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SPOTLIGHT

A ADVANCED SEPTIC AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

F or this month's spotlight we spoke with Joshua Guina hard knocks way of learning. It was a time where in the

who together with his father Andrew own and operate construction world it seemed like the only way you got a

A Advanced Septic and Construction Services out of lesson was from your Forman yelling and screaming at you.

Washington State. I find it important to note that because as he grew up in our

Can you tell me a little bit about your background? Can you say a few words about your education and training? How did

you into the business? Why did you get into the septic tank and other related businesses and services? What did you do before

you started your own business? How does what you did before you started your own business inform and influence your current

business in the liquid waste industry?

Andrew grew up a pastor's son and around 18 found

himself on the end of a shovel learning the dirt working

industry. He grew up in an era that many of us refer to the

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industry he spent 18 years working for the largest company

in our area doing construction, drain field work, and waste

hauling. What Dad has always made clear is that we get to

learn from all our experience that we encounter both good

and bad. It's in those lessons that we have built this incredibly

blessed and thriving company. It's in those lessons where

he decided that we were going to have a company that our

employees could "work to live not live to work". We have a

culture in our company where yelling is not an acceptable

way of communicating. Dads' education came from on the job

training over the last 32 years in this industry.

MAY 2016 AMERICAN LIQUID WASTE 7

:- . He has been committed to constant personal growth

through other avenues of training such as the WWETT

conferences, training classes provided by our local health

departments, and has traveled all over to find other areas

of training. We also belong to Washington on site sewage

association where we not only participate in the classes

as a company but Andrew is an active teacher in all areas

of our industry.

Q. Tell us about the history of the company.

A Advanced Septic and Construction was started out

of a garage in 2006 by Andrew Gunia, Joshua Gunia and

my wife Michelle Gunia. Michelle was central in starting

A Advanced because without her our company would

not be what and where it is today. Michelle went to

collage to become a contract specialist, and then got

her Master's Degree, all of which she used later on to

become a prized asset to another company. Michelle

put into place many of the systems upon which our

company still operates. It was Michelle that helped name

our company. In addition to all of her fundamental hard

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work in multiple companies. As far as my back ground goes

I knew from the time I was a boy that I was going to be in

this industry and I knew that I was going to be an owner

of a company in the waste hauling industry and that I

would be a leader in our industry. I like, my father, got my

education from being in the trenches. I started sweeping

the shop around 13 and never missed an opportunity to

go to a job site or be present next to my father any time

there was an industry meeting or a teaching opportunity. I

started working for my father full time when I was 16 years

old and never stopped since. In 06 I had the opportunity

to become a partner in our company. One thing I will note

in my education is that I had many leaders in our industry

that have been there for me as mentors and have taken

the time with me along the way to keep me grounded

and have been there to mentor me and in all that I have

gotten my education in a way that I may have never gotten

in a traditional schooling. From the start our company

has been focused primary around the onsite industry. We

specialize in drain field restoration first and our c~mpany

then branched out from there. We started with a few great

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loyal employees, got our first pump truck (silver bullet) and

our first mini excavator. From there we never stopped. Our

vision has always been to provide fantastic customer service

at a fair price.

We have a few values that we live by in our company and it

makes up the culture of our company 1) Be safe 2) do quality

work 3) be happy. What we figured out was by living by those

values and breeding a culture with our employees that live by

those values we found that is has led to exceptional customer

service. When you follow those 3 values then the profit will

follow. This is our mission statement.

Q. What is your business model? How have you structured your

business? What plans, models, or organizations, configurations,

did you envision when you thought about how you wanted to set up your business structure?

We knew early on that our company would be a company

where our employees were going to be jewels not tools.

We are a family owned and operated company so we have

relationships with our employees and their families. We

10 AMERICAN LIQUID WASTE MAY 2016

knew in our ten year goals when we started that we wanted

to be around 30 or so employees that had backgrounds

and specialized in different areas of the industry. We just

celebrated our ten year anniversary and have achieved those

goals and many more. We envisioned a cutting edge company

that would be using the best of equipment available and

that attention to the customer details was going to be of the

upmost importance. We knew at the time that things like

GPS on all of our t rucks, camera equipment for our truck's,

being well connected with our local health departments and

organizations were all going to be part of long term success.

