I’m a couple weeks removed from attending the WWETT Show at the time of this column’s writing.
Per usual, there was a lot of equipment on display. Some new. Some old. Some old but with new features. And in that environment — the exhibit hall of the Indiana Convention Center — the equipment looks different. It is shiny, unused. But a convention center is not its natural environment. Wastewater equipment’s true home is out in the field, helping contractors do their work.
On the final day of the WWETT Show, the open hours for the exhibit hall winding down, I stood outside in front of the Indiana Convention Center waiting for an Uber to take me to the airport. In that moment, I witnessed some equipment making the transition to its true home. Employees from a company — close enough that they had driven to the show — loaded a couple of newly purchased drain cleaning machines into the back of a pickup truck.
I thought about where that equipment was headed and what types of jobs it would be deployed on. A year from now, will those machines be trusty tools that the company will rave about? Would they be good candidates to be featured in a Money Machines article?
This column also serves as a call to action. I’m always in search of leads for the Money Machines article that appears in every issue of Cleaner. Reach out to me if you have a favorite piece of equipment that you can talk about in more detail. What is helping you do your day-to-day work? What allows you to provide great service to customers or improves your efficiency and productivity? What’s the tool that has been particularly beneficial to your business’ bottom line? Whatever the way a specific piece of equipment helps you, I’d love to hear about it.
One of the companies profiled in this month’s issue is Handy Plumbing Man. Owner Marco Acosta first appeared in this magazine last year when I ran a Money Machines article about him discussing his experiences with the LightRay LR3 pipeline spot-repair system. In this full profile, he goes into more detail about his pipe lining services and the equipment he uses.
Marco’s enthusiasm is exactly what I look for in a Money Machines article, which is also why it was inevitable I would be doing a longer profile story about him these many months later. For my work, I don’t use such varied tools. A laptop pretty much covers it. But I recognize the enthusiasm. You get excited about how a particular lining system solves your customers’ sewer problems quickly and effectively. I get excited when unconnected pieces for a column idea finally click together, or when a snappy headline idea comes to mind.
Let me transfer some of your enthusiasm to the pages of Cleaner. Share details about something in your equipment roster that gets you excited about doing your work. So excited that you just have to tell others. Call 715-350-8442 or email me at editor@cleaner.com.
Enjoy this month’s issue.
