This is big folks! GarbageCanCleaning.com is live and open for business, brought to you by the same folks that created the nationwide Bin Blasters franchise system. We sat down with Co-Founder and CEO Casey Evertsen to share his story and what inspired him and partner Steve Terry to launch Garbage Can Cleaning.
Now let’s get to the good stuff…
Casey, we’re going to talk about can cleaning momentarily but let’s rewind to the very beginning. Where are you from and what were your first jobs? What led you in that direction?
I was raised in Southern Missouri and spent most of my summers doing construction work. I found that masonry wasn’t really my calling. I had this desire to be creative/entrepreneurial in a way that just wasn’t being satisfied.
Luckily, our family had a helicopter tour business in Branson, MO, so I definitely had entrepreneurialism in my blood. I started working on the marketing side of the business and enjoyed that, but unfortunately, my father passed in an accident and the business closed.
So my first “real” job began in sales with a Chinese sock manufacturer that had a small US factory. I came up with a product line for them called “Spirit Sleeves.” They were socks without feet and designed for school fundraising. That gave me a great opportunity to see how all kinds of products were developed and marketed over 6 years bringing that product into other niches and attending 100+ trade shows.
From there I had additional sales roles with increasing seniority, but I always felt the entrepreneurial spirit pulling me in the direction of doing my own thing.
Sales is critical for any business, especially a fledgling solopreneur business, but it sometimes gets a bad name. What’s your sales philosophy?
The stigma around sales is that it is manipulative: something a salesperson does to someone else.
My approach has always been that sales is something you do for someone else.
It’s in my nature to ask a lot of questions. Once I understand someone else’s problems that need to be solved, I can determine whether or not I have a solution that is in that person’s best interests.
If I really have a solution, I present it.
I’ve never been into hard selling or any deep psychological games or anything like that. If it’s a win-win, a deal happens and if it doesn’t, both parties are probably better served to find a better fit.
You eventually got the entrepreneurial bug. What were you feeling?
I mentioned before that I got to develop some physical products on behalf of another company. The Spirit Sleeve line catching fire and starting to be purchased by schools across the country really motivated me.
I booked as many tradeshows as I could because I really loved the adrenaline of watching it grow and coming up with new markets in which it could flourish.
Finding new people that really loved the product gave me a huge buzz.
I also really enjoyed having so many options to consider, but at the same time, I started to learn to focus and realize I can’t pursue every idea that comes in my head.
What drew you in the direction of garbage can cleaning?
I was selling marketing solutions to home service companies. I was shocked at how much money they were making despite a lack of any real marketing or customer support.
At the same time, I had dirty bins at my house that I wanted cleaned. I started looking for a solution and there wasn’t a service available but there was equipment that could handle it efficiently.
With the combination of demand for a service and equipment, I knew a service-based business could be launched, and I was the guy to do it in a fun and memorable way that people would love. For those looking to start their own service, knowing the right questions to ask when purchasing equipment is crucial. Check out our guide on Trash Bin Cleaning Truck for Sale: The Right Questions to Ask for more details.
So Bin Blasters was born!
What’s a day in the life for a bin blaster?
I love being out in the truck and cleaning bins. I get to be outside and make people happy. But that’s the easy part!
A startup garbage can cleaning service owner has to do everything themselves:
- Bin cleaner
- Marketer
- Customer service rep
- Bookkeeper/office manager
- Maintenance tech
- Face man/salesperson
That can be a lot for some people, especially if they don’t have guidance.
Developing the skills to run and grow a subscription-based business took me some time as I was really winging it in the early days.
Like any company, once you get traction, you have to learn to delegate and that’s critical to get to a certain size, so first you do those things, then you manage someone else doing them for you.
Tell us about the early days of Bin Blasters before it was a franchise…what was year 1 like? What did you accomplish?
We spent $10,000s of dollars on a DIY truck as our first vehicle but we sold it within 2 months. We needed something more efficient and a professionally-built option was where we found that. We needed to be able to service more people per day than our DIY truck could support.
