Looking for a great Business Plan for a Portable Toilet Rental Company? If you are thinking about creating a new portable Restroom business, or if you are in the process of starting one, this article is for you!
During the first stage of starting a new Portable Toilet Rental Company, it is important to start your thinking with a Business Plan.
A business plan will make you more successful. It will help you to manage, run and grow your business more efficiently.
This article will give you all the necessary tips to think & create a perfect business plan for your new portable restroom rental company, and get you started in the best way before going to the more practical steps.
The business plan will define the objectives and goals of your company, and show how to achieve them. You don’t need to make it formal and perfect (except if you need to present it to investors or banks). It will explain who will be your company, what you will do and how.
A good business plan will do the following:
- Describe an overview of your company
- Define the problem you have identified & the solutions: meaning products & services that you will offer
- Describe your target market (ideal consumers, the need you are going to answer and in which area)
- Set up a plan regarding the execution (sales plan, operations, marketing)
- Determine a financial plan
Each part of the business plan is a key element for your new Mobile Restroom Business. See below more details on each chapter, and how to apply it to your new portable toilet rental company:
Overview:
The overview will be the description of your business and will define what your company’s legal structure, ownership and location will be.
Find a good name for your new portable toilet business, a nice slogan and a logo. You will also need to define the business legal structure and the location of your company.
All the information on this chapter is explained more precisely in the Starting a portable toilet business article.
Define your short and long-term goals and the milestones to achieve in the next months.
Problem & solution = products & services:
In this part of your Portable Toilet Business Plan, define the problem or need you want to answer for your target market (see below) and describe your solution for it.
How are existing portable toilets rental operators doing business now? Does the actual market match their needs? Do they have other unique solutions? How is the competition?
Go out in the field and talk directly to the final customer, confirm there is a need to answer regarding portable restrooms and find out if they have other needs you didn’t think about.
Then, determine your solution = product to answer the problem = need. Define the equipment, technology and products you will offer. Will you focus in the Construction Market or in the Special Events Rental Market? Will you offer sinks as a standard? Etc.
Can you offer something better than the competition? Maybe a better service…?
Or maybe you can create a new need? For example if no one from the competition is offering restroom trailers, you can create a new need for more luxurious portable toilets, and enter a niche market.
Target market:
Define your target market, and determine who is going to need and buy your services.
- You will need to identify:
- Who is your ideal potential customer: who will need to rent portable toilets from you? Which Niche or Focus Market are you going to target: construction site, special event, festivals, agriculture…? Is the industry growing?
- Where are they located: define your area of operation and consequently the area where you will focus on the target market. Determine the size of the area you will operate on, population density or construction site potential (depending on who is your potential customer).
- Why will they chose your portable toilets and services. What will be your competitive advantage? What can you do better than the competition?! It is also important to define your competition and their specialties. Are they actually answering the needs on the market for each Niche? What kind of portable toilets do they offer and to whom? Is the servicing of the porta pottys good enough or do you think you can do a better job?
- How do your potential customer behave: the clients rent portable toilets to fulfill a need, so think about “how do the customers regard the need?”. Do they have all the information needed about portable toilets and cleaning services? Do they look for a Portable Toilet Rental Company on the internet or somewhere else?
Execution:
The execution chapter on your Portable Restroom Business Plan is very important, as it will define every aspect to operate and run your new company.
It will determine your sales processes: How will you promote your products and services? How will you price them? Consider the marketing strategies and activities you will use to attract customers.
Determine how you will operate on a daily basis. How you will organize your routes, the drop off and pick-up of the portable toilets. Define the servicing and cleaning process of the Portable Toilets (have a look at our article How toservice Portable Toilets article). Are you going to use software to plan your routes or not yet?
Define your pricing. You need to know how much your competitors charge for their portable restroom rental and for the service, in order to not down-price or charge too much. A price too low can be seen as bad quality and/or service (and worst you will lose incomes), and a price too high can be seen as inappropriate, and nobody will buy your services. So, you need to match the actual market rate, and keep in mind that you need to cover your costs.
Specify your Human Resources needs & define roles: do you need to hire employees? How many and for what? Do you need someone for the administration side of the business, taking care of management or a hands-on individual who will be operating trucks and servicing the toilets? Who is going to answer the phone when potential clients call? How prepared are they to answer the unique questions that they might have?
Are you launching this new portable Restroom business by yourself or with a partner? If so, what will be the role of each of you?
Specify your marketing strategy. For more information on branding, online presence, networking or promotional items, read our complete Marketing Tips for New Portable Restroom Business article.
You can list your immediate objectives and goals that you want to accomplish in the next months.
Financial highlights:
You need to know how much money you will need, and when. The biggest problem of most start-up companies is not having enough cash flow to survive the Slow Times in Business.
In your business plan, make a financial plan, define your planned sales, costs, expenses and profitability:
- Revenue / sales Forecast
- Expenses
- Estimated profit and loss
- Estimated cash flow needed
Define your investment and list your major expenses, if you need funding or not, and how much would you need to start up.
Know your fixes and variable costs for the long term.
Conclusion
Keep your Portable Toilet Business Plan on the long-term and update it depending on your needs and on the growth of your Portable Restroom Company.
You will learn more about the business, your customers, the products as you go… and might realize your execution strategy or budget will or will not work as you thought. Your sales strategy might change over time, or you will need to update your marketing tools…
So use your business plan to keep tracks of your progress, and adjust your objectives as your company evolve and expand.
The business plan will help you build a better efficient business.
Is your business plan ready? Do you know exactly where you are going with your new Portable Restroom Company?
Then it is time to move forward, get on to the practical steps and implement this business plan.
NEXT STEPS TO START YOUR PORTABLE RESTROOM RENTAL ACTIVITY:
