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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.
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What's up Scoop Podcast. I'm your host, Erica Kruppen and on today's episode, I'm going to be doing a Q and a. You ask questions over on YouTube and I want to go ahead and answer those today. Today for you. I'm really excited. We're going to cover. Stay tuned. We're going to cover CRMs, we're going to talk about yard signs, we're going to talk about recurring customers, we're going to talk about business training, we're going to talk about scooping on the weekends if I'm going to ever sell my business. Lowering your prices, What? No way. Best way to track your customers. And I also want to talk about ScoopCon 2026. Very excited. October 2nd and 3rd in Dallas, Texas. Dallas, Texas, ScoopCon 2026 is going down. This is the second time this event has happened. Last year we all met in Coeur d', Alene, Idaho. It was absolutely beautiful. We learned a lot. We had great conversations. We got to network. If you did not make it to that one, I highly encourage you to come to this year's. And if you went to last year's, you already know. I don't, I don't have to tell you. You already know. I don't need to convince you, but I'm going to be there. I don't exactly know if I'm going to be speaking, but I feel like, I feel like I'm going to be, but I haven't gotten the word. But yeah, if you're listening to this and you're kind of contemplating it, like, should I go to a pooper scooper conference? What's the benefit? There's, I think my coffee is just making me talk faster than, or making my brain go faster than it actually is. I've been to a lot of events. Okay. I've typically went to like landscaping events because there was no pooper scooper events that I had known of. Really? Landscapers have a ton of events there because their industry is much larger. At ScoopCon, not only is there, like I was saying, networking, we're also going to have keynote speakers, we're going to have activities, we're going to have the conversations that you have after everything's done. When you're sitting in a restaurant, you're sitting at a table, you're sharing stories, you're getting connections, being around other business owners that are doing the exact same thing that you are. Either they're just getting started or they're further along. In business, there's. There's just something so special and so magical about getting around people that are doing poop scooping. I mean, we're, you know, we're not a large community. We're a bunch of weirdos. So it's nice to get around a bunch of other weirdos that are doing the same thing, that want to be around each other. So what I say is, is if you're still with me and you're interested in joining and coming to ScoopCon 2026, I'm going to include my link down below. Here's the thing, there's limited spots. I'm not exactly too sure how many spots there are, but spaces are limited. So obviously it's first come, first serve. And that's the same thing with the VIP dinner. First, first come, first serve. So definitely get your tickets today. All right, let's get into these questions. We. We just got done doing like a brand photo shoot with the iPhone at my neighbor's house. Because my neighbor has a really. She's got a nice house. I said, hey, can I do some photo shoots at your house? And she said, yeah, sure. So that's what we did. And then it started raining on us, so I had to cut it short. But we got enough. I think we got enough. IPhones do an excellent job. So for anybody that's like, oh, I need, I need photos, but I'm not really too sure how to take them or what to use. I need to buy a fancy camera. If you have a cell phone that has a good quality camera on it, use that. I did use portrait mode and cinematic mode quite a lot to really get like the focus in. And it gives it that like, high quality feel without actually being a photographer, because I don't know what I'm doing. But we, we took some good pictures. So I'm really excited to see what my editor does with those. Very excited. I needed some new photos and I didn't want to be in them. I've been always in the photos. And for those of you that are just getting started, of course you have to be in the photos. It's your business, it's your brand. But I'm eight years in now and I'm like, can I pass the torch to somebody? Can somebody else be in these photos? And that's what happened today. Love it. Stay tuned for social media to see how those look. So let's get into these questions. First question comes from Chris Costa. 