Gazette Newspaper Article
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North Potomac junk removal business sells some items and splits profits with customers
Gazette Newspapers, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007
by Bradford Pearson | Staff Writer
As Montgomery County grows increasingly congested with houses and businesses full of unwanted items, the junk hauling business has expanded to accommodate the increasing need to declutter. One North Potomac businessman, however, has found his niche in the burgeoning field.
His company, 1-800-Junk-Refund, is a hauling company with an entrepreneurial twist: If workers find valuable items while hauling away unwanted stuff, they sell it. 1-800-Junk-Refund helps people decide what should end up in the trash and what could end up in someone else’s living room, according to founder and owner Alan Cook.
‘‘The reason for the name is that you have to make a call on what to throw away and what to save,” he said. ‘‘A lot of times it’s all junk, but sometimes you’ve got value.”
How They Do It
While cleaning out a house, garage or business, Cook or one of his six employees inspects the items that the owner wants to discard. But some items set themselves apart, whether it is a couch in good condition, or a pipe organ in need of attention. Cook then takes the ‘‘sell-able” items to a storage unit and cleans or repairs them. Then he finds a way to sell them. The owners and 1-800-Junk-Refund split the profits 50-50.
The local market for junk hauling has increased in past years, with companies like 1-800-Got-Junk and Kensington-based College Hunks Hauling Junk opening area franchises. Increased competition, however, may be a good thing, some say.
Junk removal can be fun!
‘‘Competition is definitely abundant in the area,” said Omar Soliman, CEO of College Hunks Hauling Junk. ‘‘But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it breeds awareness of an industry that a lot of people never thought to use before.” With more junk-hauling companies, cornering a sector of the market is becoming more important.
‘‘It is encouraging that entrepreneurial people are able to create niche services in the junk removal space,” Mark Rubin, owner of a 1-800-Got Junk franchise in Montgomery County, said of 1-800-Junk-Refund in an e-mail.
‘‘The local junk removal market will continue to grow as people become more aware of the service.” Part of the reason for the growing competition, Cook believes, is the nature of the area.
Why It Works
‘‘Montgomery County and the area in general are, for the most part, very well-off,” Cook said. ‘‘The people around here just have more stuff.”
Cook started his company seven years ago after he was laid off from a sales job. He already had a hauling truck from a firewood business he previously owned, and thought that it might be a good idea to get into business for himself.
‘‘There’s no red tape when you work for yourself,” Cook said. ‘‘I get to work out of my house, plus I’m making more now than I did when I was a salesman.”
1-800-Junk-Refund and the original owners generally split the profits 50-50, but there are a few exceptions. During one job, a woman asked Cook if he would try to sell her father’s car. Cook, 49, saw the 2002 Chrysler Sebring convertible and decided to take a chance.
We sold the car for $10,500 to an attorney in Minneapolis when the best offer locally was only $9,800!
‘‘I’d never sold a car for someone else before, but I figured what the heck,” he said. The owner and Cook arranged a deal where any profit above $9,900 would be Cook’s. He walked away with nearly $1,000. Owners often ask Cook to do things above and beyond hauling.
‘‘People always ask you to do A, B, and C,” Cook said. ‘‘You just have to be willing to do D, E, and F for them as well.” In the past, D, E, and F have included mulching yards and driving items to New York and New Jersey.
What Items Can Sell?
As for how he chooses which items to sell, Cook has honed the skill over the past three years, usually looking for things in good condition that have a history of selling, like couches and other furniture.
In three years, Cook has sold nearly 200 items for the company, ranging from a copy of the Beatles’ ‘‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album to a set of paper scrolls signed by presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft. The uncertainty of each project, according to Cook, helps keep things exciting.
We got his autograph!
‘‘Sometimes people call us and say they have a whole house full of stuff,” Cook said. ‘‘It’s a fascinating part of our business not knowing what we might find.” While Cook would not release sales numbers, he said that roughly 80 percent of the business’ profits come from hauling, with the other 20 percent from sales.
Over the past two years, Cook said, business has grown exponentially. The company averages three to four jobs per day, with more in the spring and fewer in the winter. Cook said that every month so far this year has seen at least a 40 percent increase from last year.
While, like any business, Cook wants to make a profit, customer stories are often just as valuable. A Michigan man once drove through the night to pick up a pipe organ Cook had sold him. The organ, the man said, was for his bride-to-be. He was an antiques fanatic, and he was hoping to restore the item with his new wife’s help.
‘‘It always feels good to sell something and be part of something special,” Cook said. ‘‘Whenever there is a story behind the sale it makes it that much better.”