Starting a septic business isn't about picking a name or designing a logo. It's about getting the fundamentals right before you spend your first dollar.
In this episode of Jackquisitions, Jack Carr breaks down exactly how he'd build a septic business from scratch in 2026. From licensing and permitting to startup capital, marketing, hiring, and buying your first truck, he walks through the order that matters most and the common mistakes that sink new operators before they ever gain traction.
If you're thinking about launching a home service business or want a practical framework for starting in a regulated industry, this episode lays out a step-by-step roadmap to help you avoid expensive mistakes and build on a solid foundation.
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In this episode, Jack covers:
• Why licensing and local regulations should come before buying equipment
• How much capital he'd want before starting a septic business
• Whether it's better to buy an existing company or start from scratch
• How to allocate your startup budget across equipment, marketing, compliance, and working capital
• Why Google Business Profile, reviews, and Local Services Ads should be your primary marketing focus
• When to hire your first employee and how to structure the role for growth
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𝕏: https://x.com/thehvacjack
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Breaking $5M Workshop
Join John Wilson and Jack Carr in Akron, OH for a hands on workshop built for home service owners ready to scale past $5M. Get the proven playbook, tour Wilson's operation, and connect with other growth minded contractors. Register here: https://www.ownedandoperated.com/upcoming-events/oao-workshop-breaking-5-million
How to start a septic business in 2026. If I were starting a septic business in 2026, I would not start with branding, I would not start with the logo, and I definitely wouldn't start with the name or the website. I wouldn't just go out and buy a truck either. The first place that you need to start if you're gonna buy a septic system in 2026 is the
boring things. You gotta start on, hey, first and foremost, can I legally do this work? Because, like, let's be real, septic is not lawn care. Like it has to do with wastewater and public health, and there's permitting, and then there's state licensing and disposal rules. And if you get it wrong, this isn't just like, oh, here's a bad review. You get shut down and probably fined. So step one, first and foremost, is to get the licensing. The framework is simple. I would call the state environmental agency or even Google it and just say, hey, what licenses do I need to pump septic tanks, inspect septic tanks and septic system, install risers, do minor repairs, and dispose of sewage. Because there's two sides to this business. The one first side is pumping, the second type side is actual septic and septic repair. So in Tennessee, it's it's a class, you go get your permit, and then you're good to go. But there's lots of states like California and uh I think Florida is another one that they have a longer licensing period where you have to work for a company for a certain amount of years. So understanding this is going to be probably one of the most important things before even starting, because steptic is often state related, but it's county administered. So the states may say one thing, and the county may be the gatekeeper to approving permits and disposal and inspections and repairs. So don't rely on like Chat GBT. You actually have to go out there and contact your state and contact your uh county just to make sure that as a local operator you understand the rules of the game before you even get started. Because if you buy a hundred thousand dollar truck or a thirty thousand dollar truck, you don't want to be stuck with the payment without actually having the means to make revenue from that. That's
where I would start. I'd probably start on the pumping side, just because the pumping side usually takes less regulation and it's easier to get started on. And then that leads into the bigger ticket installation side. So start with pumping. That's the best place. That's where I would personally start, and then go from there. So we know what our permits are and our licenses are, what we need from the state, what we need from the county. We've probably located a spot where we are going to be able to dispose. We know that we're going to do pumping only. This is the foundation. That's what you need to do to start this program. Obviously, there's a lot more in there. I'm happy to deep dive this. Subscribe, like, follow, and let me know if you want me to deep dive like this specific section or any of the next sections. If you're trying to push past five million dollars in your home service business, this is the workshop that I wish I had earlier. September 15th to the 17th of this year, John and I are hosting another breaking five million workshop at his headquarters in Akron, Ohio. We're gonna do a shop tour, we're gonna walk through his business at an extremely high level, and we're gonna give you the playbook on how to break five million dollars. Every single one of these events have sold out, so make sure to click the link below, reserve your spot today, and we'll see you
