers their deposits back in the form of $200 gift cards to use in the future.
Though there were losses due to the pandemic, there were also opportunities. Many smaller events and some weddings evolved into outdoor events, that went into November, longer than the usual season.
“We also had a couple long-term rentals,” Paige notes. A Walgreens store needed restrooms for additional employees, and Chick-fil-A rented a restroom to have next to the trailer they sold food out of near a shopping mall.
“I don’t have any regrets. We’ve been pretty blessed,” Paige says of getting through 2020 and the start of his new business.
With good relationships and positive reviews, he looks for continued success.
“I’m not sure if we are getting a little more popular or there’s just a need, but in January we were three months ahead on the number of bookings that we don’t usually have until April,” Paige notes.
If that continues, Rockstar Rental should have no problem keeping him, his fiancee and their fathers busy throughout the year and in the future.
