← The Scoop With Erica Krupin
The Scoop With Erica Krupin
Ep 187. Mission-Driven Scooping: How Acts of Service Build a 5-Star Community Brand
00:57:51
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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to the Scoop with Erica Kruipen. Your host is the owner of Kruipen's Poop and Scoopin. She's built a six figure dog waste removal business and loves talking a little crap with like minded folks. Starting and growing a small business can be scary, but Erica wants to share some tips and tricks that she's picked up along the way as she continues her entrepreneurial journey. She hopes this podcast will educate and inspire you to think outside the corporate box and do something a little crappy like Scoop dog poop. And now, here's Erica.
- [00:40]
B
What's up Scoop Podcast. I'm your host, Erica Krupen, and on today's episode, we have a guest. I love guests. You love guests. We all love guests. We have the opportunity to talk with Ken from. From Scoop Patrol from Ohio. Welcome to the show, Ken.
- [00:59]
C
Thank you. Oh, thank you, everybody.
- [01:02]
B
Oh, those are some fighting words. Well, I'm super excited that we got to chat. I know we've chatted a little bit over on school in the DMS and I've heard wonderful things about your business. And I had a really good conversation with our good friend Kelly, and she was just raving about you about how you had started your business and all the growth that you've had and that you were local. I was like, we have to get Ken on. We have to chat. So we were able to make this happen pretty quickly. So thank you for your time.
- [01:32]
C
You're welcome. Thank you for having me on.
- [01:34]
B
Yeah. All right, so what I would like to do is do a business. Snapchat business Snapshot. That was a hard word to get out. So we know that what your business name is. We know that you're located in Ohio. What part of Ohio are you located in?
- [01:51]
C
Canton, Ohio. Right where the football hall of fame is.
- [01:54]
B
So funny story is we have a Canton, Michigan.
- [01:57]
C
Yes.
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B
And when. And you guys also have a Belleville, Ohio, I believe, somewhere. Well, when I was new in business, I was like posting in all these groups and I started posting in the Canton, Ohio Facebook groups like five years ago. And people were like, you're. You're really far away. I'm like, oh, crap. Sorry, I didn't know. So how far away is that from Michigan?
- [02:21]
C
Well, you see, Toledo is probably three or four hours from me and that's, that's getting close to Michigan.
- [02:29]
B
Okay. Yeah. So you're. Yeah, you're a cruise away. When did you start your business?
- [02:35]
C
April 3rd. I got my license finalized. So April 3rd, I started, didn't have any clients yet. But April 3rd.
- [02:42]
B
April 3rd of 2025, right?
- [02:44]
C
Correct.
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B
So you're brand new in business, still green. What made you want to start a pooper scooper business?
- [02:52]
C
Okay, so I retired from corporate America. I was a delivery driver dressed in brown. Everybody can figure that one out. And I was delivering to a house, and there was a lady kind of like Erica, scooping the yard. And I was like, what are you doing? I said, I know what you're doing, but what are you doing? And she said, this. This is her business. And I'm like, really? So I stuck that feather in the back of my hat because I've been breeding golden doodles for 16 years. So I was. Already had my foot in the door in the. In the pet business. So I retired three years ago and, you know, still doing a lot of golden doodle breeding, and I delivered them, and I just wanted to relax after retiring. And my kids said, are you ever going to do this pooper scoop you've talked about for years and years? And I said, I'll get around to it. And then they kind of put the flame behind me, and I started it, got my license April 3rd, and I got my scuba on the ground. I've been running. I love it.
- [03:56]
B
It's so crazy to think about, because when people ask me, they're like, what led you to starting your pooper scooper business? I was like, I don't know. It wasn't anything grand. It was just. I heard about it. I was like, I think I could do that. And then I just kind of got started. And then once you get into it, you. At first I thought it was kind of silly a little bit. I'm like, that's kind of silly. Like, I don't really know. But then I really seen. I'm like, this is like, this is hard. This is a real business. Like, there's so much that goes into this, and now I'm seven years in. I'm glad that I. I stuck it out. So I'm. I'm so happy that you kind of didn't dismiss it. And you were like, okay, maybe we can revisit that later. And then you did.
- [04:37]
C
And I'm all about helping the community. I really am. Always been a helpful person. My neighbor, you know, he's a little older. I always, you know, snow's on the ground. Just. I just love helping people. So this. You really. This is a way to help people out.
- [04:52]
B
I agree. All right, so you've been in business since April. How many customers do you have as of today?
- [04:59]
C
Reoccurring 116 as an hour ago.
- [05:05]
B
That is amazing. What is your monthly revenue?
- [05:11]
C
It's a little up and down. Last month I hit 6700.
- [05:17]
B
Very good.
- [05:18]
C
It's still growing each month. It's tearing up enough. You know, I started in May at $877 and just did my books for last month at 67 34.
- [05:30]
B
And what's really nice is you get to see the numbers go up because you're using Jobber. Correct, Correct. And do you have the plan where you can see the insights?
- [05:42]
C
Yes.
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B
Okay. Yeah. And you can, like, see as your company is growing and you can see what the revenue is next year. It's going to be really awesome because you're going to be able to to compare next year to this year and see what your percentage of growth was. Jabra shows you that.
- [05:59]
C
Yeah, I love that. That's another reason why I picked Jobber.
- [06:03]
B
Yeah, it was pretty sweet. I was looking at that today because I was recording a podcast earlier and LA, last December versus this December I've had, it was 30% growth just in the month of December, which was really good because last year was like a rough year. I had a rough one, but this year was great. So. Cool, cool, cool. All right, so you said 106 or 16?
- [06:28]
C
16. 130, I think, total altogether, but reoccurring one 16 now.
