034 - Kristin Morrison
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Kristin Morrison joins us this week! She shares her experience managing employees, dealing with burn out, and what it was like selling her business.
Topics for This episode:
What’s it like becoming a manger
Who was your first client
Overcoming undercharging
How has being a pet sitter changed since you started
Social media
Getting started today
What did you learn from hiring employees
Common concerns you hear from pet business owners
Listener Questions
Kristin Morrison started her pet sitting and dog walking company in 1995 and it grew to become one of the largest pet care companies in California. Kristin hired over 250 people in the course of running her business for 18 years and when she sold the business, she had 35 dog walkers and pet sitters and 4 managers on staff.
Kristin is the founder of Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy™ and Six-Figure Pet Business Academy™ which provides coaching, webinars and business products to pet sitters, dog walkers, dog trainers, and pet groomers across the United States, Canada, the UK and Australia.
Kristin is also the host of the Prosperous Pet Business podcast which is found on iTunes and the Prosperous Pet Business website.
Kristin is the author of five books: Six-Figure Pet Sitting, 30 Days to Start and Grow Your Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Business, The Hiring Handbook for Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers, Prosperous Pet Business and Six-Figure Pet Business. Her books are available in paperback on Amazon. The eBooks and audiobooks are on her website at: www.SixFigurePetBusinessAcademy.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SixFigurePetBusinessAcademy/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petbizcoach/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/petbizcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/SixFigurePetSitting
Prosperous Pet Business Podcast: https://prosperouspetbusiness.com/pet-business-podcast/
Links for Resources Kristin Mentioned:
Here's the free tips and tools booklet link I talk about in the podcast
And I'll give listeners this discount link on the items that I mention on the episode including my eBooks and hiring tools including the Application Packet and Pet Sitting Employee Handbook
The 30-Day Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Business Challenge was mentioned on the podcast and it's happening again June 2020:https://www.sixfigurepetbusinessacademy.com/30-day-pet-sitting-dog-walking-online-challenge
My upcoming COVID-19 pet business support / co-working online group. It's happening on Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern. There’s a small fee to attend but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Listeners who can't afford the small fee can email me at thrive@SFPBacademy.com if it’s a hardship for them and I'll get them in the group.
Our Links
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Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, pet, people, pet sitters, clients, important, dog, days, coaching, starting, employees, questions, charging, pay, business owners, walk, dog walkers, terms, hire, feeling
SPEAKERS
Collin, Kristin
00:15
Hi, I'm Colin. And I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional,
00:20
and open and honest discussion.
Collin 00:28
And welcome back. On this week's episode, we have a very special guest. You've probably read one of her many books taken her course senior on national TV or listen to her very own podcast. Kristin Morrison is with us this week to talk about running. A quick note, we did record this conversation before the Covid-19 outbreak across the globe. So on. However, I do hope that that portion of the conversation is up.
Kristin 01:16
I'm so happy to be here today. And thank you for your invitation. I appreciate that. So I, I started my own pet sitting and dog walking business many years ago in 1995. And I had it for 18 years. And about five years into running my own business. I had a few pet sitters from around the country ask if I would be willing to help them grow their businesses. So in the year 2000, I began coaching pet sitters and dog walkers. And so I have been coaching for almost 20 years at this point. It kind of blows my mind when I think about it. It feels like yesterday in some ways, but Yeah, so I I'm a business coach for pet sitters, dog walkers, dog trainers, pet groomers, all kinds of service space pet care providers. I've written a few books and I'm working on actually my six books. Currently, and I offer webinars and I just really am passionate about helping pet business owners great success and it's not just about money a lot of people look at, oh, Kristen, you own six figure pet Business Academy. Yes, I am absolutely passionate about people making a great income doing something they love. That is something that my heart and soul is really invested in and excited about. But to me, it's so much more than just the money it's really quality of life. A lot of pet sitters and dog walkers and especially tend to have a really challenging work life. Balance. it's skewed in terms of them working a lot and not having a personal life. And I experienced that in my own business in my own life. And so I really did a lot of inner and outer work around that to create a life that I loved that, you know, where my business was a wonderful addition to my life, but it wasn't the whole of my life. So, that's a little bit about me and what I do.
Collin 03:31
Yeah, most of us I just for me, personally, I guess, didn't start off to run a pet business we got in it because we love taking care of animals. And now this this business monster kind of comes along with you. That said, that you all of a sudden have to manage and that's you know, we've all we find ourselves in that position and, and so there's always a lot of questions about you know, I have this passion of Taking care of animals. You know what some of the best ways to be a manager of a business? In the pet care business particularly?
