Skip to main content

Tag: Pet sitting business coaching

Create an Irresistible Free Offer

Your Irresistible Free Offer (IFO) is how you can capture the contact information of prospects who visit your pet sitting business website.

Author’s Note:  This post was originally published in 2014. I’m republishing it now with a new video and updated with all my current experience and tips!
__________

Think of the Baskin-Robbins’ iconic pink spoon. This is their IFO, which gives their customers a free taste of ice cream, so they can decide which flavor they want to buy. Ingenious!

When somebody visits your site, they should see your offer and say, “Oh that’s really enticing, I’m going to give them my email address for that.” And then you email them the irresistible free goodie that you promised.

Why do I call it irresistible? Because it needs to be just that. A free walk or a free meet-and-greet is just not going to cut it anymore.

People don’t want to share their email addresses.  Their inboxes are flooded already and they are only going to give you their email address if it’s really something juicy.

Your IFO should give your ideal customer something of value. It also needs to be tempting enough for them to part with their email address.

Your IFO should be displayed on each and every page of your website, along with an opt-in box, where your prospects will give you their first name and/or email address in return for what you’re offering.

What to Offer

My first tip is that I have had the best luck with high-value coupons. I’ve tried PDFs, I’ve tried giveaways, I have tried everything under the sun. What I can tell you is that a high-value coupon with a whole number (rather than a percentage off) has given me the best conversions.

Currently, Pet Nanny is using a high-value coupon.  The offer is shown on each and every page of my website.

The Nurture Sequence

After your prospect gives you their contact information in return for your free offer, they become a “warm prospect.” You should have a well-thought-out, automated follow-up process called a “Nurture Sequence, which gives these prospects added value and makes your pet sitting company the only logical choice to hire.

Throughout the sequence, you are going to let them know all about you and your business, and continue to provide value.  For instance, I offer my list an Ultimate Guide for Mainline Pet Owners, which has all things pets for people that own pets on the mainline.  Things like pet-friendly hotels, walking trails, the best vets, the best pet stores.

The Ultimate Guide is also a great place to feature my referral partners. I add the businesses that refer me to the guide that I give to my prospects.

Then, when they receive their final email you’ll say, “Hey, remember that coupon you opted in for seven days ago? It’s time to take action. Click below to get started.”

The ultimate goal of a nurture sequence is to convert visitors into paying clients at the end. Click To Tweet

This is your strategy.  When someone hits your website, they see the enticing high-value coupon, they give you your email, you put them in your email nurture sequence and tell them all about you and your amazing pet sitting business.

Continue to give them value and at the end of the nurture sequence, they’ll be saying, “Yes this is the pet sitting company that I want to work with.”  That’s the strategy behind it.

Lifetime Customer Value

Now some of you are thinking “why on earth would I give away the farm? And why would I give so much money off a new customer? What if they don’t use me again?”

These are great questions and valid concerns.  I totally get it. But when you identify the lifetime value of your customer, you’re going to understand that offering something like $25 off on the front end is going to be well worth it.

To calculate the lifetime value of your customer, look up the total amount of revenue that your business has made thus far and then divide it by the total number of revenue-generating clients. That will give you a number. This is your average lifetime value of each customer, and how much a customer is going to spend with your company.

I have had customers that have spent $50,000 with my company, and I have had customers that have spent $200 with my company. So what we’re looking for is the average.

So you might think, “Oh my gosh, if someone’s going to spend $2,000, $4,000, $5,000, whatever with your company, do you think it’s worth it giving them $25 off the front end?”  I’d say so.

I think it’s a really good strategy and definitely well worth it. But you know, your client lifetime value may be lower. You might not have as many lifetime clients or as much lifetime revenue as I do.

So figure out what your actual client lifetime revenue is and determine what amount is worth it for you. You want to identify what is enticing and juicy enough to get the ball rolling and get them in the front door with your company.

Recap

So to recap, your irresistible free offer is something juicy, something compelling, something that’s going to make your visitors take action and give you their email address.

Then, you drop them into a nurture email sequence where you educate them about your company.

Your Homework

Your homework is to calculate your average lifetime customer value (calculate the amount of money your pet sitting business has made divided by the number of lifetime generating customers) and identify a high-value coupon amount to offer.

