First impressions matter, so gleaming trucks with white paint and bold blue lettering and equipment that’s clean and maintained are the standard for Septic Pumping & Maintenance by Cody Young. Pair that with a robust work ethic mentality and a pledge to stand behind your service no matter what, and you have a recipe for success. 

When asked if he puts a premium on a septic services company image that looks polished and fresh, Young replies, “That is 100% correct. If there’s one thing that my last boss in the septic industry beat into us, it was to keep our equipment looking neat, clean and new — because you don’t want to show up to a job doing a dirty job with dirty equipment.”

Since starting his own company in 2014, Young has applied this emphasis on professionalism to all aspects of his business and the results speak for themselves. Starting out as a one-man band, the Kingsland, Texas, company has grown to a business of 35 employees that does tank pumping and septic installations on a 50/50 basis.

For equipment, the company has built a nice fleet of service vehicles and machines to support their versatile offerings including a mix of pump trucks for both septic pumping and portable restrooms and a handful of John Deere excavators and skid loaders for installation work.

Settling in Texas

“I grew up in Iowa with two brothers and two sisters in a small town of 1,200,” he says. “My father worked for a local construction company, and my mother was their bookkeeper. I worked for a farmer while I was going to high school.”

After high school in 2007, a family event spurred a big change. His brother was getting married in Marble Falls, Texas. “I came down from Iowa, where a brutal winter ice storm had knocked out our power for a week,” he recalls. “Once I arrived in Marble Falls, the weather was sunny and 70 degrees. So moving to Texas was a no-brainer. When I got back to Iowa, I put my notice in at the farm. Then I drove down to Texas in a pickup truck with $300 to my name. I was young and dumb, just 19 years old, so I didn’t think that through very well.”

But this time young and dumb worked out, mostly due to Young’s work ethic and the guiding hands of good people. He moved into the guest room at his brother’s house and found a job. “I started working on a ranch for a little bit until I realized that I didn’t want to build fences for the rest of my life,” he says. “So I went to work for a septic company in Marble Falls and got my septic license through them, and I was a foreman for them for several years. They were very, very good people. I mean, to this day, my old boss still sends me Bible verses every morning, even after I quit working for him in 2014 and started my own company.” Their relationship stayed strong even within the industry. After going out on his own, Young’s old boss would hire him as a subcontractor on installation and pumping jobs.

Young does not hesitate to acknowledge how much having good people around him contributes to the success of the business. His brother Milo and wife Kayla have been with him through thick and thin, playing a big part in the company’s success.

Figuring it out

It was during a pumping job that Young figured out how to make it in the installation business. “When you get called out for pumping, I’d say 80% of the time it’s a failed system. And when a homeowner calls you, you answer the phone, and then go there, you’re a lifesaver,” he says. “You’ve saved the day because now they can flush the toilet. And then since you are there for them, you’re giving them a price for a new install and they already like you because you saved the day. So nine times out of ten in these circumstances, you get the install job.” 

The key here is answering the phone, no matter what time of day or night it is. “When I first started, the calls went directly to my cellphone and I always answered,” says Young. 

Back then he would self-dispatch to wherever customers needed him. Today, Young has people he can send out instead, but whatever happens and whenever it does, he’s ready. “If it’s anytime after five o’clock, the customer can push an emergency prompt that calls my cellphone,” he says. “Then I figure out who I can get to go out there or I go out myself.”

Variety is his business

When it comes to installations, Young isn’t fussy about what jobs he takes on. Whether it’s conventional systems, low-pressure dose drip, aerobic, lift station system and mounds, “we do all of them,” he says. “We do every type of system there is in Texas.”

This is no small accomplishment, given just how varied the ground is in Texas. “In our area, you can have the most beautiful Class 2 soil that you’ve ever seen, 20 feet deep,” says Young. “But also in our area, you can be standing on the hardest dolomite/granite rock that you’ve ever stood on at 2 inches deep. The toughest installs are the ones that are on solid rock on the side of a hill, small lot on the lake. Sometimes we have to blast out our tank holes using dynamite. That’s how tough Texas rock can be.”

In addition to installations, the company offers a wide range of services. They include septic tank and grease tank pumping, repairs, maintenance contracts and even custom-engineered septic system designs. 

“I decided to do all of this because I didn’t want my company to rely on others,” Young explains. “Being self-sufficient offers advantages. For instance, we have our own crane trucks to set our tanks so we can buy our tanks in bulk and shop around for volume purchasing deals. We also do our own designs for timeline reasons. We want to control how quickly we can get designs to the licensing authority and not wait for a third-party supplier to come through for us.”

This being said, the biggest reason Young likes to do as much as possible in-house is because it allows him to maintain the highest possible level of quality. This approach is carried through to actual installations and service calls. “I want the work to be done efficiently, but the quality has to come first,” he says. “If it takes us four hours to do a two-hour job to make sure that that job is completed perfectly, that’s fine with me. I know that when we cover it up, we won’t have to dig it back up again.”

Attitude is everything

There is a consistent theme to Young’s success story, and it is attitude. His success is built on having the right customer-focused approach guiding everything he does in his business.

Achieving this level of quality service isn’t easy. In fact it’s an ongoing challenge. “I would be a liar if I told you I didn’t have a turnover rate because of the standards I hold my employees to,” he says. “Still, we’ve had really good luck finding good people. We don’t get a whole lot of agricultural graduates coming to say, ‘Can we come install septics for you?’ But we get some really good country folks that take pride in their work and are known around the community.”

He holds himself to the same high standards he expects from his employees, and that translates into the company as a whole. “We stand behind everything we do, and that’s a very big thing,” says Young. “If I could give any insight to upcoming business owners, not just in the septic industry, but any industry, it’d be to stand behind what you do 100%. Don’t look for reasons not to stand behind it. It’s going to hurt when you’re fixing it for free, but in the long run, it’s going to come back at you tenfold.” 

Perhaps the best way to sum up Young’s right attitude is to go back to this one point: “The No. 1 thing that I always tell everyone is answer the phone and show up,” he declared. “And if you cannot show up on time, update that customer. That is the most important thing. People need to know that you can be trusted to keep your word, and that you will come through for them as you promised to. This approach has worked for me, and it can work for you.”