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A Year in the Life - Meet Gena Boggero (Part One)
Year in the Life
By: Carol Brzozowski
Meet Gena Boggero
She’s the third-generation owner of Boggero’s Services in Greenwood, South Carolina and will be the focus of a
series this year in Sanitation Journal, “A Year in the Life”.
Over the next 11 months, this series will present an intimate look at the inner workings of a typical portable
sanitation operator. Through the series, Sanitation Journal will follow Boggero’s hopes and dreams, triumphs and
setbacks and all of the gritty stuff that makes up the life of a portable sanitation operator.
Boggero is a natural for this ‘slice of life’ portrait. Hers is a relatively small, family-owned and operated business,
representing so many similar companies throughout the industry. She contends with issues common to everyone
in the industry: customer and employee retention, escalating operating costs, equipment and fleet decisions and no
less important: balancing work and family.
When Gena Boggero bought the family portable sanitation business from her father Barry three years ago, he
congratulated his daughter: “You did it!”
“He’s so proud of me,” Boggero, the new owner of Boggero’s Services, recalls thinking.
“I felt so blessed,” Boggero adds. “Then he said, ‘You’re really living the American dream now, aren’t you?’ I
said, ‘Yes, sir.’
“And then he said, ‘You’re self employed. You have no retirement, no paid holidays, no sick days, no vacation.
Good luck!”
The impact of that statement hit Boggero for a minute as she came to grips with what she’d done.
“It’s so true,” she concedes. “You really don’t have set hours with a family business.”
Such has been the case since her grandfather, Nadell Boggero, started the company as a septic tank and scrap
metal business in 1938. He recently died at the age of 86 and a few weeks later, the fourth generation of Boggeros
was born.
Barry Boggero had taken the helm in the late 1960s, adding portable sanitation to the lineup. He now heads up the
company’s septic services side – including installation, maintenance and repair - while Boggero oversees the
portable sanitation operations and the parent company.
Boggero had been working in the family business since she was able to drive.
She recalls the days when, if there wasn’t a babysitter to take care of her, she’d have to go to the family business
after school where she sit on the floor, drawing and coloring pictures until it was time to go home.
Now she’s come full circle with the birth of her daughter Lilly. In this age, women still struggle with balancing
family and careers and Boggero is no exception.
Boggero’s Services operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, though Boggero often puts in longer
hours.
“It takes a lot of teamwork from the family,” she says. “Back when I was growing up, the father worked and the
mother took care of the kids. My father didn’t spend a lot of time with kids. And now he’s getting a big dose of it
because with me and Lilly, there are days I have to call him into my office and ask him to feed and rock her while
I make phone calls.
“So he and Lilly have got an amazing bond going on, because I pick her up from day school at noon and then I
have to keep her here for five hours. On a lot of days, you just can’t put her down in an instant to handle a
telephone call, so everybody pitches in.”
Boggero’s husband, Ben Partain (Boggero kept her maiden name for business purposes) will also come in to the
office to take his daughter home for a few hours. Boggero’s mother Earline will drive her granddaughter around
in an effort to get her to sleep.
That teamwork extends to employees. On a recent cold and windy day when Boggero had to prepare units to go
out for placement, she didn’t want her baby to be outside, so she asked one of the employees to feed her and
rock her.
“Here is this huge guy used to pumping septic tanks holding a two-month-old, feeding her a bottle,” says Boggero.
Boggero has two older sisters, neither of whom were interested in the family business.
“I’ve always enjoyed being here,” she says. “I’ve always enjoyed being a little out of the norm as far as typical
female jobs, like secretarial work. I loved to be in the back working with the guys and so it just seemed right.
“Daddy didn’t have any sons and I was kind of the tomboy - the ‘baseball glove and ponytail’ kind of girl,” she
says. “So I really wanted to carry on the family business.”
It seemed a good risk, with the company’s strong reputation and solid financial standing.
Over the years, the family business has survived economic ups and downs. Boggero says branching out into
different service sectors has been the key to keeping the business afloat.
