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Tag: owning a pet sitting business

What To Do When You Lose Motivation with Your Pet Sitting Business

There’s this thing called motivation that ebbs and flows. Some days you wake up, and you’re like, “All right, I’m ready to do this,” and you get a whole lot of stuff done. The next day you don’t feel like doing anything and don’t want to work on the business.

This feeling is normal. You’re a normal human being.

Motivation is a discipline, not a feeling

Think about professional athletes. They have to wake up every day to train to be in shape. I highly doubt that these people want to do this all day every day, but they don’t have a choice. They are working at it every single day to play at their peak performance level.

It’s the same with your business. You need to learn to act even when you don’t feel like it.

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Recommit to Yourself

It would be best if you told yourself, “Okay, this is what I set out to do. This is the business that I want to create. These are the results that I want to create. I’m the one that’s going to make them happen, and I’m going to do this whether I feel tired, whether I feel sad, whether I feel groggy. I’m going to wake up, and I’m going to work on my business every single day.”

Little steps add up. So every day, work on three tasks. You get more done, that’s amazing. If you can get three tasks done every day, you will grow leaps and bounds in your business.

So again, motivation is a discipline, and it is not a feeling. Once you learn that and get that mindset and say, “I just don’t feel like doing it, but I’m going to do it anyway,” you are going to reap the rewards.

Take this time to recommit to yourself, to your business, and to your future self, because your future self will thank you for doing so.

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What To Do When a Pet Sitter Services a Client Without Your Knowledge

One of the downsides of building a team of pet sitters is when one of your sitters provides service for one of your clients behind your back. I can’t tell you it is not going to happen. It’s more of when it will happen. Here are ways to handle it.

First, evaluate how you feel about the pet sitter.

If this sitter is a good hire, who you enjoy working with, provides fabulous service to your clients, and you don’t want to lose them, I suggest having an in-person meeting.

If they’re an independent contractor, make sure you have their independent contractor agreement. If they’re an employee, make sure you have their signed employee handbook.

Then have a sit-down and go over their job description, expectations from them, and how they breached the contract, what lengths you can go if you decide to pursue this, whatever is mentioned in the contract. Mention you love working with them, and you didn’t want to do this, and that you must come to an understanding.

If this person is not someone you trust and don’t want to work again, have a meeting via Zoom or in-person and let them know what is in the contract, what they breached, and what you’re going to do because of it. At this point, you can decide whether you want to take legal action or not.

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Don’t go to the client.

You might want to let the client know, in a nice way, “Listen, this is how my business works. It is against our company policy for clients to subcontract pet sitters.”

Thus, you need to decide if this client an ideal client? Is this somebody that you want to continue working with? It’s all about the decisions that you need to make about the people they are.

I wouldn’t like to work with this client again. If this is a client that you usually wanted, maybe you were out of town, maybe there was a reason and extenuating circumstance. They contacted the sitter outside of the company, outside of you, perhaps then you’ll have a different decision. Take note of it on their client record inside your pet-sitting software, and be aware.

Communicate expectations with the sitter.

Tell the sitter what is expected of them, what they signed, and what lengths you can legally go to if you decided. Remind the client kindly about your policies and leave it at that.

Have a system.

What are you going to do when you find out that someone on your team breaches their contract? Have it all mapped out to know exactly what to do, and you don’t have to guess. You’re just following the company protocol.

All right, guys, I hope this helps.

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Create a Key System for Your Pet Sitting Business that Works for you

I posted in the Pet Nanny Coach community group a tip of the day: Have your clients stay in control of their keys. This topic gained a lot of passionate responses on both sides. Some people were ‘absolutely no way.’ Others say, ‘Yes, I’ve done this in my pet sitting business, and it works amazingly well.’ While others ask, ‘What do you mean?’

I tried every single key system known to man to keep my client’s keys organized. I’m an extremely organized person, but I didn’t feel safe, and it felt stressful being responsible for 2,000 plus keys every day. It gets worse when sitters are out with the keys, and some even misplacing them. That’s when I decided to create a system for myself and for my business that worked for me.

My clients have three options:

Option 1: Use a lockbox. The kind that realtors use.

Option 2: Use a hide-a-key with a garage code.

Option 3: Schedule a key pickup and drop off service.

Most of the clients opt for number one or number two. Some prefer key pick up and drop off.

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The idea behind is the keys are always returned to the client, and they are not housed in my home office.

Whatever tips I offer for you for your business, do what feels right. Do what feels good. Your business, your rules. You can take my advice, or you can leave it. I’m just here to help and give you some tips on what I do, and what’s worked for me.

 

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Get More Done in Your Pet Sitting Business by Creating a Model Calendar

Pet sitters struggle with time management, especially if you are still out doing the dog walking, pet sitting, and house sitting. Thus, it makes it challenging to work on the business to move it forward. I talked about this previously when writing about Creating a Container Around Your Time. Today’s lesson has to do with Making a Model Calendar.

Make a Model Calendar

The model calendar is a strategy wherein you get a Google Calendar, then create a structure and routine for yourself.

