Conditions rarely line up perfectly just how you imagine them, in this industry or any industry. In life really.
And yet, you have to keep showing up anyway — adjust, improvise, push forward however you can. And do so with a good attitude.
This simple — but no less important — lesson is on display with one of the companies featured in this month’s issue.
Mt. Washington Sewer and Drain Cleaning is based in New Hampshire’s northernmost city, Berlin. It’s a challenging service area to say the least. Owner Rod Tarbox jokes that the climate is against him, the economy is against him, and the geography is against him.
Berlin sits on the edge of a mountain range and a national forest. The principal industry for a hundred years was pulp and paper mills. When that industry began to falter, both the economy and the town shrank. The market can be a shaky one for small businesses. The company’s service area is full of small mill towns, often an hour’s drive or more apart. To get to customers, Rod is on the road a lot. And winter can be brutal. Last year, Rod was addressing frozen line service calls into the latter part of April.
But you wouldn’t know all that talking to Rod. He’s been running Mt. Washington Sewer and Drain Cleaning for 22 years now, and he still goes about his day-to-day work with a smile and a joke at the ready. He likes to take a light-hearted approach in the ways he markets his business and in his interactions with customers. Rod talks about constantly having to “reinvent himself” to handle the challenges of his service area, but it’s not a tone of bitterness. He says it with amusement, almost pride.
That mindset — the willingness to adapt, and even find some joy in the process — is something every contractor can learn from. The ones who thrive stay flexible, stay curious and stay willing to move forward even when the path in front of them looks a little strange.
Here’s the advice directly from Rod: “Be ready to adapt. Don’t fear change. Have confidence and always do the best you can. At the end of the day, you’re not in competition with others, but with yourself. Only you can make yourself a failure.”
It’s simple, straightforward advice but not necessarily easy to execute, especially on the days when conditions are less than ideal. That’s exactly when attitude matters most. Control what you can control. Accept what you can’t. Every business owner faces moments when the circumstances feel stacked against them. But resilience isn’t about pretending the hard parts aren’t hard. It’s about moving forward anyway, with as much humor, humility and grit as you can muster.
If there’s a theme that shows up again and again in the stories we feature in Cleaner magazine, it’s this: The people in this industry are tougher than the conditions they face.
Keep adapting, keep learning, keep moving forward — preferably with a smile on your face, as Rod Tarbox does.
Enjoy this month’s issue.
