I have found this to be a good visual for the "Circle of Life" if you will for growing a business. I first picked it up from Mike Andes, but I've heard other people reference it in their own ways. It goes something like this... Liquidity > Leads > Labor > Leadership > Liquidity > Leads > Labor > Leadership > Continued forever... Liquidity is just a fancy way to say CASH. Cash is the determining factor of whether you still have a business or not. No more money? No more business. Little bit of money, little of time left. Big pile of cash, the opportunities are endless. Liquidity is what makes you capable of investing into LEADS. With money you are able to invest into the proper channels to get you leads. These could be paid ads in the form of Google or Meta, they could be door hangers, bandit signs, or mailers, the point of this story is not to tell you HOW to advertise, but rather that leads are going to be necessary for growth. No leads equals no customers. MANY LEADS means you need someone to turn those into sales, which turns into work, which is going to need LABOR! LABOR is the piece of the puzzle that grows you out of being the 1 man (or women) dumpster operation. In order to have a a self sustaining business, eventually you're going to have to delegate. That means your first step is going to be generally in one of two directions. Hire someone to take you out of the truck so you can focus on the Sales, Marketing, and Admin side (the route I'm leaning into) OR hire someone to take over the admin side while you outsource other tasks such as Marketing and Sales. My personal preference is to get myself out of the truck as quickly as possible. Reality is you are one twisted ankle away from having your business shut down when you're a solo owner operator. If you want to keep the machine moving YOU NEED TO NOT BE THE BOTTLENECK FOR PRODUCTION. But lets say we do that. We're now out of the truck, things are chugging along. You have your driver, you hired your aunt to do the admin, you might even have a second or third truck on the road, but your STUCK. The business has peaked at X dollar amount for the last 6 months... a year... and you're frustrated not knowing the direction to take things. That's where LEADERSHIP comes into play.

I keep hearing that people have been dead, and that's not JUST in the dumpster industry. I've heard it from a very well established tile installer. I heard it from a buddy of mine who repairs sprinkler systems. I just read a post about issues with getting paid at another mans storage lot. How are things looking for you in your local market? Are you experiencing a slow down? Is it business as usual? Slammed as can be? If you're slow; what has been your primary focus for digging yourself out of the hole? If you're slammed; what has been the greatest driver of growth and success? Personally I'm in a weird spot. Year over year I'm crushing it, but if you look at 2025 as a whole, this has been my worst month BY FAR. So it's hard to say what's going on in the world based on my experience. Let's hear from you guys on what you're seeing!

Welcome to THE DUMPSTER RUNNERS NETWORK! Please introduce yourselves and tell us your company name and where you're from. We are going to be taking a deep dive into the world of dumpster. Talking about equipment, marketing, networking, community building, and so much more. We welcome everyone from rookie to master. From aspiring entrepreneur to seasoned veteran of their trade. I hope all of you can take a moment and introduce yourselves. Once that is out of the way we can dive into the wins or pain points each of us is going through. You never know who might be right down the road from you. They can become a GREAT back up resource if your equipment goes down or you're overloaded with work, and if not - maybe you just make a new friend to chat with who shares a similar interest! Make SURE you check out the MAP tab at the top. It will show you roughly where each member is located. It says that it it shows each person as 10 miles off roughly, but I have noticed some people much farther off then I believe they should be. We'll have to check that out and see how it performs over time. FANTASTIC feature for seeing who is close to you though. UTILIZE IT!