When Brandon Sowardes came home from his mission for the Mormon
Church in 1996, he didn’t exactly have his sights set on running a
garbage company.
Hollister – When Brandon Sowardes came home from his mission for the Mormon Church in 1996, he didn’t exactly have his sights set on running a garbage company.
“I had literally nothing with me but a suitcase full of clothes and stuff,” he said. “My whole family is into real estate, so I was going to major in marketing. I figured I would go to work for my father’s business.”
To put himself through school, Sowardes took a job at a Chili’s restaurant, but he chaffed under the management style there. He had picked up useful leadership skills on his mission, and decided to try going into business for himself with a garbage service for commercial clients with just too much trash for the city service.
“I just wrote up a business plan, borrowed some money and started selling the service. I didn’t even have a name thought up,” he said. “I made more money in the first few days than I had in months.”
Sowardes was able to strike a balance between service and price for his clients, to which he attributes most of his success.
“The really big companies don’t offer the kind of personal work we do,” he said. “And the really cheap little guys can’t, or if they do they don’t have the right insurance and don’t do a very consistent job. I was able to find a niche in between.”
Initially, Sowardes’ family was less than thrilled about his chosen vocation. Sowardes drew up three business proposals for his father to review, all of which were shot down. He persisted, however, and even the staunchest anti-trash members of his family grew to respect his business and the money he was making. All it needed was a name.
“One of my clients was a woman from Texas,” Sowardes said. “And every time she called me, she would say ‘Brandon Sowardes, let’s talk trash!’ and the name just stuck. It’s simple, everybody remembers it and it explains exactly what we do.”
Sowardes runs Let’s Talk Trash from home with his wife Tiffiny, serving clients in South San Francisco all the way down to the Monterey Peninsula. He works on as many as 10 assignments a day, and estimates he spends an average of six hours a day on the road.
“That’s something I didn’t expect, how expensive it would be to do business with three trucks,” he said. “We had to raise our rates because of the recent gas prices – diesel is even more expensive – but we haven’t lost any business because of it. Everyone understands, I think.”
While Sowardes went in to business for himself to spend time with his family and enjoy the occasional tax benefit, the garbage industry offers another, unexpected boon: Treasure hunting.
“You wouldn’t believe what you find in other people’s trash,” he said. “Sometimes it’s gross, like a dead boar, but I find a lot of really cool antiques, too. I clean them up and sell them to antique stores or give them to people I know.”
While Sowardes may not have expected a life of trash, he’s happy in his work. The time Let’s Talk Trash affords him with his family makes it all worthwhile.
“It’s not glamorous work at all,” he said. “But when you come home and hear your kids say ‘Daddy!’ it’s totally worth it. I love what I do, and I’m doing it on my own terms. It’s the American dream.”
