37-year-old grew side hustle into a business bringing in over $200,000 a year—without a college degree: The growth is ‘just tremendous'

This story is part of CNBC Make It's Ditching the Degree series, where women who have built six-figure careers without a bachelor's degree reveal the secrets of their success. Got a story to tell? Let us know! Email us at AskMakeIt@cnbc.com.

Erica Krupin tried dozens of jobs — from bartending on golf courses to working as an esthetician — before she found her calling. She didn't think it would be scooping poop. 

The 37-year-old owns Kroopin's Poopin Scoopin, a dog waste removal business in Northville, Michigan. 

Krupin started scooping poop as a side hustle six years ago. She had the "entrepreneurial itch" to try something new outside of her day job as a pharmacy technician. 

Inspiration struck one morning as Krupin sipped her coffee and watched her pitbull, Java, squat in her backyard.

"I thought, 'Man, I'd pay good money for someone to clean up after my dog so I don't have to do this every day," she tells CNBC Make It. "And a lightbulb went off."

She launched Kroopin's Poopin Scoopin in August 2018 and quit her job as a pharmacy technician to run the business full-time in February 2020, mere weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the United States.

"It almost felt serendipitous," Krupin says of the timing. "I left one field, health care, where I would've undoubtedly worked longer hours and burned out, for a job I could safely do outside and catered to people's pets, which everyone was getting during lockdown."

Kroopin's Poopin Scoopin is on track to hit $250,000 in revenue for 2024, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. 

Ahead of her seventh year in business, Krupin says she hopes to hire additional staff and service more cities in Michigan.

Here's how Krupin scaled her side hustle into a business bringing in six figures — without a bachelor's degree:

Starting a successful side hustle

Krupin wasn't sure what she wanted to do once she graduated high school, but all of the potential careers she dreamed up had one thing in common — none involved college. 

"I always really struggled in school," she recalls. "I just couldn't imagine sitting in a classroom for another four years." 

Still, Krupin enrolled in a couple of general courses at Schoolcraft College, a community college in Livonia, Michigan at the insistence of well-meaning friends and teachers. "Nothing stuck," she says. 

Her aunt recommended her for an open pharmacy tech position at the University of Michigan's medical center in Ann Arbor.

She was hired in 2005 but didn't complete her license requirements, which included coursework, an exam and an externship until a few years later, as it wasn't required for her role at the time she started. Krupin spent the next 13 years working there.

"It was a good, stable career but I felt like there was something just burning inside of me, this strong desire to challenge myself in a different endeavor, to take a risk and be creative," she says. 

Little did she know, her side hustle in poop scooping would unlock her entrepreneurial spirit — and a new dream: becoming her own boss while mentoring other first-time business owners.

'It's hard to say no to donuts'

One of the perks of starting a dog waste removal business is the relatively low entry barrier.

Krupin spent about $1,000 on initial supplies — a children's gardening rake, trash bags, gloves, a dust pan and disinfectant — as well as an LLC, business insurance, a website domain, a cargo trailer and hitch for her car.

The dog waste doesn't travel with Krupin; she double-bags it and disposes of it in the pet owner's outdoor trash can, so she hasn't had to invest in additional waste disposal tools at this point.

Her initial marketing plan was simple: She printed a map of all the grooming shops, veterinarian's offices, dog daycares and other pet-related businesses in her neighborhood, and showed up with a box of donuts in one hand and business cards in the other. 

"I drove out to all of these businesses, introduced myself as a local, small business owner and said, 'Can I leave both of these here?'" she recalls. "It's hard to say no to donuts."

Within weeks, Krupin had her first 15 customers. 

'The Brown Super Bowl'

Krupin waited to quit her job and go all in on her side hustle until her annual revenue exceeded what she was earning at the hospital, which, at the time, was about $20 an hour.

She took poop scooping appointments in the mornings and evenings after her shifts at the hospital, tapping her husband, Joshua, for the occasional assist.

Krupin says she hit that milestone at the end of 2019 after her first full calendar year in business, which gave her the confidence to leave the security of a full-time job.

During the first 18 months, Krupin ran the business herself, but now she has one full-time poop scooper and a virtual assistant on her payroll. In 2020, she also invested in a subscription to Jobber, a scheduling and invoice software. 

Each day is different; Krupin says that on a typical weekday, she works from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., but is also on call during the evenings and weekends for last-minute appointments or meetings with new customers. 

The Kroopin's Poopin Scoopin business model is based on frequency, with weekly being the common level of service. Weekly cleanings start at $87 per month. But the company offers other packages as well, including a one-time clean which starts at $50 and twice-a-week cleaning, which starts at $156 per month. 

Krupin works five days a week: She tries to stack scooping appointments so she's in the field two days a week, then will spend the other weekdays on administrative or accounting tasks.

Demand for dog waste removal services fluctuates with the seasons. Kroopin's Poopin Scoopin receives the most requests for cleanings in March and April, after the snow melts and two-plus months of dog waste that people let sit hidden in their yards all winter comes to the surface. "I call it the 'Brown Super Bowl' for us," Krupin jokes. 

'A really fun job'

Quitting her job to go all-in on her side hustle gave Krupin the confidence to pursue another dream: starting her own podcast. 

She recorded her first episode of "The Scoop With Erica Krupin" in 2022 and has since published more than 100 episodes. 

On the podcast, Krupin interviews other business owners and shares advice for entrepreneurs to build their own sustainable ventures. She publishes similar content on her YouTube channel, which has about 5,000 subscribers. Her growing social media presence has led to some on-off business coaching opportunities. 

Krupin's business coaching and paid social media opportunities — YouTube and podcast ads, sponsored posts — has netted her an additional $22,000 for 2024 thus far, on top of her earnings from Kroopin's Poopin Scoopin. (She declined to share her take-home pay from the business.) 

Some people might think poop scooping is a "gross job" or "beneath them," Kroopin says, but she feels she is far more successful running a dog waste removal business than in a corporate or desk job that might "get a little more respect." 

"The personal and professional growth I've experienced since I started this business is just tremendous," she shares. "It's motivated me, I've gotten to meet a lot of really wonderful people and their pets, and help keep their homes and our neighborhoods clean and safe." 

Plus, "it's a really fun job," Krupin adds. "It doesn't matter that you're handling poop; working outside while the sun is rising and the birds are chirping … it's weirdly therapeutic."

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