When third-grader Mitzi Autry heard her father say he was buying a honey wagon, she couldn’t wait to tell the kids at school — and then she learned what it really was. Thus began her education in the sanitation industry.

That was in 1985 when her father was getting started with a septic pumping business, later adding portable restrooms. She tagged along with him and worked with her mother in the office throughout her childhood.

So in 2011 she was well-prepared to start her own portable restroom business when she found herself going through a divorce and needing to support her family. By then her father had gotten out of portable sanitation, so she started from scratch.

“I went to a couple people in Kentucky and one of them sold me an old slide-in tank,” she says. “Then I got with a guy in Florida who had a couple semi loads of portable toilets. I went down there and looked them over. I had never done something like that in my life — give someone a bunch of money and hope they ship something to you.”

Mitzi Autry’s Portable Toilets is located in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 2023 she expanded into septic and grease work, creating a separate business, Ohio Valley Septic & Grease Services.

Autry has several hundred portable restrooms (PolyJohn), mostly orange. “I like the way it pops and they’re easy to see on a job site,”she says. And she has five vacuum trucks — 2017-2022 Chevy 3500HDs with aluminum flatbeds built out by Best Enterprises with 400-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater stainless steel slide-in tanks and Conde (Westmoor) pumps — and another one on order.

Although she now has a staff of five technicians and one office worker she’s still very hands-on.

“I am a true owner-operator,” she says. “I just rewired my truck. I do mechanic work, as much as I can. I’m just doing what I did growing up. But I’m still learning every day. I just find it interesting. I dig it.”

EXPLORE FIVE ISSUES THAT AFFECT MITZI’S PORTABLE SANITATION BUSINESS:

1. SHARPENING MECHANICAL SKILLS

Autry admits being a woman in the industry does present some challenges. “The physical design of men and women is different,” she says. “And I didn’t take shop [classes] in high school. I didn’t go out and fix cars with my dad.”

But none of that stops her. She just figures out different ways of doing things. “It definitely makes me think about my equipment, how to handle it, how to get knowledge,” she says. “You can’t own a business like this with equipment and think someone else is going to do it for you. They’re not.”

For example — using slide-in tanks. “If I have a truck go down and can’t figure out what’s wrong with it, I can pick that tank up and put it on another truck,” she says. “Basically it’s a small engine, like a lawnmower. I can tear into a lawn mower. But when you’re talking about a big truck engine, that’s intimidating.”

2. LAUNCHING RESTROOM TRAILER SERVICE

Autry always wanted to add restroom trailers to her inventory but wasn’t sure her small farm community would go for it. She finally took the leap anyway and bought a used unit. But it turned out the timing was not the best.

“That was in February 2020,” she says. “And in March the world shut down. I was so proud to get it and had made some videos and put it out there on social media. I was devastated.”

But someone saw her video and she got her first job, which ended up paying for the trailer. “I took it to Lowe’s,” she says. “They kept it for a very long time to protect their employees. They were one of the few places open because they were considered essential. It was just luck, luck, luck.”

After the pandemic she discovered there really was a need in her community for luxury trailers and now has three four-stall units from A Restroom Trailer Co.

3. ADDING SEPTIC AND GREASE SERVICES

“If you’re going to be in the waste business, septic and portable toilets go hand in hand,” Autry says. In 2023 she bought a 2024 Mack truck built out by Iron-Vac with a 2,000-gallon aluminum tank and Jurop pump.

So far, Autry is the only one who handles the truck. “It’s such an expensive piece of equipment, I’m not ready to let other people drive it,” she says. “So it’s been me and my husband trying to build that part of our business.” Autry remarried in 2022 and is now educating her husband, Darin Tapp, on the industry.

She gave the septic company a different name for maximum flexibility. “If I ever want to separate the businesses, it already has its own name, its own phone number.”

4. LIVING THE ALWAYS-ON-CALL LIFE

What Autry loves most about the business is making friends with her customers and serving her community. And she works hard at it.

She personally answers the phone 24/7, only rarely turning it over to her assistant (such as when she’s in the noisy septic truck).

“I’m the best salesperson for me,” she says. “And in this world, it’s a lot about answering your phone. That has helped our business a lot.”

She is also available for emergencies, which typically involve one of the factories in town. “If they have a problem they have two options — either get portable toilets or let their crew go,” she says. “You can’t work people without restrooms.” She has contracts with a number of factories guaranteeing she’ll show up within two hours if they have a problem.

“Of course, they pay an upcharge,” she says. “But they’re going to remember that when they need units for a shutdown or maintenance.”

5. LEARNING TO MARKET THROUGH VIDEOS

Autry has posted videos on Facebook over the years, but she really stepped it up with the septic business because people were so uninformed.

“There are so many people who are city girls like me. We never had to think about, ‘What am I putting in my drain?’ But if you have septic, you better think about that. It’s a natural treatment plant and if you’re putting chemicals down there you’re disturbing it. I really want to get more in-depth with that.”

On a recent video, she discussed the danger of aging steel tanks still found in her area. “Steel rusts,” she says. “They’re notorious about caving in. A lot of people don’t even know they have them.”

Autry wants to eventually be on other forms of social media but Facebook is dominant in her area. “You’d be surprised how many people that gets out to and passed around,” she says. “Sometimes the silliest videos are the most viewed and shared.”