Photo courtesy of Mike Such
Mike Such, owner and operator of Junk Bee Gone, stands beside on of the company trucks.
By Mike Steely
steelym@knoxfocus.com
Changing with the times and customer needs has been very successful for Mike Such, owner of Junk Bee Gone. In only 10 years, the Knoxville company has grown, expanded its services, and now serves homes and businesses within a 40 to 50 mile radius.
“Most people think we’re a franchise, but we’re not,” Such says. He and his wife, Tracy, started the business ten years ago with a single truck that would pick up junk at homes and businesses. Now the company has six trucks and also offers driveway dumpsters, document shredding, and light to medium demolition.
Such worked 20 years in the corporate world with Bush Brothers and Nestle USA. His background in marketing and sales has served him well. He and his wife were looking for something that didn’t require much travel and Junk Bee Gone became the first professional junk removal business in Knoxville.
“This concept came to me that was in some other market places,” he said.
“I researched it, my wife came up with the name, my daughters picked the bee, and off we went,” he explains.
As the real estate boom slowed Such got the idea of adding dumpsters at homes and businesses and found it better to buy them than to lease them. In 2010 they added document shredding to their line of services and more recently added a demolition service for smaller structures like sheds, garages, single and doublewide mobile homes, etc.
“About 50% of our business is residential and 50% commercial and we continue to grow every year,” he says.
Such said Junk Bee Gone tries to find homes for some of the gently used items that they are asked to remove. For example, Junk Bee Gone donates bicycles to Kickstand where the bikes can be restored or used for parts. Kickstand is a bike collective for Knoxville which supplies bikes and bicycle training.
The company is completely licensed and insured and recycles about 70% of the paper, plastics, cardboard, electronics and metal picked up. They also provide free estimates and, in most cases, junk removal can take place in one day.
“Our document shredding is HIPAA compliant,” he says, meaning that information on documents would be shredded completely.
What’s next?
“Expanding geographically, I think. We have a good model now and expanding could be a good idea,” Such said.
Junk Bee Gone can be reached by calling (865)675-5865 (JUNK) and found on Facebook and on the internet at www.junkbeegone.biz.
