Running Meta ads for a Chattanooga-area marketing agency I built on GHL. The offer: a free "Lead Leak Audit" — we show a home service business owner (pet care, contractors, etc.) how many calls/leads they're losing to missed calls and slow follow-up, then pitch a $297/mo missed-call text-back + AI chatbot + CRM package if they like what they see.

Here's the actual path I'm putting a cold lead through, step by step:

1. Ad copy promises something instant: "we'll show you exactly how many leads you're losing, free."
2. Click sends them to a landing page — stats, the offer explained, no pitch language.
3. The only CTA on that page is a GHL calendar embed: pick a 20-minute slot and hand over your phone number.
4. Once they book, we text them a short VSL — a video meant to prime them for the call so it feels worth their time.
5. On the call itself we show their real numbers live (phone response time, review gap vs. competitors, AI visibility) — no pitch until they've seen it and want more.

Numbers so far: ~450 landing page views, 2.5-3.8% CTR (feels solid), and exactly zero bookings. Pixel/CAPI tracking confirmed working, calendar widget loads fine on desktop. So it's not a tracking or targeting issue as far as I can tell — people just aren't booking once they land.

Laid out like that, step 3 is the part that bugs me: the ad promises something instant, but the very first thing I ask for is a 20-minute calendar commitment and their phone number — before they've gotten anything. The VSL that's supposed to build trust doesn't even show up until after they've already said yes to the call. So the one payoff moment in the whole funnel comes after the highest-commitment ask, not before it.

Thinking about swapping that first CTA for a quick quiz/calculator — a few taps, gives them an instant "you're losing about $X/month" number — and only then asking them to book. Basically moving a version of that payoff earlier, before the big ask.

Anyone run something similar — an audit/diagnostic offer that converts on cold traffic? What actually got people to book, and did a quiz/lower-commitment step before the calendar make a real difference for you? Also open to "your offer just isn't compelling enough" if that's the real answer.

Chattanooga has been pretty damn good to us.

I’ve lived around here long enough that it’s easy to take this place for granted sometimes.

But over the last year or so, I’ve gotten a completely different appreciation for Chattanooga.

My daughter Leighton and I started a little business here called Scoopy Doo, when she was 13. Now she's 14 and loves working on our business!

Yes. We pick up dog poop.

Well…we don’t anymore. 😂 We have techs who handle the dirty work now. Leighton and I have been promoted to worrying about payroll, marketing, customers, trucks, schedules, and the approximately 7,000 other things nobody tells you about when you start a business.

But here’s the part I’m really proud of.

Leighton is a freshman in high school this year and I am sooo proud of her!

And before she’s even old enough to graduate high school, she’s helped build a real Chattanooga company with hundreds of customers.

That’s freakin' cool.

And I don’t say that just because I’m her dad.

Because we didn’t build this thing in some huge market with millions of people. We built it right here.

Chattanooga.

Ooltewah. Hixson. East Brainerd. Red Bank. East Ridge. Signal Mountain. Soddy. Apison. Collegedale. Ringgold and the surrounding communities.

The people here gave a father and his daughter a shot on an idea that, if we’re being fair, sounds pretty ridiculous when you first hear it.

“People are going to pay you to pick up dog shit?”

Apparently, yes. Quite a few of them. 😂

But what has impressed me more than anything is how much people around here genuinely support local businesses.

People recommend us in neighborhood Facebook groups.

They tell their neighbors about us.

They leave drinks outside for our techs when Chattanooga decides it’s going to be 96 degrees with 900% humidity.

They leave reviews.

They stop our guys and tell them they’re doing a good job.

Some of our customers have been with us almost from the beginning.

And those little things add up.

Eventually you look around and realize the stupid little idea you started with your kid isn’t a stupid little idea anymore.

It’s a company.

It employs people.

It has hundreds of customers.

And a 14-year-old freshman gets to go to school knowing she helped build the damn thing.

