Outsourced Programmer Starts Business

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "EEkid () aol com" <EEkid () aol com>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:43:55 -0400 (EDT)
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Outsourced Programmer Starts Business

Out-of-work man gets the scoop on poop
Former programmer makes living cleaning up after dogs
 
Updated: 7:22 p.m. ET April 29, 2005
DELMAR, N.Y. - Computer programmer Steve Relles has the poop on what to do
when your job is outsourced to India.
 
Relles, one of a rising number of Americans seeking new opportunities as
their work shifts to countries with cheaper labor, has spent the past year
making his living scooping up dog droppings as the ³Delmar Dog Butler.²
 
³My parents paid for me to get a (degree) in math and now I am a pooper
scooper,² Relles, a 42-year-old married father of two told Reuters. ³I can
clean four to five yards in a hour if they are close together.²
 
Relles, who lost his computer programming job about three years ago, got the
idea of cleaning dog dirt from people¹s back yards from Mark Booth, a friend
in Buffalo, New York.
 
Ralles has over 100 clients who pay $10 each for a once-a-week cleaning of
their yard.
 
Relles competes for business with another local company called ³Scoopy Do.²
Similar outfits have sprung up across America, including Petbutler.net,
which operates in Ohio.
 
Best customers are St. Bernards
In the United States, there are about 63 million dogs, each producing about
23 ³presents² per week, which if left can be unsafe for children and pets.
 
Relles says his business is growing by word of mouth and that most of his
clients are women who either don¹t have the time or desire to pick up the
droppings.
 
³St. Bernard (dogs) are my favorite customers since they poop in large piles
which are easy to find,² Relles said.
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7680734


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