Recently I had a conversation with my ex-copywriting apprentice about the perfect kind of business to create if you suddenly find yourself without any income.
(Or are stuck in a job and want OUT, fast.)
A business that:
1. Has little (maybe none) competition
2. Has plenty of potential customers HAPPY to be pitched
3. Is an easily-reached market
4. Can be started for less than $30
5. Can pay you $100+ per day (easy)
6. Is scalable (meaning, once you get it going, you can start farming out the work to other people who need zero skills to do the work)
True story:
When I first moved to the Burgle last year, for the first time in years I found myself with having to clean up my dog’s poop. It used to be I would walk her to the beach or a nearby empty lot where she would let the hounds out (so to speak) all over the place and I’d never had to clean it up.
Now?
The poop piles up like lies in Washington DC.
I almost need *wings* to stay above it.
Thus, when my ex-copywriting apprentice told me her dad started a poop-cleaning business, I signed on without knowing (or even caring) the cost.
And you know what?
There are plenty of lazy dog owners like me.
(When I used to do office cleaning, it was the same, nobody wanted to clean their own offices, a lot of people have an even bigger hatred when it comes to cleaning dog poop.)
Okay, so how do you get started?
Very simple:
1. Go to the store and buy a pooper scooper and some doo-bags (bags you put dog poop in). That is your entire “investment” — less than $30.
2. Get a list of all the dog owners in your county.
3. Send them a post card offering to clean their dog poop — make sure you include a bold guarantee (“if you see even one smidgen of dog poop in your yard when I’m done I’ll double your money back”). If you are tight on cash, you can also post fliers on boards in churches, post office, go door-to-door, tell your friends, family, co-workers, etc what you’re up to, you can get business that way without spending a penny.
4. Start doing the jobs, get as many as you can on retainer.
Obviously, don’t quit your job until it makes sense.
But, it shouldn’t take long.
Frankly, even in a small town you can make out like gangbusters. If you charge, say, $20 per session (that’s what I pay, it’s worth every penny), and do *only* 5 jobs per day, that’s $100 per day.
But, that ain’t all.
After that, you can kick it up a notch:
5. When you got it down, farm out to local high school kids.
6. Scale at will to the entire county.
7. Put a site up and drive local traffic to it via AdWords, Facebook, direct mail, whatever method works best for you.
8. Collect emails from your customers and local dog owner traffic — start emailing that list dog-related information, affiliate offers, etc along with a pitch for your dog poop cleaning service, and any JV’s you do with dog-related local services (dog walkers, vets, trainers, etc).
9. Enjoy life profiting from doo-bags.
Yes its crap work at first.
(Literally.)
But most people are “above” doing it.
And because of that, your competition will be almost non-existent (assuming there aren’t already others doing it), and a ballsy guarantee (like the one above) will eliminate them, anyway. Plus, just by using a little bit of direct mail via post cards (dirt cheap) or knocking on doors and utilizing your network of local friends, and any organizations (church, etc) that allow you to post on their bulletin boards, you will clean up.
(No pun.)
Hey, nobody likes picking up dog poop.
It’s often worth paying someone else to do it.
And, it’s the kind of work where you can go in, do your thing, and nobody bothers you. You’re in and out, and can farm the work out to scale it.
And that’s it.
Want to make a full time income in just a few hours per week?
Then go ye down to ye olde pet store.
Get some doo-bags and a scooper.
And, follow the steps above.
Oh, and one more thing:
When you get to the email part, make sure you take a portion of all that green stuff you’re raking in and subscribe to “Email Players”:
You’re welcome.
Ben Settle
