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The Side Hustle Show
How to Start a Junk Hauling Business: From $0 to $300 Million and Beyond (Greatest Hits)
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- [00:00]
A
Here's an oldie but a goodie from the archives from the Side Hustle Show Greatest hits collection Trash into treasure. This is taking a part time junk hauling business from zero to $300 million and beyond.
- [00:18]
B
What's up?
- [00:19]
A
What's up? Nick Loper here. Welcome to the Side Hustle show because being willing to fail is the only way to ever get up the courage to get started. Wtf man? Willing to fail. Let that be your new mantra. In this episode you'll hear from the guy whose thousand dollar investment in a beat up pickup truck has turned into an empire that's now doing over a million dollars in revenue a day. This is a rare break on the show where we get to see how the CEO of an organization that size thinks and operates, how he got there and what we as side Hustlers and probably smaller scale entrepreneurs. I don't want to discount that. Can take away from that. I really enjoyed this conversation with Brian Scudamore, the founder and CEO of 1-800-got-Junk, whose portfolio of brands now includes not just junk removal but also house painting, moving services and home detailing. You'll find information on all of those@o2ebrands.com which is which stands for ordinary to exceptional. So o the number two ebrands.com and that's the broader story I want to tell here that there's an opportunity to consolidate and brand fragmented industries. Brian's new book gave me the inspiration for the intro. It's called wtf? Willing to how failure can be your key to success. Stick around in this one to hear how Brian started the junk hauling business as a soon to be college student. His thoughts on marketing and hiring and how you can apply nearly 30 years of his successes and failures to your own business. Notes and links for this one are@side hustlenation.com junk I'll be back with my top takeaways from this chat with Brian after the interview.
- [02:07]
C
Ready? Let's do it.
- [02:11]
B
I was trying to find a way to pay for college. I was in a McDonald's drive through of all places. There was this beat up old pickup truck in front of me. It had plywood sides built up on the box filled with junk and I looked at the truck and went ah, there's my ticket. Now what's kind of interesting is I was one course short of graduating from high school so my parents weren't going to fund my college education which put extra pressure on me to find enough money to pay for my own college tuition. So I saw the truck I get out there Take my thousand dollar life savings in my bank. 700 goes to the pickup truck, 300 goes to flyers and business cards. And a week later, I have a business called the Rubbish Boys, which, it's kind of fun. It was just me, but I had a vision for something bigger. And I started driving down alleys, laneways. When someone had a pile of junk, I'd offer to cart it away. And that was the birthing of 1, 800, got junk as we know it today, some 30 years later.
- [03:08]
C
The Rubbish Boys. I like going plural. From the very beginning, it's like, well, it's just me right now, but I.
- [03:13]
A
Could see into the future, had a vision.
- [03:15]
B
Yeah.
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A
Well, what was the most effective way.
- [03:17]
C
Of getting the word out there? After plunking down the 700 bucks for the truck and some marketing material, I.
- [03:24]
B
Think in the beginning I really had to learn about sales. So I got out there and literally knocked on doors. I'd see someone had a pile in their garage, would go around to the front of the house, introduce myself, offer to haul it away for a fee. That wasn't scalable. That wasn't something that would give me a big boost in revenue very quickly. So something I learned a couple of years into the business, my girlfriend at the time said, you have a great story. I said, what are you talking about? She said, you know, you've gone out and made your own job. We're in a tight summer job market. You've gone out and created one. Why not go tell the press that story? So I picked up the phone and I, instead of knocking on doors, I pitched the press and I said, I got an awesome story idea for you. And they said, let's hear it. I pitched them my story and later that day they sent out a reporter. The next day we were on the front page of our local newspaper. Now, this wasn't a tiny little neighborhood paper. This was the big paper in Vancouver. We were on the front page, our truck, the phone number said 738 junk. And it was like a big flyer. People got this in their front door and they're like, whoa. And they called us. We had 100 jobs within 24 hours. And that's when I knew the power of free press.
- [04:39]
C
Wow, that is incredible. And I don't know if you planned it that way, but what luck to have them take a picture, the truck in the background and the phone number right there.
- [04:46]
B
Yeah, luck. I think it was probably a slow news day, to be completely honest, but we ended up on the front page and it was Free. And it just made me realize the power of storytelling. And today's no different. While the press has changed and there aren't as many journalists or traditional outlets out there, you're still able, through social media and through the world's different channels, tell your story what's working, what's not, share it with the world. And there's a lot more noise out there than there used to be maybe 30 years ago. But getting out and telling stories, I think is the best way to. To grow a brand.
- [05:20]
C
Now, if you're doing that today, do you think the same strategy would work?
- [05:23]
A
Hey, I've got this story to tell.
- [05:24]
C
Hey, I created my own job. Who would you pitch that to if not the main Vancouver paper?
