Fulfilling a Passion for Recycling and Sustainability Through Franchising

Transcription: 

Leslie Kuban:
Lucy, welcome to the show.

Lucy Mejia:
Thank you so much, Leslie. Yeah.

Leslie Kuban:
How wonderful that you found a business that incorporates some of your passions.

Lucy Mejia:
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, we’re truly blessed that we found Junkluggers.

Leslie Kuban:
So tell us about your business. You recently started your Junkluggers business. And tell us about the services that you provide and who your customers are.

Lucy Mejia:
Okay, yeah. We’re an eco-friendly, community-oriented junk removal service. We remove just about anything. You name it, we’ll lug it out. We service all kinds of people but what we love most is keeping things out of landfill. That’s really our mission, is to keep items from going to a landfill. Donating first, recycling, upcycling, repurposing. And we work with different charities around Atlanta to do so.

Leslie Kuban:
What is upcycling?

Lucy Mejia:
Upcycling, what I do is repurpose. Upcycling would be, say you had an old bench and we just give it some tender love and care, and repair it or give it a new purpose.

Leslie Kuban:
So one man’s trash is the next person’s treasure.

Lucy Mejia:
That’s what we say.

Leslie Kuban:
Oh, that’s exciting.

Lucy Mejia:
Yeah, absolutely.

Leslie Kuban:
That’s exciting. Yeah. And having worked with the Junkluggers, I know that’s a really serious brand promise about… It’s in your logos, it’s in your branding, it’s how you operate your business, is to truly keep things out of the landfill as much as possible. So that’s wonderful.

Lucy Mejia:
That’s right. Our big, hairy, audacious goal is to keep 100% out of the landfills by 2025.

Leslie Kuban:
Yeah. So just thinking back a year or so ago when we first started talking, do you recall, what were your original motivations for business ownership? You’ve got young kids, you’ve got a working family. What had you think about business ownership?

Lucy Mejia:
I always knew that I would go back to work. I had my children, stayed at home for a while, but knew I wanted to get back into the workplace eventually. Since the pandemic, it has pushed it and driven it that much faster to get me back into the workplace. And I really looked back and took a step back to see if I really wanted to go back into what I was doing before or do something a little bit bigger. I really wanted to create a good example for my kids and also show them that you can make a difference in the world, even if it’s just a little bit at a time. So our motto at the Junkluggers is, “Saving the world one lug at a time.” And so when we decided that this is what we wanted to do is start a business, we started looking around to what fit those goals of ours. So when we found the Junkluggers, it had really checked off every single one of those boxes, of creating a better world for our environment and our communities.

Leslie Kuban:
And that was just what I was going to ask you next, actually, was you weren’t looking for a junk business.

Lucy Mejia:
No.

Leslie Kuban:
It was like there was a list of criteria and you know that those had to be satisfied, and it happened to be the Junkluggers that checked those boxes for you.

Lucy Mejia:
Right.

Leslie Kuban:
So that’s usually pretty interesting for people, that they end up being surprised at the business that actually ends up checking the boxes that they discover.

Lucy Mejia:
Yeah, exactly.

Leslie Kuban:
But you had not worked in this industry before in any shape or form. Do you recall when you were at that point of decision, you’d done your research and you were very thorough with your due diligence there was that one point in time where you’re like, “Okay, we have to decide if we’re going to do this or not.” And you didn’t have any prior experience in it, so what gave you the confidence to move with something that would be new to you?

Lucy Mejia:
Yes, it was new. We had not been in the junk removal business before. I dabbled a little bit in in buying old used items, so that was always in my radar for reusing old things. But as far as a business, we had no experience in that. And so we talked to a lot of people. You. We talk to different advisors, different mentors. And honestly we held back from our friends and family. We just wanted an unbiased… Our family’s going to protect us, right? And taking risks sometimes is hard. And so we wanted to make sure that we talked to people that were going to be unbiased in that way.

Leslie Kuban:
It’s so funny you mentioned that. Our friends and family love us, but they’re also used to knowing us in a certain way. And when we are talking about doing something that changes how they know us, it can be very threatening to them and they don’t even realize that they’re scared. They’re scared because you, who they love, is thinking about doing something different than how they know you. It’s kind of rupturing that image that they have. And I remember you guys did a great job of working with the SBDC on running financials, working with the franchise attorneys. And you talked to a lot of other franchisees as well.

Lucy Mejia:
Exactly. That was part of our process. It wasn’t overnight. It was not an overnight decision. We spent a year and a half from even the idea of starting our own business to onboarding. And so it took a while, but that day of yes or no, it was a big day but we were confident because we had talked to so many people, because we believe in the Junkluggers and their mission. And the people there are just amazing.

