084- Palmetto Scoopers
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Summary:
We are joined by Courtney, owner of Palmetto Scoopers. Easily one of the most passionate people about a dogs #2, Courtney shares his enthusiasm with us and helps shine a light on a side of pet care that doesn't get talked a lot about.
Topics on this episode:
Why he started Palmetto Scoopers
Day in the life of a pet waste professional
Big picture thinking - helping the community
Hiring a technician
What is the ‘Poop Calculator’?
Becoming a pet waste professional
Where does all the poop go?
Marketing and growing his business
Favorite tools of the trade
What he wishes more people know about what he does
Main take away? Think BIG about your place in your community and the services you provide.
About our guest:
I was born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina and moved to Columbia,SC in 2005 after going to college for Electronic Engineering and realizing that was not an occupation I enjoyed. I wanted to do something with dogs as I've always loved dogs since an young boy. I tried being an dog breeder for 2 years and after being unsuccessful I switched to dog waste removal service after seeing all the dog waste in my yard one day and doing some research, I realized that I wanted to educate my community on why it is important to clean up your dogs waste and how we all could help our community by doing so. And that was how Palmetto Scoopers was born!
Links:
Palmetto Scoopers on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, & TikTok: palmettoscoopers7
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
scoopers, clients, pet, dog, yard, people, business, service, scooping, typically, poop, day, waste, homeowners, community, team member, week, pet sitter, dog poop, home
SPEAKERS
Collin, Courtney
00:17
I'm Collin. And I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional.
00:20
An open and
00:22
honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet.
Collin 00:29
Well, hello everybody and welcome back. On today's episode, Courtney, owner of Palmetto scoopers joins us to talk about the ins and outs of a topic that not a lot of us like to discuss. Poop scooping, whether it's a service that you've recently added because of COVID. Or maybe you're still thinking about it. Courtney breaks it all down and is really upfront and honest about what it's like to be a pooper scooper. Courtney also has a wonderful take on what it means to be a part of a community and the service that he offers him brings to people to help make his community better I really like this outlook. And I really like this perspective, and that the things that we do in life aren't just the day to day operations, but they're part of something bigger and part of making the world a better place.
Courtney 01:11
So confessional listeners, my name is Courtney seacat. I'm the owner and operator of perma scoopers pet waste management and removal service, we offer services to residential and commercial clients.
Collin 01:24
And so do you refer to yourself just a pooper scooper? Or how do you refer to yourself? Technically,
Courtney 01:29
we always like to say we're a pet waste professionals or pet waste management service technician. But with most of us that's been doing it for 10 years plus we like to call ourselves masters. But Master Skipper, I
01:45
like that. So how long have you been in business?
Courtney 01:48
We've been in business for five years now going on six years this year.
Collin 01:52
So So how did you start sir? Why did you start at pet waste removal company?
Courtney 01:57
Well, I first started my pet waste removal service after my dog breeding business just wasn't, was basically unsuccessful. It was during the time of the michael vick event and I used to breed pit bulls because that's my love. I mean, I still have one to this day, my girl Roxy, she's 12 years old. love her to death. Oh, she lives 200 which I know it's impossible, essentially got started. It just wasn't good for business and me. My wife was talking about it one night, and I went into my backyard and just saw poohbear when I was like, Huh, I picked this up every day, I wonder if somebody actually paid for it. And I'd start doing a bunch of research, looking at businesses in my area and looking at businesses in different areas in different states and started really educating myself on the business per se and what things needed to be done and what licenses and things of that such as training as such you need and when I saw it wasn't too much. You just have to be knowledgeable about business and have a little bit of love for what you do. Just actually have a little go get behind it and
Collin 03:02
that's how since we got started Oh that's great. I love you just looked around yourself and said hey, I do this all the time. I bet I can fill that niche too. So tell me about the name How did you come up with Palmetto scoopers?
Courtney 03:13
Originally we started out as poop buster. And if you look at it a Lobo almost similar to Ghostbusters with logo and me and my oldest daughter was actually watching that movie and I was like that's it. And I was coming out with a song everything I got the business name all down with state and everything and I had got a call about six months into the year starting my business that another business I actually owned the trademark to that name. So I had to essentially the pay them or change the name and I always believed in starting something of my own not just flipping off somebody else's name because then I feel like I was a franchise and wasn't having a franchise. A minute. If I was, so then I went home and started just brainstorming and throwing out all kinds of different names. And I was like, You know what? upper middle school sound good. And actually a couple friends was like, Yeah, I like it and boom, I put it on paper and it stuck. And it's actually been quite great because once I changed the name from poop busters, to bare metal scoopers, the business actually increased client signups after that as well,
Collin 04:25
why do you think that is?
Courtney 04:26
I just honestly think it was because it sounded a little bit more professional versus just trying to be I say clickbait or just something that you know, you hear it and it's funny, but at the same time, you're not gonna probably take them to spirit whereas I want them to take a serious as a pet waste professional business. But still, we can make you laugh at, you know, the silly things that we all find funny about dogs.
