April 9, 2025 • 21 mins
What do you get when you combine a smart marketing mind, a super simple service, and a willingness to do what others won’t? A thriving, outside-the-box solopreneur success story.
In this episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, we’re joined by William Milliken, founder of SwoopScoop, who turned a household chore into a scalable subscription business. We dive into how he built a local service empire, the creative marketing tactics that made it take off, and why sometimes the best business ideas are hiding in plain sight.
If you've been stuck thinking you have to do something virtual, this conversation will seriously shift your mindset.
Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, be sure to check out LifeStarr Intro!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carly Ries (00:00):
What do dog poop and million dollar businesses have
(00:02):
in common? Well, a lot more thanyou'd think. This week on The
Aspiring Solopreneur, we'rejoined by William Milliken,
founder of Swoop Scoop, the dogwaste removal business that
started as a joke and explodedinto a wildly successful and
surprisingly inspiring venture.He's proof that you don't need
to invent the next big techthing, you just need to solve a
(00:23):
real problem, show up, and outprofessional the competition. We
talked disruption marketing,scaling a hyper niche biz, peak
poop season, yes, it's a thing,and how William turned a low
search volume into big timebrand recognition.
This one's a masterclass inthinking differently, marketing
smart, and well, scooping upsuccess. You'll never look at
(00:46):
your backyard the same wayagain. You're listening to the
Aspiring Solopreneur, thepodcast for those just taking
the bold step or even justthinking about taking that step
into the world of soloentrepreneurship. My name is
Carly Ries, and my cohost, JoeRando, and I are your guides to
navigating this crazy butawesome journey as a company of
(01:07):
one. We take pride in being partof LifeStarr, a digital hub
dedicated to all aspects of solosolopreneurship that has
empowered and educated countlesssolopreneurs looking to build a
business that resonates withtheir life's ambitions.
We help people work to live, notlive to work. And if you're
looking for a get rich quickscheme, this is not the show for
you. So if you're eager to gainvaluable insights from industry
(01:30):
experts on running a businessthe right way the first time
around or want to learn from themissteps of solopreneurs who
paved the way before you, thenstick around. We've got your
back because flying solo inbusiness doesn't mean you're
alone. Well, William, we are soexcited to have you on the show.
We told you offline. We're dogpeople, so you're kind of a shoo
in from the get go. But what Ireally wanted to focus on today
(01:53):
is so many solopreneurs thinkthey have to do something
virtually. And I know that youhave a a digital marketing
background as well. But I justlove your idea because it's
outside the box.
And just to kick things off, Ijust wanna know, what made you
want to start your business andhow did it all fall into place?
William Milliken (02:14):
Mhmm. Yeah. So as you mentioned, my
background's in digitalmarketing. I own kind of a
portfolio of other home servicecompanies. And while I was
working on growing those, mywife was pregnant at the time
and she ended up hiring a pooperscooper company.
And they were pretty bad atpretty much everything. They
didn't show up on time. Theydidn't have a CRM. They didn't
do their billing. They didn'thave any advertising.
And I thought that there's anopportunity just to do that
(02:36):
better. It wasn't reallysomething I had heard of before.
Honestly, it kind of started offa little bit as a joke, but fast
forward a couple years turnedout to be a pretty pretty good
business for us.
Carly Ries (02:46):
Jokes on everybody else but you.
William Milliken (02:47):
Yeah. Exactly.
Carly Ries (02:50):
Well, I love that. Well, so speaking of the
beginning, can you walk usthrough the early days of Swoop
Scoop, some of your initialchallenges and aside from
battling the giggles that peoplewere having about this idea?
William Milliken (03:03):
Yes. That was definitely something upfront.
I'd say probably the biggestchallenge was that I had no idea
what I was doing in the industryat first. I think we were
practicing. We're throwing,like, rocks in the backyard and
timing ourselves on how long itwould take to scoop them so we
can set our pricing and thingslike that.
And the other big challenge waskind of like myself, most people
haven't heard of the service andeven now a lot of people haven't
(03:24):
heard of the service. So ifwe're looking at like Google
search volumes, there's maybe 10searches a month compared to
like my electrical company thathad over a thousand searches a
month. So we had to find a wayto get in front of our
customers. That wasn't exactlywhat I was used to. So we had to
kinda take a different spin onthe the marketing for local
companies that I've previouslyhad.
Carly Ries (03:43):
Well, now you're gonna have to give us
Joe Rando (03:45):
Exactly.
Carly Ries (03:46):
What that's gonna be. And, also, let's backtrack
really quick because I'm gonnadangle the carrot. I feel like I
spoke about this in the intro,but I don't quite do it justice.
Can you explain, Swoop Scoop,for people who are just like,
what is this thing? And thenwe'll get into that magical
marketing tactic.
William Milliken (04:03):
Yeah. For sure. So it's pretty simple.
We're literally just a, dogwaste removal company. So people
will pay us a subscription. wehave, different subscriptions
based on how many dogs peoplehave, how big their yard is, and
we'll come out either twice aweek, once a week, once every
other week, or once a month.Basically, pick up the dog waste
and leave. And that's really allthere is to it. So it's probably
one of the most simple homeservice businesses that you
(04:24):
could possibly have, and thereare more dog owners than ever.
So a good time to be in theindustry.
Joe Rando (04:29):
Yeah. But it's really hard in the fall when the leaves
fall down. Being a dog owner,that must slow your productivity
way down.
William Milliken (04:37):
Yep. That'll slow you down. And then, right
now, we're in what I like tocall peak poop pain season. So
in our location, all the snowjust melted. So a lot of people
haven't gone outside for three,four, or five months.
That's when we get most of ourclients for the year.