- [06:35]
B
Okay. And what is your average ticket price either per week or per month for reoccurring revenue?
- [06:42]
C
18.
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B
$18 a week?
- [06:46]
C
Yeah.
- [06:47]
B
Okay. On average?
- [06:49]
C
Yeah, 18 to 20. I'd have to look it up.
- [06:54]
B
And how do you build you bill weekly or monthly?
- [06:58]
C
I let the client determine that I prefer to do monthly because this went on to do bookkeeping.
- [07:04]
B
Right.
- [07:05]
C
It's just already completed. And then they'll ask me, what do you prefer? I said, I'll be honest. I prefer monthly because I don't want to do bookkeeping. And that's one thing good about Jobber. Like what you said, you can see your company grow. I don't have to do the math, even though I love the math in school, but I don't want to do it. And it does it for me. But I let them determine it's weekly or monthly. I think I'm probably split down the middle. 50, 50.
- [07:31]
B
You know, I did similar when I first got started. I, you know, every four weeks, once a week on the 15th and the first, you know, the last Friday of the month, like, it was nuts. It was literally all over the place. But I will Say after growing and with higher volume. I have found that pre billing on the first of every month for the entire month works pretty much across the board. Except for those twice a week customers. That is where things get a little muddy because they have multiple services and sometimes like things happen and they don't get serviced twice, they only get serviced once. And that's when I have issues with my billing. So only those people are billed per service.
- [08:18]
C
Okay. I can see a change, especially in my mindset of it's just going to be, you know, get a little more established. It'll be, you know, per month.
- [08:28]
B
Yeah. Once you kind of. I'm ready to make that change. And whenever you're just like, all right, I'm doing it, I'm making the change and it's going to happen. Okay, so you already have a nice amount of customers. You got a full route. How did you land your first, your first customer?
- [08:46]
C
An organic Facebook lead and her name is Tiffany. She actually lives on my UPS route. I said the word brown, so she lived on my route. She didn't know I was getting into this. But yep, she's my very first client. But it was from an organic Facebook lead.
- [09:05]
B
What did you charge her?
- [09:08]
C
I think it was. She had two dogs. I think it was $18. Yeah, she was. $18.
- [09:14]
B
Was. Was it a freshly scooped yard?
- [09:19]
C
Yeah, she kept up on it. She said she has back issues and she's not able to really get out there and bend over anymore. Her husband does not know she has the service. So I have to go there on Fridays after 3 o' clock when he's in bed.
- [09:36]
B
We have a couple of those as well. We have to actually have to park down the street so the cameras don't pick us up.
- [09:45]
C
Oh yeah, she doesn't make me do that. I park in a driveway, but he goes to sleep for his job. I think he works third shift but can't show up before 3 o'.
- [09:53]
B
Clock.
- [09:55]
C
Buddy stealth mode.
- [10:00]
B
You know, it happens though. I mean these are the kind of like situations and the dynamics that we kind of get into where, where you know, it's one person's responsibility, they don't want to do it. And then there's fights that happen and we truly do like eliminate like tension in the household because we're able to take this chore off of whoever's list.
- [10:21]
C
I have a few married couples that said they would argue about who's doing it, then they would flip a coin and I'm not doing it this week. So, hey, I got a job out of it. They're like, well, I'm hired. Neither one of us want to do it.
- [10:34]
B
I believe it. I believe it. All right, where. What was the organic content that you posted?
- [10:44]
C
Wow. I. I think it was a AI generated photo of a guy in his backyard with a dog and he was just scooping poop.
- [10:57]
B
And then did you just like share it in groups or how, like, where did she find it?
- [11:05]
C
I don't remember if it was a group or just on. But yeah, I didn't know much about advertising. Yeah, I've been self taught. I've had a lot of, a lot of help from the PSM family. I've hired a few people, but I'm just. If I'm sitting on the couch even to. Today I'm posting organic leads, just coming up with something. I know the original photos of a person in your vehicle and real dogs versus AI is better, so I've more lean towards that. But I still enjoy, you know, putzing around with AI and throwing funny stuff out there.
- [11:40]
B
Yeah, those are funny. But yeah, the, the organic ones that shows kind of like the face of the company. So anybody that's listening and you're like, I don't have any money to put behind ads. Like, I get it. I've been there. Ken's been there. You can get customers still in 2025, and I know we're moving into 2026. You can, you just have to be intentional.
- [12:02]
C
Yeah.
- [12:04]
B
Okay, so you got your first customer and you're like, I'm. I imagine you're stoked. You're like, I just made money scooping dog poop. So tell me about that.
- [12:13]
C
Yeah, so I was on cloud nine. You know, shoot, first off, I'm real. I got a customer, I'm ready. And then I got my next 10 pretty quick. And I was like, I think in the first month I had 12 and all organic leads, nothing paid for. I knew how to boost ads on Facebook because of my puppies. The puppy world, you don't have to pay for advertisement. They sell themselves. You just put a little cute picture of a real puppy up there and it's easy. So I didn't know anything about advertising. I mean, I know the logistics behind it and why people do it, but I didn't know how to do it. So for the first two months, it was organic leads. I think I boosted a couple, paid like two bucks to boost a. Boost an ad. But I think my first April, I think I had 10 clients. May I had 14. So 24 total in two months. From organically.
- [13:09]
B
How are you closing these meaning back
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C
and forth or calling them and just, you know, tell them what we do, you know, there's no contract. We show up weekly, we can, you know, we scoop it up, make sure the yard's clean. You want the front to back. We sanitize from watching a lot of Erica's videos. I was self taught a little bit on how to talk to the, to the clients and tell them the advantages of having a pooper scooper, a professional one. So thank you for that. So, you know, I didn't go into it. I did my homework before I really started talking to people. But I'm a, I call myself a people person. I love to talk to people so it was, it was easy for me.