“Portable restrooms keep the business going really nice during the summertime when there’s no rain and no septic
tank pumping,” she says. “Then during the rainy season, when there are a lot of construction sites clearing off
and finishing out, the septic tank pumping keeps things going.”
Boggero’s Services provides services to the Lakelands area, a 60-square-mile radius from Greenwood.
As for the areas outside of upstate South Carolina that Boggero Services doesn’t cover, Boggero works closely
with other portable restroom companies to refer customers to them. In turn, she gets referrals from them to her
company.
The company is in the process of branching out and had actually initiated the process last year before Boggero
found out she was pregnant.
“It’s not like I can go to the hospital real quick, have a child and get right back up to the swing of things, although
that is how it happened,” she says. “I was actually working up until the day my daughter was born.
“Within a week after I had my child, we actually moved the computer out to my house and I was back working.”
Boggero Services averages 175 portable restrooms. Some 80 percent of the business is wrapped up in
construction, with the remainder in special events.
“We’re taking a small hit right now,” she says of the construction sector. “We haven’t experienced it as bad as
the others have.”
The company provides holding tanks, construction units, sink stations and VIP flushing units with solar lights and
sinks. Boggero Services works with another company to provide restroom trailers to customers.
Boggero Services is faring well in obtaining new customers. The company is providing portable sanitation on a
number of school rebuilding projects. Other clients are family-owned operations such as Boggero Services. One
customer has been with the company since the beginning. Others have been equally loyal.
“We have two other competitors in the area and it seems to be loyalty has been good as far as our customers
sticking with us,” notes Boggero. “Having said that, we don’t believe in just renting a toilet. We are 100 percent
customer-oriented.”
Boggero engages in ongoing customer relations in order to retain customers.
She’s taken pictures of her daughter in a baby’s T-shirt with the company’s name on it and sent out baby
announcements with the photo. Some customers responded with well wishes and gifts.
“It’s like a big family as far as your customers,” she says. “It’s great!”
Boggero is always on the look-out for new customers, but she refuses to take work from other companies.
“We do not – and I mean do not - steal business from our competitors,” she says. “My guys know that is not the
name of the game. We are a solid company; we have a reputation to uphold.
“If there is a site that is going up and there is not a toilet there, it is free game. If there is one of our competitors’
toilets there, we absolutely do not go in and underbid or cut prices or even attempt to get the business. We believe
in playing fair and so far it’s worked wonders for us.”
Boggero does expect to lose some business when a competitor comes into the market.
“They’ve got friends and connections, so you are going to lose some of your business,” she says. “Luckily,
customer loyalty kicks in and when a new competitor came onto the scene, we lost maybe only five percent of
our customers, which is amazing. We’ve been very fortunate.”
Boggero notes the Dodge Reports – a large provider of construction project news - as being her most effective
business strategy.
“That’s done exceptionally well for us and we do customer contacts a lot,” she says. “I encourage my guys that
anytime they see a job site go up, if they stop and get that job, there’s a bonus in their paycheck at the end of the
week. That has been a good incentive.”
She places the majority of her advertising into the telephone directories. Additionally, Boggero markets through
donating units for such organizations as the Boy Scouts of America.
Boggero Services has two employees working in the portable sanitation end of the business and four in the septic
end.
Boggero’s husband is a full-time firefighter, but also works for Boggero during his off time (he does firefighting
for 24 hours on and in his 48 hours off, will help out with the business).
Boggero does not foresee hiring another employee this year – she manages to cope with busy summertime
demands by giving part-time work to some of her husband’s colleagues at the fire department.
“It seems to work out great and we don’t have to worry about laying off during the wintertime,” says Boggero.
“We don’t like to do that; we like to know that if you come here to work for us that as long as we have business,
you’ll have a job.”
Boggero believes in giving her employees ongoing training, but laments that with high turnover, it seems like an
employee is out the door soon after the training process.
She’s addressed that through 60-day trial periods and will offer extensive training at the end of the period.
