What to do with your “Junk”?

What do I do with the stuff once I pick it up? That is a common question that is posed to me from current and prospective junk removal business owners.  They want to be able to get all their jobs done but they really want to sell stuff too. They feel like by donating and recycling the stuff they are missing out on income from item sales. That is partly true. But one of the keys to growing a business is to make sure you spend your time where it is best spent. Remember, you are in the junk REMOVAL business not the junk RESELLING business.

So, we will start right off where everybody wants to. When should I sell it? There are a few factors that play into that:

• What does your customer want done with the item: If they expected it to be donated then you should try to donate it. If they expect the donation receipt get them the receipt.
• Will selling the items get you off schedule: You never want to be late to a customer. Remember, you are in the REMOVAL business and not the RESELL business. Don’t let resell take away from the removal which is the bread and butter of your business.
• Have a value threshold: Remember, selling items isn’t all profit. You have to take pictures, list it for sell, respond to buyers, possibly clean it, and meet the buyer. There is a lot of time that can be taken up. It probably isn’t worth your time to sell a $20 item. And, it might not be worth you or your team members time to bring a load back to your facility if it is under, say $300-$400 of value. And if you are busy that threshold would be even higher. When we first started we had a value threshold of $700 because we were so busy. The fact we said no to selling most of the items at the start allowed us to do more junk removal jobs than anybody. It made sure that we were able to accommodate same day service which is 20 percent of our business. And it allowed us to be able to get out and sell our removal service. We got flap all the time from friends and people we know that owned estate sale companies that were like, “Dude, you need to sell the stuff. You are donating or junking thousands and thousands of dollars of stuff.” They weren’t lying. I bet we’ve passed on over a half million worth of stuff since we started. But I guarantee you that we’ve gotten at least three times the amount of business. Steve Jobs once said that your success is not made with the things you say yes too, but instead the things you say no too. Remember that. Saying no is one of the reasons JD is at $2 Million a year in sales where some of our competitors, in business just as long, are at about $300,000 or less.
• Space available: Remember, you need storage space. Storage space costs money. Is it worth paying $1500 a month for warehouse space to sell $2000-$3000 worth of stuff? Probably not.
• Focus more on sales when you hit a gross sales threshold: For us it was $1 Million for our Raleigh location. That was when it was worth the space. That was when we were able to take a dispatch guy and have him also do sales. So it helped us to have one guy other than Christian or myself do dispatch. Sales helped pay for him. It was worth it then.

When should items be recycled?

• If you have a majority load of general scrap steel type items I would take it straight to a scrap yard normally.
• If you have just a few scrap pieces it probably isn’t worth holding onto it unless you were already heading back to your shop. At that point it could be worth having a trailer or a dumpster that you put general scrap in.
• Always retain copper, car batteries, brass, and other metals that don’t take up a lot of space but pay a lot. Build up a good amount at your shop and make a metal run every so often. HAVE CAMERAS ON THIS STUFF AND LOCK IT UP. Thieves love copper and batteries and will steal it in a heart beat. It doesn’t take much copper to have $300 or $400 worth.
• Balance your time: Again, before you go through items to separate the metals determine if it is actually worth it.

When should items be donated?

• Pretty much anytime you aren’t selling or recycling the stuff and it is easy to get too or enough volume to drastically decrease your disposal fees.
• If your customer expects you to attempt to donate it.
• If a donation center is closer than a drop off facility and by donating an item or two you might able to combine your next job.

What donation or recycling percentages should you have?

• I don’t think there is a number. And for these companies out here that claim they recycle or donate 80 percent of what they bring in I call that a big pile of stinky bull shit. There is no way. On our website we tell our customers we will attempt to donate and recycle stuff, but we are not sorting through bags and boxes. If they want small stuff to be donated then they need to have it pre-sorted or pay us a labor rate to do so. If we have a load of nice stuff we will make sure to drop it off at a donation center or sell it. It is the right thing to do and it works out for us financially. But we aren’t going to spend hours more time sorting through stuff to discover a few odds and ends to donate.

There is not a hard and fast rule on what you should do with your stuff. I wish there was. We love standardization. But so much of this is subjective. However, I will tell you, generally with selling items less is more. You will definitely get rid of some valuable stuff but I have seen the proof that you will get several times that back with your primary business. And the REMOVAL is scaleable. The RESELL is much harder to scale. Remember, you are in the junk REMOVAL business not the junk RESELL business.

Good luck building your business this week!

-Lee Godbold

919-466-9322

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