How 15 & 17 Year Old Teens Built a $1M/Year Business⏐Ep. #263

Chris Koerner (0:00)

So, on the $460,000 you did year two, how much of that was profit, and how diligent were you in record-keeping and... Welcome to The Koerner Office. So, I was on Instagram last week once again, and I saw a video of these teenagers doing junk removal. And they have a $900,000 junk removal business in their third year. Super impressive. They started it, two brothers, when they were 15 and 17 And I thought, I gotta talk to these guys, because of a 15 and 17-year-old can start a $900,000 a year junk removal business and pay cash for a $75,000 truck in year two, or year one, one of the two. These guys are impressive. That means anyone can do it. And I want anyone to do it. I want all of you guys to start six, seven, eight figure businesses. So, if a teenager can do it, you can do it, especially because they didn't borrow any money from their parents. They weren't raised on a silver spoon or whatever. They did this themselves. They're just hard workers. So, I want you to hear their story, and hopefully you're inspired by it. Share with your friends. Love you.

Kirk McKinney (0:56)

Bye.

Chris Koerner (0:56)

Why don't we start at the beginning? What first gave you the idea to start this business?

Kirk McKinney (1:00)

It actually all happened on accident. When I was exploring one day, I was on a bike ride, and I discovered the dump with my friend. Then we went to the dump and rode our bikes around to explore. I saw this pair of speakers there that someone threw away, and they were really nice, probably like $50 speakers, and I couldn't believe that they were in the trash. So, I asked the guy if I could take them, and he said, yes. So, I brought them home, and then basically after that point, I kept going back to the dump and finding cool items and valuable things. And it was more speakers in the beginning, and this is why it happened on accident, because eventually, I collected so many speakers from the dump that my entire bedroom, actually where I'm sitting right now, used to be a pile of speakers. And my mom said that I had to throw it all away. So, at this time, I was working at a grocery store, too, making $12 an hour, and just finding speakers for fun. I didn't think it was like money I was making or anything. It was just a hobby. And when my mom said I had to throw them all away, I just I couldn't do that, because I went through so much effort to get those speakers here. So I ended up selling them on Facebook Marketplace. And that was my first time ever making money for myself, doing something that I loved.

And then from there, eventually I got into the junk removal industry. And that's how I ended up starting the junk removal business with my brother was through that opportunity. It eventually led to me buying a pickup truck and then discovering junk removal and starting that business with my younger brother.

Chris Koerner (2:39)

Okay. All right. Zillion questions. I love it already. So first of all, why were there so many dang speakers at this random junkyard?

Kirk McKinney (2:46)

There was the electronic section where people would drop off their old electronics, and that was my favorite section. So I would just camp out there all day until people would bring good stuff. And if I wasn't the one taking it, other people who were going to the dump would take the stuff. So it's kind of a common thing. It's called picking. Like it's a picker. You ever seen the show American Pickers? Those are picking through the junk. Yeah, basically what I did all day at the junkyard.

Chris Koerner (3:15)

And how old were you in this when you first started all this? When you first found speakers?

Kirk McKinney (3:20)

15 or 16 years old when I was finding speakers and I was riding them home on my bicycle. This was before I had a license or anything.

Chris Koerner (3:28)

Okay, and does entrepreneurship run in your family or did it just come naturally to you?

Kirk McKinney (3:34)

Yeah, so my parents also own a business. They own a tree service. It's a home service business. They do tree trimming more on like not the heavy tree removal, but like more of the artistic side, kind of like making your property look nice trimming. They do everything, but my dad specializes in tree surgery is what he calls it. So I was able to learn a little bit about the home service business through seeing their company. And I also used to work for my dad, too. So I did learn a little bit about business through them, but they didn't give us money to start. They didn't build the business for us. It was all us. They never really gave us much besides the knowledge and their advice.