- [13:51]
B
How many people are actually answering the phone for you when you call them?
- [13:57]
C
Not many people don't want to talk on the phone. People want to text. If you call, they don't answer. But if you text, you get a response and I'm a vice versa. I would rather talk than text even to today. Even like clients that I got yesterday, I called, they don't answer, you text, they text back.
- [14:15]
B
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 color customers and keep my eye on the staff right from my phone. If you're a home service entrepreneur looking to level up your business, look more professional and save time, head over to jobber.com croupin 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. That's something I was struggling with because I was in other sales groups which I learned a lot of good information but they were teaching how to communicate on the phone and phone communication, which is very, very important. But I had a disconnect because I'm like, I can't get these people on the phone. So I needed to learn how to really start selling and like following up and being able to have like overcoming objections via text message quickly. So that's when I started chatting with Kelly, because Kelly is like. She's like a sales ninja. Oh, yeah, right. And so can we kind of talk about her a little bit? When did you. You started working with her A little bit. When did that happen?
- [16:06]
C
A couple months ago. I mean, started once. I saw. So when I was doing my homework, I came across the video of you interviewing Kelly, and I found out she was in Columbus, which is two hours from me. So I started. I'm like, I gotta find out. I gotta get her number. I gotta get this Kelly lady's number. And I couldn't find it. So there was another community of pooper scoopers. A guy down in Orlando was heading it up, and I reached out to his. I think he had like a. You could, you know, log in and talk to everybody. A chat room. There you go. And I said, does anybody know Kelly from Columbus? And a couple people said, yeah, we know of her, but no one knew her number. So I just did my homework and finally found it and reached out to her, and she said, you need to join Poop Scoop Millionaire if you really want to get serious about, you know, learning how to do this and do it the right way and be and quickly grow. So I did, and then just chatted back and forth with her a little bit, nothing serious. And I found out how good she is in sales. So I reached out, I said, hey, I need your help. So she was. She's been fantastic to me. She's definitely a name I'll never get rid of.
- [17:20]
B
Oh, I agree. I'm going to be interviewing her, I think, next week. I think I have her on the schedule because I've been working with this guy Matt, and we've been getting a ton of Facebook leads, but I'm not closing as many as I want to. And I know it's not. It's not the leads itself. They're good leads because they're in good areas. It's us. So I had reached out to Kelly. I'm like, I need some help. There's, like a disconnect here because I also have a virtual assistant, and I'm not physically texting because I got a lot going on. Like, I'm not solely focused on the business because I have the social media and I'm involved in church, and then I have another female community. So I brought Nina on. And Nina, she's doing a good job, but she doesn't specialize in sales. So I was like, hey, Kelly, come in. Train us so we can, like, we can crush it and I'm super excited about it. So I wanted to pick your brain and hear, you know, hear your raving reviews.
- [18:17]
C
Yeah, I've actually asked her. I'm like, hey, can I hire you just to do my sales? She's just too busy.
- [18:24]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [18:24]
C
Her place full. And she says, I'll help you out and, you know, steering the right direction. She gave you tips and pointers and stuff, which have been great. And I think I'm pretty good at sales. And they're been in sales, but I just. I'm good at talking to people. I've had clients that inquire about me, and, you know, I call them and talk to them, and they're like, you know, you're not the cheapest, but I enjoy talking to you. And you just sound right for. For my yard, so I've been told. Not the cheapest, but what I offer them, how I talk to them. Just a neighborly person, I guess, just wins me over a few times.
- [19:00]
B
Yeah. When you build that rapport with somebody, you're able to get the higher price points because they can see the value. You're showing the value. And in order to be able to provide that excellent value, you have to have your prices higher.
- [19:17]
C
Yeah, yeah, we have. Yeah. People here with much lower prices.
- [19:25]
B
Same. Same.
- [19:28]
C
Yeah.
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B
Okay. Is there a lot of competition in your area?
- [19:33]
C
So there's a scooper here that's been in business probably about, like, you, five to seven years. And then there were four of us have all started at the same time here. Yep. Four. Four scoopers all at the same time.
- [19:47]
B
Are they still in business as well?
- [19:50]
C
One of them is not. He contacted me because I reached out to all four of them. You know, there's. There's plenty of piles, if you will, to go around for everybody. I wanted to reach out, introduce myself. I noticed that they were new because of the psm. You can see when they started and just introduce myself, say, hey, let's help each other out. Let's network. You know, it doesn't need to be competition, if you will. One of them wanted nothing to do with my conversation. The other three were great. We actually showed up to a dog days and three of us were all there. And I reached one over to Philip and he. He is no longer in business now. He said due to health, he had to go back to Kentucky. And he reached out to me and said, hey, can you take over my clients, please? He didn't have a lot, but I said, absolutely, and I will honor what you were offering them. Not Change anything I don't want, you know, but he was thankful, but it sounded pretty serious on his health, so.
- [20:44]
B
Yeah.
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C
And then there's another guy, Derek. Super nice, super friendly. I keep calling him off him to take him out to lunch. Hopefully one of these days he'll take me up on it. But I wish him all the luck and just wanted to meet him and see if there's some way, you know, both of us can network together.
- [21:00]
B
That's what I love about this community is for the most part, the majority of us, we just want to see each other, like, thrive, I think. And I. And I. It's not even. I think I know that's why the poop scoop millionaire community is doing so well, and I know that's why my YouTube and my podcast and all of that does well, because not only are we sharing, like, honest tips and tactical tips, but there's just something about folks that want to become pooper scoopers. It just attracts, like, one. We're a little weird. Okay. We're, you know, we don't take ourselves too seriously, and we want to help other people, and that. That just creates a wonderful community.
