166. Side Hustle to 6-Figures - How to Start a Pooper Scooper Business

0:00What if I told you a business opportunity that involves scooping poop your it's the most world of the pooper scooper business. This isn't just about clearing up after our furry friends. It's about crafting a business that's full of strategy, growth potential, and the power of a unique niche. I'm Ryan Atkinson and you're listening to the Elfwood Podcast where we uncover the secrets of building and running successful businesses. And oh my gosh, am I excited for today's episode. Joining us today is Erica Crouppen, a trailblazer in the pet waste removal industry and creator of Crouppen, Poopin, Scoopin.

0:38Erica has transformed her side hustle into a six-figure business, all while documenting her journey, inspiring others through her YouTube channel and podcast. Erica, I am so excited to have you on the show. People are loving this topic, loving this business. I'm excited to sit down and talk to you about how people can get started with this. Oh man, this is so great. Thank you for having me. And I agree too. When I first started my YouTube channel back, I think it was like 2018, 2019, it was crickets about the dog waste removal industry. So now like five or six years later, I am so happy to see the conversation getting better.

1:10I love it. You have first mover advantage in this already because you have a lot of lessons. You've made a lot of mistakes, I'm sure. And we're going to talk about all that today. Before we dive into all that, let's talk about like what inspired you to start Crouppen's Poop and Scoopin' and like what exactly is it? So Crouppen's Poop and Scoopin' is a dog waste removal business. That's where we scoop dog poop from either residential homes that's going to be your houses or the commercial properties that's going to be your HOA communities, apartment apartment complex, dog parks. And the reason why I got into this business is I actually used to work at a hospital.

1:45I was in pharmacy for, I think at that time, it was like 12 years. And I just, I hated it. It was great for me at the time because it got me out of the neighborhood and got me into like a really good position and got me around like more educated people. But deep down inside, I hated this job. I'm like, I got to figure this out. I got to get out of here. Well, It just so happens that the guy that I was, I don't think we were quite married yet, but we were working towards that. His last name is Crouppen. And him and his brothers joked around about this Crouppen's poop and scooping thing ever since we were kids.

2:17Because I've known Josh ever since I was like seven. And I had a crush on him when I was seven. And finally, one day I just said, Josh, I want to start that poop scooping thing. Can I use the business name? He was like, yeah, sure. Why not? And literally the next day I went and filed for my DBA, started doing some research and hit the ground running. And now it's been six years. Six years of trials, successes, and a whole lot of scoop and poop. I want to talk about, okay, you filed, you're getting ready to go. Talk to us about what those startup costs were. And then once we answer that, we're going to talk about how you land that first customer.

2:53So stay tuned for that. But what were those startup costs and what do they look like today if someone was going to start? So for me, I needed to put, I wanted to haul the waste away. I never thought about leaving the dog poop at the homeowner's house. I just figured full service, we're going to take the dog poop. How was I going to do that with a car? I was not going to put it in my trunk. So I got a cargo trailer with a hitch and that cost me around like 450 bucks, I would say. And then the rest of the supplies, just like trash bags and a bucket and some gloves and bleach. I would say all together, I spent about$1 ,000 with that and then some business cards and like a cheap logo that somebody made for me off of Facebook.

3:34Nice. So$1 ,000 to like really get started and people's ears, I'm sure are like perking up like, oh my gosh, only$1 ,000 to start a lucrative six-figure business. Let's talk about landing that first customer then. What steps did you take to land your first customer and what you know now, how would you advise someone to land their first customer in this business? So I was shameless. I would tell anybody and everybody that would listen, like I started a poop scooping business and this is what we do. And so I posted on Facebook and buy, sell, trade groups. But my first customer actually came from my personal Facebook.

4:05She wanted me to come scoop after her two dogs. I went over there on a Wednesday. I was super, super stoked. I charged her$20 and I was there for an hour because I didn't know any better, right? So it was 20 bucks. Even though it took me an hour because I didn't know what I was doing, the property was massive. I didn't think to ask what size of yard, how many dogs, how long has it been since the last clean? But when I left there, I was like, okay, I can actually make some money doing this. So I need to figure out how to price. And that did not come very easy. It definitely has taken time. But I would say for somebody that's just getting started, reach out to your warm networks, post on your personal page, even though it might be embarrassing at first because people are going to be like, what are you doing?

