At the beginning of 2021, Christopher Bradbury was working as an accountant. But by year end he had bought a couple of two-room restroom trailers from The Trailer Factory and was the proud owner of his own portable sanitation business, Blue Jay Rentals in Richmond, British Columbia. He didn’t give up his day job, of course, but by spring 2022 he was ready to devote weekends to providing high-end restrooms for the wedding market in the greater Vancouver area.

Bradbury had a long-term plan to become self employed and portable sanitation was one of the items in the “hopper of ideas,” he explains. Having grown up with colitis, access to clean sanitation facilities had become a passion for him. And he had a hunch it would be an especially busy wedding season due to a heightened focus on sanitation and a backlog of work from the pandemic situation.

“I thought I’d try to capture what would be the busiest wedding summer in probably a decade, and catch some of the overflow demand rather than trying to steal competitors’ demand,” Bradbury says.

The gamble paid off. As the season got into full swing, he bought three more trailers — two-room, three-room and four-room units, all from The Trailer Factory. By fall he was exhausted but relieved the idea had been successful.

“I’m really proud of the business,” Bradbury says. “I didn’t always know exactly the direction I wanted to take it but it was something I was excited about — and still am.”

EARLY DECISIONS

Bradbury knew trailers would be the core of the business, but also considered portable restrooms and hand-wash stations. With limited time and resources, he decided against that for the time being.

“Although they’re complementary, they also have different business models. One is capital-intensive, the other labor-intensive. And it’s two different client sets.” Providing for handicap accessibility was a tougher issue. His current solution is to refer that out to competitors.

In coming up with a company name, he thought about words that indicated what the business provides — but decided not to go that route.

“I wanted to be in a more open-ended category in case the business grew in a different direction,” Bradbury says. “I’m from Toronto. The Blue Jays are the baseball team. I wanted a name I could attach a logo to that was universally recognizable. It seemed very practical, unique, relatable, and identifiable across all cultures.” For $1 he bought an online vector image and with the help of family worked out a design and color scheme.

STRESS TESTS

Bradbury worked with a wholesaler to buy a service truck, a 2015 Ford F‑350 flatbed. He had to spruce it up a bit but was happy with the result. Then he bought a tank and ran into a problem.

“The company gave a six-month lead time, which was fine,” Bradbury says. “But a week before delivery I was told it would be another six months — right before wedding season.” He’d already scheduled events and collected deposits and didn’t want to outsource the pumping.

But he scrambled and finally found a tank from ITI Trailers and Truck Bodies — a 250-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater stainless steel slide-in unit with a Masport pump.

Another nail-biter happened during an early event. Bradbury expected 150 people at a charity function but 600 showed up. “It became very high pressure very fast,” Bradbury says. “I hung around the whole weekend to make sure things were going well. I’m glad I did. It allowed me to see the capability of the trailer and how customers were using it. And it ended up being totally fine.”

TRAINING PROGRAMS

A lot of learning takes place when starting up a business and Bradbury had many teachers — equipment vendors, friendly competitors, family members, YouTube. And, of course, the inevitable school of hard knocks.

Learning to drive a truck and pull a trailer began with online videos, then progressed to driving around the storage lot. But then there was reality, Bradbury says. “It’s great when you have a 100-foot-by-100-foot place but most client sites are really narrow and snug and you have to figure it out.”

At one event, a toilet in a restroom trailer broke and flooded the stall. It was scheduled for another job so Bradbury had about two hours to replace it. Fortunately, he had preemptively locked in another unit with a supplier.

“That was a big lesson,” he says. “Being small, one of the biggest risks is there’s no room for error. There’s no backup trailer. When things go wrong you have to be able to work on the fly or make it right for the client in any way possible.” He’s since mitigated the situation somewhat by buying spare parts and partnering with vendors and other contractors.

ONLINE PRESENCE

Hoping to line up customers before wedding season, Bradbury set up his website in the fall using Wix and hired a search engine optimization consultant. But when the site didn’t generate a lot of activity, he began cold-calling venues and event planners to ensure the company would be on everyone’s radar when events were being scheduled.

Although the website did finally gain some traction, by midsummer he knew he had to make some changes, especially improving the SEO standing. He redeveloped the site using WordPress and worked with a different consultant and are now getting better results.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Surprises: “The cost of insurance was atrocious, general operating costs were higher than anticipated, the cost of fuel was excessive,” Bradbury says. He had baked those items into the business model but it was still hard to bear. He also knew the time commitment would be high but it ended up being 100% of his free time and by August he was in survival mode. Then sales ticked up and the company moved ahead.

What would he do different?: Bradbury says it would have been worth partnering with other contractors in the beginning. “Now that I’m doing that, it is very fruitful and helpful. That’s been very reassuring as a small business owner because I don’t have the experience some of these guys do. Those relationships last forever if you nurture them.”

Best thing about it: “When you make a sale it’s extremely validating,” Bradbury says. “It tells you someone trusts you with their money and time and a very important day. It’s very rewarding.”

Advice: Don’t be afraid to ask for help, Bradbury says. “If I could go back, I’d ask 10 times more questions. There’s not a lot of how-to’s online so it’s been people who are willing to impart knowledge, which has been really awesome. I’m thankful that the industry is a community of generous folks willing to give their time and knowledge.”