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10 Tools & Strategies for Your Team of Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers

We’re going to go through 10 strategies and tools for pet sitters that I regularly use in my business and I couldn’t live without.

1. Comprehensive onboarding system for your dream team of pet sitters.

The best thing you can do when you are growing your team is to create a well-thought-out and streamlined onboarding system so that your pet sitters have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and what they can expect from you. You want to create properly trained pet care professionals that will do an outstanding job. You’re going to do that through your comprehensive onboarding system.

2. Organize your team members’ information and documents in a cloud-based software like Google Drive.

I love Google Drive. We keep payroll documents, background checks, signed handbooks and contracts, incident reports, paid time off submissions, and key tracking organized there. You name it, and we use Google Drive for everything. Couldn’t live without it.

3. Use a payroll company.

For years, I spent way too much time writing checks manually. I regularly wrote twenty-five checks at a sitting. I don’t know how long that took. Now I use a payroll company named Gusto. I love them. Another option would be Paychex.

4. Use a pet sitting software.

I did a video on this last week. You want to invest in pet sitting software. Options include Time To Pet, Precise Pet Care, LeashTime and Pet Sitter Plus. If you’re on a tight budget, try PocketSuite. There are lots of options out there at different price points.

5. Use Zoom for virtual conferencing.

I love Zoom. We do all of our sitter interviews over Zoom. We do training calls, team meetings, and regular check-in calls with our team of pet sitters. It makes it so much easier. No more having to meet people at Starbucks and have them stand you up. That was a huge time suck as well. So use virtual conferencing like Zoom.

10 Tools & Strategies for Your Team of Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers-ver02


6. Use Facebook groups to create a community.

You want to create a community with your team of pet sitters and your internal staff. You don’t see them a lot. They are independent and out working alone, but you can create a community using a Facebook group. You can announce Sitter of the Month. You can have fun contests. We have Favorite Pet Friday, where the pet sitters post their favorite pet of the week. Sitters can find coverage if they need help with finding someone to do their visits. We can discuss issues that have popped up. We can point out things that went well. We highly recommend Facebook groups.

7. Use Slack for internal communication.

I use Slack for my internal communication, meaning my team of managers and virtual assistants working for the company. Many of my students also use it for their team community. So instead of using a Facebook group, they use Slack and love it. It has a mobile app, so all your communication with your staff would go through that app, and everything is trackable and searchable within the app. So check it out.

8. Use Asana for project management.

I love Asana. I also use this with my internal team of managers and virtual assistants, and it’s for our project management. It’s how we keep track of all of our to-dos and who is responsible for what. And then we have due dates on everything.

9. Use JotForm or Google Forms for surveys.

Every three months, I ask my pet sitters to complete a survey. I want to know how they like the job, do they have too many visits, do they not have enough visits. This is how you can anticipate how much longer people will be with your company because the last thing you want is having a sitter quit on you unexpectedly, and then you’re left with their schedule of visits that you have to fill. If you use the JotForm to keep in touch, you can anticipate issues. We also share our client and pet profiles that our clients fill out. They fill out the JotForm. Then we share that with the sitter as well.

10. Use SendOutCard or ThankU.io for greeting cards.

These are greeting card software apps. We use it for a lot of stuff. I send sitters gifts for their year anniversary, if they are Sitter of the Month, etc. We also use it for new clients.

 

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Work ON Your Dog Walking Business, Just Not IN it

If you’ve been following me, you’ve probably heard me say a gazillion times, “Stop working in your business and start working on your business.” This was the major shift that completely changed the trajectory of my career and my life with my dog walking business, and where I learned this was the E-Myth Revisited.

It was the first business book I read that had a major impact on my life. It’s just like bells went off in my head, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, “I am doing this business thing all wrong.”

So what the E-Myth says is that entrepreneurs are people that understand that going into business is something that you do. You’re building a business that runs without you having to do the work to create the revenue and the income.

The problem is that most small business owners are technicians. They’re like myself and most of the students that I work with. We go into the pet industry because we love and adore animals and want to provide amazing pet care. But then we decide that we want to grow the business, and we don’t know how to do that because we are technicians. We’re not entrepreneurs innately, as the word would define.

