How Big Business Scoopers Raised Prices, Tightened Routes and Still Serves 400 Customers
Emily LaBeaume, Owner ·Big Business Scoopers · New Jersey
Built Local Podcast with Clay Lawrence · · 43 min episode
The short version
Emily LaBeaume runs Big Business Scoopers, a New Jersey pet waste removal company started in 2003 that her mother bought in 2015 and handed to her at the end of 2023. She raised prices and tightened routes knowing some customers would leave, and the company now serves closer to 400 recurring customers, down from a peak of around 500, while staying just as healthy financially. Since May its Google reviews have gone from 60 to 70 up to 199.
What other owners can take from Big Business Scoopers
- 1
Look at the whole week's map, every scooper in a different color, at least once a year. Route exceptions pile up one favor at a time until two scoopers are working the same neighborhood.
- 2
Fix the routes before new hires start, so they never learn a schedule you are about to chop up.
- 3
When you notice you are cutting your own pay to cover rising costs, it is time to raise prices.
- 4
Go into a price increase expecting a subset of customers to leave, and do not chase them. The ones who stay more than cover the ones who go.
- 5
Handle every cancellation professionally. A happy goodbye leaves the door open, and some customers come back.
- 6
If you do community events, do them properly: a branded tent, a practiced pitch, free giveaways, and time spent meeting the other pet businesses there.
- 7
Be generous with your time and empathy, not your prices. Reply within one business day, use the customer's name, and let them talk.
How did Emily end up owning a New Jersey pooper scooper business?
Emily LaBeaume first heard about poop scooping in 2003, when she was in high school. Her mother, Tina, and a coworker named Tom were trading business ideas while layoffs loomed at their company. Tina went looking for the craziest idea she could find, printed out an article about poop scooping, and everyone had a good laugh. A month later Tom asked if she would mind him actually doing it.
Tom started Big Business Scoopers in Short Hills, in Essex County, and within five years had built it into a six-figure business. In 2015, after Tina was laid off at 60, she bought it from him. It came with between 100 and 200 clients, one part-time employee, and records kept in binders and paper calendars.
Emily started helping out “as a temporary measure.” She bought in as a co-owner in 2019, and when her mother retired at the end of 2023 she took over the whole business. She is now in her 12th year.
How did the business grow to three service areas?
Emily opened them where she lived. Soon after the family bought the company she moved to South Jersey, more than an hour away, and commuted to scoop for close to a year. Then she asked why she was not serving her own town.
She started a second service area there and grew it, mostly with territory-focused, keyword-heavy Google search ads, until she no longer had to drive north. She has since moved to the Jersey Shore and is building a third service area there.
Why did she raise prices and tighten routes, knowing she would lose customers?
Because the routes had drifted and she was underpaying herself. At its peak the company had around 500 recurring customers. Today it is closer to 400, and Emily said that came from decisions she made on purpose.
Routes, she explained, get “stringy and splotchy” over time. You make one exception for a long-time client, then another, and it is out of hand before you know it. She did not see it until August, when two scoopers left on short notice within a week of each other and eight full days of routes had nobody on them.
She pulled up the whole South Jersey map, color-coded by scooper, for probably the first time in a year, and found two different scoopers working the same neighborhood on two different days. What she did next, in order:
- Covered the work with her remaining scoopers and by commuting more than an hour to scoop again herself.
- Hired three scoopers, after 15-minute interviews with up to 100 candidates.
- Restructured every route before the new hires started, so nobody learned a schedule she was about to chop up.
- Told every affected customer, and spent extra time with the ones who needed it, whether they stayed or left.
On pricing, her signal is personal. She knows it is time when she notices she has been cutting her own pay first, while gas, equipment, trash bags, insurance and workers’ comp all cost more.
Clay added the math: at $10 a visit and a 10% margin you make $1, so raising the price to $11 doubles the profit on that visit.
What happened after the changes?
The company has fewer customers and is in the same financial shape. “I have fewer clients, but the business is just as healthy financially,” Emily said, and on a better trajectory.
