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New Franchise Spotlight – Meet Our New Owners

March 23, 2021

Meet A Few Of Our New Owners

The newest College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving® franchisees are experiencing success despite opening in late 2020 and early 2021 as the nation emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, 40 new franchise partners were added to our existing franchise network that reached $100 million in revenue in 2019, making us the leading junk removal franchise in the nation. We are thankful we can say that all of College HUNKS’ new franchisees received uninterrupted corporate support from College HUNKS headquarters, otherwise known as Brand Central, in the form of onboarding, pre-training, and training. This meant they were able to complete these processes and launch their own businesses as soon as possible ... despite everything else going on in the world around us since March 2020.

For John Rowles, opening and operating his Leesburg, VA location provides fulfillment, both personally and professionally. “It’s been a positive experience for all of us to learn the business, get to know our community, and establish ourselves as a location that gets the job done while providing exceptional customer service,” he said. Rowles was particularly interested in becoming part of the College HUNKS franchise family because its proven business model has strong community involvement and philanthropic components.

In a challenging 2020 and beyond, these core values proved essential to the communities where College HUNKS franchisees live and work. As a purpose-driven, socially conscious company, our franchisees throughout the nation helped their local communities in numerous ways over the past year and are continuing those programs in 2021. College HUNKS are providing meals to those in need, moving medical equipment, storing donations to be given to non-profits that temporarily closed, and helping students, families, and domestic violence victims who urgently need to move during the pandemic. 

The new franchisees also benefited from the assistance generated at a corporate level providing and implementing new best practices that limit the spread of the virus. We made just a few–but highly effective–tweaks to our business model to adjust to the industry’s new normal:

  • Curbside junk removal
  • Express curbside junk removal
  • No contact quotes
  • No contact payment for services 

This strategy delivered spectacular returns. In 2020 College HUNKS’ systemwide revenue grew 17% year over year while franchisee net income as a percent of revenue increased 39% year over year. Our Net Promoter Score, a metric used to measure customer loyalty, increased to 86, up from 79 in 2019. As a brand, these metrics tell us we are doing a few things right, and our customers agree. 

Even before the pandemic, Michael Joiner was in the process of becoming the owner and operator of the NW San Antonio, TX location. “After 26 years on the service side of the oil and gas industry, I decided to hang up my hard hat, but I was not ready to retire. I started looking at other avenues to explore,” said Joiner who opened his franchise location in January 2021. He elaborated, “A friend had recently purchased a junk removal and moving franchise and had exceptionally good success, so I began to reach out to him with questions. Long story short, after Discovery Day (an event held at College HUNKS headquarters to show prospective franchisees the business), I was in 110%! College HUNKS’ ethical and moral compass aligns perfectly with mine. I love what they stand for, their purpose, and their core values are exactly what I stand for and strive to put out into the world every day.” 

Joiner also noted the substantial support he received from his College HUNKS colleagues when he became ill just as he was about to open his store. Mentoring, coaching, and substantial operations support are all built-in features of owning a College HUNKS franchise. This includes ongoing support from the College HUNKS Sales and Loyalty Center, which fields calls from customers nationwide, seven days a week, and schedules junk removal and moving jobs for franchise partners. Our franchise owners never have to worry about missing a potential job because they are unable to answer a call. The corporate-supported call center booked 313,000 jobs for franchise owners in 2020, up from 278,000 in 2019, and its overall booking activity increased from 68.2% in 2019 to 75.4% in 2020. In addition, the center generated $4.8 million in additional revenue in 2020 from Open Leads (individuals that did not book on the first call to the company but did book when reached out to as a follow-up).

Opportunities to become a College HUNKS franchisee are now available in many franchise territories in the United States and Canada, including franchises in the best areas of Georgia, Connecticut, Texas, and New York. If you are thinking about starting your own moving company, we are happy to help address your questions. Contact College HUNKS today to learn how you can have your own successful business that is a meaningful part of your local community.