Boggero and her husband were recently certified through the Portable Sanitation Association International (PSAI)
and she’s working on getting her employees certified as well.
A driver has to be with the company for a year before seeking certification and each employee who works for
Boggero Services for a year will be encouraged to do the PSAI training.
“That helps, because it weeds out people who aren’t going to be in it for the long haul,” Boggero notes.
Boggero has found the training to be invaluable. When she in turn trains her own employees, she teaches them to
follow all of the PSAI regulations, including keeping safety supplies on the trucks and using the ratio of one
portable sanitation unit per 10 people.
“We definitely stick to the rules and regulations and that’s how we train our guys,” says Boggero. “We don’t
allow any ‘half-butt’ jobs, so to speak. I go with the guys the first two weeks and train them.”
Boggero also does random checks of her employees’ work.
“I tell my guys from the get-go, ‘Do not think I will sit in this office and not check behind you. You don’t know
what day it will be, you don’t know what toilet it will be, but I will constantly go behind them and check.
“I even go behind my own husband and check, because I promised my customers that we’re going to do exactly
what we tell them we’ll do. If I’m not out there - I know this is awful to say but I’m such a control freak - it’s
not being done right. So my guys know if they do not do their job right, I will be calling them from the job site
telling them to turn around, because something hasn’t been done.”
Boggero will not put a new employee behind the wheel of a truck until she’s personally trained them.
“I joke around with my guys a lot, but I’m a stickler and I mean a stickler - I got that from my father,” she says.
“My dad will be the first one to tell you if you can’t do it right, don’t do it. So we don’t allow graffiti on the
toilets, we don’t allow toilets to go out with carvings or anything like that on them. They are cleaned to look
brand new before they hit a job.”
Boggero’s goals for her employees this year is to encourage them to take note of emerging job sites for which her
company could provide service and to utilize more customer relation skills.
“In this business, there is a very high turnover and it seems like every time you get a good employee, within two
or three months, you’re losing them,” Boggero notes.
She is grooming one employee who has been with her for nearly a year and has become her ‘right-hand man’,
Boggero points out.
“He states that he’s always been with a family-owned business, that he definitely would like to retire from here
and so we’re encouraging him to take on a little bit more responsibility as far as the business is concerned,” she
says.
Boggero invests in equipment as needed to meet her goals. Her company has truck maintenance sheets that are
filled out each Friday.
“My guys know these trucks are our livelihood,” says Boggero. “We run two vehicles, so we might see about
possibly acquiring a new vehicle about every two years.”
She has her eye on acquiring a service truck by spring and is looking into a pumper truck as well.
She has two trucks in her business: a 2001 Isuzu with a 250-gallon freshwater and 450-gallon wastewater tank
and a 2006 Ford F550 with a 600-gallon wastewater and 300-gallon fresh water tank.
A 2002 Sterling truck with 2,500-gallon tank is shared with her parents’ business.
One business operating cost that concerns Boggero going into 2008 is fuel.
“That is definitely, definitely hurting,” she says. “We’re doing our best to try not to pass it on to our customers.
We are taking a hit off of it. We’re going to try to ride it out at least until the end of the year, see how it goes.
“A lot of our competitors do a fuel surcharge. I’m not big on that; maybe I should be. We have not had a rate
increase in awhile, so we might have to look into that in the near future, but right now, we’re just trying to hold
on.”
Another concern is health insurance. Boggero gets health insurance through her husband’s job and offers health
insurance to her employees.
“Unfortunately, being a family-owned business, insurance is one of the toughest things to get,” she says. “We pay
half of our employees’ insurance, which works out to about $80 a month.”
She offers other benefits as well: a 401(k), paid holidays and paid vacation days. Also, if her company is offered
tickets to a special event, she’ll share them with employees.
“We’re always trying to do little extras here and there,” she says. “We do Christmas bonuses and on their
birthday, get them a cake and a card with money in it.”
As for her greatest challenge in the industry, Boggero says it’s being a female in a male-dominated business.
