Skip NavigationA Scoop Soldiers professional cleans a yardKandra Witkowski
Plenty of Americans may say their job stinks. But perhaps surprisingly, many poop scoopers — or animal waste removal professionals — don’t seem to be among them.
“I have always loved scooping,” says Kandra Witkowski, director of business development for Scoop Soldiers, a nationwide poop scooping franchise based in Dallas. She’s been in the business for about 26 years and currently works remotely in Missouri.
“I find it very enjoyable,” she says. “A lot of people, when they get to my point, [scooping] is the last thing that they want to do. They want to be in the office doing everything, but I truly love it.”
Some dog owners let their pets freely relieve themselves in their yards and, for a variety of reasons from mobility restrictions to time constraints, can’t or don’t pick up the droppings themselves, creating a business opportunity for entrepreneurs like Witkowski.
She and some of her peers have run poop scooping businesses for decades, but the industry is still somewhat lesser-known, scoopers say. The ubiquity of the internet and social media have introduced more Americans to the concept. Additionally, a growing focus on the value of time has led more Americans to outsource household tasks from grocery shopping to laundry to cleaning up after their pets. Business owners like Witkowski have seen steady demand for services over the years along with a growing number of scooping businesses, they say.
A Scoop Soldiers pro get some puppy love.Kandra Witkowski
“On one hand, you have this evolving of the internet and more people, entrepreneurs, business owners, seeing the opportunity for this business, but yet, at the same time, a lot of people are still very unaware of this service,” says Jeremy Brook, who started his Brandon, Florida-based scooping business, Mastiff Mounds, in July 2025.
Sweep & Go, a customer relationship management app for scooping businesses, began operating in 2019. In its first year, the firm processed around $6,900 in card transactions for animal waste removal businesses, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. In 2025, it processed $56.2 million. The company projects $100 million in transactions for 2026.
Ogy Nikolic, Sweep & Go founder, says he took a risk building the poop scoop business-specific app, and as the pandemic unfolded in 2020, he thought “the whole idea would die because if people are at home [and] not be able to go out, they would just clean their own backyards,” he says. But six years later, he and others in the industry say the poop scooping business is booming.
‘The easiest possible business to start’
William Milliken started his Coeur d’Alene, Idaho-based poop scooping business, Swoop Scoop, with a friend in late 2020. His wife was pregnant and hired a poop scooper since Milliken wasn’t picking up their dogs’ waste.
Milliken had previously run a electrical company and a friend from high school wanted to start a home services business with him. Milliken had a digital marketing background, and his friend didn’t have a trade skill like HVAC or plumbing they could sell, but Milliken remembered the poop scooper and had an idea.
“We figured, OK, [poop scooping] has got to be like the easiest possible business to start. Let’s just give it a go and see what happens,” Milliken says.
The company, which now has seven locations throughout the Pacific Northwest, has done over $9 million in sales between October 2020 and August 2026 according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
“My partner kind of grinded out the first 10 to 15 customers or so, just door knocking, posting on Facebook groups, that type of thing,” he says. “Then once I started getting a little bit of money into the business, I started running ads.”
The marketing quickly paid off — Milliken says the business grew from around 20 customers to more than 300 within three months and “just started taking off from there.” Swoop Scoop is on track to do $3 million in sales in 2026, he says.
Milliken’s company encourages more poop scoopers to get into the business by offering classes and a community for budding entrepreneurs on Skool, an online education platform. The Poop Scoop Millionaire community Milliken and his Swoop Scoop colleagues run has 600 members. Each pays $69 a month to learn from Swoop Scoop’s founders and from other members starting their own poop scooping businesses around the country.
More poop scooping entrepreneurs means more awareness about the business, Milliken says. “It gets more people actually wanting to buy the service. I think that’s been helpful for everybody.”
Cheresee Rehart agrees, saying, “One success is everybody’s success.” She’s been in the poop scooping business for 23 years with her company, Yard Guards on Doody in Riverview, Florida, not far from Brook’s Mastiff Mounds.
“Even Jeremy and I are direct competitors, and we can get along just fine and work together. That’s really how it is in the whole scooping industry,” she says.
What makes a successful scooper
Professional scoopers typically use basic tools like a rake, a dustpan lined with a garbage bag and a garden sprayer to sanitize tools in between jobs. If you start your own business, you can set your own rates.
Scooping businesses typically charge based on the size of the yard, number of dogs present and whether the customer is getting recurring services. Scoop Soldiers’ pricing starts at $19.99 a week for weekly cleanings for yards with up to four dogs or $79.99 for a one-time cleaning. Rates vary based on the location, and franchisees set their own pricing tiers, Witkowski says.
For an individual scooper, it also helps to have a high density of customers in one area so you can get from job to job quickly and fit more cleanings into your day, Milliken says.
For those looking for an easy, AI-proof job, poop scooping may seem like a great option, because it’s cheap and just about anyone can do it. But while the scooping part is fairly easy, building out a successful business will take a bit more effort.
“We made a business out of a 10-year-old’s chore,” says Timothy Stone, who started his business, Scoop Masters, in Los Angeles in 1988. “It’s not rocket science, [it’s] easy to do, but there’s so much more.”
Scoop Soldiers has over a dozen locations across the country.Kandra Witkowski
While it’s important to do a good job cleaning the yards, you also need solid marketing, logistics, operations and customer service. Those tasks only compound as your business grows, Witkowski says, adding that “not everyone should be a business owner” — especially a franchisor who would oversee operations for various locations.
“Technicians hit mailboxes, they call in sick, we get bit, people don’t always pay their bills,” she says. “Regular businesses take time to scale, and there’s bumps and there’s setbacks. And pet waste removal is no different than any other business.”
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