Gotta Appreciate the Free Market
Darrigo, 41, started Dog-Gone-It Pet Waste Removal Service after injuring himself on the job as a heavy equipment operator. He needed to find work, so one day, a friend suggested picking up pet waste from people's yards.
Whether the friend was serious or not, Darrigo took the suggestion to heart.
He advertised for a short time in The Telegraph when he first began, then never again put the word out there himself, relying on word of mouth from his customers. . .
Arriving at another client's home, Darrigo immediately arms himself with the tools of his trade: a small rake and a long-handled, trash bag-lined dustpan. The morning dew hasn't quite burned off as Darrigo snakes around the yard. He walks quickly and scrapes piles of excrement off the lawn and into the dustpan. Never once does he touch the dog waste he removes from each yard. His hands are a testament.
"This is as dirty as I get," he says, holding up his spotless hands after cleaning one customers lawn.
His system is quite streamlined by now. Arrive, pick up the poop, put the poop in trash barrels, clean off rakes using an enzyme solution, then move onto the next home. Each yard takes him 10 to 20 minutes, no more. He charges $10 per visit, per dog, though the first visit could cost more depending on a yard's cleanliness.
Speaking of clean, as odd as it seems, the procedure is actually very tidy. There's not a single drop of waste outside the trash barrels in the back of his truck. Most surprisingly, there's hardly a smell when the barrels lids are closed.
So what exactly does one do with five to 10 trash barrels full of dog excrement? Darrigo's ever-working entrepreneurial mind is attempting to devise a way to, of all things, liquefy it.
Hmmmm. So he makes about $30 an hour. If he works 40 hours a week with only two weeks off, that's $60,000 annually. Of course, he has expenses that an employee doesn't incur, but that's not bad pay and if he can get some high schoolers to work at $12.00 an hour, he could greatly increase that amount.
Sounds like a good business for Eric Scheske to start . . . with his kids.