Kristin 04:10
Yes. So when I think of manager, I think about somebody actually running the business rather than doing the services of the business, like pet sitting and dog walking, so maybe you've stepped away from doing the actual services. Yeah. What I found in my own business is that I actually needed to do those services for a year or two before I could begin to step away from or begin to hire people and then eventually step away from doing the actual services. And, you know, I find that it's really important for people to actually experience doing those services before they make that leap. That being said, there is an experience of you know, In addition to doing these services, even before you've hired, there's a lot of administration tasks that you have to do. And that can be like a juggling act for people that are especially not used to it and not, you know, into multitasking. Just a super big challenge, and I get it. And so, what I found that's been really helpful for me, as well as a lot of my coaching clients is to get hyper organized, Uber organized, you know, and what does that look like? So what it might look like for some people is really figuring out okay, what day are you going to focus on marketing? You know, maybe you set aside three hours on Monday, where, you know, you clear the decks of your schedule, and that is all about marketing, whether it be social media, you know, pounding the pavement, going to talk to veterans. groomers, pet store owners, you know, really cultivating relationships in terms of networking, to grow your business, things like that. And maybe billing clients is another day or twice a week, where you stay on on track with that. So what I found for my own for my own self is that if I can get really clear about my schedule, and not everything, you know, once you set a schedule, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're definitely going to follow that every single day, week or month. But it absolutely helps to really put whatever you need to do in your calendar rather than, you know, what I hear from a lot of pet sitters is when I'm coaching them is oh my gosh, I don't even know what to work on today. Well, you know, part of that could be helped if you really look at, you know, write down all the tasks that you need to Do on a sheet of paper, you know, really simplify it and then start to designate days of the week times of the week to actually work on those particular things. And the more organized you can get, the less fires you're gonna have to be putting out, right? fires can be such a pain in the butt to deal with, yeah, yeah, they cause a lot of drama. And the less you can, you know, the more you can kind of put the drama aside and just begin to get really super organized. It makes such a difference.
Collin 07:36
Yeah, I love that idea of once you get organized, setting aside certain times of the day to work on certain tasks, because as small business owners and operators, we wear all the hats all the time sometimes. And to have like you said, set aside today, you know, for three hours today, I'm doing networking for three hours tomorrow. I'm doing You know, I'm pounding the pavement for the next day I'm doing billing and yeah, that way you don't, you know, you know, you're going to get to it, it's on the schedule, and you're not constantly worried about doing everything all the time because that's a that's impossible as a
08:15
as a one person show.
Kristin 08:16
And that's a good point that you bring up, Colin, because I do feel like when we can get really organized in our schedule, it does create some peace in our brain, that part of our brain as business owners, we're like, oh, my God, I have so much to do. What do I need to do today? What do we need, you know, we get panicky or we can get panicky and so it can really kind of Sue that part of our brain that is feeling really stressed out about all the many tasks that we have to do we get to put our brain in a hammock for a bit like worry, sweetheart, no, don't worry brain. You're good. You're gonna be able to work on that on Monday, as well.
Collin 08:57
Yeah, yeah. It's it's like, you know, putting something on your calendar, it's like, I'm not putting it there to remember it today I'm putting it there so that my brain, you know, my brain is good at creating, it's not good at remembering these things. So get it written down, get it somewhere so that you can go back to it and know where everything is. That's right. So, you're currently doing business coaching, but as you mentioned, you know, you did start out in the pet care business. Do you remember your first client?
Kristin 09:25
Yes, I do. Um, actually, it was my neighbor's. Let me see if I can get this right. My neighbor's best friend's mom. So she, this client lived. Gosh, maybe about 10 doors down from me. And she had two dogs Daisy and Bailey. Daisy was a golden retriever. Bailey was a sheepdog mix. very stubborn dog. That one did not like to walk at all which was challenging to walk by Have them because when didn't want to walk in when really did mobile work? Yeah. But that was my first client. And I remember, I mean, this was in 1995. It was many years ago, but still, like, totally undercharged them. I charge them $5 a walk,
10:17
oh my goodness.
Kristin 10:18
30 minute walk. And even at that time, you know, $5 would be like, it was just so low, but I felt so grateful that I actually had a client. Yeah, I just I felt like I should be paying them because I was so excited to be able to get paid to exercise and be around dogs. And I see that a lot in my, my work with my coaching clients is when they're first starting out. They really undercharged, they made the same mistake that I make, and then it's really hard to raise them.
Collin 10:51
Yeah,
Kristin 10:52
yeah. So yeah, that was my first client.
Collin 10:56
Oh, gosh. You know, even there, you you know, you're able to look back and and and learn from that. And yeah, I think that's so valuable that when we're when we're running our businesses taking that time to look back and think back to those experiences to learn and grow from them because that undercharging, I feel like that's a chronic problem in the pet care business. It is and and it's, it is you're always afraid to ask for more. And I was wondering, you know, if you've thought about why that is, and why that, you know, maybe a particular problem to pet care.
Kristin 11:31
Yes. Two things about this that I want to mention. One is a lot of people run their business as if it's a nonprofit. And it's really important to remember that it is a for profit venture. Yeah. This is going to support you, and maybe your family too, if you have a family. And so it's really important to value your time, your energy, your attention. I think it's a problem in the pet care industry, because people that are drawn to becoming pet care providers tend to have a really caring, and nurturing spirit and a very loving heart, which is great. Yeah, we want that. That's the kind of person that's going to be a good fit for this industry. However, the flip side of that the shadow side of that is really not feeling like you can charge a lot, feeling sheepish about charging for something that you're maybe very passionate about really happy to be doing. And yet, it's important to kind of take that out of the equation. And realize this is a valuable service that you're offering clients. It's, you know, time is is one of the most precious resources that we have in our lifetime. Right? Is it minute each hour each day, where are you putting your energy, your attention. And part of that is to your work. And you can never get that back. You can never get your time back. It's one of those resources that once you use it, in that particular moment, it is gone. And so it's so important to really realize and kind of wake up to the fact that, you know, if you're not charging what your time and energy are worth, you can't ever get that back. So yeah, I really want to encourage those pet sitters and dog walkers who are listening to this, who perhaps haven't raised their rates in a number of years, or who are just starting out and feeling like oh, I need to charge just a little bit. I don't recommend if you're first starting out that you charge you know, the top tier that You know, pet sitters in your area have been working for 1015 years are charging, you know, you don't want to charge a ton. But what you do want to do is really evaluate what the different pet sitters in your area are charging, and go to, let's say the lowest is 15. In your investigative work, you know where you're searching and seeing what people are charging. The lowest is 15, the highest is 20. Maybe you're looking at 18. Yeah, as a brand new pet sitter. And then you can always raise it, it's harder to lower it. And you don't want to, you don't want to lower it generally, right, but you do want to eventually raise it. So I have a whole tips and tools booklet around raising rates on my website, it's on the free stuff page. So if they're interested, I'd be happy to have them. You know, scroll to the bottom of that page and there's a link that says how to write the Perfect rate increase letter. Okay. And it has a lot of information on there about raising rates.