In terms of business structure as it relates to services, we

knew that we were going to be a emergency response type

company. We put together a team that understands that

when a home owner or a commercial account is out of service

with a alarm sounding or a backup happening that we will

and do whatever it takes to get them in service as quickly

as possible. We knew in our long term goals as a company

that we were going to be a full services company that could

be one stop shopping for plumbing septic and construction

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needs to both residential and commercial accounts. We knew

that to have several small excavators ranging from 4klbs

to 20klbs would be needed. We bought things like pump

trucks, dump trucks, dozers, loaders, street sweepers, jetting

equipment, and all the tools in-between.

Q. Tell us about all of the different services that you offer.

Which division is the most success ful? Why do you think that is

the case?

Our company took time to become full service. We now

operate with many divisions in our company. Services that we

provide to list a few are pumping and servicing septic systems

both in residential and commercial, we are a full service septic

company first so with that we risers septic systems, jett drain

fields, install outlet baffle filters, repair broken septic tanks, we

trouble shoot failed septic systems and alarms, we specialize

in taking a 20 plus year old failed septic system and typically

in one day can repair it meeting health department guide

lines and give the systems another 20 years of usage without

destroying their yard and can often complete a repair i.n one

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day using terra lift technology and other tools of the trade.

We are a bio-microbics dealer in multiple counties and offer

a full range of services from trouble shooting to installation

to distribution of the product to other competitors. We have

a division that is dedicated to operation and maintenance

of existing septic systems. We pump both commercial and

residential systems for county and municipalities. We do

asphalt repairs, tree removal, block wall install, water line

replacement and locate of leaks, we do site development and

utility installation, and a lot of other services.

The septic installation and drain field rehab division of the

company is by far the most profitable part of the company

specifically the rehab work has the best margins. 60 percent

of the work done in our company comes from our septic

related work and that's where we focus 90% of our advertising

and is the foundation that our company was built on. The

construction part of our company makes up the other 40% left

over and its very intentional in how we are structured it has

the least amount of margins but is a necessary evil in our long

term success and we separate ourselves from our competitors.

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We are very satisfied in the ratio and look to maintain it.

Q. What are some of the distinguishing features and services of

your company that are unique and that no other local company

has, so that you can deliver the greatest value to customers at a

price-point cost comparable to, or lower than, your competition?

We have one main thing that separates us from everyone

else. That is our drain field restoration. Most companies in

our area will not repair existing failed systems. Many don't

even want to trouble shoot them to find out why they failed

and if there is a simple fix. Others have chosen simply not to

invest into the equipment and education that is necessary to

fix these systems. We invest heavily into our employees and

their education and give them the best equipment possible

to perform the task and in return there happy which then

results in great customer service. That in its self allows for us

to be extremely competitive still allowing us to give back to

those in need such as elderly widow and the single moms

of the world. So from start to finish we can take a call in the

morning have it dispatched to one of our 4 pump trucks and

have the system pumped and trouble shot by the afternoon

and in most cases have a crew performing the repair work

within a few days of the initial call, the entire time leaving

the customer in service and allowing them to live there lives

12 AMERICAN LIQUID WASTE MAY 2016

to the fullest at the same time often saving them 15 to 20

thousand dollars in replacement of their drain fields.

Q: How do you identify and respond to existing/new market

segments that provide the best opportunities for growth and

why? Tell us about the company's growth model. What growth

potential do you see for your business; for each division of your

company?

We identify new markets by providing a safe place for our

staff friends and family to give us new ideas. It seems simple

but we learned that not all business give their staff safe

places to throw out new ideas. Some of greatest moments

have come from ideas that dad and myself did not come

up with. We put these ideas into a think tank kind of, we

bounce these ideas off of others in our company others in our

industry and other trusted business owners and operators.

We try to find holes in the ideas and then as a team find

ways to make them work. We found a company called Valor

marketing that has been incredibly helpful along the way

as it relates to our marketing and new ideas to connect with

our customers. Those are all part of how we have been able

to maintain controlled growth at 28% growth year after year

since the beginning. In order to have maintained this kind

growth over the last ten years we had to put together a team

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that had our same core values, the team had to care about

our customer, we often question ourselves when making a

decision on behalf of our customer and the question is if this

was our grandmother is this what we would be doing for her.

