Joe Watkins says he basically grew up in the passenger seat of a septic truck. It was either do that or hang out with his mom, sisters and baby brother. “We lived out in the country and didn’t have any neighbors,” he says. “So I went with my dad six days a week through the summers, then on Saturdays during the school year.”

Joe’s grandfather had also been in the septic business so there was never any question that one day he would get out on his own and do the same. He worked for a few companies along the way and did some drain cleaning but by the time he was 30, he was on his own. His wife, Carli, joined in and his father helped out occasionally.

The couple operates the business, Watkins Septic & Drain, out of their property near Hartland, Michigan, northwest of Detroit. They recently built a heated barn to store equipment and are now building out the office portion of it.

The company services commercial and residential customers with its two lines — septic pumping/riser installations and drain/sewer cleaning and pipe repairs. Carli handles bookkeeping, phone answering and other office duties, while Joe works in the field. In October 2022, they hired their first employee to help with pumping tanks and installing risers.

THE VALUE OF A NAME

Joe’s grandfather, James Watkins, started working for a septic company in the late 1960s after moving to Michigan from Kentucky. About 10 years later, he and his sons built a vacuum truck and went into business for themselves, as Watkins Septic.

In 1997, James was ready to retire. Due to family circumstances and dynamics at the time, he chose to sell the company name and phone number to one outside party, and the trucks and equipment to another. By then Joe’s father was working for another company.

Meanwhile, Joe had plans of his own. In his senior year of high school, he got his commercial driver’s license and after graduating in 2007 went to work for a septic company. He lost that job during the economic crash of 2008 and ended up with another company, but by then he also had a side business doing drain cleaning.

In 2017 Joe got serious about becoming self-employed. He bought a van, purchased more drain cleaning equipment, and created an LLC under the name Watkins Drain Cleaning. The following year he ordered a 2019 International 607 vacuum truck from Imperial Industries with a 3,600-gallon steel tank and a National Vacuum Equipment 607 Challenger pump, and 40 years after his grandfather started a septic pumping business Joe was proud to be doing the same.

Business was good the first half of the year but really took off the second due to a stroke of luck. “At the end of the year, I was able to buy back my grandfather’s name and phone number from the septic company he sold it to, so that’s when we became Watkins Septic & Drain LLC,” Joe says. “It made a huge difference.”

EQUIPMENT LINEUP

Drain cleaning accounts for about 30% of the company’s business. Equipment includes Spartan Tool snakes, RIDGID cameras, Milwaukee power tools, and a jetter from Jetters Northwest mounted in a 2023 Ram ProMaster 3500 van.

For septic work, they use a Crust Buster tank agitator, T&T Tools probes and hooks, and Prototek and Milwaukee locators. They also have a 2020 Bobcat E20 mini-excavator. “We use that for digging up septic tanks buried deep in the ground or if [a customer has] a broken sewage line from the house to the tank, or from the tank to the drainage field,” Joe says. “We dig those up and repair the lines.”

Carli says more people are getting risers. They installed about 400 in 2023. Some real estate inspectors recommend them so buyers are starting to request them. And with dig fees going up, risers often pay for themselves in labor savings.

NEW TRUCKS

Joe sold his 2019 vacuum truck in 2023 and bought two new ones. One is a 2023 International HV607 built out by Imperial with a 4,250-gallon aluminum tank and NVE 4310 blower. It also carries a 100-gallon water tank with a garden hose reel used to wash filters and clean tools and equipment.

A few months later, he bought another 2023 International HV607 from Imperial with a 4,050-gallon waste/200-gallon freshwater aluminum tank and an NVE 4310 blower.

“That truck debuted at the 2023 WWETT Show,” Joe says. “Imperial had it on display. It has a PTO-driven hydrojetter with a Cat pump, a garden hose, a flowmeter and a trailer hitch to pull the excavator. It also has a remote system so you can remotely turn the pump on and off, open and close the valves, and run the hydrojetter.”

Joe is passionate about keeping the trucks clean and maintained, which he believes reduces the effects of wear and tear. Trucks are washed at least weekly, and more often when chloride products are put on the roads.

All septage is taken to the local treatment plant, about 12 minutes from their shop.

GOOD WAGES

When it becomes feasible, the company plans to offer 401(k) plans and other benefits for employees, but current benefits include paid vacations and holiday pay. And Carli says their technician is well paid in an area which typically has low wages. “Since Joe was an employee himself in the industry, he believes you have to pay your drivers well,” she says. “Not everybody wants to do this job but it’s one that needs to be performed.”

Their driver also receives a dig fee when he has to dig up a tank to service it. “He’s the one getting the wear and tear on his body, so he should get a piece of that pie,” Carli says. “That’s one thing Joe said — ‘I’ve dug a lot of holes in my lifetime and I feel, for a driver to even want to dig, we should give him some incentive.’”

As in many areas of the country, it’s hard to find and keep employees.

“At our receiving station, one week we see a driver with so-and-so’s truck, and the next week he’s in a different truck because someone offered to pay him a dollar more,” Carli says.

Joe and Carli try to go to the WWETT Show every year.

“We want to stay up on technology and what’s going on in the industry,” Carli says. “We’re definitely open-minded to changes and whatever can help our industry. We go to see what’s the newest thing — and we always buy something. I try to learn as much as I can because it’s an essential service and this is an industry that needs to have light shined on it. And you meet all these wonderful people from across the country — or sometimes the world.”

They are members of the Michigan Septic Tank Association where they get continuing education credits and take classes. The association advocates for the industry with the legislature, but they often don’t get very far, Carli says.

INFLATION CREEPING IN

Rising costs and inflation are really starting to change things, Carli says. “And no one is raising their prices. We have only raised our prices about $50 since we started, and that is not enough, with the rise in fuel and everything else.”

Because of inflation, people tend to put off maintenance. And because there are no regulations, people think it’s not a necessity. But it catches up with them, which is what happened during COVID, Carli says. “The biggest thing I say is, ‘You can’t go rent a pump truck. No one can pump their own septic tank.’”

While the Watkins are all-in with social media advertising, they are also strong supporters of local businesses. They get their flyers and business cards printed by a local company and they run ads in the local monthly shopper newspaper. All of those things are beneficial, Carli says, and it covers the younger generations as well as the older.

They also like to support veterans and seniors. “They fight for our country so absolutely we want to give them a discount,” Carli says. “And a lot of seniors are on a fixed income so we understand they need to pinch every penny they can.”

A marketing company helped them put a 30-second video on their website. Carli takes photos of work out in the field to post on social media. And it gives her a chance to get out of the office and meet the customers, and for the customers to see who’s behind the voice on the phone.

TEAMWORK

Future plans include growing the business, possibly adding other services such as installations. “But Joe saw what happened in 2008 with the economy so he definitely understands you don’t want to grow too fast and add too many services,” Carli says.

There’s also the labor situation to consider. They don’t want to overwhelm themselves with work if they can’t find help. Carli says that’s the most challenging aspect of the business — not letting it consume their lives, especially since they have young children, a son, 5, and a daughter, 4. She says they have to accept that they can’t do every tank, every emergency, every repair.

For Joe, the challenges include low profit margins on septic work, having to dig up lids to pump tanks, and low-ball pricing issues on the drain cleaning side. But he loves being his own boss, making the decisions, and being a third-generation operator.

Carli says one of the best things about the business for her is the customers.

“I love them,” she says. “I’m definitely the customer service-oriented person. That was my background as a kid when my mom was in the service industry.” She also says Joe’s drive and passion for the industry has rubbed off on her. “We work hand-in-hand with each other. We’re both driven people and make a great team.”