A New Generation in Trades
Carter Grandbois, an 18-year-old entrepreneur from Johnstown, Colorado, generates up to $15,000 monthly through his junk removal business, Carter’s Junk Away. He identified the potential in the industry while working as a teenager for a local operator, noticing the significant cash flow in the business. Grandbois transitioned to full-time ownership by purchasing his own trailer and applying data-driven pricing models he built himself.
Grandbois characterizes his software development as vibe-coding. This tool allows his employees to bid on jobs with high accuracy, ensuring consistent profitability. He currently manages the operations from home, moving away from manual field work as the company scales. His business model now includes charging $125 to $1,000 per job, which is a departure from his initial days on the truck.
Influencer Culture Meets Manual Labor
Social media plays a significant role in the growth of modern blue-collar startups. Grandbois uses TikTok to share his pricing calculators with other operators, an approach aimed at creating transparency in an industry that previously thrived on secrecy. He views the internet as a primary source for business education, replacing the traditional path of reading business publications with active consumption of short-form video content.
Sam Pillar, CEO of Jobber, observes that many young entrepreneurs are merging the roles of influencer and business owner. The pursuit of independence in these industries mirrors the desire for control found in the creator economy. Gen Z workers increasingly opt for direct entry into trades, viewing them as viable alternatives to corporate roles that often lead to stagnation or debt.
Shifting Parental and Industry Perspectives
Parental attitudes toward skilled trades have changed drastically. Recent data indicates that 92 percent of parents now encourage trade careers for their children, a stark reversal from the previous focus on four-year university degrees. This shift is mirrored by individuals like Levi Boyd, an entrepreneur who dropped out of a business program to focus on scaling his landscaping company. Boyd reports revenue growth from $28,000 in his first year to over $323,000 in his third.
Traditional institutions are struggling to adapt to this change in workforce behavior. Scott Shaw, CEO of Lincoln Tech, notes that social media videos from active welders and electricians act as more effective recruitment tools than decades of institutional messaging. Meanwhile, workforce placement organizations like AmericaWorks continue to address the gap between young workers' expectations and the realities of entry-level employment.
Future Growth and Structural Challenges
Scaling beyond manual labor remains the primary challenge for these young founders. Grandbois has branched into consulting, helping other operators replicate his success. Boyd intends to automate his landscaping operations, shifting his focus to commercial maintenance contracts to remove himself from day-to-day fieldwork entirely. Both entrepreneurs rely on software solutions to manage the transition from owner-operator to business owner.
These developments occur against a backdrop of record-high business formation. With 5.6 million new applications filed last year, the movement toward small-scale entrepreneurship is significant. Whether these businesses become long-term fixtures of the economy or are temporary responses to shifts in the labor market remains a point of observation for industry analysts. Success in this sector currently depends on the ability to balance physical service delivery with digital infrastructure.