Skip to main content

Tag: owning a pet sitting business

How to Stay Organized and Motivated When Working From Home

I haven’t done a pet sitting visit in about 13 years. So I know what it’s like to be in your house and trying to be productive and motivated. Here are nine tips for you on how to do this.

Create a Miraculous Morning

How you start your day is absolutely everything. Don’t turn on your phone once you open your eyes, reading the news of Twitter, and taking all negative information. You are not starting the day on the right foot.

I get up, have breakfast, do workout, shower, then do my meditation and prayer practice. These activities calm my mind, so I positively start my day. That can be your morning routine.

Get Dressed and Showered

A lot of people work from home in their jammies, dirty-ish type of clothes. Don’t spend your day in slippers or bare feet. It isn’t good for your mind or productivity. My suggestion is to get up and wear something clean and nice, with shoes. No need to wear anything fancy.

Have a Designated Workspace

Not everybody has a home office, but it does something for your mind and productivity to be able to go to a specific space where you can work. It could be a dining room table or a kitchen table.

See It Through Strategy

On a Sunday or Monday morning, sit down and have a power planning hour. You will dump every single thought and task you have on paper. It should take about an hour.

Get them out in your head and write it all down. Then schedule them on your calendar. You can also use Google Calendar. You’re taking everything on that list and organize on when you’re going to complete it. Then you throw that list of all your tasks and to-dos. You know you have already had everything written down, and you know your future self is going to show up and do it.

Have your Finish Friday Hour

Schedule time to go through all your tasks. See what you have and haven’t completed for the week. For the things you didn’t complete, you’re going to take note of those, and they will go into your next planning power hour. This is organizing and time management.

How to Stay Organized and Motivated When Working From Home quote

 

Do not mix your home chores and workday tasks

Work hours are for work hours. You have to be strict about this. If you stop what you’re doing to put in the laundry or to fold a load that’s in the dryer, everything is going to take you so much longer to get it done.

Define Boundaries with your Family and Friends

I don’t get it why people think I’m available to them at every moment. So guess what? My phone is now on do not disturb mode during office hours. I check it to make sure my kids are fine at school, but 95% of the time, I don’t respond to my friends. I am focused on what I’m doing.

Every time you hear that ding, you stop. It takes your focus off on what you’re working on, and if it is not urgent, it’s not going to help you with where you want to get in your business. Do be strict with yourself and put on the do not disturb.

Get up and move.

Have scheduled breaks where you get up and go for a walk. Take the dogs out for a walk. Get some fresh air. Or do some weight exercises. Put on some music and dance around to get in a good mood. Do anything to get your body moving. Have 10-minute breaks scheduled so you have time to breathe. This is going to help you with your productivity.

Meal prepping.

When working from home, you can get into some bad habits with what you’re putting in your body because the fridge is right there. My suggestion is to get your dinners ready for the week on Sundays. Prepare everything ready to go, so it’s nice and easy. Have healthy snacks on hand that you can grab, versus not having anything in the house except for something that’s not good for you.

Design an end of the day routine.

My end of the day time is usually at 4 PM. That is the time when my kids would get home from school. You need to have ‘triggers’ for your brain to shut down and be at home and present. Otherwise, you might become a recovering workaholic. So shutting down your email, shutting out of your Facebook, getting your inbox to zero, and then that’s it. You are done for the day.

We want to make the most out of our time when we are in our houses, and this is how you’re going to do it.

Below is a FREE PDF you can download as guide to being productive and motivated working from home.

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!
  •  

YES! Send Me The Complete Checklist of 125 ways to get more PET SITTING CLIENTS!

 

Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.

Pet Sitting Safety Tips

As mentioned in the video above, here is a copy of COVID19 Letter 2 to Clients and Health Safety Guidelines for my clients during these hard times.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pet sitting industry has been hit real hard. A lot of us are struggling with it, but I’m here to remind you that this is temporary.

pet sitting safety tips quote


Guess what? Now is the time when you can sit down and focus on your business. Let’s try and look at the positive of the situation and make the most of our time.

As examples, here are some updates regarding my company.

(1) In Pennsylvania, where I live, Governor Wolf said that animal care was not an essential business. So we closed our doors entirely, and I furloughed my entire staff of pet sitters. These make them eligible for unemployment, and they will have a position with me when my company opens its doors again.

