The Chamber Member's Podcast Episode 2: Unlocking Potential & Empowering Growth with the Junkluggers

Welcome to episode two of The Chamber Member's Podcast! In this episode, we have some exciting segments lined up for you. First, we kick things off with Business Tips of the Week, where Sean Hetrick of SBS Consulting Systems shares valuable insights. This week's topic is all about weaknesses and how to overcome them to turn them into strengths.

Next, we have Chamber Announcements to keep you updated on the latest news and events happening in the Canton business community. Stay tuned for important updates!

In the main segment, we have a special guest interview with Derek from Junkluggers. Discover more about their junk removal services and how they can help you save time and effort. Derek shares insights into the areas they serve, the ease of scheduling appointments, and the quick turnaround time they offer.

Junkluggers focuses on providing value through time savings, allowing you to avoid the hassle of finding trucks or dumpsters yourself. They offer efficient and professional services, ensuring your items are removed promptly.

If you're wondering about the pricing and process, you can simply reach out to Junkluggers by calling 1-800-LUG-JUN. Their well-trained team will guide you through the pricing details and discuss the items you need to get rid of. They aim to provide a fast and friendly experience for their customers.

Junkluggers not only focuses on junk removal but also emphasizes eco-friendliness. They prioritize donating usable items and recycling as much as possible. Their motto is "donate first, recycle second." This commitment ensures that your items find new homes or are recycled responsibly.

Join us in this engaging episode as we delve into the world of business tips, chamber announcements, and the insights shared by our special guest. Don't forget to subscribe to The Chamber Member's Podcast for more valuable content.

#Podcast #BusinessTips #ChamberAnnouncements #SpecialGuest #Junkluggers #JunkRemoval #EcoFriendly #TimeSavings #Interview #CantonChamber

