REXBURG — Daniel Alworth wants to pick up after your pooch via his business Poo Problems.

A Brigham Young University-Idaho student, Alworth is willing to scoop up dog poop throughout the Upper Valley from Rigby to Sugar City. He started his business after noticing a lot of doggy doo left on the lawns and on the grass at various apartment complexes in the community. He had previously worked at a similar business elsewhere.

“I saw nothing here for it,” he said. “I thought I’d give it a try.”

Alworth grew up with “tons of dogs” and learned how to clean up their messes. From that, he created a system for effectively removing the waste that pooches leave. Alworth takes a rake and dumps the poop into a bucket. He’ll then dump the bucket into a large trash can and later haul the waste off to the dump.

“I can’t say, ‘I love the dog poop,’ but I love people,” he said. “I love dogs. You get to see a lot of dogs (in this business), and that’s pretty awesome.”

Originally from California, Alworth is majoring in elementary special education. He eventually wants to work toward a master’s degree in the subject. For now, Alworth is concentrating on graduating from BYU-Idaho in two years. Married to Virginia, the couple are expecting their first baby this year.

Virginia has been supportive of her husband’s poopy business venture.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” she said. “He said, ‘I’m going to go do this thing.’ I’m like, ‘Cool. Sounds good.’ He used to work for another dog poop business company. He knows what he’s doing.”

Alworth is an entrepreneur at heart, Virginia said.

“He's also selling sodas at The Tavern dance hall,” she said. “He learned how to make sodas. I think they’re really good. He’s going to school and doing all this other stuff. He likes doing it.”

Alworth started his soda business about a year and a half ago.

“It’s a lot harder doing it than dreaming about it,” he said. “Dreaming is the easy part. I did tons of planning and tons of working with other people.”

A lack of business experience made it difficult to get financing, so Alworth set up shop using his own money. He runs his soda shop three times a week — Wednesday, Friday and Saturday — at the dance hall in Rexburg.

“It took a while to get everything ready,” he said. “I prepared for a few weeks and then started serving. I had to design the setup myself and make sure everything was perfectly ready. I didn’t want to make any mistakes.”

Alworth’s two businesses are helping him provide for his family while working his way through school.

“I want to do a job I really care about, and that I am passionate about,” he said. “When you’re passionate, then not only do you do a better job, you’re happy.”

Alworth says his businesses not only help pay the bills, but also make the community a better place to live in.

“I like to make people happy,” he said. "I think being happy is really important.”

Eventually, Alworth would like to create another business in the form of a Rexburg family fun center.

“It would be something the whole family can come to and have fun,” he said. “It would be supporting families and helping them to be together, to learn and to love and to grow. It’s what’s really important.”

Those looking to start their own business need to really care about what they’re doing and not get wound up over money, Alworth said.

“As cliché as it sounds, money is not your best motivator,” he said. “Having money is nice, but you have to really care about what you do. It has to matter on a bigger level than just a paycheck. If you can find passion in what you do, money will be a nice bonus.”

Those who are passionate about what they do, will reap the rewards, Alworth said.

“The customers will have such a great experience because you deeply care about more than getting a paycheck,” he said.

For more information on Alworth’s businesses call him at 909-440-0961.