There are plenty of things we can bitch about in Chattanooga. Traffic on 75. Construction everywhere. Whatever the hell is happening on 24 at any given moment. 😂

But there’s something special about this city.

People here still root for people who are trying to build something.

I’ve experienced that firsthand.

So this isn’t really a Scoopy Doo post.

It’s a thank-you to Chattanooga.

You guys helped my daughter build her first company before she even got to high school.

That’s pretty badass.

Chattanooga (and Cleveland, and surrounding areas) are pretty badass, too.

Edit: added Cleveland too! :)

Chattanooga has been pretty damn good to us.

I’ve lived around here long enough that it’s easy to take this place for granted sometimes.

But over the last year or so, I’ve gotten a completely different appreciation for Chattanooga.

My daughter Leighton and I started a little business here called Scoopy Doo, when she was 13. Now she's 14 and loves working on our business!

Yes. We pick up dog poop.

Well…we don’t anymore. 😂 We have techs who handle the dirty work now. Leighton and I have been promoted to worrying about payroll, marketing, customers, trucks, schedules, and the approximately 7,000 other things nobody tells you about when you start a business.

But here’s the part I’m really proud of.

Leighton is a freshman in high school this year and I am sooo proud of her!

And before she’s even old enough to graduate high school, she’s helped build a real Chattanooga company with hundreds of customers.

That’s freakin' cool.

And I don’t say that just because I’m her dad.

Because we didn’t build this thing in some huge market with millions of people. We built it right here.

Chattanooga.

Ooltewah. Hixson. East Brainerd. Red Bank. East Ridge. Signal Mountain. Soddy. Apison. Collegedale. Ringgold and the surrounding communities.

The people here gave a father and his daughter a shot on an idea that, if we’re being fair, sounds pretty ridiculous when you first hear it.

“People are going to pay you to pick up dog shit?”

Apparently, yes. Quite a few of them. 😂

But what has impressed me more than anything is how much people around here genuinely support local businesses.

People recommend us in neighborhood Facebook groups.

They tell their neighbors about us.

They leave drinks outside for our techs when Chattanooga decides it’s going to be 96 degrees with 900% humidity.

They leave reviews.

They stop our guys and tell them they’re doing a good job.

Some of our customers have been with us almost from the beginning.

And those little things add up.

Eventually you look around and realize the stupid little idea you started with your kid isn’t a stupid little idea anymore.

It’s a company.

It employs people.

It has hundreds of customers.

And a 14-year-old freshman gets to go to school knowing she helped build the damn thing.

There are plenty of things we can bitch about in Chattanooga. Traffic on 75. Construction everywhere. Whatever the hell is happening on 24 at any given moment. 😂

But there’s something special about this city.

People here still root for people who are trying to build something.

I’ve experienced that firsthand.

So this isn’t really a Scoopy Doo post.

It’s a thank-you to Chattanooga.

You guys helped my daughter build her first company before she even got to high school.

That’s pretty badass.

Chattanooga is pretty badass, too.

State: GA (federal employee — USPS — so this is a FECA/OWCP claim, not state workers' comp, but figured this sub still has people with federal experience)

Quick background: hurt my shoulder in a fall at work back in January, that claim was already accepted. Turns out I also hurt my back in the same fall, and that part of the claim hasn't been accepted yet — OWCP scheduled a second opinion orthopedic exam to decide whether to accept it.

MRI shows a small disc protrusion with an annular fissure at one level, plus an older/chronic-looking finding at a different level that's probably unrelated to the fall. I'm bringing the actual films (not just the report) like they required.

For anyone who's been through an OWCP second opinion exam for a back claim:

• Anything you wish you'd known going in?
• How direct should I be about the older/unrelated finding if it comes up, versus just not bringing it up?
• Any common mistakes people make in these exams that end up hurting the claim?
• Roughly how long after the exam does OWCP typically take to make a decision on accepting the condition?