(2) I kept my three managers working in streamlining the business. We go through our manuals, update our standard operating procedures, go through our email list, create a marketing action plan, etc.

(3) Last week, Governor Wolf moved animal care over to the essential business list. By the time I’m recording this video, we have not yet reopened but I have drafted a letter, wherein I try to evaluate who among my clients needs pet care services.

If there is a need, I then contact my sitters and say, “If work becomes available, would you be willing to get back out into the field?” Then based on those responses, I’ll be matching up my customers with the sitters.

(4) I provided COVID-19 healthy safety guidelines for both sitters and clients, as listed below.

Pet Sitter Guidelines

  1. Pet sitters should sanitize their hands before entering our client’s home
  2. Pet sitters must wash their hands for 20 seconds immediately after entering the client’s home
  3. Pet sitter refills the water bowl after washing their hands
  4. Pet sitter wipes the leash with an antibacterial wipe or spray.
  5. Pet sitters wipe off any surfaces touched with an antibacterial wipe or spray, including door handles, keypads, and lockboxes
  6. Pet sitter washes their hands when exiting the client’s home
  7. Pet sitter is to alert the Pet Nanny office if they suspect an illness and are uncomfortable returning to the client’s home

Client Guidelines

  1. Client wipes down any surfaces like door handles and faucet handles with an antibacterial cleaner or wipes before the pet sitter arrives for their visit
  2. Clients are to have soap, paper towels, and running water immediately available
  3. If the client is home and the pet sitter arrives for a visit, there are two options
    • Option one, the client washes their hands, prepares their dogs for their walk, and then does a hand-off at the door with their pets sitter
    • Option two, the client goes to another part of the house while their pet sitter follows the procedures stated above
  4. If the client does become sick on a day where we have a scheduled visit, the client is to let the office know as soon as possible so that we can cancel the scheduled visit and any upcoming visits

Here are other ways you can do to create cash flow during these hard times:

  • Contact your customers and give an early booking discount. If they book any visits for the summer now, you might want to give them a little discount
  • Offer concierge services if you’re comfortable going out. People are scared to go shopping and doing that sort of stuff
  • Poop scooping services

This pandemic is temporary, and we’re all in this together. I am here for you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything whatsoever. Stay healthy, stay well, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Hey there, Newbie Pet Sitter! Are you feeling stuck or overwhelmed with starting your pet sitting business? Fret no longer, my friend. I’ve got ya covered!

Enter Your Info Below to Download The Complete Checklist For Starting a Pet Sitting Business!

 

Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.

Implement Quickly and You Will See Results

“The biggest difference between an average income and financial freedom is Implementation.” –Bill Glazer

There are some people in this world that take action and implement and sadly there are others that don’t. Let’s just say I have 2 different people purchase my product, 9 Secrets to Building a Stellar Team of Pet Sitters.

This product includes everything one needs to create a fabulous team of competent pet sitters. It has the EXACT documents, emails and procedures that I use to build my team of 30+ pet sitters. All these two people have to do is implement the systems and strategies in their own businesses. The first person grabs it and runs with it. They go home and take everything they were given and put it into immediate action. The other person takes it home and reads through it, then puts it down. Then a month later picks it up again and thumbs through it all the while humming and hawing that they’re “too busy,” or that they “know this stuff already,” or they’ll “get to it next month.” Now, from those two types of people who do you think is going to have the more successful business? The first person, of course! This person is a doer! They IMPLEMENT. They don’t need to ask questions, or over-analyze or complain or make excuses. They just do it and they do it quickly.

pet sitters implement quickly

Would it surprise you to learn that most successful millionaire entrepreneurs believe that implementation (a.k.a “getting things done”) have named it as the number one KEY to success? That doesn’t surprise me at all… because it’s true!

I’m no stranger to procrastination. I understand it completely, but I can say with total confidence that when you finally decide to just bite the bullet and get something done, it is far less painful and time consuming than what you have created in your mind. Therefore, it’s worth the effort. Plus, the satisfaction that you’ll get from finally putting a check mark next to that task is priceless!

Here is a mantra that I follow in my business, “ACT WITH SPEED.” I have learned first-hand that it is not only the act of implementation, but actually the speed with which you do it that will show you a drastic return on your investment.

