B (3:05)

Okay, yeah, that's what I was going to ask you when you got started. So 2019 formally and now have you, did you hear about any other pooper scooper businesses at this time?

A (3:17)

No, I, I didn't really, we didn't really know it was an industry. I mean, we didn't. Was the same problem. Like we didn't know this service existed. We didn't know it was a thing. By no means did we think that we were the only people scooping dog poop in the whole world. Right. I'm sure that there were other services, but it wasn't in our area. And it was actually several years before I stumbled across any of the Facebook groups and was like, hey, wait a minute, this could be like a real thing. So. Yeah.

B (3:48)

How many customers do you have currently?

A (3:51)

250.

B (3:53)

Woo. And, and what does that look like route wise? Is that two full time scoopers?

A (3:59)

Well, it is actually. We actually all have part time scoopers right now. I have one scooper who works four days a week. I have one scooper who works two days a week. I have one scooper who works one day a week. And then my husband and I both work part time, two, three days a week.

B (4:15)

Okay. Oh, okay. I got so many questions. So you have two, around 250 clients if you, if you feel comfortable. How much revenue are you bringing in per year?

A (4:24)

Well, I think we're going to hit about 250,000 this year.

B (4:29)

Yeah, that's amazing. And, and what CRM are you using right now?

A (4:34)

I'm sweep and go.

B (4:36)

Okay.

A (4:36)

And I, I, we built our business for a long time without a CRM. I didn't, I didn't switch to a CRM until earlier this year. Actually. It was in February. I started with the CRM. Before that I was just using Excel spreadsheets and Square and Google my maps for my routing and all of the different things and it worked great. You know, I think I could probably still run my business like that if I didn't want to grow it.

B (5:05)

Right. Okay. All right, cool. So with the part timers, are the part timers like subcontractors or are they W2? What does that look like W2. Okay. And then do you provide company vehicles?

A (5:18)

We have company vehicles. They don't take them home, but we have company vehicles at our shop, which is our house.

B (5:27)

You know, I will say I, I enjoyed running the business out of my house because I had. It's like everything was here. Yeah, Trash, bags, supplies. Like I knew where everything was. And so now it's like, oh, I gotta go to the shop. If I have to go grab something. I just, I just rent like a little like a storage area now. Like, I don't have a full office anymore. But I'm like, it's, it's such an inconvenience. I'm like, I do miss the days of rent. Running it from the house.

A (5:53)

We actually, we, we were lucky. We had a really nice setup. We had like a two car garage with not one garage door, two garage doors. And so we were able to convert a section, a whole portion of our garage. We actually built walls. And so when you open up one garage door, it just goes into a dedicated shop. And we have a door, a man, you know, a man door between that room and the rest of the garage. So we have like a little mini shop in our garage where the customer, our employees don't know any different. They just open up the garage door and it's a full, you know, bedroom size room. And we have lockers in there and we have our charging station for our phones and we have a big shelf with all of our supplies. We have a little sink so, you know, they can fill up their sprayers. And then outside of that garage, we have like a little section where they clean all their tools. So we actually made a really nice little setup that I think will work for us for the immediate future.

B (6:56)

Yeah, that actually sounds great. It sounds like you have everything you need. The one thing I'm not hearing is do you haul the waste away or do you not haul it away?

A (7:05)

We do not haul the waste away.

B (7:07)

Okay.

A (7:08)

In the very, very, very, very beginning, we did haul the waste away only if customers requested it. And we did charge a little bit extra. And then very quickly I realized like, this is not, this is not going to work. We're not, we're not going to do this if we're going to grow at all. This is not something that I want to be dealing with. And so a couple of clients that we had that were paying extra for it, we just said we're not going to be able to, you know, we're not going to offer this service anymore. And it was a Non issue. And it continues to not be an issue for us.

B (7:40)

Same. Are you in? You said Oregon.

A (7:44)

Oregon, Southern Oregon, yeah.

B (7:45)

Okay. What is the climate like there?

A (7:49)

Really beautiful. We don't get a lot of snow. We might get snow once or twice a year. It usually melts by the next morning. Very rarely does it impact our ability to go out. Last year we did actually close for a whole week of snow. It was like crazy. Probably wouldn't have slowed you guys down at all, but we're. This area is just not like set up to deal with that kind of snow. So we shut down. Cold, hot, really hot in the summers, but we're pretty much able to scoop year round.

B (8:19)

That's perfect. You know, when I first got started, I remember when it would snow, I would be staring out the window like, do we go out? Do we not go out? I don't know what to do. And now that I'm seven years in, I have the policy written out like, exactly what it is that I'm doing. So this winter was no issue. Like we already knew. But it was so fun because I was getting like some text messages and messages from other scoopers that are newer and they're like, hey, are you going out today? What's your weather policy? And I just kind of like laughed a little bit. I'm like, I remember those days of like, yeah, not knowing. And you know, I just explained like, yeah, we go out, we go, we scoop what we can get and we don't make a big deal about it. We just let our customers know, yeah, yeah, there's snow on the ground. We will get what we can get. Because if you start to make a big deal about it and you start to become inconsistent, then that's when the customer's like, well, do I really need the service through the winter? Yeah, yeah, you do. Because that's. That snow's gonna melt and it's gonna be a mess. And I've just been telling the people recently that are asking the questions that are newer to my service that we're going to get what we can get. And as that snow melts, like, you're our priority. We're going to make sure we take care of you before we take care of any other customers. And we had over 800 leads that came in this spring rush. It was nuts.

A (9:45)

That was crazy.

B (9:46)

It was, it was.

A (9:47)

Are those her? Are those mostly like one time cleanups or those people who are just. They don't know what they need one

B (9:54)

times and they don't know what they need. They Just know that they need that poop scooped like now. Right. And. And then it's our goal to convert them.

A (10:04)

Yes, always.

B (10:06)

So with the. So with. Right. So with you. Do you have a massive spring rush?

A (10:13)

We definitely have a massive spring rush. I wouldn't say it's for one time cleanups necessarily. I mean we definitely see an influx there. But I went back and I looked the last couple of years and March by far is the month where we just onboard the most new clients really. February, you know, January, February, March, April. That's our, that's where we're going to get the majority of the clients that we're going to get for the year.