4, 3, 9. Have you ever used Yard Book and what are your thoughts on it? That's a great question. I have used yard book before. That's what I first started using when I started my. Not when I started my pooper scooper business. When I started my pooper scooper business, I didn't have a CRM. But when I decided that I was going to start using one, I believe James Shields from, from, oh my God. He's in Kentucky. But now I'm drawing a blank on his name right now. Oh no, it'll come to me. He's got a very large company in Kentucky and it's losing, it's lost on me right now. But he used yard Book and he was telling me all about it and said it was free. And I was like, you know what, free is totally in my budget. I love that. Let me give it a shot. I did not love yard Book. It was very confusing. I, I'm never gonna sit here and say that I'm a smart person. I'm not, I'm not super techie. What I am is dedicated and I will figure things out. I will always try to find the easiest and best way to do things. So that's something that I'm, and I'm very persistent. But Yardbook just, I, I really had a hard time with it. My eyes, my dyslexia. There was a lot of options which are real, is really good when there's a lot of options. But, but for me, I got lost in the sauce. I kept getting lost in it. And this was years ago. I mean I've been using jobber since 2020 at this point. And for those of you that don't know, Jobber is the show sponsor. So if you are looking for a field management software to run and grow your small pooper scooper business, click my link down below to give Jabber a try and you will get a 14 day free trial. Nailed that one. Nailed it. Anyways, I will say if you are looking for a free option, Yardbook is a good free option. I know, I know. A Lot of people that use it. I just personally don't. Thank you for your question. I appreciate it. I am struggling actually, I'm going to try to read this name. Dinkleberg Gaming. I'm struggling to turn spring cleans into recurring customers. Any tips? What I have noticed this year that is helping us convert these one time cleans is offering them a higher rate for a one time and then a lower rate for an initial. So how we've been presenting it is if you want a one time clean, that's going to be 170. But if you were interested in trying a recurring service, I could give you that first initial cleaning for 120 and then moving forward each week would be 27.50 or $28 per week. Or something along the lines of I asked them the questions. You know what we learn about their dog, we learn about their yard size, we learn about why they reached out. So we find out pain points and then we say okay, based off of the information you provided, I feel like our reoccurring model would be the best fit for you. So. So that initial cleaning would be 120 and then it would be 2750 per week moving forward. Oh well, what about just if we just do a one time initial? Well, one time wouldn't be considered initial. Our initial cleanings are if you are going to move forward with recurring service, we can do a one time cleaning and that will be $180. Shut the lips. Let them talk it out. Let them think it out. And then they'll ask, well, is there any contracts? I say no, there's no contracts. The only thing that we do is we do pay for. You would pay for a month in advance. So looking at my calendar, it looks like we would go ahead and we would start service. We would do your first initial cleaning on the 18th and then you would have two more services after that. So it would be 120 plus $55. And then I would do the math and present it to them. Then zip it. And if they decide to go with a one time cleaning, cool. Provide excellent service. Afterwards, I follow up with them and say, hey, because I have a team now that's doing the cleans. So I just say, hey, hi Sally, this is Erica. I wanted to check in with you to make sure you were happy with the one time cleaning that was provided to today by Brittany. They respond back, yes, blah, blah, blah, blah. All right, great. Were you interested in continuing with weekly service to help maintain your backyard? And that's been helping just Doing that follow up after they've experienced how smooth it is with us. 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 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 that has been converting, also getting on the phones. I really think that the automations are causing a disconnect and I know that, I know automations are super helpful and I know so many of, I know so many service providers that are just signing up customers like crazy with all of the automations and I get that. But for the people that are just getting started and you can't afford the automations, you don't know how to do it. I get it. And I do think that you still have an upper hand when it comes to the folks that just do not want to deal with AI, they don't want to deal with automations, they want to talk to a real person and that is what that is. A beautiful part of being a new solo operator is where at that time usually you're able to hop on the phone and you're able to talk to every customer. I remember when I got started and even through the first like you know, four years I had scooped every single property. I knew all the notes in my head, I knew everything about the dog. I knew so much stuff that happened with these customers and I still have customers that have been with me since the beginning. You know, dogs have died, they've gotten new dogs or the dogs are old now. And you know that transition is going to happen. But I've had, I've had people with me and there's been issues, there's been complaints, there's things that have happened. But, but I hop on the phone and I have a conversation with them. And I really try to hear them out and really try to listen to them. And with this older generation, that technology is just moving so fast, it's