So that is the big shift. You have to start thinking differently about your business. If you had a hundred different locations, you would not be able to service a hundred different locations, be the manager, be the pet sitter.

Work ON Your Dog Walking Business, Just Not IN it

 

You would have to think about your dog walking business differently in terms of creating systems and processes that are easily replicable between all locations and that it is running without you being the person that is doing all of the marketing. You’re not the person that’s doing all of the admin. You’re not the person that’s doing the pet sitting. You’re not the person doing the database, the hiring, and all of the stuff that goes into it.

Start thinking of ways to remove yourself as the bottleneck.

You have to start thinking about yourself from a place of removing yourself as that bottleneck in your dog walking business so that you can create these processes so that you’re able to grow your team and you’re able to service more customers and, therefore, make more money.

You have to get out of the technician mindset and move yourself to that entrepreneurial mindset of working on your business and not in your business. This creates freedom in your life, which makes money in your business. It’s such an important shift if you want to grow a lucrative dog walking business.

 

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Can my Independent Contractors Wear Clothes with my Business Name and Logo?

Today, I’m answering a question from the Pet Nanny Coach community Facebook group member, who asked if her independent contractors are allowed to wear clothes with her pet sitting business name and logo on them.

Can my Independent Contractors Wear Clothes with my Business Name and Logo


The answer is absolutely not.

The reason why is because they are not classified as employees. If they were employees, then yes, you could have them wear whatever you want them to in terms of having and showcasing your pet sitting business name. You could have them use card magnets.

But if they’re independent contractors, they are independent of your company. In the eyes of the government, they are their own business and, therefore, should not in any way be affiliated with your company. They are not eligible to wear clothing with your pet sitting business name and logos on it.

I want you to be very careful with this. I do not believe that the benefit of having your sitters wear this type of clothing outweighs the risk. Trust me on this.

I’ve been through two audits. This was a very stressful subject in my life for many years. I won those audits, thankfully, but I know myself when it comes to independent contractors. So please take my advice. Don’t go down this road. The risk to your pet sitting business operations being interrupted is not worth the reward that you may get from your independent contractors wearing clothing with your business name and logo on it.


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What to do When You Get Burned by a Pet Sitter on Your Team

I spoke with a pet sitter last week, and she was just distraught about the previous three hires she had made to her pet sitting business. This is what I see happen so many times with pet sitting business owners trying the hiring process. They make the wrong choices, and then they say, “Oh, nope, this isn’t for me. I’m going to stay small, and the business does not multiply.”

So I said to this sitter, “You are learning something, this is a new process, but you need to get better at it.”

Let’s look back and identify the red flags.

Starting with the application, look at what they submitted. Look at the spelling, look at the grammar. Sometimes when I go back, and I’m like, oh, that was not a good hire.

If a pet sitter is going to apply to your company and they cannot take the time to capitalize or use correct punctuation, they’re not going to be a good fit.

Look back and see how they followed the process that you have laid out.

What steps did you have in place for them through the hiring process, and how did they follow it? Did they follow it correctly? Did they have to ask lots of questions? Did they do it incorrectly? Did you have to ask them repeatedly to submit their background check or to submit their references, et cetera? Did they follow the steps?

How do they communicate with you? Go back and read their emails and or text messages to you. It goes back to that application. Are they writing well thought out detailed emails or text messages? Or are they kind of a mess and all over the place? Are they just trying to throw the buck back at you, saying, here you fix this, so on and so forth? Communication is huge.

How do they present themselves at the interview? Sometimes I see people people that show up for a pet sitter interview, and they look an absolute mess. If somebody’s coming to interview for a job position, the least they can do is pull their hair back and put on clean clothes. Suppose they can’t present themselves cleanly and professionally to you at an interview. In that case, they’re not going to present themselves well to your human clients when they go to do registration meetings. Were they on time for the interview? What kind of questions did they ask you during the interview and onboarding process? If the answer’s none, that is a red flag.

QUOTE - What to do When You Get Burned by a Pet Sitter on Your Team


Reflect on how you could have missed the red flag.

Did you ignore the red flags? A lot of times, you ignore them. You think this person seems like they’re going to be a really good fit. I’m going to pretend like that email they just sent me wasn’t unprofessional. Or all right, I can get past how they looked, or they were 15 minutes late to the interview.

