Running a junk removal business in Vancouver Part 2

part 1

It is so much easier to work with clients, who understand the win-win interaction between client and service. The other kind, had all sorts of time-consuming/wasting strategies for me to face. After few years in the business, I can spot them from a mile, and often I am entertained by watching people play little games with me, and thinking that they are great strategists. Any deception is self-deception, in the long term.

So, I have my regular clients, who all of them are from the win-win crowd. Any time they call me , with an odd job or emergency pick up, I leave my diner table and I take care of them. They know exactly what to expect from me, in terms of price, punctuation, character, way of doing things, and so on. I advice business owners to focus on these kind of clients. They other type of clients, have no loyalty to anything but the religion of getting a deal.

Junk removal and free stuff

This was one of the biggest surprise I run into. How much of all that rubbish I was hauling way, was actually perfectly good items to use. For a while I tried selling them, but this was too time consuming. It makes you think about how badly defined is the term “value”. However, the most important lesson I learn from getting all those “valuable” items, was that material things don’t make you happy. This is nothing new to most people, but if they were so familiar with this concept, how come my business still exists? Since I started my garbage removal company in North Vancouver, I have thrown away about 80% of my possession. I rarely buy anything new, before I really reflect on the real reason I am making the purchase. Because I need it, or because marketing is such a good brain washing tool? The latter is the most frequent conclusion I make.

Business also thought me how to manage my life better. Especially, relationships and friends. To many who read this, this might sound like I am running my social circles as a hard core capitalist. Can’t be further from the truth. In business, when you ignore things, that you very well know, that they will be problematic, you pay the price, almost by the end of the day. So I learn to notice these things,and manage them. In social life, these red flags are there too, but when we ignore them, the price we pay, comes with a long delay. Then later, we still have the option to pass on these problems to the wrong causes. This social game can be played forever, for the most part. In business, that game doesn’t work, unless you are a large corporation. So, I learn to manage red flags in my life, and this, I have to admit, is probably the best part of my business.

So, my advice to most young people, is to get into a small business. This will provide them with an unique experience, that is very applicable to personal life.