moving so quickly. They don't know if they can click links. They, they're getting things in the mail saying that they have past due taxes and it's a scam. Letters in the mail or phone calls saying that their Amazon package is on the way. Just, just confirm your credit card information. Like there's so many scams. And these, these older people are like, I want to talk to somebody that's local, that I know that when I make my payment this company is going to show up. And so I, I really encourage you if, if you're not hopping on the phone and just having a conversation slowing it down, that's something I really struggle with, is talking too fast. I want to rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. I don't have time to talk to you. I got things to do. But if you really expand it out and really slow down and get to know the person, hear them out, hear their story, find out their why. You're really going to find some common themes in people and that's going to help you with your marketing and be able to help empathize with them and be able to relate back to them, how you're going to be able to help them or lessen the burden. And um, and I like, I understand that you've always done it and I get that. I totally get that. But you don't have to anymore. We're going to take care of that for you. That's my tip, that's my suggestion. Humanize it. Have the conversations, have the follow ups, provide the excellent service and just ask the questions. You just want a one time. But if you don't mind me asking, why are, why are you choosing not to move forward with recurring? I'm new in business and I'm just trying to figure this out. Just doing a little market research. Stay curious. Thank you. Question number three. Would you. Oh, I forgot to read the name, sorry. Tony B5389. Would you recommend getting any kind of business or credentials before starting the business? No, no, not at all. I mean get your LLC for sure but no, I don't think you need any of that. Here's what I do think that you need when you work for somebody. At least this was my opinion, right? So I've always worked for somebody. I've always had like, like I've had my own little thing here and there but it's very much so employee mindset. And I remember doing stuff. I'm like, am I going to get in trouble? Can I do that? Should I do that? And then something just clicked in me. Who are you going to get in trouble by? Who cares? Who's making the rules? You're making the rules. It's your business. And what I've done is I've put like a governor on myself. I've put a cap. I've restricted myself for this, like imaginary fence almost. Almost like an elephant that's trained to not move because of what. However that happens. It's so weird. So I would really work on getting rid of that mindset, being like, I am the owner. I'm calling the shots. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to fail. I need to make sure that I keep myself motiv. I need to make sure that I can budget. I would say that if you can, if you know how to do Excel spreadsheets, if, if I were to do any sort of training, Excel spreadsheets, I would take a class in Excel spreadsheets. Luckily, I don't have to do that right now. I hired a woman that knows how to do all of that. So I'm fortunate that I have this right now. She's building sheets out for me. She's building SOPs, because I just cannot do it. Everything that I build that has, that is written looks like trash. And her stuff looks very nice. So I would say that for sure. But I really think you just have to shake everything that you know about how, how you think, especially if you're coming from a place where you're an employee, because it's an entire different mindset. But if you want to get some, like, accounting classes, some basic, like, marketing classes, if you want to go ahead and do that stuff, go for it. But I think that just on the ground training, getting into it, reading the books, paying some people that know more than you do to show you a specific skill set is going to be a lot faster and it's going to be a lot less expensive than taking a class where you have to go there for six weeks and you're learning, like, elementary stuff. Business of hard knocks, YouTube university. Just get into it, baby. Start moving and grooving. Go fast and you're going to learn a lot. You're going to fail a lot, but you'll learn a lot. A lot of successes. It's all good. Next question. Becca, Games with a Z4997. What type of Google and Facebook ads are you running during Spring rush. Oh, what do you mean? What type? I'm not running my own ad, so I don't know. I just know that we're running them. I'm sorry, I don't know those answers. That was. I should have found that out before we recorded. I'll tell you what, we are running ones that work. I'll actually have to reach out to my ads people and figure that out and do something to respond back to that. I don't want to leave you hanging. Sorry about that. Question number five, Mary Beth. Can I start weekends only? Do I need contracts? Do I collect payment or how do I collect payment and handle complaints? Wow, that's a lot of questions. Let's start with the first one. Can you start weekends only? Of course. If you were only available to work on the