Leslie Kuban:
And the Junkluggers and the FranNet inventory of franchises that we work with, it’s been one of the fastest growing brands that we’ve worked with over the last couple of years. And from what we see, with very good reasons. And I’d like to hear your perspective on just the systems and tools that the brand is bringing forward for someone like you, who’s new, to run this type of business for the first time. Does anything stand out as a system that you were really impressed with?

Lucy Mejia:
Absolutely. And not in any particular order whatsoever, but the people at headquarters of the Junkluggers franchise are just amazing. They’re truly supportive. Part of the family. You get to know them. Any problems we have, they’re on top of it. And the technology that’s provided. We have a call center provided, marketing. It’s really a true package that we’re getting and all of it works so well together.

Leslie Kuban:
And that’s great to hear. That’s what you want to hear if you’re investing, paying a franchise fee, investing in systems. You want to see that they work right when you’re on the other side of that decision.

Lucy Mejia:
Exactly.

Leslie Kuban:
That’s great.

Lucy Mejia:
Yeah.

Leslie Kuban:
Well, speaking of family and franchising being a family, you’ve got a young and growing family. You’ve got two kids, four and two years old.

Lucy Mejia:
I do.

Leslie Kuban:
And there are a lot of people that are parents that have got young families, and they love the idea of starting a business but they wonder how they’re going to do it. And you’re doing it.

Lucy Mejia:
That’s right. It’s challenging, especially with two little ones at home. Any age, really, but we built the team of our local franchise into this family. So we have a business partner, old friend, colleague that came on with us. And so I’m not doing it by myself. And so that’s the thing that I would say is something when you’re starting a business. You can’t do it by yourself. And making a plan, and then asking for help, and then accepting the help is the big solution for-

Leslie Kuban:
For some of us overachievers, accepting that help can be hard sometimes.

Lucy Mejia:
That’s right.

Leslie Kuban:
That’s such a good point, that you can’t do it by yourself. And that can look a lot of different ways. It sounds like you’ve taken on a business partner who’s helping carry the load and bring some expertise. But that could also be… Like hiring an executive assistant. That’s some advice I give to a lot of people. I’ll share that with the viewers here, that there’s plenty of part-time online virtual resources for administrative help that are so worth it. So I think that anybody getting into any business, franchise or otherwise, needs to think about easening the load. And that can be easy to do in a variety of ways.

Lucy Mejia:
Right.

Leslie Kuban:
Well, that’s exciting. So I’d love to wrap up with a success story, Lucy.

Lucy Mejia:
Oh, sure.

Leslie Kuban:
So just tell us about some of the customers you’ve been servicing. Any really exciting or fun stories that come to mind?

Lucy Mejia:
Actually yeah. We help families, we help individuals, we help businesses, but there’s one in particular that we got to know really well. She was cleaning out her grandparents’ home of 80 years. And that’s got to be hard-

Leslie Kuban:
They lived in the house for 80 years?

Lucy Mejia:
They lived in the house for 80 years.

Leslie Kuban:
Oh boy.

Lucy Mejia:
And so there was a lot of memories in the house. Lots of memories. Lots of things that she had to let go of. And she actually ended up being a repeat customer of ours. Calling us every few weeks. “Okay, I’m ready for the next big haul.” And so we got to know her really well. And we were just so happy to be able to do it at her pace.

Leslie Kuban:
Yeah.

Lucy Mejia:
Yeah.

Leslie Kuban:
And that’s interesting, the repeat customers. I bet you are going to start to get that a lot from the aging population, from the real estate industry. The restoration industry I know is an also interesting source of business for you guys.

Lucy Mejia:
That’s right. That’s right. Yeah, we can service just about anyone. Everyone has junk. And whether they think of it as junk or memories, we also do. That’s what we pride ourselves in. And that’s why we think it’s super important to be able to give it to somebody else through the charities that we work with or recycle it so that it can be made into something else.

Leslie Kuban:
Which is important to a lot of people.

Lucy Mejia:
Yeah.

Leslie Kuban:
So how can customers get in touch with you, Lucy?

Lucy Mejia:
We have a website, junkluggers.com. And we also have a call center. It’s 1-800-LUG-JUNK.

Leslie Kuban:
That’s great. And you have a professional service that helps you with those calls.

Lucy Mejia:
That’s right. Yeah.

Leslie Kuban:
That’s fantastic. Well Lucy, it’s been a delight to see you. Really enjoyed having you on the show, and congratulations on your new business.

Lucy Mejia:
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.

Leslie Kuban:
So folks, if you found something of interest to you today in learning about the Junkluggers either as a local customer here in Atlanta or in the franchise opportunity, there’s a QR code that’s going to come up on your screen and it will let the Junkluggers know that you would like some more information. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Atlanta Franchise Today. Thanks for joining. I look forward to seeing you next week.