All right guys, I hope you found this helpful, go think of an awesome offer and put this strategy into action in your business right now.

Share The Love

If you like this video, please share it and hit the like button.

I’d love to hear about it and as always, I’m available to answer any questions you may have in our free Facebook group at PetNannyCoachcommunity.com.  Come visit me there and add #ask to your questions and I’ll do my best to answer them all!

Wishing you a great day!

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.

How to Conquer Overwhelm

This week, we are focusing on how to conquer overwhelm, getting all of those dastardly tasks and things we need to do out of our heads and start taking action on them so we can move our pet sitting business forward.

I’ve been noticing a very common denominator among the pet-sitting business owners I speak or work with.  And it’s something that most business owners struggle with at one point or another.

It happens when you’ve got so much going on that you can’t see through the trees! Most likely, you’re out still walking the dogs, taking care of the pets, and you don’t really have a whole lot of time to work on the business.  That’s when overwhelm kicks in.

When you start feeling overwhelmed, you might want to give up.  But don’t do that!  I’m going to show you how to push through to the other side and avoid burnout.

Here are some concrete tips on how to overcome your overwhelm, conquer that overwhelm, really start focusing on moving your business forward and reach the goals you’ve set for your business.

#1 Brain Cleanse

The first step is to get everything out of your head. You want to do a total brain cleanse. Just go ahead and dump everything. Every single thing that you can possibly think of – get it out of your head and get it on paper.

Below this video, I’m going to link to some awesome dry erase sheets that you can put up on a wall and write everything down. If you have a whiteboard, use it. If you prefer doing it on your phone, or in your notes, do that.

You can use a mind-mapping tool like MindMeister if that works better for you. A notebook works great. However you do it, just get it out of your head and onto paper.

#2 Organize

The second step to conquering overwhelm is to organize everything you wrote down into projects. Then beneath the projects, list out the steps that need to take place for you to complete the project.  You might end up with five or six projects in front of you.

#3 Prioritize

Next I want you to prioritize the projects you created.  What are we going to do first? What comes second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth?

#4 Schedule

Now that you have everything that used to be floating around in your head written down, organized and in order, you are going to actually schedule these into your calendar.

Every Sunday, you can print off your weekly planner and schedule time to work on each project.  You've got Monday through Sunday - what step of which project are you going to work on each day? Click To Tweet

Take the time to write everything down.  Walking around with everything competing for bandwidth in your brain means you are much less likely to get it done. Get it out of your head and start working on those projects that you’ve wanted to get done for a long time. I know you can do it!

And if you like this video, like it, share it, and subscribe to the channel!

Download Your Free Planner Sheets
Get Your Free Planning sheets now and conquer that overwhelm

 

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

How to Hire the Right People for Your Pet Sitting Business

I work with many petpreneurs looking to scale and multiply their pet sitting business to six figures and beyond. One of the steps in the multiply formula is to hire a team of heart-centered pet care professionals to take stellar care of your pet sitting clients.

Hire a team of heart-centered, pet care professionals.

Now there is something really important about that step, and it’s the heart-centered pet care professionals that are going to take stellar care of your pet sitting clients. You do not want to hire people who will go out and take poor care of the clients obviously or miss visits, but guess what? This happens all the time because you are not hiring the right people, and you don’t have the right systems in place so that you’re attracting and onboarding the right people to your pet sitting business.

Years and years ago, before I had all of this thought out, I had some real losers on my team. I could bore you for hours with some stories. I seriously should write a book about some of the things that have happened on my watch by people I employed.

I’m not saying that I’m absolved of all sin when it comes to this, but I do want you guys to learn from my mistakes. It would be best if you started with mapping out a system where you’re going first to attract the right people to your business.

Map out a system to attract the right people to your business.

Think about your attraction system. What are you putting out there to get people to apply to work with you? Do you even have an ideal sitter profile where you have written down all of the attributes you are looking for in a pet sitter?

If you already have a roster of sitters, think about your A+ ones. Who do you love, and what makes them great? Write it down; this is a manifestation tool.

How to Hire The Right People for Your Pet Sitting Business


Then in all of your marketing, your Facebook ads, your online ads, or anything you’re using to get the word out about the opportunity to work with your company, this is the language you want to use to attract the right people to your company business.

