TWO MEN AND A JUNK TRUCK Franchise Opens in Jackson, Mississippi

Jeff Taylor and Jack Christopher, two neighbors who met while waiting for their daughters at the school bus stop, began discussing the possibility of a business partnership. Despite their corporate success, they shared a desire to own a service-based business with established processes. This led them to open the first TWO MEN AND A TRUCK in Mississippi in 1999.

After 27 years of building a premier reputation in the moving industry, the partners recognized a growing need among their clients for a professional solution to purge and dispose of unwanted items. On January 26, Jeff and Jack officially launched TWO MEN AND A JUNK TRUCK in Metro Jackson.

The team, now working alongside Jeff’s son, Brennan, is ready to take this standalone concept to customers in the area who need junk removal. They hope to leverage their long-standing community relationships to help families declutter and simplify their lives.

Jeff sat down with 1851 Franchise to discuss his longtime partnership with Christopher and the upcoming launch of their TWO MEN AND A JUNK TRUCK franchise. Here’s what he had to say:

• He and Jack have been business partners from the beginning, starting in 1999 when they opened TWO MEN AND A TRUCK.
• They were the first location in Mississippi and feel they’ve been very fortunate in establishing and sustaining a good reputation.
• It’s rare to have a franchise or business for almost 30 years and then be able to add another service offering.

TWO MEN AND A JUNK TRUCK is a separate company and entity, but the name naturally connects the two, so co-branding is very important to them. They want to maximize the benefit of both brands. TWO MEN AND A JUNK TRUCK will be separate, but they’ll certainly utilize the 27 years of brand equity they’ve built with TWO MEN AND A TRUCK.

• He’s an engineer by trade and was working for a small private family firm, but he always had aspirations to do something on his own, ideally a service-based business.
• He had no idea it would be moving, but they saw the TWO MEN AND A TRUCK brand in a neighboring state and thought it was local at first.
• They went to the home office in Michigan and meeting the people behind it was what sold them on the franchise.
• They did local market research for about a year to see how it might do in their market, and then purchased the area and launched in 1999.

Jack was in the insurance business, and they didn’t want the business to carry the burden of both of them full-time from day one. Jeff was the managing member, but they’ve always been 50/50 partners. Jack has been day-to-day for the last 12 years.

• He liked the community aspect and the fact that there are already established best practices drawn from many units.

• With franchising, there are proven processes you don’t have to reinvent, and you hear the statistics about how many independent businesses fail within 24 months.

• Franchising provides a strong franchisee-franchisor relationship, which was very important for them.

• They’ve been doing haul-away since they opened, and over time, that evolved into more of a defined service.

• The need has always been there because part of moving is purging and disposing of things you don’t use.

• What excites them is that this is not just an ancillary service; it’s a standalone, separate entity with its own daily focus, requirements, metrics, and goals.

• They’re fortunate in their frontline staff, the customer-facing team, and they can message that these are the same team members people have relied on for their precious household items.

• They expect a lot of the same customers, but also new industries and customer segments.

• It gives them another service and another touchpoint, and they feel both brands will enhance each other.

• They want to make sure they’re getting the word out there and leveraging their long-standing community relationships to help families declutter and simplify their lives.

• They expect to see growth quickly through co-branding and the additional customer touches both brands provide.

• They will start with two trucks and multiple containers, but they expect they’ll need to expand based on both capacity and contingency before long.

• One of their partners is his son, Brennan, which is special, and he’s involved in TWO MEN AND A TRUCK operations and has been there for eight years.

• His marketing director, Shelby, is his oldest daughter, and she’s been there about 10 or 11 years.

• Both have been unexpected but welcome surprises, and partnerships can be hard to sustain, but Jack and he have been partners for almost 30 years.

• Always do your due diligence, however that looks for you.

• For them, that meant going in person to meet the franchisors, understanding their philosophy, how they operate, and what their values are, especially regarding the franchisee-franchisor relationship.

• They reached out to other franchisees before they signed on and talked to people regionally and nationally, in similar demographics, with different tenures.

• They wanted as much information up front: relational aspects, what they discovered after joining, whether expectations were met, and whether they’d choose to do it again.

• Everyone they talked to had no regrets.