- [05:30]
B
So I'm doing that today, but I'm pitching and often myself. We have a PR department, but sometimes I find me telling my own story in that initial stage can really help get someone's attention. But I'm pitching CNBC and New York Times, the Wall Street Journal. We're very, well, I wanted to say lucky, but I was going to correct myself. We were very fortunate to be. To have a good story, but to have the storytelling confidence behind ourselves to get out there and tell the world. So we were on the Oprah Winfrey show, and that actually came not from me pitching, but our first PR hire. We had a fellow named Tyler Wright, young PR intern who knew nothing about press but had all the energy and enthusiasm in the world. We taught him how to pitch. He picked up the phone and pitched constantly to Harpo Studios, where Oprah was recording out of. And ultimately we ended up getting a big hit in front of 35 million people. I was live on the Oprah show, and again, it just reinforced the power of free press, but at a much, much bigger scale.
- [06:33]
A
Wow.
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C
What was the. Now I'm curious, what was the story that he pitched Oprah?
- [06:38]
B
He kept talking about a bunch of different angles. Our business, our growth, and the cleaning up we were doing, not just in profits and business growth, but in helping others. And a service in the junk removal space under 1-800-got junk that never really existed as a branded category in a previous life. And so what I found interesting is Tyler pitched them so much through email and through the phone that Harpo got back in touch with us and said we had a viewer who wrote us who said that their mother is a hoarder who's surrounded by junk and really can't get on with her life and is paralyzed by all the belongings she has. Can you help and Oprah's show, they did an episode called It's About Time. And this one in particular was it was about time you get rid of your junk and move on. And so we came in as the heroes who cleaned up and helped her organize and get her life back in order.
- [07:34]
C
Wow, that's pretty cool. Have you seen a spike this year or in the past couple years with all the Marie Kondo, the life changing art of decluttering and stuff like that?
- [07:44]
B
Yeah, I think that has existed for a long time. I know Marie Kondo is definitely popularizing the idea of tidying up and freeing yourself from all the things that are holding you down in terms of possessions. I think Oprah said it even earlier. She said, hold on to what you love or what is beautiful in your home and get rid of everything else. Sorry, what you love, what is beautiful or what is useful. And I thought that was interesting because North Americans, so I say, you know, Americans and then myself, Canadians, we just buy and have too much stuff. And in an Amazon Instant world where you can have Amazon prime deliver anything you want anytime, it's just even easier to buy stuff. And people are living in smaller homes and want fewer things even though it's easier to buy them. So I think that trend is increasing and people are starting to realize, I think that we've gone a little overboard. A little excessive or a little excessive in our spending habits.
- [08:43]
A
Absolutely.
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C
All the Amazon stuff is job security for what I undergot junk in a way.
- [08:48]
A
Exactly.
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C
So you're going out this summer, you're hustling for customers, you got the phone number emblazoned on the side of the truck, you get this press deal that obviously makes the phone lines blow up. How did you figure out how to price this service?
- [09:03]
B
So that Vancouver Province newspaper article came out and I remember our pricing at the time was $130 for a pickup truck load. So there we are covered on the front page. And the article in the business section talked about how these guys are great, the rubbish boys. It's only $138 a load. And I thought, oh no, they've got our prices wrong. Look at that. 138, that's. No, that's going to sound too expensive. And we actually ended up keeping our prices at 1:38 because that's what the province said. And so the newspaper could say it, I guess we better keep it. Nobody seemed to blink an eye.
- [09:43]
C
It would have been much worse if they were like, and it's for just 95 bucks a truck.
- [09:47]
B
Exactly Exactly. So we took the opportunity and then we started to realize that it came down to a game of we were the best out there, we always did such a great job and we paid our people more than the competition. So let's charge more than the competition. And we would gradually increase our rates to a point where the profitability margins made sense. And one thing I've learned over the years is that if you watch companies out there in retail, in any given market, in any city, it seems to be that the number one player in a market is the low cost provider, a Walmart, that kind of idea, computer equipment, it's who's selling it the cheapest. Now when you look at home services, the service based business, it seems to be in any market, the ones that are doing the best are generally the most expensive or close to it because service requires the right people and those people require decent salaries. And so you get what you pay for. In the home service market, it's not like a Walmart where you can really have technology and processes and systems and distribution that you can scale and get efficiencies in your model. With home services, you really need great people who understand being friendly and trustworthy and so on. And that has a premium to it. I think I learned through pricing that we don't want to be the cheapest. We want to make sure we've got a healthy enough profit that we can sustain ourselves and, and continue to grow and be around for a long time.
- [11:17]
C
Absolutely. That's interesting that the competition, the competitor you saw in front of you in the McDonald's drive thru wasn't a red flag. Oh, that's a cool business idea. But somebody else is already doing it. It's like, shoot, somebody else is already doing it and they've got a pickup truck filled with stuff. So there must be demand there.
