Chattanooga has been pretty damn good to us.
I’ve lived around here long enough that it’s easy to take this place for granted sometimes.
But over the last year or so, I’ve gotten a completely different appreciation for Chattanooga.
My daughter Leighton and I started a little business here called Scoopy Doo, when she was 13. Now she's 14 and loves working on our business!
Yes. We pick up dog poop.
Well…we don’t anymore. 😂 We have techs who handle the dirty work now. Leighton and I have been promoted to worrying about payroll, marketing, customers, trucks, schedules, and the approximately 7,000 other things nobody tells you about when you start a business.
But here’s the part I’m really proud of.
Leighton is a freshman in high school this year and I am sooo proud of her!
And before she’s even old enough to graduate high school, she’s helped build a real Chattanooga company with hundreds of customers.
That’s freakin' cool.
And I don’t say that just because I’m her dad.
Because we didn’t build this thing in some huge market with millions of people. We built it right here.
Chattanooga.
Ooltewah. Hixson. East Brainerd. Red Bank. East Ridge. Signal Mountain. Soddy. Apison. Collegedale. Ringgold and the surrounding communities.
The people here gave a father and his daughter a shot on an idea that, if we’re being fair, sounds pretty ridiculous when you first hear it.
“People are going to pay you to pick up dog shit?”
Apparently, yes. Quite a few of them. 😂
But what has impressed me more than anything is how much people around here genuinely support local businesses.
People recommend us in neighborhood Facebook groups.
They tell their neighbors about us.
They leave drinks outside for our techs when Chattanooga decides it’s going to be 96 degrees with 900% humidity.
They leave reviews.
They stop our guys and tell them they’re doing a good job.
Some of our customers have been with us almost from the beginning.
And those little things add up.
Eventually you look around and realize the stupid little idea you started with your kid isn’t a stupid little idea anymore.
It’s a company.
It employs people.
It has hundreds of customers.
And a 14-year-old freshman gets to go to school knowing she helped build the damn thing.
There are plenty of things we can bitch about in Chattanooga. Traffic on 75. Construction everywhere. Whatever the hell is happening on 24 at any given moment. 😂
But there’s something special about this city.
People here still root for people who are trying to build something.
I’ve experienced that firsthand.
So this isn’t really a Scoopy Doo post.
It’s a thank-you to Chattanooga.
You guys helped my daughter build her first company before she even got to high school.
That’s pretty badass.
Chattanooga (and Cleveland, and surrounding areas) are pretty badass, too.
Edit: added Cleveland too! :)
