Celebrating 10 Years of Hauling Junk and Leaving Smiles

The Early Years

Initially, the majority of my work involved hauling stuff away solo. When I booked larger jobs I couldn’t handle on my own I’d call on friends and family to help tackle them. Jonathan, Caleb, and Jake were always willing to lend a hand. Each of those guys helped create invaluable relationships with our clients, setting the stage for both our customer and team culture. From day one clients shared with me how much they appreciated our responsiveness and high focus on customer service, so I knew whatever we did moving forward those qualities had to be at the center.

In 2018 we faced our first “big” job. We were hired to clean out a shed for a gentleman who lived through the great depression. The shed was his workshop and had accumulated a large amount of junk. I gave him a firm estimate and didn’t give myself any wiggle room for contingencies. I’d called in two helpers for this job and on the second day our truck broke down, causing us to borrow one. We ended up removing 13,000 pounds of junk. I paid one helper $250, my second $175, leaving me (after all expenses) with $82. Not my finest moment, but you better believe I learned from it and use it today to shape business decisions.

Gaining Momentum

In 2021 we began to gain momentum. We hired an Office Manager and promoted an Operations Manager. I realized I needed help… I was constantly getting calls while on a job site, attending a networking event, etc., neglecting one client to take care of another. I didn’t want to have to do that. I wanted to be able to meet and exceed our client’s increasing expectations and provide the best service possible, which I wasn’t able to do by myself anymore.

I’d always been responsive, but over the years we felt the shift of our client’s growing desire to want things done and done quickly. Five years ago I’d be able to book jobs 10-14 days out – that is a rare occurrence now and is typically only seen with larger jobs that require more planning and include a lot of moving parts. We automated some of our client communication (booking reminders, receipts and the like) to ensure we were on the same page every step of the way. We will continue to reassess using technology to try and make the customer experience as seamless as possible. That includes (on the front end) ease of scheduling and (on the back end) optimizing routing for our crews. We’ll also continue to stay on top of available streams of recycling and landfill diversion processes to try and be as eco-friendly as we can.

Our Biggest Project Yet!

That morale came in handy when we tackled our largest project to date last summer. We were hired to clean up a 5 acre property with three homes and three outbuildings on it – one of the homes and one of the outbuildings were hoarded. In total we removed 33 loads – 22 of the loads were completed within 2 days. For reference, it typically takes around 2 hours per load. Our Operations Manager Josh (click to meet Josh!) developed a killer plan of attack for us: we would assign our crews to different zones of the property allowing our team to work efficiently and not get in each other’s way. We rented 30 yard dumpsters and parked them on the property, allowing us to continue working when our own dumpsters were full and heading to the dump, which was a 45 minute drive each way. Our recycling partner loaned us a dumpster to keep on the property, allowing us to load metal directly into that container, saving hours of labor in sorting through the debris at a later point.

This type of project isn’t super unique for us anymore. We’re often hired by investors or realtors to clean up homes and properties to make them more attractive to today’s buyer. When it comes to real estate agents and property investors and commercial property managers it’s absolutely crucial that when they refer or use us they can count on our service. They’re used to people promising one thing and not delivering on it. We take it very seriously that other people’s livelihoods depend on us. That’s led to a significant amount of repeat business which helps keep our marketing costs down and service level high.

Personal Impact, Values & Relationships

Up Up and Away’s growth has impacted my life and the lives of our team in really cool ways. For me, it has allowed my wife to stay home and raise our kids, which is incredibly important to me. For our team, the business has opened new areas of opportunity and leadership. It’s incredibly fulfilling to see our team members achieve personal milestones like buying cars and homes and taking vacations. I believe that we have created a workplace where people genuinely enjoy working, fostering an environment of mutual respect. This positive atmosphere translates directly to the client experience; our team members are dedicated and engaged, never just clocking in and out.

This growth led me to define the core values of Up Up and Away – I didn’t want to lose sight of what was important as we grew so I sat down for several hours at a cigar shop one day in 2021 and write down the things that meant the most to me. The two factors I had in mind? What do we get positive feedback on from our clients? What are my personal values that I get to exercise in the business, therefore making it fun for me? Anytime two things would intersect I’d think, “well, there’s something!” That’s how we landed on our core values (HERO): Hard work, Encouragement, Reliability, Open-handedness. We circle back to our core values every morning before we head to our first jobs of the day – it helps keep our priorities in the right place and our morale high. Read more on How to be a HERO at Up Up and Away here!

In our world, finding a team with high morale and a positive culture is few and far between. I think it comes back to seeing how we can really help people, especially when they seem overwhelmed by their project or problem. We hire people with a can-do attitude who like the challenge and appreciate how hard and dirty and difficult the job is. Finishing a particularly challenging job makes you feel like you really earned it at the end of the day… our whole team is like that which makes it easy to keep that morale up.

Looking Forward

Watching your dream grow and turn into reality is a very exciting and humbling experience. I am so grateful to get to work with a high quality, like minded group of professionals who strive every day to give our clients the best experience possible. Of course I am always grateful for our awesome clients without whom we would never get to shovel garbage again. What a travesty that would be. 

Contact us to discuss your next project, or to schedule a pickup! We look forward to serving you and demonstrating hands on just how far we’ve come.