4:52Why are you scooping dog poop when a kid can go do that? You know, we hear that stuff all the time. So do that and then create a Facebook business page. You want to get that started because that's free. It's free money. I want to ask, let's say on that pricing piece now, because obviously you're charging different now. I'm sure you're serving not just residential homes now, but how are you pricing this now. Okay. So when I first started, I was only charging$55 a month. There was no rhyme or reason. I just like the number five. Okay. Yeah. Quickly learned. Yeah, that's not it. Now my accountant said we should not be going.

5:28We should not be driving to somebody's house and servicing their property for any less than$20 per service. So my monthly rates I bill per month, base rate, one dog, standard size yard, one eighth of an acre, one time a week. that's going to be like$94 a month. And it's a flat rate. Interesting. So talk to me about that. So you're charging it per dog per acre. And are the owners just like leaving the poop out for a week and you're coming once a week? Like, I'm curious on like the logistics of that then. Yeah. So my pricing is a little bit more complicated than others. I go like per yard size and how many dogs.

6:07I don't know the math. My virtual assistant calculated it and did everything that she needed to do. So my pricing is more fine tuned. but as for going to people's yards, they're busy. A lot of times they're dual income households. Mom and dad are busy. Kids are in school sports. And so, yeah, they're leaving it all week and we come and we scoop it, take it away and we come back the next week. Oh, that is super interesting. So is that like what the benefits on how you're marketing this are? Like save you time, save you energy. When you think about marketing this, what are some of those things to really hit home on the value proposition then?

6:41Yeah, I think it depends like where you're at within the United States. Like some people really want to focus on we're providing a clean environment. We're eco-friendly here in Michigan. People don't care about that. If you're in California, that might fly because they're more aware of like that type of stuff. But here, that's what it really is. And that's what I really, really learned this year because I actually, where my office, where I'm recording is, is in a very affluent area. And I was like, yes, we're going to grow. they got money out here. This is going to be awesome. No, a lot of the moms, they're stay at home moms.

7:17They take their dogs on walk. They have all the time in the world. So our bread and butter really is, like I said, a dual income household. Mom and dad are busy. Kids got a lot of stuff going on. They don't have a lot of time to hang out in the backyard and scoop up the dog poop. Interesting. So I want to like really hit on that point because that's kind of the target market that you guys are now serving is not the stay at home moms that have a ton of money where you're like, oh, of course they're gonna pay for this. It's those working class families, essentially. They're both parents are working and they're busy all the time.

7:46Yeah, like women that are between like the ages of like 30 and 40, that's not really their ideal demographic. And that's me, like I'm 37. So I am actually my target market. That makes it so much easier when you're like targeting to yourself, essentially, as well. That's what I've learned as a business owner. But I didn't realize that until I was talking to William and he wanted me to make some videos for him. and he was like, you're our ideal demographic. I was like, what? What are you talking about? And so we can talk about William later, but yeah, he really brought some clarity to me because he has a much larger business than I do.

8:20I love that. I want to talk as well for someone listening. Did you do this as a side hustle for a little bit of time? Did you jump straight into this? Let's talk about that and like when people should take that jump if it's right from the beginning or get some customers first here. So I was working midnights at the hospital job. I started this very part-time. I filled up like one or two days for the first winter. I think I only had like 13 or 16 customers. And I did that for quite a while, like, I don't know, maybe a few months or so. Then the spring rush happened and I posted a before and after picture in a buy sell trade group.

8:56I was at a jewelry convention because I was selling jewelry at the time, just trying to like just hustle, make some more money. I was literally trying to do whatever I could to get out of this hospital. And all of a sudden, my phone started going crazy. It was just like blowing up. And I was like, whoa, what just happened? I just blew my business up, essentially. So I went through the spring rush. My husband was helping me as much as he could. I remember the first day I made$1 ,000 in one day scooping dog poop. We worked sunup to sundown. We didn't care. We're like, what? This is crazy. So I was like, I know I can get out of this hospital, but what does it need to take?

