Maine
Business piles up for Maine company that rids yards of dog poop
LEWISTON, Maine — This yr’s spring thaw introduced keen prospects to Carey Zembas’ Scoop 4Paws enterprise when the melting snow uncovered heaps of undesirable canine garden ornaments.
By mid-March, Zembas had a backlog of 150 folks wanting her firm to clear their yard from months of canine poop buildup over the winter. Nearly all are residences the place canine homeowners are too busy or infirm to deal with cleanup. She may also clear barns and different animal messes.
“This isn’t about lazy folks,” stated Zembas, who began the Lewiston-based enterprise three years in the past. “It’s a service of comfort, like a housekeeper.”
Demand for servicing the enterprise finish of canines is mounting. A handful of firms have sprung up all through New England with playful names together with Poopah Scoopah, Turd Herders and Canine-Gone-It.
As phrase obtained out about her enterprise, together with her membership within the native chamber of commerce, Zembas noticed Scoop 4Paws develop rapidly. It had $2,500 in gross sales in its first yr, 2019. That doubled the subsequent yr and quintupled in 2021. She expects gross sales of $40,000 this yr. To this point this spring, she’s been making $1,000 per 30 days greater than final spring.
She attributes a few of the development to the pet adoption growth earlier within the pandemic, when extra folks labored from house and needed a companion animal. She expenses a minimal of $60 for a spring cleanup, which incorporates raking up leaves and different particles, however that might be as much as $250 for a big canine or a house with a number of canine. She sometimes places the refuse in baggage for normal trash pickup, because the canine poop can’t be recycled.
Zembas additionally gives weekly yard cleansing beginning at $20 per go to for smaller yards. She has 40 common prospects who need weekly or biweekly service that she handles herself. The enterprise is seasonal, working from March by November and servicing folks inside a 20-mile radius of Lewiston. She obtained the concept about eight years in the past when she noticed an ad from a person in Florida with a year-round enterprise.
She has six workers, principally relations and mates, who work full-time within the spring and earn $18 to $2o per hour..
“The spring cleanups are onerous,” she stated. “Canine poop is heavy and we will have 10 to twenty baggage of waste and leaves in a yard.”
Canine waste can pile up rapidly. Most canine poop 14 instances per week and so they don’t like going the place there’s lots of poop piled up, Zembas stated. Having a clear yard additionally means they gained’t observe a multitude again into the home. She stated more often than not the poop is dried and doesn’t odor too robust.
“However generally there are some ripe ones and ‘woof,’” she stated.
The crew cleans with buckets and rakes that they disinfect between jobs. They put on booties to maintain their sneakers clear from job to job.
Zembas, who additionally has her personal constructing cleansing firm, hopes to broaden the scooping enterprise by getting municipal purchasers that want areas of town cleaned up.
Top-of-the-line elements of the job is when the canine are within the yard she is cleansing.
“I carry home made canine treats that my mom makes to them,” she stated.