weekends. Absolutely. There's a, there's a market for that, right? We operate Monday through Friday. Most of the scoopers I know operate Monday through Friday. There are other ones that work on the weekends. I personally don't because I want to relax on the weekends. I don't want to have to worry about like call ins or issues like I want my trucks parked. I just want everybody safe so I can turn my phone off and just be present. Having said that, we are working Saturdays through spring rush because there's just so. There's so much going on. There's a lot of volume that we have our Saturdays dedicated for one time cleans and initial cleans. Do you need contracts? No. The only time you need contracts really is going to be with any of your commercial properties. But a lot of times you guys will negotiate back and forth on the contract and it's usually a one to three year. I don't like to lock myself into three year contracts mainly because I don't want the rate to be a fixed rate. But they usually, the hoas will try to dictate what that contract looks like. Just make sure it's fair for both parties. How do you collect payments? I collect payment through Jobber. That's the field management software that I use for my business. Used to be called Customer relations management software, but they changed whatever the acronym is. I do all my routing, my invoicing, my customer communication through there. There is another CRM that is specifically for the pooper scooper industry that is called Sweep and Go. They also collect payments. Um, if you're looking for something more of like super basic, I was using Square. It's like a credit card processing thing. And it was just for invoicing. I used that Once upon a time and then the Venmo and PayPal and Cash app. Now I don't love that option, but I do know a lot of companies still do it. So if you're just getting started and you're just trying to figure out what you can do, those are all good options as well. And then how do I handle customer complaints? Well, a customer complaint comes in, I thank them for the opportunity. Well, first of all, I thank them for letting me know and then if they're going to allow me to fix it, I thank them for giving me the opportunity to make this right. Thank you for pointing it out so we can learn our blind spots. This is going to allow us to serve you better. This is if it's missed, missed piles, we go and handle the complaint really, really quick within 24 hours and then follow up and thank the customer. If it's a complaint about park the driveway when we shouldn't, we just make a note. We say thank you for letting me know we won't do that again moving forward. But yeah, I just always handle it with thanking them for bringing it to my attention. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to fix this and I'm going to do better moving forward. Now there's customer complaints where we get fired. I still do the same thing. Thank them for their time. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Have a good day. I always, I really do try to handle it with grace and with respect. Now there have been a couple people that have tested me. They have tested me, but that's usually how I try to handle it. I don't, I don't go back and forth. I'm not going to banter back and forth. That's not happening. 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 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 Cooper school 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@skool.com or click my link down in the description. Becca Games with a Z says, do I plan to sell my business eventually or move into something else? Well, eventually I'll probably sell the business. I still, I know I still have another 10 years in me. You know, the first part of it was just kind of, you know, figuring it out, but now it's now I'm in the office now and I'm figuring out behind the scenes and I'm learning how to become a better leader and I'm learning how to train and I want to learn how to develop people. So I definitely want to give it, at minimum, another 10 years to see where we're at. At that point, I'll be 49, almost 50, and I don't know. And we'll see where my social media stuff is too, because, you know, I have the podcast, I have the YouTube channel, I do social media content. So I've been growing that media business. And then I also have my female entrepreneur group, which is called she Built that for Female Entrepreneurs, which I don't talk about too much, but I should, because we are, we're having a lot of fun over there and we are, we're learning things, we're leaning into each other, we're being supportive for one another. We have coffee chats on Wednesdays. We have book club over there. We're reading. We're reading million dollar offers for our book club. I think it's. We were doing book club once a month, but we bumped it out to once a quarter because we're busy. We can't read a book and we can't read a book in a month. So we decided to bump it out. And then we have power hours once a month as well, where we have a industry expert come in and give a presentation on a specific topic. So that's really, really cool. So I have a lot of different things going. And then I'm also pretty active in the church, so I don't