Professional Pooper Scooper Answers More Questions From YOU

Question: Have you ever used door hangers or flyers in neighborhoods to get new customers and if so did you get any customers from them?

I ordered 10K+ door hangers off Alibaba and used them earlier in the year to much success. Even though we only put out around 200 door hangers, we were able to close 3 new customers who completely paid for the 10K door hangers! I think it’s a wonderful idea I do a lot of appointments now and I’m always seeing my clients neighbors have their own dogs in the yard and I’m always thinking this is a wasted opportunity because I don’t have a door hanger that I can leave on their property.

Door hangers are great to help with your route density and to minimize how much driving you’re doing in between appointments.

Question: What size bag do you use for your bucket?

I’ve been using the 13 gallon bags from Sam’s Club for a really long time! It just fits my dustpan really well, I’m able to like pull the drawstrings without them snapping. Any 13 gallon bag is really good for your dustpan.

Question: Have you ever considered using a respirator to eliminate the smell while working?

It’s actually not a bad idea, I’ve never really used a respirator especially during the summer time there are times where the car just stinks so horribly, just because your hauling around shit right? And I don’t have a truck, it’s in the trunk of my car in a large garbage bag. There are times where like it’s just really overwhelming and sometimes I do want to use a mask so I think a respirator would be a great idea.

Question: Do you think Cash App would be a suitable method for payment?

I used Venmo in my first year. I think cash app is fine. Eventually you do want to upgrade to some sort of CRM, have a more professional feel for your business but when you start out CashApp should be fine.

Question: What/when is winter cleanup?

If you live in an area that has a snowy season this is usually the time where people just let their dogs go out into the backyard and like just take a shit and because it’s snowing they frankly don’t pick any of their poop up. They get an accumulation of weeks and sometimes months worth of poop in their backyard and then the springtime comes all the snow melts. Typically this is when it’s the most chaotic for a Pet Waste Removal Business you just start getting so many people reach out to you because the snow finally melted and they realized oh my god I had so much shit in my backyard! They just don’t want to do it themselves or they might just be overwhelmed.

Because Springtime and winter cleanups are the busiest time of the year, this is when you should be pricing your services correctly and actually charging a lot more during this period of time. When there’s a lot of demand, that’s the best time for you to try to grow your business push out advertising. Everyone is going to be looking for a pooper scooper!

Question: I need $1,000 a week. Is that possible for one person?

That’s $52,000 a year and that’s very possible! I did an update blog of my second year as a pooper scooper where I made $55, 440.43. There are some customers that’ll pay you a hundred to two hundred dollars a month depending on how many dogs they have and the type of services that you’re providing them and if they’re paying you at a weekly or bi-weekly cadence it’s very possible to get a thousand dollars a week with this kind of business.

Question: What do you do with the poop?

At least for me, I am a Pet Waste REMOVAL Business so when I finish the service I literally just remove it from their property. I have a couple customers that allow me to leave it in their dumpster but for me like I just take it from their property, I can either go to a dump or you can rent out a dumpster but that’ll cut into your travel time each day. I know this is a very contentious subject, there are a lot of people that don’t haul the poop away and there are people who are in the same boat as me. We are a removal service so I’m curious about what you think! Leave a comment down below and let me know if You Haul the poop away or if you just leave it in their trash cans!

Question: What are your prices?

For that my rule of thumb especially, since I’ve been in business for a couple of years is I try to aim for at least a dollar a minute, that includes the driving time. Everyone has different pricing structures and that’s the beauty of having a pet waste removal business that you can charge however you want as long as it’s fair to you and your customer. But Frankly, there are a lot of you that are HELLA under charging your services! I’m not going to put myself in that position. I know at least in my state I have some of the highest rates out of all the other pooper scoopers and that does affect my ability to land a lot of customers but I rather focus on having high ticket clients that’ll pay me what I know the services are worth. They don’t want to do it and they’re willing to pay for it so why wouldn’t you try to charge what you’re worth? A lot of you really need to raise your prices and I’m never going to stop telling everyone to raise their prices. We need to all collectively bring this industry up together!

Question: Do you do monthly invoices and if so are they reoccurring and when do you send the invoice?

Initially I was on the “Post Pay” model, where I would charge a customer’s card on file after service has been completed. This lead to many instances where it would be days or weeks before I got paid because their card would decline from insufficient funds. Now I switched all my customers to “Pre-Paid” service, everyone who is on a subscription plan with me has their card automatically charged on the 1st of each month for the services rendered that month. This has transformed how I manage my business as now I can collect all that money up front to push into my own marketing campaigns and I don’t have to worry about chasing people for my money!

Question: I’ve read you older blog posts, how has upgrading to the dustpan decreased your overall time at each appointment?