When you can answer that question with yes then it's easy

to feel comfortable with the decisions we make. It applies

because we use that as a reminder that we would rather make

a little from every customer that we do business with and

make a little over a life time then a lot in a onetime event. It's

proven it's self over and over again. We are able to continue to

reduce our advertising because our word of mouth referrals

continue to grow. It's the best kind of advertising there is,

it's what allows us to grow at such a rapid rate. When we

started in 06 it was right before the recession hit. We watched

companies all around us lose everything they had spent life

died. 1 can't remember if the saying came from one of my

dad's many catch phrase but it is something that we have

lived by and that is "if you are not growing you are dying".

We have seasons to every one of our divisions, sometimes

its winter for the construction side other times it's the end

of summer and who wants to spend their vacation and kids

school money on fixing or maintaining their septic system.

Not many. So as we study our trends we have found ways to

fill those predictable times. In some cases it may be we load

up that time with maintenance pumping and work maybe we

stall a construction job that works for our customer and will

be a perfect build thought the winter. We have learned to be

flexible and to plan for the rough times of the year. Those are

the things that contribute to that kind of growth.

time's working for. It was a time that we had to make some Q: Tell us about who works for the company? How many

tough choices. The choices that we made were to believe and employees? How is your managerial and employee structure

trust in our heavenly father and to be good stewards of what organized and implemented?

we were given. Obviously we had to do our part, so we got We have around 30 employees. Jackie is our office manager

busy figuring out how we were going to survive and thrive and runs the company in our absence. Jackie is the back

through this time. The answer came through diversification bone of the company. So in the end Jackie looks after the

it was that that allowed us to grow when others around us entire company. We have Lamarr who is in charge of dispatch

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as his primary job. Lamarr had been in the industry for over

20 years. Leanne is a CSR and is also very good at what she

does. Between the three of them they answer all the calls and

take care of the day to day actions. Bob Howard is our lead

estimator and is our sale manager followed by Scott who is

our project estimator and then Eric who is in charge of our

commercial accounts. Tyson Wood is our superintendent who

makes the impossible possible each and every day. Jeremiah

Gunia is a part owner now in the company and is our field

supervisor in our septic division and also operates our bio­

microbics sales and maintenance division . Tom Armijo is an

equipment operator. Jerry is a pump truck driver, Andrew

Bailey is a dump truck driver. Taylor Beaulieu is the Forman

on the drain field rehab crew. Aaron is the labor on the rehab

crew. Tom Beaulieu is in charge of our Handy man services.

Joe is a dump truck driver and moves our heavy equipment as

well as in charge of our fleet maintenance, Damon is a pump

truck driver, Jason is a operator in our construction division,

Matt June is a pipe layer, ian is a pipe layer/ operators,

Camron is a laborer in the septic division as well as keeps

us looking classy by maintain the fleet washing. Justin is

pump truck driver I dump truck driver, Robert is a operating

Forman for both divisions, Matt Vis a pump truck driver and

14 AMERICAN LIQUID WASTE MAY 2016

specializes in our commercial step pumping. Bill W is our

facilities manager and Gus works in the shop and finally Dean

Bogart is what keeps us running every day. Dean is the shop

Forman and does all our mechanical work, fabrication work

and everything in between. I hope I didn't leave any one out.

One of the things we have created in our business model is

that everyone has their area of expertise and allows us to be

great in lots of different areas.

Q: How do you boost efficiency in your jobs and your workers?

How do you boost morale in your workers? What do you expect

of them? Who trains them? Tell us about the training process

for the different roles and responsibilities your employees have

working for the company. What particular employee challenges

do you face?

Efficiency and moral seem to go hand and hand with our

company. Early I mentioned that our employees are jewels

not tools and with that we pride ourselves in taking care of

our employees. Our employees get paid top wages in their

fields, they have medical, dental, vision, secondary insurance

such as Afl ac are also available to them at a highly negotiated

rate for them. We match up to 3% in a simple Ira for those

after a year of employment. We also invest heavily in to good

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quality equipment so that they rarely have equipment