Collin 04:50
Sure. I mean, at some point, you have to be like, yeah, it's the poop jokes are going to be there. But as you mentioned, like you can still have a professional front and face and presenting yourself. That way to your customers. So what is a typical day look like in the life of someone in the scooping business,
Courtney 05:06
I say varies on days. On a day wears pouring down rain. We got our rain suits on and we are there with our rain waterproof shoes. We are they're still scooping, and we typically get people acting like oh my god, are you still screaming in the rain? Like Yes, as long as it's not lightning. We're scooping dogs in the rain dogs poop in the snow. And from here all the way out to the west coast all the way up to Michigan. We have people that scoop poop in the snow every day. I mean, I'm part of a group or a pause and we're all pet waste professionals and I see them daily out there scooping on the way they don't scoop is more than like a two to three inches where they actually covers up a lot of the waste then they don't wait to start. But other than that, I say it varies just also with different types of poop. You might get yard conditions and you know sometimes it varies With the homeowners as well, because they may not be home, they might have a pet sitter there. And we have to notify the pet sitter as well, because sometimes they forget to notify us of the pets that are on there. And if the dogs are aggressive, we have to at least let them know that we're there that way. We don't actually have a dog run upon us that is people aggressive and possibly do harm to us or one of our technicians.
Collin 06:22
Yeah, I think that's something that not a lot of people think about is the level of communication that you have to have with you, the homeowner or the care provider at that time to coordinate the comings and goings so that gates don't get left open or you're not entering into a situation with dimensioned with a possibly aggressive dog to newcomers that kind of stuff.
Courtney 06:40
Oh, yes. Because we've had situations in the past where I've been in the yard and I spoke with the homeowners they told me they had two pitbulls and like I said, I used to breed them. So I know how the dogs react and I know how to react to them as well. And one day I was in a yard she had not been home but her dad was their pet sitter. In I was in the backyard that both of the pit bulls out corner meaning a corner of the yard, and most people probably say I run jump the fence. And I just stood there, just make sure I kept my back to the fence. That way I protected myself and just call to the homeowner father came out and which he did, and got the post back inside. And luckily, just for me breeding the dog breed of those dogs, it actually gave me the experience and know how to react to them versus just a normal person may run away from it. Right? You really have to be
Collin 07:36
in the very in the moment and know how to handle those situations. So it doesn't you don't make it worse.
Courtney 07:41
Yes, indeed. I mean, if I would have ran, which we all know running from a dog is like a game. Yeah. turns
07:48
into their they love it when you run. Exactly.
Courtney 07:51
And I was at least a good 10 yards to 20 yards from their fence. So it was a battle or a little race that I wasn't going to win. Right.
Collin 08:01
Right. Yeah. And that's just yeah. So staying in place and know how to handle situations. And that's another thing to have you even though you're you're picking up the the waste, you're still interacting with the dogs from time to time.
Courtney 08:15
Yes, occasionally we do because we do have some homeowners who pets are people friendly and we'd love to visit those because then we actually get to take a couple pictures and stuff with them make videos with dogs. And we actually get to know the pet a little bit more as well because we always say our services for the homeowners but we like to cater to the pets as well because we love dogs just as much as we love serving the homeowners and helping them get a time back. And just being able to spend more time with their pets in the yard and notice not any waste in the yard for them to step in or the kids anything but we do like to enjoy the time with the pets, especially on a sunny summer day versus the rainy way.
Collin 08:57
What's been some of the most challenging parts running your business
Courtney 09:01
of running this business, I say it varies like different owners that's in our business. But I'd say for me, I say it's really bringing on team members. And at first it was my marketing. Because I didn't know too much about marketing. Even though I had marketing experience. I didn't have any of this business, per se. So I got a little educated on some SEO work and digital media marketing stuff for that store, and just do some things to help better myself, the better the business. And in return, I have seen a dramatic jump in just client signup within the past three years, just from me taking those courses, just to get a little bit more knowledge in the back end, but I definitely say finding great team members is a hard thing that I've noticed among all of my colleagues who I'm part of the group in. We all have that issue because I know just at the convention In October that we had in Florida, several guys had issues with guys that work for them. One quit while we're actually at our convention, another one had one guy actually total his truck. While he's at the convention, whoa, it was a lot to deal with. I mean, you have an employee slash team member who just literally could have lost their life. But that is totally true. That's gonna now cost you money. And you got to figure out how you're going to supplement that person and put another person to run that route, because it still has jobs that has to be done, even though clients understand things happen. They pay for sir. So they still want sir,
Collin 10:39
that's part of the side that you might not initially think of, Oh, I need to bring somebody on to help. But there's so much that goes into the back end of that of planning for those kind of emergencies, or all of a sudden you are also accountable now for another person on your team. So when did you decide to bring on your first technician and what was kind of that push that brought you into that?