- [11:34]
A
Was there anything else that went into.
- [11:36]
C
Your thinking on the competition side aside from the pricing?
- [11:40]
B
For me it was just about building a business where I could do something to pay for school. I don't think I overthought it. Hey, I started a business within a week and off I went. But I iterated very quickly and realized certain things that I needed to tweak in the model. Whether it was pricing or how we marketed and got pr, or even the size of our trucks. I realized we needed bigger trucks but not too big because we were still a residential business and needed to get into people's carports and that sort of things. So I took the business. I don't think I ever overthought it. And to me, like, you're thinking your thought process. I do believe that if you see a business out there that seems to be working, why not get out there and do that business, but do it better? I think we're in a world where too many entrepreneurs want to discover the next big app, the next Instagram. They want to find the next Apple Music, whatever it might be. And I think that those are really cases of lightning in a bottle. And maybe they weren't even lightning in a bottle because someone started a business and kept iterating as the climate changed or as they would figure out how to best grow that business. And I think that entrepreneurs that want to go start a business shouldn't overthink it, do something. The story I love to tell is I met Joe Gebbia, one of the founders of Airbnb, few months ago, and I was fascinated when I was chatting with him and hearing his story of Airbnb, a company everybody knows, the largest hotel chain in the world, and they don't own any hotels. They started by renting air mattresses at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Now here's guys that were renting air mattresses that people could just put in an apartment and stay with a bunch of buddies and then reuse these things. And to me, that just seems like a silly business model. But if they didn't start that and they didn't tweak their model very quickly, it would never have gotten them to be Airbnb and who they are today.
- [13:39]
C
Yeah, that's really powerful stuff. Look at what people are already spending money on. That's a good sign. Figuring out how you can do it differently, how can you do it better? And one thing I'm curious about is.
- [13:48]
A
What do you do with the junk.
- [13:49]
C
After you pick it up?
- [13:51]
A
Brian's answer. Plus, a whole lot more coming up right after this new year. New systems, right? It's the time when we all look at some of the messier parts of our business and think, well, what would it look like if it were easy? There's got to be a better way. Streamlining your communications is one of the quickest and easiest upgrades you can make. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q U O. This is the smarter way to run your business communications. Quo, formerly OpenPhone, is the number one business phone system on G2 with over 3,000 reviews. It's built for how modern teams work. That's why more than 90,000 businesses, ranging from side hustlers and solo operators to growing teams all rely on Quo to stay connected, professional and consistently reachable. Quo works right from an app on your phone or your computer, and it lets you keep your existing phone number. What's really cool is Quo's AI automatically logs your calls. It generates summaries, it highlights the next steps so nothing gets lost, and it can even qualify leads and respond on your behalf if you can't take the call. So let's make this the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away. Try quo for free plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.comsidehustle that's q u o.comsidehustle quo no missed calls, no missed customers January is the season for leveling up, not just personally, but in your business, too. Make it a resolution this year to simplify and automate the parts of your business and you don't love or aren't core to driving revenue like running payroll or guessing at tax forms. Our partner, Gusto, is the online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses like yours. It's all in one. It's remote, friendly and super easy to use, so you can pay, hire onboard and support your team whether they're 1099 or W2 from anywhere. I'm talking about automatic payroll tax filing, simple direct deposits, health benefits, commuter benefits, workers, comp 401, you name it. Gusto makes it simple and has options for nearly every budget. You can do unlimited Payroll runs for one monthly price. Gusto was rated the number one payroll software according to G2 for fall of 2025 and is trusted by over 400,000 small businesses, including many a side hustle show guest Try gusto today@gusto.com sidehustle and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com sidehustle G U S T O one more time it's gusto.com sidehustlez Our.
- [16:25]
B
Latest audited data from an independent third party is 61.3% of what we haul away gets reused, recycled, donated. 61.3% essentially gets diverted from landfills. And that happens in full transparency based on how we choose our transfer stations. So let's say we're in New York. We're taking a truckload of junk somewhere. It's usually taken to a transfer station that we've selected for their amount that they divert and they will sort through with either human beings or machinery or a bit of both, and they'll take the cardboard to one place the wood, the metal and so on to some other places. They'll do the recycling, the reusing, the donating. Our business is really the carting from one location point a the customer's home or business to the transfer station.
- [17:19]
C
Okay. Yeah, I didn't know if there was a treasure hunt element to it where somebody is just like, it's junk to them, but you're like, shoot, I should resell that. Like, I can get inventory for free.
- [17:30]
A
Or better than free.
- [17:31]
C
They're paying me to take it away.
- [17:32]
B
No, it's really paying by the truckload or portion of a load and it's just not worth the time and energy to take it to a bunch of different locations. We've had franchise partners try and do that with very, very limited success.
