Episode 32: How JunkShot Turns Trash Into Cash (Smart Franchise Opportunity) | Fred Tomlin Jr. & Sherrod Hunter

Pam Currie (00:02.547)
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Franchise Sisters. This is your co-host, Pam Curry.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (00:08.466)
and your other co-host, Sheri Curry Schoeltaker.

Pam Currie (00:12.015)
Yeah, Sherry, on today’s show, we are going to have some trashparency with two guests, Fred Tomlin, CEO and co-founder of Junk Shot, Junk Removal, and Valet Trash, along with his partner, Sherrod Hunter, who is the COO and co-founder of Junk Shot, Junk Removal, and Valet Trash.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (00:35.488)
Thank you.

Sherrod Hunter (00:37.275)
Yes. Right.

Pam Currie (00:37.865)
So basically they’re going to share with us how they have turned trash into cash. Welcome Fred and Sharar.

Fred Tomlin Jr (00:46.52)
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for having us.

Sherrod Hunter (00:47.066)
Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (00:50.108)
It is great to have you guys and Pam and I love your trans, trans, what is it Pam? Trans, transparency. that’s what it is. I got to get it. Trans and turning, turning cash.

Pam Currie (00:57.769)
Have parents see.

Fred Tomlin Jr (00:58.99)
Trash Parasy. No worries, no worries. We’re gonna give you some insight into the Trash Parasy, let you know how it’s the game changer for us and our franchisees. So no worries, I appreciate you understanding.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (01:10.144)
So you’ve got transparency and you’ve got turning cash into trash. And that’s what this podcast is going to talk all about is how you guys have turned a tried and true business of junk and turn it into money basically. So let’s start out with a little bit about the backstory. Maybe Fred, we can start with you and Sharad, you can add to it. How about you guys tell us how you came together and how you came up with this concept?

Fred Tomlin Jr (01:39.63)
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, again, thank you. Thank you, ladies, for having us so much. We really appreciate you taking some time with us. But to just give you some brief background about myself, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you I was a husband of 17 years and a father of two good obedient boys when they like to be. But that’s it. But I got a 15 and a 16-year-old that I’m very proud of in my family, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t share that piece of my background.

But beyond that piece, I’m an eight year US Army veteran. served four years active duty in the United States Army, and then I served four years in the Florida Army National Guard. While I attended the Army National Guard, also attended the University of South Florida, where I graduated with a degree in advertising and marketing. And then I went where you’re supposed to go when you have a marketing degree, and that’s to New York. And I worked for an ad agency up there for a while, but I wasn’t akin to the New York weather.

from central Florida. And so I ran back down south to get a little warmer and ended up getting recruited by a B2B marketing agency to sell advertising to small business owners, everything from yellow pages to direct mail, websites, SEO, just a whole suite of services to a small business owner. And that journey honestly changed my life. It put me where we kind of sit today and also behind me is

this guy’s office, he’s in the room behind me next door. We have a bathroom that separates us. But that’s it. That one career move positioned me for some exposure to small business owners and selling them their advertising. And I honestly started to understand and learn that the small carpet cleaner, the landscaper, the local franchise owner of a host of different services was a lot more wealthier than I had assumed.

And I started to get a bit, not only envious about the wealth that they could create for themselves, but also the freedom that came with their lifestyle.

Fred Tomlin Jr (03:47.406)
and what they were able to apply that with. I would often meet fathers and sons that were able to go out and create great golf afternoons for themselves while their plumbing business was growing, et cetera. So that said, I too started to want to plan my great escape out of corporate America. So I started to look at everything like some of your listeners are where they’re looking at franchises and also looking at starting my own business. We kind of see where we landed. I started my own business that turned into a franchise. So everything

was full circle. But in that journey, I shared some of that ambition with Sherrod. And me and Sherrod met. Sherrod was one of the top of the board sales leaders at that marketing agency that I share with you. And beyond that, he was one of the younger fathers and husbands that I knew at the time. Very rooted.

and not only his family, but also his faith. And so I respected him a great deal beyond just even his sales prowess. And so, but I share with them this ambition is right. Also was catching that bug as well. And he comes to me one day at a war’s banquet, talking about this trash can that ended up at his apartment doorstep.

And he was too excited about it. was basically our ballet trash services that we do today, which I’ll kick it off to Shara, but he’ll share a little bit more about the opportunity that lies in that service and why he was so excited. But we eventually convinced me to go into business with him to put those trash cans in thousands of doors across the country. And we did. the decades we’ve been in business, we placed about 22,000 units of our corporate owned locations across the country.

franchisees that have thousands of doorsteps under their operations on the valet trash side. And since then, we’ve, course, then emerged or evolved into the nation’s only junk removal app. But I’ll kick it off to Sharad. He’ll share a little bit about that trash can and how that did turn into bigger trucks, better prices.

Sherrod Hunter (05:46.311)
And Pam and Sherry, you again for having us on this sisters show.

Pam Currie (05:51.112)
Fuuu-

Pam Currie (05:58.707)
Actually, I have and I had a call with Fred about that, right? We were talking about it, where it was founded and it’s like one degree of separation. I know the gentleman met him once that started it, but Sherard, you share with our listeners.

Fred Tomlin Jr (05:59.42)
Come on, come on.

