If you want to get rid of furniture, pianos or pet feces, Mark Rubin is the man to call. Just don't ask him to remove a fake bomb.
Rubin, owner of one of the top 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchises in the country — which hauls old junk from businesses and homes — and a franchise of Doody Calls — which hauls away animal feces — can haul away just about anything.
"One time we were asked to remove a Korean War aerial dummy bomb from a home in D.C.," said Rubin, 38, of Gaithersburg. "We told her to call the bomb squad for that."
Rubin's junk franchise is tied with one in Philadelphia for first place nationally overall based on revenue, and the franchises are second internationally behind Toronto, said Melinda Berry, spokeswoman for 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
"A lot of it is because we have a great market in D.C.," Rubin said of his client base. Doody Calls is "a good add on business to 1-800-GOT-JUNK?," Rubin said.
"The best part is it's got a reoccurring revenue," Rubin said of Doody Calls.
Owning businesses dedicated to collecting junk and feces wasn't in Rubin's plans after college. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1993 and was an IT consultant and small jet engine salesman.
Then, in 2003, he decided that if anyone was going to tell him what to do, it should be him. So he bought the junk franchise for $140,000.
Buying the franchise was great because he "wanted a job where I didn't have to do much or do too much thinking."
Tucked away in a small office in Rockville, off Old Georgetown Road, Rubin and general manager Zhi Li run the junk and animal waste removal businesses. Business remains steady "except when it gets colder and fewer people are moving or getting rid of a lot of stuff," Li said.
"No matter how bad the economy is, people are still moving and need us to get their junk," said Li, 29, of Gaithersburg.
And people in the metro area have a lot of it.
Bruce Schulman of Bethesda has used Rubin's junk removal services more than five times over the last two years. Schulman, 39, has had old, water-damaged furniture, carpet, books and file cabinets removed from his home and his real estate business.
"It's a great service," Schulman said.
Rubin's franchise hauled in more than $2 million in 2008, according to a report from Li.
It has 20 employees during fall and winter and usually 40 in the spring and summer months. Doody Calls has three employees.
More than 60 percent of the junk they collect ends up at the Salvation Army or Goodwill, Rubin said. "Everything else gets sent to waste transfer centers," he said.
Besides the dummy bomb, Rubin said there have been other requests to have odd items removed. Old, mildewed refrigerators are common, and occasionally, Rubin said, "we move a piano or two."
"One time we were called in to remove a half of a truck of mannequins," he said.
