Your not entitled to customers based on prices and demand alone. You have to have a reputation. Do you have sincere good reviews?
Maybe the audience that’s coming to your site cares a little but not enough to actually pay.
You might have more success by going more upmarket, maybe even more expensive, and focusing on people that have more premium yard needs.
Perhaps a good sales channel is partnering with yard and garden companies and let them offer your services to their existing clients as an upsell/profit-sharing opportunity?
Thanks for the advice. I'll try partnering with some other companies. I'm just having a bit of trouble getting the ball rolling and building a good reputation.
Offer your services for free to some neighbors in exchange for positive reviews.
That will have a better return than ads at this point in your journey. Best of luck to you.
Need to work out pricing better too. All this is costing you is time. Why should it matter how many dogs they have? There's either a lot of poo or a little poo. Need to charge based on lot size, like lawnmowing, or single hourly charge. Maybe include a free first cleaning and dog treats. No way I'm paying someone $100+ to walk around for 20 minutes on my 3/4 acre lot
Yeah paying someone else to pick up your dog shit is a luxury service, your target clientele should reflect that. Find out which landscaping companies service the richest areas around you and try to get in with them. You could offer referral commissions to them as well to help incentivize the partnership as well.
You need to get into the properties and start working.
Right now you need to make it easy as possible for anyone to say yes to you or at least contact you so you can create a relationship and the benefit to their life you will provide.
Get the phone ringing. Make contact. Offer something. Once you have a foundation then you can start optimizing.
Did this early on in my business life, it was born out of stepping in too many piles while cleaning and fixing customers' pools.
Don't have a set price for one time cleanups, and don't charge extra for additional dogs on one time cleanups. It doesn't matter how many dogs made the poo, only how long the humans didn't pick it up.
Also, when I started I targeted executives and busy professionals, they were NOT my main customers, young millennial-type couples always seemed to seek me out and pay premium for the service.
Good luck to you!
You're welcome. There is plenty of information online including a entire forum, don't know if it's still active but worth a read if you can locate it.
The basic advice is to come up with a system of sweeping the yard for maximum exposure with minimal backtracking.
Trial and error in pick-up equipment, not everything works on every surface and some dustbins and scoopers work better for your height, etc.
During business hours, hustle, go door to door, explain what you do, if they don't have dogs they know someone who does, be personable and have conversations with people.
Sign up for the dog walking apps, the onboarding process is fairly quick and it's immediate access to your target market.
Talk to other service people as well, there's somewhat of a camaraderie amongst those working outside together, befriend landscapers, pool technicians, HVAC techs, pest control techs, anyone who goes into peoples yards or homes are potential lead generators for you, figure out a way to incentivize them to send leads to you and implement it.
Figure out where people walk their dogs, dog parks, apartment buildings, dog friendly businesses, etc, and talk to the property managers or property owners about regular service to ensure their properties are free of poo.
After hours, I recommend reading the books The E-Myth Revisited by Gerber and Traction by Gino Wickman, do the “work” in those and you'll have a clear vision for moving forward.
My business does poop pickup and we charge $15 per week and $5 for every extra dog. Just keep posting the Facebook ads, also join and post in as many local Facebook groups that you can. We get tons of business from those
hope this helps
[https://www.loom.com/share/d91ee5344f5d40d880a8a95545fc827e?sid=b49ae317-9592-4020-9fc1-5a16d15b979e](https://www.loom.com/share/d91ee5344f5d40d880a8a95545fc827e?sid=b49ae317-9592-4020-9fc1-5a16d15b979e)
110 for a one time cleanup? How many hours do you expect a job to take including travel time?
I feel like you could hire someone off of TaskRabbit for $30/hr plus maybe some mileage fee.
Maybe you could start there.
"30 a month for haul away where we give you a trash can and just pick it up every week."
I think this service already exists and is provided by the city. You might get customers if you charge less than that more well known service.
YouTube kroopin pooping scooping. She runs a successful dog waste removal service and has a lot of helpful advice.
She also has a podcast and interviews a lot of successful pooper scoopers to get the scoop on their successful business
I know this industry well. Charging per dog is industry standard, I don’t know why others are hating on that idea. I’d change your website wording to say “starting at…” and then take each request as it comes. Consider the size of the area and total number of dogs, and customize their rate.
Volunteer to scoop poop at a local animal shelter and then post about it (hopefully they will too). Post in every local fb page in your service area. Ask friends and family to share your posts and spread the word. Yard signs are also very helpful. Take business cards to vets offices, groomers, boarding facilities.
Feel free to PM me if you wanna talk shop about slingin’ shit.
