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DOG OWNERS: Love your dog -- hate poop?
Help is here at last!
THE INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY OF DOG WASTE REMOVAL SERVICES
Scoopers & Friends Discussion Board Archives
Messages archived from the Scoopers & Friends Discussion Board,
going back to May of 1998. The discussion board board is an online forum about the business of pet-waste removal.
Browse the messages, CLICK HERE TO SEARCH
by keyword, or click here to participate in current discussions.
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Page Fifty-Three
Message Date/Time:
Monday, 08-May-00 10:14:24
Doo Doo Insurance
I read one of the messages that discussed insurance for our businesses. Can someone please give me the name and # to a reasonable insurance company. I'm am with Farm Bureau Ins. (supposed to have the most reasonable rates) they want almost $600 annually ($1,000,000 worth). I've heard that insurance for such businesses can be acquired for as little as $180 annually. WOW what a difference
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Message Date/Time:
Wednesday, 10-May-00 20:49:17
Re: Doo Doo Insurance
Remember that insurance will very in each state and each city. We have just started a scooper business in Mary Esther,Florida and our annual insurance will be between $500-$600 a year. I have found that big name companies will not even recognize this as a "real" business and will not insure us. This is the biggest overhead expense that we have in our new business;but, we feel it is necessary. I believe it protects us, our customers, and adds credability to our business. Good luck
Joe
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Message Date/Time:
Thursday, 11-May-00 00:21:26
Re: Doo Doo Insurance
i am also looking for prices on insurance. most places will not even insure this line of work. the latest quote i received was $667.50 per year.
ouch!! i think this is for 1/2 million dollar coverage. i will find out more soon. this sounds very expensive. i think alot has to do with either taking it or leaving it. good luck. please let me know if you find anything cheaper and i will do the same. kevin
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 15-May-00 17:50:48
Re: Doo Doo Insurance
Call two Independant Insurance agents. Tell 'em what you need, see what they find.
I pay the same rate as lawn mowing services. I think that's too high, but no one knows what else to classify us as.
$600 a year for million dollar coverage? That's $50 a month. Sounds pretty good to me.
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Message Date/Time:
Tuesday, 09-May-00 20:10:30
Stress level and pricing
I am in the process of leaving my teaching position to open my pooper scooper business on June 1 in Florida. I need the flexibility that this business offers. For those who have been doing the business for a while, what would you rate the stress level of this business?
Also, I am in an expensive area of Florida and can see charging $50 a month for once a week service for 1 dog. I know this seems high (or does it?), but the people around here pay $35 a day for their dogs to go to doggie day care on a doggie school bus that picks them up at their house. I don't want to start too low and then have to raise the rates in 6 months. Thanks for the advice.
Bethany (Soon to be Doodie Calls!)
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Message Date/Time:
Wednesday, 10-May-00 19:43:55
Re: Stress level and pricing
I would love to know where you are starting your business too! My husband and I are opening in the next few weeks in the Ft. Walton Beach area. Good luck to you!
By the way. $50.00 doesn't really seem to high if that's what they are paying for pampering thier pets. If you think it might be to high maybe you can charge the same amount as the dogie day care charges. I.E. $35.00/1 dog etc...
About the stress level. To us it's just making sure we are doing all this legally and getting the amount of cutomers we need to support the family and pay the bills.
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Message Date/Time:
Saturday, 13-May-00 11:54:16
Supplies and suppliers
Just getting started in this "pooper" business and very excited about the prospects. Would someone please give me the names of solutions that kill canine parvocirus, distemper, etc., after I use equipment.
Would also like to know supplier of appropriate double baggies I can use to okace the "deposits" in.
Thank you very much for any info you can give me.
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 15-May-00 23:34:06
Re: Supplies and suppliers
I get my parvocide from "New England Serum Company". Their number is 1-800-NE-SERUM, and the product is called "Lemon 256" because you get it in a one-gallon jug that dilutes to 256 gallons. It costs about $25, and after the $5 fee for orders less than $50 and $10 shipping and handling, it comes out to $39.01. I fill a one-gallon sprayer with water (you can buy them at garden stores for ~$10) and put one-half ounce in the water and spray the tools.
About the double bags....Huh? I think most of us just go to the grocery store, reach into the "plastic bag recycle" collection container and take out a plastic grocery bag full of more plastic grocery bags. We scoop directly into these, 1 to 3 per yard, and put these into those white "kitchen-sized" plastic bags (bought in a box of 30).