9:31I needed to replace my hospital income. I needed to secure health insurance and be able to contribute to my retirement and fully max it out every single month before I left. And I was able to do that in my first full year in business. What if I told you that there's a simple step-by-step process to help you successfully launch your own pooper scooper business without running into any of the roadblocks most first-time entrepreneurs face? And what if I told you that we put all that information together into a course led by William Malekin, a seven-figure pooper scooper business owner? And what if I told you that you could get access to that course right now, completely free?

10:09You heard that right. No cost, no catch. Just expert advice to help you launch your business. It's our way of saying thank you for supporting the podcast. Just click the link in the show notes below and start your free trial of the Uplift Academy. I did the same thing when I jumped into full-time entrepreneurship is like, what are those milestones I actually need to have in place for me to feel comfortable? It's, of course, replacing your full-time income. For me, that's a different stage of my life where I was like, oh, I need to buy a MacBook computer or a computer. I need to have a certain amount of money in my savings accounts.

10:38I think that's really good advice for people that are wanting to jump into full-time entrepreneurship is get those milestones actually in place, like those fences to help you actually decide to jump. Yeah. But I also want to make this a point. So at that time, I was working part-time at the hospital because I was married. I'm still married, but my husband has a good paying job. So it's not like I was the sole bread winner and having like everybody was leaning on me. So I think that's why I was able to maybe jump a little sooner than maybe my husband would have if he was going to do this business.

11:10So I just want people to kind of think about that too and know that like I had some buffer room and I had so I could take the chance. Yeah, I love that. And you alluded back to it, but you said that first year, let's get into like the revenue, margins, profit, all that of good stuff here. What did like your year one revenue look like? And how has it kind of looked since? Well, it was super profitable year one. But I will say that I wasn't the best at tracking stuff back then. It was a notebook. It was just like, you know, I still have my notebook where I took like six houses on each piece of paper and I had like little squares and I wrote like their address, how many dogs and like little notes.

11:55So it was super basic. So at that time, super profitable. I don't exactly know how much I was making, but like I said, I know that within my first full year, right? So I started in August and then by the end of year I'd made whatever. And then from January to December to that next year, that's when I was able to hit, I think I hit like 103 or 106 somewhere in there. I do have a YouTube video on my channel about it, but yeah, profit margins were super high because I didn't have an overhead. I was working out of my garage. I didn't have staff. All of that really cuts into profit. And at the time I had just magnets on my vehicles.

12:34I didn't have any car payments. But now, now I have an office, I have staff, I've reinvested and rebranded. And so this year in particular, profit margins are super low, but we're reinvesting. Yeah. But year one, it sounds like when you're not having expenses of staff, like all this stuff. I mean, you're probably operating at an incredibly high profit margin, especially with like a thousand dollar startup costs. Oh, it was amazing. I mean, I wish I would have been smarter. You know, we went on vacations, lots of vacations. We were buying all the things we were doing at the house. And so now that I look back, I'm like, dang, Erica, you should have reinvested that money and been a little bit smarter.

13:13And so that's something I wish I would have done differently. Yeah. Can you talk to us? I'm reading financial intelligence for entrepreneurs, right now, actually. And so my mind's kind of like in the finance world of like entrepreneurship. What are like your biggest line items when it comes to like expenses? Is it of course, like I'm sure staff, but where you guys spend like the most money is on your marketing, ops, cars. Love to hear that. Payroll is always the highest for me. My office is pretty expensive right now. Can't say that I made the best decision on the location, but you live and learn with business.

13:45And then advertisement can be super high. It just depends on how much you really want to invest back into it. But as for supplies, low, like trash bags, sanitizer, your bucket and your rake. That's like, it's nothing compared to your payroll, your advertisement, and then office. What I think is coming to mind, I want to be mindful, like the listeners here as well as like, you could really go down like two paths with this where one, it's just you where you're doing low six figures a year, but your margins are super high. Or you could kind of do that growth route where you're going to have more revenue, but of course you're gonna have more expenses where those profit margins go down.