Sherrod Hunter (06:13.063)
So, changed my life. I worked my way up to a luxury apartment complex, living a good life, six figures, had the nice Cadillac, supporting my family. So which I have to throw in, I’m going on 18 years as well of marriage. So that’s one of my most proud accomplishments, three kids, to my beautiful wife. But man, so we’re successful selling advertising, marketing advertising. It’s not a…

Shari Currie Skjoldager (06:27.456)
Thank you.

Pam Currie (06:31.654)
Amen to that. Mm-hmm.

Sherrod Hunter (06:39.761)
something tangible, We’re setting expectations, but we can’t promise to deliver, right? And when I experienced something in my everyday life that changed my habits, right? I used to put my trash, my everyday trash on my Cadillac, drive it to the dumpster, have to throw it away myself. When the company came one night with the solution to that problem, right? That mundane problem, my life changed. There was a trash can that said, more trips to the compactor at night. We’re gonna take care of your trash five nights a week. I’m like, this is brilliant.

Pam Currie (06:44.616)
Bye.

Sherrod Hunter (07:07.951)
Right? This is something that makes so much sense to me. And I realized that not only did it help the resident, but I quickly found out that the property. I’ll start say it again.

Fred Tomlin Jr (07:14.048)
froze up on us a little bit.

Fred Tomlin Jr (07:19.202)
Nah, you have froze up a bit, but you’re good to go.

Sherrod Hunter (07:21.223)
Okay, okay, so I quickly realized that the property would actually charge over and above what the company would charge them So they’re making money off this service to using it as an amenity But it’s also solving a real problem for the residents So I was just like this is it for me, Yellow pages is kind of going going extinct We’re putting around that time with a great recession and I’m like, this is my my biggest gate and man Valley trash right friendage to ride to top of the board sales leaders instead of selling yellow pages. We’re gonna sell this valley trash. gonna kill it

Right, gonna be so successful and honestly ladies, we failed miserably. No one told us what we doing wrong. It’s just like, you guys are great. Sounds great. See the website, send me a bid. But it was mutual misdemeanour, right? And so we had to learn the lesson the hard way to really connect with our clients, understand what they wanted and what they, we found what they wanted. It’s a real bonafide company, right? Not two guys with a get rich quick scheme that were gonna figure it out when they signed the deal, right? They went to the company with the right testimonials, insurance, someone who’s active in the apartment association.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (07:54.419)
and hope.

Sherrod Hunter (08:19.527)
And it really challenged us. And from that moment, Fred and I looked at each other. We had to make a decision. said, we’re going to do something to make a difference, or we’re going to go out of business. And so Fred took the route to join the apartment association, network, do the education, learn about what makes a good vendor. And I took the hands-on route. We had a pickup truck on standby that we were going to use for the valet trash. We ended up putting junk in the pickup truck. One job led to another. We ended up investing in our own dump truck. I was working in the dump truck.

Again, Fred’s going to the apartment association. It created that perfect storm after a few months. We had a couple of clients removing junk removal on the regular basis. We had the insurance, we had the testimonials, we had the ability to prove concept. And that leveraged over to a five-year ballet trash contract, 300 units, $12 a month, right? Five days a week. And man, just changed our life because the next thing you know, four or five more came coming and we were able to take that full leap of faith out of corporate America.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (09:08.32)
Thank

Sherrod Hunter (09:19.451)
We had that steady baseline of predictable, repeatable revenue and we took off. So junk removal and valet trash, we started in 2008 part-time and in 2010 we full-time and here we are today. that failure, it really turned into a success not only for ourselves, but now we’re able to help people with a lot less headaches than Fred and I had to go through.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (09:34.674)
that’s.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (09:45.631)
Yeah, and that’s what they say, you gotta fail before you can succeed. So you guys stuck, it’s all about grinding and sticking to it. So it sounds like that’s exactly what you did. And you stuck to it and you grew into basically a two franchise opportunity for one. Could you explain what I mean by that? What exactly is your business model, franchise model that you’re offering to people?

Fred Tomlin Jr (10:08.248)
Man, we are a B2B machine. About 80 % of our customers are the multifamily. And essentially, we go after them voraciously on both lines of business. Essentially, junk removal, if you think through it, in your own life, you may use a junk removal company maybe once every two to three years based on a life event, marriage, moving, divorce, unfortunately, sometimes death.

But those events at an apartment complex is happening times, hundreds of times. So from the move-ins and the move-outs, about 10 to 15 % move-ins and move-outs every single month. And nobody’s taking the IKEA furniture with them. And so our franchisees, Bread and Butter, is making sure they attach themselves to the multifamily industry very intrencially. We also attach ourselves to the self-storage facility industry. If you think through, they act a lot like multifamily in terms of

and all they do is store bulky items that need to be removed when either tenants abandon or tenants have leftover material. And so that alongside our targeting of real estate agents, alongside remodeling contractors for our junk removal services really makes us a powerhouse on the B2B side for junk removal. But don’t forget, I share with you our number one customer is Apartment Complexes and they give us the ability to offer that second line of service, which is the valet trash, which is

Pam Currie (11:15.122)
Bye.

Pam Currie (11:26.856)
you

Fred Tomlin Jr (11:34.854)
only apply to apartment complexes.