Transcript

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Welcome to episode two of the Canton Chamber Podcast. Business Tips of the Week. Chamber Announcements. In an interview with our special guest there from Junkluggers. Coming up next. Hi there, I'm Sean Hetrick of SBS Consulting Systems with the tip of the week. This week we're going to talk about weaknesses. Weaknesses are characteristics that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others, something you struggle with internal issues, areas that need improvement. So if you write a couple of those, you know, jot down a couple and then what you want to do is you want to come up with ways to overcome them. So it's an easy way to develop small strategies to overcome those weaknesses and really turn them into strengths by the end, because you can go and really come up with ways that you can implement things into your business to improve those strategies. Some of the things that we do is we actually design software to automate processes and organize systems, which can help with that too. But really think about those weaknesses, think of ways to overcome them. And next week we'll talk about opportunities again. I'm Sean Hetrick, SBS Consulting Systems. Thank you, Sean. Derek, thank you for joining us today. Hey, thanks for having me. It's good to see y'all continue. We're really excited to learn more about you and Junkluggers. I guess the first question is what area do you service? So the junk bloggers of Akron and Canton, Ohio, service all of stark and all of Summit. It's a pretty good area. It's a good area. It has a lot to cover. We are we maximize our efficiencies to be able to get it as fast and quick as possible for our customers. What's the best way to people that reach out to you? One 800 lug junk. Some people in my area have my cell phone 100% that my preference is they call the appointment center. The appointment center is based out of Connecticut, the Hartford area. Everybody's very well-trained, very friendly. Quick turnaround time. You're usually on the phone less than 30 seconds waiting for them to talk to you. Let's look at what's what some of the reasons customers call out to you. What you know, what do they call? Well, you know what services you provide. Yes. So anybody can lugged their own junk. Right. And everybody knows somebody with a pickup truck or can find a dumpster. Anything like that where we provide value is in time savings. It's the most valuable commodity you have. Right. Why waste a morning or an afternoon moving that piano or downsizing or putting it off or putting it out? Yeah, that's all my life. I'll do it tomorrow. And then I keep saying that 65 times. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. So it's super easy. Give us a call. We arrive same day or next day, depending on the customer's preference and you know, the scope of the job. If it's a quarter clean out, give me a little bit of notice. Okay. But again, it's we're saving you time. We're saving you, making those phone calls to your uncle with the pickup truck saying, hey, can you help get rid of this couch? Just give the drunk lawyers a call. Right. So, like, what's what's the price that someone calls in the 800 number? What do they tell them? Like what? You know, what do I need to tell them? I just need to get rid of a refrigerator. I got a bunch of stuff to get rid of. Do you tell them the availability? What's what's the process? Yeah. So generally the customers will call. The appointment center will go over our price list. They'll tell them the things that we can and cannot get rid of. We can't take oils or inlaws, okay, No bodies, nothing like that. And then they find a time that works best for the customer. Okay, our preference is where we can show up team of two loggers and then they take a look at all of the items that need to be removed. Okay, It could be a single item. It could be a room full of items, it could be a household worth of items. And we give them the price. The my team was very well-trained, something we put a lot of effort into is making sure they know how to go through the process, how to be friendly. Okay. Once they take a look at everything they give the price, customer agrees to it. We can get rid of the stuff right then in there. Nice. Okay, it's very fast. We had a we had a customer yesterday. Three trucks, 48 yards worth of materials, two and a half hours. Two and a half hours was done team of for two of our trucks and and then once we do all of that, our work isn't done. Okay. Junk loggers is eco friendly, so we do our best to recycle and donate everything we possibly can. Our motto is donate first, recycle second. If it's still an edible and it's in good condition, we'll make sure it finds a new home. And as far as recycling, we recycle as much as possible, too, right? I'm sure that takes a little bit of finesse all the way to organize things in the dumpster and and plan ahead on what you're going to recycle and everything. Absolutely. Absolutely. The guys are really good at it. They're much better than I am at this point. Yeah. So so as they're loading as they're loading up the truck, as they're bringing things into there, they're stacking it in certain ways, electronics papers don't eatable furniture. And then we'll come back to our warehouse space, which is also 62 in Middle Branch, and then they'll separate it out even further, make sure, you know, we're fulfilling our promise. Yeah, it's nice. I love that eco friendly stuff, too, because you can easily just take it to the dump and throw it in there and it just clogs up the landfill and you guys taking that extra time really makes a huge difference. Yeah, Yeah. We tell our customers we do that and it's fulfilling the promise. There's a lot of labor that goes into that and it would be cheaper to even pay that extra cost to get rid of that stuff. They added weight the added volume as opposed to paying extra manpower. Man, our fuel. But we want to deliver on our promise. Whether or not anybody seen. So as a business owner, what's the you know, some of the biggest challenges you faced in getting started and how do you overcome them? Yeah. So you're only as good as the people you hire. Very true. I think junk burgers and junk removal as a whole is made to scale. The more I scale, the more trucks I add, the more profitable Derrick Watkins becomes Wrangler. That's why I'm doing this. And the biggest obstacle in that is hiring you hear everybody talk about it, Can't find anybody wanting to work, can't find this, you know, nobody wants to work, but he's good enough to work. And it's a long process. It's very hard. The very first time I hired Brand New getting ready to hire some guys, I had about 12 interviews set up. One person showed up and I feel your pain until you say yes, here's a manager and I'm like PTSD now. I know. And it was super hard. I'm saying, Come work for me. I've never owned a business before. This is junk removal. No one wants that, you know, So Bob can do junk removal. Well, not the way we can do junk removal. And the the the biggest part for me to sell that is to sell them on the