Courtney 10:59
It wasn't One day, about two, three years ago, when I was working in a yard, and they told me it's been a while since the last scoop, because that's one of the questions we always like that ExoMars. And typically we get more of an honest response now versus at the beginning when that say it's been probably a couple of days. And typically, that's not the case. It is never the case. It's typically at minimum two weeks, to maybe a month, and it varies. If they only have one dog, it's usually not too bad. But if they got four or more, I mean, you can get easily 10 bags of waste out of one yard and that's 13 gallon bags fill three for the top of ways. I've had one yard I'd done by myself, which initiated the whole reason of me signing up somebody to start being as a team member for me, because I was like, wow, I just took 30 bags out of this yard by myself. And I'm like, This is crazy. took me two and a half hours, like non stop working. Wow, exactly like I was, I was shocked it was even that much. And later on down the line, that client actually stopped using our services and sign back up about a year and a half later they said they had some kid in the neighborhood coming up. They're doing it and I find it hilarious because when we got there was like, still poop everywhere. Like you show that kid was actually doing the job.
Collin 12:26
You see him physically out there doing that.
Courtney 12:29
Exactly, exactly. So then they sign back up for services. And luckily, we've implemented things now so that we were properly compensated for our time and the amount of waste that removed. And that time I think when we came at a second time, we removed about eight bags of waste out of their yard. So it was still allowed. But with me and my team member, it only took us about 45 minutes an hour versus taking me by myself. Two and a half. Yeah,
Collin 12:56
yeah, that's a real time saver at that point. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. How do you go about hiring someone to be on your team? And what kind of things do you look for?
Courtney 13:05
Typically, when hiring someone I use indeed, or like zip recruiter, one of those two, they can just kind of flood your inbox with a bunch of applicants, and you can put different assessments on there. So you kind of feel out who you want. But when hiring somebody, I always look on as happy. Like you need good energy, because I'm all about being happy. I don't want you to be upset or trying to find a job. I want somebody to actually want to do something that they actually enjoy and see what we're actually doing to help our community because I always tell all my team members, we're not just scooping poop out here. We're actually helping our community have clean water because most people don't know that, you know, the dog poop sitting in the yard and it rains like I did out here about just past week. All that water rushes into the backyard, into these poop field backyards. And then It goes into the storm drains in the wells. And then it goes right to our facility that filters that water. But then we're back using that same water to drink, feed our kids cook dinner, and give to dogs as well. And I was like a little bit what we can do by just scooping up the waste out of their yard helps our whole community by having to use less chemicals in the water by us removing those wastes out of their yard. Just that little bit. Most people don't think about because, you know, you just say it's dog poop. And, you know, I don't have to do any of that. And, you know, it's no big. Yeah, that's what I was looking for when hiring somebody wants to make sure they know that you're not just here to make some money and just scooping poop, but we actually care about the cleanliness of the yard and actually trying to help our community have clean water for everybody.
Collin 14:50
Wow, that's such a holistic big picture view when I'm sure there are some days of the drudgery and the monotony and the hot summers where Having that level of perspective, you know, I'm sure that just that helps you keep going on those really tough days.
Courtney 15:08
Oh, it definitely does. Because I know what we're doing is just not as small as it seems when we say it or see it on paper, it actually has a trickle down effect where it affects everyone.
Collin 15:20
You mentioned earlier learning about marketing as a part of growing your business. What's it been, like learning about marketing and growing over the years actually been quite
Courtney 15:30
amazing. Like, just starting out. First reading the information and applying it was just one of the top things I actually enjoy because you had to figure out who your avatar is, you know, your one particular client actually wants your service or needs your service. And from just the years past two, three years, I mean, implementing all those services, and different things that I've learned from the marketing I've learned that a typical client is either Senior Citizen that's married or single, that either adopted or like save a few dollars from rescues and things that such or as a single parent family or a single family. I just don't have the time to do it. Because I mean, if you got three kids, they got three different activities. And you guys still do work got life got to cook dinner. Last thing you want to do is come home after taking Bobby and Cindy to basketball, softball, karate and ballet. You want dinner and then have to go pick up. Yeah, you're exhausted. So I was saying we give them that time back, you know. And through the marketing I've learned that was one of our top things to look for versus just before I used to have a broad ban of net. I'm just like, oh, I'll services for everybody. And typically, it is because at first like i said i thought it was and not everybody wants to serve themselves. People do actually have time to pick up on waste. And for those that do applaud them, thank you doing your part, but for the ones that don't have the time to do it, where exactly who they're looking for. And at first, like I said, I didn't even know that, because I figured, hey, everybody's got a dog scooping your poop. That's not the case for most part.
Collin 17:19
So how do you take that, as of now that you've defined who your client is? How do you take that into finding in reaching your clients,
Courtney 17:27
when I actually market, a market tours, just those specific types of marketing people when I'm actually doing my Google Search Facebook, or like my LinkedIn stuff, or just search purposes. That way, when we actually put when they actually like the scrolling through a feed or maybe just searching anything, like just picking up like, probably looking for a dog scooper to pick up the food they sell. They actually see one of our advertisements that I say, you know, maybe Are you tired of picking up the poop Is your kid not picking up the poop? Or did your kid just track some poop in your house? Well give us a call. It's been quite helpful, it's been quite helpful. And the multiple different things we've had to use, just to try to pick out which works best because one thing you can be using for two, three months, Google could change the algorithm. And next thing you know, it's not even working, then you have to refine it and adjust and then measure it out after you do that, see how well it works.