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Message Date/Time:
Thursday, 01-Jun-00 18:59:15
Re: Supplies and suppliers
Those supermarket bags are cheap, but did you ask first? People put them there to be recycled, but not necessarily by you. It hardly looks professional to be dipping in someone elses barrel for your supplies.
13 gallon glad bags are great, I mean reliable, easy to handle, tough. 150 count box for about 8 bucks at BJ's Wholesale club, or buy 90 count Target brand. Same bag, target box.
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 15-May-00 16:03:11
Customer Route
I need a more efficient system for routing customers. Can anyone give me some suggestions?
Thanks,
Barbara
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Message Date/Time:
Wednesday, 17-May-00 12:19:14
Re: Customer Route
Buy Microsoft's Streets & Trips 2001. Its available at Sam's Club for about $27.00 then you get a rebate for $20.00 back. Road Trips Door to Door is another good routing CD. With either you can load in your addresses and have your computer run the directions. Neither will tell you the best route, but you can easily look at the map and directions they give you to make adjustments until the results are satisfactory.
Each give you a total time and milage for each route you enter. They will save your results so you can change them as your routes change.
Good Luck
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Message Date/Time:
Wednesday, 17-May-00 14:14:44
Re: Customer Route
Hi Barbara,
What are you doing now? Overall map with pins?
Street map with highlighter and 1/4" round, colored, coding labels (peel-off)? I use all of the above and a route sheet that is like an hourly appointment sheet (write-in space every 15 minutes)with the last name of the client in order of the route I have studied out on the overall map at home.
I also carry a map and a map book (like realtors use) in the vehicle because it is just FUN to see if I can shorten my route by trying a new way or just enjoy the beatiful Spring day by going a different way to the next stop (we NEED to "stop and smell a rose" now and then to keep from burning out on what we do)
I have heard there are computer generated map thingies for the vehicle, but I am an old-fashioned road warrior that prefers the crinkle of a paper map that speaks of journeys and adventures. Whatever turns you on!!
Tricia
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Message Date/Time:
Tuesday, 06-Jun-00 09:45:37
Re: Customer Route
I do certain areas on certain days. That is I have a assigned day for each city that I do. I keep a map book in the car just in case. But once you get clients in certain ares then you will be able to tell them what day you will be in their area
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Message Date/Time:
Tuesday, 16-May-00 13:48:33
Holding the bags open
My thanks to Dinah McCandless (The Scooperazzi) for her grerat help in obtaining a source for parvocide and info about plastic bags. I have one other question that may seem kind of stupid, but here goes:
If you are cleaning up the yard and have the lobby pan in one hand and shovel in the other, it would seem to work great if there was some type of wire/plastic affair that would hold the plastic bag open to accept the "goodies". Does a small garbage can with big rubber band over the lip to hold the plastic bag insert open seem logical or does anyone have a better plan or idea????????
Thank you for any info.
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Message Date/Time:
Wednesday, 17-May-00 13:58:08
Re: Holding the bags open
John...
You NEED to get Matthew's book. He has photos of how it is done (a picture is worth...) Fooling with a rubberband would take WAY too much time.
If you are using 13 gal. bags, open one up, reach inside to the corners and stuff them to the inside rear end of the lobby pan. Pull the outside to the end of the lobby pan---covering the bottom & sides. Then the loose part on the top, I wrap around the handle 2-3 times and clamp with a large (2 inch) "ACCO" Binder Clip (black steel with nickel-plated handles). This all takes less time than a sneeze. And in the Reno area, we do get the wind, so it helps keep the bag in place and open. Matthew suggests using a hardware clamp, but you have to tape it on. This Clip is easy to use (clamps can be really stiff for us girls) and cheap. Office Max and Office Depot carry them 12 in a box for $3.29 (get the box, they're cheap and you'll find a 100 other uses for 'em!!)
Tricia
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Message Date/Time:
Saturday, 20-May-00 14:07:45
Re: Holding the bags open
Hi John: to keep my bags on I use a hair clip that girls use to tie up their hair. The ones that you pinch open and they grab like a binder clip. The reason I like this method best it that if you buy a medium size clip, it will fit around the post of the dust pan. Only takes a sec to do!(you find them every where but I usually buy mine at the drup store!)
Ashlee
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Message Date/Time:
Tuesday, 06-Jun-00 09:41:38
Re: Re: Holding the bags open
I use a two gallon bucket with a large rubber band. I re-use plastic greocery bags that fit perfect. If you get one of these bags full picking up once a week for one dog, then you need to charge excess waste fee. The rubber bands last at least a month, and I keep spares handy. I have had no problems with this method.