Appreciate any insight — trying to go in prepared.

About a year and a half ago, my daughter and I started a pet waste removal business in Chattanooga called Scoopy Doo.

Yes, we literally pick up dog shit for money, LOTS of money...now.

It doesn’t get much more “sweaty startup” than that.

One of the things that’s surprised me most is that doing the actual work isn’t necessarily the hardest part of building a local service company.

Getting found, responding faster than your competitors, following up, earning trust, and keeping customers is where a lot of the battle is won.

We’ve spent a ton of time figuring that part out, and I thought I’d share what’s been working for us.

1. We target people who are already looking for what we do

I’m much less interested in getting thousands of random website visitors than getting 100 local people who actually need our service.

So we’ve gotten extremely specific about the searches we target.

Instead of broad terms like “pet services,” we focus on things like:

“pooper scooper Chattanooga”

“dog poop removal Chattanooga”

“pet waste removal near me”

“dog poop cleanup Ooltewah”

Then we do the same thing for the individual suburbs and communities we actually service.

Our website answers the questions those customers are asking, explains exactly what we do, clearly defines where we work, and makes it ridiculously easy to contact us.

We’ve taken that same approach to newer AI-based search as well: make the business and its reputation extremely clear across the internet so search engines have good information about who we are, what we do, and where we do it.

But there’s no magic trick involved.

It’s mostly doing the fundamentals of local search really well.

2. Speed-to-lead has been huge

This is something I think a LOT of sweaty businesses underestimate.

Imagine somebody searches for:

“dog poop removal near me”

They call three companies.

Company #1 doesn’t answer.

Company #2 says they’ll call back later.

Company #3 responds almost immediately.

Who has the advantage?

So we obsess over responding quickly.

If we miss a call, that person hears from us almost immediately.

If someone contacts us through the website, they get a quick response.

If someone asks for information but doesn’t sign up, we follow up.

That sounds ridiculously simple.

But go request estimates from five local contractors sometime and see how many actually follow up with you.

3. We don’t consider “didn’t buy today” a dead lead

This was another big lesson.

Someone requesting information and not signing up immediately doesn’t necessarily mean “no.”

Maybe they got busy.

Maybe payday is Friday.

Maybe they wanted to talk to their spouse.

Maybe they just forgot.

So we follow up.

Not forever. Not obnoxiously.

Just enough that someone who genuinely wanted the service doesn’t disappear because both of us got busy.

We’ve gotten customers from leads that would’ve otherwise been completely forgotten.

4. Reviews are part of the operation, not an occasional marketing activity

When someone is clearly happy with us, we ask them for a Google review.

Consistently.

That creates a pretty powerful cycle:

Someone searches for our service.

They find us.

They see other local customers talking about their experiences.

They trust us enough to give us a shot.

We provide a good service.

They become another happy customer.

We ask them to share their experience.

Now the next customer has even more evidence that we’re legitimate.

Repeat.

I think a lot of small businesses underestimate how powerful this becomes once you’ve been doing it consistently for a while.

5. Referrals shouldn’t be left entirely to chance either

Happy customers already know people who look exactly like your ideal customer.

Especially in a route-based business.

If we’re already servicing someone’s house, their neighbors are incredibly valuable potential customers because adding another stop nearby makes the route more profitable.

So we actively encourage referrals instead of simply hoping someone remembers to mention us.

Density matters.

Ten customers scattered across a city are nowhere near as valuable operationally as ten customers concentrated in a few neighborhoods.

6. We stay in touch after the sale

I think this is another area where small service businesses leave a lot of money on the table.

Most businesses communicate heavily while they’re trying to get your money and then practically disappear once you’re a customer.

We try to do the opposite.

Customers get useful service communication.

They know what’s happening.

We occasionally remind them about other things we offer.

We ask for feedback.

We ask for reviews when appropriate.

We ask for referrals when appropriate.

And if someone leaves, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gone forever.

