047- Getting and Staying Organized with Savanna
Savanna’s montra.
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Summary:
Now is an excellent time to work on getting and staying organized. Professional organizer and pet sitter Savanna Westwood, the Savvy Sitter, joins us for a breakdown of simple actions we can be working on right now. She also addresses some listener questions on time management and many other topics.
Topics in this episode:
Organization Stats
What is an organizer
How to BE organized
Getting your car organized
Getting your clients organized
Listener Questions!
Recommended resources
Main take away? Getting, and staying, organized doesn’t have to be a monumental effort. Small, simple steps go a long way to getting us on a better path.
About our guest:
A Professional Organizer is someone who provides a certain skill set and knowledge to support individuals, families, as well as both large and small businesses. Professional Organizers evaluate the current situation and system, and create or modifying a simpler, more efficient work and living environment.
Savanna “Savvy” Westwood was raised and has lived in the Central Florida area for 26 years. She is a graduate from Stetson University with her Bachelors in Communication Studies and the Florida State University with her Masters Degree in Asian Studies. During her time in college she had juggled her jobs as a Resident Assistant/Advisor (RA), tutor, note taker, Martial Arts instructor and full time student. Her organization and time management skills helped keep her life and her student’s life in balance.
After graduating with her Masters degree she worked for a domestic moving company and a start up international moving company. Throughout her career in the moving industry being organized is essential for an easy move and even easier life. She has several years of moving experience, contacts and knowledge in the industry, and wants to share that knowledge with you!
Savanna was a student of renowned Professional Organizer Jaclyn Gross of Tip Top Organizing, LLC in Boca Raton, FL. Savanna has also assisted several family members and friends get more savvy in their organization skills and now wants to help those who are in need of the savvy organizing skills of this organizer. Bring her love, passion and skills for organizing into your home, office and life today!
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, organized, day, people, schedule, business, question, receipts, important, pet, last minute, pet sitter, checklist, service, professional organizers, put, home, pretty, key, clutter
SPEAKERS
Collin, Savanna
Collin 00:17
I'm calling
00:18
and I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional.
00:21
An open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin 00:24
brought to you by time to pet. Well, hello, everybody and welcome back. Getting in staying organized is one of the hardest things to do both personally add for your business and now with a lot more time accessible to us than we ever thought we'd have is a great opportunity to work on getting and staying organized. So today, Savannah Westwood, the savvy setter, is on to talk about her processes that she has in place and gives us some tips and tools to help us along Hopefully by the end of this in moving forward, will not have so much clutter around both mentally and physically in the space around us. So grab a pen and paper or your favorite note taking app. And let's get started. Savannah, thank you so much for coming on today. This is a really big and important topic.
Savanna 01:20
I couldn't agree more fallen in thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to helping my fellow pet sitters and dog walkers often keep organized. You also
01:29
have a background not just in pet sitting but also in organization.
Savanna 01:34
Yeah, so kind of a little brief history of my career. I actually started in an international Moving Company, which was a startup and my title was an international relocation specialist. And that's basically a fancy term for I can basically use your household goods from country to country through customs and all that stuff. And with that job you had be extremely organized because your hands are loose. During that during the day and through the month, basically, I worked there for three years, parted ways and decided to start my own company as a professional organizer called a savvy organizer. It was great work, but pretty much the needs of my clients call and said, Hey, can you help take care of fluffy and our pet and all that stuff?
Collin 02:26
So my business evolved into more pet sitting and dog walking, how do you think that your background in in organization has really played into how you pets it?
Savanna 02:35
I find it very easy because I'm naturally a very organized person. And people respond to that very well. Like as we will get into during our discussion, there are things that I have done to help keep myself organized and my clients as well. So it's just kind of helps as far as time management, logistic communication, you know, picking things structured, efficient, it just kind of comes naturally to me. And that's why a lot of clients like using me is because I'm very organized, detail oriented. And you know, I want to try to provide the best customer service and most efficient experience with my clients
Collin 03:19
know when we think big picture here and you have some pretty shocking organization statistics that that you like to talk about.
