Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carol Vaillancourt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Carol, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

Yes! In my opinion, there is no greater wealth than freedom of time. Time is our most valuable resource and, once spent, can’t be renewed. Money, on the other hand, is a renewable resource without limits. Working for myself, I have the unique opportunity to set my own pace for my business. Taking the time to explore the World with my family is worth more than the revenue we might sacrifice while we are away. Most of the time, no revenue is sacrificed as I have built my business to run for short periods of time without me. Being my own boss is not about owning a job. It’s about owning a business and my time.

Carol, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2017 I came to a point in my life where I decided owning my own time and personal freedom was going to be my mission to accomplish. Our daughter was five years old, and we had been foster parents to her for three years while waiting to adopt her. I was working full time for the Army National Guard when my attitude towards work life balance began to shift. Being a mother, I never wanted to miss out on any part of my daughter’s life, and serving full time in the Army did not allow me to always be there for her. My mind was made up the day a co-worker came to my office telling me she was upset someone else in her family bought her son an expensive “time piece ” (watch) for his graduation as that was going to be her retirement gift to him to symbolize all the time she gave to the Army vs. him as he grew up. I went home that day and vowed I would never give my daughter a material item in place of actual time. I started to plan my future without the “golden handcuffs” of government work. My husband was completely on board as he was already working for himself owning his own time. Long story short; I resigned from my full time position and started my own marketing company. I did that for about 7 months before I met a JDog Junk Removal & Hauling Owner who introduced me to the brand and recruited me to work for him. I started out working for another owner for two years before my family moved to Ocean City, MD where we bought our own JDog Junk Removal & Hauling franchise.

When I was first approached to work for the other JDog owner, my first thought was that I was not going to be a “garbage person” and it was a “man’s” world. The fact that I even worried there were no other women in the industry still shocks me as I have spent my entire adult life serving in and working for the military. There is not a more “man’s” world than that to exist in. After visiting the JDog franchise with the other owner, I was sold. The mission of JDog Junk Removal & Hauling is MUCH more than junk removal. All of the franchises are owned and operated by military veterans and family members. The mission to employ veterans while recycling, reusing and repurposing 60-80% of the items hit home for me. In addition to that, I’m a logistics officer in the Army so running trucks and crews all made sense to me.

As an owner of a franchise of JDog Junk Removal & Hauling, I take pride in offering our services to customers with the military values of Respect, Integrity and Trust always in my mind and work. We often encounter customers who are grieving the loss of a loved one or moving an elderly family member from their lifelong home. We approach every job, customer and situation with care and compassion ensuring their belongings find a second life if appropriate.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

COVID – need I say more? Seriously, though, I started this business in November of 2019. Just 4 months later the World began to shut down. I’ll never forget the moment I realized this was going to be a much bigger deal than initially thought. First, our daughter’s school shut down and we had to manage homeschooling while running two new businesses. We had just relocated from Wisconsin in August of 2019 to Ocean City, MD where my husband re-launched his home inspection business and I bought the JDog Franchise. In the beginning, the school shut down was supposed to be two weeks. I stayed home to home-school while my husband and one of our employees went out to do the work. We juggled answering the phones, marketing, home schooling and customers all at once. During that time, my daughter and I went to the laundromat to wash some big bedding when the news broke that the restaurants were closing. A man waiting on his clothes sort of broke down into tears realizing he had no job to go to. My heart sank. Were we next? Would our business be allowed to operate? My husband’s home inspection business was already shut down. In the coming weeks both the home inspection business and the junk removal business were deemed “essential” allowing us to operate under COVID restrictions. This was a small relief despite the fact we were still 2nd grade teachers in between it all. As we went along, the next big blow came; all of the thrift stores shut down. This was a HUGE deal for us as our goal to recycle, reuse and repurpose is not JUST for the environment, it’s also for our bottom line. Whatever we can’t donate, ends up in the landfill. Given the cost of disposal, our disposal fees doubled, which made our business model unsustainable. We had to quickly come up with a plan to get us back on track, which meant we opened our own resale store. Yes, when everyone else closed, we opened. For two years, in addition to doing junk removal/dumpster rentals/demolition, we sold anything that was reusable out of our tiny shop. After the other thrift stores reopened, we shut our resale business down and got back to our core. With all that being said the pandemic really set our business growth back significantly. I’m not sure where we would be if it weren’t for that setback, but we are grateful to still be “alive” to talk about it!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Relationship building has been the key to our success in growing clientele. Being one of the “little guys” our marketing budget does not come close to that of our biggest competitor therefore, we think outside the box to market and grow. Word of mouth through our own networking efforts is what got this business off the ground and keeps us growing. My goal, which I rarely achieve, is to attend 5 networking events per week. To accomplish this, I am a member of several chambers of commerce and other networking groups. I also cold call realtors, contractors, commercial property managers, storage units and senior living facilities when I have time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jdogjunkremoval.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jdog_ocean_city/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JDogOceanCity
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/jdog-junk-removal-and-hauling-ocean-city-md
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDogOceanCity
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyX_9X3YUiQZPQ8AKgVzDgQ
• Etsy:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/VVintageTreasuresCo?ref=seller-platform-mcnav