“Being a female in the South,” she adds. “That is a tricky little thing right there. But at the same time I say it’s a
disadvantage, it’s an advantage also. Because when you walk into a men’s environment, lots of time it is easier to
gain attention, so to speak.
“You’ve got two other competitors who try to place a bid on the same job you’re placing a bid on and lots of
times, they may not remember the price, but they remember the girl. It definitely has an advantage.”
She also tends to get more compliments than other people when she visits a job site to check on an employee or
clean a unit herself.
The disadvantage: cat calls and whistles.
“It’s difficult to turn the other cheek on job sites,” she says. “I act like I don’t hear it. My dad raised and trained
me right and I learned how to go onto a job site and be very professional and businesslike and not let things like
that bother me.”
One of the key elements of her business plan for the year is to reach 200 units.
“We usually try to increase it by 25 percent each year,” says Boggero. “Considering we started out at around 112
when I purchased the business three years ago, we’re doing pretty good.”
As for branching out, Boggero intends to take it slow. She doesn’t want her business to go beyond 500 units for
now.
“I enjoy being the best, so I don’t want to have too many irons in the fire,” she says. “I do realize, however, that
businesses are going that way and if I want to stay in the loop, I’ve got to stay in the game.
“And to stay in the game, I do need to see about possibly increasing what we have to offer. However, I do not
want to get so many different things going that I can’t drop what I’m doing for my customers I have now. That
is so crucial to us. Our customers are the reason why we’re here. They’ve been loyal and we want to make sure
we are loyal to them, too.”
Reaching her goal by the end of this year would bring a smile to her face, says Boggero, but she adds she doesn’t
aspire to grow beyond that for the time being.
“I don’t ever want a customer to call and have me say, ‘I can’t get to you,” she says. “I like saying, ‘I’ll take
care of it. I don’t ever want to get bigger to where I can’t do that.”
Part 2 in a "Year in the Life"
Part 3 in a "Year in the Life"
Part 4 in a "Year in the Life"
Part 5 in a "Year in the Life"
By: Carol Brzozowski
Meet Gena Boggero
She’s the third-generation owner of Boggero’s Services in Greenwood, South Carolina and will be the focus of a
series this year in Sanitation Journal, “A Year in the Life”.
Over the next 11 months, this series will present an intimate look at the inner workings of a typical portable
sanitation operator. Through the series, Sanitation Journal will follow Boggero’s hopes and dreams, triumphs and
setbacks and all of the gritty stuff that makes up the life of a portable sanitation operator.
Boggero is a natural for this ‘slice of life’ portrait. Hers is a relatively small, family-owned and operated business,
representing so many similar companies throughout the industry. She contends with issues common to everyone
in the industry: customer and employee retention, escalating operating costs, equipment and fleet decisions and no
less important: balancing work and family.
When Gena Boggero bought the family portable sanitation business from her father Barry three years ago, he
congratulated his daughter: “You did it!”
“He’s so proud of me,” Boggero, the new owner of Boggero’s Services, recalls thinking.
“I felt so blessed,” Boggero adds. “Then he said, ‘You’re really living the American dream now, aren’t you?’ I
said, ‘Yes, sir.’
“And then he said, ‘You’re self employed. You have no retirement, no paid holidays, no sick days, no vacation.
Good luck!”
The impact of that statement hit Boggero for a minute as she came to grips with what she’d done.
“It’s so true,” she concedes. “You really don’t have set hours with a family business.”
Such has been the case since her grandfather, Nadell Boggero, started the company as a septic tank and scrap
metal business in 1938. He recently died at the age of 86 and a few weeks later, the fourth generation of Boggeros
was born.
Barry Boggero had taken the helm in the late 1960s, adding portable sanitation to the lineup. He now heads up the
company’s septic services side – including installation, maintenance and repair - while Boggero oversees the
portable sanitation operations and the parent company.
Boggero had been working in the family business since she was able to drive.
She recalls the days when, if there wasn’t a babysitter to take care of her, she’d have to go to the family business
after school where she sit on the floor, drawing and coloring pictures until it was time to go home.