- [21:42]
C
Yes. All right. And that's what I want to do. I want to help them be successful, too. I don't want them to. To struggle if, you know, say, they go down. There's an area here called New Philadelphia. If I don't service that area and he does and I get a call now, I know that, you know, Derek does that area. So. Hey, Derek. And he's. He's already gave me two leads out a little bit west of me that he doesn't service. So, you know, that's how you can network and help each other out.
- [22:06]
B
Oh, I love that. I love that. So you didn't really know too much about the poop scooping industry. You've seen the woman that was doing it. What would you say one of your, like, bigger surprises were where you were like, oh, I wasn't expecting that. With this industry, it's real work. Yeah.
- [22:25]
C
You think it's easy? It's not. Especially now it's winter time, man, I'll come home, just be tired and, you know, hopefully soon I don't have to be out in the field as much. But, you know, I have two. Two techs that now work with me. And for me, and they're like, we've never seen a boss actually get out there and just work as hard. I'm like, trust me, I work out work. You guys, any day I'm here, it's my business, it's my name. And I want to be successful and make sure I get all five star reviews. But no, I come home and I'm tired.
- [23:00]
B
Yeah.
- [23:00]
C
Like, man. So how many reviews? Difficult.
- [23:05]
B
Sorry. How many reviews do you have right now?
- [23:08]
C
I think I just hit 79. Five star reviews.
- [23:11]
B
Are you working with review Harvest with Clay yet?
- [23:15]
C
I was, yeah. He actually, I was stuck at like 20 and I. But I wasn't campaigning with Jobber. You know, still being new. I didn't know all about that, but. But now I. Yeah, he got me to 75 and now I'm using jobbers campaign, trying to lower the overhead.
- [23:36]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [23:37]
C
As you, as you learn and grow. So now I'm utilizing their campaign. So.
- [23:43]
B
Good, good. I'm glad you're utilizing that because reviews are super important. You know, everything that you're doing right now. I want to touch on winter because we're. You're in Ohio. You're super close to me. Before we kind of talk about spring rush because you haven't experienced a spring rush yet. I want to make sure that we cover this. So. And, and if you have any questions for me, since we're chatting, ask me because I can help you out with winter because this is my seventh winter. My question is, do you have a winter policy yet put in place for your business?
- [24:19]
C
No, I don't. I probably need to get that. So, yeah, all ears open if you want to inform me on winter policy.
- [24:28]
B
Okay. I should pull mine up. But from off the top of my head, if we have a fresh snowfall, like day of. Right. We're going out to go scoop and it's like coming down and the main roads are dangerous. We will pause service. I usually go for like 2 hour increments up until like noon. Then I just cancel the day. Here's why. Because if we have over 2 inches, 2 inches is our trigger to be like, okay, we're not. We're probably not going to go out because that's triggering the snow, guys. That's when they're like, okay, it's time to go out. Because things are starting to get messy. Things are starting to get dangerous. So we'll figure that out. We'll figure out if the main roads are. Are taken care of. If they are, we will still go out and we'll still scoop. Are we going to get everything while we're out there? Absolutely not. We will get what we can see visually and then we get what we can feel underneath our feet. So that's basically how we scoop the yards and we go out when we won't is if there's freezing rain, if temperatures are like real feel like negative to where there's the frostbite warning, we won't go out. The roads are super slick and everything's super icy. We're going to go ahead and we're just going to cancel the day. We don't offer refunds for canceled services because in our terms of service, we let them know, like you're on a flat rate pricing. There's sometimes in the, in the seasons where we have to skip your service in the winter and we will, but we'll be back the following week to do double duty. Will we be able to get everything that following week? Nope, because there's still going to be snow on the ground. But what's going to happen is is that snow is going to melt and we're going to have to do that work anyways. And if we continued to offer people credits, we would be doing essentially like a mini spring clean for that customer for free. They just happen to pay for it ahead of time with their regular reoccurring service. And I have my terms of service, which I can send to you and then you can, you know, change them to how you need. I have them attached to the email that goes out to them during their, like when they get their visit reminders. Yeah, it's attached to their email. So they get it every single time they get a service. So they can't say like, you never told me about the policy. You never said it to me. It's like, well, I in fact sent it to you 37 times. So yeah, that's what I could think of off the top of my head. Any questions?
- [27:08]
C
No, that makes sense. Like last, last Tuesday we got a Snowstorm here about 5 inches. And that morning I reached out to everybody and just said, hey, you know, it's just useless for us to come out. It's five inches of snow. We're not going to find anything. You know, I don't want to waste your time, my time. So next week we'll get it and we have double duty. So, you know, you're still getting your, your values worth, if you will, because I have twice the work to do next week. Just because it's snow on your dog's not going to stop dropping piles. So it's kind of on the line. Yeah, I, I would love to see yours and I could tweak it and then add it to my
- [27:49]
B
verbiage really quick. I'm actually working on Some verbiage. Um, I came in, I think it
- [27:57]
C
was the Wednesday after that. I reached out to clients and said, you know, we can come out. And then some of them said, yeah, please. And some said, nah, don't worry about it. Get it next week.
- [28:07]
B
Yeah, I think too, like, I have played it on both ends to where when I was small enough, I could just move. I could just move the visits. Like, we could push things back a day. Like, we're still kind of small enough to where we can. Because with Christmas, we're shutting down the day before Christmas Eve, and then we're not coming back until January 5th.
- [28:29]
C
I always wondered about that. What is the pros and cons clients okay with that? Because I know a lot of companies will shut down for two weeks for Christmas and New Year's.