Joe Rando (04:51):
Wow.
Carly Ries (04:52):
I would assume so. Well, the thing I like about
that, you said it was a prettysimple business, though, and I
think that's just the point.Like, people need to get
inspiration from the easiestthing. I mean, it's like picking
up dog poop. Everybody has to dothat if they have a dog.
And if they're not, that'sdisgusting. But it just seems so
simple. But like you just said,you even had a hard time
(05:13):
marketing that even though it'sa need that so many people had.
So let's dive back into thatpart. What did you have to do
differently to get discovered?
William Milliken (05:21):
Yes. We had to find ways to get in front of
people, primarily throughprobably disruption marketing.
So Facebook ads ended up beingour number one channel. That's
where we get the majority of ourcustomers. Over the years, we've
been able to advertise thereheavily enough that we've
actually been able to increasesearch volumes.
Now there's hundreds of searchesfor our branded terms. People
associate us with the servicerather than searching for, like,
(05:41):
dog poop pickup or the searchswoop scoop, which has been
awesome. But the top threechannels are gonna be Facebook
ads, Google ads now, and thentruck wraps. So if we're getting
our vehicles wrapped with thefull branding as you're driving
around, those really stand outto people.
Joe Rando (05:56):
I gotta ask a question because I see these
things, but, you know, you go tothe grocery store and those
shopping carts Yeah. And peopleput ads on them. And you know,
my sister tried that for herphotography business and said it
did nothing. But I waswondering, would that work? Do
you think that would work for acompany like yours where, you
know, people see it and go, oh,yeah.
William Milliken (06:15):
Yeah. it could I think it definitely could
work. I think the issue withthat is that you don't get
enough volume and frequency ifyou're just on, like, the on the
carts. So, if you're runningbillboards or running Facebook
ads or anything, you need tohave enough frequency out in
front of people.
Joe Rando (06:28):
Have you done billboards? Yeah. We've done
billboards.
William Milliken (06:32):
Yeah.
We've done billboards. I ran TVads even. I had a deal with
Pizza Hut. This was probably abad idea. We're able to put,
like, our poop scoop coupons onPizza Hut boxes.
We got, zero customers fromthat. So don't recommend doing
that. But it's definitely been afun business to grow.
Carly Ries (06:50):
though thinking outside the box, so I appreciate
the attempt with that one.
William Milliken (06:55):
Even if We will spend a lot of money on
stuff that doesn't work, but Ithink we got it figured out now.
Joe Rando (07:00):
Long as you know which which money isn't working,
then you're in good shape. It'swhen you you know half is not
working, but you don't knowwhich half that you're in
trouble.
William Milliken (07:08):
Yep. Exactly. Exactly.
Carly Ries (07:09):
You've clearly learned from these mistakes
because in addition to searchvolume, your business has just
skyrocketed in general. So whatwould you contribute this
impressive growth to orattribute it to?
William Milliken (07:23):
Mhmm. I'd really say it comes down to
knowing your main KPIs. And forme, pretty much any business
that I'm involved with, thenumber one thing I look at is
your CAC to LTV ratio. So howmuch it costs to acquire a
customer versus how much moneythat customer's worth over the
lifetime of your business. So myfirst year in this, we can get
customers for 30 to $50, andeach customer's worth about
(07:44):
$2,000 lifetime.
So it was kinda just printingmoney if you were willing to put
in the work
Joe Rando (07:49):
and pick up dog poop. So here's just the we like to
kind of break through the someof the jargon. So you said KPI,
which is key performanceindicator. So something you're
measuring that tells you howyou're doing, and CAC or CAC,
customer acquisition cost, whatit costs you to get a customer.
So your ad spend and anythingelse that goes into getting them
(08:10):
versus how much they're worthover the lifetime of an average
customer.
William Milliken (08:14):
Mhmm.
Joe Rando (08:15):
Yep. Cool. I just like to make sure that people
that are new to this know what'sgoing on.
William Milliken (08:19):
Yep. That's exactly it.
Carly Ries (08:21):
Well, so you you were successful with Facebook,
and you've been successful withother online tactics, and you do
have a digital marketingbackground. So how did that
change your approach to how youmarketed? And for people that
don't have a digital marketingbackground, where should they
start?
Joe Rando (08:37):
Mhmm.
William Milliken (08:40):
Yeah. How did that change my approach? Well,
it definitely gave me a bigadvantage because a lot of
businesses when they're firststarting off, acquisition tends
to be the bottleneck over likecapital or other issues like
that. So thankfully the businesswasn't bottlenecked by customer
acquisition. But if you'relearning to get started, I think
that the most important thing isjust to find somebody that is
(09:03):
reputable in the industry thatyou wanna be in and try to get
advice from somebody that'sactually been there, done that.
I know there's a lot of gurusand people out there that
haven't actually accomplishedanything. So you gotta be
definitely careful about who youlisten to online.
Carly Ries (09:17):
So so true. Well, so I have something that we're big
on is building community. That'skind of what got our business
and and our followers off theground was just having a
community of like ofsolopreneurs. So what made you
wanna start help out the namePoop Scoop Millionaire
Community? And why is it sosuccessful?
(09:37):
And what do you do as part ofthat community?
William Milliken (09:39):
Yeah. So I started that. I had never talked
to another pooper scooper untilabout a year or two ago, and I
just ended up hopping on arandom podcast, and we were able
to grow our company verysignificantly in a short amount
of time. And I probably had, Idon't know, a couple dozen
people reach out to me thatwanted to do one on one coaching
with me, and it wasn't somethingI was really interested in. So I
(10:00):
just threw out a crazy number,failed to talk to you for
whatever, $1,500 for two hours amonth.