dream. Right. Sell them on my dream. Hey, guys, I want to be a ten trucks one day. Okay? And I want you to be a part of that, all right? I want to give you a place where you could grow. You can be a high school graduate. One guy, he's my age, and he's jumped around from different job to job. I want somewhere for you to grow, and I want you to grow with me. My team super important to me. I put a lot of effort into their training for my company, you know, junk lawyers as a whole. They say we're not a junk removal company. We're a service company, a customer service company. For me, I'm an employee first company. That's what I'm doing. Awesome is I want somewhere for people to pursue their happiness, right? I want to give them the tools. I want them to be the best versions of themselves. And if I'm able to provide a healthy work environment, let them have their independence during the day and, you know, pay them well. Working comes down to that too, that I'm going to grow, the company is going to grow, and they'll take care of the customers and represent themselves well. Absolutely. So true. Yeah, it really is true. Really. Making that environment in your company is what will make you grow for sure. Yeah. I always ask myself, what would a young derrick would have wanted? What would I have done? And it's just to be left alone, to do my job and to do it well. And sometimes as an owner, you want to hover? Yeah, you want to hover a little bit. Oh, this is my baby. It's my baby. But if you treat it as our baby, this is where we're going to grow together. It rubs off on them that. Yeah, You've grown some in the past year, having you added trucks and employees. Yeah, Yeah. We're a full four full time employees and we've added our second truck. It's a hook lift system with some extra containers we can handle a lot of capacity that we can really churn and burn. Nice, exciting growth. It's exciting. It is. It's. It's exciting. It's also hard. Yeah, right. Because a lot of the systems you had in place are all of a sudden being tested. And what worked with one truck and two guys doesn't necessarily work at double to capacity. It was it was harder for me to scale than it was for me to open. Okay, personally, because all of a sudden I'm like, okay, you know, you trust more your employees, right? I've got to trust my employees more. My marketing budget increased. Yeah, it's always scary. Yeah, Yeah, everything increased. So not only did I double my capacity and doubled a lot of my expenses to work and going from 1 to 2, that's that's big. It can be big, but so far it's going well. It was a leap I started a little bit earlier in the year just to invest in training and invest in what I thought would be a long process of hiring was actually went much quicker this time. Now that we're a year in, we had more of a reputation, people wanting to come and work for us. So yeah, looking for a third truck next year. What's what's your what's your ambition? Good question. I'd like to be a four trucks by this time next year, but we'll see. See? Yeah. Also got to find the right people. Got to find the right people and get the right systems in place. Sure. Sean can help you incorporate some systems and, you know, get some things streamlined maybe. So what I like, I always like to ask business owners what motivates you during tough times, you know, and when it gets down to the grind and things aren't going the best, you know what? What keeps you going? What I found is to surround myself with good people, right? The number one answer is my family. I got some young kids. I've got a wonderful supporting wife. That's that's the go to answer. Right. Everybody says, my, my family, God, my family. Very good answers for me. Lately it's been surround myself with good people that can give me good advice. At one of our tip clubs, I was I was talking to Shannon and I got there early. I was like, Shannon, I'm struggling a little bit, you know? And he use the phrase, You're blessed to be stressed right? And it's those positive people that have gone through some challenging times that you can talk to that understand it, people that you know when you trust, that's one great thing about the chamber is you do get that that exposure with a lot of people that have had businesses that have gone through, like you said, that went through those same kind of struggles and kind of help guide you as you get through. Yeah, it's it's very important and it's inspiring to seeing that people have done the same thing. They're successful, they're continuing to be successful. We all struggle some of the same things. And you know, some people find solutions before you and share them. That's, that's always great. Yeah. So as a member of the regional chamber, you know, we're always looking to promote each other, support each other, do business with one another. Do you have any chamber members that you'd like to give a shout out to that it's helped you in the past. Yeah, for sure. Shawn. Shawn So Shawn and I have. We run across each other often and a lot of our networking circles, and it's one of those surround yourself with people that are positive. And I see Shawn like, Yeah, really good to see you every time. Every time. And it picks you up and you're another one of those positive influences. My life. Well, thank you. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Derek, thank you so much for joining us for a second episode, the Canning Chamber podcast. We really enjoyed having you on. All right. Thanks for having me. It was great. Yeah. Thank you. Well, next, I'd just like to do a shout out to the Kent Regional Chamber. You know, we we all appreciate the other member benefits you guys provide for us, whether it's social events, networking opportunities, you know, discounts on worker's comp or health insurance that you help negotiate through different programs and many more, you know, many more benefits you provide for us. So for all of us, and thanks to all the staff and all the volunteers and make it happen, we really appreciate it. Next is going to be what's the next chamber event. We're going to have the luncheon on June 21st.

So it's 11: 12:52

30 a.m. at LA Pizzeria and it's always great to get there a half hour or so before kind of mingle, you know, get out of your comfort zone, walk to other tables and introduce yourself. That's kind of what we're all here for. And I find myself crying in the corner. Sometimes I'm nervous, but it just depends how I feel that day. But great way to just, you know, mingle on and get to know other people and, you know, find solutions to problems that you'll have in the future. It's always great. One of the thing about that is that excuse me, that the if you bring a $15 door prize, you can actually give a short commercial for yourself in front of everyone. And like I said on the last podcast are 40 to 60 people there, which is it's kind of a good way to get your name out there. A little bit more. So that name recognition keep keep people thinking of you. Well, that wraps up episode number two. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next week. Seen by everybody.