I got myself a really large dustpan and this has helped me tremendously with my appointments I’m able to walk around the yard and scoop at the exact same time, the large dustpan allow me to scoop more poop without having to grab another bag. I probably cut most of my appointments Times by 50% just because I switch from using that small tray with a larger dustpan!

Question: How long does an average yard take?

I’m not trying to rush through my appointments. I know there are some businesses that they’re proud of doing appointment in seven minutes. And that’s perfectly fine but this is why I charge my higher prices. I try to be there not as long as possible but $1 a minute, $2 a minute right? An average yard for me at least it’ll take between 10 to 25 minutes depending on the size of the yard.

Question: What sanitizer do you use?

I use the Wysiwash! it’s a little bit expensive, it’s one of the best supplemental Services you can have for a pooper scooper business. A lot of customers after they have had lot of poop in their yard their yard still has some sort of smell musk it’s been covered in shit for who knows how long.

Providing some sort of sanitizing/deodorizing service is a really great value add for your business. I recommend the Wysiwash!

I made a blog post breaking down all of the equipment that I use for my pet waste removal business and the great thing about that blog is all of these items are under $50 so if you’re on a budget if you’re trying to be cost conscious or if you really want to invest in some high quality Equipment, I really recommend reading that post!

Question: With Jobber, did you select auto payment options for a reoccurring business?

I love the auto payments with Jobber! Once I get a customer to leave a deposit and save their card on file, on my intake form I explicitly say that their card must be saved on file for a reoccurring service and they have to either agree or disagree to that.

If they agree to that, I just click that button for auto payment and every time I do an appointment it charges their card immediately.

Jobber was one of the best decisions I made for my business! It helped me automate a lot of my business processes like sending notifications and invoices and getting customers signed up on my system.

Disclaimer: Some of these links are affiliate links where I’ll earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

If you’re liking this new question format, make sure you hit the like on this blog and let me know down in the comments below!

Question: How long do you wait before resending invoices over Jobber?

You really should get your money as soon as possible!

If I get that notification saying that the auto payment failed, I take a screenshot, I send it to that customer immediately and I say hey by the way I got this message when I try to charge your card.

Most of the time they apologize, either the card expired or they get me a new card immediately. I rarely have any invoices pending for more than a couple of days. 

If their next appointment comes and they still haven’t paid me, I don’t go! I’m not going to go into their yard, especially if they’re not communicating with me, if they didn’t tell me why I haven’t gotten paid or if I can wait until X date. I’m not going and you need to show that you’re a professional business. You have to get paid for the services that you did for them.

Which is why I love Jobber so much! It’s helped me save so much time not having to chase customers down. I guarantee myself some of the money with their mandatory deposits! I’m able to send out professional looking invoices!

I can get people scheduled on my route without having to worry about double booking them and I just love the fact that Jobber helps me provide the type of customer experience I want with my clients.

Jobber is a home service software for small business owners and it helps them run their business smoothly for themselves and their customers.

So if you want to take your business to the next level and make your life easier as a business owner, you can start a free trial a Jobber via this link. And as a Jobber Ambassador, when you sign up for a plan you’re going to get my exclusive discount and save even more money! PLUS I’ll send you my Jobber Cheat Sheet For Pooper Scoopers – it has all of my configurations, settings, notifications, everything that I used with Jobber to help you get set up as fast as possible.

Question: Get a real job.

Really? This is one of the things of being a pooper scooper. You’re going to see people on social media just shit on you because of frankly their ignorance and because they’re miserable with their lives. Have you ever gone to a restaurant or had a landscaper mow your yard? Why aren’t you cooking your own food and taking care of your outside yourself? If you have a service you can provide to people and they’re willing to pay for you, that is a real job! Some of my customers, they’re elderly people and they have mobility issues. They physically can’t go outside to pick up after their dog. Some of my customers they have really busy lives or they’re single parents or they’re double parents and both of them work and once they get home they don’t have enough time to spend with their kids or to cook or however hectic someone’s life is! And since they have the funds to do so, they’d rather delegate a shitty job they don’t want to do to me and I’ll gladly do it! So while you want to troll online with your Cheeto fingers, I can guarantee you that I still make more than you.

Question: How are you doing after getting bit?

I had a dog bite incident where the dog literally bit me on my ass, right? It’s back to normal right now and like I’m perfectly fine but I still feel some of those emotional scars inside every time I go into a yard.

When you get bit by a dog, you really do struggle with that PTSD and anxiety!

Got any pressing questions that you want me to answer in this format? Make sure you comment down below and if you want to read the whole story about how I got bit by a dog make sure you click this blog post!

If you want to keep learning and growing your business or if you want to get in contact with me, make sure you check out my One-on-One Coaching!

And I’ll see you on the next scoop!

And As Always, Acknowledge The Now. Bye!