I’m starting a new series where I answer questions directly from our Pet Nanny Coach community members. Today’s question comes from Norma, who would like to discuss how to maintain a pet care service when one has family members who need caregiving.
So in Norma’s specific situation, she has elderly parents that she needs to care for, and therefore she can’t be in two places at once, and thus her income stream from her pet sitting business dries up when she cannot do the work for her clients.
And the answer is very simple. You need to build a team to turn on an income stream in your pet sitting business without you having to do the work. It’s as simple as that. I wish I had a better answer for you.
Many of you are not interested in the team-building model, which is fine, but I always get this question. How do I make money without having to do the work? And if you don’t want to delegate the work to a team member, that revenue stream will turn off.
But the good news is you don’t have to have a large team to make a substantial income in the industry or enjoy more freedom in your life. Two to three people tops can help you be able to maintain sanity, make more money, and to be able to focus on the things that are important to you.
And in Norma’s case, that would be to be able to care for her parents and still make some money. Her second question was about other ways to make money in the pet care industry but from home.
This would be a product-based business you can look into, Norma. Some companies do what they call drop shipping. So you would sell their products, and then when people place the order, the product is shipped from the manufacturer directly to the customer. Therefore you don’t have to hold any inventory at your home or office.
If you want to create another revenue stream without having to trade hours for dollars or provide more services, look into creating a product-based business with companies offering drop shipping services. That would be my suggestion.
Hey there, Newbie Pet Sitter! Are you feeling stuck or overwhelmed with starting your pet sitting business? Fret no longer, my friend. I’ve got ya covered!
Enter Your Info Below to Download 30 Ways to Get More Pet Sitting Clients!
Today, our pet business growth video is an old-school marketing strategy. When I’m coaching my students, I’ve noticed that everybody is super duper excited about learning all of the hot online marketing strategies I have to offer. Don’t get me wrong; I love online marketing. But I need to remind them that the old school, grassroots marketing strategies still work.
We go around in our community and pass out flyers once a month. For example, here is a flyer from Pet Nanny Pet Sitters of the Main Line. This flyer has a QR code right here, so anyone that sees it with their camera can take a shot at the QR code, which takes them to a high-value coupon, which then has a call to action to sign up for pet nanny service.
This works. So here’s a marketing template: I give this to my students in my Multiply Mastermind program, and then they can go ahead and make it their own. They can change images, colors, logos, and such to make it easy.
This is an effective pet business marketing strategy. We also use it for hiring. So here we go, we talk about Pet Nanny is hiring, are you passionate about pups, crazy for cats, fearless about frogs or iguanas, rabbits, chinchillas, or other exotic pets, so on and so forth. The QR code then takes them to the application page on our website.
Do not forget about the old-school marketing strategies because these work. Go around your community, find out where they have bulletin boards where you can post these, and do it. It’s so inexpensive. You can create this on Canva, have it printed right from Canva, and take action on this strategy within a week. So that’s your homework. Take action.
Hey there, Newbie Pet Sitter! Are you feeling stuck or overwhelmed with starting your pet sitting business? Fret no longer, my friend. I’ve got ya covered!
Enter Your Info Below to Download 30 Ways to Get More Pet Sitting Clients!
Today, our business growth video is four strategies to increase the average transaction value. You may be wondering what that means. The goal is simple, to get customers to spend more with your pet sitting business on every transaction.
The simplest way to do this is to raise your rates.
You can also offer them products and services that will truly serve them and give them fantastic value when they’re using your service. So strategy number one is the obvious one, you can raise your rates.
Create add-on services.
Think about what your customers need while they’re at work or traveling apart from the pet sitting. Think about different things they can add to their pet sitting invoice. Think supply pick up or a pet taxi service, or a pooper scooper service or a vacuuming service, or if you’re a dog trainer, offering those services in addition to the pet sitting, same with grooming.
Sell products that would benefit their pets.