- [17:46]
C
It's got to be a time consuming process to sort through everything.
- [17:50]
B
Time consuming for not a lot of money. And it just, it doesn't fit our model. And I'm a big believer in focus, stay focused, find one thing and do it exceptionally well before you layer on more ideas.
- [18:03]
C
Okay, so you operate in the margin between what it costs you to get rid of this at the transfer station and how much you can charge for the service. At what point are you comfortable dropping out of college to be a full time junk guy?
- [18:16]
B
Yeah, it was three years in. I remember sitting down with my dad and in the same way that I called the press and said, oh, I got an awesome idea for you. I sat my dad down and I said, dad, I got some good news. And he said, what is it? And it's funny because I'm having dinner with my dad tonight, actually. But I remember sitting him down and I said, I got this good news. I'm dropping out of college to pursue this business full time. And he just looked at me like I was absolutely out of my tree. And I said, listen, here's my thinking. I'm learning more about business, running a business, more than studying about business in school. My business opportunity might not always be here, but the University of British Columbia will likely be there years from now if I choose to go back. And my dad sort of thought about it and said, you know, you're a grown adult and I disagree with you, but that's a decision you want to make. And I went off and made it. And I remember he had talked to an entrepreneur buddy of his a couple of days later saying, my son's crazy. Look what he's doing. And this buddy of his said, no, your son sounds smart. Let him go do it. And sure enough of Course, my dad and I sort of settled our disagree, our differences, if you will. And he certainly believed that I made the right decision today.
- [19:32]
C
Yeah, obviously it's worked out very well for you. What kind of volume was the business doing at that time? Or was it more like, hey, if I had all this extra time in the week from not doing my studies, I can take it to the next level?
- [19:44]
B
Yeah, I was doing about 100,000 in revenue at the time. So not a ton of money, but enough that I could see a vision for something bigger. And at 24 years old or 23 years old when I dropped out, 100,000 in revenue is still a significant amount of money to a kid. I was just learning so much. I mean, I really, I love learning. I'm a curious person. As a kid, I was one of those kids that you wanted just to tell to stop talking because I'd ask question after question, really wanting to learn. School just wasn't the place for me to learn. I needed to learn out on the streets running a business. And that was the passion that I wanted to pursue, was learning about business by running one.
- [20:27]
C
Yeah, that's the only way. That's the only way to do it. The theory only gets you so far. You got to get your hands dirty at some point. What happened after that?
- [20:36]
B
I ended up leaving school, had one truck started to go, okay, well, how do I expand this and grow this beyond this point? Second year out of university, I added another truck. Third year, I added a third truck, and things started to really grow. One of the big turning points now this is going to come across as a big negative in my book. Wtf? Willing to fail. This would be one of the first big failures. But I see it today, absolutely as a real blessing in disguise. I had 11 employees. And that old expression, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. I had at least nine bad apples. And so I decided to bring all 11 people together in a room. And I started by saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I've let you down, haven't hired the right people, trained you, given you the love and support you've needed to be successful. And I think the only way forward is for me to start again. So I went from five trucks and 11 employees down to just me able to drive a truck and rehire at the same time. And off I went to rebuild a business. It was not easy. It was a painful. I don't even remember it. It was so bad. But three to six months of rebuilding. But what I learned that day Is a company or a brand is only as strong as your weakest employee. So why not hire rock stars? Why not get out there and just build a business with people you love working with, you want to take care of and work together, and you want to build something special with. And I changed my philosophy on how I hired and I started to hire people that were more like friends versus employees. And that didn't fail me. That got me to a place where we started to build a special culture and we started to come up with a vision of growth that people wanted to be a part of.
- [22:25]
C
That sounds terrifying. To be operating at the volume that you're doing, the trajectory that you're on, and just put a stop in it, fire everybody and essentially start over. I mean, hindsight, of course, looks good with that decision, but what else is going through your head at that time?
- [22:47]
B
Yeah, it was terrifying on many levels. I've always been one to take the road less traveled and go against the grain on some decisions where many people would not have sat down with my dad, who is a very strong personality and a successful transplant surgeon, to say I'm dropping out of school. I mean, something that just probably infuriated him. Many people wouldn't have done that, but I did that. So I did the same thing when I sat down with these 11 employees. While I was terrified, I still knew it was the right decision or it was a decision that I had to make for my own happiness. Because I wasn't happy working with these people. They didn't believe in me. I didn't believe in them. They weren't clean cut, professional. They weren't the people that I saw as these happy, awesome truck team members in my mind. And I needed to rebuild. So while it was terrifying, and I talk about this in the book, that the right thing is very rarely the easy thing. If building a business was easy, everybody would do it. But it's not easy. It's freaking hard. And it's those events that we learn from, where we make mistakes that teach us something that I believe is why it's all worthwhile. As entrepreneurs, we don't just sign up for the money by any means, because that in most successful entrepreneurs lives I've gotten to experience, money comes last. You get the pain, the disappointment, the regret, the bad mistakes, the people hating you. I mean, all sorts of stuff happens way before the money starts to roll in. And you've got to weather that storm, but you've got to be, again, willing to fail, willing to step up and make those tough decisions. If you want to be an entrepreneur, so that when you get to the other side, you start to realize that, or I hope people do as I have. That failure is a gift. And I feel grateful for all the mistakes I've ever made. And I will feel grateful for the mistakes I continue to make because they will all allow me to grow as a person or as a business owner. And I try to inspire our teams to feel that same way.
