How I Run My Junk Removal Business on Systems, Tech, and Doing Less

People assume a junk removal company is all muscle and brawn. Jake Still runs it like a technology business. As the owner of Junk Rescue, he came up through marketing and now spends his days across operations, people management, and what he only half-jokingly calls “vibe management” — all held together by a stack of integrated software.

In this episode of Unscripted Small Business with host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower, Jake opens up the hood on the tools that keep his trucks moving, the disposable-consumer reality that keeps landfills full and his business viable, where AI actually stands for small business, and the top-five advice he gives anyone thinking about starting a company.

Wearing Every Hat, Including the “Vibe” One

Jake’s background is in marketing, but he’s increasingly pulled into operations. Even with managers running each department, he stays close to the systems and the people — coaching in the moment when the energy of a crew shifts. Between the two calls that day, he’d just finished coaching his call center manager through a client-review issue.

“As a small business, you’re wearing a lot of hats at all times. We’re getting better at delegating those hats, but still busy, always busy.” — Jake Still

“We like to call it vibe management too — like vibe managers to the culture, the energy, identifying people issues.” — Jake Still

A Home-Services Company Run on a Tech Stack

Junk Rescue runs Vonigo for CRM and field dispatch, backstops its limits with HubSpot, and uses WhipAround for fleet maintenance. Trucks carry GPS plus AI facial recognition for driver-safety reports and maintenance alerts. Zapier stitches integrations together, QuickBooks handles the books, and CallRail assigns dynamic phone numbers so every call ties back to a marketing campaign. Crews train on an LMS; HR and recruiting run through ADP.

“I’m a big believer in tech, right? Because again, it takes the human error and human emotions out of a lot of things.” — Jake Still

“Literally any part of the business, there’s some kind of tech involved.” — Jake Still

Selling Convenience, and the Disposable Society Behind It

You could ask your son or your neighbor to haul it — people just don’t want to. What customers really buy is trusted professionals, fast logistics, and source separation into donation, trash, and recycling. But Jake is blunt that the bigger picture isn’t sustainable: landfills are overrunning, much of what we think is recyclable isn’t, and stuff has gotten so cheap we buy far more than we need.

“Really we are a service-based, convenience-based business.” — Jake Still

“We live in a disposable society.” — Jake Still

“By the way, the only countries that even have junk removal are US, Canada, and Australia.” — Jake Still

AI, Content, and the Attention Economy

Jake hunts for tech that integrates — webhooks and open APIs let capable teams connect very different tools. On AI, Junk Rescue tried replacing chatbots in its sales process and learned you have to train it very well. He sees content and brand partnerships as a real growth lever, with podcasts increasingly eating into blogs.

“We are probably a year or two away from some really good out-of-the-box solutions where we don’t have to do as much.” — Jake Still

“Podcasts are replacing blogs, right? And there’s SEO value to them.” — Jake Still

“Attention is the new currency, right, that everyone’s really competing on. And yet it is getting very very saturated, but the algorithms are getting more and more specific too.” — Jake Still

Top-Five Advice for Starting a Business

Anchored on The E-Myth, Jake starts with the “entrepreneurial seizure”: being a master technician just means you’re great at the frontline work, but starting a business turns one job into a thousand. From there: go work or volunteer to learn a field you’ve never done, read the industry trend (he cites Bezos noticing the internet’s growth before landing on books), and picture the overhead of the mature business you actually want to run.

“You’re going from one job to a thousand jobs, right? Like you don’t understand that. So know what you’re getting into.” — Jake Still

“Knowledge is such a great asset, and it has value.” — Jake Still

Doing Less, Better

Asked for one more book, Jake pushes back on advice overload. With so much information out there, he thinks most people need less, not more — and points to Essentialism as his frame for simplifying.

“I believe personally a lot of people need less right now. There’s a lot of information out there.” — Jake Still

“It’s really about doing less but doing less better, right? Get more with less.” — Jake Still

You can learn more about Jake Still and his business at junk-rescue.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn under Jake Still. Listen to the full conversation on the Unscripted Small Business podcast.