Everything I Learned About the Trash Cleaning Biz

I'm fascinated by the trash bin cleaning biz. Just met a guy that runs one and learned everything I could.

Here's exactly how I'd growth hack this biz to 6 figures/year profit:

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Why do I love this biz?

- Everyone has trash bins - not going anywhere. They're all gross!

- Very young industry, low market penetration

- Just need 1 truck & some hustle

- Post Covid world = many germaphobes 

- Housing density getting tighter

- Viral marketing potential

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These trucks are $40k+, but it's a hard asset. Easy to borrow money for it.

If a bank won't, ask a family member.

Use SearchTempest to search Craigslist nationwide to find one used.

Or buy this established biz in Vegas for $100k w/ seller financing

Marketing is the funnest part. I'd take a page from the Ice Cream truck's book.

Get a loudspeaker installed & learn the trash collection schedules in dense 'hoods.

Around 3-8 PM go clean bins for free, blasting tunes.

What music? So Fresh & So Clean by Outkast, of course!

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Why 3-8pm?

All the kids are coming home from school & parents home from work.

The bins have already been emptied but not brought back in yet.

The family is in a good mood!

Your marginal cost to clean these bins for free is near $0 + your time.

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ONLY play this same song, every time. 

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Spend a month working for free & tape a flier right on the lip of the bin so it waves in the wind when they open it.

The flier should be catchy with great copy, like suggesting their bin is now so clean you could eat cereal out of it.

Place a plastic spoon on the lid to reinforce the cereal joke.

Reference the song on your flier, that's your brand now. 

The whole 'hood will soon know it & associate it with you.

Use a few different flier versions w/ different QR codes to A/B test which offer works best.

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Join the neighborhood FB and Nextdoor groups and ask for feedback about your service.

You'll do this AFTER cleaning. And you're not in the FB groups to sell, but to solicit feedback.

Not selling directly is the best sales tool there is.

Make your site dead simple to sign up. Offer discounts for more frequent service. You're on the street anyway!

Don't ask them to opt in to a free cleaning, YOU'RE opting them in.

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I guarantee by the end of your route you'll already have a handful of customers.

There are neighborhoods with thousands of homes.

1 truck & route can do 150-200+ homes/day. That's a few thousand bucks per day in revenue per truck.

You can be huge before needing a 2nd truck.

Your cost is gas, water, maintenance & some chemicals. Very high margin.

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People will come out to ask questions. Is this a service the trash company provides? They'll wonder.

Speaking of that, that's your next growth hack.

Whitelabel your service to smaller trash companies.

Immediately tap into their distribution network & give them a cut.

Pick a couple areas and don't move on to the next until you've hit what you consider to be saturation.

Once saturated, either move to a new area or offer more services to existing customers.

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Annual:

Pressure washing

Gutter cleaning

Window washing

Etc

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"What if it fails?"

Who cares? You learned, you had fun, and can just resell the stupid truck.

This is an asymmetrical bet. If you lose you lose small. If you win you win big.

Grow to a 2nd, 3rd, 4th truck. Hire a guy to run the route.

I predict we'll see these trucks everywhere over the next 10 years.

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You'll regret never trying, but you won't regret giving it a shot. Speaking from experience.

Don't quit your job, start part time.

Let me know how it goes if you launch it, I'll add your story to this thread

Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to follow @mhp_guy for SMB/real estate/life ramblings.