Name and title or job description: Cory Lawrence
Business name and location: Cory’s Septic Services, Bennington, New Hampshire
Services we offer: A full range of septic tank and system services including pumping, repair and maintenance, residential pump station repair, riser installations, line jetting, camera and locating, and evaluations for real estate sales.
Age: 50
Years in the industry: 25-plus
Association involvement: Member of the Granite State Onsite Wastewater Association and New Hampshire Association of Septage Haulers, Contoocook Valley Board of Realtors
Benefits of belonging to the association: Belonging to an association gets your name out to a broader audience. When people are looking for septic services, they can check the state association websites for companies near them. There are quite a few septage haulers in New Hampshire, and the state association listing helps differentiate us from the others.
Biggest issue facing your association right now: For a while, it was hard to dispose of septage, but it’s been pretty easy now for us and other companies in southern New Hampshire.
Our crew includes: Jayma Brown, office manager; Tyler Howe, a part-time helper who runs a pump truck and helps with other tasks; Mike Andersen, a part-time technician who fixes residential pump stations and completes septic-related repairs.
Typical day on the job: I get to the shop between 6 and 6:30 a.m. and get equipment ready for the day. We go over whatever is going on for the day. Then, I go out on service calls. When I’m out in the field, I always take the time to talk with customers, telling them about their septic system and any repairs. In between service calls, I’ll take care of estimates and answer questions from our customers and crew. I’m out-and-about more often than I’m sitting at a desk, so my office usually is my pump truck.
The job I’ll never forget: I was working for a company installing septic tanks on a lakefront property. We had to tie off the back end of the excavator to a couple of trees to extend over an embankment to jackhammer a ledge.
My favorite piece of equipment: My favorite piece of equipment is one of my pump trucks, a 1980 Kenworth W900A. It’s a nice-looking truck and has a 4,000-gallon aluminum tank. It’s been a good truck for me. My second favorite piece of equipment is a Harben line jetter. It makes cleaning sewer lines so much easier compared to the old jetter I had.
The craziest question or most insightful comment from a customer: I always have customers ask, “Is it OK to flush disposable wipes?” I tell them, “Absolutely not. If you do, it’s going to be expensive later on.” Disposable wipes can cause a lot of problems.
If I could change one industry regulation, it would be: All septic tanks should have risers to grade so there’s no digging and people won’t forget that they have a septic tank that needs to be pumped out.
Best piece of small business advice I’ve heard or came up with: “Don’t get too big too fast.” For 14 years, I was a partner in a septic business, and I went out on my own in 2024. I’m slowly growing the business and looking to expand in three or four years.
If I wasn’t working in the wastewater industry, I would like to: I would be a chef. When I was a teenager, I worked at a French restaurant. I started as a dishwasher and worked my way up to be a line cook. The owner wanted to send me to culinary school once I graduated from high school, but he passed away unexpectedly. Soon afterward, I left the restaurant and my life went in a different direction. I think I would’ve liked being a chef, but I like what I do, especially dealing with customers and teaching them about the industry.
Crystal ball time – This is my outlook for the wastewater industry: I think the general public should know more about how a septic tank works. People are moving from big cities to the country, and they aren’t familiar with septic tanks. We try to tell them it’s different from a city sewer where you can flush it and forget about it. I think homebuyers and real estate agents should receive more training about septic systems.
