Everything You Need to Know About Running a Dumpster Rental Business

Blaine:

The hardest thing that some people don’t realize is you’re bringing something from a vision that only you have. At that point, you’re going to have a lot of people who aren’t going to believe you because you’re the only one that had the vision. My name’s Blaine Snellen. I own SC Dumpster Solutions, so I’m the owner here. Prior to this, I actually worked for a dealership. I was a finance manager there for about five years total. I started the dumpster business a year before I left, knowing I wanted to kind of use the funds I was making to venture off into my own thing.

So I was actually doing the dumpsters kind of side gig with a roll-off setup, three containers, and a trailer. For a whole year, I bootstrapped that, was working 60, 70 hours a week at the dealership, and then any other free time was dumpster rentals.

In August of 2024 is when we kind of went full in with the dumpster business. We purchased a new hook lift, and then we went to 10 dumpsters. Before the year ended, we ended up with 20 dumpsters total, and then we ordered some beginning of this year. So, we’re currently now sitting at 30 dumpsters and a hook lift truck.

I mean, it’s crazy just because we’re right now in the process of we have seven more dumpsters on order that should be here in the next week. We’re about to get into hook lifts for 30s and 40s, so we have a CDL truck on order that should be here August 1st.

Growth and Transition:

It’s been this kind of crazy thinking about because I was still doing the dumpsters from August to November while I was still a W2 employee, and then I left in November. It’s one of those things that I was making a very, very good amount of money, and it’s thinking, “Okay, I’m about to leave this,” but I was also just willing to kind of take that bet on myself and take that risk. I guess I was going to die on that hill that if I’m going to spend 60, 70 hours a week, I want to do it for myself.

After doing that, I mean, it’s been a entrepreneurship is definitely a roller coaster, but like I said, now we have a I’m sitting in an office space, which if you would have told me before I left that in 6 months I’d have an office and 4,000 square feet of warehouse space for all of our equipment. It’s been definitely a crazy ride, but it’s been awesome. We wanted to get into the 30 and 40 yard setup, but obviously, you’re competing with a much bigger corporation at that point. I always told my partner, “I don’t need two feet to jump, but I at least need one,” which in my terms was like, I need one contract to go out and obtain this equipment because the dumpster business, depending on how you’re entering, can get very expensive.

Obviously, when I first started, it was a little more minimal by just doing the trailer and three bins, but when you step up to buying a truck and then 30 dumpsters and then now we’re getting a tri axle truck and more containers. I kind of had to have one solid contract that made sense to jump into spending that kind of money.

Challenges and Hurdles:

I think one of the biggest hurdles of getting off the ground is starting it as its own thing. It’s not easy to work 60, 70 hours a week and still focus your minimal energy and time towards something else. I kind of came to that crossroad where it was just you have the opportunity to take this jump and take that risk of leaving, but acquiring the capital and having the right people in your corner to support you to do it. Some people think I was crazy because I was 23 years old, making a top 1% salary for my age, and I was willing to leave that. I’ll always have the salesmanship in me, so if everything hit the fan, that’s the risk I was willing to take. I’m willing to go all in on this because you can’t have one foot in, one foot out. If you truly want it to be a business, then you just have to trust your instinct that that’s what you want to do.

The second hurdle is as you grow. When you first start, things kind of get in your head. You have one conversation with somebody, and they talk about wanting to do business with you. You get super excited thinking it’s going to happen, and then it doesn’t, and you’re like, “Oh man, I was counting on that.” But then some things also come to fruition. Things we worked on seven, eight months ago are now coming to fruition. Conversations I had seven, eight months ago got me into a conversation of obtaining this solar plant contract.

