The Wall Street Journal featured College Hunks Hauling Junk franchisee, Nolen Hughes from Little Rock, Arkansas, in an article about how Nolen and his father started their franchise.
Dave Hughes, North Little Rock, Ark., bought a College Hunks Hauling Junk franchise last year for his son Nolen, then 22 and graduating from college. Dave had to cash in a retirement account, and Nolen had moved back home with his dad to conserve money.
“You have to be willing to make sacrifices when you own your own company,” Dave told Nolen. When the two disagree, Dave says he has learned to step back. “If we butt heads, most of the time I just walk away and say, ‘OK, fine, I told you what I had to say,’ ” Dave says. But Nolen has worked hard, often rising before dawn to drive his big trash-hauling truck around the city during rush hour. “It’s a big billboard,” he says.
His father is pleased. “Nolen has more business savvy than I did at his age,” Dave Hughes says. He heaved a sigh of relief when the business broke into the black a few months ago. After that, “I didn’t worry any more. I think Nolen will be rolling on his own by next year,” Dave says.
Where do you find an elephant, 10 mascots, and a high school marching band? At the College Hunks Hauling Junk Reunion of course! Nick Friedman, president of College Hunks Hauling Junk, and CEO Omar Soliman jumpstarted the company’s two-day annual franchisee conference on Sunday by riding into the convention on an elephant. They were led by the Tampa Catholic High School drum line and 10 College Hunks staff members wearing the company mascot suits.
“The purpose is to serve as a symbolic and inspirational message to our franchisees that the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’ is the economy and we are going to be riding it head first into 2010 to overcome the obstacles that the 2009 economy set before us,” Friedman said in a release.
For the second year in a row, the corporate staff, franchisees and client loyalty associates gathered in Tampa at the Intercontinental Hotel for the “College Reunion” convention. New and existing franchise owners get together and discuss what’s working for them, exchange strategies and tips, and build new connections.
We are ALWAYS creating a fun and enthusiastic team environment (the elephant and the mascots!) and we were also building leaders (the high school marching band!). Watch the video!
College Hunks Hauling Junk founders, Omar Soliman and Nick Friedman, went to “Love Doctor” Patti Stanger for some relationship lessons.
At the outset Soliman is worried that women just want him for his money, and Friedman is skeptical of Stanger’s matchmaking skills.
Friedman says he had never seen the show but did some research after he was approached about appearing. He heard that Stanger was a pushy, abrasive woman. He wasn’t keen on having her supervise his love life.
On the show, Soliman wants to take his date on a junk haul to test whether she would still like him if he lost his money and had to start his career over. This doesn’t sit well with Stanger.
Friedman and Soliman are quickly becoming well-known reality stars after their first apperance on The Shark Tank, pitching their new business, College Foxes Packing Boxes. They have premiered each TV show’s season episode.
In his senior year, Soliman’s business plan for a junk removal service and online junk exchange won a $10,000 entrepreneurship competition.
The two buddies teamed up and started College Hunks Hauling Junk in 2004. They now have more than 25 franchises nationwide. Friedman says they relocated themselves and the company’s headquarters to Tampa two years ago. They were looking for an ideal locale to set up a national call center (for 1-800-Junk-USA).
Why would someone take a first date on a junk removal job? Find out here:
Nick Friedman had an idea. Suppose you could take the natural high spirits that compel college students to kidnap one another’s team mascots and toilet-paper rival frat houses and harness it for good?
Friedman is president of College Hunks Hauling Junk, a $3 million franchiser headquartered in Tampa. The company’s 23 franchises employ mostly college students and recent grads; even about half of the franchise owners are in their 20s. Friedman motivates employees almost exclusively through internal competition. Franchises and individuals vie for bragging rights and (generally modest) monetary rewards in contests over total revenue, average job sizes, customer loyalty, disposal costs, and a long list of other performance measures.
