Bittersweet: Moving On

Jon and Wayne decided after much thought that it was the right time to sell their 1800GotJunk franchise. Over the past month, they were fortunate to get to know the Charlottesville/Fredericksburg Franchise Owners who made an offer and after the sale Monday are the new owners of the Richmond territory.

1800GotJunk is what brought Jon and I back "home" to Richmond. It's been a unique opportunity for Jon and everyone involved. I think Jon has had fun over the past 4 yrs 4 months learning the trade of managing your own business, creating a marketing plan and managing the ins and outs of 6-8 guys out on trucks Monday-Saturday. Jon and Wayne have prided themselves on being the "FedEx" of Junk Removal and modeling customer service after businesses such as Ukrop's in Richmond. The 4 Annual Hokies vs Hoos brought in a lot of cash/food to the Central VA Foodback. The past food drive raised $8,490.15 (vs $7,988 last year) and 6,537 food items (vs. 6,264 last year).

There have been a lot of "interesting" stories from different jobs (hoarders to business cleanouts, Charles Steger's sister to Kilgore's campaign headquarters), natural disaster cleanouts (Flooding in Richmond to the recent tornado in Colonial Heights) and of course getting to know the employees over the years. I think all of our family members (Dad, Mom, Linda, Ken, Joe & Tommy) have been out on the trucks or made a run somewhere to help out in the start up days, and we appreciate everyone's help. Cool enough, several employees have been around since almost the beginning - Super Dave and Clayton. Many others have come back for summers or after trying out another job. Of course the other fun part, the stuff that came home off the trucks! I think our whole house is furnished from 1800gotjunk. You name it- it may have come off a truck (hot tub, lawn mowers, couch, toys, vanity, glider, office desk, yada yada yada). The joke has been, "Name your wish and it will come!"

All in all, it's been a great experience and we're looking forward to the next phase, whatever that may be!