Dumpster Business Thrives by Serving Small Businesses

Dumpsters 4 Rent of Pinellas County

Kendal Lucas, owner of Dumpsters 4 Rent, was already an avid business owner when he decided to take on a new business venture. “The [dumpster] business was started in 2021, early, and it was the result of having issues with my current business in 2021, where COVID had basically brought that business to its knees,” Lucas stated. Since the pandemic affected his previous business, Lucas went on to research ways on how to start a dumpster business until he realized that there was more to the business than what met the eye.

The small business owner then decided to reach out to his local Florida SBDC office at the Pinellas County Economic Development (PCED) for guidance on the subject matter. “The reason why I reached out to the SBDC was because I was already a business owner entrepreneur. Already had a number of years under my belt in that capacity but recognized that I was going into a business that I had no knowledge about and so I felt it was prudent for me to reach out to someone who could sort of help me navigate the waters and that’s when SBDC came in,” Lucas mentioned. Once he reached out to the office, Lucas was paired with Florida SBDC at PCED business consultant, Kurt Forster, for help with business planning and forecasting.

“Kurt was instrumental in connecting me with a business forecaster. A program that was free by the way. So, I entered in all of the information, and this helped me to make projections. To come up with a very basic sort of, here’s what your business is going to look like in twelve months, here’s what you should expect, these are the things that you need to do to get to that point,” Lucas said.

With the guidance from his business consultant, Lucas was able to start small, make realistic projections for his business, and move on to acquire more assets to grow his business. “I started the business with a smaller vehicle, a smaller truck and a smaller unit and did that until I got my first big repeat client. Once I got that client and that unit was going to be rented for a number of months, I knew I had to go out and get another unit. I got a bigger one and, simultaneously, went out and got the bigger truck because that was necessary,” Kendal Lucas said.

Lucas is also proud to serve other small businesses in a manner that brings in positive return for his own company. “Rubber tires, rubber chocks, wooden blocks. We never touch the client’s property; the client’s property is never damaged. We leave it as it was seen and because I deal with a lot of smaller companies, smaller individuals, they appreciate that,” he said.

Since working with the Florida SBDC at Pinellas County Economic Development, the business owner has also managed to use subcontractors for his business and increase his business revenue. “My first year in business, I made a revenue, of just under 50,000. Basically, what that did was that it paid for my investments. I reinvested all of my capital in to get additional dumpsters. The second year was great, the second year I came in just under one hundred, it was a little over ninety,” Lucas said. The business owner credits his revenue increase to his business partnerships with people such as the subcontractor that pulls his dumpsters. “He’s still with me today, subcontracting, as a matter of fact, we just got done with a really super busy couple week period for one of our biggest clients, Kendal Lucas said.

Moving forward, Lucas states that he is excited to continue using the Florida SBDC at PCED to gain more knowledge that will grow his business, especially with the Profit Mastery workshop and the guidance of Forster. “So when I get to that point, Kurt will be an excellent resource for me to go to because he’s been down that road before to say hey, I’m ready to make this leap you know, help me, what should I do to get ready for that and how can I achieve that in a manner that’s going to be worth it,” he said.

When asked what advice he would give to other small businesses about the Florida SBDC at PCED, Lucas mentioned how letting go of fear and writing up a business plan with a local Florida SBDC consultant is essential to starting a business. “Fear was the thing that held me back before I started my business. So, you have to get over that fear, you have to just say, you know what, it’s going to be a lot of hard work but anybody and I mean anybody can start a business, but you have to have a plan and you have to have a direction and that’s where the SBDC and Kurt come into play,” Lucas expressed.