Her rule for a price increase is to expect departures and not chase them. Stay professional, say you understand, and leave on good terms. Clay called it the happy goodbye, and Emily said she has seen customers come back.
Where does Big Business Scoopers get customers?
Mostly from referrals, word of mouth and organic search. Emily turned off all advertising when she took over, leaning on the company’s long history and strong SEO. This past summer she restarted Google Ads.
She is also putting real effort into community events. Her early attempts in South Jersey were a borrowed white tent and business cards on a bare table. This year she booked as many pet adoption events as she could for late summer and early fall, with a branded tent, a backdrop, a practiced pitch and free giveaways.
The events have introduced her to other local pet businesses, and she expects those relationships to send referrals both ways. A mobile groomer whose client’s dog rolled in the yard is a natural source of customers.
How does she keep customers for years?
By being generous with her time, though not with discounts. Her standards:
- Reply on any channel (text, call or email) as fast as possible, and never later than 24 hours on a business day.
- Be warm and use the customer’s name.
- When a customer wants to talk, let them talk.
- Have scoopers send customer issues to her instead of handling them alone.
The company’s first website, a single page from 2003, already said it: “Our business may be about number two, but our customer is always number one.”
In Emily's words
“I kept telling myself just do the next thing, do the next thing.”
“You have to go into raising prices knowing that a subset of the people that you raise your prices on are going to leave.”
“I have fewer clients, but the business is just as healthy financially.”
“The more you focus on retaining the customers you have instead of chasing after the customers you don't, that's where the real value is.”
Review Harvest Client
What Big Business Scoopers says about Review Harvest
Emily says Big Business Scoopers had somewhere between 60 and 70 Google reviews when she started with Review Harvest in May, and 199 when she recorded the episode. Reviews had not been a focus for a company that spent years moving from paper to spreadsheets. Beyond visibility on Google, she says every new review motivates her: "a little boost of confidence every time."
“I only had like 60 to 70, somewhere in that range, when I started back in May. It's gone up way more than I realized it would.”
Questions this episode answers
How many customers does Big Business Scoopers have?
Big Business Scoopers serves closer to 400 recurring customers across three New Jersey service areas. Owner Emily LaBeaume says the count peaked around 500 and came down on purpose after she raised prices and tightened routes. She has fewer clients than when her mother retired at the end of 2023, and says the business is just as healthy financially.
When should a pet waste removal business raise its prices?
Emily LaBeaume of Big Business Scoopers says a price increase comes around naturally every few years. Her own signal is noticing that she has been cutting her pay before anything else while gas, equipment, trash bags and insurance all cost more. She goes in expecting some customers to leave and does not chase them, because the customers who stay more than cover the ones who go.
How do you know when your scooping routes need to be tightened?
At Big Business Scoopers the sign was the map. After two scoopers left in August, Emily LaBeaume looked at her whole South Jersey week, color-coded by scooper, for the first time in about a year and found two different scoopers in the same neighborhood on two different days. She says routes drift because of one-off exceptions for long-time clients, and you only see it when you look at the full picture.
What do you do when two employees quit in the same week?
Emily LaBeaume lost two scoopers within a week, which left eight full days of routes uncovered. She and her remaining staff covered the work, she ran 15-minute interviews with up to 100 candidates, and she hired three people in a short time. She also restructured every route before the new hires started and told each affected customer about the change.
How does Big Business Scoopers get new customers?
Most new customers come from referrals, word of mouth and organic Google search, helped by more than 20 years in business. Emily LaBeaume turned off all advertising when she took over, then restarted Google Ads this past summer. She also sets up a branded tent at pet adoption events and builds relationships with other local pet businesses that can refer dog owners.
How did Big Business Scoopers get to nearly 200 Google reviews?
Emily LaBeaume says Big Business Scoopers had 60 to 70 Google reviews when she started using Review Harvest in May and 199 at the time of the interview. Reviews had never been a focus for the company before. She says each new one is also a boost of confidence for her as the owner.
Need pet waste removal in New Jersey? Visit Big Business Scoopers at bigbusinessscoopers.com.
