Pet Waste Remover

There are millions of responsible dog owners who know how to pick up after their dogs. But among those owners, how many could manage a pet waste removal business for career satisfaction? This is one person’s story.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Emily LaBeaume (EL) is the youngest of two children; her brother is 5 years older. Her father was a carpenter. Her mother graduated from college, initially working in pharmaceutical management involving technology. 

Neither parent suggested a specific career path for EL, other than that she should graduate from college to increase the opportunities to support herself financially. Her mother suggested that EL pursue jobs in finance or accounting. Her brother eventually earned his PhD in chemistry. 

CHILDHOOD INTERESTS

Throughout her childhood years, EL loved to read books and write stories which she created. She envisioned herself as the author of books. 

EL’s summer jobs were all in grocery stores to focus on earning her own spending money rather than trying to learn about an adult career path through an internship. 

EDUCATION – KEEPING YOUR DREAM ALIVE

In deference to her mother’s recommendation for a career path, EL knew she would need to be proficient in math courses, which at first, she understood easily but eventually found advance math courses like calculus, to be too challenging. 

As an 11^th grade girl pondering her adult future, she felt pressured by the school’s guidance counselor to make a current decision to pursue an eventual, adult career. To quiet the questions, she said she would follow her big brother’s path into science. 

But secretly, EL retained her dream to be an author. So, when choosing a college, she made sure it would provide a strong English department with opportunities to hone her writing skills. 

During her college freshman year, EL’s determination to focus her courses within an English major, was tested by hearing constantly that such a major was “useless.” But EL persisted, hoping to land a job as an editor for either books or magazines, while preserving her dream to write some stories during off-duty time.

As EL came to realize, many college graduates who had majored in English and want to be writers, look for work as editors rather than on the business side of ‘publishing,’ which essentially involves selling book ideas to publishers and then selling published books to the public. 

FIRST JOB IS NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT

Toward the end of EL’s college years, she found an (unpaid) internship within the publishing industry which earned the final credits she needed for her college degree. The internship was provided within a small agency representing authors to sell their book ideas to publishers. This was EL’s first experience within the publishing world, providing some level of experience – after about 4 months – to be able to apply for a full-time job with a different agency. 

EL was the first hire by one of two female partners in a ‘boutique’ (small in size and focus) agency representing authors. As a small business where the partner worked from her home, EL had early exposure to the business side of publishing, involving files organization, helping to track business income and expenses and the part that she most enjoyed: offering ideas to the partner about how to improve writers’ manuscripts and how to find publishers to purchase those manuscripts to become books. The partner with whom EL worked most closely had been an associate publisher within a significantly larger business so EL learned a lot and was pleased to be told – more than once – that she had become a ‘trusted’ member of the agency. 

Looking ahead after 4 years within the ‘boutique’ agency, EL decided that she wanted to have more freedom to make her own business decisions by starting her own agency representing authors who would hopefully be recommended to her by her former boutique agency owners or by authors with whom she had already worked while employed by the agency. Those partners seemed to understand EL’s wish to pursue her own career path so for the next six months, despite some understandable tension between EL and her former employers over business referrals which might be seen as competition with her former employers, EL’s business started to slowly grow.  

CHALLENGE – EMPLOYER NOT APPRECIATING THE NEED FOR BRIEF TIME OFF DUE TO AN UNEXPECTED MEDICAL EMERGENCY

By their very nature, ‘accidents’ are unplanned, unexpected events. When EL was involved in a car accident, requiring a brief hospitalization, her first thoughts were devoted to pain management and what sort of medical care would be necessary. Thus, from the ambulance and then from the hospital, EL failed to alert her former employers that she would be unable to respond to them for at least the next few days. To EL’s surprise and disappointment, her former employer demonstrated zero understanding of EL’s inability to respond immediately to their requests. To “add insult to injury” (in a very literal sense), her former boss said that EL was now ‘unreliable’ and ‘untrustworthy’ and thus they would not be referring any new business. 

Looking back with perspective from additional years in the business world, EL now concludes that her former employers were angry about the prospect of EL becoming a serious competitor so they used her unplanned absence as ‘cover’ to hide their embarrassment in permitting a former employee to set up a business which they subsequently realized might indeed be a serious competitor!  

START A NEW BUSINESS OR BUY AN EXISTING BUSINESS?

Now with no realistic prospects to grow her own agency representing authors, EL had to quickly decide – while still recuperating from her accident injuries – how to move ahead earning a living. 

By coincidence, EL’s mother, having been laid-off from her corporate employment, recently bought an existing business to clean up dogs’ waste, known more formally as a ‘pet waste removal’ business. Would EL be interested in joining her mother’s business to perform the daily business activities with the prospect of eventually taking it over when her mother left the business voluntarily or involuntarily due to health reasons? 

“Sure, why not,” thought EL. “I’ve got nothing else in mind at this moment, so I’ll give it a try for a while.”

Advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing small business include:

Advantages (include)

• A formal legal structure exists – as a corporation (profit or nonprofit, possibly LLC for limited liability) – or partnership, association, etc.
• Existing customer base – hopefully confirmed as realistic and transferrable to new owners.
• Business operation basics are in place and may be retained: accounting, insurance, tax filings, marketing, vendors for supplies and services.
• Any early business mistakes under prior management have led to better practices and satisfied customers.
• For a pet waste removal service, there are several distinct advantages:
  • No education degree required.
  • No government license required.
  • No formal training required – just “find it and remove it!”