I spent the weekdays cleaning bins but also being really diligent about prospecting (bin hangers and similar, talking to people), creating social media content, and then answering the calls that would come in off my marketing efforts.
I had side income from pressure washing on the weekends at fast food restaurants and homes.
By the end of year 1, we had roughly $70k in bin cleaning subscription revenue and 350 subscribers.
One definite mistake I made was I let the pressure-washing business whither away too early. We include 100 feet of pressure washing line on our trailers because we want folks getting started to have that option until their subscription base is large enough to not need it. Learn from my mistake!
As with many businesses, it was an emotional rollercoaster: some days were great and some times I wanted to crawl inside a bin and never come out.
What were some hurdles you overcame or mistakes you made?
Man, there were quite a few. Here are a couple mistakes:
- Don’t think you need to do it all yourself. I thought I already knew it all and could do it all. Take shortcuts! Follow successful people. I should have expanded my network much more than I did.
- Not focusing on pressure washing. Not having dual revenue streams while we figured things out was not a wise move. I should’ve kept growing that side.
Not really a mistake but definitely a hurdle, Covid hit so we had to adjust. We weren’t strong on digital marketing in those days.
We couldn’t do parades, events or knock on doors. So we had to pivot to stickers, door hangers, and asking for referrals.
Your bin blasting business started to take off, which requires a lot of moving pieces working together. For somebody who is just getting started…what are the big moving pieces?
GREAT BRANDING opens a lot of doors. Startup businesses always have a credibility problem. Awesome branding goes a long way to overcome those concerns.
We actually include brand creation and year-1 marketing in The Ultimate and have a financing partner that allows those costs to be rolled into the equipment financing.
You also need a really friendly website. The branding piece is obviously necessary, but it needs to be easy to navigate and show the price right up front. Ideally it makes you look successful and reliable. DIY is not a good look.
The steps to get the service need to be simple and with limited options. You don’t want to make your clients do any unnecessary work or decisions because many won’t.
You need maintenance handled. Either you need to be able to repair your truck yourself or you need a local resource that can take care of your equipment quickly when it inevitably needs repair.
Get the right digital tools. Spreadsheets are not a marketing solution nor an operational tool. We use a CRM connected to our website to manage our clients, scheduling, routing, visit reminders and running payments. We utilize another system for all the fun marketing stuff.
If you can figure it out, having someone else who can cover your route if you’re sick or need to take care of personal matters is a great resource.
If you want to dive into this topic in more detail, feel free to book some time with me.
You eventually set up a franchise system for Bin Blasters with a growing list of franchisees across the country. What was the inspiration?
We got really good at marketing and content creation really fast and I saw tons of startup can cleaning businesses across the country fail.
A common pattern was invest way too much in a fancy truck before knowing how to sell subscriptions and actually build the business.
Specifically, there are certain truck producers in our industry that charge way too much for their equipment and act like if you have the truck, the business just builds itself. It doesn’t work that way.
So on the emotional side of things, I really wanted to see if I could help other people that have a whole lot in common with me get all the benefits that my family has out of this type of business.
And for my personal passions, a franchising model makes a lot of sense. I love marketing and have a lot of expertise on how to grow this type of business. I don’t love HR and the idea of running payroll and licenses and all kinds of other operational challenges in 50 states is not my cup of tea.
So franchisees can leverage Bin Blasters’ branding, trademark and systems for growth. We get paid fairly for that and have all the incentive in the world to keep getting better and better, but we don’t have to become a giant company. I just want to help new bin cleaners succeed, however that may look.
What were some of the challenges faced by your franchisees before they joined?
All of our franchisees wanted a lifestyle change. They wanted a better career that they could own. Some have already owned successful businesses and some are jumping into the water for the first time.
A number of them are also growing something for their kids.