And I ended up making, like, 20plus thousand dollars in the
first couple weeks. And I waslike, well, this is cool, but I
don't wanna do one on onecoaching for people. So it kinda
pivoted into this onlinecommunity on school. I'm a big
follower of Alex Ramosy, and itwas something that he recently
(10:20):
invested into. So I figured I'dgive it a shot and see what it
was all about.
Carly Ries (10:26):
Yeah. you are the, what, third person in a month to
talk about Alex. And, like, weourselves also just we have our,
little internal book club. WhenI say that, it's just Joe and I.
But we also just read that book.
And, yeah, this guy knows whathe's talking about. So Yes. If
you haven't checked that bookout, which we'll put in the show
notes, definitely do. It'samazing. But I wanted the thing
(10:49):
I like about the community isthat you have such a niche
service that people might thinkit'd be hard to expand different
offers.
I mean, it's like, well, youscoop poop. So what else can you
do to keep brainstorming ways tomake money and whatnot? But the
community is obviously a way,you're one on one coaching. What
(11:10):
other ways like, how can peoplebrainstorm different income
streams with a very nichedtopic?
William Milliken (11:18):
Honestly, if all you're gonna do is scooping
poop as a solopreneur, Iwouldn't recommend adding any
other income streams to it. Onesingle person can typically
handle a 25 to a 50 customers,and that can generate, I think
for us, our average customerpays us at our first location, a
hundred and $5 a month, ahundred and $20 a month at the
second location. And so thebusiness with really low
(11:38):
expenses. So if you just focusin on that, get really good, get
your routes tight. Mean, youcould be making 6 figures plus
literally picking up dog poop ona part time schedule.
Carly Ries (11:47):
Can I just ask you, what are some of the things you
consult? Like is it efficiencywith picking up the poop? Like,
is it a customer service to keepthe clients happy? What kind of
things separate you from the,not to compare you to the
teenager next door, but ateenager next door could be
like, can I scoop this up? Butobviously, you found something
that's so much better than that.
(12:08):
So, I mean, I know you don'twanna give everything away
because
William Milliken (12:11):
I'll tell you whatever you wanna know.
Carly Ries (12:13):
But yeah. But what kind of things what separate you
from other pooper scoopers?
William Milliken (12:17):
Mhmm. I think number one is gonna be
professionalism. So as Imentioned, we have all our
trucks wrapped. So not only isthat a good place to get
customers from, but it alsoallows you to charge higher
prices because you look like amore legitimate company and
you've invested into yourbusiness. You're not just gonna
not show up one day kind of athing and never be heard from
again.
Response time is probably thesecond thing. I mean, you guys
(12:41):
probably call people on Google.If you don't have somebody pick
up the phone, you just move onto the next listing and continue
on, continue on, continue on.And then even with Facebook ads,
the faster we're able to get theleads, the better off we're
gonna be. And then the thirdthing would probably be
automation.
So on our website, can go to ourwebsite, you can actually sign
up for services, get an instantquote, enter your credit card.
You don't even have to talk toanybody. You can get onboarded
(13:03):
onto our system, which reallyjust streamlines a ton of work,
so you can just focus on growingthe business instead of chasing
people down.
Joe Rando (13:09):
You get pricing on the website. So you got some
kind of pricing system on thewebsite.
William Milliken (13:15):
Yep. So you go on, you just enter your zip
code, make sure you're in ourservice area, and then we
basically just need to know whatservice frequency you want, how
many dogs you have. We'llcollect people's phone number
before they actually get thequote, and then we'll give them
the instant price and they cansign up if they like it. If they
don't like it, we set them up ona text message remarketing
process to try to get them onboarded over the next couple
days.
Joe Rando (13:35):
And the yard size of that, does that matter?
William Milliken (13:38):
Yeah, yard size matters. So for us, average
size yards about eighth of anacre, so we will increase the
price for every quarter acre.But we keep that off the quote
form. We'll measure it inbetween just to get people
signed up because the more stepsyou have on the form fill, the
lower your conversion rate willbe.
Joe Rando (13:53):
Hey. I have a question, and this is in some
levels of probably two in theweeds, but it I'm just really
curious. So you know, you've gotthis business. Now you're not a
solopreneur anymore. You've gotpeople working for you because
you said trucks.
So your biggest expense isprobably payroll followed by
vehicle expenses?
William Milliken (14:11):
Yeah. Probably biggest expense would be, yeah,
labor definitely is number oneexpense. And then second expense
is probably marketing, I wouldsay. Okay. Aggressive growth
mode, and then it'll be trucksafter that.
Joe Rando (14:23):
Yeah. So my question is, do you do anything in terms
of route optimization for the Imean, you think about how kinda
shorten the the route to keepthe expenses down and that kind
of thing. So you're you'rereally thinking this through.
Cool.
William Milliken (14:35):
Yep. Yep. So we I mean, at this this point, I
know solopreneur about, yeah, wegot close to 2,500 people every
week for that. Pick up dog poopfor, so it turned into quite the
business.
Carly Ries (14:46):
Yeah. It's so smart. It's funny when you're talking
about professionalism. Do youguys have college hunks hauling
junk in your areas?
William Milliken (14:54):
Yeah. We do.
Carly Ries (14:55):
Well, we originally went with them just to get some
stuff out of our house. Butagain, it's something that
anybody could do, but theyfollowed up. They were, like,
automatic, they showed up intheir polos. They were and it
was just like, I will use themnow for every moving thing
because of what you just said. Iknow that they're gonna show up
when they say they're going to.
And it just people sometimesoverthink that. And I hate to
(15:16):
say it, but the bar can bepretty low for, competitors. So
if you just show up when you sayyou will and do the job, you're
already one step ahead of thegame.
