Start a Pet Waste Removal Business
Companion to "First Customers: Doors, Fences, and Google" and "Keeping Customers Longer Than the Dog."
The quote call: answer the phone, get the address, ask three questions (how many dogs, yard roughly what size, gated?), and quote the range from your price sheet in the same call. Do not drive out for residential estimates. Book the first cleanup on the spot with a card on file.
"Hi, this is Dana from CleanYard. You called about weekly scooping? Great. How many dogs, and is the yard fenced? Okay, for one dog on a standard lot we're twenty a week, billed monthly, and your first cleanup runs sixty because of the backlog. I'm on your street Thursdays already. I can start this week. Do you want the card on file now or a payment link by text?"
That call takes ninety seconds and it is the entire sales process for residential. A card on file, a Thursday, a closed gate.
Works in text or on the phone. Never argue scope creep for free: "while you're here, could you just grab the side yard" is a rate change, not a favor.
Acknowledge without groveling: "You're right, I missed the back corner by the shed." Fix it fast: "I'm two streets away, I'll be there in twenty minutes." Confirm: send the completion photo. Move on: do not over-apologize for a week.
The guarantee behind it (the "re-doo"): if a client is ever unhappy with a visit, re-clean it free within a day; refund only if the re-clean fails. A missed spot costs you ten minutes on a route you already drive. A gate complaint gets the photo you already took, sent kindly, not triumphantly.
Frame: clients who pause for winter get told, before they cancel, that spring restarts with a cleanup fee and possibly a wait. A yard untouched from December to March is a restoration job, not a weekly visit, and spring cleanup after a snowy winter runs $60 to $100. One national operator reports spring waiting lists of six weeks; you only hold that card if the expectation was set in November.
No problem to pause for winter, and your spot on the route is yours. Two things for spring: the yard will need a one-time cleanup before weekly service restarts ($60 to $100 by condition), and restarting clients get first dates in March, ahead of new sign-ups. Message me in February and I'll pre-book your first cleanup.
Standard annual increase of five to eight percent, announced by text or email two weeks before it hits the invoice, framed on the service rather than your costs. Grandfather your first ten clients for an extra few months if you want the goodwill.
Quick note: starting the 1st, your weekly rate goes from [old] to [new]. Same yard, same day, same crew. Thanks for another year with [business name]!
| Billing: card on file, invoiced on the 1st or the 15th, every month | ☐ set |
| Cancellation: any time, effective at the end of the billing month; no contracts, no cancellation fees for normal exits | ☐ set |
| Missed-visit standard: photograph the reason, notify same day, re-book inside the week; never silently skip (no-shows are the number-one reason clients switch) | ☐ set |
| Review ask: after week three, by text, with the direct link | ☐ set |
| Referral offer: referring client gets a credit, arriving client a first-month discount ($20 and $20 archetype) | ☐ set |