And that doorstep trash collection, which happens five nights a week, we hire an independent guy in a truck, in their own pickup truck, much like an Uber. They can call that business kind of like the Uber of trash services. But we hire that independent contractor to pick up that trash from those residents’ doorsteps. And we do so underneath a three to five year contract that we signed that has a value of anywhere from $10 to $15 per doorstep per month.

Pam Currie (11:50.569)
This is a very important opportunity for the community to to have some of the most important health care facilities in country. Thank you.

Fred Tomlin Jr (12:07.248)
And with the average apartment community being anywhere from 250 to 300 units in the United States, you can kind of get an understanding of how lucrative these contracts are. And essentially they add, like Shirad said, a great foundation, an amazing foundation for our franchisees to build upon their repeat business in the way of junk removal, but also having that reoccurring revenue that’s coming in from valet trash. So we have a lot of bells and whistles and a lot of key features that come with both lines of service.

Pam Currie (12:18.728)
you

Fred Tomlin Jr (12:37.168)
But our mainstay is making sure that franchisees understand that they’re going to make their bread and butter from targeting those apartment complexes and self storage facilities with our two main lines of business.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (12:49.652)
Very nice. So your business model is trash. That’s why we call it transparency and turning trash into cash. But that trash can be junk removal that you’re removing, or it can be our daily trash that we put outside of our doorstep for somebody to pick up and take all the way over to the dumpster on our behalf because we live in a nice apartment facility.

So I love that you guys have taken what I would consider a junk removal space that’s more B2C typically and you found this great space in the B2B space which really allows for recurring revenue number one, predictable recurring revenue I should say as well as honestly drive time.

You’re going to one location and you’re hitting 300 units. You’re going to a storage unit. I don’t know how many units you’re hitting there to remove the junk. So all of that helps with what I would call expenses in a business model to support your bottom line. So when it comes to customer acquisition, it is more B2B. How do you support your franchisees in getting these types of clients?

Fred Tomlin Jr (14:05.048)
Well, first and foremost, we honestly, have an unfair advantage, right? We are the nation’s only junk removal app. And essentially, that is a patented piece of technology. No other junk removal company in the country can take on that advent. And what that app allows us the ability to do is have our users, anybody with an iPhone or Android device, can take a photo or video of any junk or trash they like to remove. And we shoot them over a price point and a pickup time right over to their smartphone.

Pam Currie (14:05.704)
Thanks for watching.

Fred Tomlin Jr (14:34.806)
So it’s revolutionary in terms of understanding that it gives us, like I said, a very unfair advantage for not only helping out the homeowner, but also the business owner.

Pam Currie (14:35.272)
and help.

Fred Tomlin Jr (14:43.722)
On top of that, we offer some added value in the way of a loyalty program, much like Starbucks, much like Jimmy John’s, much like a lot of your fast food and even some of your value retail stores. We are the only junk removal company in the country with the actual loyalty program. So you earn points for every dollar you spend throughout the app. And essentially, we allow you to redeem those points with gift cards at major retailers like Amazon.

Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, et cetera. That said, you get to turn those in and be able to earn points for not only using us for business, but also for referral, for birthdays, and a host of different other reasons why we want to connect with clients. But that’s very unique to us in terms of, and also makes us very sticky, right, for customer acquisition. A fun fact.

Sherrod Hunter (15:17.735)
Thank you.

Sherrod Hunter (15:28.143)
referrals.

Pam Currie (15:36.264)
Thank you.

Fred Tomlin Jr (15:39.916)
Our customers that use the JunkShot Junk Removal app for their junk removal needs are our highest earning customers. They actually almost twofold the amount of expenditure that they do than our regular customers that come in by phone, email, or text.

Pam Currie (15:57.425)
Ugh.

Fred Tomlin Jr (15:59.266)
That said, we do have a system that goes into great detail about how we actually take on customers. We call it our three pillars of growth. And our three pillars of growth are digital marketing pillar, that’s our Google business profile, that’s our today artificial intelligence optimization, that’s our search engine optimization, and also just ensuring that our site and other outlays on social media are all up to date.

The next piece is our networking pillar. And our networking pillar is probably one of our most powerful pillars for our franchisees. It’s the pillar that is associated with our associations, the apartment association, the greater chamber.

of your market, also being a part of the eyes in your local market, but it’s the community connection. It’s the relationship builder. It’s the thing that really, really honestly catapults our franchisees, the growth within months and profitability within months beyond that other pillar of growth.

And then our last pillar of growth is just like any service-based business, we need that on the ground movement. That’s our guerrilla marketing pillar. That’s everything from our direct mail that touches the doorsteps of our apartment complexes or our yard signs and also door hangers and flyers when we’re out connected doing outside sales. That said, those three pillars of growth, the digital marketing, the networking, and the guerrilla marketing really set our franchisees for a total

system for success.

Pam Currie (17:32.253)
Yeah. Hey, guys. I have a couple questions around that. And by the way, it was so much fun to be able to come down and see your facility. Incredible training facility. Very, very impressive. And thank you for being host of the most and sharing that with us. And of course, while we were there, we had an opportunity to see a lot of your great marketing materials that you do provide to your franchisees.

Hold on one here right now that might look familiar to you, right? I’m sure this is part of your guerrilla marketing pillar, right? Question for you though, on the Junk Shot app, which is proprietary to you and definitely a differentiator in what you offer to your customers and your franchisees. When you think of customer acquisition, which you just shared those three pillars, is the app designed for all?

