Scott Duscher is someone who does things with intention. The owner of Agua Trucks can be found walking around, sharing his knowledge, prominently wearing his cowboy hat and intentionally building his business and relationships with every interaction he has. And it’s always been that way.
In the early 2000’s, Duscher was working as vice president of operations for Santa Anna Homes where he oversaw many large scale construction projects and worked with several subcontractors to get everything done. On one project, Duscher couldn’t find the right partner for a water truck operation and thought to himself, ‘I can do better.’
“Sometimes when you can't get the water to the neighborhood, you hire a water truck to fill up soils and get construction moving,” Duscher said. “We had hired one of my vendors to help, and I just didn't like the way it was done. At the time, we were managing contractors and didn’t own any equipment, and the owner didn’t want to deal with that. I asked him if I could buy it and he would rent it. He agreed and I went to my wife Louise and told her I got her a job.”
Thus began the official start of Agua Trucks in 2005.
Relationships + Education Inspire Success
Obviously starting a new business comes with several challenges. Duscher knew how to be a general contractor for new construction projects, but operating sweepers while also growing a business came with its own set of challenges - especially when the economic downturn hit in 2008.
“Being a builder, I really knew what the customer wanted, because I was the customer,” Duscher said. “What I didn't know was how to work for commercial properties when there wasn't a lot of work. So in 2009, we bought our first used sweeper.”
His first big project was sweeping a new construction build and Duscher said he made “about a million calls” to the previous owner of the sweeper to ensure he was going to get everything right. Turns out, he did.
“Once it was done, the customer taking over the project wanted to know if I wanted to maintain the lot sweeping it,” Duscher said. “We won the bid and realized we had to now go buy a parking lot sweeper.”
Duscher found a sweeper and went to Detroit from their location in Phoenix, AZ to pick it up from C&J Sweeping who set Agua Trucks on a fast trajectory to growth.
“The owner of the business, Ray Confer, spent a lot of time with me on how to build routes and let me know everything I should learn to operate,” Duscher said. “He then asked me if I was going to NPE, and I asked him what that was. He told me, and I looked around at how much equipment he had and the diamond ring on his finger, and I just went back and signed up for it, not having any clue what I was going to get into.”
At the show, Ray introduced Duscher to a lot of different contractors that he was able to network with and learn from. Many of them he still interacts with. It was there that he also learned about the important industry associations like the North American Power Sweeping Association (NAPSA).
“Sweeping deals with a lot of environmental and regulatory issues and so that's how we got our sweeping education which I couldn't get from water trucks - because there was no education for that,” Duscher said. “The NAPSA best practices sessions at these shows are invaluable for people just starting out. That's how I got started with NAPSA and then I evolved into being on the board and served a term as President. I also made sure we qualified as a NAPSA Certified Sweeping Company because that's what the industry leaders did. When some of these guys started 1-800-SWEEPER, I just had to join to be with them and I now serve on that board as well. I just want to be around these guys.”
With what he learned, Duscher started applying his knowledge and growing, but it was a grind in the tough economic times.
“In small business, you're answering the phone, you're doing the scheduling, and Louise would be driving a water truck during the day and a sweeper at night,” Duscher said. “So that's how we grew, sticking with construction sweeping, water for dust control on those sites and some parking lot sweeping.”
Steady Growth Allows for Change
As many business owners in the power sweeping industry know, parking lot sweeping is not easy work.
“It’s like buying a boat,” Duscher said. “The first day and the last day are the two best days in the parking lot sweeping business. These jobs required night work and people we might not have been able to depend on. At our peak, we were actually doing 18 Walmart lots and we bought two more parking lot sweepers. But the market started to rebound and we added three construction sweepers and a water truck on that side. As builders got busier, so did we and we were able to stop parking lot sweeping in 2018.”
Cutting this portion out of the business might seem like a huge leap of faith, but again, Duscher was intentional with his decision.
“We had separated the businesses - construction sweeping and parking lot sweeping - from the beginning, so each one had its own profit loss statement,” Duscher said. “The parking lot sweeping just couldn't pull a profit of anything for the effort that went into it. And it wasn't my forte, as I came from a construction background, so dealing with property managers and so forth wasn’t my strong suit.”
His background in construction allowed Agua Trucks to pick up business elsewhere as well to supplement any work lost from removing parking lot sweeping. And he made sure they’d be busy before they officially pulled the plug.
“We really wanted to own all of the sweeping for one of my largest builders and he said we couldn’t compete because we didn’t do all the work they needed contracted,” Duscher said. “I asked him what it was, he told me it was concrete washout pits and silt fencing. I told him we’d learn how to do that and we did. It really all dovetails together.”
The company also expanded into renting water trailers, added dump trucks and a tractor to complete their work and continue to add on services that fit their equipment and expertise.
People Give The Competitive Edge
And Duscher knows that being an expert in his field is what keeps him ahead of his competition. He stays one step ahead of other businesses by investing in the training and the technologies needed to win - and keep - the work.
“I know how expensive turnover is, so therefore I train better,” Duscher said. “That way, I not only have operators who are comfortable with what they are doing, but I also have the most knowledgeable ones out there talking to the customers. For this reason, I was extremely involved in sweeper school, helping create that along with Mark Carter, another one of his mentors, and several others, and so being part of that gives me a great edge to teach my people stuff.”
Duscher also understands that his business needs to operate without him and has put a lot of time and resources into creating processes and procedures to ensure the success of his operations through his people.
“The processes and procedures are the things that really separates the guy that's trying to hold on from the guy that grows,” Duscher said. “Those are what's huge.”
And Duscher has invested in keeping them ready for anything.
“We are always looking forward,” Duscher said. “And to do that, you got to play like the big boys. That's the reason that we embrace certain things. We learned early on about GPS technology and then onto things like the scheduling devices. With these systems, we could take the work out of our head and have a tool that is duplicatable and showed up to work more often than a person did. That may have saved needing an extra body by just being able to use that technology.”
Duscher plans to continue to build his business and help others do the same, speaking regularly for homebuilders associations, industry associations and at events like PAVE/X.
“I received a lot of help from others over the years and to now be the big guy in the room is truly humbling,” Duscher said. “People are now asking me questions and it blows me away sometimes. I’m honored to be able to answer the same questions I had when I first started out and hope I can help other companies succeed.”