If you love a line of pet products like holistic pet care products, you can add this revenue stream to your business. Or maybe there are tools that you love, like a gentle harness that you couldn’t live without or poop bags. You can then sell those products to your customers, which would increase the transaction value.
Offer packages and discounted packages.
You might be thinking, “Well, that’s going to be less money,” but no, not actually. If you package your services and give your clients discounts when they buy in bulk like that, they will be incentivized to book more.
They may only book three visits a day, but if you have a four visit package where all the visits are discounted, they will go with the four visit package, which results in more money and a higher transaction value for your business.
Howdy, Pet Lover! Are you struggling with attracting new clients to your pet sitting business? Would you like to have a consistent pipeline of new clients coming to your business? Well, wait no longer, my friend. Grab my FREE report, 125 Ways To Get More Pet Sitting Clients.This resource is 100% FREE and is my gift to you. Enjoy!
YES! Send Me The Complete Checklist of 125 ways to get more PET SITTING CLIENTS!
Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.
I’m going to open up and let you guys know some of these strategies that I have done and that I still do that have attracted great abundance into my life. This year, I will be talking a lot about woo woo stuff because that’s part of who I am. I’m all about tangible business strategy, but I’m also very spiritual.
Today are the three daily habits to attract more abundance into your life.
Declutter.
You need to create more space in your physical environment to attract more abundance. If every drawer is stuffed and filled, there’s no room for anything else. Getting into the daily habit of cleaning your desk and cleaning out your physical space is one of the easiest ways to attract new abundance into your life.
Write your goals out on cards.
I want you to write them as if they already happened, and I want you to be grateful for them. For example, I am so happy and grateful that I have created consistent $10,000 months in my business. Thank you, God. Thank you, universe. Thank you, Buddha.
This, my friends, is my first set of goal cards that I wrote in 2011 that my coach told me to do. You choose the word that you use and that you connect with. You’re going to write them down on your cards, and then you will read them several times a day. The idea here is that we are imprinting them on our subconscious mind. We’re trying to reprogram your subconscious mind for abundance. Every single thing in this deck has come true.
I’m not even joking. I was like reading through. I’m like, “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.” Amazing. Do this. All right. Write them down. Say them over and over again every single day.
Track every bit of money that comes into your life every day.
Open up an Excel spreadsheet or a Google sheet, and I want you to write every deposit that hits your bank account. If somebody gives you a bottle of wine, I want you to count the value. So, say this is like, okay, that’s $20. If someone offers you to see a concert, the value of the ticket. If you find $2 on the road, I found $40 in the airport the other day. I would put that on my spreadsheet. So, the idea here is what you track grows. It is a universal law.
Get in the habit of doing this every day and watch the abundance flow into your life.
Enter your first name and email below and we’ll send Your 12 Website Essentials Cheat Sheet to your inbox. It’s 100% FREE!
Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.
Today we’re talking about three simple steps for you to create consistent five figure months in your pet sitting business.
Step 1: Create a sales system that attracts new clients to your business.
Create a sales system that attracts new clients to your business while incentivizing your current customers to book from you more frequently.
Step 2: Systematize every single thing in your business.
It’s taking everything out of your head. It is documenting it onto an online business hub into some manual to easily delegate it to your support team.
Step 3: Have a Support Team
You will make a substantial income in your pet sitting business by leveraging yourself through a team of heart-centered pet care professionals that will take amazing care of your client’s pets. Then eventually, your support team will get even larger with a manager, a virtual assistant, and such.
Those are the three steps. You need to be acquiring new customers. You need to be systematizing every last thing in your business so one, you’re creating something of value that you’ll be able to sell down the road, and two, it makes it easy to run. It establishes that turnkey business where you’re not the person that’s having to do everything.
Lastly, you’re delegating to other people to do the work of running your pet sitting business.
As the business owner, you are not supposed to do the client work.
You are supposed to be the visionary. You’re supposed to be the person behind the scenes, and you delegate the client work to your team. It’s that simple.
Enter your first name and email address below to receive our Wildly Successful Pet Sitting Business Plan Workbook
Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.