Fred Tomlin Jr (18:02.701)
You

Sherrod Hunter (18:04.165)
visit.

Pam Currie (18:24.648)
Three pillars being the end customer, your referral networking partners. Who is that app designed for?

Fred Tomlin Jr (18:36.174)
That app is designed for two different consumers, but also every consumer. So whether you’re the stay at home mom that needs to get your garage cleaned out and you don’t want the anxiety of having the traditional way of going through junk removal, and to explain why that’s important is really to explain why the Junk Shot app even exists. When you call any other company other than junkshotapp.com,

Pam Currie (18:42.663)
Okay.

Fred Tomlin Jr (19:02.574)
Essentially, you’re going to be asked to describe the amount of material that you need to get removed.

And you may struggle with trying to understand how that works in terms of the amount of material, but also how do they price to remove that material. And most junk removal companies price on volume, meaning the amount of space your material takes up in the back of their truck is how they charge you for that material. Well, guess what? There’s a lot of ambiguity in that system, right? You don’t know what the value of that space really means. And you may not even understand what cubic

yardage is or what tonnage is or even trying to measure through what feet feet is.

And so junk removal companies honestly take advantage of that with consumers. On the residential side, from the single mom or the family that wants to get rid of their garage or the old trampoline in the back, to the business owner, like I mentioned, the property manager that needs a real solution toward getting rid of repeat bulk materials or self-storage manager that has abandoned units that they need to get cleaned out. They don’t have any clue what that company is charging them based on that exercise that I just mentioned. But not with Junk Shot.

When junk shot user takes a photo or video of any trash or material they need removed.

Fred Tomlin Jr (20:19.714)
we can look at that material and give the most accurate quote that we can before we show up on site. It also gives us some guidance and some exclusive efficiencies that our competitors don’t have. Because when we understand what type of material we’re going to pick up, we can also plan our routing accordingly. And because we have what’s known as bigger trucks, better pricing, that means that we have the largest trucks in the industry from any national competitor with the most affordable rate to fill them up.

We can then be strategic about stopping at certain locations or scheduling those locations based on the amount of material that we take up. And we pass that efficiency and that cost savings on to our customers, whether they’re businesses or whether they’re residents all together. And so that’s that unfair advantage that comes with us having that trashparency that we get from the inside of the app.

Sherrod Hunter (21:14.927)
The other customer would be the customer that needs us all the time, right? And now they can just simply use the app that’s already downloaded. They don’t have to put their address and their name because it’s already recognized, it’s already stored and it’s click, click, click, boom. And they know that the service is going to be done in a day, right? Or the same day. And honestly, it’s about time, right? Inconvenience, right? They could have a couple of units that need to be turned and it’s important. And them already just taking a picture of the unit number, right? And giving us the code.

They don’t have to worry about anything, right? And then the team knows exactly what they’re going to remove. And then that trashed parents see, right? You reciprocate the photos in the report that matches the invoice. So now when they get an invoice, they know that the same, you know, before photos are going to be included in the report, the same after photos. And so they can operate as a condition of what they do. And they consider us an extension of their maintenance team. And so it’s dual fold, right? So that customer who wants pricing and expectations, and it’s for that customer who wants that convenience.

And that transparent, that’s trash parents. That’s what it’s about.

Pam Currie (22:14.504)
And some loyalty points and gift cards as well.

Sherrod Hunter (22:20.823)
Good call out so that’s that’s where that’s the 2026 where it’s like it’s time to take this thing to the next level Right and so just just rolled that out and super super exciting some brave reviews about the program And it’s just our way of giving giving back

Pam Currie (22:35.366)
Hence the name junk shot, right? So all coming together, I get it.

Sherrod Hunter (22:37.969)
Come on, let’s go.

Fred Tomlin Jr (22:39.628)
Take a shot of that junk. We need that shot of your junk.

Pam Currie (22:43.762)
Trash is cash. Hey, right.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (22:45.116)
and also price transparency to those property managers.

Sherrod Hunter (22:45.575)
Let’s go.

Let’s love it. Yeah, now we’re cooking. Now we’re cooking.

Pam Currie (22:53.32)
But, you guys, I don’t want to jump into this right now. I know you have designed the biggest, most equipped junk removal truck in the industry. And that’s what I would say another proprietary component of your business model. But before we dive into that, let’s talk about another important area of your business model. And that’s your employee base. Tell us a little bit about who you’re hiring.

If it’s skilled employees, not skilled employees, if there’s any unusual certification requirements, talk to us about that.

Sherrod Hunter (23:27.407)
So it’s an unskilled labor, but the skill is people right and being able to take care of people I always say it’s it is like getting paid to get you know paid for working out because it’s that act It’s a certainly an active job outside. So you have to be Willing and able to work in the environments into the elements, right? But at same time, you don’t have to be the biggest strongest toughest guy, right? It’s more about if you live 50 pounds, that’s great But it’s more about stamina being able to go up and down the stairs, right and do it with the smile

Right. And make it make it look good. Right. And so we look for people who have that like great landscapers. If you’re in the landscape or in construction, like you love this job. And especially the fact that you’re loading the truck for maybe two hours, then you’re in the AC, right. Go into the disposal facility or go into a donation facility. So you’re not just stuck out there. But we do look for people who care. We live by an acronym called care. Right. It’s about how we treat our people first and foremost. Right. You think about it like a reverse pyramid.