Collin 15:06
Right. We'll provide links to that in the show notes. So the episode here, so everybody has that. Because Yeah, that's a that's a that's always a very touchy topic of it is of how do I do this? When do I do it? To whom do I raise rate do I grandfather people in and that's Yeah, that's a can be a big monster to try and tackle.
15:24
Totally. Yeah. Because this this,
Collin 15:27
this particular industry is very much one of those of I could do it, quote, unquote, for free, because who wouldn't want to spend time with puppies? That's right, it's but but knowing that time spent away as you mentioned, comes at a very real cost to you and your family and to make sure that you are valuing you're valuing your time and the you've been in the pet sitting industry since you said the mid 90s. How would you say or what are some of the biggest changes to the pet sitting industry that have taken place? Since then,
Kristin 16:01
well, people are much more aware of it now. Yeah, I remember going to parties in the, you know, late 90s. And this was when I had my business for a few years at that point, and people would ask what I did for a living and I would say, Oh, I own a pet sitting and dog walking business, and they would like, talk their heads like a bird like oh, you know, at that point, there were three pet sitters, professional pet sitters in my county now there are probably hundreds. Oh, wow. Yeah, so so you know, we've done a lot of the hard work for you guys who are just starting out the heavy lifting of educating people on what a pet sitter dog walker is actually a service that people need and you know, can get a lot of value from so I think that's one way is just you don't you guys who are just starting out don't have to educate people on what it is that you do. Yeah. But not only that, I mean, there have been some really major changes in terms of social media. And that being such a huge way of gaining clients and a really important way to get new clients and also to stay in regular communication with your clients. That being said, it's also been a challenge for a lot of pet sitters and dog walkers in terms of, again, going back to valuing your time they can get really sucked into that social media rabbit hole, right. And so, you know, that's been an interesting dance that I've seen in terms of, you know, it being such a blessing to have the social media, but then it can also be the curse, right? Yeah. Oh my god. I've been on social media for three hours, where's my life going? And talking about that valuable, precious resource of time that we can never get back? Yeah, once we've used it, so that's one thing. Also, of course, the wag and rover apps weren't around in the mid 90s. And so we didn't have that complete competition in terms of, you know, a lot of people these days want that really instant gratification of like clicking a button getting sitter, boom, it's done. Yeah, people are super busy. And so it's really important for pet sitters and dog walkers these days to be, you know, really easily accessible. Yeah, what does that look like? So what it looks like is having software that can kind of match that match that app aspect. A lot of software's these days have an app where people can actually click on it and get to your particular login or your software, you know, and that can help you with that cutting edge software. That really needed to make it really easy for your clients. Also, returning client calls promptly is really important in terms of, you know, just an emails, just really being in regular communication with your clients in the way that they need, I think, yeah, so those are some big changes that I've witnessed just a few of those changes. Sure, a lot. But
Collin 19:25
yeah, you touched on social media there as far as how important it is, and some of the pitfalls because we can very easily see you can spend all of your time posting pictures of cute dogs, but not doing the actual business stuff and, you know, engaging on there and trying to judge that. What's an engagement on Instagram worth versus engagement with somebody on the sidewalk that you can add a business card to and what is that value that it gives back to your your business? Yes,
Kristin 19:52
and I think they're both very important. And it's not perhaps one or the other. I think the more and more marketing you can do in many different areas, I call it casting the marketing net wide as if you're fishing, you know, it's not just search engine optimization or Facebook marketing. It's really about making yourself available kind of everywhere. I mean, one of the greatest compliments you can get as a business owner that's been marketing lot is I see you everywhere. Yeah. You know, when you start to hear that, you know that you are doing something right. Right.