Today’s topic is the four steps you need to take to get to $3,000 months in revenue in your pet sitting business. There are two different frameworks. The first is Launch & Growers, which teaches how to get to your first $3,000 month. The second is my Multiply framework, which teaches you how to get to $10,000 months.
1. Get clear on your profit plan.
What is the business that you are creating? Is it dog walking, pet sitting, house sitting, concierge, or in-home boarding? Is it a combination of all of the above? What are you creating?
Next, what will you charge for these amazing services that you’re going to offer to your customers? How are you going to make money? And who do you want to service? Who’s your ideal client avatar? Getting clear on the exact customer you want to attract to your business is part of your profit plan.
2. Attract pet parents. Set yourself apart from the competition.
This is how you speak to pet parents. This is how you set yourself apart from the competition. Why is someone going to choose you and your business over somebody else?
3. Grow – Create your marketing system.
We’re going to create your marketing power wheel. Your marketing system, your marketing plan, and your marketing calendar so that you can put your marketing strategies on autopilot. Then you will consistently attract your ideal client avatar to your business weekly.
4. Convert visitors into paying customers.
This is where I see so many pet sitters miss the boat. You need to have a pet sitting website that converts the visitors into paying customers to your pet sitting business. You need to file a whole recipe, so when somebody hits your website, it’s ding, ding, ding, ding… this is the person that I want to work with.
If you would like detailed training on these steps, you can go to petnannycoachwebinar.com, watch the training and download the workbook.
If you are already at $3,000 months, and you’re ready to get to $10,000 months, go to webinarwithcolleen.com. That’s where I teach you my 10K month framework.
If you’re ready to make your dream of owning a successful and profitable pet sitting business a reality, DOWNLOAD your FREE blueprint now.
Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and
we will NEVER share your email address.
Today’s mini-training talks about how much you can make pet sitting. Here’s what you’ll learn.
What the earning potential is at different levels of the pet sitting industry.
Why a clear vision of what you want and why you want it is so important.
The difference between having a job and having a business.
The power of the leverage business model.
But first, in case you don’t know me, my name is Colleen Sedgwick, and I’m the founder of Pet Nanny Coach. I teach pet sitters how to launch, grow and multiply their businesses.
As you can imagine, I get asked quite often, “Colleen, is it possible to have a career taking care of animals and make a solid income doing it?” And my answer is always an emphatic, “Yes, I am living proof that it is possible.”
Back in 2001, when I started my business, I didn’t have a clear vision for my company. As you all have heard me say countless times, “I didn’t know what I wanted and why I wanted it,” which is an integral part of having a successful business. It seems basic, but it’s so necessary.
All I knew was I wanted to quit my job as a teacher and work for myself. I used to say things like, “Yeah, I want to make my hours. I want to work for myself. Make my hours. Be able to get on the shore when I want.” And I learned quickly that being the owner of the business and the technician doing the client work inside the business wasn’t easy and required an exorbitant amount of time.
I didn’t realize when I started my business that I was never meant to do the client work. I thought the opposite.
In reality, if you are doing the client work or, in our world, the pet sitting or the dog walking or the house sitting, you don’t have a business. You have a job. Please don’t get mad at me. Don’t shoot the messenger, my friends. There is no judgment here because I used to think the same thing as you.
I started this business based on my love of animals. So I should be the person out taking care of them. It makes perfect sense, right?
Wrong! As a business owner, your role is to be the strategic visionary that delegates the client work to the technicians inside the business. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. I had no idea.
In today’s training, I want to break down the earning potential for all different levels of pet sitting, so you have an unmistakable picture and can make the best decision for you on what path suits you the best.
For Solopreneurs
First, I know that some don’t want large businesses like the one that I have. You want to do pet sitting as a solo show, which is fine, by the way. You do you, my friends. Don’t email me or go to social media. But all I do is talk about growing these big businesses. If that’s not for you, that’s not for you. But we’re still going to talk, and we’re going to do some numbers for all levels, so stick with me.
