Brian Scudamore is a person who believes in human connection earlier than know-how, so it’s no marvel he based an organization that has a heavy dose of each.
In 1989, he based 1-800-GOT-JUNK? as a technique to cowl faculty tuition. Since then, the corporate has was a trash-hauling juggernaut with over 200 areas throughout three international locations that introduced in $600M in income in 2022 — however it wasn’t all the time easy crusing for Scudamore.
He truly got here fairly near shedding the whole lot at one level.
Scudamore has made a reputation for himself on the entrepreneurial circuit, utilizing his story as a cautionary story for up-and-comers.
It took nearly a decade and a half for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to get its legs, all because of wild willpower and killer press alternatives. As soon as his firm took off, Scudamore knew he had a novel system on his fingers. Now he’s the CEO of O2E Manufacturers, the mother or father firm of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING, You Transfer Me, and Shack Shine.
Right here, we’ll take a more in-depth take a look at the makings of his empire of junk (in a great way) and the system he used to start out a number of profitable corporations.
What’s 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Earlier than we dig into Scudamore’s story, we must always most likely cowl what 1-800-GOT-JUNK? truly is. As you — our perceptive and ever-savvy readers — may have the ability to deduce, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s enterprise mannequin has one thing to do with junk.
Surprising, I do know.
The corporate supplies full-service junk removing for properties and companies. It operates on a franchise mannequin, the place franchisees signal on to cowl protected territories with 1-800-GOT-JUNK? vans. And, as the truth that we‘re writing an article on its CEO’s success may point out, that mannequin wound up working fairly properly.
Now that that‘s out of the best way, let’s check out how Scudamore was in a position to begin, salvage, and maintain his firm’s success.
1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s Startup Success Method
1. Be each digitally sound and essentially human.
Excessive stage, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?‘s success rests on a key premise — trendy corporations want each digital and human parts. Your enterprise can’t survive these days with out a sound on-line presence, however when it comes all the way down to it, individuals will nearly all the time need to interact with different individuals.
As Scudamore places it, “I feel it’s apparent that the web has to go hand-in-hand with each enterprise. However it’s uncommon to discover a enterprise that’s 100% internet-based … Individuals can order 1-800-GOT-JUNK? on our on-line reserving engine and a truck is dispatched to them with none human interplay. However then our group members present up with a giant smile to do the job.
“Individuals are forgetting that life is about human interactions. My youngsters spend lots of time on their telephones, however additionally they worth time with their mates and real-life connections. I feel too many individuals are targeted solely on know-how. They’re forgetting concerning the human connection and the way a lot worth it could possibly add to the client expertise.”
2. Be prepared to your second.
What‘s the other of an in a single day success? I can’t consider a catchy time period offhand, however no matter it’s, that‘s what 1-800-GOT-JUNK? was. It took eight years for the enterprise to make its first million, and by Scudamore’s account, it took a profile in Fortune Journal 5 years later for the corporate to actually take off.
He says, “We acquired our huge hit in 2002: A function article in Fortune Journal. Immediately, the telephones began lighting up. Everybody needed to get in and begin a franchise. By that point, I fortunately already had 4 franchises up and working. These 4 franchises are the one motive individuals have been shopping for extra than simply hope.”
1-800-GOT-JUNK? had the construction and safeguards in place to capitalize on the publicity that got here with its function in Fortune — demonstrating precisely how important with the ability to stroll the stroll is earlier than your corporation’s second.
3. Do not assume issues shall be trying up for you personally when they’re for your corporation.
As you possibly can think about, life was powerful for Scudamore via that 13-year stretch. However even after 1-800-GOT-JUNK? actually acquired its legs, issues have been — to place it mildly — nonetheless fairly brutal.
In line with him, “I used to be so broke. I actually did not have a greenback. I did not have 1 / 4. I had no cash within the financial institution. I bear in mind I had a stack of a few dozen paychecks that have been on account of me with a rubber band round them on my desk, simply ready for a time after we had sufficient cash that I might go forward and money my very own paychecks.”
He says it was a stark distinction from most individuals’s notion. As he places it, “It was fascinating as a result of individuals on the surface are trying in saying, ‘Oh look, this firm is rising so rapidly.’ They didn’t know what was truly occurring.”
The state of the corporate additionally weighed on his psychological well being. He says, “I used to be harassed. I‘m not ashamed of it, however it was a really troublesome time and I used to be stricken by panic assaults. My mind was simply stuffed with stress and worry. It acquired so unhealthy that when it was time for me to get on a aircraft, I couldn’t due to the nervousness. I might cancel my journey. I used to be simply plagued with psychological anguish.