Now she’s come full circle with the birth of her daughter Lilly. In this age, women still struggle with balancing
family and careers and Boggero is no exception.
Boggero’s Services operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, though Boggero often puts in longer
hours.
“It takes a lot of teamwork from the family,” she says. “Back when I was growing up, the father worked and the
mother took care of the kids. My father didn’t spend a lot of time with kids. And now he’s getting a big dose of it
because with me and Lilly, there are days I have to call him into my office and ask him to feed and rock her while
I make phone calls.
“So he and Lilly have got an amazing bond going on, because I pick her up from day school at noon and then I
have to keep her here for five hours. On a lot of days, you just can’t put her down in an instant to handle a
telephone call, so everybody pitches in.”
Boggero’s husband, Ben Partain (Boggero kept her maiden name for business purposes) will also come in to the
office to take his daughter home for a few hours. Boggero’s mother Earline will drive her granddaughter around
in an effort to get her to sleep.
That teamwork extends to employees. On a recent cold and windy day when Boggero had to prepare units to go
out for placement, she didn’t want her baby to be outside, so she asked one of the employees to feed her and
rock her.
“Here is this huge guy used to pumping septic tanks holding a two-month-old, feeding her a bottle,” says Boggero.
Boggero has two older sisters, neither of whom were interested in the family business.
“I’ve always enjoyed being here,” she says. “I’ve always enjoyed being a little out of the norm as far as typical
female jobs, like secretarial work. I loved to be in the back working with the guys and so it just seemed right.
“Daddy didn’t have any sons and I was kind of the tomboy - the ‘baseball glove and ponytail’ kind of girl,” she
says. “So I really wanted to carry on the family business.”
It seemed a good risk, with the company’s strong reputation and solid financial standing.
Over the years, the family business has survived economic ups and downs. Boggero says branching out into
different service sectors has been the key to keeping the business afloat.
“Portable restrooms keep the business going really nice during the summertime when there’s no rain and no septic
tank pumping,” she says. “Then during the rainy season, when there are a lot of construction sites clearing off
and finishing out, the septic tank pumping keeps things going.”
Boggero’s Services provides services to the Lakelands area, a 60-square-mile radius from Greenwood.
As for the areas outside of upstate South Carolina that Boggero Services doesn’t cover, Boggero works closely
with other portable restroom companies to refer customers to them. In turn, she gets referrals from them to her
company.
The company is in the process of branching out and had actually initiated the process last year before Boggero
found out she was pregnant.
“It’s not like I can go to the hospital real quick, have a child and get right back up to the swing of things, although
that is how it happened,” she says. “I was actually working up until the day my daughter was born.
“Within a week after I had my child, we actually moved the computer out to my house and I was back working.”
Boggero Services averages 175 portable restrooms. Some 80 percent of the business is wrapped up in
construction, with the remainder in special events.
“We’re taking a small hit right now,” she says of the construction sector. “We haven’t experienced it as bad as
the others have.”
The company provides holding tanks, construction units, sink stations and VIP flushing units with solar lights and
sinks. Boggero Services works with another company to provide restroom trailers to customers.
Boggero Services is faring well in obtaining new customers. The company is providing portable sanitation on a
number of school rebuilding projects. Other clients are family-owned operations such as Boggero Services. One
customer has been with the company since the beginning. Others have been equally loyal.
“We have two other competitors in the area and it seems to be loyalty has been good as far as our customers
sticking with us,” notes Boggero. “Having said that, we don’t believe in just renting a toilet. We are 100 percent
customer-oriented.”
Boggero engages in ongoing customer relations in order to retain customers.
She’s taken pictures of her daughter in a baby’s T-shirt with the company’s name on it and sent out baby
announcements with the photo. Some customers responded with well wishes and gifts.
“It’s like a big family as far as your customers,” she says. “It’s great!”
Boggero is always on the look-out for new customers, but she refuses to take work from other companies.