- [28:40]
B
Yeah. Actually, let me. Where's that email at? I'm going to look in here and I'm going to grab the email and I can. I'll. I'll actually read the email of what we're sending out. It's going out Friday at 5pm via jobber email campaigns. So it's going to automatically send out to all of our reoccurring customers. Hold on, let me pull this up.
- [29:08]
C
Like Thanksgiving, I just separated half of Thursday for Wednesday, and the other half we did Friday.
- [29:16]
B
So for things, that was my first
- [29:19]
C
holiday that I had to deal with. So I just broke the shift in half, if you will, the day the schedule took the top half and put them on Wednesday, the bottom half, put them on Friday.
- [29:29]
B
Yeah, there you go. It's, you know, however you want to run it and how you want to. Yeah, how you want to set things up for your business. The benefit of, like, my company is I value. I value family time. I have a family. I have a husband. I am not that type of person that wants to work, work, work, work, work like crazy and then have no fun. Like, I've already been there, I've done that. And I understand that the people that I'm going to hire, they have families, too. So I really took into consideration. It's like, well, I don't. I don't want to work on Thanksgiving. I don't want to work Black Friday. I want to, like, do stuff with the church or spend time with my husband. So that's why I was like, okay, we're shutting down Thursday and Friday, Black Friday shut down. So what does that look like for us? I already know that we're going to be doing a big shutdown in, in December. So I Don't want to skip those two services. So we just push forward. So we worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I went out in the field and I scooped some yards to kind of make it happen. So it's just kind of like planning ahead with that. And then I send messages out to the customer and then this is my exact holiday letter that I sent out. It said to our croup and spooping scooping family, as a holiday season approaches, our team is taking a little time to pause, reset and enjoy with our families. And we hope you do the same. Here's our Christmas schedule for 2025. Christmas and New Year's we are pausing operations after Tuesday, December 23rd. Scooping will resume Monday, January 5th. All scoops the week of December 23rd will be scooped between December 20th and December 23rd. So here's the thing. We're acknowledging what we're doing, we're sharing with them what it is that we're doing and then what to expect afterwards. So this is where what to expect. January 5th through the 9th is going to be our catch up week. Please expect delayed service times as we will work through heavier than usual yards. Double duty, every yard will be serviced. It will just take longer simply due to longer times. And then I put in there if you have any questions who to reach out to. But I did say please note, during the holiday break, phone calls will not be monitored regularly as our whole team will be traveling and spending time with their families. However, emails will be checked periodically by Nina, you know, putting a name with it. And we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can. And I've sent a very similar letter out before. So I'll send this out and then the text messages that go out for their visit reminders next week will be like reminder of the shutdown. Just wanted to remind you all houses will be scooped between these days and these days and will be shut down between these days and these days. That way people can be like what were you talking about, huh? And then we'll have the copy and paste messages that we send out that will go something like this. This is always the one. Will my account be credited? This is what I say. Great question, Jim. Thank you for checking in. Because we bill on a monthly flat rate, not per visit are no credits for our holiday shutdown. This holiday shutdown was already built built into our our monthly pricing. When we return, we'll be doing double duty to reset your yard. We also don't charge extra for the months that have five weeks which Helps balance out when we have a few planned and unplanned closures throughout the year.
- [33:12]
C
Yeah, it's perfect. I love it.
- [33:13]
B
Yeah. So that's what worked last year. There was a couple people that were mad, and they just huff and gruff, but for the most part, like, everybody gets it, and we have snow on the ground. You know, like, it's. It's really not that. It's not that big of a deal for us. Okay. Yeah. Any qu. Any other questions about the. The winter and the holiday season?
- [33:36]
C
No, that's very helpful. I like that.
- [33:38]
B
Okay. Another thing, too, like, frozen piles. You can't get every pile. Like, you can't. You just can't do it. My thing is, is say if there's a frozen turd pile on a patio. That's right. Like, the customer will be able to see it when they let their dog out. Get ahead of it. Say, hey, Ms. Jones, I scooped your yard. Unfortunately, there's a couple poop piles that are frozen to the ground on your back patio. I did my best to get them. Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait until the ground thaws out a little bit to get them. Why this is important because you're acknowledging it. You're telling them so they know what to expect. They're not just opening up the door. I mean, like, that lazy scooper didn't even check my patio. They're not surprised.
- [34:21]
C
Did you hear Kelly on our zoom call? Was it yesterday or day before? Al, she said that, you know, this is my first winter. So I told her, I'm out there, like, kicking hockey pucks, frozen hockey pucks off the ground.
- [34:34]
B
Don't break your toe.
- [34:35]
C
Oh, yeah, they're hard.
- [34:36]
B
They are.
- [34:37]
C
You would not think it would be that solid.
- [34:41]
B
Yeah. Which. It's fine. You can, like, you know, nudge those off. But there's ones that are just. They're too frozen. And I've seen other scoopers. They're like, you got to get out there with hot water, or you got to get out there with Corona rake and chisel at it. That's not happening. Like, I'm. I'm not doing it.
- [34:59]
C
I do like how they come up easier. You know, you just kind of tap it. It's one pile. One hockey puck instead of messy piles. But no. Yeah, they're hard.
- [35:09]
B
Yeah. Do you haul the waste? What do you do with the dog poop?
- [35:13]
C
I have. I. So learning from the PSM family, seeing a lot of pros and cons. So, no, I do have a few people that say they want to hauled away. But I'm not getting into the hauling business. I just don't have the means or a dumpster to unload every day. Maybe if I get. If I grow and then I get an office right now, I'm out of my house and then I can have means for a dumpster or something. Might look into that. But no, not. Not hauling it. I probably have 10 out of 116 that at the very beginning I was saying, you know, you went all the way. It's just $5. Some people say, yeah, I don't want to hear. But no, it stays.