Pam Currie (24:20.747)
Sherrod Hunter (24:24.625)
where Fred and I are on the bottom of the owners on the bottom and the front line is what’s being supported the most. And so the C is convenience, just making it easy to do business with, an app or giving tools like loyalty programs to keep it coming back. The affordability is that bigger trucks, better pricing that we’re gonna get into. That’s the A. And we know that we are striving to make sure that we have a best price guarantee and we’re intentional about being able to bring that value. The R is the reliability, which is the franchise owner, but it’s also

the team in the field doing what we say we’re going to do, calling it ahead of appointments. If it’s a two hour time window, we know we’re going to be in the latter half of the two hour time window, we’re going to call before, right? To set those, that rate expectation for our client. And so like our team on the ground and the front lines, they live that care. And the E is the environmental responsibility where every single opportunity that they’re doing a job that we look for ways to offset and help the environment by donating, recycling, upcycling.

Pam Currie (25:04.683)
Sherrod Hunter (25:22.597)
right? And reselling if possible. they have to care, right? They have to be able to work in that physical, that outside environment. Absolutely is a blue collar. When we find the right executive owner franchisee with white collar leadership mindset, but can translate that to respecting the blue collar force, it’s a beautiful thing. And that’s where our franchisees are winning. And our teams respect that. Our employees love to be in an environment, in a culture that respects the hard work.

Pam Currie (25:40.232)
Mm-hmm.

Pam Currie (25:52.777)
Yeah, I really respect the culture that you are creating. And I know that is incorporated into your training and support. Walk us through what kind of training you provide to your franchisees and what type of ongoing support.

Sherrod Hunter (26:12.007)
The first the first thing is about really like leadership mindset to be honest with the first three weeks is about Mentality what it takes to be to be the boss what it takes to support your team What makes a successful franchise owner in terms of just having the right mindset understanding what this relationship is leaning on your franchise system Not trying to do this alone, but also how to handle the ups and the downs, right? So we literally go to three weeks of leadership training put on by our franchise business coach who has over 30 years of experience

as a franchisee, as a business coach as well with the kingdom mindset. So the first things first is we’re going to connect on a different level than junk removal or Valley Trash. Right. We’re going to talk about what’s going to take, take us to do this 10 year partnership, which is a marriage, right? Your intelligent decision. So that’s the foundation. And then we get into junk removal 101, Valley Trash 101, right. And then we get deeper into 102 and in each, but we really get into ton of marketing, ton of market research.

We use a database, right? That’s relative to apartment associations that we actually invest in from the corporate level that absolutely has our franchisees dialed into their market in terms of who’s there, what apartment complexes, what property management groups, who was the owner, who was the past manager, how many units, if they have valet trash, all that. So it was a lot of market research, right? Our sale is not a sell and move your mouth and figure out what happens because we have to produce, we have to fulfill.

And so it’s really about the consultant mindset that we instill in our franchisees to understand this is obviously a current solution because this is an asset that needs our service like power and water. What are they doing with the trash? And then we can understand that and use our core competencies to win business that we’re not just a fly by night that’s going to maintain. So we drill that in. Then we get deeper into the marketing, to the grand opening.

and of course we get into the service type and CRM and how to operate that and handle your estimates and opportunity alerts to 12 week pre-training before they even come to Tampa. call it the road to Tampa. So we spend about two hours each week connecting virtually. And then there’s about four hours each week of homework to be transparent. And we’re following up on the homework. Great thing. We have a resource site that has all of our videos, all of our training resources there. So we have the aggressive learners that want to skip ahead. could do that.

Sherrod Hunter (28:31.463)
but it’s about 10 to 12 weeks of really just connecting before you open the truck. That gives time for our custom dump truck to be built. Usually takes anywhere from eight to 10 weeks. But by the time that’s all done, you’re coming to Tampa, once you graduate the pre-training, you’re coming to Tampa for a week of hardcore on-site training. So our training facility does the classroom training. We also take them out and back and make sure that the truck can be loaded the proper way. So we’re getting as much bulk as they would put in a dumpster. We’re able to do things the right way. No fluff about what we do.

Let me go out into the field. there’s five days of training. Dave, four days of training day five is graduation day. I actually just finished training last week for Denver. So we have a truck on the way to Denver, Colorado right now. and then we go to the market for another three, three days of junk removal and they only signed their Valley trash contract. Another three days of Valley trash. So that’s just the grand opening, right? and then ongoing, we field trainers that go to the market ongoing to connect with the team.

not just doing QCs, but really be able to connect with the team, launch new initiatives, make sure that we’re really understanding the pulse from the ground up in the market. And so that’s what our training looks like. Keep the communication with teams on a regular basis. And then we have weekly meetings we call like lunch hours. So the marketing manager may have a Friday and then the business coach will have another Friday. The last Friday of each month, Fred and I do a vision call with the system. So we kind of really talk about what we’ve been doing behind.

behind the scenes and the trenches and, you know, highlight some of our leaderboard winners and just talk about some of our initiatives in terms of what we’re working with. a connection call. It’s not mandatory. Those are some of the things that we do to stay connected to the system to make sure everybody’s trained and they’re, you know, they’re, they’re advancing and leveling up every month.