B (10:39)

Same. So, okay, so let's talk about your seasonality then. So first quarter, bomb.com, we love it. And then what is, what, what does second, third and fourth quarter look like for you?

A (10:50)

Well, I think this year we maintained a lot better than we've maintained previously. Usually spring. I mean, obviously spring is where we're, we're doing great. You know, late fall, I mean, late winter, spring. That's spring rush going into summer really slowing down. I even expected a little bit more of an uptick going into the fall all this year and we didn't really get it. We didn't really start to see any kind of increase until I would say November.

B (11:18)

Same.

A (11:18)

We just kind of maintained. I was able to not lose a ton of clients over the summer. We did lose some and I was able to, you know, also bring some on. So we really kind of mostly maintained throughout the summer, but we don't see any growth.

B (11:34)

You know, that is very much so the same for us as well. And you know, I've been getting a lot of messages from new scoopers that are, they're very concerned because they get started in like July or June and they're expecting, they're like, oh, it's warm. I'm going to have so many customers. And they're. It's like crickets. And I've just had to like tell them summertime is the slowest time for me. I find it's because people are traveling, kids are home earning their keep, and then when they go back to school, that's when people want to bring us on more. So what are you finding that the reason for the slowdown is in the summer in your area?

A (12:10)

Same. Some of the same, I think. How many? That's so much lighter for the whole day. There's so many more hours in the day. In the summer, people are, they have more time to do it in the winter. It's dark by the time people get home and they just don't have literally daylight to go out and take care of it. So I think that that has a lot to do with it as well. They're in their yards already, so they feel like they can take care of it. Like you said, kids are home. A lot of people. I mean, I had somebody can't pause for the whole month because they were going to be traveling and they were only going to be home so inconsistently for such a short period of time. The dog was either going to be with them or kenneled, you know, whatever. So they just paused for the whole summer. I would say one thing that helped me, I feel like, maintain more clients during this summer was offering complimentary bucket service. Not, not in that we drop off a bucket, you scoop it, we haul it away. Not like that at all. But just as I as to try to be proactive to try to get people to not pause, I sent out a mass text message or a mass email. I can't remember saying that we're going to be offing complimentary bucket service. We recognize that during the summer you might be out in your yard a little bit more if you, you know, find yourself needing to scoop maybe areas that your kids are playing in or areas that you're in a lot, you know that you can do that. We'll still come on our regular weekly day. We'll do a full cleaning up of your full area and we will change out that bag in your bucket and put a fresh bag in and take care of that so they don't have to take care of that at all. And really worded in a way that like, you know, you're going to maybe clean up once in a while, but, you know, you're not going to clean up your whole yard every day like we do. You might pick it up where your kids are playing. You're not doing a full. You're not doing a full grid. You're not being as thorough as we are. So yes, you might do this and you might find, you know, you might want to pick it up a little bit, but still let us continue to offer service throughout the whole year. And I had a lot of clients do that. So we got the buckets, we had them, you know, stickers, put them on there, put them out. And some, some clients used them and a lot of clients didn't use them one time. And I just thought to myself this, I hope they look at this bucket and they think I really thought I was going to scoop during the summer, and I didn't pick up anything. So I think. I mean, a lot of people found value in that. Like, they were able to still scoop, but they could tell that they still needed us. So I think. I think that helped us maintain a little bit this year.

B (14:41)

Yeah, that's really intentional. I love that idea. Okay. Okay.

A (14:47)

Now, something that I've heard Levi talk about before, and I didn't know he talked about that as a way to retain clients when they try to cancel or try to pause. So I tried to be, like you said, more intentional with it at putting it out there before they had the opportunity to pause. Like, hey, you might be thinking about doing that, but I put that in. Their grain is like, oh, maybe I won't pause. Maybe I'll just do this instead of. I don't know how that worked or not, but I felt like I didn't lose as many clients this summer. No, that was.

B (15:19)

That's really good. Because I had heard Levi talk about bucket service, and I did that in the beginning. I had offered that, and it was. It was really popular. But then when I quit hauling the waste away, I was like, well, I can't do bucket service. But the fact that you are doing bucket service, but a different twist on it where you're not hauling it away, that's. I'm. I'm mentally, like, jotting that one down.

A (15:41)

Right. Because, yeah, they might have to scoop it. I also offer that for a client who says, this is a good example. I just had a client move to a new home. They're going to be on a new service day because of a new route. Guess what? It doesn't work with their lawn service. Sorry. That's where the route is. But what I can do for you is I can leave. I can offer you complimentary bucket service. So if you have to scoop one or two days worth of waste before your lawn service comes, just scoop it, put it right in this bucket, and they still don't have to deal with it. They might have to scoop it, but they don't have to really deal with it. It's there in the bucket, and then it's gone. When we come, we change it out. Same thing. Put a fresh bag in there for them. So I have several plants I do that for just because, you know, they do have to scoop one or two days before their lawn service. And that was a good, you know, like, compromise almost for them. It made it okay.

B (16:31)

Now you're. You're bagging it and you're putting it in the homeowner's outdoor trash can, correct?

A (16:36)

Yeah.

B (16:37)

Now, what if they don't have a trash can that you can get to? Where are you putting it?

A (16:42)

Our standard, well, we always try to ask the client, like if we know from the beginning that they don't, they keep their can in their trash. Where would you like us to leave it if we don't know? Like, just mystery. The can's always there and today it's not there. Our policy is to just double bag it and leave it next to the corner of the garage door.

B (17:01)

Same same. Cool. A huge shout out to today's episode sponsor, Jobber. The number one operations management software for home service business owners. Jobber is the software I use to run, grow and manage my small pooper scooper business. Jobber helps me handle the admin tasks quicker so I can focus on growing my business and getting more me time back. From creating custom quotes all the way to getting paid my money, Jobber has my back. Yeah, we're pretty much best friends, but if I had to choose my favorite feature, I'd say the mobile app. I can create the quotes, edit the jobs, communicate with customers, and keep my eye on the staff right from my phone. If you're a home student service entrepreneur looking to level up your business, look more professional and save time, head over to jobber.comgroupen to start your 14 day free trial and get 20 off your first six months with my special link. Now let's get back to the scoop. All right, well, you have 250 customers, you communicate well, you have good retention. Let's go back to kind of the beginning days when you kind of were getting started. How did you get your first 10, 20 customers?