William Milliken (15:25):
Yeah. I mean, especially in home services. I
mean, there's a lot of servicesthat you can do with low skill,
like picking up dog poop, andyou can make it really good
income without having anyemployees just working by
yourself. So if you just show up
Joe Rando (15:37):
Tricky to get that that right on the shovel the
right way, though. Yeah.
William Milliken (15:43):
That's true. Yeah. I got a training for that
if you need it.
Carly Ries (15:45):
Yeah. I'm sure you do. What haven't you thought of?
Well, speaking of what youhadn't thought of, aside from
partnering with Pizza Hut to putthe coupons on the boxes, what
would you have done differentlywhen you were starting out?
Because you were a solopreneurwhen this first got going.
(16:07):
Correct? Yeah. So what would youhave done differently, if
anything?
William Milliken (16:15):
Probably the biggest surprise to me was the
seasonality of the business. SoI expected summer to be the
busiest time. In kindawintertime, people would drop
off or not even provide service.It is actually the exact
opposite of that. First quarterof the year, we get about 80% of
our clients.
Our cost per acquisition isabout 20% of what it is during
the summer months. So if I wouldhave known that, I could have
(16:35):
planned ahead a little bitbetter and probably grown the
company even faster.
Carly Ries (16:38):
Gotcha. So did you have a kind of a full year to
really put a good grasp on that?
William Milliken (16:43):
Yeah. Well, I mean, first, was like, man, this
thing is just printing money. Ishould go, like, mortgage my
house, put a bunch of money intoads and just keep this thing
going. But then as soon assummer hit, it just, like,
stopped all of a sudden. Andthen it wasn't until fall,
wintertime, things startedpicking back up again, and then
we had that next rush thefollowing spring.
Carly Ries (17:02):
So can I ask you, as a wife that has been pregnant
before, when you ran this ideaby her with your child and her
stomach, what was her response?And at what point was she like,
that's a great idea?
William Milliken (17:16):
It was actually her idea.
Carly Ries (17:17):
Oh, wow. Sweet.
Joe Rando (17:19):
Yeah. Well, I was guessing she was the one that
was scooping the poops.
William Milliken (17:23):
Yeah. Well, I don't think yeah. Neither of us
were really doing that good of ajob, so she was pretty happy to
find the service.
Carly Ries (17:29):
This is the lesson. Got it. Awesome. Well, what
advice would you givesolopreneurs starting out who
are just starting in their oneperson business venture and are
feeling a little overwhelmed andfeel like there's too
Joe Rando (17:43):
much to bite off?
William Milliken (17:44):
Definitely. Well, I would just mainly focus
on the things that actuallymatter. And when you're first
starting off a business, reallythe only thing that matters is
getting money in the door. I seea lot of people, they try to get
their logo perfect and theirwebsite perfect, and they're
have their business cardsformatted exactly the right way.
None of the stuff reallymatters.
All that matters is that you goout and get customer and get
cash flow coming in the businessbecause without that, you don't
(18:04):
have a business. So whatever yougotta do.
Carly Ries (18:07):
Yeah. That is so smart. I am just fascinated by
this. Again, we wanted to haveyou on just because it's hard.
People just get so mainstreamwith their thinking.
And this is just such a goodbusiness by just thinking like,
oh, what do I do every day? Oh,how do I make this profitable?
And I just am fascinated by it.
Joe Rando (18:26):
And, also, you know, I just this idea of looking at
businesses that are out therebut aren't doing really a great
job and making it great, that'sreally powerful, and it's a lot
less risky than inventingsomething new. Right? I mean,
some of the guys I hear onpodcasts and things and, like
(18:46):
Sam Parr and and what's my firstmillion, Sam Parr, and I can't
think of the other guy's namenow. But, they talk about boring
businesses, boring businesses.
And it's like, yeah. It's kindaboring, but, you know, they
really can be very, very, veryprofitable and and not take a
long time to get up and out thegate.
William Milliken (19:07):
Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we started
this with less than a thousandbucks, and it's a multimillion
dollar company picking up dogfood.
Anything is possible.
Joe Rando (19:18):
I'm gonna Google it and see if anybody's good in
this area.
Carly Ries (19:22):
Well, you seem very deserving of this success. And
so I want to end with a questionwe ask all of our guests. And
what is your favorite quoteabout success?
William Milliken (19:33):
It's probably a Hormozi quote, and it's just
when that's it.
Carly Ries (19:38):
I like it. Have you guys seen have you guys seen the
show the shrinking on Apple?
Joe Rando (19:44):
I have. I have.
Carly Ries (19:45):
You know, that best friend, he's like, all I ever do
is win. So that's what we'rereading of.
Joe Rando (19:52):
We can't watch that show because my wife's a health
care mental health professional,and she watches that, and she
just cringes constantly. She'slike, I can't take it.
Carly Ries (20:00):
Yeah. Well, William, this has been fascinating. Where
can people find out more aboutyou, but also more about the
company?
William Milliken (20:09):
Mhmm. Yes. If you wanna learn more about kind
of the poop scoop industry, wehave a bunch of free resources.
We have a YouTube channel atScoop Start. We have
Scoopstart.com the blog.
We also have scoop startInstagram, Facebook. And if you
wanna really dive into it, youcan, join the poop scoop
millionaire community where webasically walk you through a to
z on how to start and, scalethis business.
Carly Ries (20:28):
That's awesome. I think you're so cool. Thank you
so so much for coming on theshow today.
Joe Rando (20:34):
Yeah. Appreciate it. This was great. Yeah. This was I
love it.
