Inside Marketing with MarketSurge

Speaker: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hello and
welcome back to Inside Marketing

with Market Surge, mark Regan.

Our guest today is the co-founder of Poop
Away, a pest waste management company

that took one of the least glamorous
services imaginable and turned it into a

scalable franchise ready growth business.

Launched in 2018 with a single truck.

Poop away focused on one simple promise
to make pet owners' lives easier

through reliability, personality,
and systems that actually work.

Since then, mark and his team have
built repeatable processes around

route optimization, customer experience
training, and local marketing.

Poop Away is preparing for national
franchising, proving that with the right

marketing systems and brand voice, even
the most unsexy service businesses,

can become serious growth engines.

I'm looking forward to hearing about this.

I'm a pet owner myself.

I totally see the value, and so I'm
really excited to have you on the podcast.

Thanks for joining Mark.

Mark Regan: It's fun.

I'm excited to talk about it.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay so
let's start with an obvious question.

this is a business that people don't even
want to think about, like a task, pet

Mark Regan: Yeah.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: It's poop.

It smells bad.

It's sticky, it's

Mark Regan: It's gross.

Ruins your shoes.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: How do
you start the conversation, maybe

people don't even realize that
this is a service you can have.

But how do you bring it up?

How do you educate and
inform new potential clients?

Mark Regan: You know, one of the
things that we have done right from the

beginning is we try and lean into the
fact that it's funny, you know, poop is.

It makes people uncomfortable.

They don't like to talk about it,
but it's also part of owning a dog.

So, you know, we make little funny
commercials and, you know, Instagram

posts that, make fun of the fact
that, you know, poop is in your yard.

It's something, you don't wanna
think about, you don't wanna talk

about, you don't wanna deal with.

And we try and go way over the top.

And I think just kind of confronting it.

Head on makes people think of us, but
it also gives people an opening to think

about it and to talk about it, you know?

'cause it's funny to come home and
say to your spouse, should we have

someone come pick up the dog poop?

I hate doing it.

The kids aren't doing it.

Let's pay someone else to do it.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Awesome.

Okay, so tell me a little
bit about this now.

Like how did you come up with the
idea to do this how did it become

like a business that started to scale?

Mark Regan: It's funny, I love telling
the story because it was my business

partner who actually came up with
the idea and we both worked together.

We had a high paying sales
job, but we'd always.

talk about other things
we could do side hustles.

And he mentioned this one day, and I
thought like, nobody's gonna pay for that.

Even though in the back of my head I'm
like, wouldn't that be great for me?

'cause I have dogs too.

And you know, he's a little older than me.

He's kind of old school and he's talking
about newspaper ads, and he says,

well, let's put an ad on Craigslist.

It'll only cost $5.

And I remember laughing at him,
you know, Craigslist, nobody's

gonna, who goes to Craigslist?

I didn't even know you could buy an ad on
Craigslist, but he, you know, he did it.

He put an ad, something simple,
and we got our first phone call.

And that's when I started to
think maybe this is something

that people really do want.

And as crazy as it was then that
customer is still with us today.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Wow.

Mark Regan: he was an executive chef.

His wife had just had twins.

They had two, I forget it was
two or three dogs at the time.

And they just didn't have time to do it.

I think he said he was looking for
a crib or something on Craigslist.

Our ad popped up for whatever
reason and he was like, oh my God,

this is one less thing, you know,
that I don't have to think about.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: I, you
mentioned babies, I wonder if there's

some sort of branching out where you're
taking care of diapers or or Yeah.

Mark Regan: Who knows, like a diaper pale
will empty your diaper pale or something.

I don't know.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
equally unpleasant.

Mark Regan: It's disgusting.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

There's a lot of aspects to this
business that I imagine, when you're

scaling, one is like hiring and staffing.

How do you find your techs that do this?

Mark Regan: Yeah,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: job for them.

how do you bring them

Mark Regan: It's a dirty job and a
lot of our techs use their own cars

too, which still surprises me to
this day that people will do that.

But we had trouble at first finding
people who wanted to do the job.