Let’s do the math. Let’s assume that currently, it’s you doing all the pet-sitting. You have a packed schedule of twelve 30-minute visits per day at $22 per visit, seven days a week. This equals $264 per day, $1,840 per week, $7,392 per month, $88,704 per year. That was pretty good. On paper, this seems great. I remember the days I strived for this.
But let me be clear. This is not an equation for a happy and healthy life. This is a recipe for burnout, mistakes, unhappy clients, and an unhappy life. I know because I lived it. As a result, if this is you, you’re working way too hard. You may be asking yourself, “What am I not getting here?” You’re feeling stressed in other areas of your life. Can you relate to this? I certainly can because that was my life for quite some time.
So let’s dial this back a bit to make it more manageable. Now, let’s say that you had eight 30-minutes midday visits at $22 per visit, five days a week. So now we’re just doing midday walks. We’re not doing mornings. We’re not doing evenings. We’re not doing overnights. We’re not spending our weekends pet sitting. So it’s eight 30-minute midday visits, Monday through Friday. This equals $176 per day, $880 per week, $3,520 per month, $42,240 per year.
In this example, you’re making much less, but at least you have a life. You have your mornings, evenings and weekends free. In my opinion, this is a much more sustainable situation and a recipe for a happy life if you can live off that income. Remember, that’s your gross income and doesn’t account for what you have to pay out in taxes and your expenses.
Leverage Business Model
If your goal is to create a lucrative pet sitting career, let’s talk about the leverage business model, which I teach my Multiply Students. To make a substantial income in this industry and to achieve the freedom-based lifestyle you deserve, you need to leverage yourself through a team of heart-centered pet care professionals who hold the same beliefs, values, and pet care philosophy that you do. Let’s run some numbers to illustrate this point.
We’re going to restructure your business from that first example where you’re doing crazy visits, seven days a week, you’re making good money, but you have no life, and you’re miserable. So let’s restructure this. Okay, so say you keep six midday dog-walking clients, six visits a day at $22 per visit, five days a week. Equals $132 per day, $660 per week, $2,640 per month.
Next, you hire three pet sitters to absorb the rest of your current clients and to take on new clients. This is the same equation for all three sitters. Sitter one has eight visits a day at $22 per visit. This is $176 per day, $1,232 per week, $4,928 per month for the business, so that’s grossing for the business. Say you take 50%, so $2,464 goes to the sitter, and $2,464 goes to the business. So that’s the same equation for sitter one, sitter two, and sitter three.
Now, you have your midday walking income still, so that’s a total of $2,640 per month. So the income you received from center one is $2,464. Plus, the income from sitter two, $2,464.
The income from sitter three, $2,464. Your owner’s income is $2,640. This equals $10,032 per month. The gross revenue for the business equals $17,424 per month. Now, let’s look back at your previous structure. You were making $7,392 per month working 12 hours … 12 to 15 hours, to be quite honest, per day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Now, by bringing on only three pet centers and drastically lightening your load, you are now making $10,032 per month.
This is the recipe for creating a lucrative pet sitting career.
For those high-achieving pet sitters who do have dreams of growing a more significant business, you now have gifted yourself the time to work on your business and market your business to serve more clients and therefore make more money with even more free time.
Do you see how this works? I’m going to say that again. You’ve now gifted yourself the time to work on your business and market your business, so you can service more clients and therefore make more money and have even more free time. It’s an equation, guys.
All right, so let’s take this a few steps further so that you can see the power of a team. Twenty sitters are working five days per week. Each sitter has six visits per day at $22 per visit. This equals $2,640 in daily revenue, $13,200 in weekly revenue, $52,800 in monthly revenue. Your 50% equals $26,400 per month. Pretty great, right?
This illustrates the power of a team. You give the client work to the technicians, and you focus on the business growth or the strategy work of your company.
So Courtney Anderson of waggitytails.com leveraged herself through a team and experienced explosive growth in her business. Courtney decided to start building her team one year after she launched her business in 2014.