Savanna 03:27
Yeah, people are always surprised when I tell them some of these things, but the typical us worker is interrupted by communication technology every 10 minutes. Like most professionals, we have a professional organization, which is called the na co. So the National Association of Professional organizers and they did a survey and it says that we spend about one year of our lives trying to find lost items. One in four families that have a two car garage can't park in them because they're stuck stuff in them. So it's basically an on site storage unit. And then there's so much surprising fact is 80% of the items we have we never use. And here's a fun one. I think your wife would appreciate this. But clean professional stayed that getting rid of excess clutter will eliminate 40% of the housework in average. Yeah. And then, and here's the real shocker. So I'm sure where you live. You see probably storage unit enforceability getting built up, right? Yes. Yeah,
04:33
there. It's almost as frequent as banks and fast food joints.
Savanna 04:39
Yeah, pretty much But did you know the business of storage facilities is 150 $4 billion. Industry and growing
Collin 04:48
did not know that. Yeah, and it's one of those things. There's the stuff that you're not using and then you're paying people to store it to not use it. there's just there's just there's waste, wasted money wasted time throughout that entire process.
Savanna 05:07
Exactly.
Collin 05:08
At one point you were a professional organizer, how would you define what an organizer is and what they do.
Savanna 05:14
So a professional organizer is a person that can help you organize any of the physical and digital spaces in your life. There's also something called projective consultants, which they fall under the same category as an organizer, but they're there to help with more of the non physical non material things to help make this more efficient. So, time management, scheduling all that fun stuff. But overall, organizers are here to establish order and clarity.
Collin 05:44
Those three words are so powerful especially in the as a pet sitter, when we feel like we don't have order when function can break down in our hectic days and clarity Can you can kind of have a hard time figuring that out some some time. So Those those three words really stand out to me.
Savanna 06:03
Well, that's the point of professional organizer, we're here to help you get those things that you want.
Collin 06:08
So I think the big question of all of this is, okay, how can I be organized,
Savanna 06:14
there are a lot of people that are naturally just trained to be organized. But I think a lot of people have to realize that there is no right or wrong way to be organized. But you have to have a system that you use and or create that has to work for you. So it has to make sense to you. It has to be reliable. Pretty much when I get sometimes called in to do a room or something like that, will say a closet, for example, I can go into any closet, organize it, how I would use it. But the problem is, it's not my closet, it's your closet. So whatever system I set up, may not work for you. And that's kind of the goal of a professional organizer is we're helping you kind of how Create that system is yours for you. So if you're on your own, when you're trying to get organized, decide, remember to set up a system, try it out for a while, if it doesn't work, take it and try again.
Collin 07:15
Yeah, I think we I think we've all had that experience of as pet sitters of maybe being in somebody else's home and not being able to make heads or tails of where anything is or why it is there. And then we go back in our home and go, Well, this is a logical reason, or this makes sense for all of these things to be here. But it's, as you mentioned, it's a very personal decision.
Savanna 07:36
Exactly. So when we're trying to build these systems, it is basically you're creating a new routine or habit. It takes about 21 days to two months to create new habits or routines and they become automatically ingrained or ingrained into our system. So I think it's important just to you know, have a good organization habit in general. You
Collin 08:00
And whenever you start something new to go, Okay, I need to give this a month or two just to stick with this and see if this really is going to work and not a flyby day to day different changes of, I can, you know, I can do this one thing for for one month, and then we'll reassess at the end of it just to see if it sticks and if it's actually going to do what I hope it is.
Savanna 08:20
Exactly. So are we ready to get into some good organizational habits?