“A person’s day-to-day tasks don’t necessarily connect to external competition,” says Friedman, explaining this we-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-is-us approach. “Internal competition helps them be more productive at what they are accountable for. And ultimately, that puts the company in a better position to win market share.”
Friendly rivalry, of course, is endemic to college life, and the company’s early employees translated their frat-war sensibilities to the job. Shortly after College Hunks’s launch in 2005, haulers from its Virginia branch went out to their truck one morning and found it lathered in shaving cream and draped with a University of Maryland flag. They retaliated with a dead fish in the Maryland branch’s truck. Rather than reprimand the offenders, Friedman and CEO Omar Soliman fanned the flames. “We wanted to harness that competitive, prankster enthusiasm and channel it for good,” says Friedman. “So we challenged the two locations: Who can haul the most junk by summer?” He offered a Bahamas vacation to the winning team. Maryland triumphed, and a culture was born.
The founders soon dispensed with volume of junk collected in favor of key performance indicators as the bases for contests. They developed a dashboard — available to the entire company over an intranet — and created competitions around the numbers tracked there. Most employees check the dashboard every day for their own and rivals’ latest standings. To keep things fresh, Friedman and Soliman periodically add new contests. In the latest, franchises vie to see which can donate or recycle the most junk, thus burnishing College Hunks’s green cred while reducing landfill costs.
College Hunks Hauling Junk has a very through interviewing process when we are looking to hire new hunks to join our team. Our definition of a hunk is a clean-cut individual that has a positive, friendly attitude. Our hiring process begins with the applicants answering a series of questions via e-mail. If this goes well it is followed by a phone interview to make sure the applicant has the personal skills necessary to provide outstanding customer service.
We at College Hunks Hauling Junk are in the client service business first, junk removal second. This is why we make sure to hire not just junk haulers but individuals that are excellent at customer service and client relations.
If the phone interview goes well the applicants come in for a face-to-face interview and are once again screened to make sure they will be an excellent hunk and provide the level of outstanding service our clients expect. If all goes well it’s on to the last step which is a full day of work on the truck. This is where the real test begins. Not only do they need to be great at customer service, they also need to have the stamina to be able to work a long, strenuous day. If, at the end of the day, they perform well and they still want to join our team then they officially become a team member of College Hunks Hauling Junk!
College Hunks Hauling Junk’s founders, Omar Soliman and Nick Friedman, appeared on the first episode of the new reality show Shark Tank this past Sunday, August 9th on ABC. The Shark Tank TV show regularly airs on ABC at 9/8c.
The show features entrepreneurs pitching new business ideas to a panel of mega-moguls, aka the sharks. Omar and Nick pitch College Foxes Packing Boxes as a new business idea, but the sharks aren’t letting them off the hook. Watch to see what goes down when the sharks try to sink their teeth into College Hunks Hauling Junk! It get’s intense with the sharks trying to take them for all they have!
VIDEO: Full Episode (We are the last to go on the show… fast forward to the end)
CHRIS ‘C-WEB’ WEBB COLLEGE: LA Stunt Training School GRADUATION DATE: Ongoing education
Chris Webb has been with College Hunks Hauling Junk for seven months. Chris is a local graduate of Arapahoe High School.
He is currently enrolled at LA Stunt Training School (L.A.S.T.) with the anticipated goal of moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico to pursue his dream of being a stuntman in major Hollywood films. Some abilities of Chris’s include being able to fall down a flight of stairs without injury. He is an avid Crossfitter and he also races motorcycles and dirt bikes. During the winter, he participates in ‘Bear Tire’ Ice Racing at local frozen ponds and in the summer, he races dirt bikes in endurance time trials. He enjoys the challenges of each junk removal job and loves to provide superb customer service to all of his clients.
Below is a video of Chris and his instructors driving stunt vehicles.
