The Side Hustle Show 722: The Million Dollar Business in Your Backyard
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Feb 9, 2026 William Milliken, founder of Swoop Scoop who built a multi-million dollar pet waste removal company, tells how a low-cost local service turned into big revenue. He covers validating demand, viral local marketing, pricing and routing for recurring customers. Expect rapid-growth tactics, hiring and ops systems, and how he scaled the business and created a coaching community.
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Humble Origin And Early Validation
- William started Swoop Scoop after his wife had a bad experience with a local pooper-scooper and a friend with no trade skills volunteered to help.
- They tested demand manually and grew by door-knocking, Facebook groups, and free posts before ads scaled things up.
Latent Demand Beats Search Volume
- Low Google search volume didn't mean no demand; people simply didn't know to search for the service.
- Awareness grew through direct outreach and local marketing rather than initial SEO traffic.
Launch Cheap, Prove With Local Hustle
- Start with a basic service, price, and simple operations then grind local outreach like door-knocking and vet networking.
- Once you have initial customers, invest in Facebook ads to rapidly scale customer acquisition.