Franchiser finds home is where the junk is - bizjournals:

rajyifox.blogspot.com
Jay Montgomery, owner of the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise in Denver, could have panicked when he noted a decrease in the numbef of scheduled jobslast March. Instead, Montgomer shifted his company’s attention from servicing the residentiall market to raising income from the commercial which at the time accounted for 20 percen t ofhis franchise’s “Brian, our founder, always viewed our company as a residential company,” Montgomergy said. “Yeah, he did commercial opportunities when they were but not allthe time. What if?
Why not try In 1989, an 18-year-old university student namede Brian Scudamore foundedthe company, then called The Rubbish in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It’s grown to includwe more than 300 franchise locationsin Australia, the United Kingdom and the Unitecd States. Colorado is home to two 1-800-GOT-JUNK? locations, with the other based in Montgomery opened his franchise in September starting with one truck andthree employees. he has six trucks and a dozen workers coveringh theDenver area. “The trucks, that’s the key,” Montgomery “They’re the billboard. The more truckws moving, the better.
” As more trucks emblazoned with the compan logo began roamingaroune town, requests from Denvedr residents to have their unwanted junk carted off Between 2004 and 2008, the numbee of annual jobs increased more than 200 from 875 to 2,700. But they started decreasing as the recession kicked in. “Last October, that’s when I started thinkinvg something isdefinitely wrong,” Montgomery “With our business, I can’rt just take a snapshot of one montn and hit the panic button. It took a few months becausse we’re also seasonal. We do more business in the summet than we do in the deadof winter.
” Unsurde if the slowdown was a result of the economy or simply the regular seasonal lull, Montgomery decided to wait untipl spring to make any changes. By March, it becamd clear that business wasn’t picking back up. For the firsyt time since he boughtthe franchise, revenue from $950,000 in 2007 to $900,000 in 2008. And the averages size of jobs hadgotten smaller. The franchis e charges based on Priorto 2008, the average job was betweenj one-third and three-eighths of a truckload. In jobs decreased to between one-fourteentjh and one-sixth of a truckload. “In March, we typically jump up, but we Montgomery said. “So I knew I had to get I had todo something.
” Rather than rely only on direct-mail advertisements or coupons to drum up business as before, Montgomerty decided to focus his energy on commercial clients. “I know there’s opportunitiex there in thesehuge 20-, 30-story he said. “There’s junk in therd that they need to getrid of.” High-ris e office buildings constantly have tenants moving in and out or replacinyg large furniture, meaning they’re sure to have itema that were headed for the Montgomery said. He saw an opportunityy to make up for the decline in residentiao jobs by aggressively marketing his compant to potentialcommercial clients.
That meant getting to know property managers, whom tenants turn to when they want to dispose of unwanted items. Montgomeryh printed out a map of downtown marked off sections and started visiting a quadranfeach Wednesday. He made sure propertyg managers had his contact information and knewthe company’ s rates. His operations manager, Paul was doing the same in the DenverfTech Center. Yarwood, who has worked with Montgomeryysince 2003, set out with a plan to stop by each buildingf during the first two weeks of the month and introduce “I found out quickl y that the first two weeks of the monthn is the worst time to talk to a property manager,” Yarwood said.
He found more successw by meeting with them later inthe month. Preoccupie property managers were butone obstacle. Simple such as where to park the truck or how to get itemsw out ofthe building, were more involvef than residential jobs.