Warwick resident and Air Force veteran Bryan Lindley recently made his dream of operating his own business a reality when he became the owner of the first JDog Junk Removal and Hauling franchise in Rhode Island.

Based in Philadelphia, Pa., JDog is a growing national company offering exclusive business ownership opportunities to veterans and their families. The full service junk removal and hauling business caters to both residential and commercial customers for a flat fee, which covers labor and cleanup. Franchise owners operate easily recognizable, camouflage vehicles and trailers and wear military-style uniforms.

“We do commercial office moves, clean-outs, brush pickups. We deal with anything but hazardous materials,” Lindley said. “What separates us from competitors is that we do free on-site estimates and try to be accurate with our quotes. If we quoted you higher, we’ll lower prices to match the space that is taken up in our trailer.”

Lindley said JDog not only hauls junk away, but also cleans up the area.

“We clean more than what we take so it’s spotless when we leave,” he said, adding customers also get the satisfaction of supporting a veteran-owned business by using JDog.

Another goal of JDog is to avoid the landfill as much as possible.

“We try to stay out of the landfills by tapping into all the state recycling programs and donating what we can to charities,” Lindley said.

Lindley, who served honorably in the U.S. Air Force from 1985 to 1995, used to work in the tech industry, but he left it in September after 18 years because he was always looking to start a family business with his daughter Jesse, who will help support the day-to-day operations, and his wife Kelly, who will join the team in the near future when she retires from a 30-year career with JC Penney, where she currently serves as the store manager in North Attleboro, Mass.

“My daughter was instrumental in doing this,” he said. “The corporate world had been grinding me down and I’d always dreamed about doing this for a while. This is a dream come true for all of us.”

Lindley said he had to put up an initial investment of $25,000 for the franchise cost, plus additional money, including the purchase of a Hummer-H2 military vehicle and trailer, for a total cost of $60,000 to $70,000.

Lindley runs the business out of his home, which is located on the Warwick-East Greenwich line. Since he is currently the only Rhode Island JDog franchise, he could service the entire state but he said his service area would mainly consist of central Rhode Island and the surrounding areas.

Lindley said JDog was started by an Army veteran, who decided to franchise the business in an effort to support veterans and their families.

“The JDog team is supported by an experienced board of advisors, including decorated military officers and business professionals, who understand the unique attributes and qualifications of veterans,” Jerry Flanagan, founder of JDog, said in a press release. “Every operations member of the JDog team has served our country, and now we’re banding together to serve their local communities.”

Lindley plans to carry forward that same effort by hiring “as many vets as I can.”

“Vets hiring vets,” he said. “My plan is to expand through programs like compensated work therapy with the VA [Veterans Administration] and Operation Stand Down, who we met with and talked about future employment opportunities.”

Lindley said this is an exciting time and he’s happy to be in Rhode Island.

“We’re thrilled,” he said. “My family grew up here in Rhode Island, which is a great state for supporting veterans and a great state for this type of business.”

Lindley said a grand opening ceremony and ribbon cutting will be held on Monday, March 14 starting at 4 p.m. at Dan’s Place, a restaurant located on 800 Victory Highway in West Greenwich. Light food and free drinks will be available following the ribbon cutting at 4:30.

“We were looking for a veteran-operated business for the grand opening and the owner of Dan’s Place was a marine,” he said, adding the JDog CEO will be in attendance as well as a JDog franchisee from New Hampshire.

For more information or to schedule a pickup, visit www.jdogjunkremoval.com and enter your zip code or call 585-7320 or 1-844-GET-JDOG.