Five-Year Old Texas Boy Runs Successful Garbage Business

5-Year-Old Runs Successful Garbage Biz (NewsFix)

HOUSTON, TX – Sunday nights around 6, when other kindergarteners are getting stuff ready for school, 5-year-old Joe Jarvis has a special job to do.

Well, not just a job. Actually, it’s a business! He walks to his neighbors’ homes and drags their trash cans to the curb.

“I liked to help the neighbors,” says the little businessman, “and I liked to get hired for it.”

And that he does! Joe has five clients in his Montrose area neighborhood, including Paul Lester.

“There was a little circular or a little card put in our mailbox or in our gate that said this service was available,” says Lester. “That Garbage Man Joe was looking for work. That sounded good to us.”

Joe charges 25 cents a week for each container he moves. He spends the money he earns on stuff like Legos and pocket watches.

He says it beats waiting on his parents to buy them “cause they’re like, ‘Oh no, I’m not buying that for you. I don’t even have that much money,’ but then the neighbors give me enough.”

“He has never failed,” says Lettalou Whittington, another satisfied customer. “The only time– if he’s going to his grandmother, he comes and brings a note and says there will be no service this week because I’m going to my grandma’s.”

His dad Carl says the trash biz is not always easy for Little Joe, “I don’t wanna sugarcoat it too much. Sometimes it’s a challenge to get him to do the business every single week. But I think he sees the value in it over the long run. Certainly, he sees the reward in it.”

And Joe has his sights set on expansion with little sister Brooke, 3, and baby brother James.

“I definitely know my brother’s gonna do it,” says Joe, “because he’s like ‘I wanna (move) this trash can’ and then he does it.”

But does CEO Joe pay his 18-month-old helper?

Joe laughs, “No, he’ll just swallow the money.”