Junk removal or moving: which business to start, and what we got wrong about it
Junk removal is the side business everyone online is recommending. Here is how it compares to moving on skill, risk, reviews and how many jobs it takes to make a living, including the numbers junk owners sent back when we got it wrong.
There is a big push online right now to start a junk removal business. I made a short video saying I would pick moving instead, and it became the most-watched thing we have posted. It also got pushback from junk removal owners, and some of it was right.
So here is the longer version: what the two businesses actually have in common, where they split, the numbers I got wrong, and how I would choose if I were starting this month.
What they have in common
On paper they look like the same business. A truck, two strong people, a phone that rings, and a customer with stuff that needs to go somewhere else. You can start either one without buying a truck. Both live on Google reviews and fast replies. Both get easier the day you hire your first helper and harder the day you lose them.
That is why people treat them as interchangeable. They are not, and the difference is not the truck.
Where they split: what happens if you drop something
On a junk job, nothing you carry is going anywhere but the dump. If a dresser gets scratched on the way out, nobody cares. You can move fast, throw things into the truck, and the customer is happy because it is gone. That is also why junk customers almost always leave good reviews: there is very little that can go wrong.
On a moving job, everything you carry is something the customer is keeping. You wrap the furniture. You have to know how to move a piano, how to carry a leather couch without marking it, what to wrap each piece in, and how to get a dresser down a staircase without touching the walls. If you damage something, it is your problem, which is why insurance matters from the first real move.
That makes moving harder to learn. It is also the whole reason it pays more.
The numbers, including the ones I got wrong
In the video I said junk removal needs something like 20 jobs a week to reach the same top line as two or three moves. Several junk owners came back with their own numbers, and they were fair corrections:
- One owner said 3 to 4 jobs a week regularly gets him $2,500 to $3,000, running solo with one helper when he needs one, and all of it from organic leads.
- Another said four jobs a week brings in well over $2,000, and closer to $4,000 most weeks.
- A third said commercial accounts, big stores calling the same company every time, change the math completely.
So the honest version is this: an established junk removal company with good leads and bigger loads does not need 20 jobs a week. The guy with a pickup doing $150 loads does. The number depends on your average ticket, not on the industry.
Here is the moving side. To move a three-bedroom house we charge above $2,000. A two-bedroom we ran in August was three movers at $250 an hour and came to about $1,500. On a smaller starter job quoted at $900, about $500 is yours at the end of the day after the helper, the truck, supplies, insurance and taxes, and how much movers make walks through every line of that.
My claim is that two or three jobs a week, with a couple of friends helping at $20 to $25 an hour, is around $100,000 a year for a sole proprietor. A good junk owner can get there too. The difference is how many separate customers it takes, how many hours of driving to the dump, and how much each review is worth when you finally get it.
Why reviews work differently
Because junk is low stakes, a five-star review there tells the next customer that you showed up and took the stuff. A five-star review on a moving job tells them you carried their grandmother's china cabinet down two flights without a scratch. The second kind is harder to earn and worth much more, because the next customer is deciding who to trust with things they cannot replace.
That is also why a moving company can charge more than the cheapest quote in town. People are not paying for the truck. They are paying for the reviews that say nothing got broken.
How I would choose
Pick junk removal if you want the simplest possible work, you are fine with more jobs at a smaller ticket, and you would rather not carry the risk of damaging something someone loves. It is a real business, and plenty of owners do very well at it.
Pick moving if you want fewer, bigger jobs, you are willing to learn the wrapping and the carrying properly, and you want the kind of reviews that let you raise your price. You can start it the same way: labor-only jobs where the customer already has the truck, then single items, then full moves with a deposit on every booking.
And if you already run junk removal, you are closer to moving than you think. You have the truck, the helpers and the phone. The next time a customer asks whether you can move the couch instead of hauling it away, price it like a move.
- Moving pricing guideHourly or flat, how to say the rate, and how the math works. The calculator itself is in the course.
- Quote-call openingHow our quote call starts, word for word, with your name and rate filled in. The rest is in the course.
- Google Business Profile fieldsFree: what to set up first and the profile fields, word for word.
- One job, start to finishA real one-bedroom move, every message with its timestamp.
- Moving industry FAQThirty-five questions about getting in: trucks, licenses, insurance, pricing, hiring, when to buy the truck.
- GlossaryPortal to portal, released value, COI, and fifty more terms in plain English.
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