How Scoop Brothers Grew From a Two-Brother Side Gig to About 700 Customers and a Franchise

How did Scoop Brothers start?

Scoop Brothers started in 2018 as a side gig. Daniel Sturgis was working in construction when he came across the idea through a family friend who was scooping yards in Florida. The appeal was simple: low overhead.

He and his brother worked for the same company on opposite schedules, two weeks in town and two weeks out, so the schedule worked. Soon after they started, his brother moved into a manager role that kept him away about three weeks at a time. Daniel kept going on his own and kept the name. In a small town, he said, a family name reads as trustworthy.

He ran it part-time for two years, then went full-time. Today the company serves Charlotte, Monroe and the area to the south.

How did Scoop Brothers get its first 100 customers?

With a homemade flyer and free Facebook groups. Daniel made the first flyer in Word with clip art. “It looked like a little kid made it,” he said. He printed about 50 and hung them everywhere, and posted in local Facebook groups asking who would pay for the service. The first post got nothing.

He kept at it. His goal for the first year, which began in February, was 100 customers. He finished the year at 98 and got to 100 on January 3.

He does not think new owners should want it faster. “You can’t just grow a business immediately. You got to figure out how to have employees,” he said. A hundred customers means an employee, and then a truck, a wrap and everything else that comes with one.

What got Scoop Brothers past 100 customers, and then 250?

Referrals got it past 100. Daniel started asking how his first 100 customers could bring him the next 100, and about half of them referred someone. A customer who refers gets a free service, worth about $20. Someone outside the customer base gets a $20 gift card.

He does not run many specials. He saw no difference in incoming customers with or without one, so he stopped giving weeks away.

He stalled again around 250, bouncing between 240 and 255. His checklist for a plateau:

• Is one employee causing recleans that lead to cancellations?
• Is retention the problem?
• Are there add-on services to offer? Scoop Brothers adds yard sprays and fly control.
• Has the marketing gone flat? Change it and A/B test.

How does Scoop Brothers keep customers?

Quality comes first. “Most people want the numbers, but you can’t really have the numbers without quality,” Daniel said.

In practice that means walking a grid pattern, picking up in mulch and rocks, sending the same tech to the same house, and keeping notes and photos on every yard. He hires for common sense, because it is easy to walk past a pile, and uses incentives to fight the complacency that comes with 30 to 40 houses a day.

He tells his techs they are in a yard more often than the lawn crew or pest control, and that one miss is all a customer remembers.

What was his biggest mistake?

Stepping back too early. While he was busy setting up the franchise, Daniel gave one manager the backup scooping, the crew and the customer calls. That person’s plate was full, communication broke down, and it snowballed.

He said he was at around 500 customers when a manager made sense, but the real answer depends on how much you need to take out of the business. A manager sits on payroll without bringing money in the way a tech does on every yard.

He still wants customers to feel they are dealing with a small business. When someone calls him, he treats that person as the only customer he has at that moment.

Why franchise a pooper scooper business?

Daniel used to talk down every franchise he competed with. Once he looked into it, he decided franchise owners were doing the same legwork he had done, under a shared name. He chose a franchise group whose core values and support matched his, so that when an owner calls, someone answers. Franchising also lets buyers use SBA loans, and it lets him help other people into a simple business. Kansas City launched the month before the episode.

His advice to a scooper in the grind: keep moving, learn something new, and get the name out, online or on foot. “If you’re lazy with it, it’s not going to work.” He said he is still looking for the secret sauce himself, and that the looking is what moves a business forward.