040- Auntie M's Professional Pet Care
Brought to you by Time to Pet. Go to timetopet.com/confessional for 50% off your first 3 months.
Mary Beth joins us this week to tell us her story of starting her pet care business. With a background in horses and animal care, when the opportunity arose she dove right into working with a friend in pet care. She shares how to handle working closely with a friend, and respecting both the friendship and the business. Plus, she gives us her process for staying organized and being prepared for emergencies.
Topics in this episode
How she got started
Working with your friend
What makes a good pet sitter
Staying organized
Emergency preparedness
Her first client
About our guest:
Mary Beth Benton has had a long history of passion for pets and animals. From growing up around horses, to parrots and dogs. She now runs and operates her own pet business. Her mission? To make her clients as happy and as safe as possible when in her care.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, pet, clients, sitter, pet sitter, people, dog, life, animals, asheville, home, owners, care, important, area, moved, provide, friend, pet sitting business, part
SPEAKERS
Collin, Mary Beth
00:17
I'm calling and I'm Megan. And this is
00:20
pet sitter confessional. An open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin 00:24
brought to you by time to pet. Hello and Happy Wednesday. I hope you all are doing well. On this week's full length interview. We have Mary Beth, owner of anti EMS professional pet Karen, from how she got started to dealing with inclement weather and a really good conversation about running a business with your best friend. I know you guys are going to enjoy this one. So let's dive right in.
Mary Beth 00:50
Yeah, thanks for having me Collin. I really appreciate you having me on. Like he said, my name is Mary Beth Benton and I'm owner of Antion pet Care. We're located in in the mountains of western North Carolina. We service the greater Asheville area. Our business actually started in a small town of about 10,000 people just east of Asheville called Black Mountain, east of Asheville. A great place to live and serve our community. Yeah.
01:22
Have you always had pets in your life?
Mary Beth 01:26
I have. My dad is actually a thoroughbred racehorse trainer. So I grew up. Yeah, I it's very unique childhood. I grew up with a lot of horses more than I can account. We always had a dog or two inside and out. I kind of lived in a rural area. So we had indoor animals and outdoor animals we always had always had cats, indoor and barn cats and chickens, rabbits, birds, mice, probably some others that I'm not thinking of right now. So my life has always I've always been surrounded by animals throughout my whole life. So I kind of knew from the get go that I was going to be working with animals I thought maybe veterinarian, but then I got in college and realized how much effort in biology and chemistry and calculus three steered my direction once I was there.
Collin 02:28
Yeah, I know, my my mom set off to be a vet in college, but she took it as a sign from the universe that when she couldn't find the building for her first class of getting into veterinary school, she was like, Okay, I think that's a sign that I don't need to be going down this path.
Mary Beth 02:43
So yeah, yeah, we all take our signs. As a kid I was always around veterinarian so it was kind of cool to, you know, work side by side with them on the farm and they always told me if I wanted to be a veterinarian, I knew how to start needed to know how to spell veterinarian. So that's where I started.
Collin 03:08
Do you currently own any pets or have any pets in your home?
Mary Beth 03:11
I do. I actually just have one dog right now. But I've had her since she was eight weeks old and she's 11 Oh my goodness. She's my girl. Her name's Jade. She's little black dogs, our little black dog club. Um, but she's a little border collie mix. She's a sweet little thing. She's got short legs that she can hike like anyone else on the mountain. So yeah, she's a fun one. And I also am actually, I have a lot of experience with parents.
Collin 03:42
Oh, really?
Mary Beth 03:43
Yes. Another unique animal that I work with. Um, but so I work with a I'm actually I'm a part time vet tech as well. And we see a lot of exotics and I also work a little bit volunteering with a parrot rehoming service and like rescue, and so I foster birds sometimes. Um, so we just had an African grey in our house for a few months before she found her forever home.
Collin 04:11
Unfortunately, I'm sure that that's, that's a very underserved need in the pet community is Yeah, birds like that because people get them thinking, Oh, it's a nice, simple thing. But it's really not like that's an awful lot of work and a lot of responsibility that I don't think people really think about in that long term.
Mary Beth 04:31
It really is they tend to live out their owners. And, you know, we took them from the wild and now having them in our homes, it's kind of like training them into a whole different animal. And like, we're having to learn how to treat them more like their wild beginnings because they're really not domesticated yet. So there's a lot of learning that people need to go through in order to care for them appropriately. And I have all this experience like past experience working with them that I've really been trying to integrate into my life no matter what I'm doing. Yeah, they definitely need the support. So you
Collin 05:11
do have quite an extensive background in this ongoing vet tech stuff. So how did you get started with pet sitting in pet care?