Prepare questions & expectations to know if they are a good fit for your company.

Then is the hiring system. The whole process of when you meet and interview them. What kind of questions are you asking them to find out if they will be a good fit for this company? And are you setting expectations about what you’re looking for in the people?

It’s not just about, “Are they going to be a great fit for the company?” It’s also about, “This is how we do business around here. Are you okay with this?”

For example, you are setting the expectation of availability. Yes, this is a great job, yes it’s flexible hours. Yes, if you’re an IC, you create your schedule. However, we do expect availability. If you take off every single weekend and every single holiday, this isn’t going to be worth your time or mine.

If you tell me that you’re available 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday to do mid-day walks and then two weeks after starting, you tell me you’re not available or only available for an hour of that time, you’ve now just wasted my time. I could have passed up an excellent candidate.

So right from the start, this is what is expected. This is the position that you’re applying for; this is the expectation of availability. Plus other expectations of what you’re looking for.

Then if they go onto the onboarding stage, what’s the process? You need to have a system in place where you’re evaluating them. Does it take them two days to return an email? That isn’t going to change after you hire them. They’re going to show you right from the get-go how they communicate. Trust me, it’s not going to get any better.

So map out a system. What are you going to have set up in place that will allow you to evaluate how they’re going to be as pet sitters when you hire them?

Have a system in place to evaluate them.

Finally, when they are hired, how are you going to manage them? How are you going to see if they’re happy? Do they have too many visits, or do they not have enough visits? What is your stay in touch system that warns you if they have one foot out the door?

Nothing is worse than a sitter calling and saying, “I’m giving you no notice, and I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Keep in touch with your sitters. Make sure you have a communication system in place, so you know and are evaluating, “Is this person happy? Are they happy with the position?” Because if they’re not, you want to make sure that you have your eyes out and look for another great person to replace them.

I’ve had some real doozies in my pet sitting business over the last 18 years, but I can tell you now, since I have learned all of this and I have created an attraction system, a hiring system, an onboarding system, and a management system, I have a fantastic team of pet sitters. I’m not even kidding.

Yes, here and there, some less than stellar people have slipped through the cracks. I have about 40 pet sitters on staff, so that will happen from time to time. But I would say, for the most part, I have an amazing, stellar team of pet sitters.


Howdy, Pet Lover! Do you want to have all the pet sitting clients you need? This resource is 100% FREE and is my gift to you. Enjoy!

  •  

YES! Send Me The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid as a Pet Sitting Business Owner!



 

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






The Top 3 Essentials for Pet Sitting Websites

Pet Sitting Websites are the Cornerstone of Your Business

Pet sitting websites are the cornerstone of your business. In most cases it will be your customers first impression of you and your business, so it’s important that you make those first few seconds when a visitor lands on your page count.

My advice to you is to hire a reputable graphic designer who will create a beautiful and functional web site for your company. I promise you, this will be the best money that you ever spend on your business! You can easily have a new site created for a reasonable amount of money. Visit  www.guru.com,  odesk.com or elance.com (odesk and elance is now upwork.com) to post your job and find a great designer.

When designing your pet sitting website it’s important to communicate with your designer exactly who your target market is and what it is that you’re looking to accomplish. Remember, designers are great at creating beautiful sites, but not many know and understand the business side of things. You need to let them know exactly what should be included.

The 1st Essential for Pet Sitting Websites

The first essential is your contact information on each and every page of your website. I know this seems like a no-brainer, but how often are you on a site where you can’t fine the phone number? Pretty often, right? You don’t want your visitors to ever have to search to find a way to contact you. Also, we’re now in the mobile age where a large percentage of your pet sitting prospects will be on their phones when they land on your page. Make it easy for them to reach you. All they should have to do is point and click to call your office.

The 2nd Essential for Pet Sitting Websites

The second essential is to establish the “know, like and trust factor” with your visitors. I know I’m always harping on this, but in our industry this is crucial for converting visitors into paying clients. Think about it this way… our new customers are in essence giving strangers the keys to their homes and trusting them to take care of and safe-guard their most prized possessions. They need to visually see you and immediately get the feeling that you are a person for whom they can trust and rely on.

How do you do this? You add a video of you on the homepage of your site. I know everyone’s first reaction to this is, “no way!” That was certainly my first reaction, but I’m telling you if you want to bring in tons of new clients, video is a MUST!

