Life in the twenty-first century is not easy. With work to do, bills to pay, and TV shows to binge on, it can get hard for most people to find time to take out the trash. How can you leverage this growing reluctance with waste disposal to your advantage? Simple- start a skip/bin hire business! Have a team ready for when someone wants their waste segregated and disposed of. It’s profitable, easy to perform, and your community will thank you for it.
How do you go about it? Here are a few steps:
Market Research
No project can begin without a thorough understanding of its requirements. To start a skip-hire, you need to find out who your potential customers are, what demands they have in terms of waste disposal, and how good your competitors, if any, are serving them. Putting your finger on the pulse of your market is everything. If a certain neighborhood already has a sophisticated waste management system in place, don’t waste your time marketing to them. Choose your audience wisely. Look up the latest trends in skip-hire and pore over musty old legal documents that detail the taxation policy around your business. You need to know exactly what you’re selling, whom you’re selling to and whether they want to buy.
What do you offer?
Waste management can seem like a pretty straightforward activity, but it’s home to a surprising variety of preferences. Skip-hire services around you can vary based on the following factors- the size of the bin, the type of bins available, and how long you need the service for. Whew! In addition, many bin-hire services work short-term (like we do!), but you can also offer a long-term solution to your customers. Not just that- when you start a skip-hire, you also open potential doors to offer related services to your customers: these cover loading, dismantling, cleaning, recycling, and more.
There’s a world of things you can do with waste management. What’s more, you needn’t restrict yourself to residential areas either. Lots of factories and industrial areas regularly need to rely on an airtight waste management schedule. If you grow big enough, you can negotiate contracts with construction companies, logging companies, and mining companies and level up to bigger markets. The sky’s the limit!
Cost
Most private customers you connect with will ask you to name a price based on the size of your skip; others will want to settle on a price based on how long you’ll work for them. When you negotiate with a new customer, it’s imperative to play on your front foot and not come across as gullible. Here’s an overview of the factors you can keep in mind while quoting your price:
- Size of skip/bin
- Type of waste
- Distance between drop-off site and collection site
- Accessibility to site
- Duration of service
The price of your quote may depend upon who the customer is – special rates are usually on the table for business users and industrialists. The charges you demand will also rely on the area you’ll be covering with your skip. Bear in mind that most customers can access the prices your rivals have to offer with a simple google search. It’s imperative that you quote the most competitive price you can.
Marketing Your Business
When was the last time you went out of your way to Google skip-hires? Most people don’t know enough about this field. It’s up to you to bring your business to their doorsteps. Marketing is the bread and butter of your business, so you need to make sure you nail it. How? For starters, consider building a brand on the web.
Digital marketing has taken off as an affordable way to get the word out about your product or service. Gone are the days of roadside hoardings and word of mouth; if you want to succeed as a professional today, you need to own your niche on social media platforms. Start there! Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to develop visibility, make connections and grow as an online entity. Focus on both B2B and B2C communication to keep all kinds of potential relationships thriving. You absolutely mustn’t take this step lightly!
Buying an Existing Business
It may not make for the best rags-to-riches biopic, but it’s often the smarter thing to do. If you have the money, why not consider buying an existing skip-hire business instead of building your own from the ground up? Think about it; you have an established customer base, your vehicles are in place, you might even already have the seeds of an online presence. Graft your unique spin on top of an existing business instead of starting from scratch; you’ll often get to your goals faster.
Of course, you need to be careful. There are all sorts of scams you can fall prey to if you don’t look into the business you’re taking over. Make sure that the price you pay does not exceed your profit ratio. Understand the company’s policies and talk to its current employees if possible. It’s okay if it’s not the hottest thing in the market, but you shouldn’t buy your way into business hell.
We’re hurtling towards an ecological crisis, and the waste we produce every day is partly to blame for its impact on the environment. Building a skip-hire is not just about the profit. You’re doing your bit to fix a crucial part of the production cycle and contribute towards a better world.