14:23How would you coach someone to think about those two roads that you can kind of go on? Because you've flipped them both. Yeah. If you want to create yourself a job, right? You want a good income. You just, you want to work your four days a week or five days a week. You want to stack it up and you want to do these houses. Do that because you're going to have super high profit margins. But the only issue is, is the business is riding on you. So if you want to take a vacation, if you get sick, if there's issues, it's just you. And so that's why I wanted to transition. I wanted to start to build a team.

14:54But you get stuck in this like middle part where it's like you're not super profitable. You're trying to like invest back into the business and you're trying to get to that next level. That's where a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck. And I told myself, I said, you will not get stuck here. Like it's a tough year right now, but you're going to push through. If you have the grit and you want to push through and you can handle the emotional roller coaster that this is going to take you on, then I would say push through to get to that next level to where the business isn't completely riding on you. Yeah, Erica, I absolutely love that.

15:25Because like as an entrepreneur, you will literally ride the lowest of lows for a very extended period of time. Like I've been through it myself. I'm sure you have as well as you're talking about here. But there are definitely two different ways where you do it yourself. But you go on vacation, you're not making money, but you can also grow and kind of push through and grid it out to, I guess, that next level. I want to ask now, where are you at in this owner-operator stage? Are you more business owner focusing on putting the systems in place? Are you still scooping up poop? Talk to us about what that looks like now, though.

15:56So this year has been really weird. I had one technician total out two of my brand new cars. Oh, no. Yeah. And so when you're talking about those lows, like they're low. Like I almost wanted to give my business away for free. I'm like, I'm done. We'll just we'll just give it away, you know. But you have to push through and be like, listen, this is just a this just a tough season. So where my business is right now, it's me. I'm working part time in the field. And then I have a full time scooper out there that's running a full route. I had to make a really hard decision and let part of a route go so I could heal my back because I slipped two discs about four weeks ago.

16:38And just think about it. If it was just me and I was a solo operator, I would have had to shut my business down. Okay. But I didn't have to do that because I do have a team member. I'm in that middle ground right now where I need to hire and I need to get an operations manager because I have all my systems. I have everything built out. I just need to execute it. How long did it take for you to like start hiring staff compared to just you doing it all yourself? Well, I wanted to go on vacation to Punta Cana. So I hired like super quick. I would say the first six months I brought on somebody part time and I was like, I'm going on vacation.

17:14Here's my route. Please don't mess it up. And I took off and left. And now that I think about that, I was like, Erica, that's crazy. But I had all this extra, extra money that I had never had before. So I was just, like I said, going on vacations, just getting wild. Nice. Absolutely. But it all goes back to like, those are the lessons in kind of what you learn as an entrepreneur and some of the mistakes that you won't make again. Yeah. I wouldn't advise anybody to hire somebody and then leave four weeks later and go to another country. But you know, it worked out. It was fine. You're here. You're on the Uplit podcast right now.

17:49I want to ask, like, reflect on like other mistakes you've made that you want other people to avoid. One of them sounds like don't hire too early, don't give away too much right away. What are some other mistakes you would advise someone starting a poop scoop business that you really need to look out for early on? I think the main thing is like when you're hiring, making sure that you're not on top of your people, but you're watching what they're doing. Because something that I noticed is when I put too much trust in somebody, I became too attached from the business. And I didn't realize that there were issues going on behind the scenes that was being hidden from me that was affecting my business.

18:26So when I had to let somebody go, then all of these things were coming up and I had to fix it. And so I think that once you go through that transitional period, just be mindful and make sure you're communicating with your staff and you're still communicating with your customers and doing check-ins to make sure the quality that you want for your business is still being maintained. I think that's really good advice because I feel Like you can hire people, but it's different when you're like a business owner. Like you think your employees care and they do, but you care just a little bit more. And that's ensuring that that quality is up to your standards that you do want to see.

