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When To Hire Your First Pet Sitter

Deciding when to hire your first pet sitter is a tough decision. Making that transition is not easy, so don’t feel badly if you’re struggling with it.

First, you need to get crystal clear on the role you want to play in your business and where you want to take your business. If you love every moment of the pet sitting and have no interest in scaling your business, then keep on doing what you’re doing! I will say though, that for people in your situation, it’s still a good idea to have an emergency backup or someone to take some weekend visits off your plate because nobody can go full steam ahead 365 days per year or you will burn out. That I can promise you!

Next, if after you become clear on your purpose and mission and you decide to bring on help, this is how I suggest you do it:

  1. The quickest path to cash is working with clients directly, so first work on filling your schedule to capacity. At that time, you’ll want to make your first hire.
  2. Give half of your customer list to your new pet sitter.
  3. With the free time you have now created by making the new hire, work on bringing in more new business, which you will pass onto Sitter #1.
  4. BEFORE Sitter #1’s schedule is filled to capacity, hire sitter #2.
  5. Give the second half of your customer list to Sitter #2 and any new business that comes in.
  6. BEFORE Sitter #2’s schedule is filled to capacity, hire sitter #3.

As your business grows, continue following this pattern. Remember to always hire proactively and always be ready for a sitter to give their notice at anytime. If for whatever reason you get caught without the help you need, you can fill-in as the emergency backup until a suitable sitter is hired.

If you do have the goal to grow your pet sitting business, try and avoid the cycle of filling your schedule to capacity, then stopping your marketing because you don’t have time because you’re doing all the visits. Then, as your customers start to dwindle, you go into panic mode and start marketing to get new business. This is a vicious cycle that many small business owners experience. Always market and you will always have clients. Click To Tweet

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