The 3rd Essential for Pet Sitting Websites

The third essential is testimonials from happy clients. Social proof is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to convert prospects into paying clients. If they can see that your current customers are raving fans they will be much more likely to use your service. If you don’t have testimonials, go and get them! Ask your clients if they wouldn’t mind writing a few words about their experience with your company. If you’re just starting out, be sure to go above and beyond the call of duty for your new clients (you should always do this,) then follow-up with them afterwards to see if they were happy. If they are, you ask them for a testimonial.

Try and get into the mentality of going and getting the things that you need but don’t have versus having the mindset where you say, “I don’t have that, so I’m not going to do that.” You won’t get too far in business if this is the way you think.

Your Homework Assignment: Go and do it or go and get it!

  • If you don’t have a website, get one! Websites are so inexpensive these days; there is really no excuse to not have one. If you don’t have a website you will lose credibility with your pet sitting prospects and you will fall drastically short against your competition.
  • If your website is basically a virtual brochure it’s time to upgrade. Hire a designer and get a professional site created. Be sure to include the contact information on each and every page.
  • Record a video of you on your homepage. If you can’t afford to have a professional one created then have friend record it for you on your phone. It doesn’t matter! You just want your prospects to know, like and trust you.
  • Gather testimonials for your site.
  • Download my 12 Website Essentials Infographic right below this post. This will help you to create your new amazing pet sitting website!


Howdy, Pet Lover! Do you want to have all the pet sitting clients you need? This resource is 100% FREE and is my gift to you. Enjoy!

  •  

YES! Send Me The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid as a Pet Sitting Business Owner!



 

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






The 1 Hour Rule

You may have heard the 10,000-hour rule, which means that you can learn to become an expert at anything as long as you give it 10,000 hours of your time. Now, this very well may be true.

However, thinking that way stops people in their tracks because your brain automatically goes into overwhelm and overdrive. And when that happens, you start procrastinating, and therefore you do not take action, so you stay stuck where you are.

Think a little smaller.

Think about doing one newsletter or writing one blog post, learning how to do one automation inside your email autoresponder, or completing one module. Just think of it as one hour of your time each workday, Monday through Friday, and think about all that you can accomplish by just focusing on that one task and that one hour.

Chunk down these big projects into tiny, small, manageable tasks.

Block out that time on your calendar to show up for yourself and your business, these wins will start to stack, and then you’re going to gain momentum, and then you’re going to get clarity because clarity comes from taking action.

Instead of thinking like, “Oh my gosh, 10,000 hours I’m going to have to put into learning how to build a business”…


The 1 Hour Rule


Download Your Free Planner Sheets
Get Your Free Planning sheets now and conquer that overwhelm





 

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




2 Meditation Tools for Pet Sitters

Listening to Binaural Beats when you are meditating or sleeping can help you manage your pet sitting business. This video describes the benefits of making Binaural Beats part of your daily routine.

Binaural beats are when you hear two tones, one in each ear, that are slightly different in frequency. Your brain processes a beat at the difference of the frequency. This is called a binaural beat.

Using Automation in Your Business.

 

About six months ago, I was advised by my coach to get earbuds and listen to binaural beats when I’m meditating. I was doing some reading about it, and I was like, it’s terrific to listen to binaural beats when you’re sleeping. It does all types of goodness for your subconscious mind, your subconscious thoughts. It reduces anxiety. It helps you increase your focus and attention, lower stress, increases relaxation, fosters positive moods, promote creativity, and helps manage pain.

These were all these benefits I heard about binaural beats when you go to sleep with them in your ears with your earbuds. But I like to sleep on my side or my stomach, and the earbuds would hurt. So I was like, “This isn’t working.”

I was scrolling through Twitter one day, and one of these ads pops up. This is like a sleep mask, and it has earphones on the side. It doesn’t hurt, and these are great for the plane too, or if you want to do a quick meditation in the middle of the day, block out all the light and go to sleep listening to different meditations, hypnosis, or binaural beats.

Another tip I have for you is this great app I found called Synctuition. This is a paid app, but it gives you all types of binaural beats for all different things. If you want to start a meditation practice or you want to up your meditation practice so you can become more productive in your life and your business, try these two things out.