Carly Ries (20:37):
Excellent thank you so much for tuning in. As
always, share this episode witha friend, subscribe on your
favorite podcast platform, andleave that five star review. And
we will see you next time on theAspiring Solopreneur. You may be
going solo in business, but thatdoesn't mean you're alone. In
fact, millions of people are inyour shoes, running a one person
business and figuring it out asthey go.
(20:59):
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.Be sure to join in on the
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com.
What do dog poop and million dollar businesses have
(00:02):
in common? Well, a lot more thanyou'd think. This week on The
Aspiring Solopreneur, we'rejoined by William Milliken,
founder of Swoop Scoop, the dogwaste removal business that
started as a joke and explodedinto a wildly successful and
surprisingly inspiring venture.He's proof that you don't need
to invent the next big techthing, you just need to solve a
(00:23):
real problem, show up, and outprofessional the competition. We
talked disruption marketing,scaling a hyper niche biz, peak
poop season, yes, it's a thing,and how William turned a low
search volume into big timebrand recognition.
This one's a masterclass inthinking differently, marketing
smart, and well, scooping upsuccess. You'll never look at
(00:46):
your backyard the same wayagain. You're listening to the
Aspiring Solopreneur, thepodcast for those just taking
the bold step or even justthinking about taking that step
into the world of soloentrepreneurship. My name is
Carly Ries, and my cohost, JoeRando, and I are your guides to
navigating this crazy butawesome journey as a company of
(01:07):
one. We take pride in being partof LifeStarr, a digital hub
dedicated to all aspects of solosolopreneurship that has
empowered and educated countlesssolopreneurs looking to build a
business that resonates withtheir life's ambitions.
We help people work to live, notlive to work. And if you're
looking for a get rich quickscheme, this is not the show for
you. So if you're eager to gainvaluable insights from industry
(01:30):
experts on running a businessthe right way the first time
around or want to learn from themissteps of solopreneurs who
paved the way before you, thenstick around. We've got your
back because flying solo inbusiness doesn't mean you're
alone. Well, William, we are soexcited to have you on the show.
We told you offline. We're dogpeople, so you're kind of a shoo
in from the get go. But what Ireally wanted to focus on today
(01:53):
is so many solopreneurs thinkthey have to do something
virtually. And I know that youhave a a digital marketing
background as well. But I justlove your idea because it's
outside the box.
And just to kick things off, Ijust wanna know, what made you
want to start your business andhow did it all fall into place?
William Milliken (02:14):
Mhmm. Yeah. So as you mentioned, my
background's in digitalmarketing. I own kind of a
portfolio of other home servicecompanies. And while I was
working on growing those, mywife was pregnant at the time
and she ended up hiring a pooperscooper company.
And they were pretty bad atpretty much everything. They
didn't show up on time. Theydidn't have a CRM. They didn't
do their billing. They didn'thave any advertising.
And I thought that there's anopportunity just to do that
(02:36):
better. It wasn't reallysomething I had heard of before.
Honestly, it kind of started offa little bit as a joke, but fast
forward a couple years turnedout to be a pretty pretty good
business for us.
Carly Ries (02:46):
Jokes on everybody else but you.
William Milliken (02:47):
Yeah. Exactly.
Carly Ries (02:50):
Well, I love that. Well, so speaking of the
beginning, can you walk usthrough the early days of Swoop
Scoop, some of your initialchallenges and aside from
battling the giggles that peoplewere having about this idea?
William Milliken (03:03):
Yes. That was definitely something upfront.
I'd say probably the biggestchallenge was that I had no idea
what I was doing in the industryat first. I think we were
practicing. We're throwing,like, rocks in the backyard and
timing ourselves on how long itwould take to scoop them so we
can set our pricing and thingslike that.
And the other big challenge waskind of like myself, most people
haven't heard of the service andeven now a lot of people haven't
(03:24):
heard of the service. So ifwe're looking at like Google
search volumes, there's maybe 10searches a month compared to
like my electrical company thathad over a thousand searches a
month. So we had to find a wayto get in front of our
customers. That wasn't exactlywhat I was used to. So we had to
kinda take a different spin onthe the marketing for local
companies that I've previouslyhad.
Carly Ries (03:43):
Well, now you're gonna have to give us
Joe Rando (03:45):
Exactly.
Carly Ries (03:46):
What that's gonna be. And, also, let's backtrack
really quick because I'm gonnadangle the carrot. I feel like I
spoke about this in the intro,but I don't quite do it justice.
Can you explain, Swoop Scoop,for people who are just like,
what is this thing? And thenwe'll get into that magical
marketing tactic.
William Milliken (04:03):
Yeah. For sure. So it's pretty simple.
We're literally just a, dogwaste removal company. So people
will pay us a subscription. wehave, different subscriptions
based on how many dogs peoplehave, how big their yard is, and
we'll come out either twice aweek, once a week, once every
other week, or once a month.Basically, pick up the dog waste
and leave. And that's really allthere is to it. So it's probably
one of the most simple homeservice businesses that you
(04:24):
could possibly have, and thereare more dog owners than ever.
So a good time to be in theindustry.
Joe Rando (04:29):
Yeah. But it's really hard in the fall when the leaves
fall down. Being a dog owner,that must slow your productivity
way down.
William Milliken (04:37):
Yep. That'll slow you down. And then, right
now, we're in what I like tocall peak poop pain season. So
in our location, all the snowjust melted. So a lot of people
haven't gone outside for three,four, or five months.
That's when we get most of ourclients for the year.
Joe Rando (04:51):
Wow.
Carly Ries (04:52):
I would assume so. Well, the thing I like about
that, you said it was a prettysimple business, though, and I
think that's just the point.Like, people need to get
inspiration from the easiestthing. I mean, it's like picking
up dog poop. Everybody has to dothat if they have a dog.