A (18:29)

Well, one thing that we did for the lawn service that really worked well for getting clients was just door knocking and just putting knockers on doors. I'll say I don't like to knock on doors and I'm not, I'm kind of an introvert. So being that forward, I don't love doing that. But we knocked a lot of neighborhoods and just put things on people's doors. So we kind of, that's what we knew for lawn service. So that's what we get for pooper scooper service. And I think, you know, I don't know how many clients we got from that, but that was one of the main things that we were doing. I was also posting in Craigslist, I was posting in the Facebook community groups just in our local, you know, town groups that we have business cards in groomer shops, bulletin boards, anywhere I could put anything. It was several years before I started putting any money into any kind of paid advertising. I just didn't know better.

B (19:21)

Girl, me too. Me too. So what does it look like now to acquire customers versus back then?

A (19:29)

Facebook ads? Pretty much all Facebook ads. I. We live in a pretty small service population. It's not a huge area. I would say my total service population is under 200,000. We don't have a ton of other scoopers in our area. There are some in the last couple of years. There's definitely, you know, they come out in the last couple of years. So we very graciously. I'm so thankful that we rank very well on Google. We are number one on Google in our area. In all of our service area, which is even 45 minutes away. I rank number one in a town 45 minutes away over a scuba there. So I'm very grateful for that. So we haven't had to do much Google Ads. We do sometimes, but the search volume just isn't there. Like, I check the search, whatever. You can tell, like, how many searches there are in your area, and it'll be literally be like 0 to 30. Okay. People just aren't searching the service in my area so much.

B (20:33)

Yeah, they just. They probably don't even know about it.

A (20:35)

They don't know about it.

B (20:37)

That's huge.

A (20:38)

As much as I feel like I'm shoving my service down everybody's throats, they just don't know we exist. That's simple.

B (20:45)

I know you got to be louder.

A (20:47)

I know.

B (20:48)

Get louder. Everybody has to know.

A (20:51)

Yeah.

B (20:51)

How much are you spending on Facebook ads per month?

A (20:55)

Well, right now I've actually been spending a little bit more during the summer than I. I probably should have. I've been running $15 a day for Facebook, which isn't a lot, but I feel like it's just the time of the year where I don't know if I even should. I mean, I don't think I ever want to turn my ads off. I could have probably tone them down a little bit, but I've been running $15 a day on Facebook, sometimes 30. It just depends if I'm doubling up on different ads.

B (21:21)

But going into spring rush, what do you plan on bumping it up to?

A (21:26)

A hundred dollars a day? Yeah, minimum. I've been. I have. I've intentionally. I mean, last. Last year was the first year that I feel like I was really intentional with my advertising during spring rush, and I didn't Prepare for it financially. I just did it this year. I have financially prepared myself for it, to have a chunk of money to put into advertising because I think, like, this is going to be my first real intentional spring rush for. I have a goal that I want to meet.

B (21:57)

What's your goal?

A (21:59)

I want to put. I want to bring on a hundred clients. I want to be at 350 clients by the end of April. And I think that's realistic. I think we can do that. You brought on 60 last year, so. And that was unintentional. I mean, kind of intentional, but not. Not the way I'm going to do it this year. Oh, I feel it.

B (22:22)

So with your Facebook ads, are you noticing that they're tire kickers? What does that look like when your Facebook leads come in?

A (22:31)

They're definitely tire kickers. A lot of them. I actually put a qualifying question on my form. Just how quickly are you looking to start service? One week or this week? Within two weeks or just browsing. So that way I know if they say they're just browsing, like they're probably just browsing. Right. And I don't have to feel like I need to really, really, really, really work on following up with them. Although I have really dialed in my auto, you know, my follow up automation process. So everybody's kind of getting the same follow up sequence now. But that was kind of interesting for me to see how many people were really like interested in the service or were just getting a quote because, hey, I've never heard of this before. I wonder what, how much it costs.

B (23:12)

Yeah. With the fate with the Facebook people when they submit a request to you, I don't know if you're struggling with this, but sometimes like they'll submit a request and then we'll reach out to them and we won't, like they won't respond. Oh, okay. That makes me feel better.

A (23:29)

I think it's. I think it's just the way of the world. Right? It's so easy to just ignore somebody, then have to say, I'm sorry, that that's too much money for me or I'm sorry, my husband said I can't do it or just speak. Whatever the truth is, it's just easier to ignore it and maybe it'll go away.

B (23:49)

I. I've realized that I'm a little too, I guess, close to the business when a Facebook lead came in and I. She submitted a request and I had called her and we were kind of going back and forth in the text message and so I gave Her a call, and she answered. And then I was like, oh, this is Erica with croup and spoop and scoop. And she's like, oh. And as we were talking, she just hung up on me. Like, she just hung up. I was so mad. I called her back and left a voicemail and told her how rude she was. I said, all you had to do was just have a conversation and just say, you know, thank you, but I'm not interested in your services. You're priced too high. Instead of hanging up on me.

A (24:29)

Right.

B (24:30)

And then I hung up. And I'm like, erica, you can't do that. You can't do that. And so that's when I was like, okay, I have to help my virtual assistant. Help me or set expectations that it's like Facebook or Tire Kickers. It's okay. It's not personal. It's business. But it feels so personal.

A (24:48)

It feels so personal. Absolutely.

B (24:52)

I was not proud of myself.

A (24:55)

I've had those moments. Sometimes I set a rule for myself that I'm not allowed to respond to a customer or a client after, like, 10 minutes because I can just kind of pop off with what I really want to say, and that's not necessarily what I should say. Yeah, well, even. Even what needs to be said. Right? Not. Not the best things, though, for sure.

B (25:20)

Now, as for. Because we kind of. We were kind of bebopping around a little bit, but you were talking about your service area, and you said that you rank 45 minutes away. So. So what is the size of your service area?