Resources

evalax.com
synctuition.com
Understanding the Wellness Benefits of Binaural Beats


Enter your first name and email address below to receive our Wildly Successful Pet Sitting Business Plan Workbook





 

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




Using Automation in Your Pet Sitting Business

First, what actually is automation?

It is taking the manual processes out of your business. Instead, it’s the use of technology and automating various business tasks. Automating a pet sitting business replaces the manual effort needed to execute everyday tasks. Here are some of the benefits of using automation.

It boosts productivity and customer satisfaction, and it aids businesses in cutting costs, streamlining processes.

I love all things streamlining and improving efficiency, which leads to revenue growth and customer satisfaction. It also dramatically minimizes the chances of errors, which brought me to my first experience with automation, finally biting the bullet and investing in scheduling software.

When I was doing everything manually in my pet sitting business, especially the scheduling, mistakes happened quite frequently.

But after I finally, again, bit the bullet and invested in scheduling software, there were no more mistakes with service confirmations, missed visits, or client and pet care information, or tracking payments.

I’m going to tell you the experience I had that led me to finally getting scheduling software. I had an overnight service order for a golden retriever in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. It was like 15 years ago. I had down the date that I was leaving was X date, and they had it a day later.

I couldn’t have done that date because it was over Easter, and I would be away over Easter. So I don’t know where the miscommunication happened, but this was a manual process back then. This dog was left alone for 24 hours a day.

Being the business owner, that was entirely my fault because I didn’t have a system in place that tracked all of the scheduling or checks and balances, which the scheduling software gives you. This client was super upset, and I don’t blame them. I lost nights and nights of sleep over it.

I woke up in cold sweats, and it was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had in my life. So from that point forward, I said, “I’m not doing this anymore. I am going to put my big girl pants on, and I’m going to invest in scheduling software.”

Using Automation in Your Business


The benefits of using scheduling software. Number one, it’s peace of mind for you.

I used to wake up like, “Oh my gosh, did I visit that Westie? Oh my gosh, did I see that powered or that cat?” And I’m like, “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I did. I did. I did.” But again, it’s all in my head, and it was all on paper.

When you have software that tracks things for you, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. It’s taking up a lot of space in your brain. Trust me. It gives you peace of mind, and then it provides the client with peace of mind.

So not only does it give you a unique selling proposition to give to your customer prospects, but they can know that they can go away or go to work. They can have total peace of mind because they are going through the scheduling or the service confirmation, ensuring that all the requested dates are there.

Then they’ll get confirmations, and then they’ll get notifications when the visits are complete, and then they’ll get communications that the sitter was there or you were there, so on and so forth. So it gives them peace of mind. You can do all of your client and pet profile management.

Back in the day, when I did everything manually, I had them in file folders, which was like crazy. I finally threw them all away, by the way, maybe about three years ago.

I was like, “I don’t need these anymore because everything is online. Everything is tracked inside the software.” Easy scheduling and tracking. Again, the client can book their service online. They can tell you precisely what you want. You or your manager can then go ahead and schedule it, send it to the client, and say, “Hey, is everything on this correct?”

You’re putting that back on them to look at it and say, “Yes, everything’s correct.” Okay, we have an agreement, take payment, and move from there. You can do invoicing all from the same software, which is so easy.

Back then, when I was doing it manually, I would print out Word documents and leave the bill on the counter with a self-addressed envelope and then hope that my clients would get me payment in a quick way. Now they are invoiced ahead of time. We keep a credit card on file. We charge it four days ahead of time.

And then all of our regular clients who use this monthly are on an automatic billing schedule. They know every 30 days they’re going to be billed for the following month, and it just moves so much easier. I used to find checks in my pocket. I’d be like, “Did I deposit that?” It was just a mess. And then you can keep the credit cards on file, which I just mentioned. And then the sitter management and sitter visit tracking are essential.

You can do all your HR stuff right from your software on your sitters, and you can make sure that they are going to the client’s house, what time they show up, what time they leave. They’re going to communicate with the client through the app.

So again, going back to the peace of mind for you and the client, but you, as the pet sitting business owner, can track these people that are out representing your company. When you do all this stuff manually, you’re not using this type of technology; this is all that you’re missing out on. It just makes your life so much easier.

