T1-800-GOT-JUNK?

ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE

BY JILL WESTFALL

Brian Scudamore hit the junk jackpot with his garbage removal company, made famous by its name and number: 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

1-800-GOT-JUNK? Now there’s a business name that tells you what the company does—and how to make contact—succinctly. It’s the brainchild of 38-year-old Brian Scudamore, who started the business when he was just 18 years old. At the time, it was called The Rubbish Boys, and he was hauling the trash. Luckily, he managed to snag the phone number 738-JUNK at the get-go.

That was the beginning of an international enterprise, which today earns about $130 million in annual revenue, has more than 200 employees at its corporate headquarters, and spans the United States, Canada and Australia. The company has a long list of famous clients, from actors to pop stars, and it has hauled away interesting items like Clark Gable’s piano, John Wayne’s Bible, 6 gallons of Holy Water, a diff used bomb from World War II and 18,000 cans of expired sardines.

“What we do is we go into people’s homes and take the junk that is cluttering up their lives, their homes, and we remove it from the source so no one has to take anything to the curb,” Scudamore says. “They don’t even have to lift a finger except to indicate where the junk is that needs to be removed. We will take away anything that is not hazardous, and then we will also clean up the mess that is left behind. And we will try to donate to charity or recycle as much as we can. It’s generally around 60% systemwide that we can recycle or donate to charity. We are also the world’s largest junk removal service. We don’t have any large competitors anywhere.”

Scudamore first had the idea for The Rubbish Boys, which he ran for eight years, at a McDonald’s drive-thru. There was a beat-up pickup truck sitting in front of him with plywood side panels that said “Mark’s Hauling.” So he took the cue, bought his own pickup, and the company was born. In the process, Scudamore dropped out of high school one course short of graduation, talked his way into college, attended for three years and dropped out a year short once again.

Needless to say, his dad wasn’t pleased. “I found it difficult to pay attention in school and stay focused, but I had always been interested in business,” Scudamore says. “I think it’s the variety that I latch onto. I get bored very easily, but I think I’ve stuck with this company for 20 years because I don’t think there’s any opportunity to get bored. There are always so many new challenges and opportunities.”

As business grew, Scudamore took stock of what was working and built on that. The golden ticket? A phone number ending in JUNK. So, he ran with that idea, putting his company’s name (and phone number) on the sides of his trucks. Business began to skyrocket. “Today if we were to canvass anywhere and ask, ‘Where did you hear about our business?’ it’s always the trucks because the number is our name,’” he says.

More strategic thinking came out of a solo weekend retreat he took in the mid-1990s. He went to his parents’ cabin on an island off of Vancouver, sat in a chair with a pad of paper and a pen, looked out at the water and thought, “What do I want for my business?”

He wasn’t just trying to create a business strategy. There were more general questions he wanted answered, namely: “What does a medium-size business look like?”

“I sat down and created a document that I called ‘The Painted Picture,’” he says. “And ‘The Painted Picture’ is written in the present tense and describes what the company looks like and acts like and feels like three or four years down the road. I had gotten to a point in the business where I realized at some level that I was at a standstill. I said, ‘Now I need to do something really big to take my business to the next level.’”

Getting out of the trenches and into an executive office was essential for the growth of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? “At around this same time, I read a book called The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, and it is probably the best business book out there,” Scudamore says. “It is just absolutely excellent for an entrepreneur at any level or any stage of growth. And what it taught me is that you have to work on your business and not in your business. If you are too stuck in the day-to-day business and not working on growth, the systems, finding the right people, then your growThis limited.”

And there’s no doubt Scudamore has excelled at coming up with new strategies—and asking for help when he needed it. Due to the success of the company, he felt it was time to bring in individuals who specialized in execution.

“I’m good at the strategy, vision and culture,” he says. “But on the more administrative side, I need someone who is very strong with accountability… with driving people, with keeping people focused on a clear plan. That is the stuff that sort of gets a little bit tougher or more complex as you get more people.”

Today, Scudamore keeps the corporate headquarters fluid. He doesn’t have a specific desk, and nobody has an office. The headquarters—called The Junktion—spans three stories, and the floor plan is very open. Call-center employees are not grouped together, but mixed in with other employees on all three floors. Their internal newsletter is called “Junk Mail” and the company has put out a “Hunks of Junk” calendar. Tours are even available at the corporate headquarters.

This is all pretty good, especially for a man who describes himself as having an attention deficit and dropped out of both high school and college. His father must be pleased.

TRUE TALES OF TRASH:

The following weird, gross and unexpected garbage was cleared away by 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

• 18,000 cans of expired sardines
• Clark Gable’s piano
• 6 gallons of holy water
• 1954 Martin Parlor guitar (valued at $8,000)
• Full shed of roller skates and bowling balls
• LIFE magazines dating back to 1963
• A truck full of denture molds
• 50 garden gnomes
• A unicorn-shaped coffee table