Collin 20:30
Yeah. Yeah. And that should be very gratifying to you to know that. You're popping up first. You're you're you know, you're the one that people see first and foremost everywhere they go, right. Yeah, exactly. So other than social media as kind of this new opportunity that that we have these days. What are some other things that pet business pet care businesses have at their disposal that are good and positive as these days
Kristin 20:57
Well, I'm I'm not Sure I totally understand your question, but I'm going to answer it in the way that I'm hearing it. Okay. Yeah. So one of the things that I see is very positive is that I see the pet industry continuing to grow and grow and grow. I see it having unlimited possibility and potential and here's why. When I started my business, like I said in in the mid 90s, pets were not considered kids the way they are today for most people. They are very much revered all over the world these days, which is wonderful and it means that people are really valuing their pets and treating them with respect and care and love and and with that comes the desire and ability and willingness to put money where their heart is. You know, so they're willing to pay for pet sitters and dog walkers and groomers. Right? And I think, you know, a lot of people think, oh, there are too many pet sitters and dog walkers in my area probably shouldn't even try. There are so many pets. Collin, I was in Arizona recently attending the day of the dog Festival, which is such a fun festival. It's kind of all over the country now. So if anybody gets a chance to go, I really recommend it. But I met a lot of Arizona pet sitters there, and what they all said, and they weren't all together. I met them at various times when I was there at the festival. And what they all said to me in one way or another was we have so much business, that there is no competition. Wow. And you know, that isn't true. Every single area I get that, you know, maybe in rural areas It's gonna be a little harder. You don't have as much population clients, you know, potential clients. But what I've seen in most of the cities, is that that is true. And what happens is we get in our own way in terms of, oh, there's too much competition or we start focusing on the competition. Put your energy back in your own business. Yes. You know, really put your blinders on focus on your own business, and really, again, that the possibilities are unlimited. But when your energy is in somebody else's business, it's not in yours. Yeah.
Collin 23:41
Yeah. And, and that's kind of where I was. I was hoping you would take that question, as far as we talked about opportunities is that it is it is growing and is still growing. I remember. One of the stats that really struck me was during the recession that we had now. 15 years ago at this point, the pet, Karen History was one of the only ones to continue to grow. Yeah, through that. And, and that, you know, we were kind of when we, my wife and I started we were kind of coming that was kind of towards the tail end of the the recession, but it was still booming and growing like gangbusters, yes. And it was just like, Okay, this is a good place to be because as more people get educated, you know, even if you're in a town of 20,000 people, 10,000 people, even if 10% of those people have pets, that's still a huge market that you alone won't be able to fill. So there's no there's always room for for more and in different services to because as one single pet sitter, you know, running your business, you won't be able to meet everybody's individualistic needs. And so there are a lot of niche markets within the pet care industry to to seek out into, to specialize in
Kristin 24:55
that's a good point. You know, I coached someone a few weeks ago who just has a wedding assistant business. So she is a caretaker for dogs at weddings. And that is the only thing she does. Whoa.
Collin 25:13
I know. I know. Yeah, yes. Yeah. I know. So I mean, that's a great example of this. The diversity is there, the numbers are there. And so the opportunities go along with that.
25:28
That's right.
Collin 25:30
So if you were starting a pet care business today, or maybe deciding to go out on your own, maybe you've been working with a rover and wag and you decide to go on your own, what are some things that you need to really consider and think about? Step one, or two, or maybe step zero?
Kristin 25:48
Yes. So step zero is actually thinking about the name. And names are really, really important. They're more important than most people think. Yeah, it's helpful. will identify you, it really sets the stage for your business. And it's important to really think way into the future before you're even ready to do that. So, you know, it may seem strange and counterintuitive, but it's really important to look well into the future to think, do I want to see do I see myself staying in my little town or my county? You know, maybe in 10 years, you might want to actually franchise your business at some point. So if you call your business, the city, that it's in like San Francisco pet sitting, that might not be irrelevant if you decide to franchise down the road. Yeah. And in the same vein, calling your business naming your business after your own personal name can be challenging too, because it can be hard to hire people. Because if you have Joe's pet sitting and you want to hire people A lot of your clients are going to go but I want show. I don't want Julie, I want show owner, you know, yeah. So it's really important to actually be very conscious when you're naming your name and really think well into the future about that. And then of course, to get business insurance, that's something that is crucial before you've taken your first client. Yet business insurance, I recommend that you get bonding insurance, which is for theft. And you may think, well, what if it's just me? Why would I need that I know I'm not going to steal anything your clients don't know that yet sets them at ease, you know, seeing insured and bonded on your website is going to help them feel more comfortable and more trusting of you a stranger that they're inviting into their home. So that's really important. It's also important to get software, administration software for your business, not necessary. Sara Lee immediately upon starting, but as you're growing, it's going to create a container for you to grow. Yeah. It's important.
Collin 28:11
Yeah. And making sure you start setting up that that scaffolding that good foundation. So that as you build, you don't have to suddenly, you know, no duct tape all these other you know, quick fixes and patches to the way you run your business and spending all that time up front. You really think about that is you will be thinking yourself years down the line. You're right,
Kristin 28:34
that it's worth the time and energy to invest that time.
Collin 28:44
Have you heard about time to pet Susan from the pet gal has this to say
28:49
time to pet has helped us grow exponentially. We believe the platform's features make us by far more professional than other companies who use conventional dashboards. They are the software Where goober is constantly developing and improving the platform based on user feedback.
Collin 29:04
This decision was a good one. If you are looking for new pet sitting software for your business, give time to pet a try. As a listener of pet sitter confessional, you'll get 50% off your first three months when you sign up at time to pet.com slash confessional. Now, you've written quite extensively on starting and running pet care businesses, and one of your books and materials that you have is on hiring and retaining really good employees. Yeah. What's something that you've you learned when you hired your first employee? And how did it change how you thought about employees after that?
Kristin 29:46
Yeah, so I didn't know how to hire when I hired. I had never I had always had bosses, but I had never been a boss. So I was not a very good boss. In the beginning. I really was excited. sited about being a boss. I like the sound of that.
