It’s all about the people.
SOS Toilets, LLC is a portable restroom rental service company located in Berkeley, California, the popular municipality in north metro San Francisco. This unique business is co-owned by Yaniv Gohar and Monika Hederova. The partners founded the company in 2021. It is a green-conscious operation, actively supporting water conservation and recycling systems. But its leadership message is a departure from the norm.
While espousing the familiar principles of continued personal learning and self-improvement, and embracing the needs of the team, Yaniv Gohar goes well beyond walking the walk of an enlightened modern entrepreneur to share a message of comprehensive inclusion in his people-first business philosophy, to involve absolutely all associates of his company from customers to competitors. It’s a key aspect of an approach to growth in the industry that he has certainly proven successful at a pace and scale like no other.
Life for Yaniv Before SOS
I relocated to the United States from Israel in 2008. Before moving to the West Coast, I lived in New York. I owned a roll-off dumpster rental company there, serving the construction market. Eventually, I moved to California. Monika and I got married in 2019. I started buying, renovating, and reselling residential houses in the San Francisco area. I flipped some houses, then I started SOS.
When we started the company, it was near the end of COVID in 2021. Technically, I started to buy the equipment and supplies earlier that year, and it took 8 months or so to get a truck. On October 25, I got my first customer. After I grew the business for some years, I eventually moved to Los Angeles, where we now have a second base of operations.
SOS Whirlwind Startup Years
Within our first year, we grew to an inventory of 250 portable toilets, all from Armal. In the second year, we added nearly 1,000 more for a total of around 1,200 units. By 2024, we already had a dozen people on staff, including Monika and me. We had several full-time delivery drivers and one part-time, 4 vac truck operators, 4 administrative office workers, and a 22,000-square-foot building.
Now [2026], after only 5 years in business, we have offices in both San Francisco and LA. We have 30 employees. That includes two overseas, in the Philippines, doing customer service. We have one person up in San Francisco working the website. We have 10 people in the office, including an office manager, admins, and 2 supervisors. And we have a large team of delivery drivers, vac truck operators, and an in-house mechanical staff.
We currently have long-term contracts for large numbers of units. We did the FIFA World Cup, and have served a long list of major clients on large-scale projects.
The SOS Enterprise 2026
Our business model is about 80% construction customers and the other 20% or so from industrial, parks, agriculture, and special events (weddings, etc.). We also provide emergency rentals in response to calls from customers like Walmart, Amazon, etc.
This November, it will be 5 years in business. We already have 2,700 toilets and 25 trucks. The majority of our trucks are from Imperial. Some are FlowMark. Some are Robinson. I have some slide-ins from KeyVac. Our toilet units are mostly from Armal.
Armal has provided a vast volume of our toilet units, all at a level of product and service quality that has made them an integral part of our success story. We also have some PolyJohn units, plus maybe 700 to 800 units from D&D, and a bunch from Satellite — all very good suppliers.
Jonathan at SurCo and the Wallex Chemical supplier have also both been exceptionally reliable vendors I have depended on to meet challenges through these early years of such fast growth.
As you can see from the numbers above, by the end of the second year of the startup, Yaniv had grown the SOS inventory at a staggering rate. For a detailed account of the challenges during the period of the business’s explosive growth, see the article published a couple of years ago in PRO Magazine (April 2024) about Yaniv and SOS entitled What Happens When You Grow Too Fast? A California Pro Found Out.
At the pivot point, Yaniv examined his operations and took stock of much more than his business’s physical assets. He recognized the critical need to move forward cautiously and focus intensively on customer experience.
Catching Up With Demand
Backing up to fill in the blanks in the early story, Yaniv had always been drawn to the construction industry and had already built many strong business relationships in the San Francisco metro construction market and the broader northwest region. That accounts for at least some of fast growth when he launched the rental service — appealing to the needs of northern CA construction contractors.
Monika, Yaniv emphasizes, has been tireless. He describes her as a great strength in the company. She is up at 4:30 a.m. managing drivers’ scheduling and many various office operations. He manages sales, advertising, the fleet yard, equipment maintenance tracking, and supply ordering, etc. for both the SF and LA operations.
Yaniv kept ordering equipment and work vehicles trying to meet the flood of new customers. He ordered more and more toilets, including ADA units. SOS added a 10-unit delivery truck, and further expanded the fleet with two new Internationals, each with a 900-gallon waste tanks and 375-gallon freshwater tank, and a new Ford F-250 with a 200-gallon waste tank and a 100-gallon freshwater slide-in tank.