08:25
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Savanna 08:27
Okay, so some general, good organization habits, our organizers usually are on a regular basis. It's called habitual decluttering. So, even if you're kind of daily, cluttering decluttering for myself, for example, I pretty much go through my wallet. At the end of the day, I take out any spare coins, any receipts, and I put them in front of where they need to be so I'm not hearing the excess of flutter in my wallet. But there's also times where you need to take a once or twice a year to take stock of all the major clutter and do some purging. So just keep that in mind. So here are some general tips that will help in your personal life and in your business. So what I'm about to tell you will not only change your life, but it will also help with your business as well. All right, you have your pen and paper ready? I do. Okay, so the first thing that I tend to do is I write a list every morning when people start to feel overwhelmed, and your mind feels cluttered, and then you start to feel panic and stress. It's important to take a minute and write down what you need to get done for those days. Seeing it physically manifest on paper makes it less scary and not as overwhelming. In addition to that, it helps free up the mind to focus on the task at hand. Personally, for me, I say my list and no I'd make two or three categories, one for business. And once a personal and something else that you know daily tasks or whatnot, I'm, personally I'm a pen and paper kind of gal, I'm addicted to the satisfaction of taking my pen and crossing it off immediately. But there are applications on your phone, easily make a list that way as well. But again, I'm more of a pen and paper kind of person.
Collin 10:26
What I love about the list idea is you know, our brains are really good at being creative in our but they're terrible at storing information. And as you mentioned, there when all that clutter builds up, things get blown out of proportion, and you feel like you're losing track of stuff. So it just helps it, nail it down. Makes it as you said manifests into something that you can look stare at and then have that satisfaction of crossing it off at the end of the day.
Savanna 10:52
Exactly. I think when we work in our head, they seem bigger than they actually appear. So I think that famous Like, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time? at a time? Or a giraffe? I've heard that one too. But the elephant sees a bigger picture here. Yeah. Um, so another tip that I like to use is find time in music theory. And what I mean by that is, we will realize that we do spend a lot of time waiting for so either waiting yes thing. I'm waiting to get our repairs, waiting in line in general. So people always tell me like, well, I don't have this time. I'm just like, there's time. You just gotta find it and use it to your advantage. Yeah, so like when I'm waiting to get my car repaired or oil change. I always have things that I need to get done for the day. And technology has come so far, like you can answer emails on your phone. I can be invoicing on the phone. I can respond to clients ASAP and I'm just doing this from my heart. Yeah, well and
Collin 11:57
and you taking those moments of I don't have any time during the day. Well, do you have three minutes while you're waiting before your next client? Do you have five minutes, you know, while there while the dog is pooping, and you're, you know, processing the pictures, take those moments and do small batches of this little organization stuff throughout the day. So you don't have to find two hours to sit down and organize everything in your entire life. Doing it little by little really adds up.
Savanna 12:23
Exactly. One of my goals in the world that I do for myself, it would take five minutes or less. Do it now. Hmm.
Collin 12:30
Oh, that's that's so powerful. Because it really is. It's a quick decision tool of Okay, that that tells me what what can What should I be doing now? Or, you know, how can I prioritize these things on my list?
Savanna 12:42
Exactly. You got it. So the next important thing in that matter is don't multitask. I know. I mostly find that millennials. Now like Benzies were supposed to be really good at multitasking. That is not the case. Studies have found that multitasking actually uses your activity by piggyback on how much I
13:10
think I'm stupid. He's busy multitasking Hold on.
Savanna 13:14
I'll give you the number. It's 40%.
13:19
That's, that's insane.
Savanna 13:23
So, in addition to that, while it reduces your productivity, it also uses the quality of work. So not only are you having to agree to again, reduce productivity, you're probably going to have to go back and rebuild again. Yeah,
Collin 13:40
yeah. Which, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of why you multitask and the purpose in the first place because you thought this is gonna save me time. But then you're going back doing it. It's I think, we've all experienced this when we're sending an update to a client or we're trying to answer emails while we're doing a walk or while we're picking a booth or while we're trying to feed them. You go back and you read that email. When you go, none of those are actually words. And that doesn't make sense at all.
Savanna 14:04
Exactly. Um, I do believe there is some form of multitasking, but it's more of a senate and lead it kind of multitasking. So when I move I set it and leave it. It's like, I'm doing laundry. So now I can go to work as you're learning something else do the work.
