Pet Pooh Cleaning Service
Particularly in urban areas the waste generated by our pets can be a real nuisance. Many householders allow dogs to roam around their gardens when they are out of the house and many parks and public spaces get fouled despite fines for doing so.
Several cheap affordable systems exist to address this, but the actual task at hand is unpleasant enough to leave many dog owners unwilling to deal with the problem. I have been to houses where the garden is out of bounds to all but the dog and the bravest of souls in Wellington Boots.
There are a number of systems available to deal with pet waste, whether it be the use of a chemical solution to break down the waste, or simply putting the waste into the human sewage system by means of the toilet. I would suggest that the chemical solution probably works best if you intend to do this on any scale.
Firms already exist that do this, but similarly to yard work it is a service that is easy to get started in, but one at which few stay the course, mainly due to the unpleasant nature of the work. Have a look at www.petbutler.com to see how they position themselves, the use of children with their pet is a great way to emphasis that this is a cleaner safer alternative to having toxic waste lying around, note also that they cover residential and commercial spaces.
If you think that you can deal with the smell, and unpleasantness of this business then you will need to invest in some basic equipment. A 2nd hand van or truck is a must as are some large plastic barrels (preferable sealable) for doing your rounds, and a chemical system of some kind back at base.
My suggestion would be that you don’t run this business from a mid town apartment, and that it will be worth renting a yard in the countryside, or at least on an industrial estate in case you get complaints from neighbours. Of course if you live in the country, or have a large piece of land then this should not be a problem.
As with pet walking, you want to identify middle and upper income earners who are too busy to take the time to care properly for their pets, but who care enough to pay for someone else to do this. Your other target segment is companies and government who want to clean up space that they own, which has been spoiled by other people’s pets.
We suggest the following approaches to finding your customers: -
Drop flyers in “appropriate” neighbourhoods
Advertise in the local newspaper and Yellow Pages
Get your service covered by journalists, or give radio interviews
Enlist dog training schools and dog breeders and dog walkers
There are areas in every town (even places like Hong Kong and NY) where the houses have lawns, the households have several cars and the family pets are thoroughly spoiled. Start your leaflet campaign here. Printing a few hundred leaflets is cheap and can be an effective way of getting customers. This customer group does not trust easily and you may need to show references in order to land your first jobs. Typically expect about a 0.5-1% response rate from your first leaflet drop, this should improve over time and as word of mouth referrals increase.
Advertising in the Yellow Pages and the local newspaper will get you some real problem jobs. The Yellow Pages in particular will be thumbed by people looking for a solution to something that has gotten out of hand. Make sure that in these cases you charge a premium, or simply charge by the hour as opposed to a standard job rate. When you are done, suggest a regular weekly, or bi-weekly re-run to prevent the problem getting out of hand again.
Read up on getting free PR. There is a chance that you will end up with a journalist or a presenter as one of your customers, but that doesn’t mean that they will automatically think about covering your business. Try to think of an angle that makes you unique, e.g. if you used to be a doctor but got disbarred, or were a rocket scientist but gave it up then you have an angle that makes you a little more interesting. Fundamentally though this is a business that most people will shy away from and that in itself may be enough to get you covered on a slow news day. Write press releases when you open, change your prices; find your 100th customer etc. One of them could get picked up and you may even make it to TV at no cost at all to you or your business.
Dog training and dog walking are both services that are not “necessary” when you purchase a dog but are extras that show the owner has potential to be cross marketed other dog services. Similarly dog breeders tend to provide expensive well bred animals to wealthier clients, who are happy to pamper their pets. You should target these three businesses and offer an affiliate scheme where you all refer customers to each other, or better yet where you pay a generous referral fee the first time a customer uses your service. Another approach might be to offer a one off voucher for a cleanup service free to all the new clients of your affiliates.Finding a 2nd hand truck or van is easy as is finding suitable overalls. The key will be finding the right, safe chemicals. There are two obvious choices; join a franchise system such as “pet butler” and have them supply your chemicals, but be aware you will keep paying them for as long as you are in business. The other alternative is to contact the companies that manufacture domestic dog loos and ask them if they can build you a commercial system. I forgot you could of course research which chemicals you need and build a system yourself but not being a chemist this feels riskier than the other two approaches to me.
If you are starting small then just flush until you start to build you client base, or use municipal dog wasting services.I have focused mainly on dogs as they are the most visible menace, but when you get into this you may be asked to clean up all sorts of animal mess. I’d love to hear from anyone who ends up cleaning up say an alligator or elephant pooh!
This business will take a little capital to get started but has massive potential despite its unpleasant nature
Brand everything, buy bright overalls, or tie dye plain ones, build a uniform that people recognise and trust. Remember that later you will focus on marketing while others will clean the pooh for you.