'cause it sounds gross.

And it was like, who do we target?

You know?

So we try in our indeed ads,
you know, we're right up front.

Yes, you will be picking up dog
waste, but there's a lot of upsides.

You're on your own all day.

You know, there's no one
looking over your shoulder.

We give our techs a lot of responsibility.

You know, they kinda own their route.

And we try and find people who have a
history of, working with pets, whether

they were groomers or one of our
best employees was a horse trainer.

I mean, she was probably our most
experienced poop remover, you know, with

the amount she was dealing with before.

And, you know, just people who've shown
the ability to work independently.

And it always surprises me when we
find someone who really does a great

job, you know, and just loves it
and takes ownership of that route.

And it's almost like pick the
poop is secondary, you know?

It's really look for customer
service people first.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

You've done some ads and I imagine that as
a part of your business there's probably

some referral and word of mouth growth.

what are your main drivers of growth?

Mark Regan: As far as ads, it's

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: then
also you're, maybe I'll throw

out too are you having your texts
sell or not to the neighbors or,

Mark Regan: you know, we
really knew and had no money.

We got yard signs.

That was how we built root density.

You know, we'd get a customer in a
new town and yard signs are so cheap.

So of course we put one
in a customer's house.

But we'd also put one, you know, at
the rotary, at the busy intersection.

We tried door knockers, but
they just didn't produce.

We tried just flooding
an area with postcards.

That didn't go anywhere.

it was really the yard signage.

He said word of mouth.

And then we started getting
company vehicles and wrapping them.

That's been huge.

And then now of course it's Google
ads, Facebook ads, but you can

really start, you know, service
businesses are, cheap to start.

They're tough to scale, but.

If there's anything I learned, you can
really start with a few customers, word

of mouth, a couple signs, and if you're
really desperate, you can door knock.

I know someone who actually
does that same industry.

We go down the street when they get a
new customer and knock on every door.

I just want, you know, we're
doing Jan's house in the corner.

I saw you have two dogs, you know,
we'll give you both a discount.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Mark Regan: You know, we've
never done that, but I know

it works for other people.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: But you
have grown and so both organically

you are starting to franchise now.

Mark Regan: Yeah.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: process of did
you what made you think about franchising

versus just adding new owned locations?

What was that thought process?

Mark Regan: It's, um, right, well,
right from the beginning we had

franchising in mind because growing a
service business is just really hard.

And, you know, we know this market.

I'm from this area, deans from the area.

I know who these people are.

I had a network to reach out
to, going beyond that, the

amount of work per customers.

So it's just so much higher.

So part of it was we just didn't want
to, you know, I didn't wanna have to hire

a manager in the new area and pay them.

Before the business, you
know, kind of scaled.

and I like franchising because people
have some skin in the game, you know,

they put up some upfront money and
they're motivated to make the business

work, you know, but then they get most
of the reward, which is the best part.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Mark Regan: And it's an easy, I shouldn't
say easy franchising is very difficult.

I was shocked, but it's a good
way to spread nationally without

having to spread yourself too thin.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Sure.

Yeah.

when you are evaluating a
potential opportunity for a new

franchise location what are some
of the factors that you include?

Mark Regan: That is a good question
and I think it's something we're gonna

probably have to adjust over time.

Um, but you wanna have
a, a major metro area.

That you wanna work around because
you, the, the business only works

if you have, you know, enough
population density that you can do.

You know, at least one customer an hour,
but preferably two or three an hour.

So that's really huge.

So, you know, like I said, I we're just
south of Boston, but you go out west

to like the Berkshires in Massachusetts
and there's nobody out there, it would

be much more difficult out there.

And we tested that by opening our only
other office, which is in uh, Worcester.

Just like another big city just
to see, does it, is it doable?

You know, if we were franchising again,
you know, what, what does the model work?

But you know, around us, I've got, you
know, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine,

and they all have that same problem.

There's just no, there's no,
you know, density or you have to

charge, you know, double or triple.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

So what are some of the automated
systems, whether, technology oriented,

but what are some of the systems
you've had to build to make this work?

