New Jersey Contractor Tackles All Cleaning Jobs

All Service Plus takes on more than most cleaners to provide comprehensive care for customers.
New Jersey Contractor Tackles All Cleaning Jobs
The team at All Service Plus includes (from left) service technician Chris Scott, supervisor and drain specialist Mario Condis, service technician Qwanean Smith, owner Wisler Sanon, service technician Zhaquan Manuel and Jaaquana Manuel.

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It’s hard to imagine a more aptly named company than All Service Plus — or a more entrepreneurial-minded businessman than its owner, Wisler Sanon, who’s established a thriving drain cleaning company by following a simple mantra: Be humble and hustle. 

In short, the Haitian-born Sanon never met a service he wasn’t willing to provide for his customers. In the case of All Service, based in Sicklerville, New Jersey, that means doing everything from cleaning drains to pipe locating, grease-trap cleaning, carpet washing, fire/water-damage mitigation and general plumbing service. 

“I’m very confident and I’m pretty resourceful,” Sanon says about his ability to provide so many services. “We’re busy every day, thank God. Once a customer called us and said there was a bird caught up in a water heater. I said, ‘Yes, we’ll take care of it.’ And we did. For the right money, we’ll come out and take care of just about anything. 

“That’s the main reason why we’ve been so successful in the short time we’ve been in business,” he adds. “We don’t turn anything down.” 

Sanon, who came to the United States in 1992, credits his late mother, Irma Sanon, for his strong work ethic and can-do attitude. She ran her own restaurant in Haiti but also took on many other jobs — “just about anything,” he says — to make ends meet. “So I got that from her.” He also says his wife, Rahsher, as well as his son, Wisler Jr., have contributed greatly to his success. “I couldn’t do it without them,” he notes. 

So far, the do-anything formula is working pretty well. Since he struck out on his own and formed All Service in 2012, Sanon now owns a fleet of equipment worth roughly $230,000, employs five people, expanded his service area to include all of New Jersey and Philadelphia, and increased annual gross revenues by about 35 percent.

Humble beginnings

Sanon spent 10 years working for several plumbing and drain cleaning companies before deciding to run his own business. Like so many entrepreneurs, he came to the realization that if he could make money for someone else, he could do the same for himself. So he obtained the required licenses, bought business insurance and started out with just a service van, a hand-held RIDGID drain cleaning machine and a large drum machine made by Spartan Tool. 

Within two months, Sanon, 38, hired his first employee. Within six months, he bought a trailer-mounted O’Brien water jetter (a brand owned by Hi-Vac Corp.); it generates 14 gpm at 3,000 psi and is equipped with a 300-gallon water tank. A year later, he invested in another trailer jetter, this one made by US Jetting (18 gpm at 4,000 psi with a 350-gallon water tank). 

Today, All Service also owns two Chevrolet utility box trucks that carry drain cleaning machines made by Spartan and General Pipe Cleaners (a division of General Wire Spring Co.); two service vans (Dodge and Chevrolet) equipped with RIDGID and General Pipe drain cleaning equipment; two pipeline inspection camera systems made by Vivax-Metrotech Corp.; and one 2003 Dodge pickup truck. For pipeline cleaning, Sanon prefers Warthog nozzles from StoneAge. 

“We use a rotating nozzle and a pullback head,” he explains. “The pullback head is good for cleaning lines from a clean-out at the curb, because it can pull debris backward … that way we don’t have to go into a building to clean the line. If we can work from the outside, it’s all good — we don’t make a mess in peoples’ homes. It’s always better to work from the outside.”

Hustling for customers

To build a business base, Sanon followed a decidedly simple marketing plan: Go to big-box home centers and exchange business cards with plumbers. “There’s a big difference between plumbers and drain cleaning,” he points out. “A lot of plumbers don’t clean drains, but they get a lot of drain cleaning calls. So I got to know plumbers in the neighborhood and exchanged business cards with them. If they need a drain cleaner, they call me. And if I get plumbing calls, I call them. We help each other out. 

“You just have to be humble and hustle — get out there and sell the business,” he adds. “That’s pretty much it. I don’t do a lot of advertising because there’s a lot of competition out there and it costs too much money to get your name out. I just hustle and be humble.” 

Not that starting from scratch was easy — far from it. Sanon says he often went months without getting paid by the business. Instead, he concentrated on plowing whatever money he earned back into the business. Because he didn’t have good credit established, he paid cash for new tools, vehicles and equipment. 

“Instead of showing off and buying a BMW, I invested in getting the right tools for the job,” he says. “With the right tools, you’re good. Without them, you’re not in business very long.” 

Sanon also learned the value of never turning down work. “If you do a job for $300, next week that same customer might call you for a $3,000 job,” he says. “So you can’t say no to work, even if it’s
far away.”

Mostly commercial work

About 90 percent of All Service’s customers are commercial. On the drain cleaning side of the business, Sanon says the company cleans everything from mainlines, sewer laterals and industrial pipelines to grease traps, pump stations and manholes, residential drains and pipelines at hospitals, nursing homes and restaurants. 

“Anything that has to do with drain cleaning, we’re on it,” he says. 

Some of the company’s more challenging jobs involve unclogging lines in high-rise apartment buildings. It’s one of the reasons why the company’s trailer jetters are equipped with 400 and 500 feet of 1/2-inch hose. To clean such lines in, say, a 20-story building, a technician carries a rope up to a rooftop, then drops it to another crew member on the ground, who ties it to the end of the jetter hose. Then the technician on the roof pulls up the hose, drops it down a stack pipe and goes to work. 

“We might have to run hose up 200 feet, then drop it down the stack 200 feet,” Sanon explains. “The clog could be caused by just about anything — grease buildup, toilet paper or even a kid’s toy. Any foreign object will clog it. We’ve even seen lines clogged by cellphones.” 

One of the toughest drain jobs Sanon ever encountered occurred in a 12-story high-rise apartment in Philadelphia occupied by many wealthy residents. When water started backing up through a kitchen sink in one millionaire’s apartment on the fifth or sixth floor, Sanon had to station an employee in the apartment with a wet vac to control the situation. 

“It took about one and a half to two hours to get the line clean,” he recalls. “It was pretty nerve-wracking. We could’ve ruined a $100,000 rug, and I can’t afford to have that happen.” 

Finding good employees also poses a challenge for Sanon. “It’s not at all hard to find business, but it is hard to find the right employees — people who do good work and who want to learn the business. If we have to do a lot of recalls, we’re not making money.” 

To attract and retain employees, Sanon says he strives to create a good working atmosphere where employees feel respected. “I stress that they’re not working for me — we’re working together,” he says. “I also go online and look at different drain cleaning companies and see how they do things — how they carry themselves. Then I try to do the same things.”

Looking to grow

Looking ahead, Sanon says he anticipates further growth. Within the next five years, he envisions running 10 service trucks. He’d also like to purchase a vacuum truck so the company can expand into bigger drain cleaning jobs — and create more business opportunities. 

“As a businessman, you’re never comfortable,” he says. “You always want to do more — be more successful. I’d like to do $5 million in business. If I have the right crew, it will happen.” 

And what advice would he give newcomers to the drain cleaning industry? “Hustle,” he says. “Be humble. Respect customers. Do good work. Be trustworthy. And go from there.”



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