The business of getting rid of trash in the United States is worth almost $60 billion, and it’s growing. This is because everyone has junk they don’t really need. Start your own junk collection business and you can take a piece of that market and make a good profit.
Obviously, starting a business takes a lot of hard work and confidence. You should start by learning as much as you can about the business. This step-by-step guide is full of information and stories to help you get started on your new company.
Step 1: Find Out if this is the Right Business for You?
Positives Vs Negatives
| Getting rid of trash makes a lot of money. People always have trash that needs to be thrown away. Make sure leftovers are thrown away in the right way if you care about the environment. | There will be a lot of heavy lifting for you to do. High costs to start up – A truck to haul trash is not cheap. |
Industry Trends
- In the past, size and growth: In the United States, the business of picking up trash is worth close to $60 billion. IBISWorld, a market researcher, says that it has grown steady at a rate of almost 1% per year since 2017.
- Growth gauge: The market is expected to grow by 3% by 2022.
- Number of businesses: There are about 8,000 trash collection services in the United States.
- Number of jobs: More than 230,000 people work in this business.
Cost of Starting Junk Removal Business
To start a service that gets rid of trash, you need $7,500 to $16,000 or more. The initial purchase on a vehicle is the biggest cost, so your costs will depend on how big and new a vehicle you need to start with. When your business is doing well, you can always get a bigger truck.
Is Junk Removal Business Profitable?
Prices vary based on the size of the load, but the average cost of removing trash is $230. If you start out as a solopreneur and work out of your home, you should make around 80% of what you spend.
During your best time, you could work three jobs a day, six days a week, and make $215,000 a year. If that 80% edge holds, this would be worth about $170,000. As your brand grows, renting an office and adding people could cut your margin to 40%. But if you and your team can do 10 takes per day, you’d make more than $700,000 a year and have a net gain of $280,000.
Entry Barriers
- Getting a big vehicle and dollies
- Waste collection companies are one of your competitors in your area.
Step 2: Create a Strategy
Identify a Gap
Find a chance to look into local junk removal companies to find out what they offer, how much they charge, and what their customers say about them. You want to find a gap in the market to fill. For example, the local market might miss a green trash collection service or one that works every day and offers emergency pick-up.
Solutions
- Garage and basement cleanouts
- Remove trees and clean up yards
- Dangerous trash removal
- Reusing and giving away old stuff
Pricing
The average cost of junk clearance work across the country is $230, and the price per truck load can be anywhere from $100 to $800. Prices should be based on how long it takes and how much stuff needs to be moved. You will have to pay for work, above, and gas. When you run your own business, you should aim for a profit margin of about 80%. When you rent a place and hire workers, however, you can expect a profit margin of 40%.
Once you know your costs, you can use the Step By Step profit margin tool to figure out your price points.
Target Market
Most of your customers will be individuals, but you could also clear trash from places of business. Most likely, both of those groups are on either Facebook or LinkedIn.
Location
In the beginning, you may need to run your business out of your home to save money. But as your business grows, you may need to hire people to do different jobs and you may need to rent an office for planning. You can look for business space to rent in your area on Loopnet, Craigslist, Crexi, and business Cafe.
If you’re looking for a place to do business, you might want to keep these things in mind:
- The site is in the middle of everything and can be reached by public transit.
- The room has good air flow and a lot of natural light.
- As your business grows, you can get a longer lease.
- It’s ready to use and doesn’t need any big fixes.
Step 3: Write a Business Plan
Every firm need a plan. This will serve as a manual to help your business through the launch process while staying focused on your core objectives. A business plan also helps potential partners and investors understand your firm and its vision:
- Executive Summary: A brief review of the full business plan that should be produced when the plan is completed.
- Business Overview: An overview of the company’s vision, mission, ownership, and corporate goals.
- Product and Services: Describe your offers in depth.
- Market Analysis: Conduct a SWOT analysis and evaluate market trends such as variations in demand and development possibilities.
- Analyze your top rivals, analyzing their strengths and flaws, and compile a list of the benefits of your services.
- Sales and Marketing: Look at the unique selling points (USPs) of your business and come up with sales, marketing, and promotion plans.
- Management Team: An overview of the team’s tasks and professional backgrounds, as well as a business structure.
- Operations Plan: Your company’s operational plan includes how it will get supplies, where it will put its office, what its most important assets and tools are, and other practical details.
- Financial Plan: A three-year plan for money, including start-up costs, a break-even analysis, predictions of profits and losses, cash flow, and a balance sheet.
- Appendix: Add any other papers related to money or business.
Step 4: Create a Marketing Plan
Some of your business will come from people who walk by or find you online, but you should still spend money on marketing! For new companies, getting the word out is especially important because it will bring in more customers and make more people aware of the brand.
Once your site is up and running, you can link it to your social media accounts. Social media is a great way to get the word out about your business because you can make interesting posts and sell your products.
- Facebook is a great place for paid advertising because it lets you target specific social groups, like guys under 50 in the Cleveland area.
- Instagram has the same benefits as Facebook, but it has different interest groups.
- Website: SEO will help your website show up closer to the top of relevant search results, which is important if you want to make more sales. Make sure you invite people to do things on your site in advance. Change the text, color, size, and placement of calls to action like “Order Now” as you go. As a result, people may buy a lot more.
- Yelp and Google: Getting mentioned on Yelp and Google My Business can be very important for businesses that depend on local customers to bring in new ones.
- Competitions and giveaways: To get people’s attention, give customers gifts like 20% off their first order if they do something specific.
- Signage: Add signs that stand out to your website.
- Flyers should be given out in your neighborhood and at business events.
- In-Person Sales: Showcase your products and services at trade shows and neighborhood markets.
- Help events – You can pay to be a help at events that your target market cares about.
- Post a video—Post a video about your business that takes out trash. If you use fun, it might become a hit on the web.
- Look for references. To get references from clients, offer incentives to new customers.
- Paid advertising through online entertainment: Choose sites where your target market is likely to be and place ads there.