Eric Friedly doesn’t have a business degree. He never wears a suit to work, and he doesn’t spend his days in a high-rise office building. But he’s still making it in the world of business. Instead, you’ll find Eric behind the wheel of a truck driving to service the portable restroom needs of construction sites and chicken barns.
“I tell everybody, I’m just a redneck trying to be a businessman, because we’re having to figure this out through the school of hard knocks,” he says with a laugh.
Together with his wife, Melody, they own and operate the portable sanitation division of Hank’s Portables & Septic Service located in Otterville, Missouri. While the company has been a local staple since the 1990s, the Friedlys represent a new generation of ownership — one that is balancing hands-on realities of septic work with the operational challenges of modernizing a family business.
Their partnership is also a balancing act. Eric is the entrepreneur who is willing to roll the dice when it comes to buying more trucks and expanding territory. Melody, a former health care worker, is the steady hand who manages the office, billing and logistics on a day-to-day basis.
“I’m just very safe and he’s more of a risk-taker,” she explains. “I have to figure out how this is all going to work.”
From plant to portables
Eric Friedly’s path into the portable sanitation industry began in the public sector. For years, he was a wastewater operator at a treatment plant in nearby Sedalia, Missouri. It was there he met Jeff Hanes, the previous owner of Hank’s, who often drove to the plant to dump waste.
“I got to visit with him every time he came in,” says Eric. “The work was getting too much for him to do by himself. He needed help.”
In response, Eric took a part-time job with Hank’s servicing restrooms after his shifts at the treatment plant. He maintained this schedule off and on for nearly a decade, until life stepped in. First, Eric and Melody got married. Then the birth of triplet boys brought a sudden need for greater financial stability.
“They’re a blessing, but being able to support a sudden family can be difficult,” Eric says. “So I left the treatment plant to make more money.”
After leaving the treatment plant for a brief, unsatisfying job at a local factory, Eric joined Hank’s full time. In recognition of Eric’s dedication to his job and the business’s long-term potential, Jeff offered to sell the portable sanitation division to the couple.
In December 2021, the Friedlys officially purchased the assets and contracts, going into business for themselves. Under the deal, Jeff Hanes retains the septic pumping division and the “Hank’s” trade name for now. Meanwhile, the Friedlys are operating as F5 Enterprises dba Hank’s Portables.
Melody and Eric chose to enter the market based on simple, recessionproof logic. “This isn’t a business that’s ever going to go away,” says Eric. “People are always going to have to go to the bathroom.”
Hank’s Portables today
The Friedlys’ territory is large and rural, covering a 30-to-40-mile radius around Otterville and Sedalia. They serve a population of roughly 25,000, covering everything from residential construction sites to massive industrial clients like Tyson Foods. After the closure of a main competitor, Hank’s is now the primary portable toilet provider in the region.
Since taking over Hank’s portable sanitation division, the couple has aggressively expanded its inventory of portable toilets, holding tanks, restroom trailers and hand-wash stations. They rely on a mix of Satellite Maxim 3000 and Global units.
As with any portable sanitation business, the real heart of the Friedlys’ operation is the fleet. It is a collection of trucks that showcases Eric’s mechanical ingenuity. Because new chassis lead times can take too long for delivery, Eric and his father-in-law (a master mechanic) have custom-built much of their equipment to save time (and money). This includes a 2001 Freightliner Business Class FL70: Eric purchased a $5,000 Progress tank (Powered by Garsite) (900-gallon waste/300-gallon fresh) from a totaled truck and mounted it onto this locally sourced chassis. It runs a Masport vacuum pump.
Then there’s their 2022 Ford F-550 Super Duty. Eric took a standard slide-in freshwater/wastewater tank and modified it himself, by cutting out the divider wall to increase waste capacity to 397 gallons. (The F-550 uses a Westmoor Conde vacuum pump.) The last truck in their fleet is a one-ton 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 equipped with a Satellite Industries slide-in module (400-gallon waste/125-gallon fresh) and a Conde vacuum pump.
Expanding offerings
While Hank’s Portables tends to focus on heavy industrial contracts, Eric is always open to new possibilities. This willingness to be creative led him to spot a gap in the local wedding and event market. Rural events often require portable toilets, but brides and event planners may dislike the aesthetics of standard units.
“They don’t want to see an ugly blue box on their special day,” Eric says. Furthermore, he noted a specific complaint from female guests: Standard units are too cramped for formal wear, especially bridal gowns.
To address this niche market, the Friedlys are building a “Pretty Potty” trailer. It is a cedar-sided unit mounted on a trailer that disguises the industrial nature of the unit.
The Friedlys chose cedar siding to give their Pretty Potty a rustic, aesthetically pleasing look. They are also equipping its interior with 12-volt LED lighting systems, mirrors and hooks for purses and jackets. Meanwhile, the Pretty Potty’s spacious interior will be large enough to accommodate wedding dresses comfortably.
“The Pretty Potty is a lot nicer than a regular porta potty, but it is still a regular porta potty in functional terms,” says Eric. Adopting this hybrid approach allows Hank’s to serve the high-end market properly while avoiding the higher costs of luxury restroom trailers that the local rural economy cannot support.
They also have two other three-stall restroom trailers that they plan to renovate and offer for professional events and weddings.
The School of Hard Knocks
As anyone who has made the transition from employee to business owner knows, the process can be bruising. In the case of the Friedlys, the back-office side of the business proved to be a steep learning curve, particularly for a couple with no business degree.
Early on, they suffered a catastrophic data loss with QuickBooks (Intuit), which only made matters worse. “That was a nightmare. They destroyed our whole files,” Eric says. “Luckily my wife kept really good notes.” They have since hired professional bookkeeping help to keep the books under control.
The physical reality of the portable sanitation business has been just as unforgiving. Shortly after purchasing the business, Eric was involved in a severe head-on collision that totaled their initial 2012 GMC truck.
Finally, like many PROs, they deal with vandalism damaging their property. “We had owned the business for not even a year when we had one of our toilets burn to the ground,” says Eric. “That was brutal.”
Growth for the future
Despite the challenges, Melody and Eric Friedly are in growth mode. They recently hired a second driver to help improve their work-life balance and give Eric more time with their children. The extra person is helping them keep up with growth: “Besides our portable toilet rentals, we are now pumping campers plus renting and servicing holding tanks for office trailers,” he says. “We also provide and fill freshwater tanks for these trailers.”
Looking ahead, the Friedlys’ plan is to eventually acquire the septic division and the full “Hank’s” trade name when Jeff Hanes retires. The couple are also exploring expansions into grease pumping and roll-off containers.
“My plan is to buy more portable toilets, to drive more business and keep my new employee busy,” says Eric. “I think the future looks bright for us, and for Hank’s.”
