From bedtime stories to business venture: How a young entrepreneur is turning his love for snakes into a side hustle

Ask someone their favorite animal, and the responses might seem fairly standard — dog, monkey, maybe a penguin.

It's not every day a 12-year-old says their absolute favorite animal is a snake.

Sawyer Goodman of Cape Girardeau is fascinated by the slithery reptiles. From a young age, he wanted to know all about them, even going as far as his bedtime story for three years being the "Missouri Snake Guide".

Now, he has found a way to turn his fondness of snakes into a part-time job — trapping and releasing wildlife.

“I've always just loved snakes, and so I just wanted to help people by catching up on their yard,” Goodman said.

Goodman started his wildlife trapping business two years ago but didn't start getting calls until this past summer after he successfully caught his first creature. Goodman’s business involves catching various animals, including snakes, raccoons, skunks, possums and groundhogs. He uses specific methods for each type of animal. For snakes, he uses only three tools: snake hooks, snake tongs and a DIY snake container. For other animals, he sets up traps that he learned to make by trapping with his family growing up.

Clients usually contact him through his parents' via Facebook. Once a request is received, Goodman assesses the situation, often making multiple trips to capture the animal.

“Sometimes the snake might not be in their yard at the moment or might be where I can’t get to it. But for raccoons, possums, skunks and like groundhogs, we set up traps, and then come take a trip back to check them if the people aren't home or if the people are home, then we just let them check them in, and if they see something in it, then we'll come get it,” Goodman said.

After capturing or trapping the animals, Goodman transports them to his family’s house and lets them go back into the wild on their land.

This summer Goodman has trapped a raccoon and captured a snake. He said he was proud of how quickly he caught the snake as it only took him three trips to the caller's house.

“I did pretty good that time. It was three times. So the first time we went we checked out the place and saw where the snake was hiding. Then the second time, we waited until they called us. Well, I actually think we just went out there again, because they said they saw it, but it was like before. The third time, though, they had just seen it, and we were already in the car so we just drove to their house, and it was like right under some leaves,” Goodman said.

Goodman’s pricing for his catch and release job varies, he said at the moment it is $10 to capture a snake, but due to expenses such as gas he will be raising the price soon. To be able to tell what type of snake or animal he will be capturing he usually sends a photo to identify it. His mother draws the line at capturing venomous snakes for the time being to keep him safe.

With the money he has earned so far, he bought 33 Bibles and handed them out at a church, Vacation Bible school, food bank and to family friends.

“When I had the money from before, I felt called to use it for some Bibles to hand out to people. I usually use it to try to save it up for something that God calls me to use or whenever I feel like I might need to do with it,” Goodman said.

Goodman said he thinks his mother thinks he is crazy for wanting to help capture snakes and other wildlife. However, his mother, Sarah Goodman, is proud of him for his entrepreneurial spirit.

“He has such a little entrepreneurial spirit. I was not a fan of snakes at all. But I have four boys, so I've had to come to terms with this. So I'm OK with them now,” she said, “I used to be scared of them, but when Sawyer loved them so much, and we really did read that booklet before bed every night for years. I have had to overcome that."

Along with his side hustle of capturing snakes, Goodman has two wild milk snakes given to him by his grandparents he loves to take care of.

Although snakes are A-OK for the youngster, he's not a fan of all wildlife.

"I'm pretty afraid of spiders. ... I'm pretty afraid of even just little ones," he said.