Pam Currie (30:15.977)
Yeah, wow. Very comprehensive program, beautiful training facility. I appreciate the fact that I had the opportunity to witness it, or Sherry and I did. And I want to talk about some differentiator that we already mentioned. We obviously have already talked about the fact that you’ve got your patent Junk Shot app. And you’ve already shared how much of a differentiator that makes in your business, along with the loyalty program for Junk Shot app users.

And in addition to that, we touched upon the truck. And I was so impressed. And I still have this little flyer. I don’t know if our listeners are probably listening. They’re not viewing us. But I just held up a flyer that talks about the most equipped chunk removal truck in the industry, 28 cubic yard truck built to get the job done faster and smarter. It wants to talk to us about this. Big differentiator.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (31:13.322)
Yeah.

Sherrod Hunter (31:14.119)
not all junk removal trucks are created equal. So remember that, not all junk removal trucks were created equal. So years and years, and it was not always like this. Again, we started from the bottom, right? And so we had our pickup truck and then we had our dump truck that was 12 and a half cubic yards, right? And we were like, man, I wish we had a bigger truck. And then we got the bigger truck, but it didn’t dump. And we’re at the dump forever. And people used to laugh at us. And we were like, okay, well, we still have a bigger truck.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (31:17.748)
Thank you.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (31:32.97)
Well.

Sherrod Hunter (31:41.287)
But again, it just took years and years to get the right formula, right? We were so blessed after maybe three, four years to have a custom built dumpster on our truck. And I just had the coolest idea of a sill box in the back to fit like my rakes and my rooms and all that. And then I’m like, I’m so excited until a few months later, I’m like, it’s not big enough. I can’t fit the scoop shovel. You know I mean? And so the next year I had a toolbox. And then we had the electric tarps and then they kept breaking.

Right. So like, okay, we can’t do that. And then we had the ramps in the truck. We thought that was a good idea. Then wait till the ramp breaks and wait till you understand how much more weight that adds and how inefficient it can be. And so we went through it for three, for four, for five years. And then we had the local body shop in Tampa. And then the truck would come back wavy. And then we went to a company and click across the bridge and that didn’t work. And so now we’re like 200 miles away with the shop, but after six different iterations, they have it absolutely dialed in exactly how we want it.

Right the length the measurements. It’s so custom and prototype. It’s so it’s simple yet It’s there’s a lot that went into it, know what I mean, but it’s it’s a dumpster on wheels It’s absolutely meant to do what it’s supposed to do to go and help clients who have a lot of bulk and give them the best bang for their buck we’re rivaling the 20 yard and 30 yard dumpsters that they would use in the past and Including their labor including the disposal including the fees and environmental. We’re beating that right. We’re also giving

Pam Currie (32:42.483)
Mm-hmm.

Sherrod Hunter (33:05.137)
Pro-rated invoicing and pricing so it’s systematic and the customer understands the value where it dumps the company if the price is gonna be the price is gonna be the price it doesn’t matter how much you fill up fill up the truck, know I mean in the same thing as a junk removal company, right? They probably don’t want to show you the stuff in the truck because that’s how they make their money right by kind of pulling that wool So with that investment of being intentional about having that best value It’s a true mathematical equation that we can stand on at the end of the day

Because it’s based on our expenses is based on the volume and it’s something that we can Be trash-parent about what our with our clients and they can understand what they’re getting for their for their value So that truck is the real deal and it took a long time to get it to get to where it needs to be But it’s it’s exactly why we’re We’re building repeat business

Pam Currie (33:45.608)
Yeah.

Pam Currie (33:54.026)
devil in the details. Do you need a certain license to drive that size truck?

Sherrod Hunter (34:00.091)
Great question. You do not just the regular regular license. The great thing is it even fits in the regular parking spot. It’s intentional even though it’s big, right? But it’s it’s can fit in the regular parking spot. It’s it’s not too heavy to go on, you know, paved driveways, even though we don’t just pull on the paved driveway. We ask for permission, but it is a medium duty truck. We say that if you feel comfortable driving the U haul, you feel great driving this truck. You sit high on the wheel so you like right there. So it’s not like you’re going to ever run into anybody because you like right there. Turn radius is amazing.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (34:06.868)
Hmm.

Sherrod Hunter (34:29.991)
And can you believe it? This day they have backup cameras and they have the Bluetooth and they have cruise control and all that stuff. so when I started, I have all that. So I teased the guys a lot of times. I’m like, you have all these features on this truck. And I never had that, it’s all part of the game, all part of the plan.

Pam Currie (34:36.614)
huh.

Pam Currie (34:44.777)
Yeah

It is. It is. So I guess we’re talking about differentiators in the business and the patent junk shot app, loyal customer program, proprietary junk removal truck. And you also brought up the fact that you are in a unique position because really, like Sheri said, you have two businesses underneath one umbrella.

that permits for, I guess what I call transactional revenue and repeat. Refresh our listeners on sort of that contractual piece and how that’s a big differentiator for you versus other junk removal companies.

Fred Tomlin Jr (35:35.886)
That’s really key for us. And honestly, although there are other operators in the country for valet trash services across the nation, we are the only franchise-led valet trash company in the country. And that’s powerful. For that business, like I shared with you, our franchisees are building relationships that allow them to sign those three to five-year contracts. Honestly, our contracts are built that they go into an auto-renewal phase. So even beyond that three to five years,

Just like us our franchisees can have contracts that go into a decade or longer. We signed a contract back in 2010 that we still operate today And it’s been renewed several times over but that franchisee component is super powerful to us Beyond even before I go into yet go into that our franchisees

are equipped with a lot of support tools in regards to the reporting. One of the bigger key differentiators for us on the valet trash side of our business is the technology.

