Sam Evans built You Call We Haul with a $1,000 truck, then sold it

Q: What does it cost to start a junk removal company?

Sam Evans started with a $1,000 truck and about $1,700 total. A serious launch with a newer box truck and insurance typically runs a few thousand to $10,000.

Q: Who buys a small junk removal business?

You Call We Haul sold to a local buyer whose estate-transition and house-flipping business generates constant cleanout work, making the company a strategic fit rather than a financial acquisition.

Most entries in this ledger are about building. Sam Evans supplies the missing chapter: the exit. You Call We Haul, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania junk removal company he started as a college side project in May 2016, was sold in September 2024 to a local buyer who paired it with his estate-cleanout business. The boring business lifecycle, complete: start cheap, compound quietly, sell to someone who wants the route.

The start was as cheap as they come. Evans, then a Penn State student home for the summer, had read a book about the founders of College Hunks Hauling Junk and concluded the model needed nothing he didn't have. He bought a truck for $1,000 and launched with about $1,700 in total, which may be the lowest documented startup figure in this database after Brian Winch's hand tools.

Marketing with zero dollars

Customer acquisition was manual labor of a different kind: flyers dropped in local neighborhoods and relentless posting in local Facebook groups, up to 40 posts a day, as many as moderators would tolerate. It worked because the customer is not scrolling for junk removal until the day they urgently are, and the company that is already in their feed wins. By 2019, while his classmates took corporate jobs along the east coast, the business did about $180,000 in sales at roughly 70 percent margins.

"To us junk is anything you no longer need or want." Sam Evans, on Starter Story

When the pandemic hit, Evans pivoted to contactless pickups, customers texting photos for quotes and leaving items out, and nearly doubled 2019's sales. At cruising altitude the company ran 75-plus jobs a month, about $20,000 in monthly revenue at 65 percent per-job margins, with a three-person team. The revenue mix is the appeal: single-item pickups, full estate cleanouts, hoarder homes, 20,000 square foot office clearances. Junk regenerates across every economic condition.

The exit nobody covers

In September 2024, Evans sold. The buyer, Doug Oglesby, runs a house-flipping and estate-transition company, for which a junk removal operation is not a business so much as a captive vendor. That is the quiet truth about boring business exits: the buyer is rarely a fund. It is usually the adjacent operator for whom your route is worth more than it is to you. Build something a neighbor needs, and the sale eventually walks in the door.

Common questions

How much does a junk removal business make?

You Call We Haul reported about $20,000 a month at 65 percent per-job margins with a team of three, up from $180,000 at roughly 70 percent margins in 2019. Margins run high because the inputs are a truck, fuel, dump fees, and effort.

What does it cost to start a junk removal company?

Evans started with a $1,000 truck and about $1,700 all-in, which is close to the floor. A more comfortable launch with a decent box truck, insurance, and dump deposits still lands under $10,000, cheap by any trade's standard.

Who buys a small junk removal business?

Usually not a fund. You Call We Haul sold to a local operator whose estate-transition and house-flipping work generates constant cleanouts; owning the hauler beats hiring one. Adjacent operators are the natural buyers for route businesses.

The thousand-dollar truck