You've mentioned grouping stops,
provides a lot of efficiency, but what

are some of the other systems you've
rolled out to keep the business humming.

Mark Regan: Yeah, so much of it is
just reaching out to customers, you

know, obviously rooting and all that.

It's tough to automate, but just stuff
like, um, like let's say a customer

goes on our website and they just
start to fill out, a contact form.

We used to get a print out a list, which
is crazy of partial submissions and reach

out to those people individually, now
they just get an automated text or email

depending on what information we have.

Um, customer follow up.

we used to call every customer, especially
when we had our first employees.

Did they do a good job?

Is this something we could do better?

Now a text goes out an email goes
out, you know, asks for reviews,

asks for tips for the texts.

So a lot, just a lot of, most of
our automation is about reaching out

to customers and then internally.

The automating as much of the
accounting as possible has been huge.

Now I can see, you know,
we used to do it by hand.

How many stops are we doing per hour?

How much revenue is each
tech bringing in per hour?

how many complaints is a tech getting?

And that gets really hard to track once
you are really over like two or three.

And now we have 12 techs.

So we have systems now that track that.

Basically by the minute I
can see is a tech at a stop.

How long did they spend at that stop?

How much money did they make at that stop?

Because like, you know, with every service
business, it's about dollar per hour

If you're not paying attention to that.

And I, I think at least for me and
Dean, you know, we have I don't

have the capacity to sit down and
figure that out day after day.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Are there any
occupational hazards in doing this work?

I assume that you're probably
going when the owner isn't there,

is the dog out in the backyard?

Do you have to deal with
occasional dog bites?

Mark Regan: Yeah, that's a great question.

And it has happened a couple times.

We have a rule, we TeleTech, you
gotta make sure the dog's in the yard.

You know, you go to the same
house for five years straight.

You, you start getting more comfortable.

I know this dog and you know, so then
all of a sudden the dog's having a bad

day or they get a new rescue and the
dog takes a chunk outta your thigh.

One of our techs, he kept getting bit and
we kept being like, how is this happening?

Why are you getting bit,
before him we were averaging.

Like a bite a year,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Mark Regan: which is tens of thousands
stops and he got bit like three times

in a month or something, or two months.

And it turned out he really loves dogs.

He's an older guy and he
had treats in his pocket.

So what was happening is he walked
into the yard, the dogs were trying

to get the treats in his pocket and
he kept getting bit on the thigh.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Oh my gosh.

Mark Regan: It's just so funny, like
something you wouldn't even think about.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Did

Mark Regan: But

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: okay.

Mark Regan: you know,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: ahead.

Mark Regan: the bigger hazard
is having people on the road.

I never thought about it, but you know,
these guys that have so many driving

hours and, you know, accidents happen.

They're out in the rain and the
snow, so that's really, that turned

out to be the bigger problem.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

this is a, this.

Maybe an off color question, but do you
charge based on the size of the dog?

I have a Bernese Mountain dog who def
my budget for poop bags has gone up

over the French bulldog I used to have.

but does that change anything
like the frequency you have

to come or anything like that?

Mark Regan: So, that's a good question.

'cause customers ask that a lot.

You know, I have two German Shepherds,
It's not the size of the dog

that matters, it's how many dogs.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Mark Regan: we tested that.

You know, is it, are we faster?

If it's a little dog versus a big dog
or a big yard versus a little yard.

And the biggest factor was
just the number of dogs.

'Cause it's funny, but big dogs
are actually easier 'cause the,

the poop piles are much bigger.

So it's, they're easier to see.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Interesting.

Mark Regan: Right.

So it's not, you know, it's
not like we're paying per pound

to dispose of it or anything.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

you dispose of it actually?

How does that go?

Mark Regan: A big gross dumpster.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Just regular trash pickup is

Mark Regan: Just regular trash pickup.

Yeah, they're all, you know, when
we first hired the company to come,

they weren't sure, can we do a
whole dumpster full of dog waste?

But it's really, I mean, if you think
about what else goes into a trash

diapers, dog, waste rotten food.