- [35:56]
B
It becomes too much when you start to grow, and then you're like, where am I going to put it? And then you. Like in the. In the summertime, the maggots. There's just so many maggots. I hate it. And so I. I was really happy when we decided to make that change four years ago.
- [36:13]
C
Yeah. Like I said, I laid it out on the paper, pros and cons. I said, no, I'm not doing it for sure.
- [36:21]
B
Now you sound like you've had some pretty good growth. Business has its ups and downs. What would you say, one challenge you have faced since starting
- [36:32]
C
the local scooper with the very red, ridiculous low price? Yep. I've had a couple people, just a couple, you know, leads that came in, and I've had two clients that say, hey, you know, we're ending our. Our service with you. And then I say, I reach out to them, Is there any. Anything that we did wrong? Was it quality service? They said, nope, just price that we found from a local competitor.
- [36:57]
B
Yep.
- [36:58]
C
And I sent him a. An email back, you know, just kind of breaking down that, you know, price doesn't mean everything. But if you ever need us, we're still here to service your yard in the future. For me, that's probably the biggest.
- [37:12]
B
Have you followed up with them to see how satisfied they are with those?
- [37:16]
C
Not yet. This just started happening last month.
- [37:19]
B
Okay. I would. Yeah, I would follow up. I would follow up with them next year and say, hey, I just wanted to. I was thinking about. Yeah, I just wanted to check in and make sure you're still doing good.
- [37:29]
C
But other than. I mean, as far as advertising, I would say that right now it's the Keely seal for me.
- [37:37]
B
Gotcha. Have you. Have you made any mistakes yet where you're like. Like one mistake where you're like, oh, I really wish I wouldn't have done that?
- [37:48]
C
No, I don't think so. And nothing. And I Probably credit that to the PSM family by listening and learning by people's mistakes. Say don't do this, don't do that. I did this. This came back to bite me. Yeah, when I first joined psm, I was on there every night for hours. Hours reading their classrooms if you will. Reading what people had to say. So yeah, I credit that to psm. So knock on wood. Not yet.
- [38:25]
B
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 he used to scale his business from zero to over 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 in case 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. It's wonderful the resources that there are now. I mean I'm considered an OG because it was before like things started to blow up. But like Jim, he's an og. There's a lot of Mike Caston, we call him, we call him Scoop Daddy. Sorry, he's an og. Stephanie from turnerd. There's a lot of them and we didn't have these resources and that was a big reason of why I started my YouTube channel was because there was one guy that was creating YouTube content and he had three videos. That was it. And I had to like piece everything together and I'm like, okay, who can I talk to? Who can I reach out to? So now it's, it's so amazing that William, he has a proven. William and Levi have had a proven track record. They've grown the business, they've done the things and so they're pouring back into the community to be like, listen, we've made these mistakes, we've spent all this money. We don't want you to do that. Here you go.
- [40:24]
C
Oh yeah. Without them, shoot. I'd be still tripping over, you know, my, my shoelaces. They've been. Thanks to Kelly for telling me, hey, go to psm. So I did that Night I joined.
- [40:37]
B
And that's good that you did, because some people, that's. That's what separates people that are going to succeed and people that don't. Because I've seen this time and time again. I'm sure you have with other people, like business owners. You know, you have the people that talk about things. You have the dreamers, and then you have the action takers. You were an action taker?
- [40:56]
C
Oh, yeah, Absolutely.
- [40:58]
B
You've grown. Go ahead.
- [41:02]
C
I was gonna say, when I. When I do something, I'm all in. And I need to learn to separate my time with business time. And I'm getting there.
- [41:12]
B
Good luck.
- [41:12]
C
I just wanna. I just wanna be successful, if you will. Just wanna be able to help the community out as much as I can and get there faster than. Than slower than. But yeah, I'll be. If someone, like, with my puppies, if someone texts me about a puppy and I'm driving, I pull over. Next parking lot, I'm pulling over. My wife's like, just get to where we're going. Like, no, I don't want people to wait. No. In 16 years of breeding Goldendoodles, I don't have one negative review in 16 years, so. And I just think that's credit to wanting to be the best. And, I mean, when you're dealing with the public, it was 16 years without them. One negative review. I think it speaks volumes.
- [41:53]
B
That's huge. I have negative reviews. It happens. Yeah. So you said you want to be successful. What is your ideal or definition of success? What does that mean to you?
- [42:16]
C
One, offering a great service to community to help them out. I just had a guy right before you, and I got on my second Yelp client. He said he just had a back surgery. He's not able to scoop his yard. He needs help for, like, six to eight weeks, you know. Now I'm able to help him out. He found me. I put myself out there. I can help him out, offer jobs for locals in the area. I now have two techs, hoping. I think when I started this, I thought I just wanted to get 100 clients and do it myself and be satisfied. Well, that didn't satisfy me. So I now have two people, so I've offered two jobs. One kid said he's been. Said he's been trying for a couple years to find a job that just fits him. Right. He loves coming to work, so I'm helping him out, giving him a job. So I'm thinking I might want to get three, maybe four techs, offer a few People jobs, and then really start helping out the community more. Donating time.
- [43:12]
B
Yeah.
- [43:13]
C
Go to the local humane society, started offering them. Help them with, you know, cleanups once a month. I. In the past, I've always donated, like, 100 hours a year to go there and help. So it makes me feel good to help others. It really does.
- [43:28]
B
I don't know if you've ever read the love languages, but it sounds like your love language is acts of service.
- [43:36]
C
Yeah, I'd love helping people.
