Hello everyone! Very long post (sorry), but hopefully it can give you insight on what happens within a month of starting a local service business.

If you didn’t see my post from last month, I was sharing how I spent $8 on flyers, and that $8 investment scored me a $100/month recurring client with my poop scooping business Scoops. I initially messed up with my phrasing (thank you Reddit users) by offering bi-weekly while meaning twice-weekly. Don’t do that. Even if it technically does mean both things. I was pretty bummed initially but I was still looking forward to crushing my first clients expectations and getting those referrals.

So I’m going to go through what I’ve needed to build, what I’ve needed to buy, how I’ve interacted with customers, and what that interaction has earned me. Hopefully it encourages you with your future simple service business.

What I Built

I built out a premium pet waste removal business in 7 days, while having a full-time job, a fiance, a dog, and a different side project. You can check that side project out here.

I was strapped for time, and time is really the only thing I want. This conundrum had stopped me from acting on something for years. “What if I’m wasting my time building something no one will care about” OR “I’ll just keep scrolling reddit” OR “I’ll just play Animal Crossing”. They never ended. I decided after years of thinking on a service business, that poop scooping was going to be the new thing. Low startup cost, low investment, low ass expenses, low TIME investment. It was just crazy how much sense it made. I made a goal for myself: build this in 7 days at the LOWEST possible cost and then release it into the wild and see what happens. Ended up doing the following:

Developing the logo and business name

Creating the site

Copywriting

Designing, proofing, and printing business cards

Creating flyers

Completing Yelp and Google listings

Downloading Google Voice app as alternative number (this is free and it rules so hard)

Doing market research to find out what competitors were charging (I decided to charge more with less hidden fees)

Contacting local competition and pretending to be a customer to get intel lmao

Creating workflow for each job

It was a long 7 days, but I felt excited every day that I got to get off of work and work on this project. I also had the luxury of waking up with my fiance at 3 AM, because she consistently opens at Starbucks. She is the true MVP.

Startup Fees & Equipment

These are all the purchases I needed to make in order to get the business off the ground. Total below.

Registering LLC with The State Secretary - $80 something dollars

City Business License - $180 (WTF)

Construction Dust Pans (2) - $18 each // $36 total

Kids Rake (2) - $5 each // $10 total

Costco Bulk AF Trash Bags (200) - $15

Industrial Tote - $10

Misc Cleaning Supplies - $30

Flyers - $8

Total : $369 — for me

Keep in mind this is the lowest cost I could manage. But that’s because I did ALL of the work. I didn’t outsource anything. Most people do not believe they can build their own site, even with the amazing templates out there today. Most people aren’t comfortable with designing their own business cards. Most people aren’t willing to design their own flyers, thank you cards, referral cards & programs. Most people don’t try to push the limits of black and white in an attempt to save on DIY printing costs. Those who do it, most of the time don’t do it well. If you want cheap, you need to give up your time to learn the skills you would normally pay for. And that’s OKAY! I’ve learned everything I know over the last 4 years, and I would say those skills came in handy at just the right time.

Clients

After the original post, I realized I had a miscommunication with my first client. After going back and forth about the service, I realized he was looking for bi-weekly service, not twice weekly. Unfortunately, my first client was not as lucrative as I had assumed, BUT we ended up landing a second client very soon after the first who ended up wanting that twice-weekly service (and she reached out to ME for a review). Two clients a month got me hyped.

First client: Male around 30’s from the neighborhood where I dropped flyers. Two big dogs. They keep them locked up when we arrive. Text before we get there. Usually service this yard on Sunday after 6.

FIrst job: Large backyard. Unmaintained. Literally had to search for these piles. Dogs went all over the place. No consistent spots. The job took about 15 bags to complete. A lot of companies would charge by the bag (which I am now doing), after going over a certain amount, but I already had the client pay, and I didn’t mention it to him initially. No surprise fees 2020 YAFEELME? Job took my fiance and I 1 hour to complete because it was an initial clean. I gave my client half off of his initial clean to rope him into our subscription. He was a warm lead that went cold, so I pulled out the power of an irresistible offer and now he’s all in. I can almost guarantee he will convert to weekly.

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to reach out to your leads with a personal offer. It can really pull someone back in.

