This sub truly changed my life

[saveme7777]

I started a junk removal business 6 months ago and it is the best thing I've ever done. Before I started my business I was pretty depressed, hated my job, and didn't really have any meaning in my life. Since then, I have found a passion, built a business, and now I am making more with my junk removal "side hustle" than I am from my 9-5. Its crazy how quickly everything happened and how much the hard work has paid off.

SUPER grateful for this community for showing me the ropes, thank you!

 

[jimmy2356]

@saveme7777 I'm glad you're feeling so good about it! At this point, you'll need to make sure you're asking for enough money, make sure you're delegating the tasks you should, and attending to the customers that are good for you. Failing to do any of these things for the next 12 months consistently will burn you out, which doesn't mean your business will fail, it just means that you'll stop having fun until these problems are fixed, but you'll have a lot less energy and flexibility to do it later.

Do it up front; make sacrifices to set yourself up to do all these things properly from the beginning so that you don't dig yourself into a position that is exhausting and oppressive upon your lifestyle. It can tank your mental health and social life to get stuck with problems accomplishing any of the above for a long period of time.

The least stressful time in my life was when I did a good job of these things, and the most exhausting times in my life have been my battles with those problems over the course of several years. Deferring effort on these issues only prolongs the suffering, it's best to struggle with it for the first couple years and get into a stage of business development that feels right for the long term.

 

[saveme7777]

@jimmy2356 This is all great advice. For the first 5 months I was definitely under charging and grinding for the reviews/referrals, now that I am charging more I definitely feel a weight come off my shoulders. Also just politely turned down a problem customer today, which felt great

 

[jimmy2356]

@saveme7777 Sounds like you're doing the right stuff. It's okay to undersell a little to get your feet wet, just don't let anyone get hooked on those prices, it can be really hard to tear yourself away when you agree to keep helping someone out too many times, just because you want to skip the confrontation.

I guess another thing is, it's okay to hire people to train or otherwise give a chance to, but make sure that you're not trying to delegate to people who aren't interested in the responsibility or motivated to excell working independently. It's hard to find help you can delegate decision-making to instead of having to program them like robots every day. Sometimes I feel like I might as well just move peoples arms for them and I'd save time. If your employees need to learn something for you to be able to delegate the things you feel you should be able to, and they don't make much progress with it after a few months, then you might need to do a better job of communicating your expectations and needs. Sometimes you need to keep doing hiring interviews and spend some extra resources in the beginning trying people out to find the right ones if you're having trouble delegating to the guys you're supervising.

It sucks to give yourself the job of being someone's handler indefinitely while they get pissed about being micro managed. The idea is to train people to be able to do the job themselves, not force you into the job of thinking for them every day.

The difference for the employee is a mindset, but some people are harder to get into it than others. It comes down to accepting responsibility for the quality and completion of the service. It may behoove you to communicate the expectation of an ability to work independently after a set training duration. You don't have to let them go if they aren't good supervisors or whatever, but you can make it less likely for an employee to expect constant instruction if you communicate something like this early on.

 

[audreygrace955]

@jimmy2356 Good advice! Looking to incorporate some of your ideas for my business.

 

[colin44]

@saveme7777 Awesome man. Love hearing this.

 

[servant52]

@saveme7777 Congrats man! Now we will wait for your stories of finding treasures or getting insane tips

 

[audreygrace955]

@saveme7777 That’s amazing and truly encouraging! As someone that got laid off last year, I am about to start my own junk removal company as well. Do you mind sharing and tips/ ideas about your experience?

 

[saveme7777]

@audreygrace955 You will need a truck AND a trailer. Park the trailer at your house and do all of the small jobs in your truck (Preferably a truck with an 8 foot bed), After every job load the junk from your truck into your trailer. This is a little more work, but it will save you having to do a dump run after every single job. Also make sure to buy a dump trailer so you don't have to hand unload everything at the dump.

 

[happylove24]

@saveme7777 Good for you

 

[brian1970]

@saveme7777 Congrats, Ive thoughtbof starting something similar in my area of TX. A friend of mine does apartment maintenance, and it's crazy how many people just move out in the middle of the night and leave everything behind clogging up the limited dumpster space the complex has. Some of the cleanups are just plain biohazards.

 

[amada___]

@brian1970 If you do let me know! I’m helping out a business in west Texas. They do roll-offs and junk removal. We recently added a few services and just landed a commercial contract that should produce around $300k this year.

 

[wadetheophan]

@amada___ How were you able to land a commercial contract? I’ve been doing primarily residential junk removal and it’s been very slow. Seems like all of the real estate pros I talk to prefer to do it themselves as they can save money.

 

[amada___]

@wadetheophan There was an opportunity to do land clearing and a bit of dirt work for a local home builder. We decided it would make sense for the company to step into that area as they’ve done work as GC. 300+ new houses in the new development all being cleaned & cleared by our crew. The money will be used to grab another skiddster and additional roll offs to park around the city for rentals.

The home builders went with the cheapest price before, but that guy only had one truck, one roll off and 2 guys. We’re easily 3-4 times bigger than him and have a skidster. We charge more but we also provide better quality. Building relationships with the project managers has been the best ROI. They get paid on each completed house so the faster we clear, the more they make.

 

[karengodsgirlk2]

@saveme7777 Congrats ! How do you price jobs ? How’d your get your first 10-15 jobs ?

 

[saveme7777]

@karengodsgirlk2 I started just posting on craigslist every morning and I was doing alright, id say I was able to clear $1,000 per week in the summer months just from that method.

 

[quantum777]

@saveme7777 Brief pricing structure?

 

[saveme7777]

@quantum777 For my 8 foot bed f150 with wooden side walls: $350 for a full truck, $75 for mattresses/boxsprings,couches and $50 for TVs, tires, etc

For my 12.5 yard dump trailer: $850 for a full load with the same charges for couches, TVs, etc

for non full loads, I will look at what is in there and estimate what percent is full. For example if the trailer is 50% full I would charge $425.

Also labor for bigger jobs is $75 per person per hour. I know the bigger guys around me are charging $150 per person per hour, so I will slowly raise my prices over time.