How Pet Waste Pros Grew to 75 Recurring Poop Scooping Clients Alongside a Full-Time Job

How did Justin Brock start a poop scooping business with a full-time job?

Justin Brock had spent 18 years in insurance sales and was praying for a way out when he watched an UpFlip video about a pet waste removal company. “By the end of that 40-minute video, I was making my business plan,” he said.

His schedule made it possible. He worked insurance from 5 a.m. to noon, which left noon until 6 or 7 p.m. to scoop. He taught himself WordPress from YouTube, set up Sweep&Go, and joined the Poop Scoop Millionaire group, where he scrapped two weeks of his own work and restarted from their game plan.

It took about a month to land a first job, a one-time cleanup from a Facebook ad, and two months to sign the first recurring customer. A year and a half later, Pet Waste Pros serves 75 recurring customers and two commercial accounts around Sugar Land, a suburb southwest of Houston. Justin still owns and runs his insurance agency.

Where do Pet Waste Pros customers come from?

Google. Justin said a good 90 to 95% of his business comes from Google, followed by word of mouth. He worked on the SEO of his website and on his Google Business Profile, and the leads followed.

Facebook ads have not worked for him. Running them himself and paying a couple of companies to run them produced one or two customers. He thinks part of the reason is that Facebook leads want to text, and he sells on the phone. By his count he closes about 10% of leads by text and 85% once he gets them on a call.

His truck wrap has not brought in a customer either. He keeps it because it makes the company look legitimate.

What mistakes did he make in the first year and a half?

Two: bookkeeping and a part-time hire.

He waited too long to set up QuickBooks and had to enter about a year of records before taxes, which he called a nightmare.

The hire went wrong because of the hours he offered. He had loaded up his Tuesday and Friday routes, and when the clocks changed there was not enough daylight to finish them. So he looked for someone to work eight hours on just those two days. His conclusion: good people have, or need, full-time work. The part-timer he found sat on the clock.

He has since hired a full-time employee to take over the route and called him tremendous.

How does Pet Waste Pros keep its customers?

By over-communicating, a habit Justin brought from insurance, where he said his renewal retention is about 95%.

• A welcome basket. His first 40 customers got treats and toys for their dogs, and he tried to meet each one so they knew who was in their backyard.
• A text on rain days. On the company’s first rain-out in a year and a half, he texted all 30 customers on that day’s route to say they were moving to Saturday.
• An introduction to new staff. When he hired, every customer got a message with the employee’s name and photo, and a note that the company runs background checks.

“I don’t want some shady character in your backyard,” he said.

How did he land commercial pet waste accounts?

Both of his commercial clients found him on Google and called. What he controlled was the quote. Instead of measuring the property on Google Earth, he asked to walk it, met the manager in person, and showed that the company is insured, bonded and uniformed. His Google reviews were part of the pitch.

For the next three accounts he built a commercial packet with Canva and had it printed on heavy stock:

• a branded folder
• a bio
• a referral letter from the townhome community he already services
• his insurance certificate
• a page on exactly what the company would do for the property

He drops the packet at apartment complexes, has gotten in with a large property management company, and goes to Houston Apartment Association events. Three quotes are out. None has closed, and none has said no.

That is enough for him to keep going. He checks back with commercial prospects every few months, and residential leads get a text every other week until they opt out or tell him to stop.

What would he tell someone just starting a home service business?

Use the tortoise method. Pet Waste Pros went from 46 or 48 customers on January 1 to 75, and Justin’s goal is 120 recurring customers, five commercial accounts and a second truck. He is not trying to match the people who post about signing 100 customers in two months.

“Put those blinders on,” he said. Do not study the competition, follow a proven plan, and keep going. His wife now stays home with their baby, and the family did not have to change its lifestyle.