And if they're not, that'sdisgusting. But it just seems so
simple. But like you just said,you even had a hard time
(05:13):
marketing that even though it'sa need that so many people had.
So let's dive back into thatpart. What did you have to do
differently to get discovered?
William Milliken (05:21):
Yes. We had to find ways to get in front of
people, primarily throughprobably disruption marketing.
So Facebook ads ended up beingour number one channel. That's
where we get the majority of ourcustomers. Over the years, we've
been able to advertise thereheavily enough that we've
actually been able to increasesearch volumes.
Now there's hundreds of searchesfor our branded terms. People
associate us with the servicerather than searching for, like,
(05:41):
dog poop pickup or the searchswoop scoop, which has been
awesome. But the top threechannels are gonna be Facebook
ads, Google ads now, and thentruck wraps. So if we're getting
our vehicles wrapped with thefull branding as you're driving
around, those really stand outto people.
Joe Rando (05:56):
I gotta ask a question because I see these
things, but, you know, you go tothe grocery store and those
shopping carts Yeah. And peopleput ads on them. And you know,
my sister tried that for herphotography business and said it
did nothing. But I waswondering, would that work? Do
you think that would work for acompany like yours where, you
know, people see it and go, oh,yeah.
William Milliken (06:15):
Yeah. it could I think it definitely could
work. I think the issue withthat is that you don't get
enough volume and frequency ifyou're just on, like, the on the
carts. So, if you're runningbillboards or running Facebook
ads or anything, you need tohave enough frequency out in
front of people.
Joe Rando (06:28):
Have you done billboards? Yeah. We've done
billboards.
William Milliken (06:32):
Yeah.
We've done billboards. I ran TVads even. I had a deal with
Pizza Hut. This was probably abad idea. We're able to put,
like, our poop scoop coupons onPizza Hut boxes.
We got, zero customers fromthat. So don't recommend doing
that. But it's definitely been afun business to grow.
Carly Ries (06:50):
though thinking outside the box, so I appreciate
the attempt with that one.
William Milliken (06:55):
Even if We will spend a lot of money on
stuff that doesn't work, but Ithink we got it figured out now.
Joe Rando (07:00):
Long as you know which which money isn't working,
then you're in good shape. It'swhen you you know half is not
working, but you don't knowwhich half that you're in
trouble.
William Milliken (07:08):
Yep. Exactly. Exactly.
Carly Ries (07:09):
You've clearly learned from these mistakes
because in addition to searchvolume, your business has just
skyrocketed in general. So whatwould you contribute this
impressive growth to orattribute it to?
William Milliken (07:23):
Mhmm. I'd really say it comes down to
knowing your main KPIs. And forme, pretty much any business
that I'm involved with, thenumber one thing I look at is
your CAC to LTV ratio. So howmuch it costs to acquire a
customer versus how much moneythat customer's worth over the
lifetime of your business. So myfirst year in this, we can get
customers for 30 to $50, andeach customer's worth about
(07:44):
$2,000 lifetime.
So it was kinda just printingmoney if you were willing to put
in the work
Joe Rando (07:49):
and pick up dog poop. So here's just the we like to
kind of break through the someof the jargon. So you said KPI,
which is key performanceindicator. So something you're
measuring that tells you howyou're doing, and CAC or CAC,
customer acquisition cost, whatit costs you to get a customer.
So your ad spend and anythingelse that goes into getting them
(08:10):
versus how much they're worthover the lifetime of an average
customer.
William Milliken (08:14):
Mhmm.
Joe Rando (08:15):
Yep. Cool. I just like to make sure that people
that are new to this know what'sgoing on.
William Milliken (08:19):
Yep. That's exactly it.
Carly Ries (08:21):
Well, so you you were successful with Facebook,
and you've been successful withother online tactics, and you do
have a digital marketingbackground. So how did that
change your approach to how youmarketed? And for people that
don't have a digital marketingbackground, where should they
start?
Joe Rando (08:37):
Mhmm.
William Milliken (08:40):
Yeah. How did that change my approach? Well,
it definitely gave me a bigadvantage because a lot of
businesses when they're firststarting off, acquisition tends
to be the bottleneck over likecapital or other issues like
that. So thankfully the businesswasn't bottlenecked by customer
acquisition. But if you'relearning to get started, I think
that the most important thing isjust to find somebody that is
(09:03):
reputable in the industry thatyou wanna be in and try to get
advice from somebody that'sactually been there, done that.
I know there's a lot of gurusand people out there that
haven't actually accomplishedanything. So you gotta be
definitely careful about who youlisten to online.
Carly Ries (09:17):
So so true. Well, so I have something that we're big
on is building community. That'skind of what got our business
and and our followers off theground was just having a
community of like ofsolopreneurs. So what made you
wanna start help out the namePoop Scoop Millionaire
Community? And why is it sosuccessful?
(09:37):
And what do you do as part ofthat community?
William Milliken (09:39):
Yeah. So I started that. I had never talked
to another pooper scooper untilabout a year or two ago, and I
just ended up hopping on arandom podcast, and we were able
to grow our company verysignificantly in a short amount
of time. And I probably had, Idon't know, a couple dozen
people reach out to me thatwanted to do one on one coaching
with me, and it wasn't somethingI was really interested in. So I
(10:00):
just threw out a crazy number,failed to talk to you for
whatever, $1,500 for two hours amonth.
And I ended up making, like, 20plus thousand dollars in the
first couple weeks. And I waslike, well, this is cool, but I
don't wanna do one on onecoaching for people. So it kinda
pivoted into this onlinecommunity on school. I'm a big
follower of Alex Ramosy, and itwas something that he recently
(10:20):
invested into. So I figured I'dgive it a shot and see what it
was all about.