19:02Well, yeah. And then say if like the person trains, right, they're your trainer and then they train them in a way that you would never, that you would never do that. You're like, where did you learn that at? And they're like, well, so-and-so training to do that. And you're like, okay, no, we need to fix this. We need to pivot because that's not practice. That's not what we're doing here. I've had those moments as well. I want to pivot real quick to the Upflip Academy where we actually have another course that the Poop Scoop Millionaire, which your friend Will actually put together. Can you kind of share a little bit more about like what you know of that course and your relationship with Will and just kind of the atmosphere when it comes to this space?

19:36I'm seeing you're getting excited. I know, because William and Levi are great. They own Swoop Scoop and we were talking about him a little bit earlier. He's the one that actually made me realize that I was the ideal demographic because I didn't have that clarity. I'm like, who am I speaking to, dog owners? And he's like, no, women between 30 and 40. Great. And so he was hanging out on my YouTube channel and I made a video about six-figure pooper scooper. And he's like, hey, I have a seven-figure pooper scooper business. Got him on the channel. We've been developing a really good relationship. And because of that, people were asking him questions because his business does seven figures.

20:09Like, that's a lot. That's a lot of money. And he decided to create his own Poop Scoop Millionaire course. And now it's on the UpFlip platform. and which it's amazing because it's helping so many business owners that want to get into this and shows them best practices and basically how to build your business so you don't have to struggle. Yes, and struggling is one thing that like just comes with entrepreneurship and this has been a great resource and that course in the Uplip Academy, guys, I can talk to it. That's like one of our most viewed courses of the past few months. One thing, Erica, that just kind of comes to mind that you've been talking about a lot is like you really know your target market.

20:44It is these women, dual income, 30 to 40. What about like apartment complexes? Are you intentionally living out? Have you tried them? Talk to us about that, because I'm sure some people are thinking like, why don't I just go after my apartment complex that I live in? Well, for the residential side, yes. Like that, I mean, that could happen. I haven't really tried to hit that yet for the residential, but as for the commercial side, we do service apartment complex, dog-friendly places where they have hot zones. Like some of the area isn't being scooped. So the apartment will actually hire us to come clean that up, do like a one-time clean, a once a month maintenance, and then also service these things called dog waste stations.

21:23I don't know if, have you seen them where they're green? They have like a trash can attached to it and little poop bags. And we service those. So there's a lot of opportunity. I just haven't, you know, put forth energy into that yet, but that is definitely on the docket moving forward. Because I'm watching a dog right now and I don't even have a dog, but I was at the dog park today. And this business idea literally came to mind because there is like two hotspots, I'll call them, in this dog park where I was like, why don't I just go to my apartment complex right now and like ask like, hey, can you guys like just pay me?

21:54I'll walk around this complex and like pick it up. I think it's a great opportunity for you and for like people listening as well. Yeah. So with that right there, that's more of like your relationship building, right? You want to build rapport. You want to go in, you want to talk to the people. When you're trying to get, you know, residential customers, you're going to do that on Facebook or through ads. So yeah, if you're wanting to focus on commercial, that's more about that. You need to get involved in the community. People need to know your name, shake hands, kiss babies, you know, do all that stuff.

22:23Well, Erica, you're honestly leading me to like our next segment I want to talk about is that marketing piece now. So you just alluded to like how you get customers in the residential piece. But let's talk about a little bit more. I'm hearing Facebook groups. I heard ads. What are some other like marketing and sales strategies you guys are employing right now to land customers? So I actually just started running ads. I've never really ran ads effectively. I just did organic content, a lot of video, posting on social media, before and after photos, engaging with other business owners that are in the pet industry.

22:56So I think that's a really, really great way to market your business, especially because our target demographic is hanging out on Facebook. You know, some people are like, oh, I want to grow my TikTok to get customers. That's not the demographic. That's not where our people are really hanging out wanting to spend money. Yeah, that's what I really appreciate about this conversation. Like you really do know your target market and you know like how to reach them. It's those Facebook groups. Are you leveraging like community groups at all to land customers? Well, I know we've had some people on the Upflip podcast before that have like promised and sworn and died by like Facebook groups, like community groups.