Buying, Growing & Selling a Porta Potty Business with Scott Kandel, CEO of Royal Flush

Listen now on Spotify or YouTube.Royal Flush is the fastest growing portable sanitation company in the Vegas market. That wasn't always the case. When Scott acquired it, the trailing twelve months of revenue was only $150K. Now the business grosses over $3M. In this episode, we get a crash course in operating and growing a portable sanitation business.Some takeaways:* Most sanitation businesses are just “buying a job.” The majority of local operators own fewer than 250 units. Scott’s bet was to bring a professionalized, B2B sales-driven model to a sleepy, fragmented industry.* The first 90 days were about scrappiness and speed. Scott drove from Vegas to Kansas to buy 10 toilets himself, took the “sold out” sign off the website, answered every phone call, and raised prices by ~30%. He lost one customer.* Route density = profitability. At acquisition, Royal Flush had 130 units across 125 sites. Scott knew that clustering service routes, not just adding customers, was the key to scaling margin.* CapEx is heavy — but scale unlocks commercial contracts. To grow, Scott reinvested aggressively: from 130 toilets to 2,000, and from 1 truck to 14. A single route truck costs $125K–$150K. But with route density, ROI compounds fast.* The construction market accounts for a majority of revenue. 80% of Royal Flush’s revenue comes from residential construction. Once they became the default for major homebuilders, recurring volume followed. Events now make up the remaining 20% — and help hedge in a downturn.* “Units in Field” is the KPI that matters most. Scott tracks the number of toilets, sinks, and tanks deployed — but more importantly, how often each is serviced. High-frequency cleanings drive revenue, and dense routes drive margin.* Just get started. A lot of buyers and investors focus on $1M+ EBITDA businesses. These are very competitive, trade at high multiples and the acquisition journey takes a while. A repeat business buyer, Scott went for something he could quickly wrangle and grow, despite the fact that TTM revenue was only $150K.Where to find Scott & Royal Flush:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-kandel/* Website: https://royalflushco.com/In this interview, we dive into:* 0:00 Intro to Scott Kandel * 0:51 Buying & Selling a Moving Company* 2:03 Journey to Royal Flush* 3:57 First 90 Days* 6:19 Business Model for Porta Potties* 7:54 How Pricing Works * 9:06 Customer Segmentation* 10:14 CapEx for Sanitation* 11:21 Types of Trucks* 12:47 Market Fragmentation* 13:30 Selling 75% of Royal Flush* 15:29 What Separates the Best This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smb15.substack.com