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Revenue growth FY 2020 to 2022: 207%
2022 revenue: $5.62 million
As the name suggests: Fire Dawgs Junk Removal does residential and commercial junk removal throughout Indiana, Houston, Cincinnati and soon in Louisville. Owner and CEO Bennett Grove said the junk-removal industry is largely unknown, but in the past 20 years, consumers “are becoming more familiar with whom they should call when they have a garage full of clutter or a basement full of clutter or they have heavy, bulky things they want to get out of their house but don’t know how or can’t get out themselves.”
Side hustle: Grove joined the military after 9/11. He spent 17 years as a firefighter—first in the Air Force, where those in that job are called “fire dawgs,” then at Grissom Air Force Base. He started the junk removal business in 2011 to make money during his days off and built it into his full-time job. His last firefighting shift was Sept. 11, 2020.
Not always junk: Fire Dawgs donates, reuses or recycles at least 60% of the items it hauls away, Grove said. The company has a 12-week training program for new hires where they’re taught, among other things, how to handle the materials they pick up. “A lot of the things we’re removing are not junk to somebody,” he said. “So we’ve got to teach them the awareness that these are unwanted items that people are now getting rid of.”
In those piles: In cleaning up after people, Fire Dawgs has found a coin collection appraised at $100,000 and an old piano converted into kitchen cabinets. Employees also have dealt with their share of sewage and rats.
Building a team: Grove said it’s important to expand the business to create career paths inside the company. “When you build leaders, you’ve got to give them a place to grow,” he said, “so if they don’t want to stay on trucks they have other opportunities”—such as operations manager of a branch, regional manager or customer service representatives. “If we take care of our people, they’ll take care of our customers. And if we take care of our customers, they’ll tell their friends about us when they have a need.”•
Check out more of IBJ’s ranking of Indy’s fastest-growing companies.
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