Courtney now employs 13 pet sitters and a part-time office manager. Her team services 200+ clients and 50 recurring weekly clients. Courtney’s yearly revenue has increased by 652%. And she attributes her massive success to the power of a team.
So get out your paper and figure out the math. How much money do you want to make? How many clients would you need to support that number? How many sitters would you need to support that number?
Remember to account for taxes and expenses from your gross income. In all these examples, I’m speaking gross. Again, you always need to pay your taxes and account for your operating expenses for the company. Luckily, in our industry, we don’t have a ton of overhead because our business occurs in our client’s homes, which is a plus. But again, these are all gross numbers. We need to account for taxes and expenses.
I honestly never dreamed that my pet sitting business would create so much prosperity in my life. After I learned about the power of leverage, team-building systems, processes, and automation, the sky became the limit for my business. And I’m so grateful for the blessing of my business. All right, guys, so this is what is possible. Let’s close this out.
This is what’s possible for you. When you’re asking, “How much can I actually make in this industry,” again, do the math. Figure out what you are going to charge. How many clients do you need? What kind of lifestyle do you want?
Remember, your business is supposed to serve your life. I speak to so many of you, and your business is not serving your life. And it’s sucking the life out of you. It’s not the purpose of a business.
Remember, if you do all the visits, you don’t have a business; you have a job.
Again, you can have a lucrative pet-sitting career by leveraging yourself through a team. If that’s not for you, have at it. Stay solo. And do the math and figure out what you need to do and how many visits you need to do in a day to create the income that you need for your life.
Enter your first name and email address below to download our Team Expansion Tool Kit It’s 100% FREE!
Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.
Today’s business growth video is a question that comes from a member of our Pet Nanny Coach community Facebook group. Kate writes, “How do you all accept payment? I’m so tired of the scattered methods. Cash, check, Venmo, Zelie. It’s everything. I’m a mess. Any suggestions? I know I should have done this a while ago.”
I can identify with what you’re going through because there was nobody worse than me when it came to tracking money. I would find checks in my coat pockets and the back of my jeans and my roommate used to borrow my clothes, and she’d find checks all the time. She’d say, “Wow, you must be wealthy not to have to deposit these checks.”
I would feel guilty if I lost a check, and I wouldn’t want to ask the client. So I would miss out on $600. It was just a nightmare. Then we had other people that wouldn’t pay, but I wasn’t treating my money or the energy around my money with respect. So, therefore, my clients weren’t treating me with respect for money, and it was a vicious circle.
I made this change probably about 13 years ago, and I’ve never looked back.
Get Scheduling Software.
I now bill the clients and create a service order. Then, four days before their scheduled service, I charge the credit card that we keep on file in my pet-sitting software. So that is how we do it.
I get a little bit of pushback from other members of the community. Well, what about the clients that don’t want to do that? Well, then they’re not my ideal client, and they can find service somewhere else.
Billing information is collected at onboarding.
There are two things that a client needs to do before we will schedule a registration meeting. First, they need to complete their welcome packet. It’s all their client and pet care information, sign their service agreement, and then need to give us their billing information.
If they don’t want to do that, Pet Nanny Pet Sitters of the Main Line is not the service for them. No judgment. Everybody has the right to make their own decisions, but that is how I run my business. It now runs seamlessly with me not having to worry about missed payments or tracking payments. It’s all right in there. It’s so easy.
The software keeps track of the credit card expiration.
The software system lets us know when the cards expire, and the client gets an automatic reminder email, “Hey, the credit card that you have on file with Pet Nanny has expired. Please update it.”
There has never been an issue since then. So think about it. Maybe that’s not the right system for you. This is your business, your rules.
What systems can be put into place to minimize time spent?
Consider what the pain points of your money management systems are and what systems can you put into place to minimize the time spent and make it easy for your clients to buy from you and make it easy for you to keep track of your books and your finances.
YES! Send Me The FREE 7 Tax-Saving Tips For Pet Sitting Businesses!
Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.