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Should I Scale My Pet Sitting Business

Should I Scale My Pet Sitting Business?

There are so many new pet sitters out there that have a smaller pet sitting business, and they’re not sure if scaling to the next level is a good fit. So I put together a mini-training for you guys today. We’re going to walk through what exactly is needed to scale your business. Then you can make a decision and see if this is the right path for you.

Here at Pet Nanny Coach, We often get asked, “Should I scale my pet sitting business? Or should I stay where I am?” This is an excellent question. One that I asked myself so, so many times. I’m somebody that’s been at every level in my pet sitting career.

At one time, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do either. I was utterly lost. So first, many of you have heard me talk about getting very clear on your what and your why. What do you want your business to look like? And why do you want it?

If you’re brand new to the pet sitting industry or have been in the pet sitting business for a while, but don’t have a clear understanding of where you want to take your business, here’s my first piece of advice.

Get clear on your what and your why because clarity equals power.

What do you want your pet sitting business to look like, and why do you want it? For me, I came to this realization in kind of a backward manner. I got clear on what I didn’t like: working seven days a week, 365 days a year. I wanted a team that could do the client work while I focused on the business’s strategic position. Let me be very clear. I did not come to this realization for many, many years into my business. I stayed stuck for a long time because I wasn’t clear.

Why did I want this? My why wasn’t the money. It was so I could have a freedom-based lifestyle. When I first started my business, I did it because I was teaching special education. I taught seven-year-olds with Down Syndrome, and I was in a classroom all day, every day. That ended up being an added perk.

I worked really hard, but all I would do is look out the window and think, “Oh my gosh, I wish I could be outside. I wish I could be playing sports.” I’m a little jock. I couldn’t stand being cooped up in the room. So when I started my business, that was why I wanted freedom back in my life. I did not want to be pigeonholed and stuck in a room all day, every day. So some of you are probably saying, “Yeah, but I don’t know what I want.” I’m here to tell you that indecision leads to inaction, which is the killer of dreams.

Figure it out.

I would even challenge most of you who say, “I don’t know what I want.” I’m going to challenge you and say, “I bet you do.”

We all have those little voices in our heads speaking to us. It’s hard to tune them out. I bet you guys know what it is you want. You may be thinking, “I may want to scale my business, but I don’t know what’s involved.”

Today, I’m going to tell you what you need to do. Then you can decide if scaling your business is the right path for you. To scale your pet sitting business, you need to leverage yourself through a team, systems, and automation.

First, you need to systematize everything in your business so that anyone could replicate it. The system runs the business, and the person runs the system.

Two, you have to hire pet care professionals to do the client work: pet-sitting, dog walking, house sitting, et cetera.

Three, you need to use your now available time to focus on business growth activities like marketing your business to get more clients and have your current customers book from you more frequently.

Four, you then hire more pet care professionals to absorb the new business that you get from your business growth activities.

Five, you automate your marketing systems and manual tasks to create efficiency, which produces the ability to continue to scale. This is your recipe for scaling success.

Now, this is easier said than done. I get it. You’re probably asking yourself, “Well, how do I systematize? Or what does that even mean?” You’re probably wondering about finding good people and then trusting them to do as good of a job as you, or you’re probably like, “Business growth activities? What are those exactly?”

Some of you are saying, “Automation, that sounds scary to me.” These are all extremely common and understandable thoughts. You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s like anything else. You need to learn and then implement. I certainly had no idea about these things when I decided to go all-in with my business, but I learned.

So currently, in my business, I staff 40 plus pet sitters and three managers who run the day-to-day operations of my pet sitting business. The business requires only two hours a week of my time. My business generates a consistent 50 to 75K per month in passive income, passive meaning I don’t have to do the work to receive the income.

Now I’m not saying this was easy or that it happened overnight. But it’s possible. It took a lot of work, study, and trial and error to get where I am today. I had to learn about team building, systems, and automation before I could get there. And I know because I’ve done it.

Now I’m sure there are some of you that this doesn’t interest. You may have a small book of business, and you’re doing all the visits, or perhaps you have one or two people that help you out, and you may be very happy.

You guys, I say, “Keep doing what you’re doing and follow your bliss. There is no shame in your game.” But for those pet sitters who do want to scale, my question for you today is, “What’s holding you back?”

This is where I’m going to get deep on you. Those who know me or have followed me for a while know that I’m all about mindset and thought work. Because it’s the integral piece that so many business owners are missing. So I ask again, “What’s holding you back?”