- [24:54]
C
Right. A friend of mine put it this way, he's like, I'm embarrassed by the work I did a year ago. And a year from now I hope to be embarrassed by the work I'm doing today. Tell me about this shift in hiring philosophy. Because everybody in theory wants to bring on these rock stars, these A players, but doing that in practice is a little more challenging. Can you speak to what changed with the hiring aside from bringing on people that you wanted to be friends with?
- [25:19]
B
I think on the outside it seems more challenging, but I've started to believe the more time I've spent recruiting people and getting to know people, I just wonder if we over complicate it. So the way I would hire someone is think of the way you meet someone at a, I don't know, at a party or at a bar. You're just chatting with someone, you kind of hit it off and there's a little bit of connection. There's something you found in common. You dive in a little bit and you start asking questions in a way that you would try and just to get to know someone. Wow, that's interesting. Tell me more. And you connect and you get to know each other and you find that in the way we meet friends. We look for people that are interesting, interested, there's some mutual connection, some shared passion. We don't start when we meet someone at a bar asking behavioral based questions, tell me about the last time you, blah, blah, blah. But in an interview we do that, we put people in a situation that I don't think is close to reality. And I witnessed someone the other day in a coffee shop, two people interviewing a gal. And way they were asking the questions and the way this person was answering, I was like, man, all three of you are not being real. Because that's the scenario that we're used to. So what I try and do is I say, how do you keep it real? We refer to something called beer and barbecue test. Now, we're not literally sitting down with our employees or prospective employees and having a beer, but what I teach everybody to do who's interviewing is say Would you have a beer with this person? Are they interesting, interested? Do you like them? Do they fit higher? First on attitude, then train on skill. We'll then get people to ask themselves the barbecue test. How would this person fit in a company Barbecue? On the 4th of July, when we throw a big party here on Canada Day and we sit down and we celebrate as a company, how do they fit in? Now we've got introverts, extroverts, lots of diversity, different people, they don't have to be all the same. We're looking for people that just fit that community, our community. And by somehow asking that beer and barbecue based question, it seems to get people to do a little more of a gut check with a frame of do they like these people? And that's one thing that this company really has in common. If I look around at the 500 plus people in our head office, when you walk through the junction or head office, you get a sense that this is a tribe, this is a community of people that is driven behind the same passion for growth in both people, opportunity and revenue. So it's somehow, again, it's what we look for. But I think every leader out there who's interviewing has to change their style and be clear on finding people that fit with what they're looking for.
- [28:05]
C
Yeah, that's interesting to go for attitude first, personality first and then the specific skills we can train you on, the skills that's secondary almost to attract those people to have those initial conversations. Is there anything unique you're putting in the help wanted ads or doing outreach?
- [28:25]
B
I think we try to take our business seriously, but not ourselves. And we try and make that show. When we're recruiting people, our ads, our reach out through networking is a little more casual and trying to have fun. And instead of the ads that, and I'm not saying, you know, as the company gets bigger, I'm sure there must be ads of ours that exist out there somewhere that still say you must have a university degree and you must have this grade point average and above. I mean, I hope not, but it could exist. But I think that it's instead, what kind of volunteering have you done? What kind of passion projects have you worked on? What have you done to be creative? Who do you look up to in life? We try and generally get questions out there that would tap into someone's ability to reflect on themselves and understand what's their purpose and how do they create meaning in life. Because those are the people that we want to be a part of the game. We're playing the business we're building, we take it seriously, but not so much ourselves. Let's have fun together and go change the world.
- [29:28]
C
Okay, that's helpful. As I'm looking at building, adding some more team members this year, that's actually really helpful. So I'll be taking some notes on that. So you bulldoze the company, you start hiring under this new hiring philosophy, you start growing again.
- [29:42]
A
But there's a limit to how fast.
- [29:45]
C
You can do that and how fast you can expand geographically. So you try and do the franchise thing. What was that like to get started and get your initial franchisees off the ground?