People move, budgets change, dogs change, circumstances change.

There’s value in maintaining that relationship.

The biggest lesson for me

I used to think about marketing as:

Run ad → get customer.

I don’t anymore.

Now I think of it more like:

Get discovered → earn trust → respond quickly → follow up → get customer → deliver great service → retain them → get review → get referral → repeat.

Each step makes the next one easier.

And that’s probably been one of the biggest reasons we’ve been able to grow.

The funny thing is that none of this changes what our actual business does.

At the end of the day, somebody still has to drive to the customer’s house, walk into the backyard, and pick up dog shit.

There’s no shortcut for that.

But I’ve become convinced there’s a huge opportunity in taking ordinary, “boring” service businesses and simply becoming much better than the competition at getting found, answering the phone, following up, communicating with customers, and building a reputation.

You don’t necessarily have to invent something new.

Sometimes you can just execute an old business model considerably better.

For the other sweaty business owners here: what’s one thing you’ve changed in your customer acquisition or follow-up process that produced an actual measurable difference in revenue?

Been experimenting with a setup where instead of manually clicking through Automations to build follow-up sequences, I have an AI assistant write a script that defines the whole workflow (steps, wait times, tags, triggers) and pushes it straight into the sub-account. Saves a ton of time when you're doing this repeatedly across multiple client accounts — describe the sequence in plain English, get a working (draft) workflow a few seconds later instead of 20 minutes of clicking.

The catch is the official API doesn't expose full workflow-building, so this relies on a more "under the hood" way of talking to the platform, which comes with some fragility (auth tokens expiring, etc.).

Curious if anyone else here has wired up AI (Claude, GPT, whatever) to build/manage automations this way instead of the native builder, and if so, what's your setup look like? Any tools/approaches you'd recommend or pitfalls to watch for?

It wasn’t.

Keeping them was.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that people don’t cancel because of price nearly as often as they cancel because they forget you exist.

That’s why almost everything we do now is automated.

* Reminder texts before service
* Thank you messages afterward
* Review requests
* Follow-up emails
* Educational content
* Seasonal reminders
* Referral requests
* Reactivation campaigns for old customers

None of it is complicated by itself, but together it keeps us in front of customers constantly without me lifting a finger.

This month our website traffic is up around 40%, recurring revenue is up about 27%, and I honestly think retention has had just as much to do with that as bringing in new customers.

Getting a new customer is expensive.

Keeping an existing one is where the money is.

Curious what everyone else is doing…

I’m always looking for ideas I haven’t thought of yet.

It wasn’t.

Keeping them was.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that people don’t cancel because of price nearly as often as they cancel because they forget you exist.

That’s why almost everything we do now is automated.

• Reminder texts before service
• Thank you messages afterward
• Review requests
• Follow-up emails
• Educational content
• Seasonal reminders
• Referral requests
• Reactivation campaigns for old customers

None of it is complicated by itself, but together it keeps us in front of customers constantly without me lifting a finger.

This month our website traffic is up around 40%, recurring revenue is up about 27%, and I honestly think retention has had just as much to do with that as bringing in new customers.

Getting a new customer is expensive.

Keeping an existing one is where the money is.

Curious what everyone else is doing…

What’s one automation or process you’ve implemented that has had the biggest impact on customer retention?

I’m always looking for ideas I haven’t thought of yet.

I own a dog poop removal company in Chattanooga, TN. Small, unsexy service business — weekly/bi-weekly cleanups, one-time cleanups, some commercial and HOA contracts. Nothing glamorous, but it's a good example of a business that lives or dies by local search.

For the first little while I was doing what most of us do: relying on word of mouth and Facebook group posts. That's fine, but it caps out fast. So I spent a chunk of time building out a system instead of just posting more:

* Fully optimized my Google Business Profile instead of just setting it up and forgetting it
* Went after actual local SEO on my site, not just a generic "services" page
* Started treating AI visibility as its own channel — making sure when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity for pet waste removal in my area, I actually come up. Most local businesses aren't doing anything for this yet, which makes it a pretty open lane right now.
* Automated my follow-up and review requests through my CRM (Jobber) so happy customers actually leave reviews instead of me having to remember to ask
* Automated a chunk of my social posting instead of doing it manually every week

It made a real difference for lead flow, and didn't take a huge budget — just time spent setting the system up right once.

I own Scoopy Doo, a dog poop removal company in Chattanooga, TN. Small, unsexy service business — weekly/bi-weekly cleanups, one-time cleanups, some commercial and HOA contracts. Nothing glamorous, but it's a good example of a business that lives or dies by local search.

For the first little while I was doing what most of us do: relying on word of mouth and Facebook group posts. That's fine, but it caps out fast. So I spent a chunk of time building out a system instead of just posting more:

• Fully optimized my Google Business Profile instead of just setting it up and forgetting it
• Went after actual local SEO on my site, not just a generic "services" page
• Started treating AI visibility as its own channel — making sure when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity for pet waste removal in my area, I actually come up. Most local businesses aren't doing anything for this yet, which makes it a pretty open lane right now.
• Automated my follow-up and review requests through my CRM (Jobber) so happy customers actually leave reviews instead of me having to remember to ask
• Automated a chunk of my social posting instead of doing it manually every week

It made a real difference for lead flow, and didn't take a huge budget — just time spent setting the system up right once.

I got far enough into building this that I want to test it on a few other home service businesses to see how it performs outside my own niche. So I'm offering to run the whole thing — GBP, SEO, AI visibility, social automation, review automation, plus a free SEO/GEO-optimized website — for 5 businesses, 3 months, completely free. No card, no contract. If it doesn't move the needle, you walk away owing nothing. If it does, you start paying and all I ask for is an honest review.

Only asks: LLC and business bank account already in place (needed to connect Jobber), willing to run Jobber as your CRM, and you cover your own domain/subscriptions going forward. ONLY want people serious about growing, not tire-kickers.

I own Scoopy Doo, a dog poop removal company in Chattanooga, TN. Small, unsexy service business — weekly/bi-weekly cleanups, one-time cleanups, some commercial and HOA contracts. Nothing glamorous, but it's a good example of a business that lives or dies by local search. We made it to a little over $200k ARR in just 11 months.

For the first little while I was doing what most of us do: relying on word of mouth and Facebook group posts. That's fine, but it caps out fast. So I spent a chunk of time and money building out a system instead of just posting more:

• Fully optimized my Google Business Profile instead of just setting it up and forgetting it
• Went after actual local SEO on my site, not just a generic "services" page
• Started treating AI visibility as its own channel — making sure when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity for pet waste removal in my area, I actually come up. Most local businesses aren't doing anything for this yet, which makes it a pretty open lane right now.
• Automated my follow-up and review requests through my CRM (Jobber) so happy customers actually leave reviews instead of me having to remember to ask
• Automated a chunk of my social posting instead of doing it manually every week

It's made a real difference for lead flow, and it didn't take some huge budget — just time spent setting the system up right once.

If you've got questions about what actually moved the needle for me, happy to answer those too — figured this might be useful to those in all stages of their sweaty start up. BTW, it's been very sweaty here in the southeast, hope y'all are all staying sweaty!

I wanted to share something that’s been pretty eye-opening.

This month we’re up about 40% over last month, and I honestly don’t think it’s because I suddenly got better at scooping poop. 😂

The biggest difference has been working on the business instead of just in it.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been completely overhauling our online presence:

• Rebuilding and improving the website.
• Focusing heavily on SEO and GEO instead of just chasing ads.
• Building automations so leads get responses immediately instead of whenever I happen to see them.
• Tightening up our CRM and follow-up so fewer leads fall through the cracks.
• Spending a lot more time making Google happy than Facebook happy.

None of these things individually felt like a magic bullet, but together they’ve made a huge difference. I’m getting more organic leads, more qualified customers, and I’m spending less time manually chasing people.

I know a lot of us default to “I need to buy more ads,” but I’m starting to think the better investment is making sure the business converts every visitor and every lead before throwing more money at advertising.

Still a long way to go, but seeing a ~40% jump in one month has definitely reinforced that building systems is worth the effort.

Curious what everyone else has done that made the biggest difference in growth this year?

If you run your scooping business on Jobber, you already know the gap: Jobber nails scheduling, routing, and invoicing, but it does zero marketing or follow-up. Cancelled customers vanish. Leads go cold. Reviews don't happen unless you beg for them.

I got tired of losing customers to that gap, so I built a full automation system that connects to my Jobber account and runs the whole follow-up side for me. Everything triggers off what already happens in Jobber — a job closes, a new job's created, a visit's completed, a quote goes out — and the right text/email sequence fires automatically.

What it runs, on autopilot:

• Cancelled-customer win-back — close a job in Jobber and that customer drops into a year-long, multi-touch comeback sequence with an offer. Spaced out so it's not spammy.
• Smart reactivation — if they come back, they're automatically removed from the win-back sequence. No "we miss you" texts to active customers.
• Automatic review requests after completed jobs (this is what moves your local ranking).
• Referral asks on autopilot.
• 5-minute lead follow-up for website quote leads.
• Quote follow-up + long-tail abandoned-quote recovery.
• Missed-call text-back.
• Appointment confirmations/reminders + no-show reschedule nudges.
• New-customer welcome + long-term nurture.
• Website quote form that drops leads straight into the pipeline and Jobber, tagged and followed up.

It's Jobber-native, tuned specifically for recurring waste-removal (not generic "home services"), and it runs in the background while you're on route. I run this exact setup in my own business (Scoopy Doo, Chattanooga TN).

I'm offering to build the whole thing, done-for-you, for other scoopers on Jobber. If you want it set up for your business, drop a comment or DM me.

Hoping someone here has cracked this, because I've spent a while testing and keep hitting a wall.

What I'm trying to do: I have an autonomous scheduled task running in Cowork (mine's a trading loop, but this applies to anything that pauses for approval). When it stages an action that needs me to tap "Confirm," I want to get pinged on my phone and approve it from the mobile app — without having to sit at my computer.

My setup:

• Max plan
• Claude Desktop (macOS) + the Claude mobile app
• Phone paired to Dispatch (I can see the desktop Dispatch thread mirrored on my phone)
• Dispatch → Settings → "Mobile notifications" toggled ON

What actually happens: nothing reaches my phone. I tested two ways:

1. A one-time scheduled task that just completes → no notification on mobile.
2. Staging an actual confirmation widget in my working session → the card never shows up on the phone and no push fires.

What I think is going on: the scheduled-task / working-session thread is completely separate from the Dispatch thread my phone mirrors. Dispatch only seems to show tasks I start from the phone. So an autonomous run happening on my desktop has no way to push into Dispatch or notify my phone. If I manually dispatch the run from my phone, the confirmation card shows up fine and I can tap it — but that defeats the whole point of it being autonomous.

The Anthropic help docs say scheduled tasks are supposed to push a "needs your go-ahead" notification to mobile, which is why I'm not sure if this is a bug on my end or just how it works right now. I've got a support ticket in.

My questions for the group:

• Is this expected behavior, or am I missing a setting?
• Has anyone gotten a scheduled task's approval prompt to actually notify their phone?
• Anyone using an external workaround (Pushover, Twilio, a webhook, etc.) to get pinged when a task needs input?
• Is there a way to route a scheduled task's thread into the mobile/Dispatch view?

Any input appreciated — feels like I'm one setting or one clever workaround away from this being really useful.

I run Scoopy Doo, a dog poop removal service here in Chattanooga. Not exactly the kind of business you'd expect to be "leveraging AI," but here's what it's actually doing for me day to day. No buzzwords, just the real stuff.

Running my website without being a developer. My site is a React app I could not build or maintain on my own. Instead of paying a web guy every time I want to change pricing or add a page, I just tell an AI assistant what I want in plain English — "add a Ringgold service page," "fix the heading on the commercial page" — and it edits the code and pushes it live. Changes that used to cost me money and a week of waiting now take a few minutes.

Showing up when people ask ChatGPT for a scooper. This is the one I'm most excited about. People don't just Google anymore — they ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity "who's the best pet waste removal in Chattanooga?" I've been using AI to restructure my site so those tools actually recommend my business by name. Schema markup, city pages, clear service info — all the stuff that makes an AI confident enough to name you. It's SEO for the AI era and honestly most local businesses aren't touching it yet.

Marketing that doesn't eat my whole morning. I post weekly promos in local Facebook groups, and AI helps me draft them so they sound like a real person and not a spam bot. Same with blog posts, service descriptions, and answering the "how much does this cost" questions that come in.

The stuff I still do myself: scooping the poop. AI hasn't figured that part out yet, and honestly I hope it never does — that's the actual business.

The point I'd make to any other small local business owner: you don't need to be technical to use this. I'm a guy with a truck and a rake. If I can get an AI to run my website and get me recommended by ChatGPT, you can use it for whatever your version of that is.

Happy to answer questions if anyone's curious how I set any of this up.

I run Scoopy Doo, a dog poop removal service here in Chattanooga. Not exactly the kind of business you'd expect to be "leveraging AI," but here's what it's actually doing for me day to day. No buzzwords, just the real stuff.

Running my website without being a developer. My site is a React app I could not build or maintain on my own. Instead of paying a web guy every time I want to change pricing or add a page, I just tell an AI assistant what I want in plain English — "add a Ringgold service page," "fix the heading on the commercial page" — and it edits the code and pushes it live. Changes that used to cost me money and a week of waiting now take a few minutes.

Showing up when people ask ChatGPT for a scooper. This is the one I'm most excited about. People don't just Google anymore — they ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity "who's the best pet waste removal in Chattanooga?" I've been using AI to restructure my site so those tools actually recommend my business by name. Schema markup, city pages, clear service info — all the stuff that makes an AI confident enough to name you. It's SEO for the AI era and honestly most local businesses aren't touching it yet.

Marketing that doesn't eat my whole morning. I post weekly promos in local Facebook groups, and AI helps me draft them so they sound like a real person and not a spam bot. Same with blog posts, service descriptions, and answering the "how much does this cost" questions that come in.

The stuff I still do myself: scooping the poop. AI hasn't figured that part out yet, and honestly I hope it never does — that's the actual business.

The point I'd make to any other small local business owner: you don't need to be technical to use this. I'm a guy with a truck and a rake. If I can get an AI to run my website and get me recommended by ChatGPT, you can use it for whatever your version of that is.

Happy to answer questions if anyone's curious how I set any of this up.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a quick update from the Scoopy Doo side of things.

When we started this business, it was just me and my daughter trying to build something real from the ground up. We knew there was a need for reliable pet waste removal in our area, but we didn’t fully realize how much opportunity there was if we treated it like a serious service business instead of just a side hustle.

Over the last year, we’ve been focused on building systems more than anything else. Routes, customer communication, recurring billing, reviews, local SEO, commercial accounts, Google Business Profile work, follow-up automation, and trying to make the customer experience feel professional from the first contact all the way through regular service.

That has made a huge difference.

We’re now at the point where Scoopy Doo has grown into a real local brand, and we are in the end stages of opening two new locations. That still feels a little crazy to say, because not long ago we were just figuring out pricing, route density, equipment, how to handle spring rushes, and how to make the numbers work.

The biggest lesson so far has been this:

Pet waste removal is simple work, but it is not an easy business if you want to scale it.

The actual scooping is only one piece. The real business is consistency, routing, communication, local trust, reviews, retention, and making sure people feel like they are dealing with a dependable company, not someone who may or may not show up.

A few things that have mattered most for us:

• Treating recurring customers as the foundation of the business
• Getting serious about Google reviews early
• Building local SEO instead of relying only on paid ads
• Responding to leads fast
• Keeping the offer simple
• Making commercial and HOA services part of the growth plan
• Tracking numbers instead of guessing
• Building systems before we desperately needed them

We’re still learning every week, but it’s exciting to see this business model become something that can expand beyond one service area.

For anyone else building a pet waste removal business, I’d say don’t underestimate the opportunity. It may look small from the outside, but if you build it right, there is a lot more potential here than most people think.

I’ll keep sharing what we learn as we move into these new locations. Hopefully it helps others who are building in this space too.

I get asked sometimes what tools we use for scooping yards, so I figured I’d put together a quick list for anyone starting out or trying to upgrade their setup.

You don’t need anything crazy to get started, but having the right equipment makes a big difference. It keeps the job cleaner, faster, and more professional.

Here’s the basic gear we use:

1. Pooper scooper / rake and pan setup
This is the main tool. I prefer a rake-and-bin style setup over the little one-handed backyard scoopers. It works better for larger yards, taller grass, and commercial properties.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFJBP4PL?ref=fed_asin_title&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/Corona-3050-Extendable-Handle-Rake/dp/B00004TKJO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27NYOKROATP0A&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._SQ1klhH2OGIQH7En5GW1Q.0nBarlT6mS2T0PxuEU5hc1lsaCzN0sbdNDoFbSNHUNM&dib_tag=se&keywords=corona%2Bgt%2B3050&qid=1781729434&sprefix=corona%2Bgt%2B%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-1&th=1

2. Heavy-duty trash bags
Cheap bags will ruin your day fast. We use strong bags that don’t rip easily, especially when doing bigger cleanups or multiple yards in a row.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CD6QTPH?ref=fed_asin_title&th=1

3. Disposable gloves
Even if you’re using tools, gloves are a must. It’s just cleaner and more professional.

4. Hand sanitizer / disinfectant wipes
You’ll want these in the truck every day. No explanation needed.

5. Yard deodorizer / sanitizing spray
We offer sanitizing as an add-on, so we keep kennel-safe disinfectant or deodorizer available when needed.

6. Boots or waterproof shoes
Don’t wear your nice shoes. A good pair of work boots or waterproof shoes makes life a lot easier, especially in wet grass.

For anyone getting started, don’t overthink it. Start with a solid rake/pan, good bags, gloves, sanitizer, boots, and something sealed to carry waste. Upgrade as you go.

Are you putting out yard signs, posting in local Facebook groups, running ads, knocking doors, asking for referrals, working on Google reviews, or trying something totally different?

For us, the goal this week is to tighten up our local visibility and keep showing up consistently where homeowners already are. Nothing fancy, just repeated touches and making it easy for people to remember us when their yard gets out of hand.

What’s working for you right now?

For anyone running a pet waste removal business in Tennessee or similar Southern markets, what months have worked best for marketing?

A lot of industry advice focuses on the big “spring rush,” but Tennessee feels a little different. We get some spring momentum, but dogs are using yards year-round, winters are mild enough that waste still builds up, and summer heat can make people really not want to deal with the yard.

Have you had better luck pushing ads, door hangers, signs, or local posts in:

January/February when people are resetting for the year?
March/April when yards start getting used more?
May/June before the heat gets miserable?
Late summer when people are tired of dealing with it?
Fall when families are outside more again?
Around holidays or travel seasons?

Curious what has actually worked for other Tennessee operators. What months have brought you the best leads, lowest cost per customer, or strongest recurring signups?