All of our porters are equipped with the app-based system that mandates that they capture photographs of their work performance during their trash collection. What that means is they’re capturing photographs of themselves in their uniform vest. They capture before and after photographs of the compacted areas during trash collection. They also capture photographs of each building sign once they finish pickup of that individual building at the apartment complex. And then they also capture photographs of some residents’ doorsteps, either for routing or

to make sure that they close the loop on a service concern. If a resident ever reports a misunit from us, our porters are then mandated through that system to capture a photograph of that resident’s doorstep the following night and for several weeks ongoing to ensure that that resident doesn’t have another service concern, which gives our franchisees a lot of peace of mind. I may have not gave it a lot of understanding, but the valet trash services takes place at night. Essentially apartment dwellers are

Fred Tomlin Jr (37:38.612)
asked to put their trash outside the door from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and then our uniform porters come along at 8 p.m. to pick up that trash from the residence doorstep and transport it to the on-site compactor there at the apartment complex. They’re never leaving off-site with any trash. But that business is actually operating while our franchisees are asleep. And so essentially we support that system almost outright. So we are the phone calls or the front,

front line of information for the franchisee. We’re actually the system, our system actually understands when the porter gets on site. We also understand if we need to contact the franchisee, if for some reason the porter hasn’t showed up or if we need to contact a backup porter on behalf of the franchisee. And then ultimately our franchisee still has his or her daytime operations in the way of junk shot, junk removal to fill any gaps that might happen with trash collection at night.

And that essentially gives us the ability to have what’s known in the industry as a no miss pickup guarantee. On the ballet trash side of our business, we will never miss pickup. And that’s unheard of in this business. lot of these our companies are ran through third party contractors as their porters, and they may not always be the most reliable in labor. With our system and our franchise oversight, we eliminate that frustration for the franchisee and honestly for our end users, the property manager.

That said that business we love love love a little goes a long way the average valet trash account earns anywhere from 30 to 40 thousand dollars a year in annual earnings gross earnings and if you think through that a franchisee can have anywhere from just 10 to 15 units and build a half a million dollar business side of his business with just 10 to 15 accounts so the valet trash super powerful piece of our business is the foundation that we always press upon our

Pam Currie (39:33.001)
Thank you.

Fred Tomlin Jr (39:38.496)
franchisees to get. There is a hierarchy though. We always position them to start their relationship with Junk Shot. It has very little barriers to entry and allows them to be able to offer services immediately and build a relationship. And once they have that relationship, they then can introduce that second line of service for that contractual recurring opportunity.

Pam Currie (39:53.193)
and

Pam Currie (40:03.997)
Makes sense.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (40:05.418)
Hey Fred, how many apartments use valet trash? Is this a common thing that I don’t know about? how’s that? How do you find these apartments?

Fred Tomlin Jr (40:15.404)
I mean, it’s a great question.

There are millions, believe it or not. Today I think it’s registered about 2.6 million apartment units and growing, have valet trash services. We use a proprietary database that we subscribe to that actually gives us an immense amount of data for every multifamily or apartment or condo asset throughout the United States. It lets us know the class of the property, the number of units. We even know the property manager’s name, the maintenance manager’s name. We know her boss’s

Pam Currie (40:45.522)
I’m sorry.

Fred Tomlin Jr (40:47.128)
So if you imagine my franchisees can walk into an apartment complex and know the boss’s boss’s name and you imagine that gets them past a lot of gatekeeping in regards to being able to build a relationship. But beyond that, that database also lets us know how many apartment complexes have valet trash in their market as well as what that those apartment complexes are charging residents. If I may or not expand it upon it, that’s the win win win scenario in valet trash is that we charge apartments

Pam Currie (40:53.353)
Thank

Sherrod Hunter (40:53.497)
and

Sherrod Hunter (41:02.865)
Yes.

Fred Tomlin Jr (41:16.908)
complex is a fee for service, they then charge the residents a cost above and beyond our fee for service and they actually make a profit for offering valet trash services. That’s why the service is so sticky. Typically if an apartment complex has valet trash, they won’t get rid of the service, they’ll just change for a provider like us for a better experience. And then of course there’s the benefit for the resident like we all know the convenience factor of just being able to put your trash at your doorstep.

That’s a bigger convenience than even I have at my single family home. I still got to take my trash can all the way to the end of the drive. But but that’s it. It’s definitely a little further than the doorstep. And so that’s the win win scenario for the resident, for the property manager and of course for our franchisees. But big, big system. really, we really love that component of what we do.

Sherrod Hunter (41:50.983)
All the way to the end of the driveway. You see you got a big house.

Fred Tomlin Jr (42:14.816)
And it’s really one of the big key differentiators of how we secure that line of business.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (42:21.044)
Yeah, for the apartments, they just kind of bake it into the monthly fee and then outsource to people like you to do the pickup and then they make a little bit of money and there’s no, and everybody in the apartment is just part of the deal. So you’ve got all these people in the same apartment. It’s not like you’re doing one and not the other. You can potentially do all of them depending on how it’s set up, I suppose.

