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- [00:00]
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Welcome to the Scoop podcast. I'm your host, Erica Kruepman and today's episode is an encore episode. The reason being is I'm taking some time off to really focus on Spring rush for my pooper scooper business. As many of you know, spring rush is so important for our business and I really need to be locked in if I want to achieve those goals that I want to achieve and be able to give my business the time and the energy that it needs. These episodes, we feel, me and Mr. Producer feel that these need some extra love. The information that is in these episodes are really good and super helpful and I hope that you enjoy them. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and enjoy the episode.
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Welcome to the Scoop with Erica Kruipen. Your host is the owner of Croupin'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.
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What's up Scoop podcast? I'm your host, Erica Krugman and on today, today's Wednesday episode, we're going to do another spring rush recap. Because I am in the midst of our spring rush. It has been, it has been a spring rush that has taught me a lot about simplicity. Okay. When I first got started in my business, well, before I hop into that, first of all, how are you? How are you doing? Let me know down in the comments or let me know over on Apple review. How are you doing? How are you holding up? How is your business going? Okay, let me hop into it. When I first started my business, it was simple because I didn't know any better, right? It was flat rate. 50 bucks. Everybody gets a dollar fifty clean. Didn't matter. Size of yard, none of it. And I was able to crank those quotes out very quickly. Fifty bucks. Fifty bucks. Fifty bucks. 50 bucks. How much for a regular reoccurring service? $55 a month. That's it. I don't care how many dogs you have. I don't care what the size of your yard is. I just want to work 55. I like the number 5 if you guys can't tell. And it was just easy, you know, it was just easy to Crank that stuff out. And as time has gone on, I love making things more complicated. It's like, it's like a special power of mine, you know, I like to complicate, spice things up as much as possible. Try different things, which is really, really good that I'm able to try different things. And I'm not like scared to do different things. And I might get myself in a bit of a pickle because of that. But I always figure my, I always figure it out. Do I learn from other people's mistakes Sometimes. We were actually talking about that in church because I'm in a Sunday. What am I? A Sunday, like Bible study? It's called the Forge. I'm getting, I'm getting some approvals right now. Jobber is going crazy. We've had so many quotes come through on Jobber and my team has just been banging them out. I was up super late last night sending quotes out. But this is, this is what I want to talk about, the simplicity. So yeah, it was like super easy in the beginning and then I made things more difficult. I wanted to try different prices, I wanted to try different pricing structures. I wanted to have like a tiered method. So it was like customizable and it's fine. Like it's, it's okay. But when you start to get massive movement because I had been putting yard signs out, door hangers out, social media, putting money into advertisement for like, I want to say the first time ever where I put some like real money to me anyways, real money into advertisement, like $50 a day. It's real money that, I mean that's a lot of money. I'm now up to $200 a day. Oh God, it better, it better, it better pay off. But when you have so much volume coming in, having those complex, complex systems, things break. It's taking too long to respond back to people like, hold on, I got to look at my paper. I how much is it for a three dog once a week service, medium size yard? Hold on, let me look at the paper. And even my scooper was like, yeah, I need to do some training because people ask me the prices and I don't really know. And so this is all stuff that I have just been thinking about. But anyways, we were just getting such high volume that I was like, you know what with these spring cleansing, I have to simplify it. So I flat rated it because we had like a tiered method. I was like, nope, we're just going to go back to basically how I built this business. Go Back to the beginning flat rate. So I was like, well, let's do 150 bucks flat rate, because that would be cool. I would love to make $150 per claim. So that was cool. That was moving and grooving. The approval rate was okay. It was at, like, 30. I want to say it was, like, at 38%. Not great. Don't love it. I'm like, schedule's full. We've been working every single day. We've been busting out between, like, 10 and 12 spring cleans per day. My arms hurt. My husband's arms hurt. I have not talked to Charles. I'm sure his arms aren't feeling too great. We've had some people come in. I just. I quit being so scared before. I'm like, oh, I just don't know who I want to bring in and who I want to work. You're gonna show up. You got two arms. You have eyes at work. Come on, let's go. Let's. I'll try you out. And if you don't do a good job, the person that's with you, the seasoned technician, will pick up the slack. And I just won't invite you back tomorrow. Or maybe I will, because it's better than nothing. So this past week, I