When life gives you lemon, you make lemonade, but what would you do when life gives you dog poop?
If you were Jacob D'Aniello, you'd make a $4.5 million company out of it:
People love their dogs almost as much as they hate the smelly gifts they leave behind. But for just $15 per week per dog, DoodyCalls will come to your home, apartment, community, or place of business and eliminate any evidence that a canine used it as a personal bathroom. “Our customers aren’t lazy,” D’Aniello stresses. “They’re just upwardly mobile.” He compares his service to pre-made spaghetti sauce. “You could make your own,” he says. “But you don’t.” What his customers are paying for, says D’Aniello, isn’t just a backyard free from the smelly landmines left by man’s supposed best friend. They’re paying for leisure time. It’s 10 minutes in their day that would otherwise have been spent with dog crap in their hands.
DoodyCalls has managed not just to stay afloat, but thrive. The company’s annual revenue for 2011 was $4.5 million, a big jump from 2009's comparatively modest $2.9 million. (If you’re curious, that breaks down to approximately 6.6 million poops disposed of by DoodyCalls last year.) They currently have 55 franchises in 22 states, and there are plans to open as many as 250 locations in the next decade.
Now that's the smell of success! Link (Photo: Greg Knott) - via Oddity Central