Fred Tomlin Jr (42:45.006)
Yeah, when we contract, we contract for the entire apartment complex. So if it’s a 280 unit complex, you’re getting $10 to $15 times 280 doorsteps. If it’s a 320 unit complex, the same. And so the way the Valley Trash system works is every apartment is allotted inside of the service. And of course, the property management, again, is earning that profit by charging that resident.

for access to that amenity. And so it’s not a thing where the franchisee has to go out and piecemeal each individual unit for sale. When they offer that contract, it’ll be for the entire property and they’ll be benefiting from servicing all those units.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (43:23.732)
Very good.

Pam Currie (43:24.105)
You guys, we’re coming up on the top of the hour here. So I’m just gonna ask you some really quick questions to wrap it up. Real quick, how many current franchisees do you have in your system?

Sherrod Hunter (43:39.175)
franchise these 34 territories.

Pam Currie (43:41.833)
So lots of room for growth and you guys are scaling and on your way. Second quick question, money matters, trash is cash. Do you provide an item 19, a financial performance representation?

Shari Currie Skjoldager (43:44.437)
like that.

Sherrod Hunter (43:47.259)
Yes.

Sherrod Hunter (43:56.231)
Sure do. broken. It’s actually broken down by year franchises like years in business and we highlight not only growth top line revenue, but we highlight the major KPIs, right? So you can see the cost of this sold minus the labor, the dump and the gas. System-wide, we’re above 58%. We’re proud to say we’re above 58 % with AUV close to 500K system-wide. so item 19 breaks that out, even shows the averages per year. So you can kind of look to.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (44:11.006)
night.

Sherrod Hunter (44:23.451)
see what you can expect, then of course you can validate that during our weekly validation calls with our franchise owners as well.

Pam Currie (44:30.075)
Absolutely. And before Sherry dives into our final question for the show, I did want to ask you any additional thoughts that you would like to share for our listeners.

Fred Tomlin Jr (44:41.848)
They got to check us out on work order nation. That’s a, our, our exclusive podcast. We’re probably one of the fastest growing podcasts in regards to property management. Work order nation is a podcast centered around interviewing the leading leaders and the leaders of the property management field, everything from property managers, the regional managers. But beyond that relationship building that we do on that show, it’s really meant to benefit our franchisees. Work order nation is a lead generation source to where after those interviews that we have with

property managers. make introductions to our local franchisees with those interviewees for repeat business. So check us out on Work Order Nation. We have some great stories. We have a segment called Work Order Wows, where property managers and regional leadership share some of their craziest stories about apartment life experiences and working in an apartment complex. So Work Order Nation on Apple, Spotify, YouTube. You can check us out.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (45:39.697)
I love it. You guys are creating a national name for yourself in the space you need it, which is property management groups. And you’re getting connected to all of those people. And what great industry experience that you’ve had in regards to just developing this and then growing it into a, you know, taking a mousetrap and just make it a lot better.

so other people can join you and take it across the nation. you guys have had a lot of experience and thanks so much for sharing it with us and our listeners. So like Pam said, in closing, we always have one final question. I’m gonna lead it off with Fred and then also Sherad, I would love it if you would share your thoughts too. So Fred, in closing, what tip would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

Fred Tomlin Jr (46:22.19)
Budding entrepreneurs. I would share with you to pause and consider and to understand your why. You really need to know why you want to be an entrepreneur versus a W2 holder and what that really means for you and your family.

And then you need to understand and do some due diligence about the type of business that your skill sets can benefit you in. Believe it or not, in our business structure, we have everything from engineers to past aircraft aviation maintenance mechanics to even dental hygienists that we’ve turned into millionaires. But.

That said, the one component is they understood their why. They did their due diligence about their ability to build those relationships. That’s the one connective tissue that all those professions have, is that they were able to build relationships with people. And then three, you got to execute. You got to take that leap of faith. You can only do analysis paralysis for so long. And once you start to get your spreadsheet done, you understand your ability to execute and your foundation for funding it.

Go ahead and take that leap of faith. Only thing’s gonna happen is you’re gonna learn and you’re gonna grow.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (47:34.56)
love it love that a lot. Sharad, how about you? What tips would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

Sherrod Hunter (47:35.953)
Good stuff.

Sherrod Hunter (47:41.479)
I had to sum it up. would say three things really quickly, right? I would say, faith without works is dead, right? So believe, but prepared to work for it. Count the costs, right? That’s the cost of doing it, also the cost of not doing it. And then I would also say success leaves clues. Follow, there’s a proven playbook out there for you. Follow it, execute it, and you’ll be successful.

Pam Currie (48:10.589)
Yeah, thanks. Yep, great. Thank you so much for the great tips and for sharing about Junk Shot. And I do want to say to our listeners, if you are considering franchise ownership, request a free franchise sisters consultation. We would also like to send you an ebook, Top 10 Questions to Consider Before Investing in a Franchise. And we want to be that resource for you.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (48:11.198)
the process, right?

Shari Currie Skjoldager (48:38.772)
Yeah, absolutely. Our mission is to help you navigate the franchise selection process through our client-centric align methodology and to put you in a position to make an informed decision with the help of our Investigate Before You Infest toolkit.

Pam Currie (48:54.867)
Thanks for tuning in. This is the franchise sisters, Fred and Sherard, signing off. Fist bump.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (49:00.608)
That’s done.