“It was a tricky time. There have been days after I couldn‘t even get away from bed. I couldn’t deliver myself to grips with what to do subsequent. I’d suppose ‘This isn’t working. I‘m not adequate.’ I felt unhealthy … Most individuals do not understand simply how a lot strain entrepreneurs placed on themselves. I caught with it so arduous as a result of I actually believed that we might finally prevail. “
4. Place confidence in your corporation, and belief your intestine.
By 2003, the corporate was doing $34M in income and stopped self-financing. In line with Acton Smith, “[1-800-GOT-JUNK?] was promoting sufficient franchises and our franchise house owners have been paying at that time. Once you promote 100 franchises in a 12 months at $50k, that is $5m. We might take that, go construct extra infrastructure, do extra advertising and marketing, and actually drive the engine ahead.”
However issues have been rocky to the purpose of near-catastrophe earlier than that breakthrough, and Scudamore was confronted with some troublesome selections. He says, “I used to be actually three days away from bankrupting the corporate or gifting away greater than 50% possession. I’d’ve finally been out of the enterprise and who is aware of what my future would have been.”
He was ready to surrender 50% of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? — shedding management of his enterprise — however some last-minute recommendation helped him change his thoughts and proper the course.
He says, “We had no money. I used to be so near signing papers for me to offer away greater than half of my firm for $5M. It was imagined to be sufficient personal fairness to get ourselves out of a gap and begin rising once more …
“I went to fulfill with the banker who was serving to us get this elevate. His recommendation was to hunker down and rebuild the enterprise. He advised me to chop prices and other people somewhat than take the $5M.”
Finally, Scudamore made the proper name — however it got here at a value.
5. Be ready to take some ugly measures for the sake of your corporation.
His choice to carry out didn‘t sit along with his COO on the time, resulting in her and her management group’s departure. He says, “As a substitute of signing these papers, I mentioned, ‘We’re not going to lift cash’ and acquired that COO out of my enterprise.
“I fired her total management group as a result of I could not afford them any longer and I didn’t know if I might belief them. She and I had labored collectively for 14 months. That relationship ended and I began slicing prices.”
From there, Scudamore elevated his mid-level managers to management roles and fired 52 workers. He says, “There have been tears throughout the room and finally, it made me cry as a result of I felt so unhealthy for all these individuals shedding mates from the group. However as a pacesetter, I needed to take duty. I acquired us there.”
It took some time for the mud to settle and the enterprise to turn into worthwhile. In line with him “It took from 2008 till 2011 to get steady sufficient to become profitable. We truly made cash in 2008, ’09 and ’10 as a result of we actually minimize prices and we wanted that money circulate to get out of the opening we have been in.”
And in 2011, he employed Erik Church as his COO, who he largely credit for bringing the corporate to $444M in income in 2019.
6. Be sure that management maintains a “yin and yang” of persona and implementation.
Scudamore attributes lots of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?‘s sustained success to his and Church’s complementary management types — what he describes as a “two-in-the-box mannequin” the place each function the top of the corporate in several capacities.
As he describes it, “We‘re not co-COOs as a result of we now have separate obligations. However we’re in it collectively. I’m the visionary and the tradition man. He‘s targeted on technique and execution. Whereas there’s overlap between us, you not often have a visionary and an implementer in the identical particular person.
“So I’m targeted on imaginative and prescient, storytelling, tradition, PR, and constructing the persona of our manufacturers. I’m all the time pondering “How can we develop them and entice extra individuals?’
I do interviews and podcasts — getting on the market and making an attempt to share our story to assist encourage others, whether or not they do it with or with out us. I imagine in entrepreneurship. I imagine in people-growing alternatives.”
All of that to say, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s success is a case research of the worth of stability in management. Particularly efficient administration reconciles being people-centric with sustaining disciplined diligence. And discovering that center floor typically takes multiple chief.
Extra Suggestions from 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’S Founder
“Take one thing that is proper in entrance of you that you understand you are able to do higher and go construct that.”
As I discussed on the high of this text, Scudamore based three extra corporations on the again of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s success — WOW 1 DAY PAINTING, You Transfer Me, and Shack Shine — comprising mother or father firm, O2E Manufacturers.
The logic behind these ventures (together with any others he may begin, down the road) is rooted in a easy premise. As he places it, “I all the time inform younger entrepreneurs to take one thing that is proper in entrance of you that you understand you are able to do higher and go construct that.”
What would that seem like for him? He says, “If I needed to create one thing new right now, 100% I’d discover a fragmented mom-and-pop area that I might consolidate. I’d discover one thing that might be low-cost to get into — like irrigation together with panorama lighting.
“You simply want a car. It does not have to be something fancy. You begin driving round and getting enterprise via the neighborhood, telling individuals what you are able to do.”
Finally, like so many different entrepreneurs‘, Scuadamore’s story is a triumph that might’ve been a tragedy — however his persistence, religion in his product, management, enterprise acumen, and willingness to make powerful selections turned what can be a cautionary story right into a mannequin for aspiring enterprise house owners to look as much as.