Collin 30:03
Yeah.
Kristin 30:05
Yeah. But I didn't really know how to be a good boss. So, and I didn't know what to look for. So I just looked for somebody that was interested. And that wasn't enough. It's really important. You know, I learned after that after my first person to really look for somebody that is good with pets, and people, I thought somebody loving pets was enough. But even if they only see clients once, and then they never see them again, that one time interaction is crucial at that mean, greet. Yeah, you know if they're super shy, if they lack confidence, if they're just kind of a challenging personality, but yet they're great with pets. It might not be a good fit in terms of hiring. I've had a lot of people I've hired in my pets. business, I hired over 250 people in the course of running my business for 18 years. Wow. When I sold it, I had 35, dog walkers and pet sitters for managers. So it's a pretty big business. Right? And, you know, what I learned through that process was, I had a lot of people want to work for me and say, Oh my gosh, I love animals. I don't really like people. Yeah. And they thought that that would be something that would be a good thing to tell me. It's actually the opposite. I was like, Oh, yeah, you're not gonna be a good bird.
31:36
No. Oh,
Kristin 31:38
yeah. But they they saw that as a good thing, you know? So that's something to really pay attention to. Common Sense can be tricky to really figure out when you're interviewing if they have it or not, and it's crucial in this business, right? So you know, one of the things one of the ways Kind of the screening processes that I did is I created an application packet, which people had to fill out. And it was lengthy seven pages where they had to fill it out. Yeah. And then at that point I had them snail mail it, but toward the end of my business, I would have them email it back to me. And what happened with that is two things. It showed a commitment level, because they filled out the packet, me know, either mailed or emailed it back. But also there were specific questions in there. That really helped me determine if they had the ability to follow directions, as well as common sense. So you know, one of the questions would be, list three words that best describe why you would make a great pet sitter dog walker with my money. And if they listed three sentences, they were out, like I wouldn't even consider them because a lot of your clients right now. Write about really important information. And if they're not paying attention, not a good, not a good fit, right?
33:09
Yeah,
Collin 33:09
yeah, I think I remember hearing a story of a rock group that when they would go to a show, they would put very lengthy details for their back room and one of them was like only green m&ms or something like that. Because they knew if they paid attention to that, the group of people setting up the area would know and would be paying attention to how to set up all of the sound boards and all those little details. So that it that that attention to detail is is huge, because those letters that that clients leave for their for their pets are quite extensive sometimes as you as you mentioned, exactly. And yeah, and it can be if you know, if you're not careful, you can really get into some hot water there.
Kristin 33:52
Exactly. And you know, regarding the application packet Another question I have on there is how much do you need to make week doing part time work with our company. And so that's another really important note, you know, if they're writing $1,000 a week, they might not be a good fit. It's not a deal breaker, but it just means that there's an important conversation that needs to be had in order to see if they're the right fit, because you want to be able to give them what they need to supplement their income and for the application packet. So, you know, I created this in my own business, people can absolutely create their own. I also sell one on my sight. It's the one that I used in my own business. So okay, you know, if we, if you want, we can put a link to that. So yeah, and they can just check it out and find out what's in it and then they can create their own as well. They don't have to get mine.
Collin 34:50
Yeah, because sometimes it's just really hard to figure out where do you even start with? You were hiring employees. Correct and yes, you know, you'll hire an employee or bring on an independent contractor, you know where it is your mind kind of go when making those kind of decisions these days?
Kristin 35:14
Well, I really think across the board that people need to hire employees, I am getting more and more. I'm getting more and more calls and emails from pet sitters who are saying they got audited due to miss classification one pet sitter in particular that I had been really encouraging to convert ice crises to employees. Almost every single session. I have a conversation with her about this. She just got a bill for $50,000 because she got audited and you know, it's just you know, she's heading into the holiday season here really depressed understandably. Yeah. So I am just a huge advocate for people converting and I know it's a pain in the butt. It can cost more for sure it does cost more than having ICS, unfortunately, but the thing is you won't be able to sleep better at night if you've converted your icees to employees and I just can't say enough about it. I just don't want to see anyone else get audited and have to pay penalties and back taxes. It's no fun.
Collin 36:33
Yeah, that's that sounds like a big mess just waiting to happen and trying to vote late. And so the employee route just sounds like it's kind of a sure way to make sure that you are have all of your bases covered without trying to know, you know, what box to check in on the forms and stuff.
Kristin 36:50
Exactly. And there's some easy I mean, easier ways to do it. So it's good to get an employment attorney who can help you strategize in terms of what to pay people, you know how to set up your contracts, all of that. And you can find a low cost employment lawyer by googling, you know, low cost Legal Aid and your particular city or the nearest big city. You can also use Legal Zoom, which is a prepaid legal service, you might even want to check with score service corps of retired executives, they often have free assistance, I can't guarantee that they will in every city, but they might have an employment lawyer who's retired who can help for free. So you know, that's one thing and also a lot of the payrolls services are, you know, make will make your job a lot easier as far as being an administrator. Yeah, it's a headache to do that. So I really recommend paying a company to do it, and it's not very expensive for a lot of companies. It'll be about $100 Maybe less, maybe a little bit more, and it's totally worth it.
