SWANSEA, Ill. — The late-night phone call to Rachel and Tharon Sperry came from a contractor in New York with an urgent question. Can your company provide 12 dumpsters within two hours to remove debris from the Amazon delivery station in Edwardsville, Illinois, that collapsed from a tornado?
It was December 2021, nearly a year after the couple began to operate their redbox+ Dumpsters franchise in Metro East counties.
The Sperrys immediately said yes.
“Our drivers hopped to it and they were able to be on-site so that the big debris could be removed,’’ said Rachel Sperry. “They were still looking for survivors at that point. We kept 12 dumpsters going for two to three months until the clean-up had been completed.”
Sperry said it was a “very sad time” with the loss of six lives at the delivery station, but it also was an opportunity for the couple and their employees to “prove our worth that we could actually do the job.”
The Sperrys are examples of small business owners who pursued their entrepreneurial dreams during the Covid-19 pandemic and have not only survived but seen some growth. From the pre-pandemic year of 2019, to 2021, there was a 53% increase in applications to start businesses in the United States, according to Census Bureau data. From 2020 to 2021, there was a 16.7% increase in business applications in Illinois and the percentage increase in Missouri was 20.3%, according to Census figures adjusted for seasonal variation.
Starting with one truck and one driver, the Sperrys now have three of each, one of whom also doubles as a general manager. The fourth employee is the office manager. The number of dumpsters they own has tripled to nearly 120, Sperry said. They declined to release their revenue figures. Dumpster rental fees for up to seven days range from $399 to $599, according to the company's website.
They acknowledged that the dumpster business is not “glamorous.” A big selling point is in addition to regular dumpsters, they also have dumpsters that roll off a flat-bed truck with two portable toilets attached to them — a form of one-stop shopping for those in the construction field.
“People stop us on job sites and say, ‘wow, why didn’t someone think of this before?’ ’’ Sperry said. "It's a unique product because it's patented. Nobody else is going to come out with a toilet like this anywhere else in the United States. Guys have a thing where they like to tip the (portable toilet) over when somebody is inside it. They get kind of all guyish. There's no way you can tip this over. So it's a safety thing as well."
They added that their decision to choose dumpsters proved fortuitous. They considered becoming franchise owners of a haircutting business or a venture that teaches children how to do computer coding, but they said those options would have been hampered by the pandemic.
“This was perfect because we could run it from home and it being a dumpster business, everything was outdoors,” Sperry said.
Tharon Sperry said he and his wife also chose the dumpsters because of his background in logistics. A lieutenant colonel stationed at Scott Air Force Base, Tharon Sperry is deputy director of strategy at the Air Operations Center. He plans to retire in September 2023 and work on the business with his wife full-time.
Read more of the story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
To watch 5 On Your Side broadcasts or reports 24/7, 5 On Your Side is always streaming on 5+. Download for free on Roku or Amazon Fire TV.