know, we'll see. But if I can build the business up to where I could get multiple eight figures when I sell, that's ideally what I would like to do. But I don't know what that looks like. You know, I'm not too sure, but. But when I sell, I definitely don't want to sell it for any less than a million. I want to make at least a million. So that means I need to get the business to whatever that needs to be so it can be sold for that much. So I don't know. Stay tuned. We'll see if you lower your prices. Do you adjust all your current customers too? No, when I lower my price, I don't, I don't ever just lower my price against the board, like clear across the board. That has never happened. Or I've just. Yeah. Where I've lowered like old customers. Right. What I have done in the past is like when I was doing the audit on the customers and I'm going through and checking everybody's timing to see where they fall, to see if they're pretty close to where I haven't priced at or if they're underpriced or overpriced. If I do have some customers that are just, they really truly are overpriced, I have reached out to them and I have dropped their rate down just because I'm like, whoa. Like I, I have, I way overpriced that. And you know, some people might say that stupid, like, you're making a killing on that. Don't say anything. I don't know. Sometimes I'm just like, it. I don't need to be charging that. I set my man hour rate for what it's at and that's that. But there are some properties that they really do have to be charged a lot and they cost a lot. It's so weird how one, like two properties can be like, so similar, but one takes way longer because of like where the dog poops or how the dog poops or even how the, how the homeowner maintains the grass or doesn't maintain the grass. It's very interesting. But. But no, I have, I have not lowered my prices for current customers on a regular basis. Usually everybody's rate is going up because everything else is going up. What's the best way to track clients if you can't afford a CRM? Perfect. If you're like me and don't know how to use an Excel spreadsheet. I used a Google Doc and a notebook. I just, I had a notebook and I drew lines, like six, six or eight squares on the piece of paper. And I just put the customer's information in there. Their first and their last name, their email address, their phone number, the number of dogs, and any special notes and then how much I was charging them. And then I went ahead and I created a Google document and had all my Tuesday houses on one day. I had all my Wednesday houses on one day. And I would just print that off for the week and I would just write notes on it. And as I was going to each house, I would just type it into my navigation and boop, go there. I eventually started using a couple different routing apps, but at that time you could only do like 15 or 20 houses. And I was getting to the point where I was doing like 25, 30 houses in a day. And so I had outgrown grown that. That's the reason why I started looking around for other CRMs and I ended up landing on Jobber. So that's what I recommend. Just super basic Excel spreadsheet if you can use one, know how to make it a Google Doc and a notebook. And I would say the sooner that you can upgrade to a CRM the better because it definitely makes things a lot smoother and it gives you a lot more opportunities later on to retarget to customers. Do retargeting marketing, strengthen your customer communication so you're not laying there like, oh, did I accidentally delete that person or did I move them over? Did I update their notes? Trust me, I've had all those thoughts. Next question. I started charging more for bi weekly. What are your thoughts? Yeah, sound, that sounds great. Bi weekly sucks there, Jim. Mr. Kingapoo. He told me this years ago. He's like, bi weeklies are a logistical nightmare. And like that lives in my brain. I was talking to my, one of my teammates yesterday and we were talking about bi weeklies because one week is super light, the next week is like crazy with bi weeklies. And I was like, bi weeklies are a logistical nightmare. And I thought about Jim and I said, I remember when he told me this and I didn't understand it. Now I understand it. I hate them. There's always issues with the landscapers and then them wanting to skip the scoop and I don't know, I don't love it. So I love that you're charging more. Honestly, I'm here for it. Keep doing that. Okay, that's the end of the questions. I appreciate you so much for hanging out with me. I'm glad that I got to answer these. Don't stop. Keep writing more comments down below so I can keep answering them. Now that spring rush is starting to die down, I can get back to some sort of normalcy. I really want to start doing interviews again. I have some ideas, so if there are people that you want me to interview, please comment those down below so I can make that happen. And before I hop off, don't forget that the link for ScoopCon 2026 is going to be down below. Buy your tickets. ScoopCon is in Dallas, Texas, October 2nd and 3rd. ScoopCon 2026 baby. All right, talk to you soon. Bye.
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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.