One Santa Clarita resident is a unique example of the American Dream. Tim Stone is his own boss, supports his family and has time leftover to spend with his son–and he does it all through picking up dog waste in the Santa Clarita Valley.

“In 1988, I took $65.00 and printed up some business cards and a couple of hundred flyers, and started my own dog poop pick up service business in the Los Angeles area,” Stone said on his website.

 At the height of Scoop Masters Dog Poop Pick Up Service, Stone was making more than $10,000 per month, according to his website.

 “I really wanted to work for myself. I was working 10 hours a day as a welder and I wanted to spend more time with my son,” Stone said. “I got the idea from a friend of a friend in Denver who was running a similar business.”

At first, Stone serviced the entire Los Angeles area, but he eventually sold off part of his business and now works exclusively in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys, he said.

Stone charges $45 per dog per month and, at times, has serviced more than 400 houses, parks, bike paths and apartment complexes a month, he said.

“When I first started the business, people didn’t really know that these types of services existed. There weren’t a whole lot of people doing anything like it,” Stone said. “Now there are between 600 and 800 similar businesses across the country.”

Stone’s success inspired him to write a book on the subject, entitled The Professional Scoop Master- A Guide to Starting and Running Your Own Dog Poop Pick Up Service Business, which instructs others on how to create similar businesses.

In addition to disposing of dog waste, Scoop Master’s Dog Poop Pick-Up Service officials also sell and deliver Flint River Ranch Super Premium Pet Foods and DogiPot® waste bag dispensers, Stone said.

“(This job) definitely met my expectations” Stone said. “I get to spend a lot more time with my son.”

For more information on Scoop Masters Dog Poop Pickup Service, visit their website or call 800-787-7667.

Photos Courtesy of the ScoopMasters Facebook page.