“We do not – and I mean do not - steal business from our competitors,” she says. “My guys know that is not the
name of the game. We are a solid company; we have a reputation to uphold.
“If there is a site that is going up and there is not a toilet there, it is free game. If there is one of our competitors’
toilets there, we absolutely do not go in and underbid or cut prices or even attempt to get the business. We believe
in playing fair and so far it’s worked wonders for us.”
Boggero does expect to lose some business when a competitor comes into the market.
“They’ve got friends and connections, so you are going to lose some of your business,” she says. “Luckily,
customer loyalty kicks in and when a new competitor came onto the scene, we lost maybe only five percent of
our customers, which is amazing. We’ve been very fortunate.”
Boggero notes the Dodge Reports – a large provider of construction project news - as being her most effective
business strategy.
“That’s done exceptionally well for us and we do customer contacts a lot,” she says. “I encourage my guys that
anytime they see a job site go up, if they stop and get that job, there’s a bonus in their paycheck at the end of the
week. That has been a good incentive.”
She places the majority of her advertising into the telephone directories. Additionally, Boggero markets through
donating units for such organizations as the Boy Scouts of America.
Boggero Services has two employees working in the portable sanitation end of the business and four in the septic
end.
Boggero’s husband is a full-time firefighter, but also works for Boggero during his off time (he does firefighting
for 24 hours on and in his 48 hours off, will help out with the business).
Boggero does not foresee hiring another employee this year – she manages to cope with busy summertime
demands by giving part-time work to some of her husband’s colleagues at the fire department.
“It seems to work out great and we don’t have to worry about laying off during the wintertime,” says Boggero.
“We don’t like to do that; we like to know that if you come here to work for us that as long as we have business,
you’ll have a job.”
Boggero believes in giving her employees ongoing training, but laments that with high turnover, it seems like an
employee is out the door soon after the training process.
She’s addressed that through 60-day trial periods and will offer extensive training at the end of the period.
Boggero and her husband were recently certified through the Portable Sanitation Association International (PSAI)
and she’s working on getting her employees certified as well.
A driver has to be with the company for a year before seeking certification and each employee who works for
Boggero Services for a year will be encouraged to do the PSAI training.
“That helps, because it weeds out people who aren’t going to be in it for the long haul,” Boggero notes.
Boggero has found the training to be invaluable. When she in turn trains her own employees, she teaches them to
follow all of the PSAI regulations, including keeping safety supplies on the trucks and using the ratio of one
portable sanitation unit per 10 people.
“We definitely stick to the rules and regulations and that’s how we train our guys,” says Boggero. “We don’t
allow any ‘half-butt’ jobs, so to speak. I go with the guys the first two weeks and train them.”
Boggero also does random checks of her employees’ work.
“I tell my guys from the get-go, ‘Do not think I will sit in this office and not check behind you. You don’t know
what day it will be, you don’t know what toilet it will be, but I will constantly go behind them and check.
“I even go behind my own husband and check, because I promised my customers that we’re going to do exactly
what we tell them we’ll do. If I’m not out there - I know this is awful to say but I’m such a control freak - it’s
not being done right. So my guys know if they do not do their job right, I will be calling them from the job site
telling them to turn around, because something hasn’t been done.”
Boggero will not put a new employee behind the wheel of a truck until she’s personally trained them.
“I joke around with my guys a lot, but I’m a stickler and I mean a stickler - I got that from my father,” she says.
“My dad will be the first one to tell you if you can’t do it right, don’t do it. So we don’t allow graffiti on the
toilets, we don’t allow toilets to go out with carvings or anything like that on them. They are cleaned to look
brand new before they hit a job.”
Boggero’s goals for her employees this year is to encourage them to take note of emerging job sites for which her
company could provide service and to utilize more customer relation skills.
“In this business, there is a very high turnover and it seems like every time you get a good employee, within two
or three months, you’re losing them,” Boggero notes.
She is grooming one employee who has been with her for nearly a year and has become her ‘right-hand man’,
Boggero points out.