Mary Beth 05:21
Yeah, it's definitely been a journey. It's kind of a long story because it starts from like day one. But to try to make it a long story short, um, since leaving home for college, I have always taken care of different folks, pets and horses. I go work on a horse farm throughout college to make some money. And then I I began building a side hustle through rover rovers platform in early 2014. And just to kind of make some extra money, that's why I was working At the aviary in Ohio, about three and a half years ago, my husband and I, we kind of decided it was time for us to move out of Ohio some things came to a head in our lives where we, we were feeling like we needed to kind of get out of our comfort zone. So we moved to western North Carolina by way of summer in Colorado. That's where I worked with the bird Conservancy of the Rockies. And that's when we moved to Black Mountain Park, partly to help a good friend of mine that had started her business. So she was a solo entrepreneur. She just started picking up some pet sitting clients. Just through working at the vet, she eventually dropped her vet tech job and are just full time pets joined her I mean joining the team just help you know provide backup plan and allow the business expand more toward ash And so she really it's really hard to be a solo just a one man, pet sitting business so yeah. Me joining her really took a lot off her plate and also just like help the community out large with her for a year and a half or so we're actually good friends back from went to high school together and then she decided to just owning a pet business wasn't something she wanted to continue with. So she sold me the client list since then, which was April 2018 is when she moved out west and that's when I acquired clients and then started antium back here.
Collin 07:40
Wow, that's really quite the journey quite the jazz but, but you know you but what I what I love about that is it was a there was some small steps all along the way. Right. It was Yeah, began working as a side hustle, then moving closer and helping a friend out. And then and then taking full responsibility. And over the entire business. How do you think that has helped you in how you run your business now versus if you would have adjusted dove straight in and been where you are right now?
Mary Beth 08:12
Yeah, I learned a ton along the way, doing it as a side hustle. In Ohio. We were in Columbus, Ohio. I was I kind of just took anyone and just felt it out along the way. I boarded dots in my home. I visited them at their houses. We did I did some overnight stays at both houses. The dog walking took Dawson's dog park, I did a lot and meeting all those different folks with dogs and cats and different, you know, you gain experience in different scenarios. Yeah. It's like having a dog in your car or what it's like when what can come up when you're doing an overnight stay at someone's someone else's home. Between the dog like the pets themselves and in the house and what's going on, and the owners life just like learned a lot about how to work with people on a very personal scale. And I think all of those things combined really helped me mold what I how I wanted to run my business, if I did have my own pet sitting business. And I think working with my friend, like when I first moved here, I learned a lot about like, what it's like to work with a friend. And is there are some pluses and minuses of that and also like, you know, working closely with her taught me like how she, she really poured a lot of energy in building these relationships with the clients. We have a very tight knit community in Black Mountain. And so she became family with them and I it was cool to see that and then become part of it and then just carry it on. I've really tried to implement that mentality in my team. Like I want people that are reliable and trustworthy and apcom to misdemeanors and all that, but also people that are personable and want to be part of their family. It's really important.
Collin 10:24
Yeah. Could you expound on the working with a friend thing just a little bit, because I think sometimes sometimes, that's a it can be the easiest way to get extra help sometimes is to reach out to medium friends. But there can be some things that you have to work through. So I'd love to hear you talk more about that.
Mary Beth 10:45
Yeah, so I kind of just dove right into it. When I moved here. We were kind of like, you know, when we move to Black Mountain, we actually like I was still working for my previous Boss so I was like working from home doing some e commerce stuff. I had like, a little side hustle going. But then the plan was to also be editing with my friends. And we, we actually ended up becoming roommates too. So it was a lot. I was it became too much. Yeah. Which kind of was partially led to like, you know, the different experiences I had in pet sitting I ended up doing some, like long term pet care in people's homes like six months at a time so we could figure out how to, like live on kind of the cheap but also like, you know, be sustainable. But working directly with her it was it can be tough, like you have to respect your friendship and also respect everybody. business, I did you know everything in my power to be able to do that. And crossing friends and business can be. It can be a sensitive relationship. And I think friendship is like any other relationship like, just as complicated as being in a relationship with your spouse. And I think it's important to, you know, respect everyone's boundaries, which we did. We did a good job of. Yeah, it was. It was fun to be able to go out and like, meet new clients with her because we have so much history we were able to like, you know, really be personable and tell stories about our past together and stuff. And like we would take dogs on hikes together, we would take multiple clients dogs out on hikes that we were overnighting with, that was kind of part of what we ended up doing. So that was a ton of fun. And we learned a lot with each other. Since we're so close, we're able to really get deep into like, you know what we're doing with the, you know, with our lives, like while we're out hiking together with these folks. Yeah, is interesting experience. I personally don't, I don't think I want to have a friend that close in my business in the future. Just because I think it's, your business is so personable, it's your livelihood. And I think it's good to like kind of keep a boundary between like, your personal friendships and like what your daily grind is because your daily grind isn't always fun.