For example:
– Monday 7:00 am: Plan your week. This is your planning power hour.
– Tuesday to Saturday 7:00 am: Admin work. Check customer emails, respond to customer requests, etc.

Put Focus Time on your calendar.

This is when you are committed to showing up for yourself, to work on and grow the business. If you stick to your calendar, you are going to be so much more productive. But the trick is to show up for yourself. The only person you’re letting down by not following your model calendar is you.

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Don’t forget to test your model calendar.

You may find out that you don’t show up for your Monday power hour sessions. So you may decide to move that to Sunday afternoons.

You may find out you need more time for admin work on Mondays and Fridays. So you may increase those hours.

You may find out you’re not showing up for your focus time and implementation time to work on the business at that specific time for whatever reason. Move the time.

The hours of service can vary among pet sitters. You need to test things out to figure out what works for you.

So creating a routine, structure, and framework for your week helps get much more done. Go to Google, create a Model Calendar, and get to it.

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2 Ways to Manage Your Money in Your Pet Sitting Business

When I started getting good at business doing marketing and the money started coming in for my pet sitting business, it was a super stressful time because I had no money management in place.

I’m super excited to chat with you today about my two favorite ways to manage your money.

#1 Hire a professional.

An accountant can guide you by setting up budgets for your business that can help you write things off for your business, keep track of monthly numbers, tell you if you’re on point, and can do your tax returns at the end of the year.

It is hard to figure this out all by yourself. Being an entrepreneur is like a full-contact sport. You need to know so much, but this is not one of those things.

2 Ways to Manage Your Money in Your Pet Sitting Business

 

#2 Create simple money systems.

When you do this, your business will scale quicker. A simple money system I suggest doing is checking your income daily. What you track grows. It’s a universal law.

Another system you can do is do your weekly allocations. Each week you’re going to allocate a percentage to your operating expenses, your tax account or the governor’s money accounts, to your profit account, and your owner’s pay.

You already know how much money is coming in percentage-wise, what you’re allocating to each of those accounts. And then guess what?

At the end of the year when taxes are due, you’re not going to have the midnight sweats like I used to have. “Oh, am I going to be able to pay the taxman?”

Now I think it’s super fun. I love logging in. I love seeing it. I love that it’s all organized, I love that I have a great relationship with my accountant, who helps and guides me to create these systems in my business so that I can enjoy my life and all the money that I’m creating in my life.

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5 Tips To Deal With Grief While Running Your Pet Sitting Business

Last May, my dad unexpectedly fell ill and ended up passing away in the hospital. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was in the hospital for 19 days, and I was unable to see him during this process. It was a very tragic experience.

Thus, the reason I haven’t done a video for some time. I’ve taken some time for myself away from my pet sitting business.

But now, I’m back. I still get emotional, and I wanted to do a video for you guys about how to deal with grief while running a business. Regardless of the amount of pain that I was in, a business still had to be taken care of.

I’m sharing with you what I did to help me get through this and still have my business running while I took a little bit of time for myself.

#1 I communicated with my team.

My team knew what was going on. I’ve talked about the importance of having a team to support me in my pet sitting business. From the moment my dad became sick, I kept my team abreast with open communication. You don’t have to burden your team with too many details, but having that line of communication open so they understand what you’re going through and can step up.

#2 I leaned on my support network of family and friends.

I leaned on the people I needed in my life. I probably could have used a little more support if it wasn’t for the COVID. I would have loved some more support in terms of people coming over.

During the funeral, we were only allowed to have ten people. It meant the world to me when I found all my friends standing there when I walked out of the funeral.

#3 I spoke with a counselor regularly via Zoom.

Due to COVID, you can’t see anybody face to face. I was able to speak with her, and she’s helping me through my grief. One of my beloved students gave me a book to read, and my counselor reads it with me. We’re working through it together so she can help me with it.

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#4 I changed my scenery.

This is not possible for everybody and I get it. But in Philadelphia, riots were going on, and it was too much for my brain and heart to handle. So I went to our family beach house to calm and soothe my soul. If possible, I highly suggest this. I think that’s one of the best things that I did to renew my mind and help me through this difficult time.

#5 I delegated as much as I could to my team.

Some people bury themselves in their work to get through their grief. I’m unable to do this. My mind was just not in it, so I gave as much to my team as possible, and they were helpful.

Thus, the importance of building a team and structure around you. You never know when things like this will happen. Having people, you can lean on and delegate to will make a world of difference. I would have never been able to get through this without them.

Lean on the people around you.
Build that support system.
Build that team.

I don’t wish this on anybody. But this is life, and things do happen. Anyone that’s experiencing any grief or tragedy, this is how I got through it.

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11 Ways To Generate Trust With Your Pet Sitting Customers and Prospects

The best piece of advice I can give you for owning a pet sitting business is to create a reputation for yourself and for your business as being “trustworthy.” In this industry, our customers are in essence, giving the keys to their homes to complete strangers. They’re basically saying, “Come on in (while I’m not here) and take care of my precious pals and worldly treasures.” If you think of it from this perspective, you can see how hiring a pet sitting service is a very scary thing for our customers. It is your job to show your pet sitting customers and customer prospects that you and your business can be trusted implicitly. So, how do you create trust with your pet sitting customers and prospects? Here are 11 ways…

#1. Owning a pet sitting business requires a professional website

  • You literally have 3 seconds to make an impression on your website visitors. If you have a poorly designed and unprofessional looking site, it’s going to be a serious detriment to your credibility and will most likely result in lost opportunities.

