From Professional Snowboarder to CEO: Building a $5 Million Junk Removal Business with Barry Hartman
When Barry Hartman left professional snowboarding to start a junk removal company, a Vancouver newspaper summed up his career change with a headline: “Professional snowboarder drops sponsors to become garbage man.” Barry would have preferred entrepreneur, but the description wasn’t wrong. He was hauling garbage. After earning $200 for a few hours helping with a weekend junk removal job, he had spotted an opportunity. What looked like a side gig could become a business, and the marketing skills he had developed through snowboarding could help him build it.
In this episode of The Business Development Podcast, Kelly Kennedy sits down with Barry Hartman, co-founder and CEO of 505 Junk and founder of Bolt Accelerator, to explore how he helped grow a local service business to $5 million in revenue. Barry shares how early mentorship shaped his approach to hiring and delegation, why developing a pay-by-weight model helped the company stand out, and how a deliberate focus on recurring commercial clients changed its growth trajectory. They discuss competing with an established industry leader, building relationships with both decision makers and people on site, and why winning an account is only the beginning. Barry also explains how he turned his experience into a coaching business and why stepping back from daily tasks can create opportunities for his team to grow.
What You’ll Learn
1. How skills developed in one career can transfer into an entirely different industry.
2. Why early mentorship, clear processes and hiring can help founders make time to build the business.
3. How solving a pricing problem can improve customer trust and operational efficiency.
4. Why an established competitor can provide inspiration and evidence of opportunity.
5. How a commercial sales process helped 505 Junk grow from $500,000 to $1.5 million in revenue in 24 months.
6. Why decision makers and site contacts need different kinds of attention within the same account.
7. How consistent service and genuine relationships help turn customers into recurring clients.
8. Why stepping away from daily tasks can give employees room to take responsibility and advance.
Chapters
00:00 Professional snowboarder becomes garbage man
01:21 Introducing Barry Hartman
04:17 Selling door to door at twelve
04:58 Growing up around entrepreneurship
06:46 Learning marketing through the family business
08:13 The business lesson Barry’s mother never let him forget
09:47 Helping students discover entrepreneurship
14:09 Becoming a professional snowboarder
18:41 Leaving snowboarding and choosing a new direction
20:26 The weekend job that revealed a business opportunity
21:27 Turning marketing skills into a junk removal business
22:38 Building a company that could scale
25:06 Working on the business and learning to delegate
26:02 Differentiating through pay-by-weight pricing
27:13 Building truck scales and improving efficiency
28:14 Competing with 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
31:09 The commercial sales strategy that changed the business
33:41 Recurring accounts and the path to $5 million
34:16 Building an account management strategy
37:20 Keeping relationships strong after winning the work
39:20 When clients become friends
40:59 The story behind Bolt Accelerator
43:12 Turning experience into systems, coaching and community
44:41 Stepping back without abandoning the business
46:48 Growing Bolt and identifying the right members
49:02 How AI is changing what entrepreneurs can build
50:23 Connecting with Barry
Connect with Barry Hartman
Barry is the co-founder and CEO of 505 Junk and founder of Bolt Accelerator. Through his operating business and coaching community, he helps junk removal entrepreneurs develop the systems, sales processes and leadership skills needed to grow their companies.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartmanbarry/
505 Junk: https://505junk.com/
Bolt Accelerator: https://www.boltaccelerator.com/
Support Foxx and Our Family
Our one year old son Foxx is currently fighting cancer. If you are able to donate or share our GoFundMe, our family would be incredibly grateful.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-shelby-kelly-during-foxxs-fight-against-cancer
Thank You to Our Sponsors
Thank you to Colin Harms and our title sponsor, Hypervac Technologies, for your steadfast support of The Business Development Podcast. We are also grateful to Hyperfab for helping us continue to bring these conversations to listeners.
Hypervac Technologies builds professional duct cleaning equipment, including duct trucks, portable vacuums and tools for contractors in the field.
Hyperfab provides custom fabrication and specialized solutions for industrial applications.
https://hyperfab.ca/
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