John To Go in the news

Family begins restroom service to complement real estate business and sees it double in size in less than 2 years

Portable sanitation company John To Go began as a support service to the real estate business of Abe and Victor Breuer in a suburb of New York City. It has doubled in size in less than two years through aggressive niche marketing, savvy sales tactics and a commitment to developing a reputation for unsurpassed customer service. The Breuer brothers see no end in sight to the growth and are preparing for the day John To Go will surpass its parent company in profitability.

Inauspicious beginnings

By the end of 2004, the Breuers developed a couple properties in upstate New York, and were having trouble finding a portable restroom company to service their building sites on a regular basis with anything other than beat-up restrooms. The brothers wanted to provide decent units for their contractors to use, and just weren’t satisfied with what was being offered.

“We decided we could do better service ourselves,” recalls Abe Breuer, 25, the younger of the brothers, “plus go after the market in a professional manner that offered people options for service and products.”

And so John To Go was born, getting off the ground in the construction field in January 2005. The company’s service area was defined by those counties — Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Westchester, Dutchess, Sullivan and Ulster — where the brothers saw the greatest potential for business. Though northern winters are a tough climate to start out in, Abe Breuer laughs off the challenges. “You know the wind chills up here, so we got the hard part out of the way. After working in those conditions, everything else seems easy.”

The Breuers made a conscious decision to invest heavily in advertising and salespeople.

“The closest you can get to most companies is their Yellow Pages ad,” says Victor Breuer. “None of the companies in our service area use salespeople.” John To Go does advertise in the phone book, but its sales and marketing efforts are more comprehensive.

“We knew we needed to make ourselves accessible on a human level. We hired a good salesperson, because we feel people need to talk with someone to learn about their choices before making a decision,” Breuer says.

Active new business solicitation

The Breuers aren’t shy about pounding the pavement to drum up business. When they were just getting started, a colleague from an existing portables company told them if another firm went up for sale, they should make an effort to buy. But they looked at that strategy and decided it wasn’t for them. “On a cost-per-unit basis,” says Victor Breuer, “that’s not the most intelligent way to build a business.” They figured they can buy a unit for about $450, but buying an existing inventory with a business would bump that cost to about $600 per unit.

The Breuers are happy to build from scratch through aggressive sales instead. “We actively solicit the work,” Abe Breuer says. And they don’t limit their exhibiting efforts to builders’ shows. They also display at bridal and home shows, and other venues that present viable opportunities. “No (PROs) go to those kinds of events, so we have a wide-open target,” he says.

Victor Breuer admits their aggressive approach has ruffled some feathers in an industry that has a history of gentlemen’s agreements about soliciting out of your territory.

“We’ve gotten some angry phone calls from competitors about this, but it’s not just something I can stop, or even think we should.” Breuer believes that they’ve hired salespeople to do a job, and he’s not displeased that they’re doing it well. “It’s one thing for us to make a living, and it’s another thing for my salespeople to make a living. The reason my salesperson can take this business is that there was something wrong (with customer satisfaction) to begin with.”

Keeping motivation high

“Heart and soul,” is John To Go’s business philosophy, though the company doesn’t yet have a formal mission statement. “We’re small enough right now not to need that,” Abe Breuer says, “but we hope that won’t be the case for too long.”

The brothers are aware that the quality of their people keeps them growing, so they make a conscious effort to retain good employees.

“Loyalty goes both ways,” Abe Breuer says. “We don’t expect loyalty from an employee if we don’t give it. We treat them as family. Birthday parties are a regular thing. We also make ourselves available via cell phone for emergencies at any time of the day or night. We invite our employees’ families over for dinner. It’s a good motivator.”

The company also holds regular meetings for the portables side of their business every Monday morning. “We focus on sales,” Victor Breuer explains. “We believe anyone who works for us, no matter their job title, is a salesperson. A secretary who is rude or uninformed can lose a sale. We have a chart that tracks what kind of orders we have for each kind of business, construction or events. We give ourselves a minimum goal of 20 new orders each week, and chart it. We use that as a motivational tool.”

Maintaining that kind of cohesion among team members can be a challenge in the atmosphere that’s a fusion of portables and real estate. Offices for each segment are on opposite sides of the same building. “When I first started, I thought the portable restroom part would take 15 to 20 percent of my time, but it’s already taking 75 to 80 percent,” muses Abe Breuer. “It’s a challenge, because they’re two different kinds of businesses. The people who work in each business can’t help with the other. Monday and Friday are busy for the restroom business, whereas it doesn’t make a difference day to day with real estate.”

High visibility and a high-end look

Part of what drives the growth of John To Go’s market share is the company’s commitment to maintaining super-clean, up-to-date units in good repair. The Breuers understand the importance of branding and positioning their company. Abe Breuer remembers, “We knew when we started the business that we’d have to be different, but not just different — better.’’ All of their restrooms are purple, which helps in branding, and each carries the John To Go logo embossed in the door.

With a sales background, Abe learned that marketing is a huge factor in getting orders for a product that’s typically thought of as “kind of dirty.” “Our company’s slogan is ‘The Cleanest John When You Need To Go!’ We spent $60,000 (when we started) on brochures and postcards, which will change regularly, and our Web site changes constantly to show people we’re alive.”

The effort has paid off. “Customers call now asking for ‘John To Go,’ not just for portable restrooms,’’ he says.

An inventory of more than 600 restroom units and four restroom trailers is serviced with a 1998 Dodge Model 800 flatbed with a 600-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater Crescent tank and pump; a 2005 Isuzu Workmate with a 650-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater Crescent tank and Masport pump; and two Fords, an F-550 and a Model 950, both with 650-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater Satellite tanks and pumps. They run three of the trucks regularly and keep one in reserve for emergencies. All trucks have Berg pressure washers. “I don’t see why every truck doesn’t come equipped with a pressure washer,” Abe Breuer says. “They take out stains better than a brush.”

Operations center plans for growth

All units, equipment and vehicles are based at John To Go’s 16,000-square-foot main office and warehouse on 1.5 acres in Rockland County. “We don’t buy for today,” explains Victor Breuer. “We plan for what we’re going to need.” The Breuers are also leasing a 2,300-square-foot office and warehouse in Goshen, N.Y. They opened it because it shortens delivery time to distant counties.

To maintain acceptable profit margins, all trucks have Garmin GPS navigation systems and tracking devices. Drivers are accessible via BlackBerry PDAs and Nextel two-way field phones. Every driver leaves the yard with a fresh restroom ready to deliver, in addition to those already ordered. Drivers are encouraged to sell, and the extra unit makes that possible. If a driver picks up a new sale, he gets half the profit from the first month as a bonus.

Administrative costs are kept in check through the use of Summit XP software from Ritam Technologies to schedule and keep records. But all the technology in the world is no substitute for keeping in touch with the day-to-day operation of the business.

“Once a week we drive a route,” says Victor Breuer. We refer to this exercise as ‘the white shirt route.’ That way we get to meet our customers, and stay in touch with our routes. We get new customers that way, too.”

http://www.promonthly.com/Articles/January.html