When 19-year-old Terry Kiel was presented with two job offers on the same day in 1976 — a foundry and a concrete plant — he never imagined his decision would lead to a career in the septic service industry. His brother encouraged him to learn a trade so he took the concrete job thinking he’d become a mason or block layer, but when he got there he discovered the job would be building, delivering and pumping septic tanks. It was a good company to work for so he stayed, but with no room for advancement he struck out on his own in 1987. “I built a septic truck and said, ‘Here I come, world.’”

A year later he added sewer and drain cleaning work and the company became West Michigan Septic Sewer & Drain Service. That’s when his friend Dave Snyder (deceased) joined, first as a silent partner to help with financing, but soon as a full partner, stepping away from his vending machine job.

And in an amazing stroke of luck, when Kiel went to the unemployment office to hire a laborer to help with the sewer and drain work, he found someone from that industry who could teach him the trade and advise him on equipment. In the early 1990s he bought a backhoe and a dump truck and added repairs and installations.

Kiel and Snyder learned many lessons over the years. A couple of them were real game changers: 1. Being busy is not the same as being profitable. And 2. Despite concrete being the world Kiel grew up in and loved, he ultimately determined plastic tanks were better for his company.

Today, three names appear on the company’s building, vehicles and printed material. They made a couple acquisitions over the years — City Sewer & Drain Service and Heckman’s Contracting — and kept the names for legal and name recognition purposes. The combined company operates out of a 5,000-square-foot building on two acres of land in Muskegon, Michigan, a town of 37,000 on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

Snyder runs the office, doing scheduling, dispatching, invoicing and talking to customers, while Kiel is usually found on an excavation project along with Ron Williams and Travis Barrett. Kiel’s son Jacob and stepson T.J. Stariha do sewer and drain work, and 27-year company veteran Jon Stephens handles pumping. Joe Magner and Ryan George fill in where needed.

Kiel says it’s tough finding people, but they pay well and provide medical insurance, an IRA plan, paid vacations, short-term disability insurance, uniforms with weekly laundering and work shoes.