- [29:58]
B
Well, our very first franchise partners were college students who we created a junk removal opportunity for them during the summer months to go run a truck and haul away junk in their neighborhood or their little community, whatever it was. And we had 15 franchises, which was 15 people and 15 trucks. It was a student model similar to a student painting type model that really worked for the student. It just didn't really work for us. There wasn't a long enough window of operations from May to August, end of August to make enough money for us to have a significant cut and have our own profitability so that we could scale and grow. So we said, okay, enough of that model. Could we look at going into a more traditional model like a year round business, A more traditional franchise like a subway or Mr. Rooter? And we looked at different models out there and said, we think we can. We got out there and started to build an opportunity that was year round based on the learnings we had from these four month operations. And while it was not easy to do and it took some time, I think, you know, one of the things that happened in the beginning is we got lucky. We picked the right guy. His name is Paul Guy, who was our operations manager in Vancouver. We sent him to Toronto where he sent himself. He bought a truck and drove it across the country, which is about 3,500 miles. And he got to Toronto and he started a business. And in the first year he did a million dollars, first full calendar year, did a million dollars in revenue, which it took me eight years to get the business to a million. And so what we learned is here's someone who's gone across the country to a place where no one's ever heard of 1-800-got- junk and organically, within less than a year had built it to a significant business. We thought, we've got something here we can scale if we can replicate his success and understand how he's Using our systems, we did just that. We worked together to build out a franchise program that several years later when we ended up having our third, fourth, fifth franchise, we realized we were having maybe not the exact same success. I think that he was a bit of a unicorn just in that he knew our business and was so good at it. But we still had franchise partners that were following in his footsteps. Might have taken a little longer to grow, but they were building decent businesses.
- [32:33]
C
How many franchises at this point?
- [32:36]
B
So at that point, year 2002 or 2003, right about when we got on Oprah, I think 2002, we probably had 22 franchises, I think it was. And by the end of the next year, we had sold 50 more franchises. Then we sold 100 more. And so it really started to accelerate through the Oprah Winfrey Show, Fortune Magazine, Wall Street Journal, a bunch of great press that we were getting. And today we'll do 370 million in revenue with just 1,800-got junk. We'll do 444 million in revenue across all four brands combined. And we just, we have so much fun building what we're building. You know, you talked about O2E ordinary to exceptional. Our parent company is all about taking ordinary people who want to build a business but don't know how or where to start. They don't have the killer idea. And helping them be successful building out one of our brands in their market. And it's turned out to be a very rewarding, satisfying thing for me personally and I know many other leaders within our organization.
- [33:42]
A
More with Brian in just a moment, including vetting franchisees and using his skill sets to expand to other industries coming up right after this. If one of your New Year's resolutions is to spend less time working in your business and and more time working on it, it's time to get out of the weeds and bring on some help for that millions of businesses trust our partner Indeed. Don't struggle to get your job post.
- [34:06]
C
Seen on other job sites.
- [34:07]
A
Indeed's sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. Plus you'll get an average of 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs with Indeed. There are no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts, and you only pay for results. That's why for my next hire, I'm using Indeed. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed side Hustle show listeners get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@inn Indeed.com Sidehustleshow just go to indeed.com Sidehustleshow right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com Sidehustleshow terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. 2026 is going to be your year. I can feel it with our partner Shopify. 2026 is when you finally make it happen. Time to go from ideas and inspiration to action and results. Shopify gives you everything you need to sell online and in person. In fact, millions of entrepreneurs have already made the leap from household names to dozens of side hustle show guests. You've heard their stories. Now it's time to write your own. Shopify gives you all the tools you need to easily build your dream store. Choose from hundreds of beautiful, customizable and proven to convert templates so you can launch fast. Plus, you can use Shopify's built in AI tools to help you write product descriptions and headlines and even edit your product photos. Marketing is built in too. You can easily create email and social campaigns that reach your customers wherever they're scrolling. In 2026, stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com side hu. Go to shopify.comsidehustle that's shopify.com sidehustle and hear your first this new year with Shopify by your side.
- [35:57]
C
Yeah, it's really eye opening to see what you're doing and what some similar companies are doing in different verticals, taking kind of these fragmented, even commoditized markets and saying okay, we can slap a brand on that, we can slap a consistent experience on that and hopefully we can command a premium for it and deliver an exceptional customer experience. For the franchisees, is it a similar beer and barbecue test for people coming on board there or what's that vetting process like?