What could you put in place so that you don’t miss the red flags?

At Pet Nanny Coach, I teach my Multiply Framework, and we have three steps to the hiring process. We have the Attraction System. So we’re attracting the right people. We have the Assessment System; we have all types of hoops to jump through to see if they can make it to the other side. So look at that process. What do you have in place to see how they’re going to be as a pet sitter before you hire them? And finally, what does your Onboarding System look like?

Look at your onboarding process.

One I see a lot is the availability. They tell me they’re available here, and then they get started, and then all of a sudden, their availability changes. Is there any way to improve and have prepared this person more so that they could have done a better job for you?

We must go over this ten times before somebody starts working with my company and have them sign an availability sheet. This is what you are signing off on. Then we also go over the long-term relationship that we’re looking for. We’re not looking to work with pet sitters who will use my company as a pit stop. And if you join my team, you are committing to a long-term relationship of working together.

We’re going over it again and again. During the interview process, during the assessment phase, during the onboarding process. It’s setting those expectations right upfront so that they know what to expect.

Be kind to yourselves during this process.

You are going to get better at it, I promise, but it will take a little bit of a learning curve. I’m telling you if you put my processes into place, creating that attraction system, that assessment system, and that onboarding system that all work in conjunction with each other, you are going to create such an amazing team of people that you love working with that are going to take such fantastic care of your clients, both furry and human.

Still, you got to put the work in on the front end. And when you do that, it’s going to take so much of the stress level out of this.

When you get burned, I want you to take the time to go back and look. What were the red flags? How did I miss the flags? What could I put in place the next time I hire to avoid the red flags? Look at the onboarding process. How can you prepare these people so that you know that they are going to do such a great job working for your company at the end of that onboarding process? Take the time and look. I’m telling you 9.9 times out of 10, there were red flags, and we got to figure out how to get better at not missing those.

 

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3 Steps to 5-Figure Months in Your Pet Sitting Business

Today we’re talking about three simple steps for you to create consistent five figure months in your pet sitting business.

Step 1: Create a sales system that attracts new clients to your business.

Create a sales system that attracts new clients to your business while incentivizing your current customers to book from you more frequently.

Step 2: Systematize every single thing in your business.

It’s taking everything out of your head. It is documenting it onto an online business hub into some manual to easily delegate it to your support team.

Step 3: Have a Support Team

You will make a substantial income in your pet sitting business by leveraging yourself through a team of heart-centered pet care professionals that will take amazing care of your client’s pets. Then eventually, your support team will get even larger with a manager, a virtual assistant, and such.

Those are the three steps. You need to be acquiring new customers. You need to be systematizing every last thing in your business so one, you’re creating something of value that you’ll be able to sell down the road, and two, it makes it easy to run. It establishes that turnkey business where you’re not the person that’s having to do everything.

Lastly, you’re delegating to other people to do the work of running your pet sitting business.

QUOTE - 3 Steps to 5-Figure Months in Your Pet Sitting Business

 

As the business owner, you are not supposed to do the client work.

You are supposed to be the visionary. You’re supposed to be the person behind the scenes, and you delegate the client work to your team. It’s that simple.

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Mindset for Pet Sitters- 10 Signs You Might Have an Upper Limit Problem

Today I’m giving you a dose of mindset for pet sitters. We should all try and do mindset work on a daily basis to move us closer to our personal and business goals.

Upper Limit Problem is a phrase coined by Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks in their book, The Big Leap. So what exactly is an “Upper Limit Problem?” It’s a sneaky form of self-sabotage that creeps into your life just when things are starting to get really good.

As Gay Hendrick defines it…

The ULP is the human tendency to put the brakes on our positive energy when we’ve exceeded our unconscious thermostat setting for how good we can feel, how successful we can be, and how much love we can feel.

Below are ten signs that you may have an Upper Limit Problem.

1.) You have an income cap that you can’t break.

New businesses should experience exponential growth in the first few years of business. After that, you may not have as large of jumps in revenue, but you should continue to make more every year that you’re in business. If you can’t seem to break a specific number, you’ve got an upper limit problem.

2.) You can’t get past a certain number of customers.

