Through years of hard work and long hours, David and Tanis Jamar built J Bar Enterprises into a successful portable sanitation business from scratch. But it took a change in focus for the couple to take the Burnet, Texas, business to a new level of satisfaction and sustainability.
“We made a conscious decision that we weren’t going to keep our faith separate from our business,” Tanis Jamar says, noting a big part of that is how they work with employees. “We view employees as an asset. You protect an asset and invest in it. That changed the culture of our business and we saw major changes.”
J Bar is located about an hour northwest of Austin, and they have recently opened a satellite yard in San Marcos to the south toward San Antonio, and many great employment options abound.
So the Jamars decided to offer generous benefits and are dedicated to creating an environment where people want to work.
JUST A SIDE JOB
David, a firefighter, and Tanis, a registered nurse, were in their 20s when they married in 2007. Both jobs gave them predictable shifts with blocks of time off. Like many firefighters, David wanted a side business to give him something to do and to earn extra income.
Not wanting to limit opportunities, they named the business J Bar Enterprises. J Bar comes from the brand previous Jamar generations used when they raised cattle. David considered trying a variety of service businesses such as hauling trash trailers, material hauling and tent rentals.
When the couple realized there was a need for portable sanitation in their area, they decided to take a leap of faith and make an investment.
They applied for a loan in January 2008, and in October purchased 25 new and used restrooms and a locally built slide-in tank that they could haul on a flatbed roll-off trailer that David used. Then came the economic downturn; however, they are located near a retirement community and the economy didn’t seriously affect their area until 2011.
“Then we hit a rough patch and almost went bankrupt,” Jamar says. They were saved by a two-year contract to provide restrooms, holding tanks and hand-wash stations for a $650 million natural gas-fired power plant project that required daily servicing.
“Initially we started the business for David to do on the weekends and his days off. We never thought it would have employees or that we would leave our careers. It grew in spite of us,” she notes.
David left his job in 2010 and Tanis quit hers in 2011 to work full time for their business.
TIME FOR STRATEGY
By 2017, J Bar Enterprises had grown to seven employees, 590 restrooms and five service trucks. David was working 80-hour weeks and Tanis was juggling the business and raising five children. They were so busy working at the business, they didn’t have time to work on the business and understand their true costs.
“We realized we needed drastic changes or we’d have to put up a ‘For Sale’ sign,” Jamar says.
They found the guidance they needed from a business consulting firm, with staff spending three weeks auditing everything from operations to finances to tracking drivers’ productivity.
“It revitalized us. It gave us direction and was a big turning point,” she notes.
EMPLOYEE FOCUS
The direction led them to create a “whole employee wellness” program in 2021 that goes far beyond “salad for lunch” for employees. It’s a concept that comes naturally to former nurse Jamar’s nurturing personality. She recognized that instead of being angry at employees’ poor behavior it was important to get to know them and help them deal with traumas and challenges in their lives.
The first step was to go beyond good wages, health insurance and retirement benefits. The Jamars added covering the cost of all counseling for employees and their immediate families as a benefit. The next step was to offer financial management skills with membership to Dave Ramsey’s SmartDollar online budgeting program. Then, just this year, employees were invited to sign up for Mathew Kelly’s Dream Manager program, to help employees identify dreams and create a plan to meet them, whether it’s a college education, starting a business or buying a home.
All of the benefits are voluntary, and guiding employees through them became Jamar’s full-time job as chief wellness officer starting in 2021.
“Before, I was looking to hire a person who would never leave,” she says. “Now I am looking for people to come, do a good job, take advantage of opportunities; and my hope is they outgrow this job.”
With a four-day work week, employees have time for family or to take classes or deal with everyday business. J Bar Enterprises benefits too by maximizing time and costs with 10-hour routes.
Employment turnover is down 60% and drivers’ productivity has greatly increased with safety bonus incentives.
To further build relationships and community within the business, the Jamars provide a full breakfast for staff once a week to talk about issues, recognize personal successes and connect with each other.
UP-TO-DATE FLEET
Driving new trucks with reliable air conditioning is a necessity to keep up drivers’ morale in the heat of central Texas. And driving “cool” trucks with unique orange digital camo wraps helps too. David saw green camo-wrapped trucks at a waste materials expo and loved the look. The Jamars modified it to suit their orange color scheme and wrapped a truck to celebrate their business’ 10th anniversary. Since then, they’ve wrapped their entire fleet.