- [43:39]
B
That's awesome.
- [43:40]
C
Like, you know, I had a client. She said, hey, I need to pause service for a while. And I said, you know, immediately, I think negative. I call her up that something happened. What. What did I do wrong? Nothing. My husband got laid off. And I said, well, just because your husband got laid off doesn't mean a dog stops pooping. So I serviced her yard for a month for nothing. I said, I'm gonna. I'm gonna be here for you until your husband gets his job back. They're with me today. I had one lady, she had not expected. She's. She's a widow, had an unexpected car. Car bill, and her car broke down. I still helped her out. So, you know, helping people out makes me feel good.
- [44:21]
B
Yeah. And you're giving back to the community, and you're helping, and that's what. Like, that builds character. That builds, like, a good name in the area. And that goes. That goes so far for a small business.
- [44:34]
C
If I can, you know, afford to do that more, that would really fill my heart with joy.
- [44:39]
B
Keep growing your business. You'll be able to.
- [44:42]
C
Right after I retired, I sold a puppy to this developer. I didn't know this man was a developer. He's 85. He's 88 years old now. He wanted to start a nonprofit building homes for homeless people in Canton, Ohio. And he called me, wanted me to take me to breakfast. Long story short, he said, hey, I need four people. And you said you had a construction background and would you be interested? I said, absolutely, man. The first house I remodeled, we gave the keys to this homeless family. And the girl looked at her mom and she said, now I have a place to play with my toys, Mom. And I'm not kidding. I mean, just this biggest tear I had to turn around. I'm like, didn't want the little girl to see me. Oh. Just filled my heart full of joy. And I ended up helping them get it started. I was there for three years, built, I think, 20 something new homes, remodeled like 17. And just to see kids, this one Girl, this one kid said, I feel rich. I have a kitchen. I'm like, oh my gosh. So yeah, just helping others is all it is for me.
- [45:47]
B
And that's why you're going to go far. That's why your business is going to do well. Because you're wanting to pour into other people.
- [45:54]
C
Yeah.
- [45:54]
B
And I, I heard you mention that you want to have a couple other scoopers. So what would you say that your goal for 2026 is going to be for your business?
- [46:07]
C
Number of client goal 250300 maybe. And I think that would get me to where I need to be for getting, you know, helping them feel the people get a job to help others. So I could be wrong. I don't know. You, you might know more about that than I, but that's the number it would take or could take more.
- [46:27]
B
Well, I guess it depends on like your revenue goal. Right. So it just depends. Like you could have more customers, but if you have lower rates and you have to have more customers or you could have higher rates, lower customers, you know, depending on like what your, like your average, your average service time is, which, that's something I didn't ask. What's the average yard size in your area?
- [46:51]
C
Average yard size. We're doing the backyards.
- [46:55]
B
Okay. And then how about how long is it taking to service the property for weekly service?
- [47:00]
C
About nine minutes.
- [47:03]
B
And then how many houses can a technician do in an eight hour shift?
- [47:09]
C
So I'm not there yet to have eight hour shifts.
- [47:12]
B
Okay.
- [47:13]
C
They're part time because I'm still going out too.
- [47:15]
B
Gotcha.
- [47:16]
C
They're working. We started 8ish and I let them, you know, determine. She also has six if I can but work until about 2, 2 o'. Clock. So you know, need to think I'm right around. Thought I had it wrote down somewhere. 20 to 25 clients a day. Wednesdays are pretty much like an off day. I actually donate time at our local hospital. So I go there for eight hours a day on Wednesdays. And I do have five clients right next to my house. I just do them as soon as I leave the hospital at 2 o'. Clock.
- [47:53]
B
That's nice. Do you scoop on Fridays?
- [47:56]
C
Yep.
- [47:58]
B
For like a year I was able to keep my Fridays open. No houses on Fridays. And every other scooper I would talk to, they're like, how? I'm like, because I run this show, this is my, my business, man. Friday is our heaviest day now. And I'm like, oh, but it was nice to have that overflow day yeah.
- [48:18]
C
And I. My. Some of my families, like, do you. You scoop on weekends? And I'm like, nope, we'll never scoop on a weekend. Absolutely not. Nope.
- [48:29]
B
Absolutely not. You know, I've really enjoyed chatting with you, and I've just noticed you have a positive. You have a positive vibe about you, and you kind of like sunshine. Would you say that having a positive mindset going into this has helped with your business success so far?
- [48:45]
C
Absolutely. Because of the. In, you know, I've grown much faster than the. The competitors that started the same time as me. And it's not that I'm bragging. I just. I want them to grow as fast as I do. Especially Derek. Derek, you see this? Can't wait to meet you someday. Feel like I know you. And. Yeah, I think positive attitude really helps.
- [49:09]
B
I agree. I agree. When you are, like, positive and you don't focus on the negatives because what you focus on is where you're gonna go. So. Yeah, I. I really. I really think that you're gonna. You're gonna kill it next year.
- [49:22]
C
I'm hoping I hear about this spring rush and we'll see. I don't know people. Yeah, it's hard for me to believe the numbers that people are predicting, but.
- [49:33]
B
Well, I mean, I can tell you right now what I had for spring ride.
- [49:37]
C
August was my biggest month, And I had 33 clients, you know, grew 33 clients in August. People are saying 50 to 100. That's a lot.
- [49:48]
B
Have you put any money into advertisement yet?
- [49:50]
C
That's all I do. I haven't put a dollar in my pocket since I started. Not one dollar.
- [49:55]
B
How much are you spending on ads?
- [49:58]
C
Oh, geez, two, three thousand dollars a month.
- [50:01]
B
Did you continue that through the summer months as well?