I was basically generation 1 meaning I had to wing it and was lucky to figure things out fast enough to not disappear. Our franchisees are generation 2 and wisely picking up access to our playbook to ensure they get to profitability in the first place and can grow much faster than would be possible otherwise.
So basically, they wanted someone in their corner to guide them and keep them from setting money on fire. We love being that resource!
Now you and your team have launched this site, GarbageCanCleaning.com. What was the inspiration?
Being a franchisee makes sense once you’ve developed a certain level of expertise and experience. You need to have mastered the basics and really be ready to use the tools we make available as a franchisor.
But there are many people out there that need to learn what it means to be a business owner of any type. GarbageCanCleaning.com really has those folks in mind with certain products. Our starter can cleaning trailer that is incredibly efficient and built to support a pressure washing business simultaneously is a great example.
The other folks that can get great benefit out of GarbageCanCleaning.com are folks that already have success. If you are ready for any piece of equipment, or components to build your own, why pay so much more than what that equipment is really worth?
We’d really like to see the industry move away from so much overpromising/overselling and to a world where the can cleaning business failure rate diminishes significantly.
There are definitely other places to get garbage can cleaning parts and equipment. What’s different about this site and your approach?
I’ve answered this in part in some of the previous questions, but the purpose of the site is to help a can cleaning business at any stage get exactly what they need.
If we give a business both the right product and right guidance as they grow, we’ve got a customer for life. Our goal is to provide realistic expectations for new bin cleaners. This can be a very tough business without the right tools and knowledge.
Many industry players are basically one and done. They hope someone buys their way-overpriced truck but also understand that purchase has a high likelihood to destroy the buyer’s business. But don’t worry…they’ll happily make a low ball offer for your truck when you shut your doors.
In addition to the equipment, we sell marketing services. Your need for any particular piece of equipment is really dependent on how many subscribers you have. We can help people build revenue as well via our expertise and marketing bundles.
At launch, GCC offers more than just physical products. Tell us about the services available…what was the inspiration?
Our “launch” suite of services is definitely more oriented at early stage bin cleaning businesses.
Being able to sell the service is critical for success.
So our initial line of products has a really nicely-priced rotating nozzle and our starter trailer is probably the star of the show.
But you can also buy our marketing services and even trailer bundles with marketing services.
We know what our clients really want to purchase is success in this industry, so that’s what we aim to deliver.
How Much Can Can Cleaning Businesses Make?
Well…How Fast Can You Build Out Full Daily Routes?
We’ll be quickly adding more services such as great parts at great prices.
We’re already working on version of our lighter equipment for the back of a pickup.
We’ll be a great source for used equipment in the future as well.
There’s a newsletter. What can subscribers expect to get from the newsletter in the early days?
Every issue will have a business growth lesson. We’ll give you tips and tricks from us and also from those already in our community.
We’ll also share new products as they become available. So for somebody that wants to get better at running their business and wants to be first to know about great new and used equipment available, this will be a great resource.
Visitors today are seeing version 1…what’s around the corner for all the can cleaning businesses across the country?
Bin cleaning will become much more widely spread so expect the industry to grow exponentially. Does a household get its lawn mowed? They’ll likely want the service.
Cities, HOAs, property managers, etc. will probably get wise to the benefits a little bit faster than the general public, so expect demand from those types of sources to jump faster.
On our side, it’s all about curating the right resources for businesses at every stage and as you’ve already seen from our nozzle and trailer, where we don’t see the right product, we develop it!
So there’s a lot around the corner.
Conclusion:
My partner, Steve Terry, and I are all-in on garbage can cleaning. We love the industry. We love what owning a bin cleaning business can accomplish for its own and their family.
So if we don’t already know you, we want to. I would encourage you to subscribe to our newsletter. If you are struggling with marketing, take a look at our services or book some time with me personally.
Curious about our equipment? Checkout our trash can cleaning trailer price and see if it could be a good fit for you.
We love to help folks like you and appreciate that the best way to grow our business is by taking 5-star care of our clients, who then send their friends our way. Talk soon!