A (25:32)

Well, I would say it's about an hour from my furthest point. I kind of serve. I service like a triangle area. So I would say the fir from furthest point to furthest point is an hour, but from the shop, it's probably 45 minutes to my furthest service area. And that's an area that I just expanded to in late spring. It's kind of been. I always get calls for it. It's a big. It's the next kind of bigger city next to us. But I've never. I was like, I just don't want to. I just don't want to do that. I don't want to go that far. I don't want to go that far. And then, honestly, what happened is a competitor opened up over there, and I was like, okay, they got a scooper over there now. That's great. Like, maybe I can work with him or first stuff. And then I saw him advertising in my area, and I just. Something flipped on my Switch. And I said, that's it. I'm just going to go over there. So now I have a route over there. We'll see if I keep it or not. I just, I told myself I'll give it through the end of spring rush to see if I can really get a solid route over there.

B (26:30)

But, yeah, I, we have a couple of houses that are a little too far south for us. And I'm looking at them, I'm like, oh, that's a bit of a drive. But if we don't grow it by the end of spring rush, I'll get rid of it. But you have to test out the

A (26:43)

market, you know, and even with there being a service over there, I'm still good. I was still getting calls. I was like, there's still a demand for service over there, so. So might as well. Might as well do.

B (26:53)

Yeah. Okay. What is your average yard size in your area?

A (26:58)

Pretty much standard, I would say eighth of an acre. Pretty much standard lot size yards. We do have some bigger yards, but we've been very intentional with any type of door. We still do door knocking and we still do yard signs. So we're very intentional with when, where, and when we.

B (27:17)

Excuse me.

A (27:18)

With where we put those. So if I'm gonna door knock, I'm gonna door knock in an area that I know have these perfect yards versus some of my other bigger yards that take us longer. But we, I, I'm, I just don't get us into yards that are huge. It's hard to have those conversations with clients, but they just, it has to make sense for both of us. And if it's gonna take me a half an hour to scoop your yard, that doesn't work for me.

B (27:43)

How much would you charge for a yard that takes you half an hour?

A (27:47)

I haven't ever charged by time. We always charge by number of dogs or the amount of waste that we collect. So if it's an oversized yard, we usually add $10 to whatever the weekly rate would normally be. But if it, but if, Excuse me, if it was anything over what I feel like that didn't cover, I just wouldn't do it.

B (28:13)

Yeah, that makes sense. What, what's your, what was that, what's your average ticket price now for a saint or Mary?

A (28:21)

About $95 per month. Per month? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

B (28:26)

Okay. And then how many, how many yards are each technicians doing per day?

A (28:31)

We average 25 yards. 25 to 30 yards. Just depends on the technician. But 30 yards is kind of our, our goal. We don't Try to get more than 30 yards.

B (28:43)

Are you struggling now with the daylight? Cause that's what we're struggling with right now.

A (28:48)

Yes, definitely. Just getting back to the shop by, you know, before it's dark. Doing your last jobs in the dark. So if I feel like they're not going to get their route done in time, I'll pop out and do a couple yards just to. To make sure. Um, we're asking them to get to the shopping store a little earlier if they can. But yes, daylight is running out.

B (29:07)

Yeah. On, what was it, Wednesday? My. My main scooper, he ran out of time and he wasn't able to do an initial cleaning. So the next day I had to shoot him out like 20 minutes outside of his service area to go ahead and get that clean done. And it was one of those ones where she had reached out right before Thanksgiving, but we were already like, we're shutting down for Thanksgiving, Black Friday. Everything's already compacted. And of course it snows. And of course it snows, you know, while she's waiting. And then we weren't able to scoop her. Luckily, she was a customer that comes back pretty regularly. And so she was like, no worries, it's fine. I hated that. I hate the inconsistency.

A (29:49)

I feel the same way. I. We show up. If we say we're going to be there, we show up. So even having to reschedule a one time cleanup or a reschedule an initial cleanup, I hate doing that. I hate it because it's like your first. It's their first and sometimes only interaction with me. And I want that. I want it to be. I want to do what we say we're going to do. Right. If you don't have your word, what do you have? So if we say we're going to be there, then I want to be there.

B (30:16)

And I feel like that is what sets a lot of companies apart. Because I hear this often, like, there's a lot of competition. How do we stand out? Like, yeah, branding, cool, whatever. But what you're talking about, showing up, having the communication, doing what we said we're going to do that stuff right there, is going to set any business apart because not a lot of businesses

A (30:38)

are doing that 100%.

B (30:40)

They're making so many excuses like, of why they can't. And then they. This happens to me with contractors and I get really frustrated and I'm like, that's why your business isn't growing.

A (30:51)

Excuses are just excuses.

B (30:54)

What do you think that you do really well as a Leader of your company?

A (31:02)

Well, as a leader of my company, that's a good question. I think communication, I would say I'm really good at communication. I make a really strong effort to communicate with the clients, regularly being personal with them and building relationships whenever we can. But also with my team, we haven't quite got to the point where we're doing monthly staff meetings, which I really, really want to do. But we do have individual, you know, I do meet individually with team members since that, you know, since the shop's at my house, it's very easy for me to engage with them. So I feel like communication is, is. And, and by communication, I don't mean just relaying information. I mean listening to what they have to say, making sure that they're happy that they're getting out of this job, what they need to get out of this job to stay with me. Because they're so important to the business and without the business or without them, this business cannot grow. So by communication, I mean like an open line of communication both ways. I want them to be able to tell me what they need if they're not getting it from me or from the business.

B (32:23)

Why haven't you started doing the monthly meetings yet?

A (32:29)

I don't know. I think, I feel, feel bad making them come to a meeting on their day off because when I was an employee, I didn't ever want to go to a staff meeting. I didn't find any value in it. It was, nobody asked any more questions, so we can leave type of a thing. So I just, I don't want to force them to do something that they don't want to do. I'm trying to figure out a good way. And some of them live far away.

B (32:54)

Right.

A (32:54)

So I'd be like driving, drive half an hour to come to my house for a half an hour, 15 minute meeting. I'm not sure. Just haven't really figured out the best way to do that yet.

B (33:04)

Is there a day in particular that the majority of your staff is working?

A (33:09)

No. So then there's not one day that all three of them or all of us work together. So that's. I'd be making somebody come in on a, on a day off.

B (33:19)

Okay. Yeah. That's a little different than Rick's situation.

