Door-to-Door Salesmen Take Out the Trash

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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What's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. Got an interesting story for you today. Something that we haven't ever talked about before. It's, what is it?

Let's see. Oh, it's all about taking out the trash. Hmm, does that sound like it could be a big business? Well, first, listen. This is some advice from today's side hustler.

He says, "Your idea doesn't have to be original to be good. "Simply find an unmet need that people actually care about "and then figure out a way to meet it to their satisfaction. "Start small and prove yourself. "Focus on simple business ideas you can bootstrap "without raising capital, borrowing money, "or taking on additional partners. "Then go to whatever link's necessary "to make sure every customer is delighted." So hey, check this out.

After getting sick of watching the trash pile up outside their apartment, two roommates start a VIP waste collection service. How much money can you earn from taking out the trash? Well, they actually grow it into a million-dollar business. That's right. Do I have your attention now?

Well, stay tuned. This story is called "Door-to-door Salesmen Take Out the Trash." And it's coming right up. [Music]

Jesse Lear didn't get the idea for his hustle after a long brainstorming session. There wasn't a funny aha moment either. It just came out of being frustrated with a common daily problem.

Even though Jesse and his roommate lived in a nice apartment, the trash compactor was far from their door, and the closest recycling drop-off was miles away. When they realized that other people were probably feeling the same frustration, VIP waste services was born. Or at least it was born in spirit, because Jesse's first lead was their property manager, and he didn't go for it. That property manager explained that Jesse and his roommate couldn't just start picking up trash for cash. They had to set up a legal business, get insurance, and so on.

So it was back to the drawing board. The two friends both worked in door-to-door sales, selling cable and internet services. This gave them a flexible schedule, which turned out to be very helpful. They were still set on making VIP waste services into a business, so they worked around their jobs. In the morning, Jesse and his roommate would meet up at Panera Bread.

If either of them wasn't up and ready to go in time, they had to buy breakfast for the other. That got them motivated to get out of bed. From 8 a.m. to noon, they would tackle their to-do lists. And in the first few months of this fledgling startup, that meant a lot of brainstorming and research.

They had to register their business, get insurance, and learn to comply with environmental regulations. After that, they would head to their sales jobs and work until about 7 p.m. For those first several months, that was it. They didn't have any clients, so Jesse's workday ended there. After six months of prep work, however, the schedule changed.

He and his partner still met at Panera Bread in the morning, and after that came the day job. But at 8 p.m., they put on their shiny new hazard vests and went out collecting garbage and recycling. They worked as late as necessary, sometimes until 5 a.m. Then they grabbed as much sleep as they could, after grabbing a shower, I assume, before getting up to do it all over again five days a week. It turned out there really was cash in the trash, six figures of revenue in their first year, in fact.

It was a win-win for everyone. Property management companies could offer the doorstep trash service as an amenity, which then allowed them to increase rent prices to offset the cost. And for residents, well, instead of having to schlep a dirty trash bag, they could just leave it right outside their door at night. When they woke up in the morning, it was gone. The partners joined a local apartment association and attended its meetings, using the opportunity to network.

That was how they got enough clients that they actually needed to hire their first employee at the end of the summer. In no time at all, VIP waste services had grown to the point that Jesse and his partner could quit their jobs, and it's a good thing they could because they essentially had no choice. One day, this little business was mentioned on NPR by the mayor, who happened to give a shout out to Jesse and his partner by name. Their boss, who had no idea about the business and was wondering why his sales numbers were down, happened to be listening to NPR while commuting to work. Jesse says they had a conversation, which resulted in him having no more conversations with his boss, and he was now his own boss.

Free to roam and recycle without the constraints of that job, Jesse assumed that more growth would follow. It did, but not at first. That's because he also assumed he could start up a bunch of other small ventures with his sudden free time. He tried a gourmet popsicle company, a charitable event company called Party for a Reason, and even got involved in the music industry, staging high-tech marketing stunts. It wasn't until he buckled down and focused exclusively on VIP waste services that the business saw its greatest periods of growth.

That grind and dedication helped him go from a late-night side hustle to a company with seven-figure revenue. The business even grew to span five cities across three states, and Jesse and his partner sold the company in 2018. He's now working on a new project that manages high-end Airbnb rentals. Whether it proves his promising his waste services or not, he'll be able to spend his time on whatever attracts his attention next. It's all because he was frustrated by having to take out the trash.

[Music]

Well, it doesn't get much simpler and more practical than taking out the trash. When you think about really simple basic needs, it's also an extremely common problem. If for some reason you don't have an easy way to take out the trash, if you don't have curbside pickup or a shoot in your apartment or whatever it is, then it turns into a big problem. So for these guys to come along with a proposed solution, it's also something that most people don't want to do. So in this story, the focus isn't so much about following one's passion as it is meeting a really basic and simple common need.

And of course, they're able to build that business to six figures and then seven figures, eventually selling it to go on and do something else. Now, it might also be a good reminder of always asking yourself, who is your customer? Because in this case, they have end users, right? The end users are the apartment residents who would normally have to shut their trash bags, but now they can just put them on the doorstep. But VIP Waste Services was really focused on getting to know the property managers, the apartment association people, and so on.

So it's kind of a top down approach. Like eventually you're serving those end users, but you don't market directly to them. So always think about who your customer is because that then affects your pitch, it affects your messaging, it affects your overall strategy. Know who your customer is and design everything around their needs, their needs and their problems. All right, there really is cash in the trash and inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better.

Today's show notes, all right, sidehustleschool.com/1074, that is 1-0-7-4. All right, the holidays are in full swing. I will sign off. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.

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From the Onward Project.