He Quit His Corporate Job to Empty Portable Toilets and Loves It

Being your own boss sounds great—until you realize the boss never clocks out.

Young people have been flocking to small business ownership, which has driven up demand for search funds, a targeted form of private equity where one or two entrepreneurs search for a small business to run. The trend is only expected to continue as tariff uncertainty casts a long cloud over industries ranging from private equity to consulting to technology.

To help understand the pros and cons of running a small business, Business Insider spoke to Chad Howard, an entrepreneur who quit his corporate job to start Halftime Rentals, a portable toilet rental business. He offered a realistic, and sometimes visceral, look at the transition and his new routine.

BI verified his story, including his past employment and revenue. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In the portable toilet business, at some point you’re going to end up touching other people’s shit.

Sometimes, the hose collecting sewage from a port-a-potty comes loose from a disposal truck. In the industry, we call that “getting baptized.”

Our yard has a 20,000-gallon tank that holds sewage until we can send it to a wastewater treatment plant. That’s usually the first thing I smell in the morning.

In moments like these, I wonder why I quit my corporate job to start a portable toilet company. But then, when I catch some fresh air and feel the sun on my skin, I realize how much happier I am.

The path to portable toilets

I had a successful corporate career in marketing at Procter & Gamble, but I’ve long had an entrepreneurial streak and ran a T-shirt printing business in college.

After I met my business partner, Austin Helms, he kept trying to get me to quit my job to buy or start a business. His background was similar to mine, but he had left corporate America with the help of a search fund accelerator program to run a plumbing, HVAC, and electrical company.

When Procter & Gamble asked me to move for the ninth time in my ten years there, I took Austin up on his offer.

I launched Halftime Rentals last year in Charlotte, North Carolina after six months of research and raising a million dollars from friends, family, and the blue-collar focused private equity firm 12 South Capital Partners. Just eight months into starting the business, I am already being approached by investors interested in buying the company, which has earned more than $1.2 million in revenue since launch.

The power of marketing

What really convinced me to join this industry was my experience shadowing three different portable toilet companies with Austin. We saw incredibly successful businesses, but no one hired dedicated salespeople or focused on marketing.

A light bulb went off. If these companies can succeed with almost no marketing, imagine what we could do.

We’ve hired a full-time salesperson and recently landed the Charlotte marathon as a client by quoting them a price for porta-potty rentals. They told us no competitor had ever reached out to them before. I use ChatGPT a lot to create lists of the top fifty largest outdoor events in Charlotte. I ask it to provide me with emails, and then I reach out to them.

A lot of our success comes from marketing. I go to conventions, like a local builders convention, and hand out shirts that say “Gettin’ Shit Done.” None of our competitors are there, and it’s super memorable. At Procter & Gamble, I sold products to large chains and learned that you need to make those sales pitches memorable.

There’s no out of office

On the weekends, all calls are routed directly to my cellphone. A few weekends ago, I got a call from an event an hour away whose toilet provider hadn’t shown up. They asked for my help, so I threw two toilets in the back of my pickup truck and drove an hour both ways.

I don’t plan anything on Saturday until 2:00 p.m. because there’s a 70% chance that someone will call with an emergency.

It’s hardest with travel.

I was visiting family out of state when one of his largest clients called to say that they had an emergency and needed 10 portable toilets delivered as soon as possible. If I were nearby, I would have just delivered the toilets myself, but I wasn’t, and none of my usual workers were free.

I just don’t travel as much as I used to.

Being the boss is great

My main goal in starting this entrepreneurial process was to enjoy my days, instead of feeling like I was wasting them reselling dish soap.

Now I’m reselling portable toilets, but the difference is that I am building something of my own. I’m able to be my own boss and do things the way I want them done.

I can also make a real impact on other people’s lives. One of my drivers had a single DWI, and as a result, he couldn’t get a driving job even though he has a commercial driver’s license. I was able to give him a second chance.

In my old job, instead of focusing on our goals, we’d have forecast meetings, recap meetings, and email meetings. Now, I can focus on selling more of a great product. I’m not spending any of my time in meaningless meetings.

As your own boss, you can focus on building what you think you should be creating, not all of the other bullshit corporate America hands you.

There are no ‘normal’ days

I don’t have time to focus on anything but work. I don’t go out to nice dinners, travel, or hang out with my friends at happy hour. It’s made it easier to live on my current salary, which is lower than my corporate salary, because I don’t spend as much.

I can’t sleep in until 8:00 am on the weekends anymore, or easily fit in a workout. It’s more exciting, but it’s much harder to have a “normal” day.

I can’t even focus on food or exercise. I had a wake-up call after I put on 15 pounds in my first three and a half months.

When I was in Asheville, North Carolina, living in an RV for a month, there were times the gas station was my only option for a full meal. There was one day I ate Chic-fil-a for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was like, what am I doing?

Now, I’m more mindful about what I eat, packing healthier options for long days. And I try to fit in a workout where I can.

You reap what you sow

Outcomes are tied directly to my effort. I’m responsible for the business’s success, which correlates to how hard I work.

Success in corporate America is more complicated. Promotions take into account how much someone likes you, or the macroeconomic environment, or the success of whatever product comes out.

Now, I have some control over my destiny, which is both good and bad.

One telling example was how I responded after the terrible hurricane in Asheville. Home Depot called asking for portable toilets, so we loaded up the toilets and drove the two hours to Asheville.

All of our toilets had our phone number, and the next day, I had 222 voicemails while still fielding calls.

I decided to set up shop for a month in Asheville, living out of an RV and ordering 500 more toilets to meet the demand. By choosing to put in the hard work, I set my business up for success.

Big decisions ahead

I’ve already received offers from people who want to buy the business, but I’m conflicted about it. I’m someone who lives in the moment.

People like to ask me what my goal is for the company. Transparently, I didn’t really have an end goal in mind. I wanted to start this company and build it into the biggest portable toilet company in Charlotte, enjoy my days, and have a positive impact.

If I sold to a roll-up business, they’d still want me to run it. I’d have equity in their larger business, but I would be right back to working for someone else.

For now, I’m going to wait and see. One investor said that their main strategy would be centralizing the back office, which would mean letting go of our office manager. She’s incredible, and it would pain me to the core if she lost her job because of my decision.