Collin 13:47
It's complicated. It is Yeah. Because if you like having people around you that you get along with that you could communicate well with, but those friendship work boundaries, especially if If you're in different positions or roles in the business can really, you know, can really eat away at that underlying friendship. So, yeah, keeping it at arm's length distance is probably the best way to make sure everything you know, and communicating, obviously, throughout that entire thing like you guys did, but it's like, yeah, there's still this this underlying issue of at some point, either the business or the friendship is going to have to come first in certain certain situations. Yeah. And that can be a tough, you know, you don't you don't ever want to be in that situation to make that job. Yeah, right. I definitely think communication is very important. And I think that's one thing I really took away from us working together that closely
Mary Beth 14:43
is that it's so important to have clear expectations with everyone that you work with. Just communicate, be totally upfront with people and just make sure everyone's on the same page all the time. There's never enough communication. I think. I definitely learned a lot from it. And but we had some fun too.
Collin 15:07
That's good. That's good to know. That's important too. Yeah. So what kind of services do you provide currently?
Mary Beth 15:14
Yeah, so we do all in our clients homepage here. Okay. Um, yes, I, I used to do some boarding in my house. And it was just a lot. I wanted to enjoy my own dog. So yeah, when I took over the business, I decided that that was we were going to focus on all in our clients home pet care. And so we provide overnight stays, which are a minimum of 12 hours overnight. And then we do pet sitting visits, which start at 30 minutes at our minimum, and then we do dog walks and dog hikes as well. We also do yeah, we also do the occasional nail trim and in home daycare, too.
Collin 15:54
That's awesome. So I like that. I love the idea about the dog hikes. Yeah. How did that get started? Is that just something that was just done there or that you thought would be fun to add?
Mary Beth 16:04
Let's see. So my friend had kind of offered a little bit of that. Not necessarily like we weren't doing at first as a, like main service, but we ended up taking them on hikes because we get permission by the owners beforehand. We're big hikers. The area we live in is just, it's beautiful. It's a it's a big destination. Repeat. We call it vacation land sometimes because it's just we live in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway is like 20 minutes down the road and oh, wow, we we have tons of trails everywhere. And it's just, I just like to immerse myself in nature as much as possible. And so the hiking kind of it just kind of just went along with like, the culture that we're living in. Yeah. And like what we wanted what we're passionate about. It's important to follow what you're passionate about. And I really enjoy taking dogs on hike with me. But also, it's really good for them to get out of their normal neighborhood and take in all the smells, and things, you know that they say that the dogs sense of smell is like the strongest of all of their senses. And I really want to it's my mission to make them as happy as possible while they're in our care. Also safe as possible. But it's really a cool experience to take a dog on their first hike. Like it's one of the coolest things because they, they just take it all in like, you know, it's it's just cool to see them. experience that for the first time and see, like, see and hear and smell all the different things that are happening in nature. It's really and they're just really tired at the end and it's Like very satisfying for everyone.
18:02
Oh, I'm sure that's pretty cool to see their reaction whenever they get out there on the trail for that first time or first couple.
Mary Beth 18:09
Yeah, yeah. Actually it's funny one of the one of our clients that request the most hikes is actually the smallest dog that Oh, really? Oh yeah. She's a little Chihuahua terrier mix. And he was Bella. She loves it. She loves Jade the week we go on a hike at least once a month together.
Collin 18:31
Oh, that's super sweet. It's wolf at heart, as always,
Mary Beth 18:36
yes. No matter the size.
Collin 18:38
Yes. Sounds like you guys are really busy. And you're probably not doing this by yourself. So tell us can you tell us about your team? And yeah,
Mary Beth 18:48
yeah. So we've been growing over the last year and a half. And so now there are around 10 of us. We had we did bring on a couple Extra people over the holidays to help out with coverage. But basically, we're kind of becoming the local independent small business version of rover, everyone's an independent contractor. And we hire pet sitters that just have a good amount of prior petting experience, along with if they don't have a ton of pet sitting experience. They like half the team and our vet techs because I'm well involved in that community. They've worked at pet doggy daycares in the past or groomers, etc. And one requirement I really look for is just good communication skills. It's just so important for us to be clear with each other, and clients. And so, yeah, they all each have their own very unique experience prior to coming into Some of them have kind of run their own pet sitting business on the side and just want more business want to do more full time? Oh, well, yeah, we, you know my business I provide the support the business side for them. Which is very a lot of people that are in pet sitting and do pet sitting on the side, they don't think they are interested in running a business necessarily. But yeah, it comes hand in hand. So I really want to kind of solve the problem of not having enough resources as a fitter and being able to provide them with that and help them think about the things that they should be thinking about, like having insurance. We provide insurance, business liability, insurance and bonding for all of our sitters on the team. Okay.
Collin 20:52
That's huge. You're right in that a lot of us we wake up one day and we own a pet business. This is effectively what happens because we Yeah, love taking care of animals and then there's all these little things that come come with that is the the bonding, the insurance, the being registered the meeting all of the laws and regulations in your area. And yeah, a lot of us, like, that's just, we don't want to deal with it, but it's kind of the necessary evil when you start getting into it for sure. So that's, I like how you phrase that of your you are providing and in covering those to continue to add service to the area.