#2. Include your business phone number at the top of every page on your website

  • Phone numbers that are front and center invoke trust.
  • Answer the phone when it rings! People will feel immediately comfortable if they know they can get a live person on the phone when they call.

#3. Post your credentials on your website by including the logos to associations for which you are affiliated

#4. Crush them with social proof!

  • Showcase the positive experiences of others who have used your pet sitting service. The more the better! If you only have a few, don’t let that stop you. You have to start somewhere.
  • Dedicate an entire page for your positive reviews. Here is an article on how to use social proof when owning a pet sitting business.

#5. Make it personal

  • People trust people. Showcase who you are on your About Us page. Tell your story on this page and be sure to include a picture or a video, so people can connect with you.

owning a pet sitting business

#6. Have a Meet Our Team Page

  • Your prospects will feel more at ease if they can visually see who will be coming into their homes. I suggest using video, but at the very least, include a picture and write-up of each team member.

#7. Have a blog on your website

  • Fresh and relevant content, for which your prospects will find valuable, is not only good for search engine optimization, but it also shows that your business is alive and kicking, which breeds trust.

#8. Include a Privacy Policy

  • Be clear about what you will and will not do with any personal data you collect. Make it easy to read.
  • You can have one generated for you by Ibuenda.

#9. Clearly communicate what your customers can expect from your services

Be crystal clear on exactly what your customers can expect from using your service. Click To Tweet

This is the knowledge-bomb!

  • Don’t ever promise anything that you can’t deliver on. It is better to under-promise and over-deliver.
  • Lay out your Polices and Procedures and be sure they understand all of them.
  • Let them know exactly when they will hear from their sitter to schedule their registration meeting.
  • Let them know exactly how they will hear from their sitter when they are gone.
  • Let them know how you will communicate with them.
  • Let them know exactly what will happen at each and every visit or house sitting stay.
  • Let them know how you will follow-up with them.
  • Let them know how they can schedule and how long they can expect for a service order to be processed.
  • MANAGE THEIR EXPECTATIONS! If you deliver on what you promised, they will trust you and they in turn will spread the word.

#10. Offer a Guarantee

  • Offering a guarantee will alleviate your customer’s sense of risk.
  • Pet Nanny offers a 100% money-back guarantee. I know that we offer superior service, so I’m not worried about people cashing in on this offer, and if a sitter does mess-up, I want to give my customer’s their money back. Why should they pay for a service they didn’t receive?
  • You may from time to time come across an unscrupulous individual, who is purposely trying to take advantage. When you do come head to head with this person, give them the refund and chalk it up as the cost of doing business (I’ll tell you a good story about this at a later time.)

#11. Keep in touch on a regular and consistent basis

  • Creating a “Stay-In-Touch Marketing Plan” will help to keep you top-of-mind with your customers and customer prospects, but it also essential for owning a pet sitting business. When your customers can rely on the fact that they will hear from you on a consistent basis, they also know they can rely on you to take care of their most prized possessions.

 Your Homework Assignment:

  1. Go to your website as if you were a first time visitor and ask yourself, “would I trust me based on this website?” If the answer is no, it’s time to revamp your site.
  2. Start to implement some or all of these 11 ways to generate trust with your pet sitting customers.

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Create a Container Around Your Time

This post is written at the time of COVID-19, where many of my students and pet sitters are locked inside their homes. This allows them to work on their businesses. Here is the problem: they are having a hard time creating tangible results for their business.

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Most of the time, the issue is with Parkinson’s law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Whatever time you allow yourself to work, you will find enough work to fill that time.

For example, if you give yourself seven days to complete a project, you will find enough work to fill that time. If you give yourself two days to work on the same project, it’s going to take you two days.

Remember, work does not only expand to fit the time. It also contracts to fit the time you allow for it. It’s best to decide how much time something is going to take.

How do you do this? By putting a container around your time.

Utilize Your Calendar

What results do you want to create by the end of the week? It’s not about watching a video or completing worksheets. It’s completing the worksheets and implementing strategies that are going to get you results. By putting a container around your time, this leads us to the next tip below…

Give Yourselves Deadlines

You can’t have loose, haphazard time parameters or it’s going to fill up that time. If you don’t give yourself a deadline for let’s say, building out a full hiring system for your company, it might take you two years to finish because you didn’t give yourself a container.

If let’s say, you give yourself two weeks for the same work, that work is going to contract and you are going to produce that result in two weeks.

The best way to grow your business is to work on your time management skills, creating a container around your time, and to utilize your calendar to complete your deadlines.

Howdy, Pet Lover! Are you struggling with attracting new clients to your pet sitting business? Would you like to have a consistent pipeline of new clients coming to your business? Well, wait no longer, my friend. Grab my FREE report, 125 Ways To Get More Pet Sitting Clients. This resource is 100% FREE and is my gift to you. Enjoy!
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