He started with 200 Armal toilet units and 3 Black Tie luxury trailers, two with 5 stations and one 3 stations. He also had a 2020 Ford F-550 from PortaLogix with a 500-gallon waste tank and a 300-gallon freshwater tank, and a 2016 F-350 from Robinson Vac with a 300-gallon waste and 150-gallon freshwater tank. But, SOS still soon ran into capacity shortages and equipment production delays due to COVID.
Enter Armal, Inc. Into the SOS Story
It makes sense that Armal became the go-to supplier for Yaniv and his new rental service business. The signature Armal design, performance quality and the reliability to deliver mass orders on time have made the producer a natural fit for extremely accelerated startup phases like SOS underwent. Plus, Armal portable restrooms are designed for exceptionally high durability and lasting performance under the rugged conditions of ongoing rental operations.
Armal products are all made in the US, optimized for shipping, and engineered for quick assembly and easy parts replacement, to help keep toilet rental operations running smoothly. The manufacturer also features branding customizations, adding value for rental businesses.
SOS – Top Quality Equipment
By 2024, SOS had 850 Armal portables in service, along with about 350 PolyJohn units. Those included 20 ADA units. The rental service also featured about 100 handwashing stations from PolyJohn, and about seven added holding tanks from 250 to 300 gallons.
Within the past 24 months since then, Yaniv has added more delivery trailers, several Ford flatbeds, with capacity to deliver from 7–10 units each, plus an additional trailer with a 500-gallon fresh water tank. He also has a dedicated Ford F-650 that can deliver up to 25,000 feet of temporary fencing for construction.
An inventory of 10 luxury trailers from Black Tie has been added to the first 3, plus 6 from NuConcept, 3 more from Satellite, and a single-station ADA luxury trailer, as well as a 4-station and a 3-station, and some two-station trailers with showers from Forest River.
He has also added more vacuum trucks with aluminum tanks, another Ford F-550 with a 900-gallon waste tank and 375-gallon freshwater tank, and another F-350 with 300-gallon waste tank and 150-gallon freshwater.
NOTE: SOS uses the Pro Trucking Dispatch platform to manage route service and other field service operations.
Major Challenges for SOS
When I started the business, things took off very rapidly. I got my first customer in October 2021. We got the equipment just in time. By January 2022, I ordered another 100 Armal toilets, and 100 more in February. From there, I just kept ordering inventory and vehicles at a fast pace to keep up with the demand. I had only one full-time driver at that time. He and I were doing everything — delivery, pickup, and servicing the units at customers’ sites.
EQUIPMENT SHORTAGE
As Yaniv had discussed with the PRO interviewer, by early 2022, the company was overloaded with incoming requests for rentals and was struggling to overcome a recurring shortage of trucks and drivers to meet the surges of new orders.
Monika began fielding calls from customers about service issues. The company was growing too fast and the impact to customer service was becoming a concern. I had to bring that all under control quickly and systematically. We had to bring on more workers, more equipment, more everything.
LABOR COST
In the bay area and greater northern California, labor costs are substantially higher than the national average, but Yaniv has remained firmly committed to providing SOS employees competitive wages. He understands that that is a requisite for attracting and retaining good workers who care about quality.
He explained that when you’re facing the choice between ordering more equipment or paying people more, it’s a tough decision in some circumstances. Yaniv reasons that equipment does not make the business work — people do — and they must be paid what their work is worth. He recalls the systemic alignment that had to be achieved:
We were fortunate to hire some excellent employees. We started buying the best rental equipment for our customers’ needs and great service vehicles from the best providers. Within a few months, sales demand and our capacity to respond were well synced, and we were on track to maintain both growth and service quality going forward.
MINIMIZING TYPICAL ISSUES
We’ve also learned how to prevent unnecessary frustrations for customers and increase our efficiency in typical cases of avoidable confusion. For example, if someone calls for service, and we go out to their site and find that access to units is blocked, we take pictures to help them clearly understand what’s happening.
We’ve learned to send confirmations too, like, “Good morning Mr Jones, please see the attached pictures…” We know how to stay 2 steps ahead of issues, and soon we will be 3 steps ahead. We do not want frustrated customers, especially when it’s 110° in California.
