A Cuban resident in the United States has become a benchmark for entrepreneurship on social media by showcasing how her unwanted item removal business operates and revealing how much money she can make in just a few hours.
Amelis Luna posted on Instagram a video about her company "Next Step Junk" and starts with a statement that hooked thousands of followers: "Today we made 200 dollars in less than an hour, and what we found at the end is worth more than what we charged."
The business involves clients paying to have everything they no longer want removed from their homes: from a single piece of furniture to clearing out an entire house.
In the case shown in the video, the property owner called because the tenant moved out and left their belongings behind. "We need to check every drawer, every closet, and every little corner of the house," explains Luna.
One of the most moving aspects of the story is the cultural contrast described by the entrepreneur. "At first, it hurt me because where I come from, everything is saved and reused," she admits, referring directly to the Cuban reality, where scarcity compels people to make the most of every single item. In the United States, on the other hand, items that are practically new are discarded.
When they can, Luna and her team donate and give away what they find that may be useful, but when there are several jobs in one day, there's no time to separate things. "You have to throw it away and move on," she admits straightforwardly.
At the beginning of the venture, criticism was inevitable. "Many people criticized us, calling us trash collectors, or as we say in Cuba, divers," he recalls. However, he defends his decision with numbers: "This is a real business and it makes money. Just in the United States, this industry generates billions each year."
Luna's story is part of a growing trend of Cubans starting service businesses in the United States and documenting them on social media.
Leidy Aragón started her cleaning business with less than 100 dollars and her story went viral on TikTok.
Last week, a group of Cubans opened a jewelry store in Miami under the name "I-220A Joyería", with the slogan "Dreams have no borders."
The singer La Diosa also opened her own car wash business and in 2025, a Cuban economist founded three elder care centers in Miami.
According to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Cubans make up 12% of small business owners in Florida.
Living well in the United States by cleaning houses or removing unwanted items is a reality that more and more migrants are documenting and sharing as evidence that hard work pays off.
Luna's business has a hydraulic trailer that dumps the load at the landfill with just the push of a button. But the income doesn’t stop there: the items left behind after each job represent, according to her, "real money," beyond the payment for the service.
"Opening our own business was the best decision we could have made," Luna wrote in the video description. And her philosophy during the toughest days sums it all up: "The harder it is, the happier I am because it's more money for me."
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