CHARLOTTE — Sam Bliss, all of 11, is already a successful entrepreneur.
The home-schooler's side business is, well, how do we put it?
Here's the straight poop: One of the hazards of his side gig, aside from fitting it in around homework and other obligations, is that it stinks.
Sam's in his third year of running a successful business, as The Super Pooper Scooper, based out of his parents' home in Charlotte.
The winters are when a dog's backyard business tends to pile up, and spring and summer are when Sam goes to work resolving his customers' dog doo-doo.
Sam's first professional pickup was around this time in spring 2021.
He laughs now, but it was messy.
“The first job was, well, you could not step into the yard without getting a squishy surprise under your shoe,” Sam said.
His mom Cheryl Bliss piped in.
“That's the truth,” she said. “The yard was just, it was real bad.”
‘It is really, really gross when wet'
Sam's busy schedule is finally opening up, just in time for the packed backyards of late winter. His work season typically spans the warm months and wraps before snow arrives.
His technique? He uses rakes, a big one to start, and covers the yards in a grid pattern, so everything gets picked up.
Sam said he's gotten as much as $100 for a yard but he charges $20 per dog and $10 for every additional dog. Profits are smaller than he planned but his mother encouraged him to get a price that people would gladly pay.
If that's too high for some customers, he knows some other pooper scoopers who may charge less. They're also kids. Adults usually don't like picking up poop, even for money, and if they do, it's usually a lot more expensive than his rates, Sam said.
The money from his business is used, in part, to help send Sam to summer camp, at Camp Barakel near Fairview, about 100 miles southeast of Mackinaw City.
Raising $300 to go to camp inspired his business. He pays his way now and saves some of the money, too.
“I also use it to buy souvenirs from camp for my mom and dad,” Sam said.
His business is powered, at least in part, by his Facebook page: The Super Pooper Scooper, updated regularly, especially during pickup season.
Sam has also been to business fairs, setting up a table with human treats that resemble his work product but made with chocolate, Cheerios and marshmallows.
Disgusting has become a good profit-making niche for Sam.
“It is really, really gross when wet,” he said of the droppings he gets paid for finding.
‘Most people don't really want to pick it up'
Sam has added a team member who lets him practice his pooper scooper skills. Around Christmas, Sam adopted his own pooch: A two-year-old Catahoula Leopard mix named Lotus, who is learning American Sign Language, which Sam's dad uses.
When Sam met Lotus at the Capital Area Humane Society in Lansing, he was not planning to bring home a pet, but his mom suspected something would happen.
“He had really blue eyes,” Sam said, “I liked the dog immediately, mostly because he came into the room, tackled me and licked me on my face. It was kind of disgusting.”
Sam's mother said her son is a member of the Tiger Sharks swim club and a Lansing Homeschool Scholars team that just placed fifth in a Science Olympiad competition, and that's just a bit of what keeps him occupied when he's not working.
His parents said they were proud of him for keeping up with the work, especially when it's nasty and smelly.
Sam said he would encourage more kids to follow his lead and consider launching a business at a young age.
If scooping poop is their chosen enterprise, he has some tips.
“I would say, start off with finding a place where people need pickups,” he said. “Neighborhoods, mobile home parks and places where there are lots of people. Most people don't really want to pick it up.”
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415