A (33:22)

Yeah. But I was thinking, you know, maybe if I could do like a dinner somewhere or made it something that they really wanted to do or it was not just coming to the shop and having a meeting, you know, figuring out a way that it can be more enjoyable, you know, more Of a reward, I guess. I don't know.

B (33:44)

So we do ours on Fridays at 7:30am and they go for about a half an hour. And this is where I like, I lead the meeting. You know, I ask them how they're doing. That way I'm able to have that connection with them. But they're bringing any issues that they have, any things that are making their job harder. So they're really like essentially leading, leading the meeting. So that's what. And then I provide donuts and coffee.

A (34:12)

Right. I definitely understand the value and the need for it and it's, it is something that I need to, I need to start implementing in 2026. That's a goal for sure.

B (34:23)

Yeah, sure.

A (34:24)

I like, you know, maybe I just need to talk to them about it because maybe they, maybe they won't have a problem with it. Maybe they won't feel like dreaded or like that feel like it's unnecessary. So you should talk to them.

B (34:34)

Yeah. They probably ask like are we getting paid?

A (34:37)

Of course you're getting paid.

B (34:38)

Yeah, that was a question that that was asked. Is this paid? Yes, yes it is. Thank you. So you have your staff. Can you talk about how that kind of works? Like start times, flexibility.

A (34:52)

We're flexible. Some of our employees have kids. So you know, I understand like you have to drop your kid off before you even come here. So we, we have a flexible start time. Basically anytime between 8 and 8:30 in the morning they can start. But I want them starting your shift by 8:30 for sure.

B (35:10)

I'm the same way. The latest is 9. If I see that somebody hasn't started by 9 o', clock, I'm calling. Hey, what's going on? I, I, I cannot handle bugs me out.

A (35:22)

That's too like I would, I feel like I want you at your first job by 8:30 would be perfect for me. But if you can't get here and get your truck and get started until 8:30, that's fine for sure. But I think that I want to have some flexibility. But also like this is your hard time that you're not to start by.

B (35:39)

Yeah. How do you handle not punishment. That's not the word. Like when an employee has issues, corrective

A (35:49)

behavior strategy, it goes back to that open communication. Right. I'm not afraid to tell them an area they need to improve on. Just like I want them to not be afraid to tell me if I'm doing something wrong. It's never easy. Right. Because you have different employees that have different sensitivity issues or you know, levels or really, really, really want to do a good job for you and to not let you down. So it's hard to sometimes let them know if there was a complaint or if there's an area that they need to improve. But I, you know, it's. I, I always try to approach it in a way of I'm a big believer and if you don't know better, you can't do better. So I always try to go it into it that way. It's like, I want to give you this information so that I know that you know this information so that you can do better. Because if you don't ever tell anybody what they're doing wrong or where they need to improve, then they're going to continue to do things the way they've always done them and not know any better. And you're going to be over here festering why this person is doing this that way. So I try to handle it right away and not let it, and not make it a big deal. It's just, you know, try to not make it a big deal. That's how I try to handle it.

B (37:00)

Are you doing this in person over the phone, text message?

A (37:05)

In person? Because I'm still able to. Because I'm still like, they're coming here, so I'm still able to do that.

B (37:14)

Have you had to terminate any employees yet?

A (37:17)

I have not. I have not had to terminate any employees.

B (37:21)

Ooh, lucky. When did you start hiring? How soon after you started?

A (37:27)

Brought our first part timer on. Probably after two years. Let's say after two years. Probably when we hit a hundred. A hundred clients, we probably brought a part timer on.

B (37:39)

Now, how did that look like for you, like, financially, when you're like, okay, I need to hire somebody, were you?

A (37:48)

We, this is our only business. This is our only source of income. So this, this business had no option but to succeed. But when we first started the business, I had just had my son. So I wasn't scooping. I was only doing like administrative work and doing the office and the billing and that kind of a thing. So we brought our first part time scooper on before I even started scooping. It wasn't a huge financial issue because we could afford it because we were so, I mean, I didn't have much of the overhead. All our overhead we had was just our equipment in our bags and our gloves. We weren't doing. We didn't have any huge, you know, commercial. Like she was driving her own car at that time, right. So it was very, the business was so little that we didn't have as much as the overhead that we do now. When you bring in full, you, oh

B (38:38)

yeah, the workman's comp, the proper insurance and then if you want to do commercial properties you have to have the commercial insurance.

A (38:44)

Right.

B (38:44)

And then with the CRMs having like the extra users.

A (38:49)

Absolutely, all that stuff adds up. I didn't, you know, any of my automation, so I didn't have any of that expense of any, any kind of working with any agencies or I wasn't doing Facebook ads. So it was just really, you know, right at that happy little medium we're like are we going to just run this little business or are we going to try to do something with it?

B (39:08)

I'm right there with you because it's to make what I want to make. With having staff, it's, I have to take it to a million dollars like or go back to being the solo scooper because it's like the in between. It's like where's all my money at? I know, I know where it's going. But it's like frustrating.

A (39:26)

Right? We're, I feel like we're right in that growth mode right now where we are, we're just prepped to be to the next level where we're not going to have to buy any more vehicles, you know, so we're not going to have more expenses, we're just going to have more income.

B (39:41)

Woohoo. I know when you're talking about automations, what automations are these

A (39:48)

following up on? Well, I do fail payment automations. I have an automatic A welcome. When a client signs up they get an automatic welcome email drip. You know, lead follow up past client, follow up one time cleanup follow up.

B (40:05)

Are these through sweep and go or go high level?

A (40:09)

These are through go high level.

B (40:10)

Okay. I've heard good things about GoHighLevel. I personally don't use it yet, but

A (40:16)

I don't, I don't use it. Right. So I work with a company, a system called Home Flow. I don't know if you've heard of Home Flow, Brent. He's in, he's kind of in the community. He is using, he has this Home Flow software that I've started working with him on and it's, it basically has all those automations in it. So I don't have to do it. I get to customize what they say. You know, I can, I have control over turning somebody's automation off or putting somebody into an automation. But I, it's all built out very nice. I could not have done that myself.

B (40:55)

Same girl. Same. Are you doing any review automation?