It’s one of those things that just because it’s not instant gratification doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come down the pipeline. The biggest thing for us is just keeping true to why we do what we do. Everybody has their own why, but we wanted to change the way the dumpster business is currently run in my location. We truly take pride in being customer service-oriented and being like when someone needs something, you have a true person to talk to. Everything comes directly to me. If you need something the same day, if you have a problem, if you’re in a pinch, I’ve had phone calls from Walmart at 11:00 on a Saturday, and no one else would have that conversation because it’s going to go to an automated system. Those are the things we take pride in. If they need something, they need three that night, we jumped on it, and then it turned into 23 dumpster rentals. You don’t really know what happens in this kind of game of entrepreneurship. Like things just kind of happen, and that’s part of the risk.

Future Goals and Networking:

Our goal is to get up to 100 cans in the next year. We would like to do that within a year. I think one of the things that’s a little different for me is I just hired our first driver two months ago, from being in the truck for about a year to when I left the dealership. One of the big things was the networking. You can only have such of an online presence and people calling you, rather than getting out and networking events. I’m part of a couple of networking groups here locally because I feel like we’re trying to go after the commercial space. That’s what this bigger truck is going to allow us to do. Not all of that comes from people googling “dumpster near me.” That comes from shaking hands and having good connections and getting the right conversations.

As we move forward, I’ve kind of had to learn to navigate from being me and my partner in the truck every day to now working on the business, which is a whole new side of things. My now goal is getting to 100 cans in the next year. Now that I’m not sitting in the truck for 10 or 12 hours, it’s time to focus on making the connections and having the conversations that can lead us to get to those 100 cans in a year. It’s a big goal for us.

In nine months, we’ve added 27. If things grow the way they can, then we could definitely obtain 100 in the next year. I heard a quote the other day: “The hardest part of entrepreneurship isn’t entrepreneurship; it’s there’s no one telling you what to do anymore.” You have to make yourself not have free time. It’s a game you’re playing. You learn a lot through experience. Within the last 12 months, I’ve learned a ton just based on the experience I’ve been in.

Using Docket Software:

I’ve been using Dockit since pretty much the beginning of this year. I used the software prior to Docket, and it wasn’t necessarily a terrible experience. It was just kind of like getting, I feel like a lot of this is just trial and error. You just kind of find things that work for your business model and things that don’t. The system we were using before, it was nice having it all integrated and starting to learn. Obviously, I was used to a CRM but in a different space, so having a CRM for my own business was definitely something I wanted.

Once I, I didn’t do much research the first time. I just kind of like, I’ve seen people’s experiences with it. I’m like, “Yeah, we’ll go with it.” That’s when I had 10 containers, and I definitely wanted to find something solid for moving forward. Going from 10 to 30 in six months was definitely fast growth. I knew as we grew, I wanted to have a solid CRM because I don’t want to constantly jump around to different platforms.

Once I switched to Docket in the beginning of the year, Dockit had some things available that the other software didn’t have that made the business model for me better. End all, there are still things I can learn in Docket because there are so many things that you can play with in the back end. I think that customer experience on the front end as well is important to my business model. Customer service is important. So having a CRM that kind of gave them their own portal was important. When we switched, having a system that fits our model but then good for growth moving forward when we do obtain 100 cans was key for us.

It is a little different than most dumpster rental companies. Making sure the CRM we went with had that availability to do that was important. I definitely like the flexibility and the communication directly with the customer. Your system made it a lot easier for our model to keep moving forward. The hardest thing that some people don’t realize is you’re bringing something from a vision that only you have. The numbers can look great, and they can not make sense to some people.

At that point, you’re going to have a lot of people who aren’t going to believe you because you’re the only one that had the vision. Just being able to really trust if you see it, then use your gut and go for it. The worst-case scenario is going back to what everyone else is already doing, working for somebody else. It’s not about having an investor or a certain amount of money in the account before you jump. I didn’t have this massive cash egg I was sitting on to float myself for two years. I believe in what I see and my ability to do this, and I just went for it. So if anyone’s going to start it, don’t be afraid to jump just because other people aren’t believing you because you’re the only one that’s seeing the vision.

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