Carly Ries (10:26):
Yeah. you are the, what, third person in a month to
talk about Alex. And, like, weourselves also just we have our,
little internal book club. WhenI say that, it's just Joe and I.
But we also just read that book.
And, yeah, this guy knows whathe's talking about. So Yes. If
you haven't checked that bookout, which we'll put in the show
notes, definitely do. It'samazing. But I wanted the thing
(10:49):
I like about the community isthat you have such a niche
service that people might thinkit'd be hard to expand different
offers.
I mean, it's like, well, youscoop poop. So what else can you
do to keep brainstorming ways tomake money and whatnot? But the
community is obviously a way,you're one on one coaching. What
(11:10):
other ways like, how can peoplebrainstorm different income
streams with a very nichedtopic?
William Milliken (11:18):
Honestly, if all you're gonna do is scooping
poop as a solopreneur, Iwouldn't recommend adding any
other income streams to it. Onesingle person can typically
handle a 25 to a 50 customers,and that can generate, I think
for us, our average customerpays us at our first location, a
hundred and $5 a month, ahundred and $20 a month at the
second location. And so thebusiness with really low
(11:38):
expenses. So if you just focusin on that, get really good, get
your routes tight. Mean, youcould be making 6 figures plus
literally picking up dog poop ona part time schedule.
Carly Ries (11:47):
Can I just ask you, what are some of the things you
consult? Like is it efficiencywith picking up the poop? Like,
is it a customer service to keepthe clients happy? What kind of
things separate you from the,not to compare you to the
teenager next door, but ateenager next door could be
like, can I scoop this up? Butobviously, you found something
that's so much better than that.
(12:08):
So, I mean, I know you don'twanna give everything away
because
William Milliken (12:11):
I'll tell you whatever you wanna know.
Carly Ries (12:13):
But yeah. But what kind of things what separate you
from other pooper scoopers?
William Milliken (12:17):
Mhmm. I think number one is gonna be
professionalism. So as Imentioned, we have all our
trucks wrapped. So not only isthat a good place to get
customers from, but it alsoallows you to charge higher
prices because you look like amore legitimate company and
you've invested into yourbusiness. You're not just gonna
not show up one day kind of athing and never be heard from
again.
Response time is probably thesecond thing. I mean, you guys
(12:41):
probably call people on Google.If you don't have somebody pick
up the phone, you just move onto the next listing and continue
on, continue on, continue on.And then even with Facebook ads,
the faster we're able to get theleads, the better off we're
gonna be. And then the thirdthing would probably be
automation.
So on our website, can go to ourwebsite, you can actually sign
up for services, get an instantquote, enter your credit card.
You don't even have to talk toanybody. You can get onboarded
(13:03):
onto our system, which reallyjust streamlines a ton of work,
so you can just focus on growingthe business instead of chasing
people down.
Joe Rando (13:09):
You get pricing on the website. So you got some
kind of pricing system on thewebsite.
William Milliken (13:15):
Yep. So you go on, you just enter your zip
code, make sure you're in ourservice area, and then we
basically just need to know whatservice frequency you want, how
many dogs you have. We'llcollect people's phone number
before they actually get thequote, and then we'll give them
the instant price and they cansign up if they like it. If they
don't like it, we set them up ona text message remarketing
process to try to get them onboarded over the next couple
days.
Joe Rando (13:35):
And the yard size of that, does that matter?
William Milliken (13:38):
Yeah, yard size matters. So for us, average
size yards about eighth of anacre, so we will increase the
price for every quarter acre.But we keep that off the quote
form. We'll measure it inbetween just to get people
signed up because the more stepsyou have on the form fill, the
lower your conversion rate willbe.
Joe Rando (13:53):
Hey. I have a question, and this is in some
levels of probably two in theweeds, but it I'm just really
curious. So you know, you've gotthis business. Now you're not a
solopreneur anymore. You've gotpeople working for you because
you said trucks.
So your biggest expense isprobably payroll followed by
vehicle expenses?
William Milliken (14:11):
Yeah. Probably biggest expense would be, yeah,
labor definitely is number oneexpense. And then second expense
is probably marketing, I wouldsay. Okay. Aggressive growth
mode, and then it'll be trucksafter that.
Joe Rando (14:23):
Yeah. So my question is, do you do anything in terms
of route optimization for the Imean, you think about how kinda
shorten the the route to keepthe expenses down and that kind
of thing. So you're you'rereally thinking this through.
Cool.
William Milliken (14:35):
Yep. Yep. So we I mean, at this this point, I
know solopreneur about, yeah, wegot close to 2,500 people every
week for that. Pick up dog poopfor, so it turned into quite the
business.
Carly Ries (14:46):
Yeah. It's so smart. It's funny when you're talking
about professionalism. Do youguys have college hunks hauling
junk in your areas?
William Milliken (14:54):
Yeah. We do.
Carly Ries (14:55):
Well, we originally went with them just to get some
stuff out of our house. Butagain, it's something that
anybody could do, but theyfollowed up. They were, like,
automatic, they showed up intheir polos. They were and it
was just like, I will use themnow for every moving thing
because of what you just said. Iknow that they're gonna show up
when they say they're going to.
And it just people sometimesoverthink that. And I hate to
(15:16):
say it, but the bar can bepretty low for, competitors. So
if you just show up when you sayyou will and do the job, you're
already one step ahead of thegame.
William Milliken (15:25):
Yeah. I mean, especially in home services. I
mean, there's a lot of servicesthat you can do with low skill,
like picking up dog poop, andyou can make it really good
income without having anyemployees just working by
yourself. So if you just show up
Joe Rando (15:37):
Tricky to get that that right on the shovel the
right way, though. Yeah.