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Message Date/Time:
Wednesday, 17-May-00 16:16:12
Insurance help needed
I hate insurance companies, and have tried to avoid them for most of my life. Now with my own business I need some help. I don't even know what kind of insurance I need. What do I ask these independent insurance agents? Do I have to insure my vehicle as a commercial vehicle? What if I also use it for personal use? I don't want to get ripped off, so I could use a little help with the basics if anyone has the time.
I don't even know what I am insuring! I am in people's yards with a little rake and dustpan, I can't see how I can possibly damage their property or myself.
Please give me some feed back. Thanks!
Kelly
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 22-May-00 11:35:48
Re: Insurance help needed
I would recommend two types of insurance -- commercial auto and general business liability. Your personal auto insurance may not cover you while you're using your car or truck for business; you should at least read the policy and ask your agent to make sure. I think you'll find that you need the commercial auto insurance for that.
General liability insurance will cover you for things like -- oh, who knows? Accidently leave a gate incompletely latched, the dog gets out and bites a neighborhood kid, maybe? Perhaps you don't see a wire running through some mulch and you cut it with your shovel...
Yes, I agree that the risks are low. But there are risks, and most of them are probably things you would not expect. It's good to be covered just in case - that's what insurance is all about, after all.
And many customers feel much more confident in your business when they know that you are responsible enough to have insurance. That alone will probably make enough difference in the success of your business over the long haul to make the insurance worth the expense.
Matthew Osborn
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Message Date/Time:
Thursday, 18-May-00 12:14:20
New Pooper Scooper Products
My company is working on many new methods and products to help all of us who deal with dog waste. If anybody is interested just email me, eph15@hotmail.com, and i will send you a message with suggestions as to which ways my company would be able to help you. Good luck!
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Message Date/Time:
Thursday, 18-May-00 18:31:12
Arrival at clients home
Hate to be a pest on this board but have gotten so much valuable information from others and the archive board. We have sent for Matthew's book but it has not arrived yet--can't wait to see it and really anxious to get started. Still doing our market research and business plan.
It might sound simplistic, but do any poopers have a specific way they arrive to scoop at the clients home and give the appearance of a professional?? Just getting started (in midwest where it gets quite hot) so (on hot days) plan on tan shorts, green shirt with logo, field type boots and pith helmet as a kind of trade mark and to shield from sun.
I have read most of the messages on the archives board and as I said have not yet read Matthew's book, but what about strange things you come across in the clients yards--such as snakes, dead birds, turtles, frogs, etc.,--do you pick them up, let them go, tell the client, etc.
My thanks again for any info anyone is willing to share with me. I can't believe how simple it sounds to just do it right but do want to get off on right foot and all the info has really "quickened" my education.
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 22-May-00 11:26:27
Re: Arrival at clients home
Your outfit sounds great to me! With the sign on your vehicle parked in front of the house, there should be no mistaking who's there and what your doing -- especially considering you're also carrying your tools. :)
And yes... occasionally you'll probably run across the kinds of things you've mentioned: a snake now and then, maybe a dead bird, things like that. It's a matter of judgement what to do with them. I would scoop up small dead animals like a bird or a mouse. It's probably best to just let snakes go, though if it's a poisonous snake I would think you should at least tell the customer about it.
I seem to recall someone telling me he found a handgun in a yard while scooping once. For that he didn't touch the gun, but told the customer, who called the police.
I also once discovered a customer's dog dead in the yard. I finished cleaning the yard and then had to go to the door to tell the customer -- that was a little uncomfortable. I wasn't sure exactly how to phrase it; something like "Your dog is laying back there, but isn't moving and I think it have died."
I learned that if there is something in the yard that just looks like dog poop, but isn't, to go ahead and scoop it up. The customer doesn't want to get out there and examine everything, she just looks at the yard and sees what looks like poop, and she's on the phone to get a re-clean. I once had to drive 10 miles across town to re-clean a yard when my customer mistook the mushrooms in her yard for dog-waste. After that, anything small and dark and shaped anything like what might come out of a dog got scooped up.
I would also tend to pick up litter, if there wasn't too much of it. Broken glass is something I'd usually try to take away, too.
Matthew
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Message Date/Time:
Thursday, 01-Jun-00 18:48:31
Re: Arrival at clients home
I rarely wear shorts, because I like the protection pants give me from happy, but undisciplined paws, brush, fences, etc. Other than that, sounds great. Got the pith helmet yet? Where? How much?