Collin 14:23
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, that's, that's co processing is different than multitasking of, Okay, I have one thing in the works and it's running. I can step aside and I can do something else in the meantime.
Savanna 14:36
Yeah, I would call that hold on to
Collin 14:38
that. Okay. Yeah.
Savanna 14:40
So, um, I have a saying that I am everything has its place and everything has its thing. So everything that I own has a designated spot. So if I can't know it is not there we have a problem. So, for example, I have my car keys and I put it This one specific spot every time. So if I have to leave in a hurry, it's right there. I actually read an article. You're gonna laugh. So if you lose your key, it takes about six minutes.
15:18
Sometimes I read I go, Oh, that's all because I feel like it takes me about 15 sometimes whenever I Well,
Savanna 15:24
that's the minimum. I'm sure it's different for everybody. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But it's six minutes that you've lost or more in your wallet. Yeah, so that's six minutes behind schedule, trying to find so just make sure if you have specific items that you definitely use on a regular basis that has a designated spot, whether that be your car keys, your phone, your wallet or first backpack, whatever you use it on a regular basis. Make sure that you have a designated spot when you All right on this, this is gonna be a game changer. This next one, so I have a question for you. I'm afraid to answer this. He knows about me. So, do you make your bed every morning or Does your wife
16:19
if I said yes Would you believe me?
Savanna 16:23
I will believe you Okay. I will find out the truth later.
16:28
I will say be gone is our our our bed does not get made every morning. Most most days, that's for sure.
Savanna 16:36
Okay, but here's some good reasons why you shouldn't make it in the morning. And people will always advise like what to do with organizational productivity. I'm about to tell you. So, studies have shown that people who tend to make their bed get more accomplished in the day. It also helps with being productive is a good way to start today. So it basically First thing you do when you make your bed is, you get one thing done one thing accomplished. First thing when you get up in the morning, yeah. And that sense of accomplishment helps you keep the rest of your room it has, you know, a nice made that is a nice thing to come home to. Right, right. So it also lowers your stress and improves your mood. So you spend about one third of your life in your bedroom, and the appearance of the room has an effect on your mood. So a major shows that you care about yourself, your home and being cared about and it helps with your mood, lightens emotional burdens, and make you feel happier. My aunt used to tell me that a made bed is the best present you can wrap for yourself and unwrap after a long day.
Collin 17:49
You mentioned it it's it's one thing to get checked off right at the beginning the day so barring anything else you've already completed one task and and that's such a When people talk about getting out of bed on the right foot, what a better way to do that. Then you're also, you know, giving a gift as you said to yourself at the end of the day to it's kind of all this all inclusive.
Savanna 18:11
I know. Like, for me, if I don't make my bed every morning and I know within the long day, it just makes the game worse.
18:20
Okay, okay.
18:23
We'll start making our bed. Okay.
Savanna 18:25
Okay, okay, I'm gonna hold you to it. No. So I have another question for you. Pauline. Answer says, Is there something in the room you're in that doesn't belong there?
Collin 18:41
Yes.
Savanna 18:46
So another rule that I apply is never leave a room empty handed. And this is kind of what that means. So chances are if you look around in the room, you're at something in there doesn't belong. So for example, with This is no, I'm assuming everyone takes a glass of water or a bottle of water with them to bed at night to get thirsty. That obviously doesn't belong in your room. So you need to be aware of know, when you leave the room is something that doesn't belong there. So whether if you're taking that glass of water is bringing it back to the kitchen, or you have a file of mail that you know when you go to the office just makes a conscious effort of being aware of what is in that room. And where are you going to and what can be taken there. So instead of walking back and forth multiple times, like, Oh, I forgot my keys. I forgot my laptop. Being mindful. Oh, again, everything has its place and everything passes thing, right.
