Why A College Hunks Junk Hauling Franchise Is Like A College Football Team
Washington, D.C., General Manager Tim Perkins discusses the leadership culture that’s grown our junk hauling franchise nationwide
As an experienced business owner himself, Tim Perkins knows a lot about what it takes to lead a team and develop new leaders. Perkins is the General Manager at the Washington, D.C., College Hunks, our flagship corporate location, and he embodies the culture that propelled our junk hauling franchise brand to more than 250 territories operated by more than 100 franchisees nationwide.
“I applied for a job at College Hunks, met [President and Co-Founder] Nick Friedman and fell in love with the College Hunks Hauling Junk culture, the concept, the core values and the ideology,” says Perkins. “I’d coached a lot of football, mentored a lot of people and had a team of people working for me, so everything I’d done before prepared me to execute at a high level here.”
Perkins builds leaders on his team every day, because having the right culture and the right team behind your business is crucial to success. He also works directly with franchise owners, helping them understand and implement the culture and processes that power growth. Here’s his take on why College Hunks is the right opportunity for somebody ready to coach a strong team and build a great business.
And read our profile on Perkins’ colleague, Tampa General Manager Dan Whalen, for more on the College Hunks leadership culture.
On what makes College Hunks’ culture stand out
“I think it matters tremendously to have a culture of leadership because it brings out the best in people and everybody holds each other accountable. The great thing about our culture is that it’s a group of people sharing a single idea, so everybody’s thinking and moving in the same direction.
“Corporate does a great job of training and helping franchise owners to execute in the manner that we must to maintain our reputation, our culture and our edge in our market. We don’t feel like we’re in competition with anybody, because the level of service we offer is totally different from what most businesses offer in our field.”
On what it takes to succeed as a leader in this business
“I think an optimistic person that has vision, that is mentally strong, is the premiere, ideal franchise owner for our business. What we do is stressful on our team and on our clients, so it’s inevitable that we have to manage stress. Therefore, an owner has to have that mental strength and optimism to stay out in front of and manage that stress. An owner needs to focus on solutions, not problems. If you’re focused on the issues and problems, you won’t be able to fix them. You need to develop the vision to see everything as an opportunity instead of a struggle or a hurdle.”
On recruiting and retention
“In any business, the most important people to your business are not your clients, they’re your team, because you don’t get clients and you don’t keep clients if you don’t have a solid team executing on your vision, your culture, your ideology. The number one thing that every business owner should keep in their mind is, ‘I need to constantly recruit if I’m going to have great talent.’
“You need to run the franchise like a college football team – if I want a great team on the field, I have to proactively, constantly recruit and search for talent. You’re never going to find a great A-player if you’re waiting for them to come to you. You have to hunt them out, and that’s why we work on a lot of different job platforms, go to career fairs, colleges, because we want to align ourselves with great talent.
“After you get your recruiting down, then it’s about retention. You want to make sure you keep a good team for as long as you can, without holding them back. They’re going to grow and eventually you’re going to lose these guys, but embrace it. We have these people when they have their most energy and enthusiasm, and they want purpose. If you teach them purpose and show them the ‘why’ behind what we do, they’ll bust their asses for you. If you put your best into each team member, they’ll do their best.
“Recruit, put together a great team and invest your time and energy into that team, because they’ll make the difference between your business being successful and not being successful.”
On how your team frees you to work on the business, not in it
“When you have that leadership mentality and that leadership culture, your team can take on more responsibility, which allows you to work more on the business. In a lot of other franchises, owners can get caught up in the struggle of constantly working in the business and not on the business. When you have a culture of leadership and the people on your team share that mentality, you can have a great senior captain who can help run ops so you can spend that afternoon at a networking event, marketing and building more business. That helps them develop more as managers and as leaders. It puts them in position to be the backup quarterbacks, so they can handle a gametime situation when it’s needed.”
Learn more about our junk hauling franchise opportunity
If you’d like to find out more about how the College Hunks leadership culture powers franchisees to stronger results, please fill out a form and start a conversation. We look forward to answering your questions.