Rewind to 20 years ago, when I was building my pet sitting business, I accepted any client that would come down the pike. It didn’t matter how disgusting their houses were; it didn’t matter how rude they were; it didn’t matter if I had to chase down payment. I would work for pretty much anybody, anytime, because I just wanted to build my client list and make money.

What happened over time, I’d built this client list with many wonderful people, but with a lot of non-ideal heartsick clients is what I call them, and people that I would not wish on anybody.

My “No-Jerk” policy came around due to one specific client. This client lived in this big, beautiful house, they had these three big, giant beautiful dogs, and I had adopted their Great Dane from them because they had internal fighting amongst their dogs.

They were never necessarily rude, but they were very cold, but they were very generous too. This client would leave me nice tips, which made me have these mixed feelings about them. I didn’t feel like the best feelings, but nothing ever overtly necessarily happened with them.

Then the nanny started taking walks with me with the dogs, and she would tell me these insane stories about how mean these people were to her.

Then I have a sitter that’s spending the night there. The sitter got locked out of the house. This woman (client) called me and was cursing and screaming at me in a way that you would not even believe. And I was like, “I’ll drive over; I have a spare key and let her in. Chill.”

So I hung up, I went over, I got the sitter in, I came back, and thought, “You know what? I’m not letting this happen person talk to me like this. I don’t need this. I’ve had enough of these types of people.”

I remember going to my dad and saying, “Dad, what would you do in this situation?” He thought about it, and he was like, “You know, you don’t owe them any explanation. Write them a letter, put the key in the envelope, drop it off in their mailbox, and be done with them.”

Looking back, that would not be what I would suggest to any pet sitting business owner. But again, I was newer in business. I was a young girl.

So that’s what I did, and then I got this scathing email from this lady. They’re just awful, awful people. I clicked delete, never responded, and from there, my “No-Jerk” policy came into play, which has now changed my life, changed my business because I do not put up with any of this anymore.

From that moment moving forward, if any clients were rude to me, my managers, or my sitters, they were tagged as a “jerk” inside of Infusionsoft, my email marketing software, and we were no longer doing business with them.

Build a system to gracefully unleash these “jerk” clients.

Since then, I have built the most wonderful client base.

Here and there, a few will drop in, and then the no-jerk policy comes into play.

Remember, many pet sitting clients will love and respect you and your business.

Many clients have pets that will love your service, will respect you, will tip you, will tip your sitters, and you can have fantastic relationships with them. You do not need toxic, awful people in your life, and you certainly don’t deserve to be spoken rudely.

Go with your gut.

In my Pet Nanny Coach business, I had one that slipped through the cracks last year. She had been a student many years ago, and she was a nightmare. She came back to me, begging to go back and work with me. Against my better judgment, I let her through, and it was even worse the second time.

When people show you their true colors, believe your gut and focus on the extraordinary people who don’t give you any problems. Sometimes we forget about those people. These people aren’t hounding or are rude to you. Those are the people that deserve your attention and your extra love and support if you will.