Francorp Client - Dirty Dog Hauling

Dog days
Friends are in business for the long haul
By Elizabeth MillardAs published in: Franchise Times - August 2008
Two lifelong friends team up to create Dirty Dog Hauling, an African-American owned company going head-to-head (and truck-to-truck) with larger competitors.Some entrepreneurs team up because they've been pals for a few years, while others develop a friendship after months of working together. But for Leland Nelson and Gary Fallings, their partnership was forged decades ago, when the two were teenagers walking to school together.
Although they competed against each other on the football field as well as wrestling mat, they maintained their friendship in college despite being at schools that were hours apart. During one visit, they were both surprised to learn they'd even joined the same fraternity, Omega Psi Phi.
After graduation - Fallings earned a degree in education and Nelson 's was in accounting - they were again living in the same city, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and working odd jobs since work was proving tough to find. Fallings had a small landscaping business, and when the pair spotted a 1976 Chevy one-ton dump truck for sale, the friends invested $2,400 to buy it. They thought they could be "weekend warriors," Nelson says, and bring in some extra money.
The Dirty Dog trio: Gary Fallings, vice president; Shanika Brown, vice president of marketing and franchise relations; and Leland Nelson, president and co-founder."I had no idea I'd lose my job a week after we bought the truck," Nelson says. "Suddenly, it wasn't about having fun on the weekends making some extra money, it was a primary source of income."
Because their fraternity mascot is a dog, the duo named the enterprise Dirty Dog Hauling, and decided to focus not just on removing landscaping detritus, but also on commercial and residential junk.
"The name stuck, because it's kind of negative, but in a funny way," says Nelson. "People remember it, they call us that on the street, 'Hey, dirty dog!' - and customers love it."
When they opened their (truck) doors in 2005, it was at the height of the housing boom, so demand was great as people starting moving from rental properties to homeownership. And when the bubble burst just a few years later, demand was even higher with the need to clean out foreclosed properties.
At a glance
Franchise Fee: $25,000
Royalty: 8%
Co-op Marketing: 2%
Initial Investment: $70,500 - $93,000Beyond riding the housing wave, Nelson and Fallings have discovered that many people just want to get rid of their junk. Those with two-car garages yearn to park two cars there, rather than squeezing one car amid the discarded air conditioners, old boxes, bags of clothes, and other gear that seems to accumulate in life.
With a call center and courteous drivers, Dirty Dog stands out, Nelson believes: "Many people think that when they call a junk hauler, they'll get a couple of scraggly guys that will take their stuff and dump it illegally somewhere. We're changing that image."
Franchise opportunity
Nelson and Fallings were building their business through advertising and word-of-mouth, when they decided to attend the IFE in 2006 to scope out their competition. They were looking for 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Nelson says, and when they discovered that company representatives weren't there, they felt there was a bigger opportunity to be had.
"They had franchises that were sold out, areas where they couldn't expand, and we thought, this is a great chance to become the second biggest junk removal service," Nelson says.
During one forum, Nelson heard that "if you have no competition, you have no market," and he realized that Dirty Dog could be the Burger King - rather than the McDonald's - of the junk hauling industry.
The company decided to investigate franchising, and just a year later, signed up their first franchisee, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Currently, there are "a lot of tire kickers" that call, Nelson says, but he hopes interest will turn into more franchises in the near future.
"You can have the best process and systems in the world for creating a franchise, but until someone buys, it's not validated," Nelson says. "We now have that validation, so we're ready to go to the next level."
Focusing on East Coast expansion first, the company has been trying to raise private equity to grow the concept, he adds.
Going Strong
Dirty Dog has had its challenges in the past few years, Nelson notes, but none of them were tied to the fact that it's a minority-owned business, even though there are few of those types of franchises that exist, he says.
"We just happen to be minority-owned, but we feel like the financing and opportunities are open to everybody," Nelson adds. "I do think that everyone faces the same challenges with putting together the right systems, and avoiding being undercapitalized. But if we can do it, anyone can do it."
The company got kicked off by startup money from family and friends, as well as money from both Nelson's and Fallings' 401(k) plans. "We put our skin in the game," Nelson says.
One differentiator, Nelson says, is a "franchise dashboard" they've developed that uses technology like Blackberry devices to keep haulers connected with customers. In keeping with the dog theme, the system is called Paw Tracker.
And they haven't forgotten their connection to the local community, which fostered them as teenagers and keeps them busy now. Every September, the company hosts "Woofstock," a dog parade that focuses on litter prevention and junk awareness.
The company has also worked on a dozen community service projects, in a program called (what else?) FETCH, which stands for Faith, Enthusiasm, Tenacity, Community, and Harmony. "You can't take without giving back," Nelson says.

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