Mary Beth 21:32
Yeah, yeah, we definitely. My mission really is to like in terms of the team, is to make sure that we always have someone available for our clients that they're not going to have to go and find another pet sitter because we're not available. We get a lot of our business because of that, actually. Really, um, yeah, probably at least like a quarter of our business is Hey, my pet sitters not available Can you help? and whom we keep them? Because we always have someone? Sure. But yeah, and also just providing the business side to the pet sitters that are a pet sitting in the community, it supports our clients to, you know, I'm trying to like, make sure that the quality of pet care in our community is set at a higher standard.
Collin 22:26
So So how do you how do you work on the quality of care? How do you ensure that everyone's giving the best possible?
Mary Beth 22:35
Yeah, so um, so that kind of leads me into telling you about the software we use. You've probably heard of it. It's called time to pet. Yeah, I know a lot of other businesses use it. It's a lifesaver to be honest. I think a lot of other people say that. I want to be able to run my business without it. If it ever disappears, I'm gonna have to design my own. That's it. So Here. So yeah, it allows me to keep an eye on updates to the clients and communication and the completion of jobs. Like that's kind of where it starts. Also, I've provided our sitters with kind of curated this checklist of what professional pet care standards are all the things that we have to do for each job. So every sitter gets that and part of completing the job through time to pet is like, Hey, did you there's a check mark, just double checking that they have reviewed that before they complete the job, and we're always updating that as well. And I also go on every meet and greet with the pet sitters, like every single one. So I know our clients the best and sometimes, I honestly remember things to tell the sitters, that the clients won't remember because i've i've been There's so many times and I've, you know, I have a different perspective. I'm the one there when the clients are gone and Mm hmm. You know, I see what needs to, you know, be covered and taken care of when they're away. So yeah, that's helpful. It's neat going on all the meet and greet with them. In the future, I think I'd like to, as we grow, have team leaders for different areas that can do the same thing that I'm doing now. Okay. Yeah. And then we keep our, our pet and client profiles up to date and time to make sure that there's many notes as possible. And they carry that with them when they're on the job to see if it has an app. I sound like an advertisement for time to go. Yeah, but there's a lot of there are a lot of aspects of time to pet that are really helpful and I've always been told Hold that if you're going to use a software, make sure you use it to its greatest ability. A lot of businesses only use 20% of the software that they use. And I really do my best to take advantage if I learn a new thing that they're offering, I try to put it in, you know, in place in the way that we're running our business. Right. It's very customizable to help do that.
Collin 25:26
I you mentioned something there is when you go on meet and greets that, that you have a different perspective because you're there when the clients not there. And and I'm interested about that, because sometimes clients tell you certain things about their pet, that don't really happen when you you, you show up. What are some things common things that you see that differ between what the client tells you and what is actually happening when they're not there?
Mary Beth 25:56
Yeah, so I think the core of that Four answer to that is I'm not the homeowner or the pet owner. I'm a visitor. And so the visitor has a different perspective of the home and have the pets have a different interaction. Like we just have a different actual interaction with the pets and their home than they do. Just because I don't live there. So I guess some of the things that could come up are behaviors of the animals when their parents are gone. I find that a lot of dogs in particular they don't they don't act the same around us as they do is their owner and sometimes that's a really good thing. Yes. A lot of them have like attachment, you know, they just have this like deep rooted relationship with their owners and certain certain Good and bad behaviors may fall away when we're there. So I can provide that perspective of like what the animals going to do when we are there and, you know, in their owners not there. Yeah, it's definitely a different experience that you have with them. And then just things to keep in mind of about their home that's different than everyone else's home. They everyone keeps putting things in different places, and they do things in different ways. And it's nice to be able to explain that to them to the sitter's while I'm there, because the owners don't necessarily think about it like that, I think.
27:44
Oh, yeah, sometimes 100% they don't think because it's just how they live you right?
Mary Beth 27:48
Yeah, yeah. So I'm, I am I am probably most beneficial skills I have is I'm just very observant. So I think Pick up on a lot of things that that the owners just sometimes don't think about. Explaining,
Collin 28:07
I found writing some of those differences down between clients if you know in a notes feature or dog somewhere else can be really helpful where where do they keep keep their towels that they use to clean up stuff? Because exactly never the same in any house, you know, where those kind of things where you need something really quick, but you don't live there. So you know, it doesn't sometimes it doesn't make quote unquote, logical sense to how you would have something structured. Those kind of differences too. I like to write make sure I write down those so that next time I come I already know and you just pick up on those things over time. Obviously if you have repeat business with somebody, but it can be a jumpstart for when you come back the next time.