“He states that he’s always been with a family-owned business, that he definitely would like to retire from here
and so we’re encouraging him to take on a little bit more responsibility as far as the business is concerned,” she
says.
Boggero invests in equipment as needed to meet her goals. Her company has truck maintenance sheets that are
filled out each Friday.
“My guys know these trucks are our livelihood,” says Boggero. “We run two vehicles, so we might see about
possibly acquiring a new vehicle about every two years.”
She has her eye on acquiring a service truck by spring and is looking into a pumper truck as well.
She has two trucks in her business: a 2001 Isuzu with a 250-gallon freshwater and 450-gallon wastewater tank
and a 2006 Ford F550 with a 600-gallon wastewater and 300-gallon fresh water tank.
A 2002 Sterling truck with 2,500-gallon tank is shared with her parents’ business.
One business operating cost that concerns Boggero going into 2008 is fuel.
“That is definitely, definitely hurting,” she says. “We’re doing our best to try not to pass it on to our customers.
We are taking a hit off of it. We’re going to try to ride it out at least until the end of the year, see how it goes.
“A lot of our competitors do a fuel surcharge. I’m not big on that; maybe I should be. We have not had a rate
increase in awhile, so we might have to look into that in the near future, but right now, we’re just trying to hold
on.”
Another concern is health insurance. Boggero gets health insurance through her husband’s job and offers health
insurance to her employees.
“Unfortunately, being a family-owned business, insurance is one of the toughest things to get,” she says. “We pay
half of our employees’ insurance, which works out to about $80 a month.”
She offers other benefits as well: a 401(k), paid holidays and paid vacation days. Also, if her company is offered
tickets to a special event, she’ll share them with employees.
“We’re always trying to do little extras here and there,” she says. “We do Christmas bonuses and on their
birthday, get them a cake and a card with money in it.”
As for her greatest challenge in the industry, Boggero says it’s being a female in a male-dominated business.
“Being a female in the South,” she adds. “That is a tricky little thing right there. But at the same time I say it’s a
disadvantage, it’s an advantage also. Because when you walk into a men’s environment, lots of time it is easier to
gain attention, so to speak.
“You’ve got two other competitors who try to place a bid on the same job you’re placing a bid on and lots of
times, they may not remember the price, but they remember the girl. It definitely has an advantage.”
She also tends to get more compliments than other people when she visits a job site to check on an employee or
clean a unit herself.
The disadvantage: cat calls and whistles.
“It’s difficult to turn the other cheek on job sites,” she says. “I act like I don’t hear it. My dad raised and trained
me right and I learned how to go onto a job site and be very professional and businesslike and not let things like
that bother me.”
One of the key elements of her business plan for the year is to reach 200 units.
“We usually try to increase it by 25 percent each year,” says Boggero. “Considering we started out at around 112
when I purchased the business three years ago, we’re doing pretty good.”
As for branching out, Boggero intends to take it slow. She doesn’t want her business to go beyond 500 units for
now.
“I enjoy being the best, so I don’t want to have too many irons in the fire,” she says. “I do realize, however, that
businesses are going that way and if I want to stay in the loop, I’ve got to stay in the game.
“And to stay in the game, I do need to see about possibly increasing what we have to offer. However, I do not
want to get so many different things going that I can’t drop what I’m doing for my customers I have now. That
is so crucial to us. Our customers are the reason why we’re here. They’ve been loyal and we want to make sure
we are loyal to them, too.”
Reaching her goal by the end of this year would bring a smile to her face, says Boggero, but she adds she doesn’t
aspire to grow beyond that for the time being.
“I don’t ever want a customer to call and have me say, ‘I can’t get to you,” she says. “I like saying, ‘I’ll take
care of it. I don’t ever want to get bigger to where I can’t do that.”
Part 2 in a "Year in the Life"
Part 3 in a "Year in the Life"
Part 4 in a "Year in the Life"
Part 5 in a "Year in the Life"
Serving the American Liquid Waste Industry Since 2002