- [50:04]
C
Yeah, since the day I started. When I first started, I was spending $1,500 a month for the first three months, and that was money. You got to have money on your pocket to start a business, so.
- [50:17]
B
Right.
- [50:19]
C
Yeah. Every dollar I make, if it doesn't go towards paying a tech or buying supplies. And I did buy a truck when I first started, and I just bought my second truck. So everything in my texture, like, when are you gonna start? I'm like, hey, just. I'm here to build it. Luckily, you know, I have two other businesses. I also started a mobile grooming service right as I retired. And that's, you know, so I gotta build that one too. Luckily, my wife takes care of that site.
- [50:48]
B
I was gonna say you're busy.
- [50:50]
C
Yeah. We have 900 clients in our mobile grooming service spent $500 in advertising. That's it from day one.
- [50:57]
B
Wow. Are you able to like leverage those clients?
- [51:04]
C
I started to a little bit this year and I thought for sure. And believe it or not, I don't think I have maybe one client off of like when they go to groom to dog, I give them a bag to take a gift bag with some treats and stuff and information on my super business. But I think I gotta reevaluate that in 2026 and I think it'll pan out.
- [51:27]
B
That'll be good. Yeah, I, I think that would be a good way to advertise for spring rush. Just to kind of give you a little bit of a heads up with like spring rush. I'll give you some numbers here. So just in the month of March of this year, I had 299 leads that came in.
- [51:47]
C
That's incredible.
- [51:50]
B
And we converted 112 of them. Only 33 of them actually became recurring customers. We did 108 one off jobs. So that would, that would take into consideration. We just did a one time cleaning and then also the initial cleaning because our initials I schedule as one off jobs in jobber just because it makes things cleaner. And we invoiced $31,000 that month.
- [52:22]
C
Wow. See that's. I hear these numbers and I'm like, really?
- [52:27]
B
Yeah.
- [52:28]
C
That would bring in a. That'd be awesome. I would love it.
- [52:32]
B
And so my business was not. My business was not doing very hot at the end of last year because of car accidents and everything. And I was like, I hated my business. I was like, I want to do this anymore. This is crazy. So the month prior. So if you're like, okay, well, $31,000 is nice. But like, what were, what were you doing before that? The month prior I invoiced $16,600. Yeah. So it was like, whoo. So the month of March, depending on when your snow melts, it's usually the end of February. March, year after year is our. Is my highest, my highest income producing month. And then November is my second highest income producing month because we get like a fall rush.
- [53:21]
C
Okay.
- [53:22]
B
So just start planning for it. Start having all hands on deck. Respond back to people quickly. Understand, you'll be working sun up to sundown. If you can work, you know, just be ready because it's going to be very quick. It's going to go by very fast. And this is going to be the time where you're going to be able to capture a lot of people, a lot of eyes and hopefully get them to continue with you for recurring service.
- [53:48]
C
I'm looking forward to it.
- [53:50]
B
Yeah, it's a lot.
- [53:52]
C
I like the chaos.
- [53:54]
B
Yeah, it is. It's something. I mean, my first one, I just. I couldn't believe it. And I remember my husband and I because my. My husband gets laid off every year because he does tree work. And so he's like my unpaid intern. I feed him in food or pay him in food. And I remember him. And I. I don't remember what day it was, but we were working sun up to sundown, and I remember we were in this country property. It was quite big. The sun was going down, and I was like, adding up the numbers of what we had done that day. And I was like, josh, we made a. We made a thousand dollars today scooping dog poop. $1,000. And I'm like, getting emotional thinking about it because it was like, it's changed. I mean, this business has changed my life. It changed the trajectory of everything that I was doing. And I just remember us, we were just looking at each other and my husband did, like an air guitar, because that's what he does. We're like, this is crazy.
- [54:56]
C
Yeah, that's awesome. That's why you're famous.
- [55:03]
B
Hooper Scoober famous.
- [55:06]
C
I was showing my son last night some of your YouTube videos.
- [55:11]
B
Thank you.
- [55:12]
C
He's my youngest. I'm like, it's like, so, who. Who are you talking with tomorrow? I'm like, look, he goes. He was reading your car. He goes, crouping, scooping. I'm like, yeah. It just goes. He's got the perfect last name for this business.
- [55:25]
B
Oh, yeah, the kids love it. Psych, right? Funny. All right, well, we're going to wrap this one up if. Before we hop off. If. If a new scooper or somebody that is just kind of like thinking about getting into the industry were to ask you for advice, what is one piece of advice you would give them?
- [55:49]
C
Be positive. Yeah. You could easily quit in the beginning because you just. It doesn't grow fast. At least it didn't for me. And I'm still trying to get there so I can put a couple of dollars in my pocket. But be positive.
- [56:01]
B
Absolutely. Be positive and move quick. Yes, That's a good one. All right, well, I appreciate you, Ken. If anybody wants to keep up with you, where can they find you?
- [56:12]
C
See, my Facebook is Scoop Potrol P A W T R O L. And my website is SCP Patrol P A W T R O L. All right, perfect.
- [56:24]
B
I'll go ahead and I'll get those links and we will include them down in the show descriptions. I want to thank the audience so much for tuning in and hanging out with us. Because of you the show can continue to grow where we can share real stories, real experiences from real business owners so you really understand what it takes to grow a real business. Thank you so much Ken for chatting with me and I look forward to keeping up with you.
- [56:48]
C
You thank you. Go Buckeyes.
- [56:51]
B
Edit that one out. Mr. Producer bye bye.
- [56:58]
A
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 at Croupin's Poopin Scoopin. And don't forget to follow the show in order to get notified when the next edition of the Scoop drops.
- [57:41]
C
Sa.