Mary Beth 28:53
Yeah, definitely. So we each client has their own profile and our software Where and so there's like a Details tab that's all about them and their house and I include things like where do you keep certain supplies? Where do you keep the fire extinguisher? Where? Where is your water shut off valve just like things about their home that Yeah, they know innately and that you know, in an emergency things are there to refer to me and we're updating that all the time. Based on our experiences like okay, we're going to need to know where this is for everyone. Sure. It's nice to be able to have a spot with those things and refer to them quickly when you need it.
Collin 29:41
Have you heard about time to pet dog from back to the bone pet care has this to say time to pet has made managing my team and clients so much easier. Our clients love the easy to use app and scheduling features and our sitters love being able to have all their information organized and easily accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging by keeping calm On Time to pet we are able to monitor our team and ensure nothing ever falls through the cracks. 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 comm slash confessional you touched on being prepared for emergencies. Is that something you talk a lot about with your team about how to be prepared and do you run through certain scenarios? Or is that just a having a certain mindset of being prepared at all times? I think it's a
Mary Beth 30:35
little bit of both. My big thing that I'm always emphasizing to everyone is clear communication. Do not be afraid to pick up the phone and call me call the client if anything is up. That's a big thing that it's just we're a team for a reason and we're there to back each other up. And the clients appreciate your communication there. They know that things are being handled if you're in communication with them, right? And there are scenarios that we go through being in the mountains there, we have our own
31:16
difficulties at times.
Mary Beth 31:20
We have you know, it's different. We have some roads that are really tricky to get up if there's a lot of snow or ice. And we've had landslides before. We get a lot of flooding in areas. So before those seasons hit, I sent out a message to my sitters, and I'm like these are Ei explained to them the things that they need to do to be in the prepare for these scenarios. Make sure that the one thing that is really important is just being prepared on in terms of your schedule. I don't know In the wintertime I do my best not to book two out of town clients at the same time for one sitter. That way if they need to like hunker down at their house they can and they don't have other stays to go and take care of. But yeah, oh, all in all, it's like, you know, by a season we stay in communication about what can come up at that in that season. And then also just communicating all the time with them that way, the practice and it just comes naturally to do also, we have some hitters that have all wheel drive that can get up in areas that others may not be able to in case of like bad weather. And then our, our clients also have, how all have emergency contacts and I encourage them all to have someone in their neighborhood that has Key, someone that's nearby that if they needed to get to the house, and that and we went in for any reason that they could
Collin 33:09
assure because you can never think of all types of scenarios at any given moment that you do have to slowly build up of, Oh, I didn't think of that last time. So now I need to implement this. And it is you're always growing and adding new things to that checklist, for sure. But yeah, that that last one you touched on of having an emergency contact for the owner, in close proximity in the neighborhood is is huge, because if their emergency contact is hours away, well, if you can't get there, neither is that person. So right. Make sure they have a very local, somebody that else getting in touch with.
Mary Beth 33:49
Yeah, and not their spouse, right. They're most likely together, right? Yeah,
Collin 33:56
yeah. So after you work with your team members, And you're implementing all these things. How do you retain the best ones? To keep that to keep them working with you? day in and day out?
Mary Beth 34:11
Yeah, so there's a lot of aspects to it. Like I've nailed over the head, the communication thing is really important. And just having very clear expectations written out, I find that just very important and having good relationships with people. And also, for me personally having flexibility and understanding when things come up for them and just accepting them for who they are as a person. I just I really focus on the relationship between me and the sitters and just making sure that that is I feed that relationship with them and they really, they really respect I think also, besides the relationship part, you know, providing them with consistent work, and supporting them on the front and back into the business, providing that business support really attracts them to staying with us. Oh, that's great. We haven't been in business for too long. So I'm always learning, you know, what's going to keep them around? And if I've actually already had some sitters, it just doesn't work out for them because of what's going on in their life. But they become referral magnets. Oh, yeah, they're helpful even after they're not on the team.
Collin 35:40
Sure. And I think that's important to remember too, is that you can't, as a business owner be expected to meet 100% of everybody's needs all the time, including my team members, and sometimes it's just not going to work out whether they have a life change or schedule change or something like that. So to not take that personally, whenever somebody ends up leaving is that it's not you know, things happen and things change that you don't have control over.
Mary Beth 36:09
Exactly, exactly. Um and just having boundaries with people keeps like the respect on both ends finding that mutual respect between the two of you and yeah that helps with the not taking it personally side of things because that can be hard when you're working so closely with people and like it's your business is your baby. You have to really stay keenly aware of your boundaries and you know what's going on in people's lives this stuff happens they come things come up and we're all on our different paths. You never know what's what what life's gonna bring you.
Collin 36:48
So I know you said you haven't been running with employees for for that long now. But But what is it like to run a pet sitting business these days? With everything going on,
Mary Beth 37:02
yeah, yeah, when you ask, please send me that question. I am like, how should I take this exactly?