RYAN ‘COOKIE’ COOK COLLEGE: Colorado University, Denver MAJOR: Mechanical Engineering GRADUATION DATE: 2013
Ryan has been a team member with College Hunks Hauling Junk for four months. His goal is to own and operate a mechanic shop. His interests include working on cars and DJing at weddings and parties. Below are pictures of Ryan’s Dodge Ram 1500 Magnum custom paint job that he did himself. He is also a local graduate of Columbine High School where he played football for four years as defensive end. Ryan is interested in recycling and in trying to be as ‘green’ as possible.
BRYAN ‘THE FEVER’ LeFEBVRE COLLEGE: Colorado University, Denver MAJOR: Business Administration; minor in Music GRADUATION DATE: 2011
Bryan has been a team member with College Hunks Hauling Junk for seven months. He is currently in a band, The Frozen Movement, that has been playing gigs in Denver for the past two years. He is a dedicated musician and is well-versed at playing many instruments such as the guitar, bass, and drums. He has also spent time studying opera. Bryan is in the beginning stages of starting his own production company with the dream to record other band’s music. He enjoys helping the community and the opportunity at College Hunks Hauling Junk to work with other like-minded young professionals.
College Hunks Hauling Junk (www.1800JunkUSA.com) – Denver has been operating in the Denver area since November 2007. By providing a fun solution to an otherwise inglorious service, the College Hunks Hauling Junk team has seen the business grow and is prepared to hire new employees.
Recruiting employees on college campuses has provided customers with clean-cut and friendly teams, “creating a company culture that is not typical for a trash removal business,” states Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk President.
Over 60% of the jobs are residential, and many of the customers are women desperately battling packrat husbands or boyfriends, which is no coincidence this attractive brand is so popular.
College Hunks Hauling Junk provides new employees the ability to learn excellent business and customer service skills while working outdoors in a small-business environment. The Junk Teams will not only take pride in what they do, they will have FUN!
JOB DESCRIPTION:
It’s a great time to join our team at College Hunks Hauling Junk. Learn excellent business and customer service skills while working outdoors in a small-business environment. Not only do we take pride in what we do, we have FUN – your creativity and energy is what we need.
Now Hiring Part-Time & Full Time TRUCK CAPTAINS AND WINGMEN:
Responsibilities Include:
- Delivering 5 STAR CUSTOMER SERVICE to every client
- Safely operating non-CDL Junk Truck
- Lifting and Removing Junk - Marketing
Tons of perks such as keeping cool stuff you find, occasional tips and bonuses!
You must have a valid driver’s license and reliable transportation. For more information on our brand, please visit www.1800JunkUSA.com. Please email your resume and availability to tanner.white@1800junkusa.com
The Wall Street Journal featured College Hunks Hauling Junk franchisee, Nolen Hughes from Little Rock, Arkansas, in an article about how Nolen and his father started their franchise. 
Where do you find an elephant, 10 mascots, and a high school marching band? At the College Hunks Hauling Junk Reunion of course! Nick Friedman, president of College Hunks Hauling Junk, and CEO Omar Soliman jumpstarted the company’s two-day annual franchisee conference on Sunday by riding into the convention on an elephant. They were led by the Tampa Catholic High School drum line and 10 College Hunks staff members wearing the company mascot suits.
College Hunks Hauling Junk founders, Omar Soliman and Nick Friedman, went to “Love Doctor” Patti Stanger for some relationship lessons.
Nick Friedman had an idea. Suppose you could take the natural high spirits that compel college students to kidnap one another’s team mascots and toilet-paper rival frat houses and harness it for good?
College Hunks Hauling Junk has a very through interviewing process when we are looking to hire new hunks to join our team. Our definition of a hunk is a clean-cut individual that has a positive, friendly attitude. Our hiring process begins with the applicants answering a series of questions via e-mail. If this goes well it is followed by a phone interview to make sure the applicant has the personal skills necessary to provide outstanding customer service. 
CHRIS ‘C-WEB’ WEBB
College Hunks Hauling Junk (