Collin 19:44
Yeah, these aren't big tasks. These are just these are little things, finding little pieces of time finding one object to take, leave a room with and take it to where it's supposed to go. It's so that you you take These, these one bites of an elephant and each time throughout the day,
Savanna 20:04
like the goal, people are surprised that when people ask, Well, how long does it take to organize and declutter a room? You really won't see any changes until our four. Really? Yeah. So I try to explain to people like little things, then you're gonna start seeing things immediately first. And then following up on flutter, I have a rule and grateful for flutter or at least an eight growth flutter is one new thing something like that. Or is I got too bad? What a half you hold out it makes space for that thing, but it also adds Remember calling, only use about 80% of we don't use 80 of what we own. So it's important to not have that clutter, or as
Collin 21:13
one of the places that pet sitters spend an awful lot of their time is in our cars and sometimes our cars can feel like our second home and so they tend to also be pretty disorganized.
Savanna 21:25
I would have to agree with you. So, um, I do agree that our car is basically either our first or second. Yes. Again, professional organizers have another thing a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind. But in our case, whether our cluttered mind so what I do is I regularly get like our regularly get my cartoons and details. You have wine, your dog hair Now I'm becoming lazy. But I think it's important to get it regular things not just for your car but for yourself too. And it is a business write off as well. So use that to your advantage. When you're spending time in a car, again, if you gain that time back is I will try to listen to the audio book, learn a language, listen to podcasts, that are confessional. something new. But again, that rule of being mindful of what's in your car and what long in your car, so I know people tell me like I just have a lot of trash are like food trash, but who am I to judge but one way to keep that clean and not know it have it rolling around in your car is no those cereal boxes that you use cereal Fresh, you can actually use it as a Trashman. So you just take a little plastic grocery bag and put it in there and the little poplin you can put your trash in there. And then it rolls over in your car. It's not going to spill everywhere.
Collin 23:15
Yeah, yeah, I love this because you're always in the car and you're always going, I have trash I need someplace to put the trash I'll just put it in the little door pocket down here or on the passenger seat or on the, you know, floorboards behind me. And it just gets everywhere. And so going, Hey, you have trash? Put a trash can with a lid.
Savanna 23:35
Car. Yeah. And then like it's easy to move about it like you can put, obviously, I don't know everyone's car size and what they're driving but you can put it into scene first. Yeah, well, yeah. Um, it's also important to have designated bags as well. I know for me, I have a dog in the back of my car, so my feet don't get scratched up and saw kerosene but Pretty much when I'm done with it, I fold it up and I have a designated back for it and hang on the back of the seat for it to go from my neck. I know when you sent me all these questions from for your listeners, a lot of it was regarding clients. And but I wanted to talk about how you physically can't go in and help get your clients organized. But you can set them up for success. Are you ready calling?
24:27
I am in this is I'm ready to take notes because I have we have set and I think everyone has that for those clients where you just your brain kind of breaks whenever you think about how disorganized they can be.
Savanna 24:39
Exactly. So some things that I do to help make my getting my client to be successful is I home a checklist for them. So when I send over my service agreement and contract, photo release, I send them a little checklist. And what this checklist has is several things that they need to do. To get done before we can begin services. So an A couple things on the checklist is following up with their emergency contacts. It's a great way to let them know like, hey, our pet sitter is saying or taking care of our pets go away. This is your name. This they were gone. They may be calling you. But it's also a great way for them to check in with their emergency contacts to see if they're going to be around. So that's always important to them. Because I mean, if they're not around, and you can't reach anybody, what are you going to do? Right, right. So another thing that I have on my checklist is the follow up with their security company or I work for a lot of clients that are live in gated communities. So making sure that the security company and the gate guards are aware that I'm coming, who I am, what my information is, and what my secret codes and passwords
26:00
Yes, yeah, it and you know, this just speaks you know, we have a rule for us is don't get the cops called on you and this is just speaks volumes to that.
Savanna 26:11
Yeah, we don't want that to happen at all. And I know I I've added on to my list later on and this might be good for I was in Florida. So we have those horrible horrible summers that you can fry an egg on a car and bacon and maybe a pancake and we have a full breakfast ready for you. It's pretty much a guarantee that every summer when one of my clients goes away, their AC unit breaks. It's just a matter of who Yeah. So I was what I put on there in addition to following up with the emergency contact and journey systems and gate guard is cool there. Primary AC unit repair people are so we can get in touch with them instead of our client being the middleman and trying to arrange somebody from out there or ourselves to be out there on site to oversee it.