I get asked this question all the time. I think that Time to Pet is the best software on the market. Now, there are many, many to choose from. I’ve heard good things about Precise Petcare. I’ve heard good things about Leashtime, but I would say 99% of my students use Time to Pet, and they love it.

I spoke with Mike yesterday, and he is giving you guys a special link. It’s https://timetopet.com/r/petnannycoach. You’re going to get the regular free 14-day trial. It can’t hurt. Go there and sign up and get the free trial.

If you decide to sign up, he’s also giving members of our community 50% off their first three months. So thank you, Mike, from Time to Pet. He has an amazing platform that I’m just super impressed by. Go check it out. It doesn’t hurt to give it a shot.

If you are on a super budget-friendly option, there is an app called pocketsuite.io. I think it’s around $9 a month, and it’s a straightforward way to get started with technology and using the software. It’s not pet sitting specific, but it’s a scheduling app, and you can accept payments through it.

Some of my students who are just starting opt for this, to begin with. And as soon as things get moving, they’ll move over to Time to Pet or another software.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is all about using software to automate marketing activities such as email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns such as Facebook Ads or Google AdWords. For example, I use a marketing software called Keep Classic by Infusionsoft. I love it. I’ve used it forever.

However, it’s super expensive, and it has many bells and whistles that you most likely won’t need. One less costly option is MailChimp. For your first 2,000 subscribers, it’s free.

You can try ActiveCampaign for about $10 a month, ConstantContact, or FloDesk. I suggest that all of my students use ActiveCampaign because it’s inexpensive and has all the power that Infusionsoft has. Like anything, with any software, there’s going to be a learning curve, and you need to take the time to learn how to use it so that you can start making money from it and utilizing it.

It’s not sitting there not being used, and you’re just paying this monthly fee. But MailChimp is free. It doesn’t have the same amount of power as ActiveCampaign does. You can check out ActiveCampaign, ConstantContact, or FloDesk.

Let’s talk about an example of a marketing campaign using an email autoresponder like Infusionsoft or ActiveCampaign. We’re going to go over today what I call an opt-in offer.

A prospect hits your website, and you are giving them something of value in exchange for their first name and email address so that you can then market to them to have them become a paying customer with your pet sitting business.

Here’s an example on my website. I offer an information packet, which is pretty much just a condensed version of my website in a PDF format. I give a high-value coupon along with the information packet. The prospect hits my website. They click that “Download Now” button. A pop-up comes up. They give me their first name and email.

Then this starts. It looks like inside Infusionsoft, guys, where it says here the info packet lead magnet. That’s the form. They fill it out on the website, and that’s what triggers the campaign to start. Boom! They go into that first sequence, which is the info packet delivery.

Now, this is what it looks like on the inside of that sequence. The first email they’re going to get is the delivery. They asked for the info packet and coupon, so I am giving it to them. Here’s what you requested. Here it is. Then a day later, I talk about the pain points.

It’s an email talking about how not to make the same mistakes that I did when I hired a pet sitter that lost my dog down the shore. Poor Dr. Watson. That was a terrible story.

But again, it’s speaking to their pain points, and you don’t want to trust any old person to come in and take care of your pet. Again, using a professional service, this is why you want to use a professional service, so on and so forth. Then two days later, I say, “Hey, do you have any questions? And here’s another bonus. I have an ultimate guide for all Main Line pet owners.” So again, I’m giving more value to them.

I’m positioning myself as an expert and the go-to resource for them. They have a whole PDF that’s emailed to them that has all of the local pet hotels and parks and pet shops and vets, so on and so forth. Then four days later, I do the Call To Action.

I say, “Hey, your coupon is about to expire. If you want to sign up for a Pet Nanny service, now is the time to do it. Click here to schedule.” The idea here is by the end of this email sequence that I am going to have converted a prospect into a buyer. If they don’t become a buyer, that’s okay.

Right now might not be the right time for them, but you can still keep in touch with them through other email marketing campaigns and holiday reservation reminder campaigns. You could have pop-up sales. Then, when they are ready to buy, you’re going to be the first person they think of because you have been keeping in contact with them.

Other options for me to get their information on my website. It’s called a red offer, a yellow offer, and a green offer for prospects that hit your site.