decided to quit being so scared. Just allow people to help if they want to help. Come on. Sure. I'm not bothering them. They want to work. They want to make money. They want to help. So I'm not. I'm no longer blocking the blessings. And I just flat rated my. My seasonal clean price again. Now the $150 was approving, was approving, was approving. And it stopped, like, yesterday and the day before, like, little to no approvals. I was like, I don't like that. And I'm not stupid. So I'm not going to just leave that price there. I'm going to adjust the price. So I just did the price down. I'm testing my market out. I'm testing what. What's too high, Right? What. Where do people say, nope, that's too much. I'm not paying it. I reached that. I figured that out. Like, the mass majority, like, there's some people that will pay it in certain areas before the areas that I'm trying to target, the approvals are showing it, like, they're not approving it. So I dropped the price down. I sent that out. I dropped it down 30 bucks. People are approving them. They're going through. And guess what? If they stop approving them, guess What I'll do again, I'll adjust the rate. I'm not giving cleans away for free. That's something that I'm not doing. I know that there's a lot of controversy, like, do we give them away for free? Do we not give them away for free? I think if you're a new scooper and you're just trying to get your feet wet and you're trying to gain reviews and you're trying to get out there, do what you will. If you got more time than money, if you have to give away a free scoop, do I love that for the community? Do, do I. I love seeing that on social media, especially in my direct market. No, I don't. I'm going to be super transparent. I don't love it, but I get it and I understand. And I think there's also a difference. Like Hiram was explaining this to me. When you're the scooper, right, you're going out, you're the business owner, you're going out and doing these cleans. They're tough on your body, they hurt your body, they're time consuming. It's taking you away from your family, it's taking you away from growing your business or whatever. So you want to get that higher price point. But when you start hiring out and you're sending people out there, that's when you're able to play with the price a little bit because you're not feeling that pain point, like you were paying somebody to do that clean. So if you're paying them, let's say $15 an hour, $20 an hour, and you're sending them out and you're only. And you're only charging, let's say $100, maybe 79, let's say 79.99 if they're wanting to sign up for. For a reoccurring service, like you're offering like a grand slam offer, which I wouldn't say that's a grand slam offer, which I do. If you guys are Alex Hermosi follower, I do have some grand slam offers that I have tucked away that I'm kind of working with. I would say, like, this is like a middle, like a middle grounds, like, I'll give you a clean for 79.99 if you sign up for reoccurring service. And the only stipulation is they have to stay on for the month. So that's an offer, right? When you're hiring somebody and you're bringing them on, their time is worth the $15 an hour or the $20 an hour or whatever you're paying them. But you as a business owner, you have a different skill set. You have things that you're trying to do. You value your time to be more expensive, as do I. Because I know what I can make per hour. Creating social media content, okay, I know how much I can make per hour going out and doing a speech. I know what I can make by giving a shout out for something I know like I know, right? So when I'm out there scooping and I offer a discount for 79 bucks or 50 bucks, now my hourly rate, my time has dropped down to $50 per hour. And I know that I can produce much more than that with the other skill sets that I have. It's just a matter of how we choose to spend our time. And so with me having staff going out, I want to keep them busy, I want to keep them working. Some work is better than no work. So if I can pay them set amount, I am charging customers set amount. There's still money being made that I don't have to physically go out and do. So so that's where I feel like doing them at a cheaper rate makes sense. But when you're a solo scooper and you're going out and you don't have a lot of time on your schedule, doing them at a cheaper rate isn't super smart. And doing them for free, I don't see where the payoff is for that. If they're not signing up for reoccurring service Foreign 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 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. I'm sure you didn't even notice this, but my phone Just decided it was going to turn on the emergency thing and shut off because I'm. I record my podcast from my phone, okay? I'm in my truck. I'm recording from the DJI mic, okay? And from my phone because I don't have time to get to the podcast studio right now. And spoiler alert, there are some changes that are going to be coming with the podcast set up and where my new office is going to be. I moved to Northville. I tried it out for a year. It just wasn't the right fit. It didn't go how I wanted. I didn't grow in the area. So that's one thing about me. I'll try it. I'll try it. And if it doesn't work out, I'm out of there. And I know for years, so many people in my life are like, oh, Erica, you're so flaky. You try so many different things. You can't commit to anything. I commit to the things that are working. I try stuff. If