Americans own an alarming level of shit.
The average size of the American home has tripled in the last 50 years. Plenty of room to store all that stuff, right?
Wrong.
For houses with two-car garages, 25% of those homeowners don’t have space to park even one vehicle.
And at least 1 in 10 people use offsite storage to handle the overflow of stuff (making owning storage businesses a profitable venture along the way).
Every so often, a homeowner cries for help and carries out a major purge.
But what happens to all that stuff? It’s a hassle to sell, it’s too much to donate, and some of it straight up can’t go out with the trash.
Enter the junk hauler, a magical truck owner who appears onsite to wipe away clutter en masse.
By starting a junk removal business, you can tap into this growing demand and build a flexible business with ongoing revenue.
If you find someone else who took on the heavy lifting of launching the company, you can bypass a lot of startup challenges and jump right into cashflow territory.
Why Buy a Junk Removal Business Instead of Starting One?
Junk removal businesses have a lower barrier to entry than plenty of other company types, but they do present some challenges for an entrepreneur.
If there’s a lot of competition in the area, it’s hard to establish a reputation for junk removal services. If you buy instead, you can build on the word of mouth and online reviews associated with the first company.
Trying to figure out pricing for junk removal? Challenging for newbies.
You need to factor in gas costs, your time spent driving to, collecting, and away with the junk, and whatever you get charged to purge it.
If you offer a lowball price to potential customers, you’ll lose money. Go high, and they’ll walk.
And, as a new business, you need to acquire permits to work with a local landfill or transfer station. In other words, you need somewhere to dump your junk.
An existing business transfers over those relationships and permits to you right away.
Plus, buying a business like this is within your reach. BizBuySell, for example, sorts for-sale businesses into categories, with dozens of them for sale at any given time.
You can also score junk and waste removal businesses on sites that list off-market deals, like BizScout. Full disclosure: We own BizScout, but it’s a great platform for entrepreneurs to find their next business.
If you find something of interest, you can use seller financing to get better terms in the deal, too, without the limits of traditional bank or business loans.
But if your heart’s still set on building your own thing, follow these steps to get in on the game.
1. Research Your Market
Who do you plan to serve? What will you offer them? At what price point is junk removal profitable for you and a must-do for your customers?
Gauge local demand by looking at existing junk hauling solutions.
In many cases, you’ll find that these companies don’t use digital marketing or software to reach their market. That’s a missing puzzle piece you can take advantage of later in the startup process. But for now, it can complicate your research since you won’t be able to investigate customer reviews.
As a new junk hauling business owner, you need to know the primary questions and concerns of your clientele. Ask neighbors and friends what they’ve stored that they’d like to dump.
You might discover ways to claim a niche and win the majority of business in your area by talking to people and finding their unmet needs.
In general, junk haulers take almost anything (except really out-there things like chemical waste). These junk experts fill a gap since most donation centers and landfills won’t take all kinds of trash.
For example, how do you dispose of a hot tub? An appliance? Construction debris? Mattresses? Old exercise equipment?
You need to research how your municipality handles these kinds of junk so you can dispose of it in a safe and legal way.
This is the first big advantage of buying someone else’s junk hauling business. Sure, the old owner may not have modern operations or marketing, but they understand their market and the rules. You can ask them to teach you everything they know during the transition period.
2. Create a Business Plan
Your business plan takes what you learned in market research and combines it with other important details, like:
- Your executive summary (Who are you? What do you offer?)
- A market analysis (What is the need?)
- Your marketing strategy (Who will you help? How will you reach them?)
- Your financial plan (What money do you need?)
A business plan for a junk hauler can be simple, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to make. You’ll still need to put thought and effort into it.
When you buy an established junk hauler, you’ll be able to modify a business plan that the market has already tested. You can see what worked, what didn’t, and where to go from there.
3. Get Your Legal Paperwork Out of the Way
Choose a business name first. Check your secretary of state registry and online directories to make sure no one else uses that name.
Then, file as a business with the secretary of state. You’ll also need to declare if you’ll operate as a sole proprietor, a limited liability company, or a corporation.
Certain states require a junk hauler permit and license, including:
- California
- Illinois
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- New York
- Texas
- Virginia
As you research what’s needed, get quotes for a few types of insurance, too. If you hire employees, you must obtain workers’ compensation insurance.
Outside of that, most junk haulers need at least general liability coverage and car insurance for the company vehicle, too.
Buying an established business can cut out some of the legal red tape. You can transfer the existing permits and insurance policies into your name when you buy from someone else.
4. Finance Equipment and Vehicles
The financial section of a successful junk removal business plan lays out the necessary equipment and vehicles you need to start working.
At a minimum, get:
- Garbage bags
- Tarp
- Ropes
- Shovels
- Work gloves
- Trailer
- Truck
A dump truck holds more, which works out well for bigger jobs, but they’re expensive, and you’ll need a commercial driver’s license.
You can do just fine on smaller gigs with a pickup truck and a trailer. But you’ll limit the income you can make to small jobs.