Collin 27:14
Yeah, you know, I that's I love hearing that because that's one of those things of all of a sudden you do find yourself in the middle man and you're asking Who do you know to contact and you're having to wait and then you're having to play this back and forth if you already have that person's name and everything ready to go. You just let them know hey, I called your AC guy cuz it's broken.
Savanna 27:32
Yeah, pretty much yeah. And you know why calling I know this is being used as far as my checklist. I get that paperwork back and it has all the information on it and it's lost or checked off. The checklist
Collin 27:51
it's it's, it's so simple and and yet so so powerful and so effective for those for those reasons. We've been taught about
Savanna 28:01
exactly and it shows your plants that you're organized and you're thinking a couple steps ahead. Yeah. Another thing that I do on a regular basis is I have a system schedule and time that I send out payment requests and invoices as well as when they're supposed to be received. So if we make sure that our payment is obviously and our cash flows did our clients are aware like okay, I'm picture that I need to pay, calling Adana, whoever. So, just having that consistent day. For me, it's Sunday to send out those invoices and then usually by Monday or Tuesday or even Sunday, I get payment. Another thing that I do is I send out monthly emails, I always try to send it the first couple days in the month. But with email, obviously you put it and kind of what's going on in your business but I Also what holidays and when school breaks are coming up No, it's obviously still breaking holidays are a little bit different in each state but honestly, I don't know what your spring break is but I know when my spring break but I it's pretty much a guarantee that you're gonna get between already for me I've gotten at least three to five responses back from that one of email that was sent out with clients contacting music. Hey.
Collin 29:42
Yeah, and and that what you know, what I hear that speaking to is is trying to avoid that last minute scheduling crunch because the further you can get booked and everything in stone, the more peace of mind you're going to have and the less chaos Because we all had that a holiday comes up and we're looking at our calendar going, Okay, people are going to start booking anytime soon. And then the weeks pass, and then it starts getting closer and then it's the day before and you get slammed. And you're like, did they not know? And you're, you're cutting that off at the knees and going, here's I, your pet sitter I'm sending you when you put may potentially need me.
Savanna 30:25
Well, I'm sure you get the question all the time, like, well, how far do I need to book your life? for the better? Yes,
Collin 30:32
yes. And and and this again, just puts it out there and helps them helps another gentle reminder of, hey, these dates are coming up. They may you they may be important to you.
Savanna 30:41
Exactly.
Collin 30:45
We can dive right into some of the questions and I want to thank all of everybody from Facebook and Instagram that responded and sent in their questions and comments for staying organized. It we've talked about at the beginning of the show. It's a it's a big topic. It's kind of a scary topic in so thank you for everybody who submitted questions for today for Savannah to answer for us.
Savanna 31:08
All right. I think the first question was about D. Am I right?
31:12
Yes, it was. It was someone. One of the comments was keys,
Collin 31:15
so many keys.
Savanna 31:18
Okay. So there's a couple ways that we can organize ease. The first way, I try not to be responsible for the keys. So I asked the client, a lockbox that way in case there's an emergency or scan in or another person or someone from the house, there's a way for them to get in and we're not having to pass the baton or that. In addition, it's a great way for a client and forgetful
31:54
Yeah, as I usually get up, like
Savanna 31:59
Yep, So if you do end up with these, and I do have these as well, if you can get little tags, either on Amazon or any kind of for mostly Office Depot, and you can write on the fee, or the tag, in this case, the clients name and or their pets, so that way you always look like you're not having that problem of like, I think this one or there's two keys that kind of have the same logo, I don't know which one they are. So instead of doing trial and error, you have that kind of tag to tell you the difference. And these are just teaching to or you can go to Home Depot or Lowe's and so there's these new fancy little fees that have like Hello Kitty or what have you. But the more I think you can distinguish these either with art deco or E or E chain or pizza. The better. If you are a big nail polish fanatic, you can take the key head and get it painted with whatever nail polish color you want. And that way is color coordinated. But you know those business card holder slots, right that you put in a binder column. Yeah, you can actually use those to put ease in them. And you can put a little index card or business size piece of paper or business side business card size piece of paper with the clients information so he's pre secure in that. So and again, that's organized and you can pretty much grab the key and go but I always make sure that my keys are in some form of bag and not like
Collin 33:52
yeah, having a bunch of loose keys just sends me into anxiety attacks. And so I love the the try and make them Visually as different as possible step one. And then step two, get them into something, whether that's a bag, or the business card slots, or as you mentioned at the beginning there, preferably at the owner's home, because you know, the context of a key is at a door, you don't really need it, when you're out running around around the city. You need it when you're at that person's house. And so trying to do this lockboxes You know, that's, that's a great idea.
