Today we’re talking to the multipliers, those who are at the stage in their pet business where they have laid the foundation, have the website, the profit plan, the clarity, and all of the goodness in place. They have clients.

But they’re working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year in their business. They are doing the pet sitting, the house sitting, the dog walking, the scheduling, the emailing, the sitter management (if they have them), the client resolution, and everything that goes along with running a pet business.

This is where most of us get stuck. This was where I majorly got stuck. I had no idea how to get out of this grind of the day-to-day working constantly and not understanding what I needed to do to multiply my business. I was stuck at an income level. I lived a life that I was not happy with, working way too much, and didn’t know what to do.

So I took the first step, and I decided to go for it. I hired private mentors, joined mastermind groups, coaching programs, attended seminars. I read books. I learned. That’s pretty much what anybody can do. Because you don’t know what you don’t know. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

After years of studying and implementing, I saw my income start to increase drastically. Years later, I found out that my income level is at the top of the pet-sitting industry. So people started coming to me and saying, “Oh my gosh, Colleen. How did you do this? And can you teach me how to do it?” And I was like, “Well, I’m not a business coach.”

I started thinking that if I can help other people, I’ll give it a shot. And that’s where Pet Nanny Coach came from. At that point, I taught many pet business owners how to multiply their businesses to six figures and beyond in 12 months or less.

That’s what I’m here to talk to you about today. What needs to be done in your pet business so that you can multiply to six figures and beyond, get yourself out of the day-to-day, and start enjoying your life? When you have a business, you’re not meant to work in it seven days a week, 365 days a year. That’s more of a job, and that’s not a good job. I’d rather go work for someone else, and have my weekends and nights free, to be honest.

So the eight steps in my Multiply Formula are:

Step 1: You need to learn how to effectively manage your time so that you get more done in your business.

Everybody I talk to says: “Colleen, I don’t have the time.” Well, guess what? You need to make the time. It’s not just going to happen magically. A business wrapped in a nice big red bow is not going to be left on your front doorstep.

You have to take the time to learn about all of this stuff and implement the strategies to make it happen. So that’s step one. It would be best if you learned how to manage your time effectively. That’s going to be step one in getting you out of the business of constantly working in the business. You need to start working on the business.

Step 2: You need to put your marketing on autopilot so that you are consistently attracting a pipeline of new clients to your business.

Some pet business owners do feast or famine marketing; some don’t market at all. It’s impossible to maintain your business with that. People move. People have babies. You may have clients you no longer want to work with.

There are reasons why you need to be generating new business. And it would be best if you had a marketing plan and a marketing calendar, implemented and on autopilot so that you were consistently bringing new clients into your pet business.

Step 3: Design amazing customer experiences so that your customers refer you all over town.

Most of the sitters that I talk to pretty much are doing the basics. They answer the phone, they set up clients in the scheduling software, go to the meet and greet, have them sign the papers, and do the visits. And that’s it.

So think about what a fantastic customer experience is for you. Have you ever flown with a particular airline that’s just been amazing? And you’re like, “Oh, this is so great.” Or you’ve been to a hotel where you feel like you’re like a prince or princess. Think about things you can do to really wow these new customers of yours and make them raving fans.

Don’t just do the bare minimum. Go above and beyond and make these customers raving fans. That is how they’re going to refer you. They’re not going to refer you if you’re just kind of like, “Okay, I’m going to do the bare minimum and then roll out.” It doesn’t work that way.

Step 4: Build a team of heart-centered pet care professionals who will take stellar care of your customer’s pets.

This is another spot where sitters get stuck. They’re like, “It’s all about me. I am the reason that all of my clients love me. They’re not going to use my pet business if it’s not me doing the pet-sitting.” And I just got to tell you, you have to get that thought out of your brain because it’s not true.

It’s a story that you’ve made up in your head. And yes, if you decide to hire for the first time, you may have some customers  jump ship. But I guarantee they’re not the customers that you love and adore working with. The customers that I loved and adored working with when I made this leap into building a team were happy for me. They understood that I needed to build a team to even be in business and make ends meet in this industry.

It can’t just be any team. You can’t just pick any Joe Schmoe off the street and send them out to your client’s homes. You need to find heart-centered pet care professionals who will love and adore your clients just the way you are. So what does that mean? I’ve talked about this before.

You need to have an attraction system, a hiring system, and an onboarding system that will create these amazing team members who will create unforgettable experiences for your customers. It’s no easy feat. Team building is one of the hardest things you’re going to do in your business. Learning how to do it right and building an incredible team makes life so easy, fun, and great. And you’re going to start loving your business again. It gives you the time to start enjoying your life.

Step 5: Create systems and processes in your business.

You should be documenting every single thing that you do in your pet business, more than once. So many people have their businesses in their heads, and they run it by saying, “Okay, what are we going to do now? What’s next?”

You should have everything documented, A to Z. What does every single thing in your business look like? It needs to be documented somewhere. Then it’s super easy to delegate. You don’t ever want to be the only person that knows and understands your business. If something happened to you, somebody on your team or a family member could jump in and know what to do.

Step 6: Organize your business finances and generate greater profitability by creating a Profit First financial system.

This is where I fell short for entirely too long. I was like the worst with my finances. And until Profit First by Mike Michalowicz came into my life, the more money I made, the more money I spent.

Setting up a Profit First financial system starts with organizing your finances with at least a business checking account. I can’t even tell you how many people I talked to who don’t even have business checking accounts. Everything’s being funneled into one account. By the way, there’s no judgment because I did that for a lot of years. I’m just saying there are easier ways to manage your money and create a more profitable business by getting your finances in order.

Step 7: Hire a powerhouse manager to run the day-to-day operations in your business, and you can focus your time and your energy on business growth.

Sitters sometimes say, “I’m still working in the business. How am I going to hire a manager?” This doesn’t have to happen immediately, but this needs to be a goal of yours.

The first goal is building a team of sitters. Then you remove yourself. You become the manager. When that becomes a full-time job, that is when you have to hire a powerhouse manager. I have three exceptional managers work for me, whom I trust to treat my clients well.

I call them my client’s happiness managers, and my clients love that too. But that frees up your time to focus on business growth, which is marketing, getting clients, streamlining, and systematizing so you can multiply.

Step 8: Automate as many of the manual tasks in your business to save time and increase efficiency.

You got to get on board with the technology. Not every phone call, email, the text message has to happen manually from you.

You can set up marketing campaigns where people go through funnels on your website, where the goal is for them to become buyers and customers. You can streamline your whole hiring system using automation.

You can send lockboxes and cards and all sorts of cool things using automation. Automation rules, and it’s super scary for a lot of you. I get it. I’m a tech person, so it’s not frightening for me, and I’ve embraced it. Automation and technology are here to free up your time and make you money. So if you take the time to learn it, you are going to benefit significantly from it.

To make a substantial income in this industry, you need to leverage yourself through a team of heart-centered pet care professionals who will take stellar care of your client’s pets. You have to do all this.