How to make a million starting a used cooking oil recycling company
Entrepreneurs the world over constantly look for the next great industry in which to make their living. Many search for the next great app: Uber, Hotels Tonight, Health Monitoring, Angie’s List or Speak French in 7 days, thinking it’ll limit overhead cost, but sometimes the answer is starting a company in an industry in which few think to venture. Businesses that do what others don’t want to do can be some of the best new businesses to start. You can make a million in the used cooking oil industry.
In the first year, an aggressively growing used cooking oil company might be able to get 150 accounts. Each account likely produces 70 gallons of oil per month though some produce much more and some produce much less. The price of cooking oil fluctuates widely, but on average, it runs about $3 per gallon. That means the company is on track to build $378,000 worth of recurring annual revenue by the end of the first year. If the company can scale that up and find 500 oil-producing clients, that jumps to $1.26 million. You’ve made your first million (in revenue) in used cooking oil. With an attainable margin of 33%-66%, a hard working entrepreneur can make a good living recycling Used Cooking Oil.
Read on to learn how to:
- start a used cooking oil collection business
- market your business and gain 200 accounts in year one
- cost effectively build a facility and buy trucks and equipment to launch your business
- sell your UCO for the best price
- make your first million
A case study in how to make a million in used cooking oil
Jack and Don, hardworking, street savvy entrepreneurs, without college degrees, started their company with minimal capital, a pick-up truck, a lot of moxy and minimal sales experience. They worked nonstop to start their company but didn’t know all the used cooking oil-specific best practices to make their company as efficient as possible. About a year in, they had about 200 accounts but spent long hours driving and longer hours managing their clients and scheduling routes. There was no time or money for additional growth. They were stuck.
That’s when they found the Reiter suite of companies. With the help of Reiter’s expertise, they bought trucks, launched UCO collection tracking systems for their clients, hired staff, built a processing plant and began attaining the full market value of their UCO. Today, they have a business generating multiple-six figure annual returns.
Jack and Don recognized that UCO was one of the best businesses to start, but used trial and error to start their business, and it cost them both time and money. They over came their challenges and today they have 1000 accounts, a small fleet, five employees and major profits.
Reiter Consulting can help your company at any point in your growth, but if you let us show you why used cooking oil collection is one of the best industries to start a business in and help you get set up from the very beginning. We’ll get you on the growth trajectory starting day one, so your company can make you a millionaire as soon as possible. Reiter has 14 years of experience helping entrepreneurs launch used cooking oil businesses.
Reiter Consulting
If your company is going to make you a millionaire, you can’t spend all your cash on buying and repairing equipment. You also can’t waste time selling dirty oil for substandard prices when with the right purification process you could get 20% more revenue. With 14 years helping entrepreneurs launch UCO businesses, Reiter can guide you toward the highest-quality equipment like trucks and pumps at the lowest cost. Reiter Consulting will help you plan and build facilities to efficiently process the oil you collect. Their knowledge and experience ensure you employ the best industry practices, implementing optimized processes that minimize your expense and minimize labor, construction, and utility costs. Reiter Consulting flattens the learning curve so you don’t make costly mistakes that hamstring you on the way to making your first million.
Pounding the pavement is only one way to get clients. Reiter Consulting has a digital marketing team that will help bring clients to you to drive your sales so you can compete with the industry heavyweights by:
- building and/or optimizing your website
- creating industry-leading Google Ads campaigns
- leveraging social media for targeted marketing and brand awareness
The Reiter Suite of Companies
Reiter is more than a consulting company.
Many entrepreneurs start a used cooking oil company only for growth to stall in that second year. What happens in that second year? During the first year, you start walking into hundreds of restaurants, offering a rebate and promising great service. That works well for a while, but somewhere in the 2nd year or so and 200 accounts in, the company hits a wall.
During the first year, you’re gaining accounts daily, but soon your issues go beyond getting new clients. Your challenges become: how can I pick up all this oil and keep my clients happy? Or how can I pick up more oil with the trucks and drivers I have? And how do I find or minimize the capital I need for a plant and equipment? Is UCO really the best business to start to make my first million?
Much like a franchisor, Reiter companies can help you launch your small UCO business into the ranks of major profit producers. Unlike franchisors, you don’t sell your soul to get the plan, the tools, the capital and the guidance to make a million in used cooking oil. There are no franchise fees to chew up 40% of your profits. That helps your company make its first million much faster.
What Reiter Consulting offers is a proven process to help you get the best value for your oil. Properly rendered and purified oil sells for about 20% less than oil that may still contain water or impurities. That’s a lot of money you could lose out on without the most efficient process and equipment.
How else does Reiter help make used cooking oil collection one of the best industries to start a company in?
Reiter Software offers management software that streamlines your operations, allowing you to collect more UCO with the equipment and staff you already have. It has been our experience that most growth phase UCO companies struggle to grow past 300-500 accounts without an industry specific technology platform, but that building one at that stage is cost prohibitive.
An industry driven product like Reiter Software means more revenues, higher profits with the same expense base you have now And you won’t waste years trying to develop a cheap strategy to manage accounts in Excel or half a million dollars trying to build your own program. That helps you focus energy and capital on what you need to grow your business, like trucks, cooking oil containers and drivers.
Reiter Trading, a highly respected trader of UCO, can make sure that once you’re collecting as much oil as possible and processing it to its cleanest state, you get the top price for it. Additionally, utilizing source verification software such as Reiter Trading can confidently market your oil as “compliant” with various recordkeeping standards, ensuring top price.
UCO markets are volatile and Reiter’s traders are in the market every day. They know what prices are doing and have their fingers on the pulse of the market so they can help you arrange the best deal for your business, based on your company’s risk profile. Do you want to ride the market? Maybe it will go up? Do you want to lock in a long term price to ensure you can cover your upcoming construction plans? Maybe a locked-in price makes sense for you. Our traders take into account your needs to develop a suitable trade agreement.
Reiter Trading also handles all of the logistics of getting your oil from you to your buyer. You can trust their experience and trust that you are getting the best price. This allows you to focus on the parts of your business that you are the best at, while an expert trading and logistics provider focuses on what they are best at.
If you want to launch a UCO company or simply accelerate your existing growth into the ranks of a mid-sized urban or even regional collectors, the Reiter Companies will get you there. Their trading expertise, their industry experience, their software and their marketing solutions are exactly what you need to start a successful new business in the growing green industry of Used Cooking Oil recycling.