- [36:29]
B
Yeah, the vetting process is a little more selective. I'd say that it's about an 8 to 12 week vetting period. You can take an employee that you've made a mistake with and I hate when we make mistakes because while it's our leadership or we haven't recruited the right person or trained them, what have you, it's something we take a big responsibility on saying, hey, we set someone up and we didn't really position them for success, we might have chosen the wrong person, but you can get them out fairly quickly. You can let someone go in many states and provinces within three months without any reason whatsoever, or you can sever people out and give them a payout whatever the case is, it's relatively inexpensive when you have a franchise partner that you have not done your due diligence on and you've got, you know, maybe it's even just bad luck and you've got the wrong person. Getting them out of the business is expensive, painful and hard. They've signed 145 page agreement, they've got lawyers involved, you've got lawyers involved. And if the relationship isn't working and you've got the wrong person, it's just difficult to exit that person. And so we're very careful. And of course beer and barbecue test times 10. But then it's also, do they have the financial capability to do this and be successful? Do they have the leadership? Do they have the tenacity? There's a lot of other things we need to look for. We don't necessarily look for experienced entrepreneurs. We are not looking for someone that's got a degree. We're looking for people that have that attitude but at least have the sales and marketing aptitude and then the real clear vision of what they want to build for themselves and, and how they see us as fitting with their plans.
- [38:12]
C
Yeah, so you've got the obviously the flagship junk hauling business, the residential painting business, the moving service. Do you have your eyes set on other industries to continue expansion for are those kind of the Core 4 focus right now?
- [38:28]
B
Well, it's interesting I told you the story of how 1, 800 got junk started. I'll tell you the quick story of how wow, one day painting, our second business started because this is how our third and our fourth business started and how our fifth will start. So the second business, wow, one day painting. I was looking for someone to paint my home. I reached out through Facebook and said I don't know any painters. Anyone recommend some? I got three names. The first two were exactly what I expected from a painter. Smelled a cigarette smoke, showed up late, weren't sure exactly how long it would take or when they could start. But the third guy came by and something was different. Said, I'll have your prices will be the same as everyone else. My quality is great. I've done this for 22 years. But the difference is when I paint your home, we agree on painting day, I will have your home painted within one day. And I thought, how is that even possible? He said, look at my van outside, it's shiny. He's uniformed. His company's called One Day Painting. He said, that's what we do. And I didn't think it was possible. And I Said, really? How could you do that? But I thought, you know what? This guy's much more professionalism all around. I'm going to try them out. Jim comes in the next day, 6:30pm Floor to ceilings, moldings, trim, immaculate. And I said, how did you do it? Like, I got to know now that you've done it, and I can, you know, seeing is believing. He said, well, can one person paint one room in a day? And I said, of course. Even if it's multiple quotes? He said, well, it's some bigger rooms. You put two people in, and it's really just put the right number of people in the right number of rooms, and you get it all done at once. You don't have all the setup, cleanup, end of the day. It's not dragging on. There's minimal disruption. The customer, the employees, everyone's happy. And so I said, I'm wowed. Which is obviously, we changed the name of the company to wow One Day Painting because of that. And I just said, I got to get in on this. Have you tried franchising? He said, I have, but it doesn't work. And I said, I think I might disagree and think I can help you make it work.
- [40:22]
C
I know a guy.
- [40:23]
B
Yeah, we're well over 30 million in revenue with 50 franchise partners and growing like a weed. And, you know, it's one of those things where sometimes an entrepreneur can see something that someone else can't see. And I think that's how we will get into business for our next brands. We got into Shack Shine the same way. I couldn't find someone to do my gutters and asked around, and someone came by and impressed me and bought the company.
- [40:47]
C
Okay, well, there you go. So try and do some work around Brian's house. You never know what happens next.
- [40:51]
B
Well, it's funny because my wife actually doesn't allow me to call any contractors anymore to come and do work. She's like, you've got four brands. Just you're busy enough. You don't need a fifth. I'll do the handiwork.
- [41:04]
C
Yeah, here comes the carpet cleaning and all this other stuff.
- [41:07]
B
Exactly. Right. There's so much potential, which is exciting. And like you said earlier, Nick, you put a brand behind something, you put the right people behind something. The systems and processes, the vision, all these ingredients work together to make magic. And there's so much opportunity. So if I think of all the opportunity we at O2E Brands could possibly take advantage of, I just also think of, look at people out there that are wrestling with Trying to find the right idea, man. Just pick something and go do it.
- [41:37]
C
Yeah. And we should add it doesn't have to be these physical in person services. Company that comes to mind is Belay solutions is a virtual assistant service. You know, these work from home. Executive assistants have been around since the dawn of the Internet, but it's a very fragmented industry. So they put their brand on it and said, hey, here's our hiring process, here's our vetting process, here's our customer relationship process. Their Inc. 500, you know, they're off to the races with this thing. And I think there's virtual opportunities as well as in person. So, Brian, what's next for you? You got the book willing to fail. We'll check it out on Amazon.
- [42:14]
A
Anything else going on?
