Video Transcription
Jeremy: Hey, guys, I’ve got Jim Downing with me, here with me, and he’s with 10 Point Litter Removal. How you doing today, Jim?
James: Very good, Jeremy.
Jeremy: What we’re doing this quick little video is I just wanted to introduce you, and so people can get to know who you are and the service you provide. So you own 10 Point Litter Removal.
James: Yes, sir.
Jeremy: Tell me about your business and what do you do?
James: Our company specializes in cleaning up parking lots, litter removal from commercial buildings. Anything from strip malls to medical facilities, schools, anything that’s commercial with possibly that as restaurant or fast food location that generates a lot of trash.
Jeremy: Now how long have you been running the business at this point?
James: Probably about three months.
Jeremy: Okay, so it’s a new startup?
James: Very new. Yep.
Jeremy: And what gave you the idea to get into this type of business?
James: Well, just basically going around and seeing all these buildings that had trash that was being generated. Certainly, I’ve been in sales my entire life and image is extremely important. I started going around noticing that a lot of these places didn’t quite need to … They needed to have the image that was upheld but landscapers really weren’t getting to work them when you’re only coming by cutting grass once a week. There’s a whole void that needs to be taken care of, and a lot of these places don’t even really have landscaping. It’s just a parking lot with landscape beds that have trash all over the parking lot that the customers see.
Jeremy: I guess when a lot of times companies will have a sweeper that come through, but that doesn’t necessarily clean everything up, right?
James: Yeah. A lot of times the sweepers, great for maybe doing the winter removal from all the thaw that comes in the spring, but some of these places they don’t really have the size for a sweeper. It might only be a four- or six-bay parking lot. It could be maybe a storefront or an office building, and they certainly wouldn’t need a sweeper, and they’re very expensive. What do you do other than once a month too? A lot of times people use a sweeper for maybe once or twice a year.
Jeremy: Oh, that’s it. So that’s very expensive?
James: It’s every expensive. It’s very expensive machinery, and you don’t get quite the detail you get by doing the handpicking and the detailed work that we would get into as far as doing walkways and common areas and emptying trash cans and landscape liners. You can’t really get that with heavy machinery.
Jeremy: And then what kind of clients do you serve?
James: Our ideal customers are property managers. Usually someone that has a four- to six-bay, that’s like our wheelhouse, a four- to six-bay strip mall. A property manager also has multiple properties too, so mostly property managers but we’re starting to get a lot of calls for offices and industrial warehouses that have an office in the back as well too. Medical is starting to pick up pretty good, and certainly convenient stores and market, I think we’re going to be going after rather shortly.
Jeremy: Do most of your clients, is it normally like a once a week, couple times a week, or how does that normally work? How often do you clean?
James: It depends. For instance, a four-bay strip mall, if there’s fast food location or coffee shop, generates a lot of trash. They normally like to have stuff done every day. I mean, most of our average shops only take about 15 minutes, so it’s not a big deal to have it done every day. Some of our clients only want it done once a week because it’s an office building and they don’t necessarily have a fast food place generating trash, but it still needs to be done. Some people want it seven days a week because it gets that cumbersome with the trash, and you got to get rid of it.
Jeremy: Yeah, definitely and, of course, it’s going to maintain that image.
James: For sure.
Jeremy: So, if you own a business and you’re curious about this, you can definitely go to 10pointlitter.com or you can call Jim directly at the 413-531-3755. If somebody’s interested, tell them how does that work. Do you come up, show up on location and sort of look at the property and give a quote, or how does that work?
James: Yeah. It’s real easy. A lot of times people can probably meet me in 10 minutes and show me where their property lines are. I mean, it’s not too hard to figure out a commercial building. We tend to over clean. I mean, a lot of times when we do a lot, we go 40 feet, is our general rule of thumb, past the property lines that we think are there. But it wouldn’t be a bad idea to probably spend a couple minutes with somebody if they show me exactly where maybe some of their tenants might be complaining or some of their customers might see the trash. But I can certainly give a quote really right then and there without any hand holding, but it’s not a bad idea.
Jeremy: Okay. Definitely. Well, thanks for your time. Is there anything else you want to add? Is this sort of a passion of yours or what thoughts do you have there?
James: I’ve always done the thing with the image. It’s certainly not a very hard job to do. I like the idea that I could probably do this for an awfully long time. I get paid to exercise. I can’t handle all the properties, but it’s not like I have to have large machinery and tons of employees with a lot of headaches. It’s something that can be done. Hopefully, I can do this well into my older age.
Jeremy: Definitely, and of course, it’s helping out local businesses to maintain their image?
James: For sure. Yeah. The image, the environment, and certainly it helps them save a lot of money too with the way minimum wage is going up. It’s not real easy to take off key people and key personnel with today’s environment of how expensive it is to keep someone in the counter. You want to have that interaction with customer, and you let us come and get it done pretty quickly.
Jeremy: Sure. Definitely. Well, thanks for your time, Jim.
James: Thanks, Jeremy.