Savanna 34:26
And if people are wondering where you can find me on Amazon
34:32
that's the answer for everything.
Savanna 34:33
Yeah, that's the answer for everything. Yeah. Um, but yet lock boxes are great. And again, you know, you're not having that extra responsibility of being in charge of the key. And, you know, that guilt of losing the key and like, crap, I don't know where it is. Yeah. But I get this book. I know that a lot of technology again, is like, I have A client that has a basically a digital garage for and this will be Bluetooth in the house. So technology is progressing but it's still good. We have some sort of on site. Sale
Collin 35:21
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 of their information organized and easily accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging by keeping conversations 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.com slash confessional
Savanna 36:01
All right. Next question.
Collin 36:02
Yeah. The next several questions that that we got were really all about scheduling. You know, and so I, one of the one of the questions was, you know, a constant, I have a constantly changing schedule and schedule changes. Some people try their best to accommodate other people's schedules. But you get those last minute schedule changes all the time and they get thrown off. So how, how can you organize to combat that
Savanna 36:28
deal with other people, this organization is really hard because you have no control over it, but yet you're being affected by it. no fault of your own, and you're having to deal with not necessarily the consequences, consequences, but the effect. But there are some things you can do beforehand before you get those last minute call. Or you get those changes scheduled requests. There's, there's a couple things you can do. Obviously, you can't control the person. But these are things that you can control. Alright, so dealing with last minute changes in our schedule wise or the last minute request for service before they happen. key words before they happen. Well, that's three words, but before they happen. So make sure that you look at your schedule either the week or the day before. If you know that you're gonna have a busy day or scheduled by getting up a little bit earlier, it doesn't have to be an hour, it doesn't have to be 30 minutes, it can be 1015 minutes. If you can get up a little bit earlier and get a little bit of a head start on your day. You've gained a couple minutes, you know, to prepare for the day that lies ahead. Because what's that thing called when it rains? It pours right yeah. So it's seems to me that when we have those busy days, everything that could go wrong, may go wrong. Yes. So if you can get up a little bit extra earlier, and get a little bit of effort in the game, that's step one. If you can pay it prepare the night before, either by packing your lunch, lay out your clothes, have your bags and what needs to take ready to go. Again, just one less thing you have to worry about, again, finding your fees, finding your lunch making your lunch, what have you. I know for me, I have a uniform, so I don't have to like oh, I'm gonna wear this little pop today. No, it's like, it's the purple shirt with my logo and pants. were gone. Yeah. So um, another thing that I don't know if you do this with your client fallen, and I don't know a lot of pet sitters that do is ask if you can have a window of time or as I call it. Spread instead of a set time, because as we all know, especially with dog walkers that he thought that everyone wants is one time. Yeah, yeah. Everyone wants their dogs let out at lunchtime. And when you do get those calls for the lunchtime visit or what have you, it's kind of hard to accommodate because you do have people that are already kind of set in the schedule. So what I ask clients, especially if they're looking for something in particular, or last minute, is I asked him if I can have a window of time. So between like 12 and two, I can come by or three and four or nine and 10 or 911. That way, it's a great way to work schedules around as far as that is concerned. So having that window of time versus that that particular time is always helpful for me because I'm able to help a lot more people Not saying no.
