Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
No. 22
Revenue growth FY 2021 to 2023: 91%
2023 revenue: $7.1 million
Fire Dawgs Junk Removal opened its second location toward the end of 2020, when the pandemic upended how and where we live. “During that time,” Human Resources Manager Brycen Spangler says, “everybody was buying and selling and buying and selling houses left and right. And so there were a lot of people calling us, either decluttering and getting ready to move, or they were having us come and remove the stuff left behind.” The company, which does commercial and residential junk removal but also cleanouts, demolition and other services, now has 10 locations. It has made the Fast 25 two consecutive years.
The pace of expansion: “I think word of mouth spreads,” Spangler says, “and you know, we’ll get that occasional customer that says, ‘You know, I wish you guys had a location up here in Lafayette.’ Well, now we have a location in Lafayette.” The Lafayette location opened in March 2022, followed by Houston and Cincinnati later that year and Evansville, Louisville, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio, in 2023.
Hiring challenges: Filling open positions can prove difficult, Spangler says. Whether a candidate actually shows up for an interview is a 50-50 proposition. The odds that the person will show up for the first day on the job are no better. Some new employees who don’t exactly understand what Fire Dawgs does or how the work is done soon do understand that the job is not for them—“which is totally fine because that’s how we set up our business,” he says. “It’s not meant for everybody because it is a very fast-paced, physically demanding job.”
Rising through the ranks: Spangler credits much of the company’s success to its training development efforts. Workers hired into entry-level positions gain experience, go through various training initiatives that include learning about budgeting and marketing, get promoted, and are running operations today. “We push them to pursue growth just outside of what I think a normal company would do by using different tools and knowledge to go out there and become a better leader themselves,” he says. An emphasis for 2024 is to further develop the locations the company has rather than adding new ones.•
Check out more of IBJ’s ranking of Indy’s fastest-growing companies.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.