Collin 37:11
challenges opportunities, you know, all tied up in that but you know, sometimes I think sometimes we forget to step back and kind of look at the, the big picture of it. So, you know, you can take that whatever direction you you'd like to. But yeah,
Mary Beth 37:27
for me 2020 I've been thinking about 2020 a lot like, Okay, this year's end is coming to an end I had some big goals and growing. Yeah, 2019 that was the building the team was really important for me and just getting to a certain revenue is important, while also like providing high quality care, but for 2020 from us, it's going to be all about fine tuning. Well, every every aspect of what we have going on in the business and just becoming very sustainable I want to have sustainability in my life and in the life of the business and for our sitters. So yeah, I think we've really stoked up a good fire and you just need to keep beating it. That's great.
Collin 38:16
Yeah. So when you say when you say sustainable, is that a work life balance kind of sustainable? Is that making sure everybody's needs are met kind of sustainable? Or what does that mean to you? And you say that?
Mary Beth 38:30
Yeah, for me, it's a little bit of the work life balance the same glow, I want to, you know, owning a business, it's always changing. And there are a lot of opportunities and I've always been willing to take my opportunities and run with them and, you know, assess them as they come like, how can I make this work in my life. I've done a lot of that, but I want to, I want to be very calculated on how I go. My business so I can continue providing the best care possible for who we're providing service to right now. And like to we pick up along the way. I think sustainability in all aspects, honestly, in terms of in terms of having enough business for each sitter on the team, and keeping them busy, but also like keeping them happy and not burnout. The big thing that can happen with caregivers burnout is a real thing. And I see it around me all the time, and I feel it in me sometimes, and I really want to have balance, no work life balance thing is. A lot of people talk about it. Um, yeah, but it can be a hard thing to accomplish and I really want to just an off aspects of the business work on the sustainability part of every aspect. That makes sense?
Collin 40:07
Yeah, no, it totally does. And I like how that you touched on burnout in that in that discussion, because that is huge. And especially in the pet care industry, it tends to be real, it can come on really fast if you're not careful. And so what are some signs for you where you start feeling I may be getting close to an edge at this point.
Mary Beth 40:31
If I worked every day, every weekend, day of the month, okay. That's something I keep an eye on for myself personally. I was sitting you can people's trips overlap and we did most of our clients. I would say the majority of our clientele is people that are out of town. And so a lot of trips overlap and just regular they also overlap with regular So if you don't, if you're not careful, you can go days, months without having a day off. Like a true day off. Being when someone is being burnout, you can lose sight of what's really important in the job that you're doing. Me in particular, just like running the business, you know, all the aspects of the business are kind of always turning in my head, like, you know, where I need to act on every day and making sure everyone's taken care of and for me just balancing that pet sitting because I also still have quite a bit and making sure that my quality of care is still at the standards that I expect everyone else to have them at. Right? So just, you know, if I'm walking a dog and not really, if you know if the thought comes across like why I'm not thinking about that Like this dog and like, watching it be its behaviors, then I need to like, take a closer look at how busy I am. And also like if, you know, I work part time at a vet clinic and I work with a lot of that text and that text go through a lot. It is. It's a tough job where, you know, we're seeing animals for their yearly visits and everything just as checkups, but we also see the worst that any animal will ever go through. And it's, that can bring you out fast. And it's really important, I think, to be able to always provide the quality of care that you intend to, even though you're going through a lot with the animals you're working with, and also with their humans because we have you know, pretty deep relationship. With them too. I think it's really important to like have boundaries for yourself and like, designate some personal time for yourself, plan time off and just block it off the calendar and you will absolutely not take care of anyone's animals during that time. Besides your own Yeah, and you will enjoy your own and enjoy your time. So you can refuel. It's really important to refuel who you are, or else you're just it's important to be happy in what you're doing and provide yourself the space that you need to stay who you are. That makes sense.
Collin 43:41
Yeah, no, it really does. And, and, yeah, if you haven't taken a day off in a long time, that day can feel very weird because you're so used to just going, going going and constantly doing and thinking of things and then to wake up and have nothing on your Calendar scheduled for that day can kind of freak you out a little bit until you get into that mode of there are other things I can be doing. I can be investing in myself, I can be investing in my brands and my family and I can, as you said, recharge I can I can start pouring back into myself. So that that next day whenever you get back at it and start working, working again, there's more of you to be investing in what you're doing at that point. Yeah,
Mary Beth 44:29
yeah. It helps you grow as a person being able to have those experiences too and I think it's important to take more than one day off every now and then to
Collin 44:39
absolutely
Mary Beth 44:41
I you know, since building my team, I've have a really great team there are some really awesome ladies I work with it or they've poured their life and soul into testing and taking care of animals. I'm so I am lucky to be able to like step away. You know for time that I need for myself and they've got things under control long gone. I still have my phone. Of course. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's really it's just really important to take time to recharge and to enjoy the other parts of life, you know, because it's not all about working all the time. Yeah, right to remember that.
