19 months ago
Tampa, Florida - The orange and green colored signs posted along some Tampa roads are hard to miss. The company name is a head turner: “College Hunks Hauling Junk.”
The junk-hauling business started in Washington D.C. by a couple of University of Miami students has taken off and is now in Tampa. 25-year-old Omar Soliman and a group of college buddies came up with the business concept in 2003 as a summer gig to make extra cash.
They made $10,000 their first summer. When the friends graduated from college, Omar says he and his buddy Nick Friedman tried the traditional 9 to 5 corporate job but the entrepreneur bug was still there. The guys decided to give the junk hauling business another try.
Soliman says the first year they generated half a million dollars, “The value of our service is we go inside and remove items from where they're located (basements, attics, storage rooms) the owner doesn't have to bag the stuff and put it on the curb.”
Omar says they've found everything from vintage 1970's Playboy magazines to signed sports memorabilia from baseball legends Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.
Omar's former college classmate 26-year-old Faisal Ansari opened the first two Florida franchises one in Orlando last year and a Tampa location off Gandy Blvd last month. Faisal says business is booming with $10,000 in revenue the first month.
"We like to hire clean cut college professionals to remove unwanted items from businesses or restaurants."
College Hunks Hauling Junk has 10 franchises and is a million dollar business that's growing.
"It's the American dream be able to establish something and work hard at it down the road you can be really hands off and enjoy life,” says Faisal, franchise owner.
And hard work it is! After hauling a few loads of broken concrete blocks at one Tampa home Faisal and his college student workers are breaking a sweat, "Get a job with me and you can stop paying your gym membership. It's a work out definitely," says Faisal.
Omar has this advice for someone starting a business, "My advice to a young entrepreneur is to just do it. When we first started we were not as systemized and organized as we are now there was a lot of trial and error. Don't be afraid of failure or afraid of not knowing how to do something just go out there and try you'll be surprised at what can happen." Omar adds, “You don't need to reinvent the wheel, just do something and be the best at it.”
College Hunks Hauling Junk is moving its corporate headquarters to Tampa and has already set up its call center off of Gandy Blvd.
They continue to support college students by donating part of their proceeds to the scholarship program, www.CollegeBound.org. The company truck is orange and green, the colors of their alma mater the University of Miami.
The 20-something business owners hope to have franchises in every metropolitan city. For information on franchises, click here.
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