“It’s hard, but you don’t need a gym membership,” he said. “I’ve been out on the truck, hauling, and then I worked in the call center, where I was the manager. It’s fun. I learn something every day.”
At age 27, Ansari thinks he’s a tad bit old to still be operating the truck for College Hunks Hauling Junk, the business that delivers college students to the home of anyone looking to remove whatever it is inside their house that they no longer want or need.
But he’s still with the company – and, in fact, recently branched out to become the operational manager of the Orlando office, where he recruits college students to drive the trucks and haul the junk – just like Ansari himself was doing a few years ago.
“It’s definitely a cool company,” he said. “It’s fun. It’s young entrepreneurship. Now it’s to the point where it’s on the bigger level for me, which I’m stoked about.”
College Hunks Hauling Junk was started seven years ago by two college students in the District of Columbia who used a van to haul junk out of people’s homes. From those humble beginnings, a nationwide company has grown.
“They actually started franchising,” Ansari said. “When I started working for the call center three years back, believe it or not they were at 16 franchises, so it’s grown quite a bit in the last few years. Now it’s up to 37 branches nationwide. It’s awesome. We strive to be the largest employer of college kids nationwide. We pick up donatable items and junk, and pretty much get whatever people need removed.”
Orlando is a great location for this kind of business, Ansari said, because it’s a very transient city – people come, people go.
“Hundreds of families move in and out of Orlando every week,” he said, adding that the typical customer is “usually homeowners, ages anywhere from 28 to 45, who have disposable income and just got a new couch in, and they just want to haul away the old one, or they don’t have the help to carry it out to the curb, or don’t want strangers doing it. We’re able to provide that service.
“We also get calls from Realtors as well, who have clients that need the stuff out of a home, or a tenant has left stuff in the house, and just before the Realtor needs to do a walk through, they need to get rid of the old couch or the old refrigerator,” he added. “We’ll haul it away, six days a week.”
So what defines a college “hunk”? Ansari laughed and said attitude is the key.
“We get that question a lot,” he said. “You’d be surprised at how much we get asked that. Hunk is a subjective term. I think of it as being honest, informed, nice and knowledgeable students. It’s just someone that the client feels comfortable letting into their house. It’s pretty much a clean cut appeal, as opposed to big and bulky. It’s just our niche, and our definition. Hard working movers are tough to find these days. We provide comfort, safety and trust.”
What’s more unique about this business, he added, is how “green” it is, providing a service that’s not only good for the client, but for the environment as well.
“A lot of people don’t want to throw away their stuff,” Ansari said. “They don’t want it to go to waste. So we get rid of it in the greenest way possible.”
That includes recycling and reusing as much of the junk they haul away as possible.
“We try to stay away from the landfill and just dumping stuff,” he said. “If you get some books or decent furniture with some scratches on it, we’ll try to use it in some way. We get a wide variety of stuff, including things we can take to recycling centers. This helps clean up the environment, as well as employ kids working their way through college. We strive to be the largest U.S-based, clean cut collegiate service. We’re always on time and committed to the environment in one way of another.”
With the fall school session just starting, Ansari said he’s always on the lookout for more college hunks to work for him.
“School is starting up, and students need extra money in their pockets,” Ansari said. “With the Florida heat, it’s hard to find guys who are this ambitious, so we’re always looking for new hunks and team leaders.”
To learn more, log on to www.collegehunks.com, call 1-800-JUNK-USA, or contact Ansari directly at 321-299-2544 or Johnny.ansari@1800junkusa.com.
Contact us at FreelineOrlando@Gmail.com.
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