In 1989, university student Brian Scudamore encountered a tight summer job market in Vancouver, British Columbia. With $700 and a beat-up old pickup truck he started "The Rubbish Boys", a junk removal service with the slogan "We'll Stash Your Trash in a Flash!". After three increasingly successful summers, Brian knew it was time to take his business to the next level.
With a vision of creating the 'FedEx' of junk removal, he dropped out of University with just a year left to become a fulltime junkman. His father, a liver transplant surgeon, was not impressed -- although he is onside now. Brian invested in more trucks, hired student drivers, and set out to make his company and its phone number, 738-JUNK, a household name throughout the Greater Vancouver region.
After three increasingly successful summers, Brian knew it was time to take his Business to the next level. He invested in more trucks, hired student drivers, and set out to make his company and its phone number a household name - 1-800-GOT-JUNK? The World's Largest Junk Removal Service.
Their concept is simple: not everyone has a truck or the time to take their junk to the dump. Since almost everyone has junk there is a universal need for junk removal. The Rubbish Boys haul away old furniture and appliances, construction debris, yard refuse, and other household junk for disposal or recycling.
Their recipe for success has been straightforward. Take a fragmented business, add clean shiny trucks that act as mobile billboards, uniformed drivers, on-time service and up-front rates, and then mix in with a culture that is young, fun and completely focused on solid growth.
And although it is an uncomplicated business, they couldn't possibly grow this quickly without technology -- sort of a low tech business with a high tech spin. All calls come into their central 1-800-GOT-JUNK? call center where they do all the booking and dispatch for their franchise partners. Franchise partners then assess all of their real time reports, schedules, and customer info off of JUNKNET (their corporate intranet). This allows their franchisees to get into business quickly, and to focus solely on growth -- working on the business vs. working in the business.
With no national brand name in the fragmented industry of junk removal, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has positioned itself as the market leader in North America. Today they have 271 franchises across North America, are in 48 of the top 50 North American Metropolitan Areas, and are operating in Sydney, Australia and Birmingham, England.
I asked Brian to give us some insights about his success and how it evolved. Here are my questions and his answers.
I would love to know more about is your decision to franchise and how you went about doing that.
I chose franchising for a model for growth based on a philosophy that I have that we can create something much bigger together than any of us could alone. Franchising takes a group of brilliant minds (our franchise partners) and creates a power pool of ideas, ways to improve, and grow - just like McDonalds and how their franchisees created the Big Mac and the Egg McMuffin. Our franchise partners continue to provide innovation and improvement to our system.
At what point in the business did you decide to add franchises?
In 1995 we decided to franchise. It took us 3 years before we felt our systems were strong enough to bring franchise partners on board. We awarded our first franchise in 1998 in Toronto. Our first U.S. franchise was in Portland in 1999.
What do you need to do to start a franchise?
One needs an investment of $70,000-95,000 along with a strong sales, marketing aptitude and a true passion for growth.
You do business in both Canada and the U.S. Does that complicate things? What are the differences and how does it affect your business?
I, myself, have dual citizenship. I grew up in San Francisco and now live in Vancouver, B.C. It was a natural fit since I spend so much time in both countries and understand business in both countries so well.
Weird Junk
1-800-GOT-JUNK? has taken some weird stuff from customers. Some of the
weirdest junk includes:
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Sounds like a great company to own a franchise for!
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