Don’t Let Anyone Hold the Keys to Your Pet Sitting Business

I was coaching one of my private students the other day, and she was very stressed because her number one employee had left the company. This girl did all the scheduling, the phone calls, and the email. She would do pet sitting. She would plug in, plug herself in wherever they needed somebody. She was her go-to person.

Then, this person’s life changed out of nowhere, and she had to leave the position. So now my student is like, “What am I going to do?”

We have a long discussion about not letting anybody have that much control in the business. You can’t lean so much on one person because if that person were to go, you’d be left holding the bag.

If they decide to stay, there becomes this weird energy exchange where they feel like they are in charge because they’re doing all of this. I have been here myself, I’ve had many managers, and I know you need somebody else who also knows how to do that position.

So we mapped out a plan for what she would do, and she hired two people, a Monday through Friday person who would work mornings until around four, and then she hired an evening and weekend person. They are both trained to know the scheduling systems and all of the business’s operations, and they will plug themselves in as emergency backups if the pet sitters aren’t available. So we got this up and running. She feels really good about it. Out of nowhere, one of these new hires got really, really sick and taken out.

Now she has this other person that’s able to help her. Again, this is a good reminder of why you need two people to fill this position. You never know what life is going to throw at you. You never know who’s going to get sick, who’s going to have to leave, and you can’t put all of your eggs in one basket with one person.

Trust me on this. Have a regular manager for the day-to-day and then a weekend manager or a headset sitter that will be able to fill in. Don’t count on one person. It never ends well.