it doesn't work, I stop doing it and I try something else. It's just my personality type. I can't help it. It's the way that I'm built. And it's fun. It is fun until it makes things complicated. And then I have to course correct. So I say all that to say that we have been very busy. I was getting $150 per clean. The signups have been decent, but they weren't great. The signups just weren't great. And I'm like, why are they not converting? And I was looking at my pricing. I may have increased my rates too much this year. I might have hit that market cap. Okay, so what do you do? You adjust. You adjust your prices to see what works. Trial and error. That's the cool thing about being a business. That's the cool thing about being a small business owner is you can adjust your prices to find what's working. And I really do encourage you to do so to see what works in your market and try out different price points and see what the response is. And pay attention to the response. Okay, if you're getting people that are converting left and right, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, then you could up your rates a little bit and that's going to slow down. And then you're like, okay, I'm still making more money. It's less conversions, but because of the money, I'm still converting more. And then eventually you get to a point where that break even point stops. And then you. You're Making less or you're converting less, and you just have to pay attention to that, which I have been paying attention. So I'm like, all right, well, let's adjust it. I'm sure my VA is not very impressed with me. She probably like, darn it, Erica, why are you making so many changes? Because it's my business, and I could do what I want. With all due respect and in. Oh, goodness. I know everybody's probably super frustrated with me today, this week, but, you know, it just. It happens. My social media virtual assistant was like, hey, where's Wednesday's episode? I'm like, it's still in my brain. Mr. Producer sent me the same thing. I'm like, it's still in my head. It was just a lot was going on with the business, so this had to take a back seat, unfortunately. And I have been. I was transparent with Mr. Producer about adding a Friday episode, and we kind of talked about, like, some goals of mine. Like, I just want to spend more time with my husband. I want to enjoy cooking him breakfast Now. I used to hate. I used to hate making this man breakfast because I used to hate how he ate because he ate so terribly. And I'm trying to eat healthy. But he's been going to the gym, and he's been motivating and encouraging me to go to the gym. Even through this spring rush, I'm still making it to the gym and still doing what I need to do. Are my workouts as aggressive? Nope. My back hurts, so my trainer is taking it very light with me. But Josh is in there, so now we have a routine, like, I make him breakfast in the morning, we sit down and. And we eat together, and then we go to work. And it's a nice. It's a good moment where we're connecting. I also removed all social media off of my phone just because I have a lot just going on in general right now, and I really need to focus on what's producing the most amount of money and pushing me forward with the goals and scrolling on the social media apps, ain't it? My response back to comments have been a lot slower, which isn't ideal, but sometimes I just have to make sacrifices, and sometimes you have to make sacrifices in your business and in your life. And I've done this before with friends, with going to bed early, with waking up early, with cutting out the delicious food, saying no to certain situations because I'm. I'm getting more clarity and I'm getting more focused, which is super important. And when you're in a relationship. I know I talk a lot about Josh, and I talk a lot about just relationship because it's so important. The person that you're in a relationship with is the person you realistically spend the most time with. And for a while there, Josh and I weren't spending a lot of time together because we probably really didn't even like each other very much. You know, I mean, maybe I can get him on here and he. We can have some harsh truths, but I'm sure there was a point in time where he was like, what? Like, what did I do Do? Why'd I marry this psycho? And I thought the same thing. But we've been able to push through that, and we've been able to be more respectful to each other. Having kids and having teenagers definitely makes things more stressful. And as you get older, you get a bit more wiser and you're. You pick and choose your battles. Like, what ones are really important? Which ones aren't? Like, let me tell you, my husband, I have something like, there's some issue with noises where when people scrape plates, my. I can't handle it. I want to freak out. Like, oh, why is that so loud? I don't know what it's called. That's something where the sound of things just drive me wild. So I've been trying to give him a plastic plate and a plastic bowl so I don't hear that screeching of the fork on the plate. Like, I can't control him on how he's going to cut his eggs, but I can give him a different kind of plate that's not going to make that wild, crazy noise, you know? So it's all a matter of just, like, picking and choosing your battles. Just. I make him breakfast now. I get to serve him the plate that I want him to use. Problem solved. Glorious. He's happy. I'm happy. And I know they always say happy wife, happy life, but when he's in a bad