How Coastal Pooper Scooper Grew From a $100 Side Hustle to 150 Recurring Clients

How did a law enforcement officer end up scooping poop in Myrtle Beach?

Ryan was looking for a side hustle nobody else was doing. He had been a law enforcement officer in the D.C. area for eight years, and his wife was a federal contractor. She was laid off during COVID while the two were visiting friends in Myrtle Beach, and they decided to move there.

The move was rougher than they wanted. Ryan worked security and as a ramp agent supervisor at the airport. They lived a few blocks from the beach with no real yard, so they took their dogs to city parks that were littered with dog waste. One day his wife got irritated, took a rake and bucket to a small pocket park and cleaned up the whole thing.

That night, at a security job with nothing going on, Ryan searched for side hustles. The top results were lawn mowing, gutter cleaning and power washing, and “there’s already 400 of them around here.” Deep in the results he found a list of 50 unusual ones. Around number 20 was pet waste removal. He then found an interview with Erica Krupin in Michigan and modeled much of his company on it.

What did it take to start Coastal Pooper Scooper?

About $100 and 30 days. “You buy a rake, you buy a bucket, a trash bag, and get your business license,” Ryan said, “and then you just got to hit Facebook and Google hard.”

The clients did not come quickly. It took five months to get the first one, a homeowner 10 minutes down the road. Ryan had worked in public safety his whole life and described himself as “just winging it.”

For the first three years he ran the business part time. He went full time about a year and a half before the episode, and the day before recording the company reached 150 recurring weekly clients, not counting one-time cleanups. It has two part-time employees and three trucks on the road every day.

How did Coastal Pooper Scooper get its first customers?

In this order:

1. Facebook community groups and small ads. He posted in local groups and put $20 or $30 on a Facebook ad for a couple of weeks at a time. That produced the first five or ten clients.
2. Google Ads. He put that revenue into Google Ads and cleaned up the website he had built himself. For the first year and a half to two years, about 90% of clients came from Google searches and ads.
3. Facebook ads again. When Google Ads plateaued, he ran his own Facebook ads, then hired a marketer from the pet waste industry for about four months. Within a month or two the company had roughly 30 new clients.

He then turned the ads off because he wanted the money for other things, including personal debt. “Looking back, I should have just left it running,” he said. A second run about a year later brought another 30 or 40 clients. The latest, running since around February, added about 40 with the spring rush.

How does he keep clients happy while growing?

Communication first, and no waitlist. Ryan said he is open and honest with clients and does not have it in him to make people wait the way some companies do. That meant 10 and 12 hour days this spring. He joined the interview 10 minutes after getting home, having been out since 7 a.m.

He also answers the business phone himself. “I carry that phone with me to bed,” he said.

What has been the hardest part of growing?

Employees. Ryan is self-taught on the business side, and he could not keep up with the client list alone. Summers on the South Carolina coast run 90 to 100 degrees with 70 to 90% humidity, and the job is eight or nine hours outside.

What he has learned so far:

• Indeed has been the best source. His most recent hire came within about three days of posting there.
• ZipRecruiter was “a complete bust.”
• Facebook brought likes and comments but few people who followed through, and some wanted weekend work. The company runs Monday through Friday.
• For retention he pays occasional bonuses and a uniform allowance each year. Two employees have stayed a full year.

What is next for Coastal Pooper Scooper?

Doubling. Ryan wants 300 clients by this time next year. The service area already stretches from Pawleys Island, about halfway to Charleston, to about halfway to Wilmington, North Carolina, and each truck drives at least 100 miles a day. He would like to open an office toward the edge of that area, move his part-timers to full time and bring in a manager so he can start another business.

The plan to get there is more Facebook ads and more Google reviews, which he said are already a deciding factor for a share of new clients.