How to Start a Trash Bin Cleaning Business from Scratch

I wanted to run it full time. Don't believe in doing things part time. Route density is where I make my money. The denser I keep my route, the more money I make. I kind of view as that Pepsi Coke thing too, right? They put machines right next to each other and they both grow in sales. Your back's against the wall. Trust me, when you got to put food on the table for your kids, you think a little differently.

The cleanliness of a bathroom in a restaurant or a gas station tells you everything about the management of that business. How did you find those 300 customers?

Like what's the 80, 20 of it? Welcome to the Kerner office. We did a deep dive today on the trash bin cleaning industry, which is a super fast growing industry, one that a lot of people are interested in because you can get a tight route density and you can get monthly recurring revenue like a software business with very low churn and it can be very profitable business. So Jason Feller was managing clubs for his full time job for 20 years and he got sick of it. He got sick of missing his kids, sports activities and being away from his family. So he quit his job, bought a $48,000 trash bin cleaning trailer and now does this full time. And he has 300 recurring customers. Jason was very generous with his time. And so if anyone is interested in starting this business or at least learning about this business, how to find customers, how to reverse engineer this, how to be profitable, how to get a better route density, then you're going to love this. Please share with a friend and we'll see you next time.

Well, why don't we just start by telling us who you are.

Sure. You know Jason Feller here. And coming up from the service industry, I thought I wanted to be a chef in high school and went to culinary arts programs in high school, magnet school down in Towson, Maryland, Carver center for Art Technology. And before I went to college, had the great conversation with my parents of what are you going to do if you don't want to be a chef? And what can you do if, you know, if you go get a regular education and kind of, if you want to go back and be a chef, you can do that. So. So went to University of Delaware, graduated back in 2003, and then realized maybe I didn't want to be a chef. I love to love cooking and I still love cooking and playing with food and making that my art, but it was an art for me and had worked at a number of private country clubs at that time and taken some Private country club management courses. I saw that I loved service, I loved taking care of people and making sure people were happy in the end. And in private club management, I got to serve and ensure that people were happy. Some days, you know, you were resolving problems and some days you were, you were bringing that experience and thought the experience was cool. So fast forward 20 years, I've bounced around the east coast in a handful of country clubs, a few country clubs that were top of the nation, and a few country clubs that needed to kind of be brought up by their bootstraps. And so 20 years later, I finally decided maybe this side of the service industry isn't for me at this point. I've got two young, young kids. One is in 10th grade now, the other is in seventh grade now. Two of my girls and they're becoming active in band music experiences and sports. And I said, what can I do where I can be around my kids more and on the time I want to be around my kids. So, you know, the private club experience, it is a FaceTime experience and you have to show up and you have to be there and present when your, your guests are there. And unfortunately for a family lifestyle for me that I was aiming for, it was happening at the, you know, 4 to 7, 10pm so I'd go to work and 8am in the morning, I'd be home at 9 o' clock at night. And you just miss everything.

I'm curious, Jason, like, what, after managing private clubs for 20 years, was there like a triggering event or some impetus that happened where you're like, okay, yep, I'm done.

Like, did you miss something or was.

It just kind of slowly build up and then you, you made the move?

It was a slow buildup. There was a couple times when I was, when I would take off to see kids events and activities and my phone was just ringing and just texts and saying, what's going on with this? What's happening with this? And. And I said, you know, that's not what I'm here for. And I need to separate from that idea of it. I came up from the hands on management side of things. So I had a guilt for not being there and pressing, but want to see things with my family. And that, that was kind of one of those final, you know, straws that broke the camel's back there and said I need to separate. I need to, to be part of my family and I need to tell them I'm part of the family and shut off my work phone and not feel guilty, you know, how long did.

It take you to go from that realization to day one of your first business? And what did that process look like?

I've always wanted to own my own business. I've always thought I could do it. And even with conversations with the board of directors and people I worked for at the country club, a lot of them would say that they. They'd wake up in the morning and they'd be able to, you know, look in the mirror and make their own decision and know that in the end that it rested on that decision that they made. They knew that they were the final one. And in country club management, it is a. A different world. And you were always going back and forth with boards. If you've ever volunteered for a nonprofit or worked with any other charities or religious organizations, a lot of times they're. They're through group decision. It was probably a couple years out where I started saying, I want to make my own decisions 100%. I want to start knowing that. That it's all on me. So it took me about two years or so of thinking through this process. And I still love clutch club management. I just wanted to start making the decisions on my own. And one time I was looking and saw that I was going out to get the dumpster cleaned at the country club because our dumpster was between the main entrance for the members and the entrance for the service staff. And our service staff is walking past this dumpster in June, July, and August that just absolutely reeked. And we have to provide an experience that is second to none. And they're walking in, the first thing they smell is disgusting, and the first thing they see is disgusting. And then our members were smelling the same thing. So automatically, the two people who I needed to please the most were. Were already turned off. I'm big on sensory experiences. I'm big on the fact that clean isn't just physically being clean. It's the emotion that it gives you. Just like some people, you know, get their lawn mowed on a regular basis. They love seeing the lines. Some people like their house cleaned. I feel that trash can clean was part of that. So, you know, I saw, starting from the back of the dumpster and taking care of my employees, my restaurant became cleaner, the kitchen became cleaner. The carpets were all cleaner. As soon as we started taking care of it from the back of the. The. The house. You know, some people have written books about, you know, it's the broken windows theory or the. The light bulbs theory. And for me, it's a dumpster theory. You know, start. Start of the dumpster.

Start of your trash. Like the. The cleanliness of a restaurant or the cleanliness of a bathroom in a restaurant or a gas station tells you everything about the management of that business, right?

You are spot on. I just had a conversation with. With the local gas station owner, and they said, well, why are you choosing to spend your money with us? Because I'm spending roughly $8,000 a year in fuel right now. And, you know, I said, because you have a great parking lot, and I get my truck and trailer, too, and I like using the bathrooms in there because they're clean, because I feel like I can walk in there. And it's a feeling. It's not clean as a feeling. It's not just the appearance of. You can spray it down with sanitizer.

All you want, but yeah, okay, so.

You noticed that these dumpsters were stinky. You wanted to fix it. What was the next step? Did you do it yourself, or did you find a company to come do it?

So I had tried to get my dishwashers to do it, and they were.