Collin 18:29
It's not just a set it and forget it kind of thing. It's, you're constantly making these adjustments. And as you mentioned, reacting to whole algorithm changes across the board.
Courtney 18:38
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Every time. I mean, just three months ago, three, four months ago, Google did a little algorithm change. And as soon as I noticed that, I saw a drop in just our insights. And I was like, Huh, something must have changed. So I went into the system, tweaked a few things and we're back flowing just like normal. And if I wouldn't have taken none of those digital media marketing classes, I would have never known it was just great to actually have that information at hand and have that knowledge to actually be able to apply.
Collin 19:12
This doesn't have anything to do about marketing. But on your website, you have a dog poop calculator. Can you tell us about what can you tell us about that?
Courtney 19:23
Yes, I wanted to people that actually have a chance to just guesstimate or give them a realistic number of almost how much they dog actually probably have poop in the yard because, you know, people like oh, you know, my dog only poops one time a day or twice a day. It's not that much. When when you throw your dog weight in there and actually how many times they go and then you can wow then you start to see the accumulation of you not picking it up. And you just look at it for a month or a year or six months. You like Wow, I didn't know that much. You know, because typically People think oh, she's a Chihuahua, the poop doesn't add up that much. But if you got a chihuahua pooping in a small backyard food, I mean, six months at a time and you haven't scooped it? It's a lot.
20:12
Yeah, I put in the weight of our doxygen. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, after one year, that's that's a person is how much that weighs? Oh, my goodness. Yeah.
Courtney 20:21
Yes, a small
Collin 20:24
day to day and week to week, how do you find the you keep and stay organized with all the work that you've got going on?
Courtney 20:33
Typically, I use my Google Calendar just to log everything in and keep all my clients on my time schedules and such. And I also use, like, all my GPS and navigating and stuff I use the Google Maps is relatively easy, and you can also save all your clients addresses in there as well and label them with their name. To which date Are you typically the busiest on Fridays
Collin 20:56
Is that something that was readily apparent When you started or did you just start seeing that trend of Okay, everybody wants this on Friday or by Friday.
Courtney 21:07
I said First, it wasn't that evident. But as I started to grow and bring on an on board, more clients, I saw a trend in that Fridays. And we do work on Saturdays as well, but it's a little bit shorter route. But Fridays, by far is almost everybody wants Friday. Some people don't mind Saturdays, but most of them have families that have kids and such. They prefer Fridays because that way we come by Friday morning, or somewhere in between that afternoon. They got to clean all Saturday or Sunday and as well as Friday, and even some of the clients we have that juice are single, no kids, but just husband and wife. They want to have a little soiree, have some friends over and have a little party. thing you want to do is have your friends over having a nice glass of wine or a nice beer, beverage or whatever they may be having or eat. Food and walking barefoot in flip flops you Stephanie right. That ruins the whole party cuz now you're gonna smell it. Oh, yeah. And lastly, be drinking or eating like, what's that?
22:13
Yes, yeah.
Collin 22:16
You mentioned a society called a pause earlier, he tell us about special requirements, trainings or organizations that someone should be a part of or should start doing before they go into this business with the training
Courtney 22:29
as a typically you want to least do a couple classes with any kind of dog trainer. That way you can actually know the body language that dogs had. That will when you go and visit the homes sometimes. Sometimes some of us actually visit homes with clients and visit their dogs first before servicing. So we know how the dog reacts and whether the dog safe for us to actually be in the guard with them. So I always say, get some training of some sort with a dog trainer. Get familiar with dog behavior. And I always say, get some training in route. If you've never driven a route, recommend doing that. And if you don't have to do any clerical work, you might want to get started on that. Because it's gonna be a lot of paperwork, and it's gonna be a lot to manage. But it was easy. I was like, Oh, yeah, this got 10 clients, I can do this forever by myself on paper. I was like, Oh, I got 30 clients. I'm starting to get a little busy, but I can handle it. I'm like, ooh, alright, I'm at 70. Who I gotta send an invoice.
23:34
Yeah.
Courtney 23:35
So then it started to become a, you know, a little bit more clerical work. And that's when I start getting a little bit more organized and look at some things that PayPal had offered, and I started using them as my payment service. You can send invoices and you can actually look at your insight from what you've been making the month before compared to the month that you're doing now. And previously, the month of the year previous is well, so You kind of compare what you've been doing and all like this. So it gives you some other insights as well using PayPal for that part of your business. But I definitely recommend, like I said, having a good Scheduler. And I also do keep actual paper notebooks for all of our clients. I still physically handwrite them once a week, but I do have it on my Google Calendar and scheduler already. We're already logged in on a nice little spreadsheet. But just because I know technology does fail sometimes. And the last thing I want to do is have to work around and I don't remember which clients homes I need to visit just because my system on my phone isn't working properly. And now I can't actually do my job. So I was believing keeping a hard copy as well. But I definitely do rely on the technology part me.
