How to Start a Garbage Collection Business

Friday, April 12, 2013

How to Start a Garbage Collection Business

Trash is big business, and there is money to be made operating a garbage truck. Trash disposal became a major industry after World War II with the growth of suburbs and the institution of federal antipollution laws in the 1960s. Trash required disposal services, and individual homes no longer had the option of burning trash in the back incinerator. Environmental laws also mandated safe disposal of industrial wastes. As current landfills overflow, garbage services offer trash recycling in addition to regular collection.

Public and Private Trash Collection

Urban areas require trash collection to keep streets and alleys free from trash and garbage. Large metropolitan centers organize trash collection using a fleet of city-owned trash trucks to collect and recycle refuse. This arrangement allows few opportunities for a single-truck garbage operator. Smaller villages and unincorporated areas, however, typically don’t have discretionary funds to purchase trash trucks and hire full-time staff to operate the vehicles. These geographic areas provide key markets for independent garbage truck operators.

Trash Contracts

Some large cities purchase refuse truck fleets to collect local trash, but most hire the trash services of large regional and national disposal services using contracts for a set period, typically more than one year. Independent garbage truck operators have little chance competing against large corporations. The larger firms have the ability to undercut prices and offer larger fleet service. However, smaller municipal groups, including school districts, have limited needs for trash service. These smaller venues provide companies, including independent trash operations, an open market for bidding.

Recycling Trash

Recycling services provide independent trash truck operators another opportunity to make money. While cities may own a fleet of garbage trucks, not all have the funds to purchase trucks or make trucks available for the separate collection of recyclable trash. Recycled metal prices provide independent trash operators with a chance to earn income from municipalities by collecting recycling. The sale of the recyclables collected from curbside bins can be significant. Details involved in this type of collection include determining the responsibility for customer billing and collecting fees for separate recycling bins.

Business Collection and Toxic Trash Disposal

Corporate trash collection services also provide a source of income for independent garbage truck operators, particularly in areas where metropolitan services aren’t available or the city-services limit the amount of trash collected at the business location. Another area of commercial collection involves specialty garbage transfer. Trash classified as toxic, including waste oil products or garbage containing mercury, must be collected and disposed of at special processing centers. Metropolitan and city services failing to provide special collection garbage trucks to deliver these wastes to the centers offer another opening for an independent garbage truck service, provided the operator has training and state and national certifications for this type of trash collection.

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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Friday, April 12, 2013

How to Start a Garbage Collection Business

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