Your Homework Assignment:

  1. How can you implement more effectively?
  2. What do you have on your To-Do list for a long while? Put a deadline on the tasks, write them on your calendar and get them done! No excuses please.

Hey there, Newbie Pet Sitter! Are you feeling stuck or overwhelmed with starting your pet sitting business? Fret no longer, my friend. I’ve got ya covered!

Enter Your Info Below to Download The Complete Checklist For Starting a Pet Sitting Business!

 

Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.

The Struggle of Hiring Pet Sitters

Why is hiring pet sitters a problem for some business owners?

One of the most common problems discussed by my students or in my Facebook group is the struggle of hiring pet sitters to grow their business. Sometimes even the thought of hiring a team is too scary and so they decide to stay small, stay working for themselves, being a sole proprietorship.

Then some people take the leap and try to find good people, but they run into issues getting reliable sitters which leads them to give up and go back to running a one-person show.

As we know, there are only so many hours for dollars that you can trade in a single day. So, you’re automatically putting a ceiling over your head with how much revenue you can build in your pet sitting business.

To make a substantial income in this industry, you need to leverage yourself through a team of heart-centered pet care professionals that are going to take stellar care of your client’s pets.

Hiring Pet Sitters

Now, hiring is difficult. It is hard. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that something’s easy when it’s not.

Finding good people is something that we work on daily at Pet Nanny-Pet Sitters of The Main Line. We have a system for hiring and we’ve used it consistently to grow the team and the business.

There are two steps I want you to take if you want to get serious and grow an amazing team of pet care professionals.

1. Create an attraction system

First,  you need to create a system where you are continuously attracting potential sitters so that you can pick the best candidates for your business.

Your time is precious which means you want to make sure you weed out the applicants who will not work before you even have your first initial interview with them.

2. Test potential sitters at the interview stage

Then you need to have a second system for the interview process to see how your new sitter would perform in different situations.

Their work is going to be a direct reflection on your pet sitting business, therefore, you need to be happy with how they work before you hire them for your company.

Also, this needs to be part of your regular daily business practices. You can’t say, “Okay, I really need sitters,” and then just hope and pray that a resume lands in your inbox.

You need to constantly have a system on autopilot where you are getting the message out that you’re hiring and you’re looking for great people. This leads to interviewing on a weekly basis and putting people through your systems on a weekly basis. That is how you build an amazing team. Yes, it is challenging, but don’t let that stop you from growing.

Currently, we have 40 pet sitters at Pet Nanny-Pet Sitters of The Main Line and we still have weekly meetings discussing where we’re going to find people. In this way, we have grown the most amazing team and the most amazing business.

So, if this is what you want to do, don’t let fear hold you back from hiring pet sitters. Create the attraction system, create the hiring system, make it part of your daily business practices, and you will be able to do it.

Enter your first name and email address below to download our Team Expansion Tool Kit
It’s 100% FREE!

Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.

Stop Working In Your Pet Sitting Business!

You will make amazing strides in your pet sitting business when you start working ON your business.

I have some exciting news!!! I have recently taken the next big step in my own pet sitting business…. I have hired a Sitter Manager. Woohoo!

I’m going to rewind a bit to first tell you how I found myself in the position of needing to make this hire for the continued health of my business.

Many moons ago I hired my first “virtual assistant,” whose job title is now, “Client Happiness Manager,” or “CHM” for short.

My CHM is responsible for:

  • Scheduling
  • Answering the phones
  • Client communications
  • Processing new clients
  • Sitter schedules
  • Office administrative support

My responsibilities as the owner were:

  • Marketing
  • Client attraction
  • Client retention
  • Sitter recruiting
  • Sitter screening
  • Sitter processing
  • Sitter management
  • Dealing with B.I.G. issues (Ugh! We hate those, right?)

So, as Pet Nanny has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, my CHM and I found ourselves working around the clock and more importantly, we constantly found ourselves with a shortage of qualified pet sitters. This in turn was stopping the growth of the business. Do you see the vicious cycle here? This is when I knew it was time to bring in additional support.

