1-800-GOT-JUNK?

If you’re ever forced to clean up after a construction project, need to get rid of an old sofa, refrigerator, or mattress, or you just simply find yourself with a garage full of junk, Brian Scudamore wants you to give him a call. His number is 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, and since 1997 his company has taken away more than 7,500 truckloads of trash in the 30 biggest cities in North America.

It’s not much of a stretch to say that not too many people “dream big” about junk removal. But then again, Scudamore is not like many people you’ll meet. After investing $700 in a beat-up Ford truck in 1989, he spent the summer after his high-school graduation hauling away salvage in his native Vancouver. The business was so successful that Scudamore transferred colleges—and eventually dropped out altogether—so that he could operate it full time. By 1996, his company had hit $1 million in annual revenue, and inquiries about franchising 1-800-GOT-JUNK? were coming in. “I knew we were definitely onto something,” says the junk king. “There was no professional brand out there, and we knew we could make ourselves the company to call.”

Over its relatively young history, his company’s blue and white trucks have hauled more than their share of couches and broken appliances, but have also picked up frozen animal carcasses, Buddha statues, and even a prosthetic leg. And if Scudamore keeps achieving his dreams, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? will be picking up even more arcane objects all over the world by 2012.

Web site: www.1800gotjunk.com