The red offer is for people looking for more information, so that’s going to be the information packet and coupon. Then some people are a little more warm, and they’re going to say, “You know what? This looks really good. I’m going to ask for a quote.”

Yes, all of my pricing is on the website, so they can quickly go there and get it, but many people asked for the quote, making it easy for them to do so. So that would be the yellow offer. They’re a little warmer. And then we have the green offer, which is they become a client.

You want to make it easy for your customers to buy from you. Some people are going to hit your website and say, “I am ready to start.” They hit the become a client button. They fill out the form, and then whole different automation starts.

Social Media

You can use tools like Hootsuite, SmarterQueue, Meet Edgar, or Buffer to schedule your social media posts and your social media plan. I used to use Meet Edgar. Now I use SmarterQueue. The cool thing about that software is that they create a library of your posts so that they continuously post over time. So you’re not going to post it once and then go into the abyss and never be seen again.

It’s reutilizing your posts from before, which is fantastic. You can also just use simple Facebook scheduling. They do it right there inside of Facebook.

You click the little clock, and you can schedule all your posts that way. But that way, you’re not doing it. So if you do it only when you think of it, it’s not going to get done is not going to be as effective as if you plan it out and automate the process if that makes sense.

Hiring Automation

Hiring automation is leveraging technology to allow companies to automate recruiting tasks and workflows to increase productivity, accelerate time to fill, reduce cost per hire, and improve the overall talent profile of their organization.

Today, I’m going to show you an example of a hiring campaign that I use inside my business, Pet Nanny-Pet Sitters of The Main Line. The automation is triggered when a a sitter prospect hits my website and fills out the job application.

If you are using ICs, you don’t want to call it a job application. You want to call it a questionnaire. Regardless, they hit the website. They fill that out, and that is going to trigger the automation to start. There’s the form. They fill out the application.

Then the sitter job description is sent to them. If they download the job description, they are given an interview invitation, which has a scheduling link inside. If they schedule the interview, the scheduling software tags them, and then they get their interview prep and confirmation emails.

So again, based upon the action that the sitter prospect is taking, these things happen. If they don’t take action, they don’t move forward in the automation. If they never download the job description, they’re not getting an interview invitation.

If they don’t schedule an interview, they will not get the interview prep and confirmation emails. But it’s taking that manual process. I don’t have to move them through anything manually. It’s based on the actions they’re taking.

It takes a lot of time out of this process. I want to bring you inside the sitter job description sequence. They fill out the application. The job description is emailed to them. That’s right here.

We also send a voicemail that says, “Hey, Jessica, I just sent you the job description. It may end up in your promos folders. If you have a Gmail account, make sure you look in there. Also, look in your junk folder.”

If it didn’t hit their inbox, we want to make sure that they know that it was set. If they don’t download it, we try a second time a day later. And then if they still don’t download it, they’re moving to an inactive prospect. I no longer want to market to this sitter prospect because they didn’t download the job description. So they’re no longer prospects. That’s an example of hiring automation. You can also automate your workflow.

Workflow Automation

Workflow automation is a way to streamline essential processes in your business to minimize delays, so things get done faster. Here are some examples here. If we mail a lockbox to a client, a two-second form is filled out that automatically shoots off an email to the client saying, “Your order for the lockbox has been completed and is on its way to you.”

Suppose someone’s out of the service area. We get lots of requests about pet sitting service that we don’t cover their service area. We can fill out the two-second form, and it automatically sends an email letting them know, “Hey, unfortunately, you’re not in our service area. Here is where you can go to find a reputable professional pet sitter in your area.”

Suppose we want to send referral thank you cards. If I get a referral from a strategic alliance or a client or a friend and send them a Send Out Card with a gift card attached to it, I fill out the SOC referral $5 Starbucks. This card is going to go out and say, “Hey, Jessica, thank you so much for the referral. We always appreciate it. Enjoy a cup of coffee on me at Starbucks.”

We also do this for reviews. If someone leaves a review on Yelp or Google, we will send a thank you. Thank you cards with the Starbucks gift cards, but we make it easy to do so. If I were to do this manually, I would have to write the card out. I’d have to put it in the envelope. I’d have to write out the envelope, put the postage on, bring it out to the mailbox. I mean, how often are you going to do that?