Armal Customer-Centric Manufacturing for SOS
Armal offers its Classic Line and Specialty Line of portable toilet designs, plastics including sinks and handwashing stations. The vendor also provides a complete line of portable restroom cleaning products and deodorizers to optimize the rental operator’s quality and the user experience for visitors and workers at his customers’ sites.
These and other value-added product and service extras deliver benefits for rental companies, their customers, and their customers’ end users, making Armal the ideal choice for SOS and businesses like it that are growing at such accelerated rates.
Yaniv Gohar On Business Leadership Ethics
It can be hard for business managers to get good service for their customers if they don’t know they have to treat their employees well as the biggest part of the equation. You must have the right foundation in the team in order to have a strong customer service operation. It doesn’t matter where you get your trucks. You can’t get to point 10 from point 2 without doing it right, and that means starting with building a well-motivated team.
The bottom line is that your plans are not going to work out for anybody unless you develop a team that will deliver that consistently. It’s not magic; it’s pretty basic. You need to treat people right and pay them well. People who feel respected are more inclined to wake up at 4:00 in the morning and show up for you.
But, even if you pay $50 per hour, people still need to feel the trust and be treated well if you want them to care about your business’s success. When you back them up if there’s a mistake or something happens, that support goes a long way. It’s the vibe generated in the small things that matters at the end of the day.
I’ve seen people who hate their jobs, because nobody cares about them there. Emanating good energy, caring about the people who work for me, that’s the key to good leadership. They’re not ghosts, they’re my team. I care about them. Anything that comes up, I’m there for them. That’s the team mindset I want to share.
I’m going to buy all the best tools for my employees. But, I need to be a human being and to transfer that to others, including drivers, customers, and everyone working around me. Then, in turn, they will transfer that to others. Besides, to have my feet on the ground, I know I need to really care about the people around me.
SOS Service Brand and Sales Integrity
Our website emphasizes pricing transparency. We don’t quote prices based on where people live, their age, or if they’re inquiring in the middle of the night, etc. It’s the same quote for everybody. For us, we focus on making sure our customer service quality is unsurpassed. That’s our best effort in passive marketing. Customer service has gone dead at some companies I’ve noticed over the years. It’s all either AI, or they don’t answer the phone.
They make it too complicated for customers to be customers. We want people to know we’re there for them. I have like 10 people in the office right now, and by the time I count to 5 someone will answer the phone.
We have a saleslady who pulls up companies from the web, construction companies, etc. and goes to meet with them. She’s doing a great job. We run ads in Google, Yelp, etc., and many people just see our toilet units on the streets and then call us. They get a response right away.
SOS Employer Brand
In business leadership, If you think it’s all you — no. The employees are not just a big part of it, their part is more than the owner in many respects. They are the face of the company. We know our employees do a “Wow” job. So, our success is about them.
If people can’t use the tools you give them, they won’t succeed. If you don’t give them enough hours, or if somebody calls and says their daughter is sick etc., if you don’t hear it, you’re disconnected from the reality your workers are functioning in.
Asked about the SOS internal company culture, Yaniv replies: It’s about people, people, people. That’s the bottom line. My main stress as an employer is thinking — what if something extreme happened to the economy, what would these people do? What might it take to make this machine keep going under such circumstances?
Another thing to talk about for business owners wondering why people don’t want to work hard enough and looking to build a stronger team, is that, in the beginning, I didn’t give benefits to the employees. It takes a lot of money to start this kind of business and to scale it. I had to choose to buy more trucks, or more rental units, or give more to the employees.
I decided to give insurance and 401k benefits to my guys. It’s a lot of money in this state, but it’s what I chose to invest in. We also provide safety gear, clothing, bonuses, sick days, vacation days, etc., and we have our Christmas parties, etc.
A less obvious, but important point is to be open-minded and remember that you can learn from everybody, and don’t underestimate the people working on your team. Don’t think you know everything, and let it be okay for people to try out their ideas, make mistakes, and learn from them. That provides them with the necessary ground for learning without fear of consequences of trying their ideas for helpful solutions.
The idea is to let people grow. My managers are two of my drivers. I have never hired a manager from outside. I can bring people in from other companies, but I always promote from within. They were there when I needed them, and they did the work and learned, so they should have the opportunity to grow along with the company.
SOS Customer Experience Management
Other companies in our area are doing a good job, and we just provide something that others may not. Competition is great, and I am always competing — with myself above all. I tell people all the time, if you do want to be my competition, when you sleep, I’m awake. I just mean, you need to be on top of it. If you see something that’s not right, you need to make a comment. If you see a customer issue, help them, resolve it to their benefit, give them a discount too, etc.
