Operating a business can be a bit like inspecting and cleaning pipelines — it’s all about negotiating unexpected twists and turns.
A good case in point is A-1 Pump & Jet Services of Emporia, Kansas, which started out as a septic pumping company but quickly morphed into something quite different: a company that cleans and inspects both food-processing lines at factories and sewer lines for municipalities; handles government contracts for cleaning sewer lines at military facilities; and hauls away and land-applies food-processing waste.“In the nine years since we started out, I don’t think we’ve pumped out more than a dozen septic