- [42:15]
B
There's always stuff going on. I mean, I think what drives us the most is we Talk here at O2E Brands about building something much bigger and better together. And so while we've got our hands full with four brands, what's next is really growing them all organically. I told you, we're 444 million this year is our target. This business could easily become a billion dollar business. And it's just, how do we get more of a great thing through finding awesome people. So what's next? I think it's more storytelling. The whole reason I wrote the book was to spread stories of what we're learning to help inspire others. I believe there's a massive difference between building a living and building a life. And too many people focus on just the making the living part. And I think that that comes later when you've got the right purpose and vision and you're driving forward with something great in life. You do the best at it, the money comes. But if people make it their sole motivator or their number one motivator, I think they ultimately end up failing. And so slow and steady wins the race. It took me eight years to get to a million. We do a million on any given day today, which is exciting and fun, but there's nothing next in terms of any specifics. It's just the spirit of building great things with great people.
- [43:30]
C
Well, that's exciting to hear and I'm excited to see where you can take this thing in the next 25 years. So again, O2E brands.com see everything that Brian's got going on over there. Check out the book.
- [43:42]
A
Wtf. Willing to fail.
- [43:44]
C
Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for side Hustle Nation.
- [43:48]
B
My number one tip Would be anyone out there who wants to improve their life, improve their business, grow a business, I'd say come up with your vision. What is your painted picture, I call it, of where you're going now. I sat down on a dock, my parents summer cottage, when I was at a million in revenue and I wrote down on paper, one page double sided, our painted picture, which said we'd be in the top 30 metros in North America. We'd be the FedEx at junk removal, we'd be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. All these things and more happened because we had a destination, a clear vision of what that future would look like. So for anyone in life, I think it's what's your painted picture? What does your life look like in 3 to 5 years? And write it down. And if somebody is struggling with what a painted picture might look like, we've got examples in the book. But I'm also happy to send a sample of our current one to any of your listeners. If they ever want to just send me a direct message on Instagram, Ryan Scudamore and just say painted picture. I'll make sure I fire one back to you. And all the best in creating a vision and an amazing life of possibility.
- [44:56]
C
That's important stuff. Come up with your painted picture vision. I'm still working on that myself. So Brian, appreciate the nudge to go ahead and get that done. Thanks so much for joining me and we'll catch up with you soon.
- [45:12]
A
As you've seen from hundreds of side Hustle show guests at this point, a common trait is they never stop learning, and Brian is no exception. He wasn't born knowing how to do this stuff, but instead he's figured it out as he's gone practicing. Just in time, learning. All right, my top three takeaways from this call with Brian number one competition is inspiration. I loved the sound bite. Don't overthink it. Do that business, but do it better. That was one of the powerful takeaways for me. Sure, we'd love to operate in a monopoly. Like how fantastic would it be if I was the only podcast you could listen to? It would be a pretty messed up world, but instead there are all these other awesome shows out there. They push me to try and get better. This is going to sound a little kumbaya, but that's how we as side hustlers and business owners make the world a better place. By doing it better. That's what Matt Giovanisi was explaining in the episode we did on SEO for bloggers. Last year. If you want to rank, you're going to have to create something that's better than everything else that's already out there. It's not easy, but take it as inspiration. Competition as inspiration. That was takeaway number one for me. Takeaway number two was to brand fragmented industries. I see a huge opportunity in this and people are already doing it. Belay Solutions with Brian and Shannon Miles was one example that we talked about. Think Maids with Chris Schwab is another example. In the home services space, think about what happened in restaurants over the last 50 years. National and regional brands came in and dominated for reasons like consistency, quality, authority, trust. I know there are dozens of other industries that are ripe for this kind of positive disruption where side hustlers can carve out some space. Even if you have no desire to run a multi hundred million dollar franchise type of business. Take a look at what's out there for where there isn't a well known player and become that well known player. Takeaway number three is what's your vision? I hadn't read WTF when we recorded.
- [47:21]
C
It was sitting on my Kindle but.
- [47:23]
A
Hadn'T made its way to the top yet. But after recording I plowed through it in like three nights. And after reading it I have a much better understanding of why Brian reached out to me. This is a company built on PR and built on doing PR a little bit differently. But in the book he talks a little bit more about this painted picture vision and it's an exercise I actually took to heart and did this month and made Bryn do it too. Thankfully we were pretty close. That could have been awkward. And if you're curious, the vision that we both came up with was more or less a calmer version of today. A less rushed or urgent version of today. Like Tim Ferriss said in Tools of Titans, to me, luxury is feeling unrushed. I think we both enjoy the work we do, but there's opportunity to create a little more slack in our days while still practicing being the best parents we can.
- [48:17]
C
What's your vision?
- [48:18]
A
That one stood out to me, so I'll recommend that as your homework for this week and then you can get to work on making that a reality once again. Notes and links from this one along with the full text summary are@side hustlenation.com junk thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen and I'll catch you in the next edition of the side Hustle show. Hustle on the.