First, my CHM and I had a sit down and mapped out exactly what we needed the new administrative person to handle. What became crystal clear was that we needed someone who would be responsible for:

  • Sitter recruiting
  • Sitter interviewing
  • Sitter screening
  • Sitter processing
  • Sitter management
  • Vet & pet store relations
  • Back-up to the CHM

In short, someone that would keep our sitter roster, chock-full with awesome Pet Nannies and also serve as the back-up to my CHM on weekends and when she needed some time off. This would then free up my time to beef up the marketing piece and have more time to dedicate to my most favorite peeps… My coaching clients. It would also give my wonderful CHM some breathing room before she went bonkers on me. 😉

So, as you can see, bringing on additional support is going to help me to exponentially grow my pet sitting business.

As pet sitters, most of started our business because we are first, animal lovers. We start by doing the pet sitting ourselves happy as can be because we get to play with pets all day. Then we hit a financial plateau, because there are just so many clients we can squeeze into a single day. Then, in most cases we hit burn out, because running around morning, noon and night, 365 days per year is a recipe for disaster.

The answer to this very common problem is to remove yourself from doing the actual pet sitting. In other words, “stop working in your business and start working on your business.” This is how you will be able to expand your business and make a lot more money in this industry. Another perk… You have your sanity and your free time back. Check… Check!

For those of you who are yelling at your computer right now, “But I started this business, so I can work with animals!!!!!” I get it. It’s a tough decision, but the honest truth is that you will most likely live the scenario I explained above until you make the jump from “Pet Sitter” to “Pet Sitting Business Owner.” I do have some good news for you though. If you insist, you can be the “permanent backup.” Meaning, if a sitter gets sick or has an emergency, you can fill in for them. Then you can get your animal fix. Sound good? 😉

pet sitting business

Your Homework Assignment: Take an assessment of your pet sitting business…

  • Are you doing all of the pet sitting visits, dog walks and house sitting stays on your own? (You shouldn’t be.)
  • Are you dedicating 4 hours per day on marketing your business? (You should be.)
  • Would bringing on additional pet sitters or office support help you to actually grown your business and make more money (I bet you it would.)
  • Is it time to bring on some support, so you can stop working IN your pet sitting business and start working ON GROWING your business? Food for thought.

Enter your first name and email address below to download our Team Expansion Tool Kit
It’s 100% FREE!

Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.

Hire Slowly and Fire Quickly

How to Run a Pet Sitting Business – Valuable Advice

Hire slowly and fire quickly. This is the advice that was given to me by my mentor many years ago. It is a line that is always in the back of my mind whenever I coach on how to run a pet sitting business. It is advice that has kept me safe for many years, but recently I went against my better judgement and did the exact opposite.

A Story To Illustrate This Point

Rewind to about a year ago. I unexpectedly lost a longtime sitter with a full midday roster, which translates to VERY important clients that would soon be without a dog walker. I of course went into a total panic mode. I posted my job ad and started interviewing almost immediately, but the pickings were slim. I made the decision to hire someone I knew in my gut was NOT a good fit for Pet Nanny, but I had no choice (I thought.)

So, this pet sitter started with little to no issues, but as time progressed I started to receive some negative feedback. I knew I should let her go, but against my better judgement, I took the advice of someone who felt that it would cause way more of a ruckus to let her go than to keep her on. Again, I went against my gut and kept her on. STUPID!!!

Now, fast forward to about one year after she was hired. Our Client Happiness Manager set-up a shadow walk between this pet sitter and a new pet sitter. The new pet sitter reported back to Pet Nanny Headquarters that this veteran sitter had A LOT to say… A lot of negative things. She said that she takes clients’ reservations all of the time and that Pet Nanny has no idea. She also said that she brings her boyfriend with her whenever she wants and that you don’t actually have to stay for the entire time on visits. All three of these points completely go against Pet Nanny Standards and the Code of Ethics that each sitter signs when they join our team. This is not how to run a pet sitting business.