Collin 45:20
Absolutely. So you've talked a little bit about Black Mountain. what's the what's the market like there? And what kind of sets it apart from other areas. As far as pet care, you think?
Mary Beth 45:33
Yeah, I love my little town. It's such a cool area. So it's fairly small. They're only about 10,000 people on Black Mountain. And we are just east about 20 minutes east of Asheville, which is around 100,000 people. And it was like at when I referred to the record, but I'm sure it's bigger than that. Yeah, so it's a little mountain town and it's a big travel destination. We have an influx of people in our area during the summertime and during leaf season, people come to look at the leaves and there's always more traffic. But with all that being said, a lot of people move to our area to retire and enjoy the rest of your life and beautiful, magical place. And also, there's an influx of younger folks like me and my husband, that we like, we just want to live somewhere where we know we will enjoy everything around us. Yeah, there's a lot of people move to that area. And those people that move there tend to love traveling and love dogs in particular. So they tend to go out of town quite a bit. Bit which is nice for us. Yeah. And a lot. It's a big job area, a lot of people that have dogs and that love them like they're human like they're human babies, you know? Yeah. So we get a lot of people that are traveling for work, for work and for the fun know, that, like I said earlier than majority of our business is they are overnight days and pet sitting visit. So the bulk of our business does come from overnight days, which is sort of sets us apart from a lot of other areas, I think, because of the type of people that live where we live. But yeah, that's kind of it's a vacation land and we live in it. It's always changing. We always have different types of folks here and people are always traveling to other destinations.
Collin 47:55
Sure. How do you market in a place like that, that seems to be kind of this list. Small town but not really because of its proximity to another large town and have this big influx of people throughout the year.
Mary Beth 48:09
Yeah, I mean, I think we're a lot like any other business we the majority of our business is word of mouth, and a lot of referrals. But it all started at Blue Ridge Animal Hospital, which is the vet like the main vet and Black Mountain. So we get a lot of referrals from them through the texts that work there. And then referrals from our clients, their neighbors or friends. We also so since I've been working a little, very part time at a clinic in in Asheville, we've been getting some business from that. Just other pet businesses and we out we also are very lucky to have a we have the Asheville professional pet sitting Association in Asheville, and a lot of its focused to a gears toward people that are focusing on running professional pet businesses, there are standards we have to meet to prove that we have business liability and insurance and bonding and property coverage and just have to meet certain standards that a professional service meet. No, we have they have a website that is a directory. So it's sort of like a local professional pet sitter directory. Oh, come on you. Yeah, we're able to submit the different zip codes that we can service and like what services we do offer. So we've actually that's been helpful in growing in Asheville, outside of our Black Mountain Community. But still our Black Mountain Community is still we still have more people there more clients there than in Asheville It's just such a tight knit community. There's some other ways we I have, I'm part of some Facebook groups where we get quite a bit of business and nextdoor.com has been very nice to us. And also, some trainers that I've become friends with in the area reverse quite a bit of business
Collin 50:20
that's really nice that you have such that network of referrals and word of mouth, that is just so powerful in in the pet sitting community. Because people do love their animals the way they Love A Child. And so that, you know, that's, that's really, once you start getting those referrals, you can really see a big snowball effect over time. So that's, that's really great. Holly
Mary Beth 50:44
Yeah, it's really nice to have that network just, you know, for business referral, but also for the support. It's just, it's a fun community to be part of. There's a lot of different, you know, Stokes in the fire. So
Collin 51:03
So what do you find that clients are looking for in a pet sitter these days?
51:08
Yeah. So
Mary Beth 51:11
I think people are looking for someone that is extremely reliable number one, and that involves having clear communication, getting back to them in an appropriate amount of time. Being, you know, sending them multiple updates, and they love their pictures too. And seeing that, they will, you know, they want to become part of their family, as you know, they don't necessarily ask for that. But they really appreciate it when you're very when you're personable with them and when like you treat their in their path like they are your own family. That's how they that's ultimately if they could choose who would be Watching them would be their family, but a lot of people in our area aren't from here. And they they're looking for that and in effect sitter. Sure. Yeah. And also, you know, the obvious is like, some quality, professional pet care experience is always apply.
Collin 52:20
So do you remember your first client?