Collin 24:50
Yeah, having that backup for your systems is again one of those things you don't always think of like Well, I've got everything right here. I don't know what else could I could need. But as you mentioned technology fails you battery dies those kinds of things happen and yet you talk I've talked about services still need to take place so that you can continue to help the community and provide those the quality of care and service that people are expecting.
Courtney 25:13
Oh yes 100% I agree with
Collin 25:15
so as you're driving around and doing your your routes and spending a lot of time outside, how do you deal or handle with hazardous weather conditions and
Courtney 25:24
it can be a little crazy some days. Today, it was a great day it was supposed to rain they said 50% I got zero so I was quite happy. I didn't have I didn't have to walk in what we call in our organization poop soup, which is essentially liquidy poop in the water. Okay.
25:48
Anybody currently eating while listening to this?
Courtney 25:52
You might want to put the food no tomato soup for dinner.
26:00
It's getting worse. But yes,
Courtney 26:01
the hazardous weather like I said, we have some people that work up Northwest snows a lot more and loads, if not more than three inches on the snow, snow, three inches of snow on the ground, they still go out of service, as well as we do if it's rain, and we still go out of service. Now if it's frightening, tornadoes, hurricanes, anything that such we do, always email called the clients as well let them know that we will remove them from the service today, but we will reschedule them for the following day. If weather permits. That way, even if we are a day behind, we can still make sure we got them serviced. When they at least one or two, almost 100% of the time they understand. We rarely get anybody that, you know complains. I mean, this is Mother Nature. We can't really control what goes on. Right.
Collin 26:46
Yeah. And that's so wonderful when you have clients that are forgiving and understanding like that, instead of pushing back hard against you and you know, demanding services.
Courtney 26:55
I've definitely agree it does make it a lot easier. And that's one thing I have found in This pet business industry per se that 90% of the clients are very easygoing and not real difficult to deal with because they already just appreciate you doing what you do for them every day. I mean, I get clients that text me every day just thank you for doing what you do. Amy, we just feel he played it to know that they appreciate just that little thing that may seem to other people. How much they actually appreciate it a lot.
Collin 27:27
Yeah, I mean those are so impactful when you get those again when you're out there in your poop soup and on you know, in the rain and stuff. And then you get a text afterwards of someone saying you know, thank you that it really means a lot like that's that really makes it all worth it.
Courtney 27:41
Yes, it really does.
27:45
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Collin 28:24
So if a pet sitter is listening to this, and is thinking, hmm, Should I add this service to my current business? What would you tell them that they need to know when they're getting started?
Courtney 28:35
I would definitely say look at the demand for the service in your area. Do your research because I know most states have where you have to register your pets with the city. I say go there first and see you can actually get a copy of all the people that have registered their pets in the city and I said just do an emailer or just do possibly like a little I call it a B testing. We run a little smaller Add just for your business to see. And whatever you come up with whatever name you want to call it, whatever and to see dula test and see how many hits you actually get people actually wanting to use your service within running it for probably about 30 days to be a real Max, that'll give you a real idea around to different ads to see whether people actually want to use that service in your area where there's actually a market for that service in your area. And also, I check the pricing other companies in my area, we are other ones, and if so I speak with those owners as well because they typically don't mass speaking to newcomers, we welcome all because we don't believe that no one in our industry is competition, even though we are competitive, but we believe helping each other out because that's just what we believe in this type of industry. Well, definitely say if you already have a clientele base like you all do what your pet sitters business, I'd definitely say you can definitely probably run a blood testing as well yourself. Is the Many of your clients that you already pet sit for might actually want you to do that as an additional service as well. I've spoken with several scoopers, who's out of state and they've been doing it for 20 plus years. I mean one guy he's been doing it since 1985 I believe. That's 35 years into the poop business and now his son actually has a second business location in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas. And they're like two of the main head members of the actual a pause group who actually was like one of the founding members was his dad.
Collin 30:32
So how do you set your prices
Courtney 30:34
I set my prices I typically go by the size of the yard, how many pets are in the home and when was the last time they clean it and what frequently have how many visits they want weekly, bi weekly, three times a week, twice a week or even four or five times. It really varies and occasionally we do charge extra for dogs that are over 100 pounds. This because we do have several accounts with breakdown. And Dobermans, and I mean one scooping service, they can fill up a 13 gallon bag in 15 minutes easy. So we the truck a little bit more for those just because it's more waste in a small amount area. So accumulates and have to use a little bit more materials for that job as well.
Collin 31:16
What would you say is your most common number of cleanings people request during the week,
Courtney 31:20
I say typically once a week, and that is what the sea CDC recommends, at least you can do at least once a week of the waste that was least getting clean and as time actually removed the waste and act we have time for the dogs actually use VR. But for me, I always recommend if you have three large dogs or more, I recommend twice a week. Because if you use an AI service to get your yard clean, I'm going to recommend what's best for it. And if you got three or four dogs and we come in once a week, yeah, we're going to clean your yard but it's gonna be a lot of cumulation each time if you want to actually use your yard in between your visits. Coming once a week. And I always tell people, if we see that twice a week is too much. We actually change your servers pause like pause that subscription switch until once a week, if you already paid or twice a week, will credit your account for those visits as well. So you still get all your visits and you don't lose anything.