Is it fear of control? Thinking, “Oh my goodness, nobody is going to be able to service my clients as good as I do?” Fear of the unknown. “What does this look like? And do I want to learn all of this? And I don’t know what’s involved with that and automation technology. That sounds scary. And systematizing, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

So I stay in inaction—fear of success. “I don’t need to make that much money taking care of animals. I’m all about loving animals. I don’t need to make that much money and be that successful to be important and important to the animal-loving community.” Guess what? The more successful you are, the more that you can give back to the animal-loving community.

Fear of failure. “What if I try and I go all in, and I fail. I will be judged. My family will look down on me. My peers will judge me.” Fear of failure is a real thing, guys. Oh, fear of judgment. “I don’t want to put myself out there because I don’t want to be judged.” I dealt with this at every level of my business. I still do. It’s a tough one, for sure. Fear of not being good enough. Thinking, “Well, she can do it because of X, Y, and Z, or he is successful because of X, Y, and Z. But I don’t have what it takes.” I am not special. There’s nothing about me that I have that you don’t have. And this is a lie that so many people tell themselves because they don’t want to put themselves out there. And the fear of, “I won’t be good enough, so I’m not going to succeed.”

By the way, there is no judgment if you have any of these fears, because like I said, I had every single one of them, and I still deal with some of them today. After almost 20 years in business, I still deal with these fears after all these years. Let’s do some mindful thought work. And this is where I get intense. This is like my favorite stuff here.

Step one, you need to identify and connect with the emotion you are feeling.

I’m going to run you through a quick thought model so you can see how these negative thoughts can hold you back from accomplishing your dreams. So here’s the model.

Thoughts equal your feelings, which equal your actions, which equal your results. Your thoughts create your feelings, which propel your actions, which give you your results. If your thoughts are fear of judgment, that will create a sense of anxiety, which will result in your inaction, or you not putting yourself out there, which will produce the same result of you working in the day-to-day grind of your business. But you see how it all started with the thought.

Now let’s try to do a new mindful thought. So your thought is, “I can do anything I put my mind to. I can create a pet-sitting business that generates 10K a month, 20K a month, 30K a month, 40K a month, 50K a month.”

Whatever it is, you can be very specific. That’s the thought you’re going to think, and I can do it. This is going to create a feeling of excitement for what’s possible. The action it’s going to propel is you working on your business growth, and the result will give you more clients, more money, more time, and more freedom. Do you see the difference of the thought instead of, “I don’t want to put myself out there because I’m fearful of being judged, or I’m fear of not being good enough, or I’m fearful that people won’t take as good of care of my clients like me.”

Thought work is so very important. It gives you your feeling, which keeps you in inaction, which provides you with the same result. But if you change your thinking, you change your results, and you change your life. It’s as simple as that.

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When we’re feeling these negative thoughts, it’s important to recognize them and create a new positive idea. I’m going to be the watcher of my thoughts. Like anything else, this takes work and practice. I work on my thoughts every single morning. I do. I do a thought download.

I write down everything that I’m thinking. It’s like cleaning your house. You want to clean your brain. And you want to think these negative thoughts, that you might not even realize you’re thinking these certain negative thoughts until you write them down, and then you create your new positive thoughts.

Step two is you need to take massive action despite this fear you’re feeling.

Fear is okay. We all have it. It’s our primitive brains trying to keep us safe. The idea is you don’t want to let it hold you back. This is what your brain was designed to do; it wants to keep you small and to keep you safe.

It thinks it’s helping you, when in fact, it’s holding you back from great things because magic happens outside of your comfort zone. “Okay, I’m fearful of the unknown, but guess what? I’m going to change my mind. I’m going to change my thought. I’m going to act despite this fear that I’m feeling.” When you’re uncomfortable, that’s when great things happen for you.

Growth happens when you decide to move forward in spite of fear. Expansion happens in the scary place of the uncomfortable unknown. All right, to sum up.

Fact: you can scale your business without sacrificing the quality of your service. There are amazing people out there who will take great care of your client’s beloved pets.

The trick is to systematize your entire hiring and onboarding process so that you’re entirely confident in the professionals you bring onto your team and who will represent your company.

Fact: more growth doesn’t mean more work. It means having a smart and effective strategy to do less and get a greater outcome.

Fact: the less you work in your business, and the more you work on your business, the greater your success in this industry.

All right, guys, five steps to scaling your business.

One, systematize everything in your business so that anyone can replicate it. The system runs the business. The person runs the system.

Two, hire other people to do the pet-sitting, and eventually the office work too.

Three, focus on marketing your business, which is getting new clients, instead of doing the business, which is taking care of the pets.

Four, automate your marketing and processes to streamline your business, which will give you the ability to continue to scale.

And five, do daily thought work to get yourself into a positive mindset that will, in turn, bring you the results you desire.

You can create any result in your life, and it all starts with a thought.

 

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