mood, he be killing the vibe. Like, he is real. Like, he's kind of, you know, he's got like, don't tell him I told you that. But, like, I'm like, what the heck? Why are you being such a B word? You know, Anyways. And then. And then he doesn't know how to fake the funk and, like, fake a smile. Even his fake smile looks very, like, condescending. Like, with me, when I'm not feeling okay, I'm like, I can put on a little fake face. Yeah, we're just gonna fake it. Till we make it. Sure. Why not? Not him. It's not happening. This face is long, long face. All right, I'm getting distracted. This is a Wednesday episode. We're talking about the recap. Oh. Oh, okay. Let's get back to it. Yeah, we had a ton of like, over like two. The last time I looked, it was like 222 requests have come in in the past two weeks. So that's like a hundred. That's like a hundred a week. Just, Just through Jobber. That's not including, like the Facebook messenger, personal Facebook phone calls. None of that. Just straight through Jobber. I don't know how to track that other stuff, so I'm not sure. But that's still a lot. It's still a lot. And I cranked up the advertisement now that we got a better flow because we can handle a little bit better. And I'm just going to keep testing it out. I'm going to test out the adjusted prices and if you guys aren't using Jabber and if you don't have a CRM, Jabber is releasing a lot of new things. Like, their reporting is getting a lot better. They're. They have. What do they have? Like email marketing campaigns where you can send people emails, which is really, really cool because we have this database built up and we have all this customer information that requested for service. So we, we're building up the, the, the lists. We might as well market to them. They're already our warm audience. Um, they have that and then they have these templates which I spent the last couple days in my spare time building out templates where it has like all of your verbiage, it has your pricing, it has your disclaimer, it has pictures, it has all of that already built in there. So now with these high volume, we're able to convert these quotes over faster. And when a request comes in, because I'm not automated, I don't have any automations going on right now except for what's built into Jobber. When a request comes in, I'm immediately just sending them a text message through Jobber saying, hey, Blank, I seen you sent, submitted a request. While I'm putting your quote together, is there any more details about your property that I should know or any specific questions that you want to know about the service? And then that way it's like a touch point. We've already made contact with them. That gives us a little bit of buffer time to get the quote together. Depending on, you know, depending on how, like what the volume Is like at that time. So, yeah, it's been. It's been going good. Could it go better? Of course. Of course it could go better. But I feel incredibly blessed. Oh, I did receive a two star review. I did that. I broke over 500 reviews. I got 408, I believe, and one of which from Steve. Steve gave me a two star. He felt like he was duped and lied to because of the price. He thought the service was only $30. The $30 is the deposit and then you have to pay that to get onto our schedule. And then the rest of the payment is due upon completion. A very in detail. It explains that in the quote. He just didn't read it and so he thought it was just gonna be $30. So he left me a very lengthy two star review. I've reached out to him, I've texted, I've called. He no answer. He no answer. So that's irritating. Darn you, Steve. I looked him up on Facebook. Mm. He's younger. He's a little younger. He was paying for the service for his parents. So I crept through Steve's entire Facebook, the whole thing. I even looked through his Instagram. So I know a lot about you, Steve. I know social media is wild. Ain't it wild? It's crazy. It's crazy. But anyways, that's really creepy. I was just curious of who the Steve guy was. I just wanted to, like, understand. He's a little bit younger, So I understand $99 might be a lot for him. I get it. I'm not here to judge. I just. Steve, I just want you to call me back so we can talk and we can work this out. Because I don't feel like I deserve that two star review based upon how everything played out. So before those two star reviews would wreck me, I would be devastated. Now I'm like, okay, how can we fix this? This is a problem. Let's solve it. All right, you guys, I'm gonna head out of here. I have a very, very full Tuesday, so I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Oh, and really quick, if you have not. If you have not bought your ScoopCon for ScoopCon 2025 yet, what are you waiting for? You need. You gotta come. Like, why aren't you coming to ScoopCon? I want to see you. I want to hang out. I want to have fun with you. I want to connect. I want to, like, shake hands, hug. I want to cry together. If you're a crier. I'm a crier sometimes. So there's like there's a link down below, Click it and like buy your ticket like as soon as possible before they get sold out. The hotels are actually already almost sold out.
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Thank you for hanging out with Erica Kruipen. 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 Rupenspoopin Scoopin. And don't forget to follow the show in order to get notified when the next edition of the Scoop drops.
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Sam.