Mary Beth 52:24
I do. I since I've had quite a journey I've had I have a couple first. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah, cuz back when I am to back when I was a rover, sitter and Ohio. I remember my first overnights day. And I had never done an estate at someone else like a stranger's house before with their pets. I felt well equipped for it. We did the meet and greet and everything. Everything was great. And they allow my husband come over with me I made sure that was okay. beforehand. It was kind of a nice. It was nice to have him there on the first one just really like the security and comfort. Yeah, um, everything was great. They had this little, like terrier mix and a lab mix and we went on walks and we're having a great time and I woke up like on the second night and the lab had passed away overnight. Oh, no. Yeah, it was, um, it was gut wrenching. It was like, Oh my gosh, like, you know, you go whenever something like that happens. You go back over your mind. Like, is there anything I could have done? And she just, she they had only had her for around a year, maybe less. They had adopted her from a local rescue. And they didn't know much about her. She was older. She was at least eight. And for a lab mix. You never know like What their lifespan is going to be and like also as a rescue you don't know their history very much of it, like their medical history even. I have a hunch that she had a tumor maybe on her there with larger dogs they can have they can have tumors that like hide on their spleen and liver and they go undetected for until they're not okay and I kind of have a hunch that's what happened. But it was was not a fun experience. By any means. I called you know, once I got myself together, I called the owner and explained to her exactly what had happened and you know that everything was going great. And she knew because we were in communication beforehand. They didn't take it too hard because they they had just got her they Not not that long ago. So they understood and they think they were more worried about me and you're worried about her? Yeah. Um, yeah, so that wasn't the most fun first experience, but I learned a lot from it. Like, anything can happen and, you know, to also like, you know, it made me a lot more comfortable like just picking up the phone and talking with an owner about something that there that wasn't going to be happy talking through the tears. Sometimes you have to do it. Yeah, no, that wasn't fun. But I also had a very positive client experience when I moved to Black Mountain. The first night I actually that I spent the night in, in North Carolina, was at at a house where they had to they have to havanese Their names are Griffin and Rafi. And they were going out of town and we had planned for me to stay there with them. Like, before I hadn't moved to the area because they were clients of my friends that I joined her business. And we're still like, we're like family now. I actually never did a meet and greet with them at the beginning. They trusted me after like, just, and they trusted my friend. And you know, she told them all about me who I was, what my background was and how long we had known each other. We'd spoke on the phone and they were so welcoming. Um, and so yeah, we're like family now. I just saw him the other day. I deliver Christmas cookies for the dogs. Oh, for the for the holidays. I just saw them the other day and you know, we just you know, automatically just give each other a big hug and everyone's happy and I watched them for I stay with them. Almost Last month every year, wow, I call them my little nephews. Yeah, yeah. So
Collin 57:07
yeah, those both really speak to the very intimate relationship that you become a part of when you take care of somebody's pet. The Good News of sharing Christmas cookies, holiday cookies. Um, yeah, the bad news of whenever a client passes away, that you are you are inserted directly in that as a family member at that point. And, you know, that's, that's something that I don't think a lot of people expect to be put in that situation very often. Right? But But those things do happen and you just become such an integral part of the care of that animal over time.
Mary Beth 57:46
Yeah, yeah. It's a very personal relationship, I think. And the clients really value you if you're open to being part of their family. Yeah, it's very, it's a very personal job. And a lot of people don't think of it that way. Like when they're looking in from the outside is Oh, you're a pet sitter, and they don't really think about all the things that come with it. But yeah, I have a huge family now.
Collin 58:18
That's great. Yeah. Well, Marybeth, I want to thank you so much for coming on today. I know that we just kind of scratched the surface of kind of some of your experiences and you know, got a lot of great feedback and advice about how to relate to customers and how to maintain and have good team members on hand. If people have any other questions or want to reach out and follow along with your work. How can people do that?
Mary Beth 58:50
Yeah, well, first, thanks so much for having me on. It's been fun talking with you and sharing my experiences. If anyone wants to follow along, or reach out Honestly, the best way is probably through Instagram. It's at antium pet care. There's a link in my bio for our website if you want to contact me directly, but you can DM me or follow along, make a little comment on one of our posts, we share a lot of dog photos. And you know some horses in there to different animals, but we're also working toward sharing more of our experience. And a big goal of mine to is to kind of like link that to life at a veterinary clinic to our clients and educate them more. Just kind of fill in the gap. So we're going to start introducing some more education on there too. Just a little little tidbits of drops of knowledge and they're here in there. So yeah,
Collin 59:54
it'll be very cool to follow along and learn from you guys then. Oh, yeah,
Mary Beth 59:57
yeah. So feel free to reach out Anytime we'd be happy to chat,
Collin 60:01
wonderful again, thank you so much Marybeth. It's been wonderful talking with you today.
Mary Beth 60:06
Yeah, you too, Collin, I appreciate it.
Collin 60:09
It's so good to hear about all the hard work that Marybeth is putting into communicating for emergencies and all that she's doing to retain her best employees, and how she markets her business. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week. We will be back on Friday with an interview with Darcy from up dog LA, talking about how the COVID-19 panic has affected her business and how she's found to be resilient amongst the chaos. We also want to thank our sponsor time to pet for making this week's show possible. Don't forget to check out our COVID resources on our website at pet sitter confessional.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, pet sitter confessional and please give us a call. We'd love hearing about your stories and how you are all doing at this moment. Reach out to us at 636-364-8260 we'll talk to you again soon.
