Start a Pet Waste Removal Business

Route Day Run Sheet

Companion to "The Rules of the Route."

1. Route-day header

Date / route day		Zone (one contiguous blob)
Stops planned		Stops completed
Start / finish time		Yard + drive hours
Revenue booked today	$	Hourly rate (revenue ÷ hours)	$ /hr

2. Per-stop field template

Arrival text sent	Completion photo	Gate photo closed
☐	☐	☐
☐	☐	☐
☐	☐	☐
☐	☐	☐
☐	☐	☐
☐	☐	☐

A good route day runs 20 to 30 stops; that number is only reachable when the stops are doors apart. All clients in one area get serviced on the same day.

3. Gate protocol checklist (every stop, every time)

Close every gate behind you, immediately, even for thirty seconds
Check the latch twice: once on entering, once on leaving (a dog out through an unlatched gate is the catastrophic scenario, and it is entirely preventable)
Photograph the latched gate as part of completion proof
Do not enter a yard containing an unrestrained dog you have not met; dog escalates mid-yard, you withdraw, gate between you and the dog, always
Loose dog in a yard you expected empty: do not enter, photograph, leave, contact the client to reschedule with the dog inside

4. Locked gate / missed-service documentation block

When you genuinely cannot service a yard (weather, locked gate, blocked access): photograph the reason, notify the client the same day, re-book inside the week. Never silently skip.

Stop / client	Reason (locked gate / weather / access)	Photo taken	Client notified same day (how)	Re-book date (inside the week)
		☐
		☐
		☐

Winter standard: light snow is an advantage (waste sits on top); more than about two inches of fresh snow delays the route a day; clean what is visible, accessible, and safe; document what was skipped; never chip frozen waste out of ice.

5. Route-density map-planning grid

Assign every client a route day by neighborhood (example: Monday the east side, Thursday the lake streets). Take the signup two streets from an existing client before the signup across the county, even if the distant one found you first. Quote out-of-cluster prospects a modest travel premium and let the price sort it.

Route day	Streets / neighborhood	Clients on it	Target: one blob, 15 minutes end to end

Depth beats spread: twenty clients on six streets is a business; twenty clients across a county is a commute. Every minute of driving shaved off a stop is a minute you get back every week, for the life of the client. Under about 30 clients, spreadsheet + calendar + processor recurring billing does everything; the route-CRM trigger is when the spreadsheet costs you more than its monthly fee in your time.