A (41:01)

Oh, yeah. Review Harvest. If you don't sign up, if you haven't signed up for it, sign up for it. Okay. Yes, I signed up for Review Harvest in the middle of March because I was doing everything I could to try to get reviews. Asking them, you know, sending them a link after service, personally asking them, yes, we'd love you. We'd love to give you a review. Don't give me a review. I even went so far as to have little business cards made. Leave us a review with a little QR code on it. Like we going to make this as easy as possible. We had 60 reviews when we started after being in business for a full six years. Six plus years. It's 60 reviews. Started with Review Harvest. Today we have 211 reviews.

B (41:43)

Clay's a man.

A (41:45)

Clay's the man. It's amazing. I'm like, I. Any of the local services that, you know, I partner with, local groomers, local lawn services, I'm like even telling them, what are you doing with your life? Like, sign up.

B (41:59)

I agree. I agree, Clay. I mean, we're doing the work, right? We might as well get the reward. And so Clay kind of takes it over and I, I don't know. I can't remember how many reviews I have, but he, he's helped me get hundreds of reviews.

A (42:12)

Yeah, for sure.

B (42:14)

Okay. Well, your business sounds like it's. It's going well. You're in growth mode. You got big goals for next year. I'm super. I'm super stoked. So. So, like, on the business side of it, have a good picture. I'm kind of curious about, like, being a mom, being a wife, running a business. How are you balancing that stuff behind the scenes?

A (42:37)

I would say since we brought on our most recent employee who was really the. What brought. Got me out of working full time in the field, has been a game changer for my home life and for me being a mom. Right. Definitely have mom guilt working. Like, I could get. I get into business mode and I'm. I'm doing this and I'm doing this. I'm doing this. I'm doing this and I'm doing this. And, you know, I got my little guy over here knocking on the door, you know, so that's. That was really hard because I was working full shifts coming home. I would get home and I'd be like, okay, it's time to go to work. It's a whole full nother job. We know that. Right? So that was really, really hard. And that still continues to be hard. And I have to mentally sometimes just stop myself and say, okay, it's time to be in, it's time to go be him off. So it's a juggle. I mean, it's definitely a juggle. My son wants me to go volunteer in his classroom or go to do field trips and stuff. And that's what I love about this business is I have that flexibility. But sometimes I have to stop and check myself and say, okay, what's the most important thing right now? This business thing, which is yes, it's important or going to do this, you know, going to a field trip with my son, that's more important.

B (43:53)

Do you want to launch or grow your pooper scooper business? If you answered yes, then you have to check out the Poop Scoop millionaire community created by Will Milliken, the president of a seven figure dog waste removal business, Swoop Scoop. You will gain access to the same strategies used to scale his business from zero to over 2,000 reoccurring customers in just three years. Community members will receive exclusive access to his community forums with industry leaders, business courses are running, Facebook ads, commercial services, and so much more. You'll get downloadable pooper scooper documents, live coachings and trainings, and access to verified one on one coaches and vendors that is a perfect fit for you, including a gold level Google product expert that can help you with all of your Google troubles. Space is limited, so please join Poop Scoop millionaires today@skooled.com or click my link down in the description. So what does a typical day look like now that you're not in the field full time?

A (44:58)

Full time? I'm in the field three days a week. Um, so wake up, have a couple minutes to myself to try to get myself, have a cup of coffee. My son wakes up, my husband wakes up making lunches, you know, doing the whole morning breakfast thing. Drive him over to school, cause his school's not too far away. So I drive him to school and usually if it's a day that I'm working a route, I'm ready to go. I'm, I'm dressed and ready to go and I jam out and I work my route. Only Mondays am I working a full day. So Tuesdays and Wednesdays I'm usually done by 11 or 12, come back, you know, and then it's office for the rest of the day. Thursday, Friday, same thing. Wake up, take them to school, come back and it's kind of my day where I'm Able to, if I have any meetings or any real long projects and I'm kind of scheduled them for Thursdays and Fridays and now that I have that office time, having a shut off switch at a certain time and like, okay, now you're done for the day. You know, I try to get everything done before I go and pick my, my son up. He goes to Boys and Girls Club after school. So I want to be done with a day before I go pick him up. So I'm present for him.

B (46:04)

What, what time is that?

A (46:07)

I can pick him up anytime until 6 o'. Clock. So like it's really nice. If I, if I need to get a lot of stuff done, I can work all afternoon and then pick him up at 6. If I'm have a little bit of a lighter day, you know, I can, I'll pick him up early.

B (46:23)

So I'm, I'm very similar as I had to pull put in my calendar like a reminder like wrap, wrap it up. Like if I want to say 4:30, I have like a notification that's like all right, time to wrap it up because you have to be done by five. Because I find myself like there's always something to do, right? Like literally always. And so sometimes I'm sitting here and I just start like I'll start half projects and I'll start little things and then I'll start to like toggle back and forth between stuff. Like my ADHD really starts to kick up. So when you're structuring your office day, kind of what does that look like on your, your office day? Do you have a plan going into it?

A (47:05)

I have things that I do on a daily basis. I have things that I do on a weekly basis and then I have things that I do like on a monthly basis. So I'm first, you know, updating my KPIs in my spreadsheet. I'm reading all of the notes in the dispatch board to make sure that I don't need to do any immediate follow up with any clients checking, you know. And then once a week I'm logging into my QuickBooks doing all. Cause I still do my bookkeeping. You know, my, some of my big bookkeeping stuff which is pretty easy to do. I've got it pretty dialed in. So like once a week I do that. So I do have some structure of doing certain things daily, weekly or monthly. Um, but otherwise I'm very much a list person. I have my list of the things that I need to do and I will just kind of when I Sit down. I know I have dedicated time. I'll look at my list and be like, what is. Like either what do I need to get done? Because it's time sensitive. Like I have an, an evaluation, I'm looking. I have an evaluation that I need to get done, a 90 day evaluation. So that has to be done by next week. That's the top priority. Otherwise it's something that's. If I don't have a high priority time wise topic or thing I need to do, then it's what's going to be what's going to provide the most value or move the needle the most for me in this business. Because I will get stuck, like spending three hours making a Facebook post or something. You know what I mean? I'm like, is this really what I should be doing with my time? No, it's probably not what I should be doing with my time. So I ask myself that question. Like when I'm looking at my list, what's the best, the very best use of my time? And I'll try to do that because I, like I said, I'll just get sucked into something. I'm like, wait, what am I even doing? This is not, this is not what I, you know, this is not where I should be focusing my time right now.

