Small Waste Businesses Are Sinking... And So Are You The One That Can Resurrect Your Small Waste Company?

Greetings to my fellow waste management and junk removal owners,

Being in the waste management business, you know how the landscape has shifted over the past 40 years. 

You’ve witnessed the closing of many landfills, the emergence of waste segregation practices, and the rising importance of recycling. 

I remember when owning a waste management company meant just a couple of trucks and a handshake agreement with local businesses.

Yet, it's not the environmental regulations or technological advancements that pose the most significant challenge to the field today. 

The real issue is the explosion of competitors in the waste management space. It's a double-edged sword—while it speaks volumes about the importance and profitability of our industry, it also means you're fighting for a bigger slice of a pie that's being divided among more and more players.

Why Are Small Waste Companies Sinking?

You're in this business; you know it better than anyone. 

The game has changed, and it's not just the big corporations with their fancy marketing and massive budgets. 

It's the increase in the number of businesses. 

It used to be that you knew every other guy who owned a garbage truck in your area. Now, new companies are popping up left and right, offering cheaper rates, more services, and modern amenities like online booking.

Here's the thing: Most company owners in business since the 80s never had to think about "marketing" before.

You did good work and charged a fair price; word-of-mouth did the rest. 

However, that approach no longer cuts it in today's fast-paced digital age.

Thinking about it, I suggest to you what you can do.

So, how can you, a Baby Boomer who's been in this business for 30 years or more and who started by driving a truck yourself, adapt?

• Go Digital: You don't have to become a tech whiz overnight. But today, having a website or a social media page cannot go a long way. Even if your customers are online because they spend time posting photos on Instagram, interacting in groups on Facebook, or commenting on Twitter (called X right now), you should leverage these digital assets, transforming them into a source of leads, using paid ads to collect the contact details of them that arrive to you.
• Customer Relationships Management: You know your customers—now it’s time to deepen that relationship. You need a CRM tool that can track your clients and their needs. It’s important because it offers you the capability to give the deserved retirement to your secretary who was holding all the customer information she collected in more than 30 years at your side. Having this information in your CRM, you’ll be able to involve a new employee who manages the clients without taking any risk of lost data.
• Value, not just Price: Competing on price is a race to the bottom that can be won only by the big groups. As I shared yesterday, leverage your flexibility or capability to do something different than the big players. That’s the only way to exit and change the level of the competition. For example, sell the plastic collection service offering a free collection once a month for the paper/glass or whatever you collect.
• Local Partnerships: Leverage local businesses to form partnerships. You both serve the same community; there's a synergy to exploit there. The waste you collect could be a raw material for the production facility in your community. That will positively impact the local economy and create new opportunities for all of you. Developing local partnerships boosts your results and the results of the community, creating a win-win situation.

• Leverage Your Experience: You have 30 years in this industry. That’s 30 years more than the guy who bought a truck and called it a "waste management service." Use that in your messaging but not in a wrong way, like “we have been here since 19XX…”, no. You should leverage it by sharing the expertise you gained in managing waste across the three decades (as an example) and how many mistakes you could help people avoid with the practical experience you gained, not only on the final disposal but also before the disposal process starts. 

Why You Can't Ignore Marketing Anymore

Marketing isn't a "nice to have"; it's a "need to have." 

It's the tool that will help you rise above the noise of the competition. 

You might not have needed it in the past, but the game has changed, and so must you.

You’ve already done what many can't—keep a business running for three decades or more. 

You've faced challenges before, and you've overcome them. 

With the right strategies, this one won't be any different.

Remember, this isn’t the end; it's just a new chapter. 

You have the skills and the experience; now, you only need the right partner to manage your marketing.

And here I am, ready to help you with my Marketing4Waste Agency.

If you want to know more, schedule a discovery call by clicking here

To our continued success,

Sam

Marketing4Waste

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Publishing Date: Next Thursday

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