there. Because the next section is what you have to do number two, is you have to go out and get capital, right? Every business requires capital to start up, savings, investors, whatever that case may be. And for me, I never want to start a project underfunded. I'd rather be overfunded, give away a little bit too much equity, or raise a little bit too much debt than to go in underfunded because underfunded is you're immediately starting behind the eight ball, you're going to lose most of the time. In this business or in all businesses, home service businesses, we have what's called the J curve. And the J curve is kind of the start, and then you actually have some traction, and then it goes straight up, it goes almost exponential. That's how growth works. You go you go flat for a long time, or maybe even a little bit down, and that's because it you don't know what you don't know. You're learning the industry, you're learning the business, you're trying to hire, you're trying to do everything, and it takes time, it takes time and money to start J-curving. So give yourself enough runway. It's not a $5,000 startup, it's not a $10,000 or a $50,000 startup. If I'm gonna start a septic business, my recommendation um is going to be to start somewhere lean, but that lean is going to be around $150k. Like I would not start day one without $150K because you need equipment, you need pump trucks, which are extremely expensive, you need insurance, you need working capital, you need marketing payroll, you need disposal license and disposal access, and you need enough money to survive the early months before the schedule really fills. Um, unless you're in like an absolute crazy market, which just doesn't have any septic people, and you know that there's demand and the demand the supplies coming in from like outside the city or something. I don't know, but I would start at 150k to be safe, maybe even up to 300k. That's a really good starting spot. And then you don't spend it all day one, right? Uh, you leave a lot of it available for this working capital. So this gives you the room, first initial room. We have some money.
Next is we go out and we acquire or release equipment. Um, we're gonna build a lead machine. So, how what kind of pipeline are we getting leads from, which costs money to bring in leads. Uh, we're gonna hire somebody most likely, maybe not day one, but maybe within a few weeks as your leads start to go. And then we're not gonna panic when something breaks, a system, a process, or an item. So here's how I would think about money. I would not want to put every dollar into this truck. Uh, I think that's a rookie mistake. Nice trucks are good, but like what I see a lot is that people go out and they run out and buy the biggest, nicest truck possible, and then they run out of money and they have no money to buy leads, so the truck just sits. I would personally split the capital, like I said, into four buckets: the truck, compliance and insurance, marketing, and then working capital. Right? For the truck, I would compare about three options. Uh, the best option is buying a small existing separate septic operator, but most likely that's not gonna happen, especially not at this kind of cost range. Uh, it's gonna cost more, but it does come with the truck. It's gonna come with a phone number, it's gonna come with a customer list, license, paths, local reputation. I mean, it comes with everything, right? It's uh you're buying in a business. It's usually better than starting cold, but you're gonna pay more, right? Um, you're gonna pay a lot more. But that being said, like right at a three or four X multiple, um, plus a SBA 7A loan, this is what it would look like, right? If you say, hey, I have 100K, like we've talked about, I'm gonna put 10% down, which is the SBA minimum, and that's gonna buy me up to in a million dollar company. Well, if you're giving a 3x multiple of EBITDA, that means that that company is cash flowing somewhere around $333,000 a year, or netting or SDE $333,000. That's all different conversation on acquisitions. Um, but that'll get you a nice start. Yes, the debt service is gonna be more, you're gonna be looking at ten to fifteen thousand dollars a month in payments, but ideally, I mean, that's going to be coming from the cash flow of the business. So your cash flow decreases a little bit, but there's still plenty to grow. The second one is going to be hey, we're starting cold, so it's going out and buying a truck. Not the prettiest truck, not the biggest truck, but a reliable service truck that can handle. I would probably do my first year, my first two years of work. Um, because if you buy it too expensive, it's too risky, you can't handle it. Plus, it's gonna be easier to finance something that is cheaper early on that can handle a lower load or lower series of loads. I need to buy an adequate size for about year one, year two, because the truck is is gonna be a decent portion of all of this spend, and I'd rather have that spend go to other items beyond the tools, right? Because the tools are useless if you can't get the leads. 