Dumpster Rental Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

dumpster rental business plan

Dumpster Rental Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their dumpster rental companies. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan and understand how to start a dumpster rental business.

In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a dumpster rental business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your dumpster rental business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan

If you’re looking to start a dumpster rental business or grow your existing dumpster rental company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your dumpster rental business to improve your chances of success. Your dumpster rental business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Dumpster Rental Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a dumpster rental business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan (hand it to them in person or email to them as a PDF file) and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for dumpster rental companies.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

If you’d like to quickly and easily complete your business plan, download Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and complete your plan and financial model in hours.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Dumpster Rental Business

If you want to start a dumpster rental business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. The guide and sample below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your dumpster rental business plan.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of dumpster rental business you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a dumpster rental business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of dumpster rental businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. 

  • Give a brief overview of the dumpster rental industry. 
  • Discuss the type of dumpster rental business you are operating. 
  • Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. 
  • Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team. 
  • Offer an overview of your financial plan.

 

Company Overview

In your company overview, you will detail the type of dumpster rental business you are operating.

For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of dumpster rental businesses:

  1. Home clean-up dumpster rentals: Before a house move, or after a large project, homeowners often rent dumpsters to haul away materials and personal belongings to clean up in and around the home.
  2. Contractor dumpster rentals: Building contractors and subcontractors create a great amount of waste during the building process. Dumpsters are excellent general use bins for everything not needed.  
  3. Hospital dumpster rentals: Hospitals will often rent dumpsters for several weeks to months to accommodate waste items removed from the hospital that cannot be removed via regular waste management services. 
  4. Landscapers dumpster rentals: With enormous amounts of clippings, dirt, leaves and branches to clear, landscapers are often contract customers of dumpster rental businesses.
  5. Waste management dumpster rentals: Waste management dumpster rental companies serve in rural areas where city waste collection is not provided. Home occupants pay monthly on contract service.   

In addition to explaining the type of dumpster rental business you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

  • When and why did you start the business?
  • What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of residential customers served, the number of ongoing contracts secured, or reaching X$ revenue collected.
  • Your legal business structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.
Quickly and easily complete your Dumpster Rental business plan with Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and complete your plan and financial model in just hours.


Industry Analysis

In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the dumpster rental industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the dumpster rental industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.

The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your dumpster rental business plan:

  • How big is the dumpster rental industry (in dollars)?
  • Is the market declining or increasing?
  • Who are the key competitors in the market?
  • Who are the key suppliers in the market?
  • What trends are affecting the industry?
  • What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
  • What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your dumpster rental business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

 

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your dumpster rental business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: individuals, businesses, rural towns, landscapers, contractors, and hospitals. 

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of dumpster rental business you operate. Clearly, individuals would respond to different marketing promotions than hospitals, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers. Ideally you can speak with a sample of your target customers before writing your plan to better understand their needs.

Finish Your Dumpster Rental Business Plan in 1 Day!

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your business plan?

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Click here to finish your Dumpster Rental business plan today.


Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other dumpster rental businesses. 

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. This includes small truck garbage services, and self-service city trash removal areas. You need to mention direct competition, as well.

For each direct competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as

  • What types of customers do they serve?
  • What type of dumpster rental business are they?
  • What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
  • What are they good at?
  • What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

  • Will you provide quick 24/7 service for hospitals?
  • Will you offer a discount for a rental of several dumpsters?
  • Will you provide better customer service?
  • Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

 

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a dumpster rental business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

Product: In the product section, you should reiterate the type of dumpster rental company that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide dumpster rentals for high-risk items, such as certain chemicals, paints or materials?

Price: Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place: Place refers to the site of your dumpster rental company. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your dumpster rental business located in an area adjacent to the city waste removal site? Do you have specific methods of removing and sorting trash sustainably while in your location? 

Promotions: The final part of your dumpster rental marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

  • Advertise in local papers, radio stations and/or magazines
  • Reach out to websites 
  • Distribute flyers
  • Engage in email marketing
  • Advertise on social media platforms
  • Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) on your website for targeted keywords

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

If you’d like to quickly and easily complete your business plan, download Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and complete your plan and financial model in hours.


 

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your dumpster rental business, including answering calls, planning and providing dumpster rentals, billing clients and paying bills, etc. 

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to book your Xth customer, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your dumpster rental business to a new city.

 

Management Team

To demonstrate your dumpster rental business’ potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing dumpster rental businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a dumpster rental business or successfully running a waste treatment facility.

 

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenue and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you see 10 rentals daily, and offer bulk pricing on large contracts? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your dumpster rental business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. 

When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a dumpster rental business:

  • Cost of buying and maintaining dumpster equipment
  • Payroll or salaries paid to staff
  • Business insurance
  • Taxes
  • Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, and equipment

 

Appendix

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a list of insurance plans you accept.

 

Summary

Writing a business plan for your dumpster rental business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the dumpster rental industry, your competition, and your customers. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful dumpster rental business.

 

Dumpster Rental Business Plan FAQs

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily write your dumpster rental business plan.

Starting a dumpster rental business is easy with these 14 steps:

  1. Choose the Name for Your Dumpster Rental Business
  2. Create Your Dumpster Rental Business Plan
  3. Choose the Legal Structure for Your Dumpster Rental Business
  4. Secure Startup Funding for Your Dumpster Rental Business (If Needed)
  5. Secure a Location for Your Business
  6. Register Your Dumpster Rental Business with the IRS
  7. Open a Business Bank Account
  8. Get a Business Credit Card
  9. Get the Required Business Licenses and Permits
  10. Get Business Insurance for Your Dumpster Rental Business
  11. Buy or Lease the Right Dumpster Rental Business Equipment
  12. Develop Your Dumpster Rental Business Marketing Materials
  13. Purchase and Setup the Software Needed to Run Your Dumpster Rental Business
  14. Open for Business

Click here to download the pdf version of our basic business plan template.

Our free business plan template pdf allows you to see the key sections to complete in your plan and the key questions that each must answer. The business plan pdf will definitely get you started in the right direction.

We do offer a premium version of our business plan template. Click here to learn more about it. The premium version includes numerous features allowing you to quickly and easily create a professional business plan. Its most touted feature is its financial projections template which allows you to simply enter your estimated sales and growth rates, and it automatically calculates your complete five-year financial projections including income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Here’s the link to our Ultimate Business Plan Template.



Finish Your Dumpster Rental Business Plan in 1 Day!

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Dumpster Rental business plan?

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Click here to finish your Dumpster Rental business plan today.

 

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.
 

Click here to see how a Growthink business planning advisor can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates