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Welcome to "The Sh*t Show with Joe Bosco," a podcast about pet waste removal franchises served with a side of humor. Hosted by Joe Bosco, the passionate owner of Yardsweepers, this series delves deep into the nitty-gritty of the pet waste removal industry and beyond. Whether you're knee-deep in the business or eyeing a franchise opportunity, we've got it in the little black bag.
Embark on this journey with us as we dissect the commercial challenges and victories inherent to the pet waste removal business, presenting enriching dialogues with industry leaders, various franchise owners, and seasoned experts who've extensively navigated this terrain. From uncovering emerging trends in pet waste management to broadcasting motivational success narratives, "The Sh*t Show" equips you with the essential knowledge to dominate the pet waste sector.
Leveraging his profound experience in managing a successful family-run enterprise, Joe Bosco offers not only strategies for prosperity but also a forward-thinking perspective aimed at empowering aspiring entrepreneurs to flourish in their franchising endeavors. Whether you're a seasoned professional in pet waste services or intrigued by the franchising model's potential, this podcast is a treasure trove of practical advice, engaging stories, and actionable insights.
If your interest lies in uncovering the business-savvy side of pet waste services, infused with expert insights and a touch of humor, "The Sh*t Show with Joe Bosco" is your perfect companion. Tune in to join a community that not only acknowledges but also celebrates the behind-the-scenes champions of our outdoor spaces.
[00:00:00]
Joe Bosco: Welcome to The Shit Show with Joe. I'm your host, Joe Bosco. On today's show, we're gonna talk about who should or who has the right personality to own a pet waste removal company. We'll also speak about, maybe this is the escape from the nine to five prison that you're in every day and for a very low amount of money you could start your own business.
And I think we'll talk about why you shouldn't open your mouth when you're changing a pet station bag. Because it's gross. All right guys, here we are. This is the first [00:01:00] one. My buddy. Brian's here. Joe's here. My son, Doug. Hello everybody. And we're gonna, we're gonna shoot the shit. So welcome to the shit show. Yes sir. So little nervous I've watched a young lady do a podcast and I just got the idea saying a lot of people.
You know, thinking about owning the business and I think for a very low cost, you could own your own business. And I've, I've, I've done it. I've seen people do it, so it's doable. Just if you follow a short couple of short things you could be successful. Well,
Brian Stafford: Joe, I think that for the launch of your brand new podcast, we should probably start in the most appropriate spot, which is the very beginning.
So Mm-hmm. I guess my first question for you is, as the owner and founder of Yard Sweepers, which has been in business for how long?
Joe Bosco: About 18 years. Years.
Brian Stafford: 18 years. Yeah. What in the world [00:02:00] got you interested in the poop business? AKA, the feces field, AKA, the manure market. I got more landmines.
Joe Bosco: The do-do department.
Mm. There were many departments.
Brian Stafford: Seriously though, what, what gave you this idea to start yard sweepers?
Joe Bosco: Well, I've always, since I was a kid, since I could drive, I always said I wanna make my own money. And I always did. You know, my parents were very, you know, if you want it, you got earned. Which I did at a young age.
And then you know, working, doing what we do. I worked on Wall Street for seven years and nine 11 happened literally around the block from us, so, mm, it was, yeah, it was crazy. And my brother had moved down to North Carolina, in 98, no, in 2000. And then he said he loved it and we were like, you know, couldn't take the babies away from my parents or [00:03:00] from my wife's parents.
You know, they would be very upset to move 600 miles away. But after nine 11, we started questioning everything about being up north. And I said to my wife, I said, what do you think? You know, I talked to my brother and. Funny story is my brother had a house on the market for a year and nine months.
Could not sell it. We came down, we looked at the house, we sat in the living room, an empty house, and I said, look at this place. What do you think? And she finally, she said, yes. And we flew home and, you know, told the parents and went on a road trip. And we got down here in oh three. I worked as an engineer for two years.
I, my brother saw a saw, saw. It's saw, he's saw. It's, it's saw. He's, he's saw. Yeah. It ends with a W nine R. Well, I feel Irish though. Yeah,
Brian Stafford: I understand. Because you are from New York,
Joe Bosco: right? Ooh, coffee talk. From
Brian Stafford: long guyland. Long
Joe Bosco: as you like to say.
[00:04:00] My brother saw this thing in a paper from some guy from. Minnesota. He had seven trucks and was making seven figures and I'm, he's like picking up
Brian Stafford: shit. He made a figure, a truck, a figure.
Joe Bosco: Seven trucks, seven figures and seven. Seven figures. Yes. I don't know if that's each truck. For each truck, right? How much?
Seven figures. How much is a figure? Well, I think when you, if you're six figures, you are in the a hundred thousands uhhuh, but if you're seven figures, you are in the million. Stay with me, Ryan. I. Did you just call me Brian? Brian, did you hear Ryan? No, it was a Brian. It was a Brian. Anyway, all right. Back to the seven.
Are you gonna let me finish this? Yes. You're just gonna keep derailing the whole conversation. I apologize. I see how this is gonna go. I apologize, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. Okay. So he sees this guy in the paper, seven trucks making $7 million a year on the whole thing. All the trucks together. Her makes a million, at least a million dollars.
[00:05:00] That's seven figures. So I said, there's no way. And I said, I'm not picking up crap. Are you crazy? And six months later, here I am picking up crap. So I started it with my, my wife helping me. And we thought it was all residential. We really did. We thought that was where the money was. 'cause that's what this guy was doing.
Quickly. I, I, I had to go use the restroom and I went into an apartment community, had my shirt and my hat on, and the lady said, where have you been? We, we had a guy doing it about six months ago and he, he, he fell off the face of the earth. We haven't seen him. I'm like, oh, here, here's my car. And she says, Hey, by the way, there's a trade show in a week.
If you can get a booth, you should really go. It's all these apartment communities. I'm like, what do I do? How do I pick up poop at an apartment community? No idea. Anyway, two weeks later, me and my brother were in a booth and there's, you know, 500 people and we had to line out the door and, and we started the business.
That was really when we started the business. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And so that was oh six, yeah. Oh six. [00:06:00] So we had, and it's been great, you know, and, and, and I had part-time it, 'cause I started working for my church and I was there for 15 years. Mm-Hmm. And when I left the church, I did it full-time. And in that three years I grew the business, well we grew the business over 35% in three years.
And, you know, that's pretty good. You know, like I said, you know, it's, it's amazing. Like I never thought I could put my kids through college. But picking up dog shit, here we go. And, and it's real. And it's, and it's a surprise that more people aren't being, aren't seeing what I saw a long time ago. Saw, saw, saw.
Mm-Hmm. So we decided to franchise last year we're ready to sell a franchise. We'd love to sell a franchise. And the beauty of selling a, if, if you buy a franchise from me. You get me, you get my son. You get we, all of us, because we're a team and what I've learned in the past three years, it's a game changer.
Brian Stafford: Hmm. What I [00:07:00] find interesting about that story is all it took was one woman at an apartment complex. Mm-Hmm. With you going to the bathroom, which is ironic. Mm. Right? Yeah. You had to use the restroom and then she, it was a number two, opened your eyes.
Joe Bosco: It was, was it? Yes. That's now that's ironic. I mean, it was meant
Brian Stafford: to be.
Yeah. Yeah. Now did you clean it
Joe Bosco: up afterwards? I did. Okay. I saw it. Yeah, and it's, it's been a great run and, and that's why I saw this and this the young lady in Michigan doing a podcast and she's unbelievable. I'm gonna get her name in a second. But she's in Michigan. She's mostly residential, I think, but her podcast is brilliant and she's free.
She shares and she's great. So yeah. That's a great podcast too.
Brian Stafford: All right Joe, so I bet a lot of people are wondering what a day-to-Day in the life of a pet waste removal company looks like. And you've done it for 18 years. My guess is you got a couple [00:08:00] stories.
Joe Bosco: Yeah, yeah. There are some stories. There's a couple. One of my favorites is I, I get a call, you know, you pick it up and Joe, he says, yard sweepers Joe.
Hey so. I have a, you're gonna find this question strange, but I know on your website I see you pick up dog poop, but do you pick up human poop? I'm sorry. What? Yeah, so he said, do you pick up human poop?
That's brilliant. Oh, so yeah, and I, I said, excuse me. I know, I, I know it's odd, but I have a tenant downstairs that is pooping in the backyard and I'm not picking it up. And I said, well, I'm not gonna come pick it up either. I don't know what he's eating. I don't know what that's what's in there. It could be mites.
I don't want mites. So [00:09:00] I said, wait, I'm
Brian Stafford: sorry. I'm sorry you, you didn't know that you, you just heard that there was a, I'll, I'll use. Your word human. Human that is pooping in the backyard. Is that a bad word? Human. And your Your own. And your own. Your first question is. There might be mite in the poop.
Not why is there a human No, no. Leaving an apartment to go poop in a yard instead of the toilet.
Joe Bosco: Well, we got there. That would've been my first question. Yeah, we got there eventually, but when I said I'm not picking it up, I, I thought that was pretty much the end of the conversation only for her to say, well, who do I call?
So Ghostbusters well. There were a lot of things that went through my head. I said, I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't call nine one one, but I might call the sanitation, like, what do you do? I said, did you have a conversation with him? She goes, she goes, yeah, he comes out at night and he comes. You would think [00:10:00] you would, so he's a werewolf.
Got it. We figured it out. He comes out at night. Would he would, you would think he would go to the corner or something like he was in the middle of the yard. He goes right into the middle of the yard. Everybody could see him and. It like drops trial right there. So I said, well, I, your problems are way bigger than the, just the poop, you know, for with this, the guy living in your basement.
Anyway, so yeah, that was a strange one. When it's a dog, don't you guys charge by weight? I'm surprised you didn't ask her like, well, how much does the human weigh? Is
Brian Stafford: it an 80 pound dog? How many? How many figures? How many figures is that? That one?
Joe Bosco: Oh yeah. Crazy.
Brian Stafford: All right, let's hear another story.
Joe Bosco: I had been walking a property. It was a hot summer day and I had never seen or heard of a red ant in my life. Didn't know what they were. Up, up north, there's just ants, you know, if you leave something out, the t's coming to eat it, but there's no such thing as a red ant really, that I ever saw.
Anyway, so, and I guess they're up there, but I didn't live in a neighborhood with Red Ant, so Wow. We were upper scale. So I'm [00:11:00] walking and I kind of notice my foot is hot 'cause I wear flip flops. I don't know if you knew that. I'm a big flip flop guy.
Brian Stafford: You look like a big flip flop
riverside_shit_show 1_raw-synced-video-cfr_podcast_cary_0032: guy.
Joe Bosco: Yeah, I'm, I'm a beach guy.
Mm-Hmm. So I am walking and I, like I said, I feel it heating up and I look down in my leg. I have hair on my leg, but. There was other stuff moving and there were red wells everywhere. So I'm like, and then I start to feel the pain. So what do you do? Where are you gonna go? And there was a pool, the swimming pool there with all the little kids jumping around.
I was full clothes, just right in the pool. And it made it go away. But I remember going to the doctor and he said, I've never seen that many bites in one location. He said, dude, you have pants on and. I said, well, yeah. And he said, what did you have on your feet? He said, flip flops. He said, didn't you, don't you pick up dog shit?
Why would you wear flip flops to pick up dog shit? My doctors? I'm like, yeah, thanks, captain Hindsight. Anyway, but yeah, it wasn't good. Red answer,
Brian Stafford: bad. I have a similar story. [00:12:00] So you grew up in New York? I grew up in Florida. And in Florida the fire ants are everywhere and we we learn about them at a very, very young age.
They have. Mounds that are sometimes four feet high. They're insane. And for some reason, as a kid, we would love to just stick our foot in it real fast and watch them all kind of swarm and then laugh and, and. Run away. Well, I found one mound at a park that was like, oh, this one is amazing. And so I remember I, and this is a true story, I was probably seven or eight years old.
I stuck my foot in it right at the moment that I heard my mom say, Brian. And I turned and looked at her. She goes, careful with the ants. You don't want to get bitten by them. And I remember thinking, mom, I've done this a hundred times, obviously being bitten. And I forgot that my foot was still in the ant hill and I too, I mean, they, they, they were like past the knees.
Yeah, that's, it was extremely painful and amazing how fast they are too. Yes. And angry. [00:13:00] Yeah. Oh, why are they so angry?
Joe Bosco: Angry. I have a good one. I was eight hornet's nest bamboo pole. It's hollow. Stick it in there. Didn't know these things came through. I got bit in my mouth. I got bit. Everywhere went to the doctor.
My mother goes, she, she, Dr. I was, I was literally had a hundred bites on me. She, she couldn't care less. She's like, you go doctor around the corner. She pulls me in there. I get in there. Doctor's like, what did you do? She's like, he stuck a bamboo pole in the hornet's nest. That's what I live with. I'm like, you know, I'm eight.
I'm like, just make me be able to breathe. My tongue was swollen. It was terrible, bro. I had what? They were, what was the
Brian Stafford: goal though? To, to sticking a bamboo? Like were you trying to like,
Joe Bosco: I wanted Bamb reaction, shoot them out. I wanted a reaction and No, I got one. These things came through the bamboo hole and, but why did I have a, what was I thinking?
Like, stick it like a normal kid. No, I'm like, and this thing, yeah. That didn't look right. Okay.[00:14:00]
Brian Stafford: Oh, I have so many questions, but I think we should
Joe Bosco: move on.
Brian Stafford: [00:15:00] If there's someone that's watching that's saying, I think this might be for me, looking for a franchise, [00:16:00] maybe interested in getting in the pet waste removal business, what are some tips you can give them? What, what's the kind of personality that is successful in this business?
Joe Bosco: I wouldn't say an extrovert or an introvert. I think it's a mix of both. For me, I'm an extrovert, so I find it easy talking about anything. So I could walk into a property and like, we just met somebody today, and if you just get me going, I could talk. So I think somebody that once you learn the business and know the business and you know what you're doing and you know what the customer wants, customer service is above anything else.
When that customer sends me an email, I know my mom, I watch my email. From nine to five every day consistently. If I get an email, it's in my pocket. If I'm out or on my computer, and we answer immediately. I mean, they're like, did the email go through? Like that's how fast and over the 18 years, people just word of [00:17:00] mouth just built this business to a point where, you know, it's, it's, it's good, you know, and, and what I've learned in the past three years since leaving the church was.
Custom service and you know, I did it at, at, at the church and I've always done it and I've always been a people person. And I'm trying to, to show Doug on, you know, my son Doug. How to, you know, how to do that? Because if you can't sell, you can't have a business. So if you're introvert, you're, listen, I'll just be in the field picking up poop.
Well, that's great. But you can't, you can't have a business 'cause you've gotta be able to sell. So the only way you're gonna pick up more poop is by making more sales. So it's a mix, but customer service is huge in my business,
I think that the right person, you know, for years. I paid as little as I could because, you know, I'm, I'm a growing business. I'm a part-time business, so I want pay. People need to work and I put them to work and [00:18:00] I paid them a fair wage. Quickly learned over the past three years.
That doesn't cut it. You have to pay somebody. They gotta pay their bills. So if somebody's coming to you to work, it has to be, they have to go. Like, if I told you what I paid my people, you would say, are you kidding me? That's what you would say, seven
Brian Stafford: figures.
Is that right? Yeah. Is that right, Doug? One for each truck. He's nodding.
Joe Bosco: Six of them were after the decimal point, but yeah, seven figures.
Brian Stafford: We don't, we don't worry about the decimal point. Put that wherever.
Joe Bosco: And I was talking to somebody about it, about telling them about what I pay. My employees now. For a full day's pay.
They're like, that is unbelievable that you can make that much money picking up dog shit and you don't own the own the place. But yeah, the, I've learned that you can't, you, you have to do a really good interview process. You have to do a background check. You have to [00:19:00] do the things that you would do for any company to get the right person in.
And it may not be the perfect person 'cause you're picking up shit. I mean, that's no joke. You know, that's a hard, when it's 101 degrees out, the last thing you wanna do is be pulling a pet, a bag out of a pet station. It rips and splashes you inside your mouth. It's not pleasant. It's really not pleasant.
Doug, has that ever happened to you? Yep. Yeah, happened to me. That's a true story, huh? Yeah. Oh yeah. It's, it's a, it's a, it's an acquired taste, if you will.
Brian Stafford: I, I, I guess my only follow up is why is your mouth open while you're
Joe Bosco: picking up dog dog poop? Well, because, well, because you're pulling the bag out and you're probably on your hundredth bag and it's 101 degrees out, and you're pulling the bag out, and you're just frustrated.
At one point, or it doesn't matter and you just rip that bag one time and yeah, you get in the car and it's, it stays with you for a while. Ooh, yeah.
Brian Stafford: Keep your mouth closed. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen,
Joe Bosco: it's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. What do you think is the, the minimum skeleton crew, like if you're thinking about getting started, how many people do you need to to start a pet waste [00:20:00] removal company just yourself?
Really, you just, you just need you because you can do everything when you're starting. 'cause you have no customers. Right? So, you know, I, I was by myself. I picked it, I did it for seven years by myself. I worked at the church and then I went to work at night. I didn't get home till Doc for seven, eight years.
'cause you gotta be committed. I mean, you know, it's like anything else. Nobody's gonna give you anything. Not for me that I've learned. You know, you gotta earn it. And when I realized it was my own and I was putting my own money into it, it was very easy for me to say, you know. I'm not the most frugal, but when it comes to my business, I watch everything.
'cause you have to, it, it can go away in a second. And you know, we've built it to a point now where we could lose some customers and it's mostly commer, it's mixture of commercial and residential, but we don't feel the burn as much when you lose a couple, you know, customers been with me for 15 years and they leave.
Well, why? You know what happened? And it always comes back to the worker. Or to, or to the, that relationship because the worker really, the tech [00:21:00] relationship and the office, the apartment officer relationship is huge. And I'll tell you why. Because when you are a regular and they know you and they like you and they want you to be there, because they don't, when they get a call for dog crap, they have 10 other things, air conditioning units, everything else going on, painting and everything.
They're like, oh, just call Joe. Get him over here to fix it. That relationship should be to a point within six months of you being the tech that they call you or they call me before they call the office. So if a, when it's not we put stickers on our pet stations and a pet station is what you see in the shit show.
That's a pet station. I know most people know what they are. Mm-Hmm. We put stickers on them on the cover. That just say, Hey, if there's any issues with this pet station, call this number. This way. They call me and they don't call the office and we get less complaints and it works. So yeah, that relationship is huge.
Brian Stafford: Yeah. So it's all about [00:22:00] human interaction and trust. Yeah. Human. That's great. All right. I got an idea. Okay. I think we should do something fun. I got a little I got a little game lined up. Watch out Mr. Bosco. So Jeopardy I that this is no. Neither one of us are smart enough for Jeopardy. What? But we are gonna play a little game called Two Truths and a Lie.
Ooh. You ever played this game before? I don't think so, but I'm interested. I explain the rules. It's fairly simple. I'm going to state three things. Two of those things are true facts. What's the genre? The genre, since this is the shit show Yard sweepers with Joe Bosco Yes. Are three facts about dog poop.
And we'll just see if you can find which one of the three is. I got this wrong. Not true. You should be good at this '
Joe Bosco: cause you should have a high DS meter, which is like bs, [00:23:00] but it's, it's dog shit. Ah, that's
Brian Stafford: good. Well played. I would like to state he does not know what these three facts are. I purposely kept this organic, if you will, so we can get, there's word yet actual honest answer from him.
7 million. All right, so I'm gonna state all three and then you guess which one is the lie I. Okay. Number one, dog waste is fertilizer for your lawn. Two dogs defecate about 30,000 tons of waste every single day. Number three, dogs may prefer to poop in a north south direction. Two of those are true. One of those is a lie.
Which one?
Joe Bosco: The fertilizer is a
Brian Stafford: lie. What do you guys think that is correct.
Joe Bosco: Thank you.
Brian Stafford: I honestly didn't think that would stump you, but yes, in its raw form, it can actually be toxic to your soil. Dog [00:24:00] waste needs to first be safely composted in an enclosed system before being considered a beneficial aid to the environment.
Yep. As far as the defecating 30,000 tons that is 10 million tons every single year. Call
Joe Bosco: the arts papers.
Brian Stafford: I just hear, I just hear money. Sounds right there. Well that's another
Joe Bosco: great story. Remind
Brian Stafford: me. And then with dogs may prefer to poop in a north south direction. One study shows that some dogs defecate in line with the earth's magnetic fields, though nobody is sure why.
Regardless of the reason. They always seem to take their time doing their business when you're in a hurry. Mm-Hmm.
Joe Bosco: I call dog sh I mean, bullshit on that because I would've thought it just were the religious affiliation of the dog, you know, towards Mecca. That would be East, west. That's funny. So you said and my the last house we had I just started the business.
It was one of those days and I had a neighbor that [00:25:00] just would. Walk his dog down the street. And you know, I had, you know, at the end of the day, the dump was already closed. It was getting the dark. I had my buckets full of poop. You know, it covers on them with bags, you know, but it smelled, and I get it. It smelled.
But this day he just caught me on the wrong day. So he is coming down the street, and I just see him with his face, like, Ugh, that's smell. And I'm walking up the driveway and I'm like, I just stopped and I shouldn't have, I should've just kept walking. Mm. That would've been the right decision. But I didn't, I stopped and I'm like, I do smell that smells like money.
And he just shaked his head, shook his head and kept walking. So it was a little victory for me, but you know, it did stink. That's the
Brian Stafford: little things in life. Yeah. That that matter most it, it, it is. I agree. Did you end up
Joe Bosco: hiring him? No. No. No. He moved quite soon after that. Mm. I forced him out. Oh. Well, I don't think I did, but he probably does..
I mentioned earlier about the young lady [00:26:00] in Michigan. Her podcast is called the Scoop. Her name is Erica Cruin. Again, very informative. So if you're thinking about this, if this is something, you know, if you're like, you know, you don't need 50 grand. To start a business you need yourself, you need to believe in yourself that you could do this for a little amount of money, use your own car, use cheap tools, use what you have to do to succeed, and quickly, you'll realize that a side hustle can become your main hustle.