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Message Date/Time:
Saturday, 20-May-00 14:56:47
Taking a long time
I have been doing this for about a month. I have 4 customers. I have sometimes spent up to two hours cleaning a single yard. These yards are not big, I'd say average size. I don't really mind how long it takes the first couple of times. After all, I'm unfamiliar with the yard and I want to do a good job, but my customers seem to want me to be quicker. They come out and say "Wow are you still here?!" "Boy I didn't think it would take this long." and stuff like that. I say I want to do a good job and get it all.
These folks always say, "Well there isn't that much here." And I don't understand this. I am getting 4 bags of poop out of these yards. If that isn't alot what is? They also say, well most of it is dead right? What does this mean? I know that poop degrades after a while, but if hire someone to clean it up, don't you want it ALL cleaned up? Am I just being a perfectionist, or a slow poke?
Sorry but I need a little moral support.
Thanks,
Kelly
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 22-May-00 11:11:08
Re: Taking a long time
It's really hard to say if you're being a perfectionist or a slow-poke. Of course, you do want to get all of the poop and doing the job right is very important. I'm sure you'll speed up a lot with more experience, too.
Still, that does sound like an awfully long time in an average yard. Maybe a first-time job with several dogs could take an hour or longer, but once the yard is cleaned up and you're just keeping up with one or two dogs in the yard, I would expect an average yard to take ten minutes or less.
I have found that searching the yard with a deliberate search-pattern saves a huge amount of time. Search as you walk in "lanes" covering the whole yard in swaths or belts about 6 feet wide (more or less). Then for thoroughness, when you get to the other corner of the yard after that search, search again, covering the yard in the same way, only in the other direction, on the way out. This way you will be certain of covering the whole yard carefully, and doing it twice, but with no wasted time and effort.
I've seen people who clean yards in a kind of wandering, meandering way. In fact, I videotaped a scooper working that way. I can say for sure that it takes a great deal more time and more work to search that way, and it is far less effective at finding all the dog waste.
I think as you get more comfortable with what you're doing, establish efficient searching and scooping habits, use the kind of search pattern I tried to describe above, and generally get into the groove as your business grows, you will become quicker and more effective with your labor and time.
Matthew
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Message Date/Time:
Tuesday, 06-Jun-00 09:31:31
Re: Taking a long time
I hope you are charging these people excessive waste fee on the first pick up. No , you are not being a slow poke, you are just doing a good job. Explain to these people that next time it won't take so long. If there is more than one bag, charge them, you are worth the time!!
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 22-May-00 03:50:56
HELP! NO CUSTOMERS!
My name is Marlise and I started a pooper-scooper business in Santa Maria,Ca. The name of mine is "doo be gone!".
I have a problem that you could help me with I hope.
I started my business two months ago and I have NO customers. I have signs on my truck,sent out fliers,done business cards,went door to door,put ads in newpapers,and my last was to put ads on the radio(big bucks). I've done dog shows,vets,groomers,and everything I can think of to get my business off the ground.
Like I said HELP! I have NO CUSTOMERS
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Message Date/Time:
Monday, 22-May-00 10:55:37
Re: HELP! NO CUSTOMERS!
I don't know what to say; I would certainly have expected some kind of response to all the marketing efforts you mentioned. Of course there's never a guarantee that any particular business will go over well in a specific time, place and circumstance, but still... I would think that just about anything at all would attract at least some kind of response with newspaper and radio ads, car signs, etc.
Are the signs on your truck large enough to read easily from across the street? Is your phone number featured prominently on them and on all your other materials? When you say you've "done" business cards, how many cards have you distributed to people? Do you include the basic price of your service in your newspaper ads? Do you run your newspaper classified ads every week, or every other week, or some similar regular and consistent schedule?
When you go door-to-door, are you talking about distributing flyers? How many? What kind of neighborhoods?
Are your cards, signs, and other materials in a clear and easy-to-read font?
Do you answer the phone as a business and have an answering machine message that includes the name of your business?
Have you had any response at all? Have people called to ask about prices? Do people understand exactly what you are offering to do for them? Do your cards, newspaper ads, etc. say "dog waste removal service," or "pooper-scooper service" or something that explains what it's about?
These are just a few of the questions that occur to me; without knowing more about the specifics of your marketing I don't know what it could be. It does seem unusual to me that you would have no response at all to all the work you say you've done on it.
Matthew
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Message Date/Time:
Friday, 14-Jul-00 13:26:12
Re: HELP! NO CUSTOMERS!
Hi,
Hang in there, I have not done as much work as you may have,Yet. But I know how you feel, I have one customer.I have put out 200 fliers in one neighborhood and need 600 more to finish.I have no budget for much of anything so this Sat. I am
putting the fliers in any business that will let me. Vets, pet stores ect.