Bob Oates can divide his four decades in drain cleaning into two distinct chapters. One covers his days as a competent but somewhat narrow-minded contractor with an outdated business model. The second chronicles his emergence as a businessman with clearly defined goals for boosting revenue and better serving customers.How Oates, the owner of Bob Oates Sewer Rooter in Seattle, moved from one chapter to the next underscores the difference between owning a business and just owning a job. It also drives home the importance of offering customers a diverse set of services and long-term solutions to drainline problems, which subsequently
