Brian Scudamore: the 1-800-GOT-JUNK Story
In 1989, Brian Scudamore was an 18 year old college student wrestling with a problem. a problem that most college students in 2018 are currently wrestling with: Tuition. Brian’s grades were poor and his father decided that, based off of his performance, Bryan should fund his own education. Bryan was sitting in the driver’s seat of his car at a McDonald’s drive through pickup window when he noticed a beat-up old pickup truck advertising a junk hauling service. Brian thought to himself, “I can do better then that”. Brian proceeded to find and purchase a pickup truck for $700 and paid for flyers and ads for another $300 and began his junk hauling business. He went door to door trying to find people who needed junk hauled. His business grew as news of a college student taking charge in an innovative way made its way around his town, and soon he had a viable business that was far more rewarding then studying and test taking. Brian told his father that school would always be an option but he may only get a business opportunity like this one time. Brian dropped out of school and focused on building his business. What started as a $1,000 spur of the moment investment in 1989 has turned into a household name with over $150 million in revenues each year. Brian has been making bold moves with his company since it was founded. 5 years in to the business he noticed his employees weren’t a good face for the company so he fired all 11 employees, wrote down his goals for the company and what he wanted his business to look like and he did it. 1-800-got-junk is on route to becoming a billion dollar revenue business in the next few years. Brian had a vision and he did what he needed to make that vision a reality and he has continued that mentality throughout the years. This approach has spurred on levels of success that even the determined founder of the company admits he never could have imagined.
Great article! It is very similar to the article that I wrote and has almost the same concept. Starting something out of basically nothing is awesome and very creative. This was really awesome to see how it could be done once again! Great research, and a great story.
What a neat story how Brian started off with only $1000 and used what he could to make an impact. He didn’t let a small budget limit him, but he thought and found a problem that needed to be improved. He had the patience and perseverance to keep working hard and his hard paid off.
It is cool to see how two very similar services can still make money in both this and College Hunks Hauling Junk. Sometimes it can be discouraging when you have an idea but see someone is already doing it but this goes to show how just a little differentiation can go a long way.
This is a great example of how ideas can be profound even when they are not necessarily original. He reinvented junk hauling based on what he saw someone else doing. The gaps aren’t always completely empty, but they certainly haven’t been filled oftentimes. It’s also interesting to read about Brian wanting to change the face of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. This was a wise, bold move considering where they are today. Brian felt the pressure coming from school and that drove him. Pressure when applied correctly can produce fantastic innovation.