One easy service business that's becoming popular is the cleaning up of dog pooh in people's yards. That's right, a Dog Pooh Cleaning Service! Yes, it might at first bring a smile to your face but some people are finding it's a profitable service that many pet owners are willing, even eager, to pay for.

It's an easy, low-cost business for teenagers and adults alike, and what's also nice about it is that you'll have steady customers that bring in regular weekly income. In fact, you'll find that you only need a few customers to build up a nice extra income in your spare time and a few more to have a tidy fulltime business.

Tools You Need To Start;

The tools required to start this business are inexpensive and you probably already have most of them. Here's what you'll need:

1) A small rake

2) A small shovel

3) A dust pan, one of those large ones with a long handle so you don't have to stoop over so much.

4) A large plastic garbage can and some can liners.

5) Rubber gloves

6) And a 2-gallon sprayer for spraying water and disinfectant

Once you do get started, you may find you need some other things, but no need to get fancy. Just keep it simple.

How To Do It:

When you arrive at a customer's home, you'll just walk over and clean the area of the yard in an orderly fashion. You can start at one end and walk all the way across to the other, picking up dog pooh along the way over about a 6-foot area around you. Then, when you get to the other side of the yard, move over 6 feet and walk back across. Just do that until you cover the whole yard. Really Easy!

The first time you service a customer's yard you'll probably pick up more dog pooh than you will when you come back the next time. In other words, after you get the "pooh situation" under control it'll be quicker and easier to maintain the situation and you can move "on and off" a location more quickly. That's important because you'll want to build up your customer base until you're doing say 12 to 15 a day.

What To Charge And How Often To Service A Customer:

Other people doing this are charging $10 to $20 dollars or more per visit and going by a customer's location once or twice a week, some maybe even every day. Just work it out with the customer.

You'll base your fee on the size and number of pets your customer has, the size of the area you'll be cleaning, the time it takes you to do it, and your traveling expenses. Once you start, you'll quickly learn how to "size up" a potential job so the "price to cost" ratio is just right for you to make it a profitable account.

Imagine if you had 30 customers paying you $10 to $40 dollars a week and it only takes you 3 days a week to provide the service!

How To Market Your New Business:

To market your new business you could simply put an ad in your local newspaper. You could also make up some flyers and put them up on bulletin boards at the various businesses in your area that have one. Don't forget to go by the local veterinarians and kennels too, lots of them have bulletin boards people use when wanting to buy and sell pets. Just ask them to let you put your flyer there as well. You could even have some inexpensive signs made and place them around your area on telephone poles, street corners, etc. and don't forget to make up some business cards and pass them out to everyone you know and meet who has a pet.

In addition, one more thing that's very important, you should always be friendly, respectable, respectful, and never fail to do a good job for your customers. When you conduct yourself that way people will like you and tell their friends and "word of mouth" advertising is by far the most effective.

More Possibilities:

Remember, always do a good job for your customer's and then you'll have opportunities to offer them ADDITIONAL services. They may hire you to mow and maintain their yard, do a landscaping job, or clean out and haul off the stuff in their garage. In the latter case, you might get many items you can sell to resale shops, sell at a garage sale, or even get some things you can sell on EBay.

Ok, there's an easy business you can start quickly, even today, and begin making some extra money or even build into a fulltime business. So what are you waiting for? Get out on "Pooh Patrol"!

Copyright 2007 by Stephen D. Bush