B (48:55)

Mm, me too, Me too. Sitting here like, what am I doing? What, what's going on today? Kind of like, hey, tabs open.

A (49:06)

Yeah. I feel like I really, since I started noticing that about myself, I've been better about it and I've actually feel like I've gotten a lot of things accomplished that I really like wanted to get accomplished. Like they've been on my list, but I just, you know, did whatever I wanted to do, whatever sounded fun to do that day versus like what I actually really needed to get done right through, like making scripts. I finally made myself some scripts. It's not hard. I just went on ChatGPT, said what I needed, changed a few things around. Now I have some great scripts that I could reference because I'll tell you, I would get off some phone calls with some clients, trying to sell them the lead call or whatever. I would hang up the phone and I would be like, what did I even just say? What just happened? I wouldn't have bought for myself. Right. So I, I really found that like that just helps me stay on the phone focus and not just go off talking about whatever scripts.

B (50:05)

Yeah, those are important. I have open phone now, so I'm able to record my calls.

A (50:10)

I heard that. Yeah.

B (50:12)

And yeah, I had a really, I had a really rough call with a woman that said that her husband had passed away. And that's the reason why she was trying to, like, look for this service. No empathy, no compassion. Just, I, I had way too much coffee. I was just trying to get through the sale. And then afterwards, I listened to the call and I was mortified. I said, erica, you show no empathy. You didn't circle back. You didn't find out what this, what this man's name was. And then you tried to see if you could call her on a Saturday. And after that, that's what I was like, okay, we need scripts. Because this. I still want to call her back and apologize and be like, that was not the best version of me.

A (50:56)

Right.

B (50:57)

But being able to. When you think, like, what did I even say? Like, what, what. How did that call go? It's cool to actually go back and be able to listen to those calls, to be able to, like, fix it.

A (51:07)

Right.

B (51:08)

Are you doing a lot of your selling over the phone? Is it text message, email? How are you closing your deals?

A (51:16)

Facebook messenger, text message go high level or they sign themselves up, which is always the best.

B (51:25)

That's my favorite because you have, you have Sweep and Go. Do you have the plugin to where when a lead comes to Sweep and Go, they're able to put in like the number of dogs and what they're looking for and it gives them the price?

A (51:37)

Yeah.

B (51:38)

With the plugin that Sweep and Go has, if they don't move forward with you, what's that follow up process like?

A (51:46)

I get an. They. They go partial. Any partial lead submissions that they don't sign up. I. They get an automated, automated text message with a picture of me that says, hi, this is Nicole with Ladybug Scoops. I saw that you got a quote. I just wanted to follow up if you had any questions. We're currently offering $35 off your initial cleanup. You know, I'm happy to answer the questions or whatever, something like that. So they get an automated text message and then they just go into the same drip flow that anybody, any other lead, like any other Facebook lead would have gotten. So I had lead forms and then any, you know, partial submissions both go into that.

B (52:26)

I like that. The picture. I should, I actually should start implementing that.

A (52:31)

It's been helpful because I've had people just respond right away and say, you know what, let's just sign up just because they got a response after their, you know, after they got a quote and they didn't. They didn't choose to sign up right then. But then they got something from me and they said, oh, okay, let's just do it. So I've had a handful of people just sign up. Right. You know, right after getting a, hey, I saw you got a quote. You have any questions?

B (52:55)

Yeah, I like that. Cool, cool, cool. Well, I'm super excited. This was a really good chat. I can't believe we're already at 50 minutes. We already know what your goal is for 2000, say, 20, 26. If somebody new is listening and they're kind of just getting started, what's one tip that you would give them as a new scooper?

A (53:18)

Keep your expectations realistic. Stay focused. You can't do something just for a short period of time and think that it didn't work. You have to be disciplined, and you have to be consistent. I think that's the biggest thing. Discipline and consistency. Just don't give up. It's not. Nobody's going to give this to you. Right? Nobody's going to walk up and say, here's a hundred clients. But, you know, I just. I did a. I did a post in the Million poop scoop millionaire group a couple of days ago right around Thanksgiving, and it was a really great time for me to look back and see what is possible, where you are now and where you can be, you know, because we didn't work on Thanksgiving, so we moved our Thanksgiving routes to. To the day before Wednesday, which meant we have four routes. We only have three vehicles, three branded vehicles. So my husband drove his personal bike truck, and we busted out our old magnet and we had it on the side, and I was like, you know what? I'm really proud of where we came. So we got here from doing the same thing. Consistently advertising, consistently showing up for our customers, consistently communicating very, very well with them. Consistent consistency and say, that's. That's where it's at. Don't give up. Keep doing it.

B (54:43)

Ooh, that's fire. That's some good stuff right there.

A (54:46)

That's what. That's the truth.

B (54:48)

It is. It's. It is the truth. It's. It's so easy to be like, oh, focus on the new things, the shiny things. That looks nice. Let's try this. It's the boring, consistent work day in and day out that compounds. And you can look back. This is the most boring. This year has been the most boring year for me and my business, and I've had so much growth this year.

A (55:14)

I agree. Sometimes I come into the office and I don't really have anything to do. Like, it's all. It's good. It's all good. My leads are good. Everything's being followed up with. All my clients are happy. That's where I look around and say, oh, what's the fun thing that I want to do now? What's something that I've been really wanting to do and I. Hasn't been a priority? Now is the time that I can do that.

B (55:35)

I love that. That's goals. That's goals. All right, we have a couple people that are in the comments, so let's show those really quick. All right. Hello, ladies. Hope we're doing good. We are.

A (55:48)

We are.

B (55:50)

Yeah. And then Heather says, hey, ladies. I feel like Facebook ads are really low quality. It wasn't like this before, so I'm hopeful they fixed it. What do you have to say to that? I think.

A (56:07)

I think Facebook is always constantly changing how their algorithm works, and that's part of the reason why I pay somebody to help me do that, because it is not my strength, you know? Yes, I. I have run Facebook ads, and I. I can do it, but this is a great examples, because everything about them is changing all the time. I also feel like people don't give their ads a long enough period of time to work. You can't run an ad for three days and see, you know, and say that it's. It's not working. But I. I do. I do see sometimes ads perform better than others. Um, so, yeah, I don't know. I hope they fix it too.

