LOUISVILLE, Ky. — She’s the new queen of the Louisville porta-can scene. Pine Sol is her favorite smell.
Portia Shoulders, 47, is a trail blazer from west Louisville.
"I’m excited, this is historic," she said. "First full service hospital in the west end, I’m the first and only Black woman in Kentucky with a portable restroom company.”
She’s a perfectionist. WHAS11 News saw it when a construction worker on the new Norton West Louisville Hospital site came out of a Portia porta-can after, well, you know.
“Oh, they’re real clean in there," he said. "You don't see them like this on a whole lot of sites, but she's taking care of these. I’ll tell you that, THANK YOU.”
Shoulders landed in this gritty business after waking up from a dream.
“I woke up one morning and heard “Porta Potties!” It had to be God sent," she said. "I just woke up one morning and I heard it. I heard porta potty and once I heard porta potty it shook me so bad, I said porta potty, and I looked up and I said what would I name it? I had $400 dollars that day. I started my LLC with PLSIX Porta Potty Rentals. That’s my first, middle, and last name and the number of kids I got.”
Shoulders' business is growing. She now also manages temporary fencing, dumpsters, and her trademark pink porta potties for women on construction sites.
Shoulders said she turned to the business incubator at the nonprofit group, OneWest.
“They showed me how to do anything from the beginning to the back page, of the business that I didn't have no knowledge of," she said.
Donovan Taylor, the director of The Plan Room, called Shoulders a star client.
“She was having an issue with her bank as far as receiving payments on the project," he said. "We were able to work closely with her ,with the bank, as an advocate for her. The issue was resolved and has made it a smoother project for her on this Norton West Louisville Hospital project."
Norton then gave Shoulders her first contract as part of its promise to west Louisville to hire from the neighborhood when building the hospital.
A Messer Construction representative at the site told WHAS11 News that they’ve been so impressed with her hard work, they are hiring her at more locations.
She’s proud to be giving back to her beloved west Louisville.
And no wonder Messer loves her; on Thanksgiving week during construction, Shoulders cooked Thanksgiving dinner and brought it to the crews.
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