Collin 38:05
Yeah. And you may be hard to see that of, you know, why am I spending $100 to have somebody do this. But then you hear stories of somebody who didn't do it properly. And now they've got huge bills, or they've got a lot of problems. So it's kind of like it, you can think of it almost as a form of another insurance to make sure things are done properly, and that you don't have something to fall back. Actually, that kind of leads into one of our listener questions, and we have a special thank you to Jen and what was the pay structure of your business with employees and how did you go about getting that set up?
Kristin 38:45
Yeah, so my pay structure was half of what I charged at the time, and that usually works well for most pet business owners who have their rates for their clients. Got what it should be. So it's important to do that. And again, that's why it's important to raise your rates. Yeah, you know, at least every other year, if not every year, even if you raise them just $1 you know, a service, yeah, walk or visit that can help you continue to raise your staff rates. You know, whenever I raised client rates, my staff rates went up, as well. So, you know, that's the way I did it. It's what really worked great for me, it's what has worked well, for a lot of my coaching clients, what can be really challenging and I I've worked with a couple people recently, who are paying their staff 50% sorry, 70% of what they're charging. So they're, their business is making 30 but, you know, after payroll and workers comp, they're actually looking at like, 15 percent. And it's like, why are you even having employees? Right? If you're gonna be, you know, paying that high and I get it, I really am an advocate and your stuff as much as you can. But it's important to really weigh that in terms of, you know, what you're paying them as well as what your business is making. So, again, it's kind of this circle of your business life, raising the rates, having, you know, your rates be what they should be in order to pay your staff. And it's like, you know, you have to make sure all of those are working properly in order to come out ahead,
Collin 40:42
right, because the living in isn't getting any cheaper. And so, business expenses go up every year, and so it's right and so doing those small incremental changes can increases can really help because if you don't change it for several years and then all of a sudden you do a 15 or $20 increase that that, that your your clients are not going to be the happiest ones in the world when they see that change for sure. Oh, they won't say
Kristin 41:11
yes, most of them won't. And, you know, an interesting, just a little kind of vision of math around this. So a lot of people think, Oh my gosh, $2 a walk. That doesn't sound like much of an increase. But here's the simple math around this. Okay, so let's say you have 10, Monday through Friday dog walking clients, and you raise them $2 more per walk. You know, that is $400 more per month. Yeah. Without doing more work, right? Yeah. And that is 40 $800 more per year almost $5,000 just from those 10 clients. Yeah. So when you start to look at the bigger picture and have the bigger vision it's mind blowing, you know, and a lot of your pet sitters who are listening to this podcast probably have a lot more than 10. clients. Yeah. So they can dramatically increase their revenue without doing more work except writing a simple email and clicking send.
Collin 42:19
Yeah, yeah. And I, I would encourage any of the listeners that if you haven't sat down and just played with Excel and some numbers and doing some of those $1 $2 increases, and then plotting it out, one year, two years, five years just to see that difference, because it is it's that big picture idea of it adds up really,
Kristin 42:41
it does. And I like what you said earlier, Colin, about like, you know, the cost of living goes up and every year that you're not raising your rates, that's money that you're leaving on the table.
Collin 42:52
You travel quite extensively, giving seminars and coaching one on one to business owners. What are some common themes That you see people struggling with and what are some ways they can overcome those?
Kristin 43:04
Yeah, so um, I'm just thinking hiring is a huge one like, how do I hire great people? We talked about that. Yeah, well, burnout is huge. Yeah. And that's a bit like work life balance, but I get a lot of pet business owners who are contacting me saying, I'm so fried. I don't know, I don't think I want to go on anymore. And it's affecting their, you know, significant relationships. It's affecting their health. Maybe they're eating in the car instead of actually sitting at their dining room table, you know. So one of the things that I recommend, like the first place to look at if you're feeling totally burned out, is how are you taking care of your body or how are you not taking care of your body because everything really sucks. stems from that. It's the foundational piece for your business just like the name is the foundational piece, your body and your ability to invest your energy. And your time comes from your body and your health. So, that's the first place to look at, you know, before you even look at systems and strategies, I really recommend that you start there. And look at what are you feeding yourself, you know, almost like if you had a kid who perhaps is having one of those tantrums at 2pm a nap you know, are you he's eating a lot of sugar and he's bouncing off the walls. You know, it's kind of like you parenting yourself and looking at yourself as if you would parent. What do I need to do for myself? Yeah, in this moment to give myself what I need. In order to be there, for my business, it's like the oxygen mask on yourself. Everybody talks about that. Right? But how do we do it? Yeah. So starting with what are you putting in your body? You know, have you moved recently? I'm talking about working out, you know, and maybe you walk dogs, maybe you need to do something different. Maybe it's taking a yoga class, or meditating, if that's something that, you know, you think would help you? Yeah. Also, one more thing about this is, a lot of people who have a pet business are pretty isolated. You know, they're on the computer a lot. A lot of them don't even have partners, you know, because they don't have time to date. Because they're so busy or they don't have quality time with their partners or their kids. So yeah, I really recommend that in addition to taking care of your body, taking care of your relationships, because Those feed us yeah and nourishing ways that we can't even put words to sometimes
Collin 46:07
that gets back to what you started off talking about was it's not just about that income. It's not just about that money. It's finding that balance and asking those questions. When was the last time you had a vegetable? When was the last time you just went in lay in laid in the grass and felt this? When did you sit and have coffee with a friend it's we get so caught up in pet care business of being busy all the time, because your busiest when other people aren't working and were busiest when they were taking care of them. And yeah, you know, running it. You also mentioned earlier, running it as a true business in real businesses have days off. Like that's right, they close some days. It's right. Yeah. and not being afraid to that
Kristin 46:54
good point. And you know, what are your office hours and if you don't have any, it's time To begin to implement them, create them and implement them, and stick to them, you know, put your computer in a closet so that it's out of your mind. You put your phone in a drawer, you know, so that you're giving yourself a break. Get in the bathtub, if that's soothing for you.