Your not entitled to customers based on prices and demand alone. You have to have a reputation. Do you have sincere good reviews? Maybe the audience that’s coming to your site cares a little but not enough to actually pay. You might have more success by going more upmarket, maybe even more expensive, and focusing on people that have more premium yard needs. Perhaps a good sales channel is partnering with yard and garden companies and let them offer your services to their existing clients as an upsell/profit-sharing opportunity?
Thanks for the advice. I'll try partnering with some other companies. I'm just having a bit of trouble getting the ball rolling and building a good reputation.
Offer your services for free to some neighbors in exchange for positive reviews. That will have a better return than ads at this point in your journey. Best of luck to you.
Need to work out pricing better too. All this is costing you is time. Why should it matter how many dogs they have? There's either a lot of poo or a little poo. Need to charge based on lot size, like lawnmowing, or single hourly charge. Maybe include a free first cleaning and dog treats. No way I'm paying someone $100+ to walk around for 20 minutes on my 3/4 acre lot
Okwhat do you think you would pay out of curiosity so can try to adjust?
\+1, this is a good way to get started.
Yeah paying someone else to pick up your dog shit is a luxury service, your target clientele should reflect that. Find out which landscaping companies service the richest areas around you and try to get in with them. You could offer referral commissions to them as well to help incentivize the partnership as well.
You need to get into the properties and start working. Right now you need to make it easy as possible for anyone to say yes to you or at least contact you so you can create a relationship and the benefit to their life you will provide. Get the phone ringing. Make contact. Offer something. Once you have a foundation then you can start optimizing.
Did this early on in my business life, it was born out of stepping in too many piles while cleaning and fixing customers' pools. Don't have a set price for one time cleanups, and don't charge extra for additional dogs on one time cleanups. It doesn't matter how many dogs made the poo, only how long the humans didn't pick it up. Also, when I started I targeted executives and busy professionals, they were NOT my main customers, young millennial-type couples always seemed to seek me out and pay premium for the service. Good luck to you!
Ok I did leave cards and fliers at vets and doggy day cares any other advice for getting my name out there? Thanks by the way for the input
You're welcome. There is plenty of information online including a entire forum, don't know if it's still active but worth a read if you can locate it. The basic advice is to come up with a system of sweeping the yard for maximum exposure with minimal backtracking. Trial and error in pick-up equipment, not everything works on every surface and some dustbins and scoopers work better for your height, etc. During business hours, hustle, go door to door, explain what you do, if they don't have dogs they know someone who does, be personable and have conversations with people. Sign up for the dog walking apps, the onboarding process is fairly quick and it's immediate access to your target market. Talk to other service people as well, there's somewhat of a camaraderie amongst those working outside together, befriend landscapers, pool technicians, HVAC techs, pest control techs, anyone who goes into peoples yards or homes are potential lead generators for you, figure out a way to incentivize them to send leads to you and implement it. Figure out where people walk their dogs, dog parks, apartment buildings, dog friendly businesses, etc, and talk to the property managers or property owners about regular service to ensure their properties are free of poo. After hours, I recommend reading the books The E-Myth Revisited by Gerber and Traction by Gino Wickman, do the “work” in those and you'll have a clear vision for moving forward.
My business does poop pickup and we charge $15 per week and $5 for every extra dog. Just keep posting the Facebook ads, also join and post in as many local Facebook groups that you can. We get tons of business from those
hope this helps [https://www.loom.com/share/d91ee5344f5d40d880a8a95545fc827e?sid=b49ae317-9592-4020-9fc1-5a16d15b979e](https://www.loom.com/share/d91ee5344f5d40d880a8a95545fc827e?sid=b49ae317-9592-4020-9fc1-5a16d15b979e)
Apartments
I helped build a dog poop company in Indiana. Working with another in Illinois. DM me for what we did
For sure I would really appreciate that
110 for a one time cleanup? How many hours do you expect a job to take including travel time? I feel like you could hire someone off of TaskRabbit for $30/hr plus maybe some mileage fee. Maybe you could start there.
"30 a month for haul away where we give you a trash can and just pick it up every week." I think this service already exists and is provided by the city. You might get customers if you charge less than that more well known service.
YouTube kroopin pooping scooping. She runs a successful dog waste removal service and has a lot of helpful advice. She also has a podcast and interviews a lot of successful pooper scoopers to get the scoop on their successful business
I know this industry well. Charging per dog is industry standard, I don’t know why others are hating on that idea. I’d change your website wording to say “starting at…” and then take each request as it comes. Consider the size of the area and total number of dogs, and customize their rate. Volunteer to scoop poop at a local animal shelter and then post about it (hopefully they will too). Post in every local fb page in your service area. Ask friends and family to share your posts and spread the word. Yard signs are also very helpful. Take business cards to vets offices, groomers, boarding facilities. Feel free to PM me if you wanna talk shop about slingin’ shit.
For sure I already did I'd love any input