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Do We Haul Away Space Junk?
I couldn’t help but share this interesting story. It’s speculated that six tons of Space Junk will make its way back to earth. Perhaps over here at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? we should be developing a plan to add Space Junk clear outs to our business model.
Responsible Disposal 101 with Andrew Sander
Yesterday on Good Morning Texas Andrew Sander, Fort Worth’s local junk guru, shared his industry-approved expertise on how to dispose of unwanted items responsibly to keep as many as possible out of the landfill. Watch the video below because you might just learn something new!
Commemorating 9/11 with Overseas Sponsorship
Last Sunday in Olathe, Kansas over 300 runners from 20 states and Canada ran in the 2011 Patriots’ Run.
Last Sunday at Bagram airfield in Afghanistan, 4000 soldiers swapped their combat boots for running shoes to participate in a Patriots’ Run of their own. Though thousands of miles apart, these two groups were drawn together to commemorate the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
A member of the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? circle helped make this possible. Andrew Wilson, extraordinary husband, father, franchise owner and former solider committed $10,000.00 of his own money to ensure that the run overseas would take place. Take a second to watch the story, covered by Fox News 4.
For more information on the run itself, visit: The Patriots’ Run Website.
Huffington Post Ice House Entrepreneur
Mitigating Damage in Flooding Situations
In the wake of the hurricane that barreled through the north-eastern US last weekend, our franchise partners in the area have been called in to help mop up the damage left behind by flying debris and flooded basements. It’s not the first time most have them have had to do so; 1-800-GOT-JUNK? regularly finds itself cleaning up in the aftermath of floods, tornadoes and various smaller scale storms.
Particularly when dealing with flooding, we’ve seen situations where some homeowners have wound up losing everything they had stored in the lower levels of their homes, while others have been able to recover everything except some soggy carpet. So, as a take-away from hundreds of homes who’ve gone through it, we’ve decided to share some lessons for mitigating damage in a disaster situation: Read more…
Springfield’s Community Closeup with Clay McGee
Our Springfeild, Missouri Franchise Partner, Clay McGee, is featured this week on their local ABC news station, KSPR.
Click here to watch the feature and see how Clay is using junk to benefit The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation!
ABC Nightline and Good Morning America
Recently 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Founder and CEO Brian Scudamore was interviewed by ABC Correspondent, Neal Karlinsky, for a feature on the business. The 6 minute feature aired on Nightline August 19th and Good Morning America this morning. View the story here: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/junk-trash-garbage-business-jobs-14346100.
On Franchising: Top 10 Reasons to Buy a Franchise
1-800-GOT-JUNK? is the world’s largest junk removal company. However, at the head office, we don’t do a whole lot of hauling junk. That’s because in this particular area, we are more of a marketing and sales focused company. One of the aspects of this is, of course, franchise development – it’s one of the reasons we’re able to give people their space back across three countries!
Our franchise development department, a team of sales and franchising wizards, supply the information for our ‘On Franchising’ features. We’ve been in this business a long time now, so we’d like to share some of our best tactics (and maybe a few that didn’t work out so well) with those who would like to learn more about the franchising world.
This time out, we’re talking about the benefits of joining a franchise system as opposed to striking out solo. The entrepreneurial spirit that drives that ‘be my own boss’ urge can be well channelled in a franchise system, where partners can focus on big picture thinking for their business while relying on the system itself for a strong base and a constantly evolving arsenal of tools to put into practice.
Interested? Take a look at the top 10 reasons to join an established franchise system: Read more…
Children of Hoarders on ABC’s 20/20
A crew from ABC’s news program, 20/20 recently stopped by a Hoarders shoot that was filming in California. The reporter on the story, Elizabeth Vargas, dove into the world of hoarding with a focus on one angle: what it’s like for children of hoarders.
After 4 seasons of our involvement on A&E’s Hoarders, and on regular jobs that involve hoarding, we have seen many children affected by this disorder. It’s a difficult issue to imagine but a pertinent one in our world today. I commend ABC and the show 20/20 for tackling such a contentious and tragic issue. Read more…
1-800-GOT-TALENT?
When you think of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, you might think of the friendly uniformed drivers or the clean, shiny trucks. You might think of that pile of junk in the garage that you really ought to deal with. You might even think of Hoarders.
How about singing and dancing? No? Really? Think again.
Airing on Global TV in Canada, Canada Sings! is a competition show that pits workplace glee clubs against each other in a bid to win money for their chosen charities. It debuted on Wednesday night, and guess who was there, singing and dancing their hearts out? That’s right – the boys (and girls) in blue!
The opportunity for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to get involved came up several months ago, and we dove in head first thanks to two things: one, some pretty amazing hidden talents within our head office and Vancouver franchises, and two, a workplace culture and a CEO that said, “Go, do something crazy, have fun, make us proud!” So some calls were made along the lines of, “Know anyone who can sing or dance?” and a rag-tag group of individuals came together to make an audition tape in four days.
Christened the JunkNotes, the makeshift glee club embarked on a sometimes bizarre, always intensive journey with the help of expert artistic coaches Sharron Matthews and Christian Vincent. The main reason we did it? Our chosen charity, Harmony House Centre for Autism Research and Education. The school is dedicated to helping autistic children learn to function in a ‘normal’ environment; a school which one of the team members’, franchise owner Chantel, son attends.
Throughout the process, we were able to rely on the fact that our coworkers and supervisors were behind us 100%; our CEO, Brian Scudamore, made sure to come by the set and check in on our progress (even trying to learn a couple of steps!), and for the final performance our trademark blue wigs filled an entire section of the theatre – the Toronto franchise turned out in force to support people they may have never met, simply because they supported what we were doing as a group and as a company.
And the end result? We won $10,000 for Harmony House!
Image Credit - GlobalTV.com
Is your interest piqued? Check out the show to find out how it all went down! If you’re in Canada, you can watch it on the Global TV website here. If you’re blocked by region restrictions but still curious what we’ve done here in Canada, you can find it on YouTube here.
