Welcome to our newsletter! Working with business brokers is an interesting thing. For the first couple of years in my business, I didn’t even realize this world existed. I didn’t know how common it was or how many companies were actually using brokers for the waste removal needs.
I found out during a tough year when we weren’t on track to hit our numbers. That’s when I started digging and researching a bit more aggressively. I began secret shopping all my competitors, something I do about once a quarter to stay in the loop. I’d ask questions, see what kind of information they’d willingly give out. It’s amazing what you can learn just by asking a question and being friendly.
As I was doing my research—going online, gathering information on all these businesses, making calls—I started connecting the dots. I noticed a bunch of websites that looked like they were owned by the same company. But these weren’t real local businesses. They were brokers. But not the typical kind, like HomeAdvisor, Angie’s List, Thumbtack, or Yelp. Those platforms are more like hubs where local providers post profiles, gather reviews, and hope to be picked.
These business broker websites? They act like real companies. They take real customers, give real quotes, but they don't do the work. Instead, they subcontracted it out to local companies and marked up the service to make a profit.
I quickly realized: if you can’t beat them, join them. These companies had incredible SEO rankings and multiple websites in my service area. So, I started calling all the numbers I found on their sites, asking questions about how I could get in touch with someone to become a preferred vendor. After a lot of calls, I finally reached someone and pitched my business as a local provider. After a small trial period, once we’d proven ourselves, they ended up sending us over $100,000 worth of jobs in that first year alone.
The Internet changes fast. Anyone can build a website, start SEO, pay for traffic, and suddenly be a competitor. If you’re not constantly in tune with your business, knowing where your numbers are, where they’re supposed to be, and where you expect them to go, you might not even realize when something’s wrong. Sure, you might get that gut feeling—that something feels off, or maybe the bank balance looks lower than it should this time of year—but if you don’t have something concrete to compare it to, you’re just going off feelings. And honestly, that’s exhausting.
I remember those early years, trying to figure it all out, relying heavily on instinct. But as your company matures, knowing your numbers and owning your metrics does wonders. You catch things early. And as I always say, speed is a weapon. The faster you are at identifying small problems, the quicker you solve them before they turn into big problems.
So that was my experience with business brokers, and I stand by it and still work with them currently. It’s a tough industry, and it’s hard to compete with these brokers. We’re still advertising in the same areas, competing for space, which feels counterintuitive, but we don’t have much choice. But by working with brokers, customers still see my company, receive my information, and ultimately, my company makes money, the broker makes money, and the customer is happy. There’s plenty of work for everyone.
If I’d turned my back on them or tried to become an enemy, one of my local competitors would just have stepped in, making more money and gaining an edge. Not everything has to be a battle to the death. There are strategic partnerships out there where everyone can make money and stay (relatively) happy. ✌️
Justin Hubbard
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