Most every portable restroom operator welcomes growth, and SOS Toilets of Richmond, California is no exception. But somewhere along the two-year road from zero to 1,200 portable restrooms, this contractor stepped back to focus on its top priority — customer satisfaction.
Yaniv Gohar moved to the U.S. 18 years ago from Israel. With a keen interest in the construction market, he started a roll-off container company in New York, sold the business and moved to California, where he renovated and sold residential homes. In 2017, he returned to Israel to start a portable restroom business, building an inventory of 250 Armal units in less than a year.
But feeling a strong pull for his adopted country, he sold the business and returned to California in 2019, where he married Monika Hederova. The couple launched SOS Toilets in 2021.
“I love the construction industry, and I already had many contacts in the California industry,” Gohar says. “I also love to meet different clients, service a variety of events and respond to emergencies. In this business, no two days are alike.”
Gohar credits his wife as the backbone of the business. A co-owner of SOS, Hederova gets up daily at 4:30 a.m., operates dispatch and manages driver schedules. Gohar handles sales and advertising, manages the yard, orders supplies and ensures equipment is properly cleaned and maintained.
OFF TO A QUICK START
The business serves the San Francisco Bay area, in a 65-mile radius around Richmond. SOS began with considerable goodwill from construction customers with whom Gohar was already familiar, but equipment shortages and production slowdowns caused by COVID-19 soon emerged.
SOS started with 200 Armal restrooms and three luxury trailers from Black Tie Products, two five-station and one three-station. The vacuum truck fleet included a pair of Fords with slide-in aluminum tanks and Masport pumps: a 2020 F-550 built by PortaLogix featuring 500-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater tank, and a 2016 F-350 built by Robinson Vacuum Tanks offering 300-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater tank.
“My first contract started October 2021, with the equipment arriving just in time,” Gohar recalls. “By January I ordered an additional 100 units from Armal, and the month after that another 100. I had one full-time employee and together we were doing all of the delivery, pickup and servicing. We bought a 10-unit delivery trailer from McKee Technologies, which helped, but we were still working to 10 p.m. each night. We were so heavily booked, we didn’t have time to put SOS stickers on the units before we delivered them.”
Each month brought more work, and more equipment orders. In 2021, Gohar expanded the truck fleet with a new off-the-lot 2019 International with a 900-gallon waste/375-gallon freshwater aluminum tank and National Vacuum Equipment pump built out by FlowMark Vacuum Trucks.
But it wasn’t enough to catch up on contracts. Work continued to outpace workers and schedules began to suffer.
LOST CONTROL
“In the first two months of 2022, I had to admit to myself that I had lost control of the business,” Gohar says. “People were complaining about cleaning and missed appointments. I didn’t have enough drivers, trucks were all over the place and Monika was getting complaints from customers.”
Realizing that he had to steer the company back on course, Gohar approached every customer he felt he had let down.
“I apologized,” he said. “I explained straight up what happened, no excuses. It was the cost of not preparing. The company grew too fast and I lost control of customer service. I promised to sort it out and put it back together.”
Most clients understood and either stuck with SOS or offered to wait for a call to revisit the company’s offerings in a few months. A few fell away for good. However, the company also continued to gain new clients.
“I realized I needed to invest in enough equipment to meet our service promises and also invest in enough good workers to keep up with the schedule of a growing business,” he says. “And I needed to do it now.”
Gohar immediately ordered a second 2019 International with a 900-gallon waste/375-gallon freshwater aluminum tank and NVE pump from FlowMark, and a 2021 Ford F-250 with a 200-gallon waste/100-gallon freshwater aluminum slide-in tank and Masport pump from KeeVac Industries. He also ordered additional portable restrooms and ADA units to enhance inventory.
LABOR CHALLENGES
He notes that Northern California labor costs are high, but committed to paying above-market wages in order to attract dedicated workers.
“For a new business with limited revenue to pay that much is tough, especially if you’re ordering more and more equipment,” Gohar says. “But if you need good people, you need to pay them what that’s worth.”
SOS soon began to hire more motivated workers, even as equipment was delivered. While the company didn’t recover overnight, Gohar likens it to the performance of a bull market — some good days and some down days, following an overall upward trend.
Within six months, the company was back on its feet, meeting client commitments while ensuring that the company’s growth didn’t outpace its capacity to deliver service.
Today, SOS employs 12 people, including Hederova and Gohar: four in the office, four delivery drivers (three full-time and one part-time) and four vacuum truck operators, who work out of a 22,000-square-foot building.
BEEF UP THE INVENTORY
The company offers 850 portable restrooms from Armal and 350 from PolyJohn, including 20 ADA units. Walex Products supplies all chemicals. PolyJohn supplied the company’s 100 hand-wash stations. Seven holding tanks ranging from 250 to 300 gallons are a mix of Armal and PolyJohn.
SOS has added a 12-unit delivery trailer from McKee Technologies and three Ford flatbeds, which deliver 10, eight and seven units each. One unbranded trailer carries a plastic tank containing 500 gallons of freshwater. A Ford F-650 is dedicated to delivering from a stockpile of 25,000 feet of temporary fence, supplied by ZND US — a recent offering designed to enhance service to construction customers.
The company now offers 13 luxury restroom trailers, including the original Black Tie trio: three from Satellite Industries — a one-station ADA trailer, a four-station and a three-station; six from NuConcepts — three two-station models and three single-station; and a two-station trailer with showers from Forest River Mobile Restroom Trailers.
SOS also offers two additional vacuum trucks on top of the original five, with both new trucks featuring aluminum tanks — a 2022 Ford F-550, with a 900-gallon waste/375-gallon freshwater tank and NVE pump from FlowMark, and a 2019 Ford F-350 with 300-gallon waste/150-gallon freshwater tank and Masport pump built by KeeVac Industries. The trucks are dispatched using Pro Trucking Dispatch software.
Gohar estimates about 80% of the company’s business is devoted to construction, with 20% in long-term industrial and agricultural rentals or parks contracts, and events, such as weddings. He counts emergency work for companies including Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot and Walgreens as bonus revenue.
“I have contracts with some companies where we provide restroom rental and service if there’s been a water main break or bathrooms are out of commission,” he says. “On a recent job, I provided 20 portable restroom units to a warehouse that employs 2,000 people and we were servicing them every three hours. On another contract we served 3,000 people with five trailers that had to be serviced four times a day.”
BE PREPARED
Gohar regularly attends the WWETT Show and PSAI trade show, primarily to meet vendors.
“I talk to vendors by phone all the time,” he says. “Sitting down and having dinner with a vendor, talking and sharing a laugh is a great way to build a relationship.”
Business is good and Gohar says his new website, which stresses transparent pricing and offers self-serve equipment and service ordering, has attracted many new clients.
His advice to contractors starting out?
“Everybody wants to grow fast, but if you undergo a rapid expansion, be sure you’re prepared for the ride,” he says. “Grow at a pace you can handle, be straight up, keep your promises to everyone, and treat your customers right. Following my own advice, I’m very happy with where we are today.”
