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CHARLOTTE — All 11 of Sam Bliss are already successful entrepreneurs.
A side hustle for homeschoolers is, well, what can you say?
Here’s straight poop: One of the dangers of his side hustle, besides fitting in homework and other obligations, is that it stinks.
Sam is in his third year of running a successful business, The Super Pooper Scooper, based out of his family home in Charlotte.
Winter tends to be the time when there is a lot of dog backyard work to do, while spring and summer are the times when Sam goes to work troubleshooting customers’ dog problems.
It was around this time in the spring of 2021 that Sam made his first professional pickup.
He’s laughing now, but it was a mess.
“My first job, I couldn’t help but walk into the garden and get a jolt under my shoes,” Sam said.
His mother, Cheryl Bliss, spoke up.
“That’s the truth,” she said. “The garden was just really bad.”
“It’s really disgusting when it gets wet.”
Sam’s hectic schedule has finally come to an end, just in time for the crowded backyard at the end of winter. His work season usually follows the warmer months and ends before the snow falls.
His technique? At first, he uses a large rake to cover the garden in a grid pattern, picking up everything.
Sam said he gets as much as $100 per yard, but charges $20 per dog and $10 for each additional dog. Although his profit was less than planned, his mother encouraged him to get the price people were willing to pay.
If that amount is too high for some customers, he knows other poop pickers who can charge less. They are children too. Sam said adults usually don’t like to pick up poop, even for money, and if they do, it’s usually much more expensive than his fee.
Some of the money from his business will be used to send Sam to summer camp at Camp Barraquel near Fairview, about 160 miles southeast of Mackinaw City.
Raising $300 to go camping inspired his business. He now pays his own bills and saves some of his money as well.
“I also use it to buy gifts for my mom and dad from camp,” Sam said.
His business is powered, at least in part, by his Facebook page, The Super Pooper Scooper, which is updated regularly, especially during pickup season.
Sam also attended a business fair and set up a table with human treats similar to his creations but made of chocolate, cheerios, and marshmallows.
For Sam, disgusting became a profitable field.
“It’s really disgusting when it’s wet,” he said of the poop he’s paid to discover.
“Most people don’t actually want to pick it up.”
Sam has added a team member with whom he can practice his pooper scooper skills. Around Christmas, Sam adopts his dog, 2-year-old Lotus, a Catahoula/Leopard mix, and is learning American Sign Language, the language used by Sam’s father.
When Sam met Lotus at the Metropolitan Humane Society in Lansing, he had no intention of taking the pet home, but his mother suspected something would happen.
Sam said: “He had really blue eyes. I liked the dog right away, mainly because he came into the room and tackled me and licked my face. It was bad,” he said.
Sam’s mother said her son is a member of the Tiger Sharks Swim Club and the Lansing Homeschool Scholars team, which just placed fifth in the Science Olympiad competition, which gives her son plenty of time outside of work. He says it’s just a little thing that keeps him occupied.
His parents said they were proud of him for continuing to work, even though it was a particularly dirty and smelly job.
Mr Sam said he would encourage more children to follow his lead and consider starting a business at a young age.
If scooping poop is their chosen business, he has some tips.
“Start by finding the location where you need transportation,” he says. “Neighborhoods, mobile home parks, places with a lot of people. Most people don’t want to pick it up.”
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415.
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