Collin 47:19
Yeah, yeah. And just finding, finding those moments to make sure you're okay. And then if you have employees, make sure they're doing the same thing in their lives, right.
47:28
Yeah, that's right.
Collin 47:30
Few more listener questions here. What was it like with the process for you of selling your business? And what did you know what kind of things did you learn from going through that?
Kristin 47:41
Yeah, so one of the things I learned is that I didn't interview my business broker. I had never sold a business before and some questions that I wish I would have asked before I hired this person. Were What are you going to do? to market my business for sale. And what he did was he just placed it on a website. And that was it. And anything else, any other kind of marketing to and it is marketing, when you're selling a business, it's really about getting the word out in a way that's going to be anonymous, because you have to keep it under wraps while you're putting it out there. So it makes it a little complicated. But, you know, he just put it on that one site and any other kind of marketing that I wanted to do, I would have to pay. So that's something that I wish I had known to ask and that I would ask if I were to sell another business. Yeah. Also, how many businesses are you going to represent while you're representing my business? And you know, what kind of energy and attention Are you going to put in and where are you going to find buyers? You know, and again, if I had asked them He would have said, oh, we're going to find buyers from this one site. And I would have said, Well, what if that doesn't work? So um, and one thing to consider when you are if you do decide to use a business broker and I recommend that you do, if your business is generating more than 100,000 or more, any less than that a lot of Business Brokers won't even take your business. So just be aware that the Commission is going to be anywhere from eight to generally 12% of the purchase price. And typically, it's gonna be 10 to 12. It's very rare that it's going to be 8%. But that does happen occasionally in certain areas. Once you sign up with that particular business broker or that agency to have them sell your business, you have to commit to a certain length of time. It's sort of like signing up with a realtor where you can't look for another realtor. Yeah. So you're kind of stuck and you're committed. So you want to make sure it's a good fit for you and for your business. So that's something that, you know, I wish I had known. There was a lot of negotiating back and forth with the buyer. And I really had to be clear about what I needed and wanted to do in the future. In terms of signing a non compete clause, one of the things that most people will have to sign is that you're not going to start a pet sitting and dog walking company within a period of time, and I knew that I didn't want to do that again. Yeah. But what I didn't know is if I might want to become a dog trainer, or you know, also I'm a coach, so I had to be really clear that I'm going to be able to continue doing that. So it's important to really, that's going to be one of the most important documents that you work out with. The buyer is what you can and can't do after the sale of the business and for the length of time so one of the things that I agreed to which the buyer insisted understandably is that I coach people in the the two counties that my business was based in because then I'm disclosing you know my secrets basically to her competitors, which totally makes sense. That was a for a period of five years I can now coach people in this area and I it's funny because I have people that have literally, they waited, and they wrote in their calendar, like five years. And I got so many calls. It's actually you know, what, a couple days ago was six years that I sold my business and but on that year five, literally like on December 3 of year five. Yeah, I got a bunch of calls. And emails from people who were like, you can no coach in the area was so cute. Yes, I can I love that you were that you remember that? Yeah.
52:11
Yeah, that's Yeah, that's really
Collin 52:14
it was kind of shifting from selling your business came towards the end of running operating that business towards, you know, there was a transition point where you had had enough of being burned out and being tired and having a really bad balance of business and life. Thinking back what were some of the big changes that you decided right then and there to make so that it was the kind of business you wanted to have?
Kristin 52:42
Yeah, so that was at about year six. I had thought about ending my business either. I was thinking about walking away and possibly selling it but really what I want to do is just walk away I was so fried so Yeah, I decided I actually it was very counterintuitive. I decided to commit for one year, to really changing the way I ran my business. And I decided if at the end of that year, that things hadn't changed, and I wasn't making more money, and I didn't have more time that I'd be out. So it gave me that deadline, which was incredibly powerful. Yeah. And I was so tired, but that deadline really kind of gave me that second wind to begin to implement strategies to change the way around my business. And at that point, I was working seven days a week. Sometimes as much as 14 hours a day I was completely exhausted. I had pet sitters and dog walkers working working for me. So it wasn't like, you know, I was doing all the work myself, but I was doing all the admin work myself. And I was still dog walking a couple days a week. So you know, one of the things I did I let go of those two days of dog walking very reluctantly, actually, because I really love those dogs. And I like that it got me out of the house two days a week, and kind of forced me but I knew that that wasn't the best use of my time and energy. And it was really causing me to have an unhealthy relationship with my business at that point, because I was the owner and I really needed to begin to act more like the business owner who had staff that was my version. Some people may never want to stop walking dogs. And if that's you, rate, you know, I think that people should do what's right for them. But for me, I really got that I needed to begin to step away from that. So I did that I also hired a manager to help manage my business so that I could begin to get completely away from my business and not be returning calls, returning emails. You know, I did a very thorough training of the manager and she was only to contact me in a dire emergency. Because I knew that if he contacted me, I would be kind of wrote back into the business again on my days off, and I really needed a very clear break between my business and my personal life. And so that's what I did. And she was the only one that had access to my personal phone, so that any sitters or walkers or clients, none of those people had access to my personal phone. And so that's the phone the bat phone call that in the event of an emergency, yeah, it was really I set up a wall, a very healthy wall between my clients and staff and me, so that you know, that wall enabled me to have a personal life again. And I mean, I did a number of other things including really working with my mindset around believing that I could make a large amount of money by working less, you know, yeah, if you don't believe it can happen, it probably won't. And so I really had to do a lot of mental work around that and really allowing that in. And within that year, at the end of that year, I went from working seven days a week to working three days a week, and I doubled the amount of money that my business generated was amazing to me. Part of that was raising rates. I hadn't done that, you know, part of it was on the days that I was working those three days, I was really all in, you know, my energy wasn't dispersed and I wasn't fried. You know, I was fresh on those days and really able to generate a lot more business and market and hire great people. Because I was fresh.
