Born to Pump

From the first time he jumped in his dad’s vacuum truck at age 12, Bob Storms has been living his dream job

While many people wait a lifetime for one shining moment in their careers — one that makes everything feel worthwhile — others have theirs happen a bit sooner. For Bob Storms, owner of B & B Sewer in Cheyenne, Wyo., the most memorable moment in his 29-year-long career as a pumper happened when he was just 17.

“It was a little old lady whose husband had died. They were having a funeral on a Sunday morning, and had a backed-up sewer,” Storms, now 41, recalls. “She was crying on the phone, asking how soon I could get there. I was there within five minutes, and was gone within a half hour,” he explains. Storms will always remember how great it felt, being able to help a customer in a pinch.

“You never forget how you touch a life with just one job.”

That philosophy — putting customers’ needs above all else and exhibiting genuine empathy for the people he serves — has helped Storms build a strong and stable business in Wyoming’s capital city, mainly through the positive word-of-mouth that accompanies a reputation for reliability and great service.

AN EARLY START

Storms’ father opened B & B Sewer for business in June 1979 (B & B stands for Bob and his father, Bill). An ex-military man, Bill possessed a no-nonsense approach and natural business savvy, and, when he saw an opportunity for a reliable septic company in town, he jumped on it. The operative word, Storms clarifies, is reliable.

The senior Storms saw opportunity in the shortcomings of others. The Storms family had a problem — a septic backup — and Bill made an emergency call to a local pumper. But it wasn’t until four days later that the company he called showed up. To Bill, that was an unacceptable response.

“My dad was like, ‘This is crazy.’ That it takes four days for an emergency call,” Storms remembers.

A short time later, Bill bought a truck — a 1974 Ford F-600 he built out with a vacuum tank — and a service van and launched B & B Sewer.

A curious youngster, Bob Storms wondered where his father disappeared to every morning. A month after his father went into business, the younger Storms decided to go with him one day.

“I was 12,” Storms recalls. “Two weeks later, I had a paycheck. I was 12 years old and had a paycheck coming in.”

Throughout high school, the diligent Storms attended school, and put in another 30 to 40 hours at night and on the weekends at his father’s business.

“When I was a senior in high school, I used to ditch school to go to work,” Storms remembers. He even packed extra credits and more hours into his early high school years so that he was able to graduate a semester early, and get back to doing what he did best: working for his father’s company.

“I was out there in the real world making money, pumping septic tanks and cleaning sewers.”

The work lit a fire under Storms, and he knew someday he’d take over for his father when he retired. The possibility only inspired him to work harder.

“I worked for him for 18 years — I ran the company. I did all the service calls, and was basically responsible for a lot of the jobs that came in, and he did a lot of pumping at the time,” Storms explains.

During that time, Storms learned the ropes, which he was able to leverage when he finally did take over the business 11 years ago.

“Right after I took the company over, in the first two months I doubled the company.” Just months later, B & B had tripled in size. After six to eight months, it finally leveled out, Storms adds.

Storms bought a new Kenworth T300, and ordered a 3,350-gallon steel tank from Balzer Inc., a manufacturer of municipal waste and livestock manure handling products, based in Mountain Lake, Minn., and built the truck himself, adding a 350-gallon freshwater tank.

“It takes a bit of money to get to where you can afford a good truck. I worked on this truck for about two years, from research to getting it running — I’m not a rushed equipment buyer.”

STAYING SMALL

After the business’s initial growth spurt, the company’s size has held relatively steady, and that’s by design, says Storms.

“I’ve talked to guys all over and almost anyone I’ve ever talked to said they had had a small company, then went big, and almost every guy has said they wish they had stayed small.” This is for a number of reasons, explains Storms.

“You have more control, and there’s good money coming in, but you don’t have to pay as much in employees — the liability insurance costs,” he explains. For instance, “When I give the guys raises, my insurance goes up with it, even though we’re doing the same amount of work.”

Storms says he then has to raise rates.

“Keep the company small, and you don’t have to pay as much out,” he adds.

The company now has five employees and a long service menu.

B & B’s equipment includes a 2007 Kenworth T300 with a 3,350-gallon waste tank and 350-cfm PowerFlow pump built out by Balzer Inc. His service vans — 2002 and 2003 GMC vans — are equipped with RIDGID sewer and drain cleaning machines: a RIDGID K-75 sectional and K-50 machine. And they carry a RIDGID locator, a Vision Technologies camera and a Myers jetter.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

For Storms, connecting with customers is all about respect — respect for their predicament, respect for their homes and respect for them as people. Storms’ treat-the-customer-right philosophy is even more pronounced when it comes to one demographic: women. Women comprise about 70 percent of B & B’s customers, so Storms and his employees make a point to treat them with respect.

“Your customers are everything, and most of your customers are ladies,” Storms says. “When you’re doing a service call, you deal with them on a professional basis.” Another show of respect: “When we go into their house, if they’ve got carpet, we put booties on. No woman likes a guy in their house with dirty boots on.”

Treat their house as if it’s your house, Storms adds. “I do every job that way. And my guys practice that way, too. “Always treat them with high respect, always give a little bit extra, and always leave a clean jobsite.”

A successful business is a result of building strong customer relationships, Storms says. Without those relationships, you have no business.

Storms’ respect for women extends to his personal life, namely, his wife, Crystal. Storms calls his wife his inspiration for success. She also plays a big role in day-to-day business operations.

“She’s the office secretary, bookkeeper and coordinator. She runs everything in the office; I run the guys,” Storms says.

UNDER PRESSURE

Business is good for Storms, but he certainly is not immune to the pressures faced by many pumpers today. Fuel prices have hit him hard in the pocketbook, and competition in his area is stiff.

There are four other septic companies in Cheyenne that Storms considers competitors and eight to 10 sewer and drain-cleaning businesses.

“When the economy gets like this, I get busier. People call around for prices, and my name comes up. If you’re having a problem, I care.”

Always exuding that positive outlook and attitude is part of Bob Storms’ winning approach. It shows in his actions, and in another, slightly less subtle way.

“I have a big smiley face on the back of my pickup. People ask me why, and I tell them there are too many people out there having bad days. If I can touch one person with a smiley face on a truck like that, I made someone happy.”



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