Articles Ranking
Eleven categories, ranked by how many owners we have documented
Waste and sanitation holds eleven owners, commercial cleaning seven, and three categories rest on one. Where the evidence in this database is deep, where it is thin, and the two models with no owner at all.
This database holds 33 documented owners across eleven categories, and they are not spread evenly. Eleven of them work in waste and sanitation. Three categories rest on a single owner. This page ranks the categories by how many owners we have documented in each, so you can see where the evidence is deep and where one story is carrying a whole trade.
Where categories tie, the one with the longest documented track record, meaning the earliest start year on record, ranks higher. The counts come from the database. A higher count does not mean a better business. It means more owners in that trade have published figures we could source.
One entry in three. Single businesses run from Sam Evans's junk hauler at about $20,000 a month before its 2024 sale to Daniel Tom's $4.3 million of 2025 income. Two more figures, Scoop Soldiers and 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, are systemwide. Earliest start: Brian Scudamore, 1989.
From Anna-Marie Ortiz's $10,000 months in late 2024 to Joshua Brown's roughly $2 million a year. Earliest start: Brian Winch, 1981, still walking the lots.
Trevor Kokenge's $22,000 to $29,000 months in Seattle, and Mike Andes's Augusta, whose $50 million-plus is systemwide across 200-plus locations. Earliest start: Kokenge, 2008.
Dave and Carla Menz's four stores report over $2 million a year; Christian Sanya's one store brings in about $24,000 a month. Earliest start: Menz, 2010.
Bolt Storage's 68 facilities, revenue undisclosed, and Michael Haskell's $135,000 of 2025 locker resales. Earliest start: Huber and Hagberg's Storage Squad, 2011.
The D'Eri family's three car washes at nearly $6 million a year, and Alan Tursunbaev's mobile detailing at about $900,000. Earliest start: Rising Tide, 2013.
Adam Hill's route grosses over $58,000 a month; Marcus Gram reported $500,000 of 2022 sales. Both are vending; no ATM operator is documented. Earliest start: Hill, 2014.
Two HVAC acquisitions: Nathan Lenahan's $1.2 million company bought for $400,000 in 2021, and Dan Burnside's $2.1 million purchase, which ended in bankruptcy. Burnside's start year is not on record.
Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds, whose parks did $30 million of revenue in 2013. Rolfe bought his first park in 1996.
Joel and Hunter Davis's Frisco franchise, opened in 2019, at $851,000 a year in revenue.
Steve Hunsaker's holiday lights, $800,000-plus in a two-month season, started in 2020. Snow removal, the category's other model, has no documented owner.
Models with no documented owner
Two models on the ideas list have no owner behind them yet: snow removal contracts and ATM routes. The cost and margin figures shown for them are industry figures, not any owner's own numbers, and should be read that way until a sourced owner turns up.
What the counts show
Two categories hold more than half the database. Waste and sanitation and commercial cleaning together account for 18 of the 33 entries, by our count. Claims about those two trades rest on several independent owners. Claims about pool service, seasonal work or asset plays rest on one.
Some of the biggest figures are not one business. Scoop Soldiers, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and Augusta report systemwide revenue across their franchise territories. Our guide to reading a revenue figure covers why those numbers cannot sit beside a single owner's, and the revenue ranking keeps them apart.
A one-owner category is a case, not a pattern. Hunsaker's $800,000 season is real, but it is one operator in Scottsdale. Before reading any single entry as a template, check how many others sit beside it here, then check the trade's score on the Boring Index and its numbers on the startup cost ladder.
Where to go next. Start here sorts the models by capital and hours, and each category name above links to its page. This site is one of SideRoad's weekly builds.
Common questions
Which boring business category has the most documented owners?
Waste and sanitation, with 11 of the 33 owners in the database, from Brian Scudamore's 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to Daniel Tom's portable toilet fleet and two septic companies. Commercial cleaning is second with seven.
Which categories have only one documented owner?
Three: asset plays (Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds), pool service (Joel and Hunter Davis) and seasonal services (Steve Hunsaker). Snow removal and ATM routes have no documented owner at all.
Does a category with more documented owners make a better business?
No. The count reflects how many owners in a trade have published figures we could source, not how good the trade is. It tells you how much weight the category's numbers can bear. The margin ledger and Boring Index compare the trades themselves.
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