Disadvantages (include)

• Possible lack of skills to perform that specific business either by yourself or by existing or new employees whose skill levels are unknown.
• Apparently existing customers were not happy with prior owners and will not continue with new ownership.
• Other business issues represented as solidly in place are either not so or need to be upgraded soon.
• Competitors (might) take advantage of the change of ownership to lure customers to their business.

PET WASTE REMOVAL BUSINESS

Simply stated, a career removing pet waste (fancy term for dog poop) involves:

• Outdoor activities
• Self-discipline to not be bothered by the smell of dog waste.
• Driving a vehicle (with sufficient insurance) from customer to customer. 
• Walking while looking to find pet waste in a yard – (usually in a suburban yard; so far, there are not many city customers)
• Carrying and handling some combination of a long-handled poop scooper, a rake, a bucket and/or gloves.
• Picking up dog waste by using the long-handled tool(s) or bending down while using gloves
• Depositing the waste in either a bag being carried or into a nearby, fixed location container.
• Stable employment because there is no shortage of dogs and their owners willing to pay for this service – “Most everyone has dogs,” says LaBeaume, “I never worry there won’t be enough to pick up after.”

HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVES FROM SEVERAL BUSINESS OWNERS

The beginning of the profession of removing pet waste likely started in Southern California in the 1980s. Out West, perpetually warm weather causes dog waste “to stink every month, as opposed to just four hot months (on the East Coast),” says Keith Brandt, owner of Poop Genie, with Pennsylvania offices in Dauphin County and King of Prussia. “Our customers are (mostly) millennials who think outside the box,” said Brandt, age 44., “Many with two incomes. They work hard and prefer going to their kids’ (sports) practice. We take one big chore off their plates.”

The President of the national Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists (aPAWS), Tim Stone, age 36, who runs Scoop Masters, with branches in Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Jacksonville, Fla. And Nashville, Tenn., isn’t bothered by people who laugh at his profession. “I take in $1.8 million a year from Dallas-Fort Worth alone,” he said. “I pay some of my employees $40,000 to $50,000 to pick up dog poop. I couldn’t care less what people think about what I do for a living.”

Poop scooping can be lucrative, generating about $500 million annually, Stone said. Much of that has been fueled by the glut of pandemic dogs, taken in by folks looking for quarantine companionship. He added that there are roughly 550 such businesses nationwide, with around 10 in the Philadelphia region and throughout New Jersey. 

Mike Zlotnick, age 60, owner of Poopie Scoopers R-Us, headquartered in Northeast Philadelphia, charges $20.50 to $26.50 a week, depending on the number of dogs. He’s a self-described maverick, who collects fecal matter with gloved hands to “not miss anything,” Zlotnick said, adding that he has five employees servicing 150 private homes, 10 apartment complexes and four housing developments in Philly’s suburban communities. 

EL, co-owner of Big Business Scoopers, based in Pitman, N.J., employs 11 people and has around 500 New Jersey clients, many in Gloucester and Camden Counties. She said she’d like to expand her business into commercial areas like parks, which would require contracts with government agencies responsible for public parks. 

BUSINESS CHALLENGES IN THE DAYS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY AND POLITICS

• Avoid discussing politics unless the customer volunteers an opinion with which you agree. As EL notes, “The common denominator between me and my customer should be service – my trying to provide it in the best way and the customer’s appreciation of it – not politics.”
• Remember that whatever you post on social media may eventually be discovered by existing and potential future customers. 
• Be careful who you allow to be ‘friends’ on Facebook. 
• Home based businesses are best suited for personalities who don’t need constant personal interaction, who don’t mind ‘being lonely.’

SIGNS OF SMART BUSINESS

The following issues require planning and performance to achieve:

• Satisfied customers – will refer new business; while business management must trust employees to perform efficiently and well, management must both ‘trust but verify’ (adopting one of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s favorite phrases.)
• Satisfied workers – EL pays a fair wage with regular paychecks; she encourages mind-calming strategies while working and hopes to provide company cars for employees’ use when business profits permit; EL will definitely be compassionate if an employee is unable to work due to an unanticipated accident!
• Profits by controlling expenses while treating everyone fairly.
• Critical thinking for how to expand business – note EL’s creative plan to motivate municipal officials to prioritize the cleanliness of public parks.
• Monitoring competition – EL’s basic plan to deal with competitors is to simply provide the best possible customer service – “promise, then over-perform!” 
• Maintain a healthy concern (not sleepless nights) about your business – EL describes herself while growing the business, as “nervous but confident going forward.”

CAREER SATISFACTION

“I love the work,” says LaBeaume. “You’re outside, playing with dogs. We tell employees to listen to podcasts or music, or just daydream. Scooping poop is weirdly calming.” 

In addition to a stable income and working outdoors, pet waste removal is helpful to the environment. Some dog owners avoid canine cleanup on their rationale that leaving the stuff in the grass fertilizes the yard. “Untrue,” says Tracy Clevens, co-owner of Clevens K-9 Scoop, based in Wilmington, Delaware with a large clientele in Bryn Mawr and Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Citing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Clevens noted that droppings release pathogens that cause bacteria and viruses which threaten humans. The droppings take a year to decompose, and can leach phosphorous and nitrogen into water supplies, depleting fish population and promoting algae growth. 

LaBeaume is proud that her work prevents all that. An added benefit is that scoopers can notice blood or worms in dog feces, possibly indicating a problem which a veterinarian can check out before a small problem becomes a large problem for the dog. 

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This career story is based on an article written by Alfred Lubrano, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on September 5, 2023, supplemented by a personal phone interview of Ms. LaBeaume.