1-800-GOT-JUNK (Kansas City franchise) / You Move Me

Josh Herron's path into entrepreneurship started in the field rather than in a boardroom. At 23, he was managing a 1-800-GOT-JUNK location in Kansas City. When the owner was bought out by a friend and business partner, Tyler, Josh was offered the chance to stay with the team. He had also helped broker the deal by recommending Tyler, a friend he knew had complementary skills. Josh has said he wanted to be his own boss and believed he could be as successful running his own business as he would have been climbing a corporate ladder.

His first real venture was a joint purchase with Tyler of an OxyFresh Carpet Cleaning franchise in Denver, Colorado, in 2008 or 2009, during a weak economy. Josh described the startup cost as low, "I believe it was like 25 grand. Total." They launched the Kansas City market from scratch, initially cleaning carpets with equipment borrowed from a partner's junk-removal fleet, and then moved on to their own trucks. The OxyFresh business brought in about $200,000 in its first year of top-line revenue, with roughly $20,000 in profit. Josh said it did not feel like a failure, and the partners eventually sold it for $100,000 to focus on bigger opportunities.

The core business was 1-800-GOT-JUNK. Trucks cost roughly $50,000 to $55,000 each, and the franchise was financed through banks or the partners' own capital.

The Kansas City market was small and the three franchises operating there were not big enough to coexist, so Josh and Tyler consolidated. Josh said the brand was young, "nobody really knew about 1800 Got junk in Kansas City," so the work was building awareness. The franchise's system of brand, training and processes gave them a playbook, and they bought out existing partners in Des Moines and Omaha, then applied their turnaround approach. Josh said that in Omaha the business was up 134% over the previous year, which he called significant for a seven-year-old business.

What worked was combining franchise systems with hands-on operations. Josh emphasized understanding the numbers, operating efficiently, and putting the right advertising in place to create immediate spikes. He also pointed to Facebook as a channel that helps grow the service industry. Revenue grew from about $650,000 in the year before Tyler's purchase of the Kansas City franchise to roughly $5.5 million across the group in 2016, with a goal of $8.5 million the following year. Profit margins were targeted at about 20%.

The OxyFresh venture was the clear miss. The vision did not come to fruition, so they sold it rather than keep investing time in it.

As of the interview, Josh was 33, had three children, and was running the Kansas City, Des Moines and Omaha operations under the 1-800-GOT-JUNK and You Move Me brands. He said he and his partner reinvest much of the profit to expand their footprint, with a longer-term goal of growing the business rather than maximizing short-term payouts.