Buying either type of truck used keeps startup costs down, so you can recoup profits faster.
But, if you find someone else’s junk hauler biz for sale, you can work this equipment into the deal.
And you can get it on better terms than a loan or credit through seller financing. You can negotiate terms where you pay the previous owner a down payment and then the rest out of your profits over time.
5. Set Your Service Packages and Pricing
Most junk haulers price based on one of two methods:
- Per hour
- Per load.
But you can do more than just take items to the dump. You might add special rates for things like:
- Recycling
- Taking items to donation centers
- Handling hazardous waste removal
You’ll need a license for the last one in some locations, but hazmat work is lucrative.
Junk removal rates fall on a wide range from $100 to $800 a load, so scope out pricing in your region before you start your business. Compare this with any disposal or weight-based fees you’ll pay at a dump or other location.
To make sure you have the space for each haul, ask for texted pictures and a list of the various items.
If you have multiple vehicles, you might send out more than one for big jobs or try to coordinate pickups in specific neighborhoods around the same time.
You can offer semi-annual stops or special price promotions, such as coinciding with spring cleaning or helping people eliminate yard waste before winter comes.
If you buy instead of build, review and update pricing based on what you learn in your market research.
6. Market Your New Business
@extremejunkremoval ♬ original sound – extreme Junk Removal
To get the word out there, create flyers and business cards with your new business name, logo, and contact information. Share this with friends and family since there’s a good chance one of these people will give you the first gig (and your first review, too!).
You can advertise online and offline successfully with a junk hauling business.
Make sure you create an online presence with a Google Business Profile, a website optimized for local SEO, and social media platforms with your contact details.
Tons of small-time junk haulers skip out on digital marketing. That’s a huge hole in your competitors’ tactics when you consider that people turn to the internet first when they need a service.
As you earn business, ask for reviews. It’s one of the most important ways to show credibility and to win new business.
In your reviews and general marketing, show people what you do and discuss the benefits of eliminating things. Many people buried in stuff may not realize that help is just a phone call away.
Clutter can cause anxiety, so leverage marketing opportunities to discuss the outcome of your services (freed up space, both mental and physical!).
If you buy a junk hauling business outright, you may need to revisit the marketing plan to capitalize on new opportunities. But you’ll start out with a customer base that’s already familiar with the business.
7. Hire and Train Your Staff
With just one vehicle, you can probably run a decent junk hauling business.
But do you want to spend the rest of your days hunting through trash and treasure?
Start hiring with one part-time assistant. Over time, you can train them into the role to handle estimates, scheduling, and even hauling items if you want.
Build a great company culture that entices your staff to stay on for the long haul. If you’re intentional with your hiring strategy, you can step out of the business and let others run the day-to-day.
If you make an offer on a current junk removal company, you can bring over the staff into your venture. This cuts down on your own launch timeline.
And it allows you to take on more than 1 job a day from the beginning. More jobs, more opportunities for making a profit!
8. Get a Good Grip on Operations
@logan.finance The journey @thejunkpunks #business #junkremoval #investing ♬ Song Is Careless Whisper – BuddhaFX
It’s easy enough to run a junk hauling business without any fancy tools.
But you can deliver a better customer experience (and your mental health) by investing in software that makes life easier.
For example, accounting software that makes invoicing easy and records all incoming and outgoing money to simplify tax time for you.
Or look into software for scheduling and route planning like Hauler Hero to minimize your carbon footprint and operate as efficiently as possible. (BTW, being a green junk hauler would be a badass niche in the right location.)
Of course, keep up to date with the staff and any rules at the recycling centers and landfills where you do business.
By staying on the cutting edge, you can share this information with your customers first and price your services accordingly.
If you buy someone else’s junk removal biz, you may need to introduce software to keep things efficient, but you’ll benefit from existing tools and relationships.
Next Steps: Growing Your Junk Removal Business
Growth and expansion feel far off when there’s so much to do just to start a new company. Plan for a long future in the business from day one so you’re ready to build it into something bigger down the road.
If you buy an existing junk removal business, you’ll start at the growth phase.
With an established reputation, it’s not hard to branch out into neighboring regions. You could also add complementary services like lawn mowing, landscaping/leaf removal, tree removal, or gutter cleaning.
With more to offer, you’ll earn more per customer and earn a reputation as a leader in home or cleaning services.
Jumpstart Your Junk Removal Empire
We’ve all been there: the slow accumulation builds into an unmanageable pile of stuff you no longer want or need.
A junk removal business idea is so simple you might think it can’t work.
But the junk removal industry is on fire these days as more people want to get rid of things without having to do the hard work on their own.
By starting a junk hauling business, you can give homeowners more peace of mind and better use of their space while earning a nice profit for yourself. You can start small and then expand with additional vehicles, staff, or territory.
While you can start on your own, buying a junk hauling business is still the better option. It will cut down on startup issues and help you build on an existing brand, meaning you get to a comfortable cashflow far sooner than going your own way.
