The company name – Versatile Worx – embodies Jason Sears’ plans for a diverse business. Now in his fourth year, he’s building on a foundation of training and experience, diversity in a developing market, and a large measure of technology.
Based in Cobble Hill, British Columbia (on Vancouver Island), the company takes a creative approach to service in an area with unpredictable weather. Versatile Worx provides pipe inspection, drain jetting and power rodding, and installation and maintenance of septic systems and perimeter drains. The firm also makes sewer connections.
Sears is firmly committed to the efficiency and economies of scale enabled by advances in equipment, materials and processes – and to using the Internet as a primary marketing tool.
Training and education form the third part of the company’s foundation. As a member of three provincial professional organizations, Sears believes strongly in constant and comprehensive education.
Getting started
In 2003, Sears started working as a sewer and water operator for the Infrastructure Services department of the District of North Saanich on Vancouver Island. He took advantage of the city’s training program and took wastewater education courses.
After about a dozen courses, he saw a world of drain work just waiting outside the city of Cobble Hill. “Seeing what the drain-cleaning equipment could do made me think there were a lot of opportunities, so I started looking around for side work,” he says. He mainly installed perimeter drains, using a 2005 Bobcat 430 excavator.
“I picked up cleaning jobs through the city,” he says. “Word about my excavating spread, and I got very busy. I worked my city job until 4 o’clock, then went out on my own until 11 o’clock every night and on weekends. It got to be a bit much.”
In 2006 he got serious about full-time self-employment. “I had a hundred jobs and not enough hours to get to them,” Sears says. “That let me know the work was out there.” Knowing he needed to diversify, he took some vacation time and went to a trade show in Texas to investigate cameras and jetters.
By the start of 2007, Sears had used up his personal days to attend courses or perform freelance jobs. He had received his environmental services certification and was almost ready to work full-time on his own. He took a leave of absence to attend the Pumper & Cleaner Expo in Nashville – his final push toward independence. In May, he left his job with the city to pursue Versatile Worx full-time.
Weather challenges
Versatile Worx serves all of Vancouver Island from its base on the southeast end. Warm, moisture-laden air blowing off the Pacific Ocean brings considerable rain from September to March. Summers are relatively dry.
“We never know how much rain we’re going to get, especially in winter,” Sears explains. “Sometimes there are days and weeks when you just can’t work excavating.” So the company diversified into drain cleaning, which picks up as soon as it starts to rain and clogs become noticeable. “Two or three years ago, it rained for 80 days straight, a record,” Sears recalls. “Even as a part-time business, we would have been in real trouble without a diverse service offering.”
Diverse services mean a large equipment investment, and the financing took some prodding at the bank. Sears was still making payments on a second excavator, a 2007 Bobcat 323, when he wanted to buy a RIDGID SeeSnake Plus camera and color monitor.
The bank wasn’t eager, but Sears convinced them that his client waiting list proved his ability to pay. He got a line of credit, bought the camera, and paid it off in a month. All but two of the company’s machines are now paid for, including two more Bobcats, a 430 and an MT-55 mini-track loader, a 2006 Ford F450 one-ton pickup with a utility trailer, a 2005 Trailtech dump trailer, a Honda J/E 4040HG-AM gasoline-powered sewer jetter, a RIDGID K1500 power rodder, and a RIDGID SeeTech Locator.
He would like to offer hydroexcavation, but for that he may need a partner or investors to raise the capital. The most heavily populated part of the island is home to 700,000 people.
“There are so many underground and hidden utilities that when you’re digging, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to find something,” Sears says. “You don’t want to hit a gas line or something with a shovel, so hydroexcavation is safer. It’s also faster than three guys hand-digging a hole all day.”
Slow and steady
The Versatile Worx customer base is 80 percent residential, 10 percent commercial and 10 percent municipal. Though Sears is aggressive about growth, he takes a measured approach, trying to make sure everything will work before investing further. “I’d like to go into partnership with someone who’s been in the business or something related, to round out my skill set,” he says. “One of us could be doing jobsite inspections, planning and estimating, and the other could be producing billable hours.”
One challenge will be finding and retaining qualified help, but Sears is ready for that. “Because of my work with the city, I have contacts with a lot of guys whose skills I’m sure of,” he says. “I know I can find the skilled people I need. I just want to be sure I can pay them.
“I’ll look for someone with a plumbing background, hopefully with quite a bit of knowledge,” Sears says. “That would be a great new service for us to offer. I’d like to finish my own plumbing apprenticeship – I’m on my second year – but that’s going to take some time. I’ll need some pretty good guys out there working to allow me to get back to it.”
The company’s excavation business led naturally to septic system installation, maintenance and inspection – a growing area of the business. Sears’ certifications allow him to move easily into all realms of any given wastewater service.
The British Columbia Ministry of Health has comprehensive onsite regulations and delegates education about them to the British Columbia OnSite Sewage Association (BCOSSA). The association develops programs to educate, train and certify all who design, install, maintain, inspect and regulate onsite systems.
BCOSSA tapped Applied Science Technologists & Technicians of British Columbia to deliver its training and education programs. Versatile Worx is designated as a registered onsite wastewater practitioner, indicating that its owner has been certified in all four areas of practitioner training.
Sears’ plans include investing in a vacuum truck to service septic systems.
Training and technology
In the meantime, Sears remains aggressive about learning. “I don’t think you can get enough training,” he says. “I’d do it every day if I could.”
He believes the training will pay off as much in marketing Versatile Worx as in doing jobs. Right now, he doesn’t actively market the business. “All I really have is a business card,” he says. “It’s mostly word-of-mouth. I have a phonebook ad, but it really only attracts price shoppers. Still, my phone rings constantly. If I advertised any more, I’d be in trouble. I can’t even keep up with the work I have now.”
Whether it’s new equipment or the latest in cyber-communication, technology drives the way Sears builds his company. Versatile Worx is committed to staying as far ahead of the curve – and its competition – as possible.