Our customer service is above and beyond. But, if somebody is unhappy, I just refund the money. Even if I get a complaint that is actually the customer’s fault, I can fight it, but why should I? I give them a discount on their next order, or give them a free delivery. It’s more about goodwill than always being precisely in the right.
If I can make a couple happy, I believe in that. I believe it deep in my heart. I believe in energy. So if it’s not in their budget for their event, I might ask, “What’s your budget?” and I might just do it for them. I still make money but maybe $200 less. It’s not going to kill my business. I know I did something good this week and next, and will continue that way, and I’ll just be blessed at least by the feeling of doing that.
We do a lot of charitable giving, like to Cancer for Kids, our church, and other things. People call me for all kinds of causes. Many I don’t financially support, but if something touches me, I will do the work free of charge or at my cost. We want to give back as much as we can to the community.
Competitive Market Environment
We like to be connected to other companies in our industry, our competitors. There’s always going to be somebody better than you. If you see an ad posted for one of your competitors, somewhere there’s a family behind it. My competitors around me are my friends. I call them if I need something they have and I rent it from them. For example, we are in touch daily with Brianna from VIP Luxury Restrooms. I will do Sacramento for her, she will rent trailers to me, etc.
Again, it’s about respect for others, including competitors. If a competitor I work with goes to one of my customers and says, “How much is SOS charging you? I’ll give it to you for less, eventually I will find out. But, we haven’t encountered anything like that from trusting our competitors to work with us in good faith.
If you keep your competition closer, they respect you. If you keep them at a distance, they won’t know you or care about you.
SOS Vendor Relations
The WWETT Show is a great place to meet good vendors. If you really respect yourself, then you’re not likely to jump from vendor to vendor all the time. Even if I buy from another vendor, I can still keep my relationship with my existing one. It’s all the same philosophy with vendors as with customers, employees, competitors, and everyone else in your life.
At the WWETT show, you can learn every kind of way from the small guy to the big guy. There are all kinds of opportunities there. We can network, see other companies if you feel like it, or not if you don’t feel like it. The whole purpose of the WWETT show is to become knowledgeable and meet others. Don’t step on vendors’ toes. Just do the right thing.
Armal Reliability
Armal consistently demonstrated an exceptional capacity to deliver efficiently on the unusually high volume of orders that SOS was presenting in rapid succession throughout the first several years of operation. So, naturally, Yaniv continues to turn to Armal. By coming through at pinch points every time, with pristine, well-manufactured units built with high-performance materials, they became a critical resource for the inundated new service company.
Armal further provides products that any restroom rental operator can be proud to offer their customers. So, naturally, Yaniv continues to depend on Armal as an integral part of the growth of SOS, as he carries on with inventory building beyond his now nearly 3,000 units.
The Future of SOS
I have no formal plan to expand. We’re just organically growing. My way of moving forward is just to trust people, teach them, and give them the opportunity to grow with the company. What they will get from me is an opportunity to prove themselves and learn. Sometimes they fail, but the thing is to try to teach them. I got an opportunity when I was young. Now I transfer it to others.
Some business owners may think it’s too expensive to function that way, or maybe they don’t trust employees, or have very low expectations. But I have found that many people are eager to just have an opportunity to do well and will strive to live up to expectations.
Advice for New Industry Entrants from Yaniv Gohar, Owner, SOS, LLC, Los Angeles CA
In 2024, Yaniv reflected on the industry mentality during the PRO interview, “Everybody wants to grow fast…” However, he suggested, “Grow at a pace you can handle, be straight up, keep your promises to everyone, and treat your customers right.”
Today, he offers new inspirational insights through reflections on his life and entrepreneurial career: What makes me keep going is my belief in God and energy — the universe’s energy — and in doing the right thing in any kind of way that presents itself in life.
My advice is, first, be humble. Some business owners lose that along the way. I’m 42 years old. Since I was 25, I’ve been an employer. Some people become arrogant and forget where they come from. My success is to wake up in the morning and see how many families are positively affected by my business.
Today, in 2026, his message resonates as one thoroughly focused on people — people in every role involved in the success of a business. His inspirational takeaway advice is to make sure that that includes everybody — employees, customers, manufacturers, supply vendors, and competitors.
For information about SOS Toilets, LLC , San Francisco, CA and Los Angeles, CA, you can call (415) 888-1008 or visit sostoilet.com.