Collin 57:02
Yeah, yeah, you really started to hand those hats off to other people that you knew you trusted. And it was it allowed you to really be more invested in the stuff that you were actually interested in doing when you were doing exactly.
Kristin 57:15
Yeah, I was able to delegate. And that's a hard muscle to learn to use as a business owner, if you're self employed, there's a reason why a lot of us go into self employment. And that's usually because we like control, you know, so then you have to learn to work with that energy of control. And the key for me was really hiring fantastic people. It still was tricky for me to let go of that control. But I began to really work that muscle and feel more trust and security that I could actually hand these things over, when I would see that they would go really well. Yeah. And that enabled me to do that more and more and more,
Collin 57:57
having that that team around you really is just you know, priceless at that point.
Kristin 58:03
It is Yeah.
Collin 58:05
Hey, how are you spending your days these these days? And what is your your current business look like?
Kristin 58:13
Yes. So I, I no longer have my pet sitting and dog walking business. I do coaching a couple days a week. And I do both something called best year yet coaching where I help people create the best year that they've ever had. And I help them create 10 goals and really create a annual and monthly and weekly plan to be able to create those goals and part of that is having personal goals and business goals, not just having business goals. So that's one thing I do. I also do pet business coaching. So it's very specific for the pet business. I have a podcast like, like you mentioned, the prosperous pet business podcast. Cast. So I record that I do a monthly webinar each month for pet business owners. I also am writing my next book so I'm at work on that. And I'm also in the midst of creating a course which is the 30 day pet sitting and dog walking challenge which starts January 2, so this podcast might miss that but I'll be offering it again in the coming year most likely. And yeah, so and I also have a very rich personal life. I have a lot of friends I have a wonderful husband that I love spending time with. We just moved to a really cool area. It's very unusual. It's on a boardwalk so our houses. The backyard is on the water and the front yard is on A 600 acre bird sanctuary. Oh, wow. Yeah. And it takes us five minutes, five to six minutes to actually walk to our house because it's on a boardwalk, or houses on stilts, and it's on a boardwalk. So, you know, I park the car and I walk. And we have carts. That's the way we do our groceries. You know, everything. It's amazing community out here. So it's been such a delight to get to know my neighbors and everybody's very kind of unusual because they like living out here. They're 50 homes. Yeah. And so it's just been such a pleasure to kind of get to know this new area and explore it and I'm becoming an avid birdwatcher, which is really surprising to me. Sounds so nerdy and so boring. But it is not like you know, there are so many egrets and Canadian geese. blue herons and I'm just finding myself incredibly passionate about
Collin 61:05
well, I kind of hope so if you're living that close to bird sanctuary, but
Kristin 61:10
funny, so when we moved in somebody said you either like boats or birds. We said, Well, what if we like both? Because we have a boat dock, you know? Yes. You can like both. That's okay.
Collin 61:22
Sure. Why not? Yeah, it's
61:27
really cool.
Collin 61:28
Yeah. Well, well, Kristen, thank you so much for coming on today I and sharing from your experiences and you know what you're doing these days and I know we've barely covered what it's like and how to run your business. And people are gonna have a lot of questions or maybe interested in pursuing some coaching. So how can people get in touch with you and find out more about making sure they're running their business the best way they can be?
Kristin 61:54
Sure. So my website is six figure pet Business Academy, and I also have Six Figure pet sitting Academy, they can just type that in the search engine and I will pop up. Kristin Morrison is my name and it's spelled k ri STI n not n, like a lot of people put it in. And, you know, I'm happy to help people that are struggling. Also, my books are all all on Amazon. I have five books that are in paperback and I have the ebooks and audiobooks on my site, as well. And I look forward to helping people in whatever method they would like my help.
Collin 62:34
Yeah, absolutely. And we'll have those in our show notes. Here's people can click right to those. Again, Kristin, thank you so much for coming on. I've learned a lot and have a lot to put into practice now. So we're good. I'm so
Kristin 62:45
glad Colin, thank you for your great questions. You're great interviewer.
Collin 62:50
Well, thank you very much. I really appreciated the candid response from Kristin to several of those questions and her opening up especially about how she sold her business and what that