B (56:50)

I think it a lot has to do with the ad itself, because this is something that we're testing out. I'm using a mat with Home Serve Home Service Freedom for my Facebook ads, and I've been using him since the summer, and we've gotten so many leads. Like, we have gotten a ton of leads. Some are good and some are not. And what Matt and his team have been doing is they go through and they're like, analyzing the ad copy, because if we change the ad where it's like we're running a deal. Yes, we got a ton of leads. They're priced lower, but the conversion rate's lower because we are attracting a lower quality lead.

A (57:29)

Right.

B (57:31)

I'm not going to spend the time to do any of that. He sends me all the analytics. He sends me all of the data, and I'm like, sounds good, Matt. Thank you for fixing it for me. So if. Yeah, if you're. If you're like, oh, I don't really know how to. How to do this eventually work your way up to pay somebody that wants to do all of the detailed work so you can focus on, like, what you're good at.

A (57:53)

Definitely. But I agree. The content really matters. I see a difference. I do a lot of content with my son. He loves to be in our advertising. He does little videos for us where he's standing in front of our van and does little spiels. People love that.

B (58:08)

People eat that up because it's showing that you're human, just like that picture that you are. You. You follow up with. And people sign up, right? Because it's like, we are seeing all this AI stuff, and there's all these videos on Sora, and some of my friends and, like, business owners are like, you have to get on Sora. You have to start doing it. And I'm. I'm a little perplexed because, one, I'm a content creator. I. I have made thousands of videos. And so the AI stuff, it's just like, I. I don't. I don't like it. I want to connect with my audience, like, authentically through me. And even if it takes a little bit more time and maybe it's not as polished, like, that's the route that I have to go.

A (58:52)

I think that what. That's what makes people love you, is that you're personable and you're real. Right. And that's what our clients want from us, is that we're personable and we're real. We're real people.

B (59:01)

Yeah, they're supporting real families.

A (59:04)

I had a client yesterday, have to come out and cancel her service because they're having a little bit of a financial difficulty. And she was so upset. She was crying because she just felt so bad that we were losing a client, you know, so our. Our clients know that real people, and that's what they love. That's what they want. They want to know that they're supporting a small business. They're supporting a family. You know, they have that. That just makes a connection with them.

B (59:35)

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it's true. The next one is, yes. Spend as much time as you can with your kids, no matter what. You'll never say that you spent enough time with them, because it's never enough time is something we never get back.

A (59:51)

It's true. I saw a post in the. She built that group, or somebody asked, like, what's the most important thing to you right now? Or something like that, and different options, building your business. Da, da, da. And one of them was, like, being the best Mom. And that made me stop and think, like, man, that's not what I would have said. You know what I mean? And I'm like, maybe. But, man, I should have. That's what I should have immediately come to my head. So, yeah, they grow fast.

B (60:22)

We're on the other side. The twins are 18, and the oldest is 20. And my husband, he. He had. Him and his ex wife had the kids very young. I don't have any biological children, but I helped raise. Raise the kids from when they were 4 and 5. And my husband's going through that right now because he doesn't have babies at home anymore. And he's like, now he's more mature. We have more money. There's more time. He's like, man, like, I could have done so much better now. And so he's kind of looking at me, and we're like, thinking, maybe. Maybe. Maybe we'll have. I'm kind of like, at the end, you know, like, my. My biological clock's ticking over here, so if I'm going to. We have to kind of get on that soon. But it's like he wishes he would have spent more time.

A (61:09)

Yeah. I didn't have my son until I was 38, so.

B (61:13)

Oh, girl, that makes me feel so much better.

A (61:15)

I mean, I didn't not know. I didn't know if I was gonna have kids ever. I. I lived a previous life before. I lived this life, a life where I knew I wasn't gonna have kids in that relationship or in that. In that. That world that I was living in. And I never knew if I was gonna have kids.

B (61:31)

So.

A (61:31)

My son was a surprise, the best surprise ever. But, yeah, I didn't get pregnant until I was 37. I didn't have. Until I was 38. I'm 45 now, so.

B (61:39)

Okay, thank you. Because I'm 38 right now. And little transparency. I've had a couple miscarriages. I've had two with Josh. And then it was kind of like, I don't. I don't want to deal with this. I don't have time for these negative emotions. So I kind of built this wall around me where it's like, I don't want kids. I don't want kids. I don't even like kids. I don't even like them. I want nothing to do with kids. But really, it was just because I didn't want. I didn't like how I felt and how it had impacted me. And so now that I'm. I'm walking with the Lord, I'm a much different person than I was before. My marriage is much stronger than it was before. And now that the kids are now over the age of 18 and that season of life is kind of like, come to a close where I don't have somebody else dictating potentially how my child would be raised. Now I'm like, I would do this. I want to do this if I'm able to. It's weird. It's weird. So, yeah, Babies.

A (62:48)

Babies.

B (62:49)

Okay, next one is, I'm thinking about doing this in New Orleans. I've looked it up, and there's no companies doing this in my area.

A (63:00)

Do it. Do it. But there are companies doing it. I. I have to remind myself that there is still no competition. Right? We're only competing with ourselves at this point.

B (63:12)

True. It's very true. And even if there is competition, really compete with yourself. Be better than you were yesterday. Because if you focus on the competition so much, it becomes this, like, evil, like, jealous, like, competitive monster that kind of, like, messes with your mind a little bit.

A (63:27)

Does it? Definitely does. I have to remind myself because it definitely, like, gets me going. Like. Like, I don't know, it, like, triggers something in my brain. Like, wait a minute.

B (63:40)

Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. I thank you all so, so much for tuning in. I appreciate you. And until next time, bye.

A (63:49)

Thank you for hanging out with Erica Krupen. She is so grateful and honored you decided to tune in to the Scoop podcast and hopes the information you heard today positively impacts you moving forward in business and life. Follow Erica on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @Croupenspoopin Scoopin. And don't forget to follow the show in order to get notified when the next edition of the Scoop drops. Sam.