BILLINGS — Two young Billings brothers are turning a stinky job into a growing business and learning some valuable life lessons along the way.
Ryder, 16, and Preston, 14, Biery launched their poop scooping business, Big Sky Scoopers, in Arizona with a simple motivation.
Watch the two young entrepreneurs talk about their business:
Two Billings brothers turn poop collection into a growing small business
“We didn’t have a lot of money of our own,” Ryder said Thursday.
Instead of asking for cash, they decided to earn it.
“We started it so we could get some personal money for things we wanted to spend for fun,” Ryder said.
The brothers quickly built a client list of more than 20 clients in Arizona. When his family moved to Billings, the business stayed with them.
“We gave it a little time before restarting it so we could get settled, but we continued shortly after,” Ryder said.
Now they go house to house, cleaning yards all over Billings. For the brothers, one of the best parts of the job is the simple one.
“Being able to see all the cute dogs every day,” Ryder said.
Its price is simple.
“Our rates are generally on a case-by-case basis. We pay $20 per week, for every two dogs, and then they will increase on a case-by-case basis,” they said.
The brothers are entering an industry that is expanding rapidly. The pet sitting market continues to grow across the country as more people own pets and pay for convenience services, including poop scoopers. Billings alone now has several pet waste removal companies.
For their mother, Andrea, the greatest reward is not the money, but the life lessons her children are learning.
“They’ve learned what they want out of life, like starting their own business. They probably won’t be picking up poop forever, but this gives them a good solid foundation to be their own bosses, set their own schedules and decide what they want to do in life,” Andrea said.
The brothers say the company is also teaching them financial responsibility.
“Money management is a very important thing to help us manage,” Ryder said.
And even after reaching their original goals, they kept going, something their mother noticed.
“They had a goal and they reached it and they didn’t stop. When they reached their goal, they continued,” Andrea said.
As your client list continues to grow, so does your sales pitch.
“We are accepting new customers,” Preston said. “In most of Billings,” Ryder said.