I have it set up that it takes two seconds to fill out this form inside Infusionsoft. Then, it goes to send out cards. Finally, it creates the card and mails it off with a gift card attached to it.

Other ideas for workflow automations are when we need to have a sitter schedule, a pre-departure meeting, a registration meeting, a meet and greet, or schedule an essential pickup. My manager goes into the contact file, fills out this two-second form, and sends those email notifications to the sitter.

She doesn’t have to go back and forth a hundred times with the sitter letting them know. It’s all documented and organized inside Infusionsoft. It takes two seconds to fill out the form. The sitter gets the notification, and then the sitter is to let our manager know that the meeting has been scheduled.

And then Sue will mark the task complete. That way, she knows. “Oh my gosh. I sent the email to Kylie about scheduling a pre-departure meeting. I never heard back from her,” because this goal of the pre-departure meeting being scheduled is still sitting on her dashboard. So it’s a check and balance system too.

Final tip, if you are going to invest in an automation tool, like a scheduling software like Time to Pet, or an email autoresponder like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign, or you’re going to get Hootsuite or Buffer or SmarterQueue, any of these things, take the time to learn how to use them.

These softwares are built to make you money. People ask me all the time, “What about the expense?” If you use these tools, they’re going to make you money.

An expense is when you’re paying for them, but you don’t take the time to learn how to use them. They sit there, and you get charged month after month after month. They’re going to waste. They’re not bringing you, new clients. They’re not bringing you new leads, et cetera. That is when it’s an expense.

Don’t be scared of technology.

Think to yourself, what did I use not to be able to do that I’m terrific at now? Walking, we didn’t know how to walk when we were born. Now I’m an excellent walker. It’s the same thing. It’s a new skill you need to learn, and it’s going to benefit you and your business, and it’s going to help make you more money and give you more freedom in your pet sitting business.

 

Enter your first name and email address below to receive our The Top 15 Things to Automate in Your Pet Sitting Business Freebie


 

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

My Client Payment System

Today’s business growth video is a question that comes from a member of our Pet Nanny Coach community Facebook group. Kate writes, “How do you all accept payment? I’m so tired of the scattered methods. Cash, check, Venmo, Zelie. It’s everything. I’m a mess. Any suggestions? I know I should have done this a while ago.”

I can identify with what you’re going through because there was nobody worse than me when it came to tracking money. I would find checks in my coat pockets and the back of my jeans and my roommate used to borrow my clothes, and she’d find checks all the time. She’d say, “Wow, you must be wealthy not to have to deposit these checks.”

I would feel guilty if I lost a check, and I wouldn’t want to ask the client. So I would miss out on $600. It was just a nightmare. Then we had other people that wouldn’t pay, but I wasn’t treating my money or the energy around my money with respect. So, therefore, my clients weren’t treating me with respect for money, and it was a vicious circle.

I made this change probably about 13 years ago, and I’ve never looked back.

Get Scheduling Software.

I now bill the clients and create a service order. Then, four days before their scheduled service, I charge the credit card that we keep on file in my pet-sitting software. So that is how we do it.

I get a little bit of pushback from other members of the community. Well, what about the clients that don’t want to do that? Well, then they’re not my ideal client, and they can find service somewhere else.

Billing information is collected at onboarding.

There are two things that a client needs to do before we will schedule a registration meeting. First, they need to complete their welcome packet. It’s all their client and pet care information, sign their service agreement, and then need to give us their billing information.

If they don’t want to do that, Pet Nanny Pet Sitters of the Main Line is not the service for them. No judgment. Everybody has the right to make their own decisions, but that is how I run my business. It now runs seamlessly with me not having to worry about missed payments or tracking payments. It’s all right in there. It’s so easy.

The software keeps track of the credit card expiration.

The software system lets us know when the cards expire, and the client gets an automatic reminder email, “Hey, the credit card that you have on file with Pet Nanny has expired. Please update it.”

There has never been an issue since then. So think about it. Maybe that’s not the right system for you. This is your business, your rules.

What systems can be put into place to minimize time spent?

Consider what the pain points of your money management systems are and what systems can you put into place to minimize the time spent and make it easy for your clients to buy from you and make it easy for you to keep track of your books and your finances.

  •  

YES! Send Me The FREE 7 Tax-Saving Tips For Pet Sitting Businesses!



 

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