This goes along the same lines as number one, not being able to break through a cap on customers. I had this problem for a while. I couldn’t seem to get past 612 customers. After I realized that I had an upper limit problem, I have since tripled that number. (Awareness of the issue plays a large part in overcoming the issue.)

3.) You pick fights about nothing.

You just had a fabulous week! You signed ten new customers; you hired three new sitters; you created a new referral partnership. Things are going great when inexplicably; you find yourself picking an unnecessary fight. If you find yourself getting overly angry just after something good has happened, it’s probably not a fluke.

4.) You never invest in hard assets.

You may invest in classes, trainings, courses, masterminds, live events or retreats, but when it comes to purchasing tangible things that you need for the growth of your business. If you find yourself having no trouble spending to learn, but you’re unwilling to spend to earn your subconscious mind just may be keeping you in continuous student status, which is holding you back on becoming a professional. This is an upper limit problem.

5.) You desert money-making projects right after the idea origination phase.

You come up with a stellar new idea for your business. Your customers are going to love it! You make notes, you create a project plan, and then you never look at it again. If you leave these great ideas unimplemented on a continuous basis, you may be subconsciously leaving them in the idea phase so that they don’t come to fruition. This is self-sabotage.

6.) You leave projects 70-90% done.

Similar to the last problem, where you desert projects at the idea phase, in this example you’re leaving things when they’re almost entirely grown. Your website is nearly done, your Procedures Manual is virtually complete, your pet sitters are in place, and your new mailing campaign is ready to mail.
If this is you, you’re leaving projects in the final phases, so they never come into being. This is most definitely an Upper Limit Problem.

7.) You get sick right after you have a BIG win.

Sometimes it’s not your mind that objects and rebels. Sometimes it’s your body that protests your advancement. Do you ever get hit was an illness right after you achieve something great and then that illness stops you in your tracks. This happens to me with the gym. Without fail anytime I start a new workout routine, BAM! I get taken out with a virus which makes it insanely hard to get back to the healthy routine. Upper Limit, pet sitters!

8.) You walk away from deals.

You have terrific opportunities just waiting for you to seize. A new house sitting client needs you to housesit their mansion all summer. A new Monday through Friday, two times per day, dog walking client wants you to start ASAP, and you never get back to them. This is most surely a sign of an Upper Limit Problem.

9.) You leave your money uncared for.

You have money waiting to be deposited, and you sit on it. I used to find checks in my pockets months after a service had been completed. My roommate used to find checks laying around the apartment and in my jackets. This was definitely a sign that I was suffering from an Upper Limit Problem.

10.) Other people’s difficulties throw you off your momentum.

When you’re in your “zone of genius” and making great things happen, nothing can throw you off your game. You’re focused and intentional, and nothing can penetrate you. If all of a sudden you find yourself being derailed by things that wouldn’t usually phase you, you may be suffering from an Upper Limit Problem. Your subconscious is looking for any reason to stop your momentum.

So how do you battle your Upper Limit Problem?

You battle your Upper Limit Problem by becoming aware of the issue. In his book, Hendricks refers to benign vigilance as “paying keen but relaxed attention.”

Start looking for patterns in your behavior and go on high-alert when good things start to happen to you. If you find yourself beginning to pick an unnecessary fight, close your eyes, take a deep breath and ground yourself. Say to yourself,

“I expand in abundance, success, and love every day, as I inspire those around me to do the same.” Click To Tweet

 

All pet sitters deal with an Upper Limit Problem. It’s just some have higher thermostats than others, and some have busted through their own upper limits.

Your Homework: Start with awareness and read the Big Leap! I highly recommend it!

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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


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Create Your Ideal Pet Sitting Client Profile

Create Your Ideal Pet Sitting Client Profile Before Mapping Out Your Pet Sitting Business Plan

Identifying who you want to attract as clients to your pet sitting business is the first thing you should do before mapping out your pet sitting business plan. When you know WHO you want to work with, marketing becomes so much easier!

There are numerous things that universally will constitute an ideal pet sitting client.

  • Those who you really enjoy working with.
  • Those who need your help.
  • Those that value what you offer.
  • Those who can easily be identified and contacted.
  • Those who will happily pay what you are worth without attempting to negotiate.
  • Those who write excellent testimonials for you.
  • Those who will refer you time and time again.

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