So what difference does it make

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Fair.

No that's great.

And then,

Mark Regan: right?

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: So when,
so I broader, because I have a lot

of service business, both clients
and, other listeners that are,

different kinds of service businesses,
whether it's pool cleaning service

or power washing or landscaping.

Is some of the best marketing advice
you've received for, you know that

you think might be broadly applicable
to other service businesses?

Mark Regan: I think a lot of service
business, and this is, this is something

that we had trouble with in the
beginning is, you know, having service

business is almost like an annuity.

It builds slowly.

At first, you have to
build your reputation.

It's a lot more about the person
doing the work and the quality of the

work than like a, you know, like a
product business where it's like if

your product's good, you know, you can
spit out a hundred ads about how great

your watch is or whatever, you know.

But with a service business,
it takes a little longer.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Mark Regan: You know, and you
kinda, you kinda hit plateaus.

You know, where you can, you can
only grow so fast before you have

to bring someone else on, and then
your revenue drops a little bit.

And that was really hard for
us to wrap our brain around.

And when we started forming the franchise,
that's something we put up front you

can't pay your way out of growth.

You can't put a hundred
thousand dollars in advertising.

You know, you might do better than
they gotta did 10,000, but you're not

gonna skyrocket yourself to success.

it just won't work.

We tried it,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: sure.

Mark Regan: you know, it's really
about, reputation building, and

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Mark Regan: especially when, like
a pool cleaner, you're going to

someone's house, you know, they
have to like you as a person.

They have to trust you.

They have to trust your employees.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

What do you do in social media
and the content you put out?

Like how's that process?

I know you guys do some funny
things and like you said, you

lean into the puns and whatnot.

How do you produce that?

What's your process?

Mark Regan: Um, we hired a local guy who.

was actually making videos for real
estate agents, you know, like drone

videos and 3D video of your house.

But we just reached out to him
and said, Hey, do you wanna do

something totally different?

he's young, he's only
in his early twenties.

he's open to doing anything

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Mark Regan: you know, we just
sit down and spitball ideas.

But what I like about working with
him and someone who's younger is.

When we were doing it on our own, I'm 40
years old, I don't know what's popular.

And with social media, you know, it's
about how many eyes can you get on

it, even if it's someone's kid who
sees it and they tell their parents.

But social media is tough, is very tough.

The return on investment is not as high.

an ad that does great on Google for three
months gets you like a week on Facebook.

Or Instagram even less on TikTok.

I mean, we just weren't fast enough,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Mark Regan: so we don't produce on that.

But also, you gotta be careful
because you can't talk about

like poop and waste on Facebook.

They're really quick to flag you
and in the pet industry they worry

about people selling, you know, dogs.

And so you have to be really
careful how you talk about.

You know, pricing and the dog and the
service, but it's more fun because

you can talk to people directly.

You know, we get a million comments, you
know, I can, I can't tell you how many

times I've heard someone say, oh, that's a
shitty job that takes a load off my back.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: it's
been, I've been holding back that

one phrase this whole time, so I'm
glad that I wasn't the only one.

Mark Regan: Oh no, I probably
hear it, you know, once a week,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: I am so
glad that there are people like you

that provide a service like you do.

This is obviously needed.

you called out that some of the good
things you do help those that are disabled

very occupied with young children but
it's good for the dogs, it's good for the

yards, the neighborhood, the environment.

I think what you do is so great.

Mark Regan: Thank you.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: wanna
say thank you for your service.

I think that's appropriate.

But now Mark, this has been really fun.

What if people would like
to talk to you, learn more?

Maybe franchise, maybe have you as a
podcast guest, where can they find you?

Mark Regan: Yeah, you can write on our
website if you go to call poop away.com.

Can send us a message or email.

I get all the emails directly.

Or you can find us on Facebook.

Same thing.

facebook.com/call

poop away.com

are probably the two easiest
ways to get in touch.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
Thanks so much, mark.

It's been a pleasure.

Mark Regan: Thank you.

It's been great.

I had a lot of fun.

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Head over to Market surge.io

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