Collin 32:20
When like when my wife and I are house sitting, we usually will pick up the poop in the yard and the dispose of it in the garbage dumpster at our own home. But I don't think that's going to be quite possible given the amount that you guys are collecting. So where does it all go? At the end of the day?
Courtney 32:36
Yes, I agree. The amount we collect is quite a once we completed all our jobs, I was saying it's a pretty huge blow. Yeah. And most days, I don't really have things, ordinances anything set up but a few do use like dog friendly states like Colorado have certain designated places where they actually want you to unload the pet waste. But in our state, South Carolina, they don't really have any particular place. So once we done, get done with all the poop, picking up everything, we double bag it one more time. And we actually take it out large waste, large waste their waste dump area and we take it down. And typically we can take anywhere from 20 to about 25 bags or more there per truck. So I mean, it's, it's a lot. And we do have some actual people that in our services that own a business in North Carolina, he actually uses some of the homeowners pet waste, or you call it fertilizer, which then he typically always give that whatever waste he takes from a homeowner that wants that service he only use their doglegs for that service as well. But we always tell them you don't want to use it in your garden or like fruits and veggies you don't use it for like flour and
Collin 33:56
yeah, and I love that that there's a secondary market for that, you know It can be used in other things as well. There's not just take it to the the large disposal large waist area.
Courtney 34:06
Yes, because I actually did. Like I said, I did a lot of research on this business prior to starting it. And there's actually a company in Canada that actually takes the dog poop and repurpose it. I don't remember the name. But it's been about four or five years now since I actually looked it up. And I was hoping to eventually actually bring that service to here. But I do notice in Canada, and I hope that one day they will actually become, you know, territory or have a business in the United States. Well, I can actually send them the waste for that as well, because I love that actually repurpose the poop besides just throwing it in the dog or in the wasteland and just letting it accumulate, because eventually I do want to try to do something to cut back on our imprint on the waste that we're unloading on a daily weekly basis. Because like I said, I do care about what we're doing and how we affect the earth while what we're doing. I do have kids and I do want it to be here as long as possible. them.
Collin 35:00
Yeah. And that's just such a such a great thing to have in mind of looking around and going, Okay, where can we cut back on the waist and on the footprint on the daily basis and using those secondary markets and things like that. It's just so such a wonderful opportunity
Courtney 35:16
I got so we care about our community. I mean, we would not just pooper scoopers, we're not taking out of the yard and taking people cash and putting them in our pockets. We actually do care about what we do and try to lessen the imprint that we actually put on this earth every day.
Collin 35:30
So I think that kind of transitions into my next question for you is what do you think sets your business apart from from others, either in your area or just in general,
Courtney 35:40
say that we actually spend a lot of time building relationships with our clients. We don't just say, oh, okay, we sat you sign up service, I will go ahead and do it. And then we just go ahead and work the yard and do all that as such, we actually tried to speak with them and see what they actually need versus just giving them what we think They need and we worked on building like I say genuine relationships with each and every one of our clients. We have a few that we probably haven't spoken with too much, just because they usually sign up online occasionally if they haven't called us. And then we even then if we meet them for the first time, if they're not home, excuse me, we're more than welcome to introduce ourselves. So who we are what we're there to do. And we just actually want to meet them into their pet if we never met their pet, for some time, we do have that where we never met them or their pet. And we just actually let them know who we are. And actually let them know what we stand for how we actually do this. And why we do this. Like I said, Before, we actually try to help the community and let them know about them doing that little part that they see is just helping them in their head probably themselves. They're actually helping their community as well.
Collin 36:47
So when you're when you're building these relationships, you know, and maybe you've had a client for a while. Do you ever talk to them about this the status or how the poop looks in their in their yard?
Courtney 36:57
Yes, we do speak with them. If we know that Like if the dog poop isn't solid or has worms in it or any strange colors, because, as we both know, as pet owners in the pet industry, if you're watching a pet or they're bored, they typically will eat almost anything. Yeah. We've seen several I've seen crayons, dog baby heads. And I don't want to get too extreme with nasty I mean, but if we see anything that's real, probably hazardous to the dog, like, you know, I hate to say but like worms of maggots anything. Well, let's let the homeowner know what we saw and I was asked to move. The pen is like going through some type of medicine with actually doing that because I actually have a client now who pet is actually going through chemo and we actually handle that pet waste differently. We actually wear some layer of protective gloves. We actually figured out what a protective plastic bag and it's all organic biodegradable bags. Well, we pick it out and then we actually go back and clean everything up only specific tools for their home. We don't use regular to use for actual regular routes that we run through the week or month.
Collin 38:11
That just blows my mind. Do you find yourself that you're you have dedicated equipment for several clients or you know, if you find one that has maggots or something that like that, is that where would you put tools away and bring out the spares to do the rest of the service?