"We use orange because we wanted to set ourselves apart from others and orange is also easier to see, so it’s a safety thing,” Jamar says, adding that all the restrooms are also orange.
J Bar Enterprises replaced its entire fleet over the past couple of years and has 13 trucks for restrooms and five additional trucks for the roll-off container side of the business.
They include Hino 238A trucks built out by Satellite Vacuum Trucks with 1,100-gallon waste/550-gallon freshwater water aluminum tanks and Ford F-750 trucks built out by Imperial Industries with 1,100-gallon waste/550-gallon freshwater water aluminum tanks.
“We are moving toward all new service trucks — Ford F-600 diesels with a 950-gallon waste/550-gallon freshwater aluminum tank (built by Imperial),” Jamar says.
Delivery trucks are Ford F-600s with 700-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater flat vac aluminum tanks built out by Imperial.
All have Masport pumps, power washers and use Satellite’s Pathfinder sanitizing system to dispense hospital-grade disinfectant when cleaning restrooms. The business used the disinfectant even before COVID because it leaves a light film on the plastic so dust doesn’t cling and graffiti cleans off easily, Jamar explains.
Drivers have tablets that display their routes, and J Bar uses a system from AMCS to dispatch to the tablets and for real-time reporting.
The 2,000 restrooms are orange Global units from Satellite Industries. “They have a grated floor so it increases ventilation and is also easier to keep them clean,” Jamar says. The same model is used for everything; restrooms have stickers that identify them for events or construction.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when no freestanding hand-wash stations were available to purchase, the Jamars ordered Satellite Slimmate hand-wash stations that are installed inside restrooms. In addition, they also own Satellite Breeze hand-wash stations.
J Bar offers customers elite model options. Construction elites have the Slimmate and solar-powered Lunar Glo exhaust fans. Special event elites have those add-ons, plus motion sensor J-Lights from J&J Portable Sanitation Products.
Satellite Liberty wheelchair-accessible units include the fans and lights as well as a baby changing table so they can be branded “Family Accessible.”
J Bar Enterprises also acquired four Rich Specialty Trailers restroom trailers in 2019 (one four-stall and three three-stall) from a small company acquisition, and they purchased two Satellite Suites trailers in 2022 (four-stall and eight-stall).
PRICE OF SUCCESS
Creating a nurturing environment with extra benefits for employees has a cost. Considering that, the data gathered from their 2018 audit, and supply chain shortages and cost increases, the Jamars increased their prices by 20% in 2020. It didn’t have a negative impact on the business, and the Jamars say quality service is the reason.
But they’ve also derived savings with increased productivity and drivers paying attention to their driving and servicing. “We still have some problems, but we have seen a drastic increase in quality control,” Jamar says. “(The drivers) have a sense of ownership.”
J Bar Enterprises has a full-time marketing person and uses Squeaky Wheel Marketing to manage SEO advertising on social media. The company is also experimenting with billboard and radio advertising for its newly launched San Marcos yard.
MORE GROWTH AHEAD
With David as CEO and Tanis as chief wellness officer, the couple and their team of five managers, three accounting/HR, three mechanics, eight inside/outside sales team, one dispatcher, two quality control/training, eight yard crew, 14 restroom and four roll-off drivers are poised to continue growing the business. Home and commercial construction are booming in the semi-rural area around Burnet, and there are many event opportunities with wineries, live music, etc. As a result of the pandemic, there’s been more demand for trailers because they have running water.
In addition to restrooms, roll-off containers account for about 35% of J Bar business. With the recent purchase and remodel of a former car dealership with a 10-bay garage, they started offering mechanic services to businesses with fleets.
“We have a strategic five-year plan and are looking at growing by acquisition or expanding territory. We anticipated another satellite location in 2023. The sky is the limit. Our goal is to continue growing and expanding,” Jamar says.
And focusing on employees is at the heart of their growth strategy.
“Our push this year is to brand ourselves as the destination employer. It’s not a glorified job and we want to change the image of that. We have elevated people’s opinions of portable restrooms in our area. First it was restrooms, now it’s employees,” she concludes.