75 to 150 on the truck, down payment and like the leasing, uh, and then maybe 15 to 30k towards like the licensing, the legal, the basic tools, safety, gear compliance, maybe another 30 to 50k on marketing for the first six months, which is like 10k a month. So, I mean that's very heavy marketing, but that should get you moving in the right direction. All the marketing I'm gonna be focusing on personally is lead generation or demand marketing. It is somebody's looking for a job like an Angie's or a thumbtack or a LSA lead, uh, local service ads from Google, not on branding material. So I'm not gonna be putting up a bunch of billboards, I'm not gonna be running radio ads, I'm going to focus on direct lead generation activities. A lot of people try the branding early on, and for some small local communities, it works fantastic, it works amazing. It is the best thing since slice spread, but a lot of times it's untrackable or very, very hard to track and figure out where those leads came from. So if you don't know where the leads came from, like you don't know if your marketing is working. So, how do you double down on something you don't know is working? In attribution, with like uh like an Angie's list or a thumbtack, like you know where that lead came from because it says it on the text message that comes in, it's on their lead app portal. So you need to focus on what kind of leads come in and make sense. Uh, for septics, traditionally, Google has been the entire game. It's not a cute branding business, it's not like a building a following business, like there's no Instagram that's gonna get you these leads. It's people type in my septic is broken, my toilets won't flush, why plumber near me? Like, that's where you need to go is to be a Google first business, and where that starts is by optimizing your Google profile, your Google business profile or your GVP. Um, and this needs to be done before you turn on LSAs. This should probably be done before you start any of your thumbtack or angie's or any other type of lead source aggregator because this works from an organic standpoint as you can get into the map pack, people Google uh septic uh pumping near me, and you show up if you're uh geographically close to them. So the it's it's your mobile, it's your online storefront. This is needs to be filled out completely. Fill it out, upload pictures, even if they're not great pictures. Go out, take pictures of some septic systems in your backyard. The key here is the more you fill out for Google, the better Google does for you. Hours, service areas, phone numbers, FAQs, posts, and once that's all filled out, the next thing is to go focus on reviews. Reviews, reviews, reviews, reviews, because that's the currency with Google. How many reviews you can get, the velocity and the quality, and obviously five stars is what drives Google to say this is a good business, I'm going to refer you more often. So, how do you do that? You have technicians ask, Hey, did you like your pumping service today? Would you mind leaving us a review? Always comes better from the technician. Nobody wants to review a company, they want to review a
person. So the next step of this is to get out of the business. So, what this looked like for me, and what this looks like for many who I didn't start my business, but I bought so small that I had to do this process, is you need to find your first employee. And first employees are always some of the most hardest to find because they have to take a big chance on you. You have to convey that some sort of value and some sort of reason that this person wants to take a chance on you and work for you, and that could be hey, you get all my leads, right? For the next year, I don't like this is our goal. We're planning on growing fast, but in the meantime, like you're our guy, you can get all the leads, and we're gonna pay you a cost per job. You know, the incentive matches to his benefit or her benefit. Um, but the key is you have to figure out something. Any industry, you have to figure out some reason that they should work for you, otherwise, you'll stay in that truck. If I were to start a septic business this year, that is exactly how I do it. That's how I would focus in that order and drive to get to this building stage as quick as possible. Because once you hit the building stage, you're no longer pumping poop, you are a business owner, which sounds a lot nicer to me. If you like what you heard, leave a five-star review. Let me know why I'm an idiot and what I missed about septic. If you run a septic company, I know for you who's commented on it before, someone's gonna say, Oh, you make it sound so easy. Yeah, no shit. It's a 17-minute video. I could go on for hours about this. So it is a condensed video. If you want to hear more, if you're like, hey Jack, I think you you were too quick on some of these things. Can you break individual parts down of this? The answer is yes, but you gotta let me know to do it. Okay. Let me know that it's not falling on deaf ears of Google bots and uh or YouTube bots, and we'll go from there. Uh, five stars, let your mother know that uh she should listen to this as well. I don't know. All right, man. See ya.
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