Courtney 38:25
Yes, yes, exactly what we do because we just don't want to cross contaminate everything. Even when we do even though we do clean it disinfect everything after each job. I just like to take that extra precautionary because like I said, they're not just clients to us. I always tell everybody they're part of our pyramid scoopers family. And that's what we believe in. We don't look at you as just a number, our client, you're part of our family, your pet is considered to be my pet. So therefore, I'm going to take every precaution there is to make sure your pet is safe as well as you during our cleaners and after all of our cleaning Cuz I just take pride in everything I do, and what I'm doing for my community as well as all my,
Collin 39:06
that's so awesome people in your community, I gotta say you're just lucky to have you there and taking such good care of their pets. I'm curious after five years of being in business, where do you see yourself in five more years
Courtney 39:18
more years, I plan on having least five to 10 more team members on my team and expand our services to the surrounding areas like Charleston, South Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina airs and eventually going into possibly North Carolina or Georgia well with a few other locations, but I really just focus on letting our host state know right now of South Carolina that we want to let them know that we're the number one business in the number 20.
39:52
I love that.
Courtney 39:55
And that's the main thing cuz franchises you know, they always grow fast. They don't really angle say they don't care about the clients, but you don't get that personal feel. And me as I say, I'm a consumer because even though I own the business, I still consume, I rather go to a business that is a small local field, that is a franchise versus a franchise that is a franchisor. Because then you get that genuine, genuine actually care from the people that work there in the owner because they're actually interacting with you, actually giving you the care and concern that you entered attention that you actually want to need. And if you don't want it is still there if you need it. I mean, all my clients have my personal number. They call me text me anytime they like. And I'm not out with my family doing anything. I respond almost immediately. And that's because I just want them to know I'm there if they ever need me for any reason, whatsoever. It may be,
Collin 40:54
again, when you're as you're considering expanding and growing more and more team members, you know, if you're set you know the What sets you apart is that relationship and dedication of service and care of community trying to retain that with each member that you add and expanded to other service areas? Like that's a that's a big deal to retain so remains in retains that that local field that have genuine concern, if we're quality of service,
Courtney 41:22
yes, it definitely is. And that's one thing I don't ever want to get away from, no matter how many locations we may have and growth. I want every person to know that's what we stand for. I want you to treat every yard like that your mother's or grandma john. Because if you don't care about that person yard that much You don't need to worry at all, because then you're not going to put off that extra effort to make sure you do everything 100% because I always believe like my father used to always tell me either you do something 100% one way or you do 100% Either way, it's no it's no in between if you're gonna do it, right. You're gonna do it wrong. I believe doing it right? is all there is because if you're not doing it right, you're just doing it completely wrong. Hmm.
Collin 42:08
Wow, that's that's really challenging because I feel like a lot of times you may say yourself, oh, I'll just I'll just do it this this time one time I'll just do just do enough to get the job done but, you know, it's it's 100% you either doing it the best possible every single time or it's not it's not it's not done right?
Courtney 42:25
Yes, I totally agree. It was just that one time you do it it starts to snowball then Okay, then you go to another house you do the same thing and then you go to another house and you do the same thing. Next thing you know it becomes routine becomes almost natural to now you're not even doing your job and performing to the standards of the metal super standards you're performing at your own status. So then how can we say that you actually fall in line with our model of what we actually doing? What we actually represent because now you're not a permitted scoopers team member You're me team member and you only concerned with what making you feel good about what you're doing versus making sure our client who we feel is our family members feel good about everything. I love
Collin 43:12
that. I'm curious, what are some of your favorite tools the trade that you find yourself using all the time that you just love
Courtney 43:19
hands down my favorite noozle would be the lawn rake by true temper. Is this a little about five foot rake rubber handle and I mean, it's the best and you get your little ordinary dustpan used kind of typically like sweeping trash out of a parking lot that you probably seen the big red or yellow ones. We call them big red or big yellow. And that is my favorite tool by hand we used to use the jumbo scoopers but the problem was with the jumbo scoopers in the springs don't last long, they'll pop and then it was very hard to clean the waist when you got like, I hate to be all so visual again. But the liquidy or you know, not solid waste, it gets all into the teeth. So then you spend so much time cleaning the teeth off with the waste, you waste so much time you actually not actually having enough time to service each home in a realistic amount of time. Whereas the new temporary rate and the true temporary, it's got the rate, you know, the rate, bottom half so you can just break it in there easily. And I have a little technique I was called rakin pop method where you kind of rigged it towards yourself and pop it. And if you do it just right, you fling it right in the bucket perfectly. Do it just wrong. Well, let's just say it's gonna be on you and
44:46
I'm sure that definitely takes a lot of practice.
44:49
Oh, yeah.
44:50
Oh, yeah. beginner skills what I'm hearing.
Courtney 44:54
No, sir, no, sir. Not at all.
44:57
That's true that master scooper level comes into play.
Courtney 45:01
Yes, I would say you got to put that out 10,000 hours.
Collin 45:06
What do you wish more people knew about what you do in your industry?