When this information was relayed to me, it felt as though someone had punched me in the stomach. I thought to myself, how many other pet sitters has she tainted with her selfish and self-serving views? How many clients had she tainted with her inability to keep her thoughts to herself and simply provide the top quality pet care that Pet Nanny promises? Ugh! I didn’t even want to think about it.

how to run a pet sitting business

Next, my manager and I jumped into fix-it mode. We knew we had to immediately stop this pet sitter from ever visiting another Pet Nanny client’s home. My manager called her and told her to meet her at a local establishment where she requested all of the keys to be returned to her. She then explained to this sitter the standards of Pet Nanny which she was clearly not living up to, as well as the provisions of her agreement with us, which she was clearly violating. The sitter swore up and down that she did none of these things. My manager wished her the best and they went their separate ways. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we removed her from our website and revoked her access to the Pet Nanny database before this meeting took place, just in case this sitter wanted to access her client list and wreak more havoc.

The Moral of The Story

The moral of the story is hire slowly and fire quickly. If you always try to hire proactively (as I talk about here in this blog post,) you won’t ever have to ignore this advice. And…. Always listen to your gut, because it’s always right!

Your Homework Assignment: Take an assessment of your staff. Is there anyone that you should cut loose? If so, do it!

Enter your first name and email address below to download our Team Expansion Tool Kit
It’s 100% FREE!

Privacy Policy: We promise to protect your privacy and we will NEVER share your email address.

It’s Ok to Have a Successful Pet Sitting Business

 

Success in Your Pet Sitting Business

Today, our topic is SUCCESS, which is usually a taboo topic that people don’t like to talk about. Why? I’m not quite sure, but I definitely used to be one of those people. Well today, I’m going to talk about it, because there’s nothing to be ashamed of about being successful with your pet sitting business.

Having a successful and happy life is something that I am super proud of, and part of that success comes from my amazing pet sitting business. It has brought me so many blessings both financially and emotionally. It has taught me countless things about animals, people, life and business.

Let The Haters Hate and Keep Being Awesome

I’m here to tell you today that there’s nothing wrong with you achieving success through your pet sitting businesses, and don’t you dare let the haters dim your light and your dream. You know who I mean. Those solo pet sitting business owners who don’t want to grow a team and scale their businesses (totally fine, by the way!) Some of these haters will go around saying, “Oh, she’s just in it for the money,” or “They don’t care about the animals,” or “They must provide awful service.” This is backward thinking, and negative statements made by people with limiting beliefs, and I have no time for it anymore!

Today I’m telling those people that they couldn’t be more incorrect! I can tell you from personal experience that nobody loves pets more than I do, but there came a time where I was unable to continue working the number of hours that I was working. Seven days a week, 365 days a year wasn’t a lifestyle that I wanted to lead. I was unhappy and exhausted, and by the end, I wasn’t giving the best pet care, because I was utterly burned out.

Focus on the Growth of Your Pet Sitting Business

Since I started focusing on the growth of my business and hiring heart-centered pet care professionals to join my dream team, my company has grown exponentially because they are out there providing amazing pet care and our customers rave about us and refer us all over town. I’m now also able to service many more pet owners in my community due to the excellent pet sitters on my staff.

There is no shame in my game. I am proud of my pet sitting business. It affords me the time to be able to do the things that I love like paddle and tennis. It has also given me the opportunity to be a stay at home mom with my three children, Lucy, James, and Connor. It has given me the financial freedom to own a beautiful home and take vacations. My business has been a blessing!

pet sitting business

The Equation for How to Make it Happen

If this is something that you want, I challenge you to go for it! But you have to go and get it. It’s not just going to come and fall in your lap. It takes hard work and focus. You need to learn, and you need to implement, and you need to go grab your dream.

I used to walk dogs and daydream. I would think “I would really love to have a big business. Maybe one day it’ll just happen.” That’s not the way it works! It starts in your mind, but here’s the formula:

Thoughts equal feelings which inspire your actions, which create your results.

So my advice here for you today is to take massive action in your business. Get out there, start learning. Go for it. Grow it, if that’s what you want to do. There is no shame in it.

And if you’re already out there killing it, don’t hang your head, don’t be embarrassed, and don’t let the haters out there make you feel poorly because you’ve created an awesome pet sitting business doing what you love and serving your community through your incredible business with an inspiring mission. Be proud, my friends.

10K Month Pet Sitting Blueprint Strategy Session

If you want to have a one-on-one personalized 10K Month Pet Sitting Blueprint Strategy Session with me, go to www.MeetWithColleen.com to apply. You will walk away with a personalized step-by-step framework anf action plan that I will email to you after our call.

10K Month Pet Sitting Blueprint