Second client: Female around 20’s looking for bi-weekly services to keep her yard clean for the homeowner. Found us on Yelp. Two big older boxers. It’s a relatively normal sized yard for my area. Well maintained. Only concrete, dirt and grass. Very easy to take care of. Only takes about 10 minutes by myself (5 minutes with a partner). That time includes me pulling up, taking the equipment out, cleaning up, throwing away, and calling it a day. Second client was acquired through Yelp (because I’m the only scooper in my area, naturally, I will get all the calls if they’re interested in this kind of service).

A quick note on Yelp: someone once described them as extortionists. I have been doing this for only a month and I think I understand why. After my first review, Yelp decided to not recommend it at their discretion. All the while I’m getting bombarded with ads for upgrades and getting emails from their team trying to upsell me. Not interested. Do ya thing Yelp.

I’ve decided to focus my efforts on Google, as that’s where the real searching happens. Because Google boosts their own content, those Google reviews are FAR more important to me.

Second Job: For my first twice-weekly customer, I was going above and beyond to offer them value: offering 5th week free service, free startup fee, lowering visit prices, etc. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS. You should offer them something irresistible, but just one or two things.

I ended up only charging $80/month for bi-weekly services for my second client. It works out to about $10/visit. I normally will charge $12, but second client. Sold myself short. There was real potential to make $170 from that initial sale if I included the startup fee, but the client has cleaned most of the crap herself, so I couldn’t justify the startup fee being an initial clean fee as well. For the future, I think we’ll make that a more general fee related to admin work required to onboard the client.

While I may have been offering a lot of shiny value to my new client, I wasn’t offering value to myself. Clearly if she was willing to invite us over here, she’s willing to pay whatever she needs to get this problem taken care of. She is essentially buying back her time. People are willing to pay high for getting their time back.

I really encourage you to NOT short sell yourself. You are providing a service, and people are willing to pay for it. You’ve put a lot of time building your business. Get compensated properly.

Takeaway: Don’t undervalue yourself. But provide big value to your customers in exchange for big money.

The Totals

So all in all, I’m only looking at $130 of recurring income every month at this point. This is for only about 2.5 hours of physical work throughout the month. That’s pretty close to my $50/h estimation. That works out to $1,320 for the year if I only kept these two clients. That ALSO works out to only 30 hours A YEAR to get that income. That number (while low) shows the income potential when scaled. I only make around $1,200 for 80 HOURS at my full time job. WTF is that ratio. It’s ridiculous. I can save 50 HOURS of my life and make even MORE than I was making? I’m all in. Nothing held back. When converted, those numbers are so stupid encouraging.

I understand the impulse to write this off as chump change, but for anyone who has goals and aspirations of paying down debt, actually building a service business, or working for yourself, that number can be motivating. For us lower level plebs, any amount is something. There is a future for you to make money.

The Conclusion

My first client recently had a newborn baby. He wanted time with his child. He wanted his yard to stay maintained. He didn’t want to be embarrassed by it any longer. He wanted a clean slate to start planning the next phase of his backyard. These are ALL pain points that sell these kinds of clients. So that information alone is going to be helpful going forward with ads and all that junk. Very encouraging.

But the greatest things that happened to me all involve my second client. I got a chance to meet the owner of the house the other day. I noticed that he had a slight limp, so any number of things could make it massively uncomfortable for him to deal with that backyard. I walked up to introduce myself and the company and he just went off on a tangent about how happy he was that our contact found us, and said “I love the service. Please don’t EVER stop” (his emphasis, not mine). It was truly amazing. A lifelong client. The ability to genuinely help people like this is a fantastic feeling.

I consider myself a genuine person and I really try to put personality at the forefront of any business I do. I think I enjoy it most when it comes to service businesses. It’s way easier to be cool in person than over the internet lmao. I think that my attempt at stuffing this business with personality, responsiveness, and doing an awesome job have actually paid off.

I was going to wait to ask my second client for a review, but she ended up sending me a text after our FOURTH job, to ask if she can share our business on Nextdoor. Totally used that opportunity to upsell a service as well. You can see that and my other client exchanges below.

First client

Second Client

I’m going to leave you with this: pursue your dreams of freedom, of getting cash, or of spending time with your family. Be friendly, be over the top, use a lot of exclamation marks, be professional, and you will get posted by your clients as well.

Another couple clients like that and this market is more than mine.

Thanks for the encouraging conversations and questions last time, r/Entrepreneur! You all are the true MVPs. Maybe I’ll update in a year if this virus hasn’t taken me out by then.