break downs. Our staff gets privileges such as using our

equipment to work at their own homes and there family

houses. Our biggest struggle with employees is hiring

qualified employees. It's brutal trying to find good drivers,

operators, laborers. So we lean heavily on the benefits of

working for a family owned and operated business as well

as in some cases sign on bonus

Q. Tell us about your fleet of vehicles.

We currently operate four pump trucks and are looking for

our fifth one with a tanker. Our first truck was purchased in

06 from FMI in Portland Oregon. Dad had this truck custom

built. Ten years later and it's still our show truck. It's a 2000

Freight liner century class. It has a 3600 gallon aluminum

Beall tank on it. Our next truck was purchased in 2011 and

is a 2003 freight liner century class. It has an Erickson 3600

gallon steel barrel. Next one was purchased in 2013 and is a

1999 Sterling with a Erickson 3000 Gallon steel tank. Lastly

we purchased a 2011 Peterbilt 365 with a steel 4750 gallon

tank on it. We use Varco hoses on all our trucks ranging from

2inch to 6inch and we carry around 160ft of 3inch hose on

every truck. All of our pump trucks run with Masport pumps.

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With every truck we have added fresh on-board water after

purchase. They all have 3200 psi on board jetters. We also

have crust busters on all but one of our trucks.

We have grown into a large fleet of trucks, with lots of

equipment, and tools. We run primarily dodge trucks for our

sales rigs. For small service trucks we have 8 Dodges that

range from half ton to one ton and are a mix of diesel and

gas. We have 2 fully enclosed vans that are set up to perform

our operation and maintenance part of our septic business.

We have 4 fully enclosed 24ft long box trucks that are

diesel and operate on Freightliner M2 chassis. These semis

are used in the construction field and we learned early on

that our equipment lasts longer. There are 3 dump trucks,

Internationals and Freightliners ranging from one that is

a 5 yard to two of them that are 12 yard dumps. There are

some 10 or more trailers ranging from 8ft long to 30ft long

trailer; some fully enclosed and others that have the ability

to carry 50klbs. We have a few Fords, a 5500 mechanics

truck and a 3500 Forman truck. We have street sweepers

pull behind air compressors to power wheel barrows, pull

behind dewatering pumps. In all we have around 32 trucks

and trailers which equates to over 140 tires on the ground at

any given time.

MAY 2016 AMERICAN LIQUID WASTE 15

Q: We are interested in your client base. How many clients

would you say you serviced or pumped monthly? Yearly? What

kind of business action does each division do monthly? Yearly?

We have a great group of customers and it continues to

grow. We see roughly around 3500 customers a year and haul/

pump around 2 and a half million gallons a year. Dad always

said never keep all your eggs in one basket so we used that

thought process to be diversified in all of our divisions so

we have many ongoing contracts with both residential and

commercial accounts. Some of our residential contracts are

simple year to year contracts where we inspect and maintain

their system. We probably have over 400 of them yearly. Our

commercial contracts are with the parks departments, local

counties with step systems again both in commercial and

residential. One day we may be pumping 20, 2-compartment

1000 gallon septic tanks spread out through a development

and the work can be done with one pump truck, the next

day we could be pumping a commercial system that is 30000

gallons and needs 4 trucks at one time pumping all the same

time. It can be quite the dispatching headache.

company from 3 of us 10 years ago with nothing to where we

are today. Our first 9 months in business we figured out how

to pull off 640k and at the end of last year we managed to

run about 5.7 million through the books. We measure in big

windows most of the year but we have always tracked what it

takes per day to keep the doors open.

Q: How much liquid and/or solid waste do you collect and

dispose of? Where do you dispose it? How does the whole

disposal process work in your particular municipality or state?

Our septic hauling division handles over 2.5 million gallons

a year and even that may be light because some of our large

commercial accounts we get paid by the gallon to haul away

but the customer pays for the disposal and so it's not tracked

through our system. Our sewage goes to several locations

throughout the counties we operate in. Most of our sewage

gets pumped from the individual sites and then hauled to one

of our two offices where we have 21000 gallon holding tanks

from there we have a company that hauls for us as much as

7 or more loads a week from us and then treats it and land

applies it on tree farms. We have 3 more municipal dump

Q: What about your revenue stream? What was it when you locations that range in price for disposal and range from 20 to

started? What is it now? What kind of business growth does your 40 miles away. []

company experience? What about each division? How did you

reach the high points of business growth and development?

What about the low points? What did you do about it?

It's taken about everything that we have made to take our

16 AMERICAN LIQUID WASTE MAY 2016

You can find out more information on A Advanced Septic by

visiting their website at: http://www.aadvancedservices.com

STORY BY MARK JOSEPH MANION

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