William Milliken (15:43):
That's true. Yeah. I got a training for that
if you need it.
Carly Ries (15:45):
Yeah. I'm sure you do. What haven't you thought of?
Well, speaking of what youhadn't thought of, aside from
partnering with Pizza Hut to putthe coupons on the boxes, what
would you have done differentlywhen you were starting out?
Because you were a solopreneurwhen this first got going.
(16:07):
Correct? Yeah. So what would youhave done differently, if
anything?
William Milliken (16:15):
Probably the biggest surprise to me was the
seasonality of the business. SoI expected summer to be the
busiest time. In kindawintertime, people would drop
off or not even provide service.It is actually the exact
opposite of that. First quarterof the year, we get about 80% of
our clients.
Our cost per acquisition isabout 20% of what it is during
the summer months. So if I wouldhave known that, I could have
(16:35):
planned ahead a little bitbetter and probably grown the
company even faster.
Carly Ries (16:38):
Gotcha. So did you have a kind of a full year to
really put a good grasp on that?
William Milliken (16:43):
Yeah. Well, I mean, first, was like, man, this
thing is just printing money. Ishould go, like, mortgage my
house, put a bunch of money intoads and just keep this thing
going. But then as soon assummer hit, it just, like,
stopped all of a sudden. Andthen it wasn't until fall,
wintertime, things startedpicking back up again, and then
we had that next rush thefollowing spring.
Carly Ries (17:02):
So can I ask you, as a wife that has been pregnant
before, when you ran this ideaby her with your child and her
stomach, what was her response?And at what point was she like,
that's a great idea?
William Milliken (17:16):
It was actually her idea.
Carly Ries (17:17):
Oh, wow. Sweet.
Joe Rando (17:19):
Yeah. Well, I was guessing she was the one that
was scooping the poops.
William Milliken (17:23):
Yeah. Well, I don't think yeah. Neither of us
were really doing that good of ajob, so she was pretty happy to
find the service.
Carly Ries (17:29):
This is the lesson. Got it. Awesome. Well, what
advice would you givesolopreneurs starting out who
are just starting in their oneperson business venture and are
feeling a little overwhelmed andfeel like there's too
Joe Rando (17:43):
much to bite off?
William Milliken (17:44):
Definitely. Well, I would just mainly focus
on the things that actuallymatter. And when you're first
starting off a business, reallythe only thing that matters is
getting money in the door. I seea lot of people, they try to get
their logo perfect and theirwebsite perfect, and they're
have their business cardsformatted exactly the right way.
None of the stuff reallymatters.
All that matters is that you goout and get customer and get
cash flow coming in the businessbecause without that, you don't
(18:04):
have a business. So whatever yougotta do.
Carly Ries (18:07):
Yeah. That is so smart. I am just fascinated by
this. Again, we wanted to haveyou on just because it's hard.
People just get so mainstreamwith their thinking.
And this is just such a goodbusiness by just thinking like,
oh, what do I do every day? Oh,how do I make this profitable?
And I just am fascinated by it.
Joe Rando (18:26):
And, also, you know, I just this idea of looking at
businesses that are out therebut aren't doing really a great
job and making it great, that'sreally powerful, and it's a lot
less risky than inventingsomething new. Right? I mean,
some of the guys I hear onpodcasts and things and, like
(18:46):
Sam Parr and and what's my firstmillion, Sam Parr, and I can't
think of the other guy's namenow. But, they talk about boring
businesses, boring businesses.
And it's like, yeah. It's kindaboring, but, you know, they
really can be very, very, veryprofitable and and not take a
long time to get up and out thegate.
William Milliken (19:07):
Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we started
this with less than a thousandbucks, and it's a multimillion
dollar company picking up dogfood.
Anything is possible.
Joe Rando (19:18):
I'm gonna Google it and see if anybody's good in
this area.
Carly Ries (19:22):
Well, you seem very deserving of this success. And
so I want to end with a questionwe ask all of our guests. And
what is your favorite quoteabout success?
William Milliken (19:33):
It's probably a Hormozi quote, and it's just
when that's it.
Carly Ries (19:38):
I like it. Have you guys seen have you guys seen the
show the shrinking on Apple?
Joe Rando (19:44):
I have. I have.
Carly Ries (19:45):
You know, that best friend, he's like, all I ever do
is win. So that's what we'rereading of.
Joe Rando (19:52):
We can't watch that show because my wife's a health
care mental health professional,and she watches that, and she
just cringes constantly. She'slike, I can't take it.
Carly Ries (20:00):
Yeah. Well, William, this has been fascinating. Where
can people find out more aboutyou, but also more about the
company?
William Milliken (20:09):
Mhmm. Yes. If you wanna learn more about kind
of the poop scoop industry, wehave a bunch of free resources.
We have a YouTube channel atScoop Start. We have
Scoopstart.com the blog.
We also have scoop startInstagram, Facebook. And if you
wanna really dive into it, youcan, join the poop scoop
millionaire community where webasically walk you through a to
z on how to start and, scalethis business.
Carly Ries (20:28):
That's awesome. I think you're so cool. Thank you
so so much for coming on theshow today.
Joe Rando (20:34):
Yeah. Appreciate it. This was great. Yeah. This was I
love it.
Carly Ries (20:37):
Excellent thank you so much for tuning in. As
always, share this episode witha friend, subscribe on your
favorite podcast platform, andleave that five star review. And
we will see you next time on theAspiring Solopreneur. You may be
going solo in business, but thatdoesn't mean you're alone. In
fact, millions of people are inyour shoes, running a one person
business and figuring it out asthey go.
(20:59):
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.Be sure to join in on the
conversations atcommunity.lifestarr.com.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com