How a 22-Year-Old Grew Pooch Scoop From 9 to 100 Poop Scooping Clients in Under Four Months

Who is Max Newcombe and how did Pooch Scoop start?

Max Newcombe is a 22-year-old who started Pooch Scoop, a pet waste removal company near Philadelphia, about nine months before he sat down with Built Local. He had spent about three years going in and out of junior college, convinced he would make millions day trading. He said he lost about $30,000 doing it, ran through his savings, ended up about $5,000 in debt and moved back in with his dad while delivering pizzas.

Then a YouTube video about a man who made $2 million with dog poop showed up in his feed. “This is just a no-brainer,” he said. “I feel like I can’t not give this a shot.”

About three weeks later he had the legal work done, social accounts and a Google Business Profile set up, and a logo made with ChatGPT. He opened a local Facebook group and the first post he saw was a woman asking for someone to scoop her backyard. She became his first client, and Pooch Scoop still scoops her yard.

How did Pooch Scoop go from 9 clients to 100?

Facebook groups got the first nine and paid Facebook ads got the rest. His second client was one of his best friends growing up. In December he picked up seven more by posting honestly in local groups: his name, that he had just started the company, and that he wanted to scoop dog poop.

On January 1 he had nine clients. He joined the Poop Scoop Millionaire community, learned about the spring rush, and started running paid ads. He burned about $1,400 in the first week before he worked out what performed. From there he spent roughly $3,000 to $4,000 a month and paid around $100 to acquire each customer.

He signed his 100th client on April 23. During that stretch he was the only scooper. Some days he was in yards from sunup to sundown, then texting leads, billing and marketing until he fell asleep. He hired his first employee in May.

Why does Pooch Scoop do the first cleanup for free?

Because it converts, and the math still works. Spring first cleanups are yards nobody has touched in months, so they take an hour or two and sometimes three or four. Some companies get paid $100 to $200 for that visit. Max does it free and asks only that the customer sign up for one month, with no commitment after that.

His reasoning:

• A weekly client takes about 15 minutes a visit plus drive time, so the rest of the first month is roughly another hour of work.
• The average monthly ticket is around $95, so he is still paid about $95 for two hours.
• A small percentage cancel after the first month, but he said most clients stay about two years on average when churn is kept down.

“If you’re confident in the value of your service,” he said, you do not need to lock people into a contract.

The free cleanup was also when he asked for reviews. He would text a photo of the bags (his biggest job filled 15) and ask the customer to take 30 seconds to leave a five-star review if they thought he did a good job. He now uses Review Harvest to send those requests.

What happens to a poop scooping business in the summer?

Demand drops, so Max stops advertising and works on retention. Most people expect scooping to be a summer business. In his market the busy months are January through March, especially when the snow melts, because nobody wants to go out in the cold to clean up. In summer people are in their yards, walking their dogs and going on vacation.

On August 22 he was still hovering right around 100 clients. He had turned paid ads off completely, and roughly one client cancelled or paused for each one that came in from Google, word of mouth or Facebook groups.

He credits low churn to being the face of the company. Over the summer he handwrote a letter to every client and delivered it to their door with a gift bag of dog toys and treats chosen for their dogs. He does not fight cancellations either. “Whatever you need, we’re here for you,” he said.

How does he think about competitors?

He decided to work with them. When he started there was one established company with a much larger service area. A few months in, new scoopers appeared and began making posts like his. He worried at first, then took a lesson from Alex Hormozi: a new company holds a sliver of the market, so there is no sense fighting over 2% of it when most homeowners do not know the service exists.

He got on the phone with the new companies, asked for their service areas and days, and offered to send them clients he could not serve.

What would he tell someone just starting a service business?

Keep going, and copy the people who are already where you want to be. Max watches their content and reaches out to ask how they would handle a situation.

His goal is 500 to 600 clients by the end of the next busy season. “It might be unrealistic,” he said, “but I’d rather shoot for five or 600 and get 350 than shoot for 200 and get 200.” In the meantime he has bought a vehicle and is building lead follow-up and email automations in GoHighLevel.