Courtney 45:12
That's a very good question. And honestly, I just wish people knew that most part dog poop isn't like natural fertilizer that they could just leave in their yard. That's going to just like make their grass go beautifully green, like the one they see on a golf tour or something that that's not the case. Like I said, you can use some ways, like growing plants, but typically I wouldn't recommend it. And I wish that more people wouldn't throw their dog poop into the woods behind the house or into the neighbor's yard thinking that's gonna make it disappear. Because don't. All that do is just try to attract more rodents like mice, possums and more gnats and little bugs and flies, dung beetles and mosquitoes because most people don't know all the Those little things. Love it. I mean, I did one yard before, about a last summer. Matter of fact, these people had a pool, little plastic dog pool. You know, the small ones. We always like the dog swimming in summertime. Yeah, they had one of those in their backyard covering up poop. And they said they're just lifted up. And I was like, What?
46:25
Exactly right? No.
Courtney 46:28
Oh, yeah. So I'm listening to this. And when they told me that, so me and my team member gets out there. And we like maybe it's not gonna be that much. You notice, we this little dog pool. You know, maybe there's just a little bit so we flip up the dog pool and you won't believe what we saw. We saw a decomposing rat, which was being eaten by the spiders and all the other bugs that was living up in the air. And I was just like, it was the most disgusting In Java we ever did in my entire career. I mean, it was unbelievable. And they're like, Oh, I didn't think it was gonna be that bad. I'm like, Yes, ma'am. Look at this animal. You haven't even heard of it. And it's like, oh my god, I didn't even know that was under there. And I was like, Yes. That's what happens when you let it pile up. I might, because most people just say, Oh, it's just awful. But no, it actually attracts all of those rodents in and she literally had a whole ecosystem feeding off for her dog waste that was feeding off the dead animal decompose. And that was just the most disgusting thing I ever saw. And I mean, it was crazy now, but on another note, but on another note, I say, butterflies do like dog poop to blue and black butterflies. Every spring and summer. I always get one of those outside, flying around one of us and like landing on the dog poop and I'm like, Oh, that's so cool. Just don't
48:00
He's been
48:02
Yeah, yes, I know what you've been eating. Like
Courtney 48:07
but it is beautiful to see that because I always call that the pool art where you know you get a little beauty with the you always enjoy that part because I always just never thought that butterflies would actually like land on poo. And one summer I'm out there just scooping up doing my thing and I look over I'm like, Oh, it's like, sitting on it just enjoying this beautiful day. It was actually upset that I had to make it rain.
Collin 48:40
That's a lot of life lessons in that I feel like Oh yeah.
Courtney 48:43
Oh yes. I'm just wanting to educate the people to let them know. Enjoy a butterfly but just be mindful that that one might have just got done landing on.
Collin 48:52
Oh, goodness. Well, Courtney, I really enjoyed this. I it's been very uplifting to hear your passion and your concern for your neighbors in your community and all that you're doing and in your drive for your business and I know we've only touched on just a small section of slice of what you do in your in your business. If people want to connect and follow along with your work, how can they do that?
Courtney 49:15
Well I can say they can follow us on Facebook at Palmetto scoopers. They can follow us on Twitter or Instagram at Paramount scoopers as well. We're on tik tok bother young kids or older people that's starting to mess with that we're at middle school seven on air and we do make videos of dogs doing things as well as like randomly jumping in and out of truck. All the business professionals who have a LinkedIn find us that permit us. And occasionally we do use Twitter. I mean, I hate to say it it's not as prevalent for us just because we don't feel like something relevant now as people are more into videos and that search and it is not Something we see that we use a lot today but I say if you definitely want to connect with us you can definitely look at the point I G on their everyday Facebook on everyday Tick Tock on there at least three to four times a week LinkedIn about saying but if you definitely want to contact us, hit us up at IGP at thermo scoopers that will respond typically within hour, maybe two at top. Well
Collin 50:22
thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it. Like I said, it's been a real joy.
Courtney 50:27
Thank you, Colin. I enjoyed it just as well. And it was a pleasure. Oh, my. Courtney
Collin 50:33
really is one of the most passionate people about poop you will ever talk to and it's very easy to see how his business will be number one taken care of number two. During our conversation, he talked a lot about the importance of community connecting with him showing a larger purpose not just for himself and for his clients, but also for the people that he hires, showing them that what they do really does matter and that even though it is not a lot of fun, so days and sometimes pretty disgusting. That's actually helping not just themselves, but the community at large and where they live, keeping their water supply clean these connections and this broader view of everything he does, really helps shine through and gives him a great perspective whenever he's when he's talking to clients. And when he's hiring. I was really challenged by this kind of mindset to think big, not just in the scope of my business, and what mega did I want to do and how we want to grow and expand, but in where we fit in the bigger picture of our community, in our town and in our county even where do we as pet sitters fit in that larger community? Where do we as pet sitters make an impact at that kind of level? And how can we best communicate that to our clients, so that we can all be part of something bigger than ourselves? As always, we would love to hear your stories, so get connected with us on Facebook, Instagram or websites. Pet Sitter confessional.com and let us know how you're doing and we'd love to share what you're learning and how you were doing these days.