Collin 40:01
Now when you have when you have someone request the walk exactly at 1233. You don't that's really hard to work into a really busy, busy lunchtime schedule. But if you can say, okay, between 12 and 130, the service will get done that, as you mentioned, you're able to flex that those times and really work in more people for in that in those tight spot.
Savanna 40:25
Exactly. So another thing that you should do is make sure your clients are aware of your last minute service policies or change of request time. have it written in the contract and have it written on your website? And I read this as one of the questions is, I don't feel like charging them for last minute visits and changes. I do it. Yeah, do it. Do it. Do it, do it because that is your time. Here you're bending to their request. messing up your day. We charge them for it.
Collin 41:02
And that's, that can be scary because step one, we typically already undervalue ourselves because we don't feel like the services are worth it. Or we would, you know, we'd gladly do this stuff for free. So any money somebody's willing to give me is just fine. And then we step two, sometimes, we don't like making people angry, and it can be kind of scary to go, okay, because you just requested a walk that you want done in the next hour, I am going to charge you 25% more or whatever you however you choose to do that in your business. But as you mentioned, like that's your time that they are asking from you last minute for you to throw off your entire schedule. So you have to make it worth it. And charging appropriately is definitely where to start.
Savanna 41:47
In addition to that, I would have to add, you're looking at it as an individual client, but think about it, how it affects your clients as a whole. How your other clients are going to be affected because One client didn't have their stuff together or there was no merge. Yeah. So this is where as a Western society, we're very individualistic. But I think as leaders, we are very collectivist as well. So we think about the whole
Collin 42:16
Yeah. Would you, you know, taking on this new person, what does that do to the care that you're able to give to your other pre existing clients? Does if it if it's going to start hurting that service, then, you know, take that into account?
42:29
Absolutely. Yeah.
Savanna 42:31
Yeah. Don't look at it as like, I'm charging them more. And they may get angry. If I say no, I'm like, think about your other clients who may suffer for may be affected because of this decision, you know, this request as well. Yeah. So maybe look at it that way. Um, I know another thing is important. Again, looking over your schedule, either the night before or the week before, but knowing if you have a system and your backups, what they're doing for the week. I know I've been put into situations where, you know, I have clients across town, for example, last minute, but I do know that my assistant is over there working currently. So I can call them and say, Hey, can you please go check on so and so while you're over there. So knowing where your assistants are or what their schedule is like, you get that last minute all is it'll save you a lot of headache. So and then the last one is establish a good relationship of contacts with other trusted sitters and dog walkers. So now we're dealing with the last minute schedule changes as they happen. So they have ended up as being Elizabeth the Second does and her motto, keep calm and carry on. So don't get frustrated. I know it sometimes it's very hard. I get frustrated. But no frustrations not going to solve this problem. So but let's take some look at look at things with a clear mind. So number one, look at logistics. Where are you currently located? Where will you be? And where do you need to be? Look at this time, how long is it going to take you there? To get there? What time? Are they asking for? all that fun stuff? What is the client asking for? isn't an overnight is it just potty break is gonna walk? Is it medication? all that fun stuff? And lastly, here's the real kicker. Who is the client? Isn't this a client a repeat offender for last minute changes or fall? Is this a family or medical emergency? And here's this is the most important part. Is it reasonable what they're asking you to do? Yeah.
Collin 44:57
No, these I mean, these are so they're so good. These questions but we fail to ask them each time right we find ourselves in the same situation
Savanna 45:07
that goes on is the fact of what you're looking at yourself at this point. So if I requested a bold letter does it work for your schedule? So if the answer is no, no, no no
Collin 45:30
that's so hard though because we are we were caregivers right we're carrier we love to make people and pets happy by pervade by providing excellent service or you know, by serving them and saying, No, gosh, that's that's a that's a nasty two letter word.
Savanna 45:48
Yeah, it's like a little dagger. Yeah. But you know, you are only one first. So you can only do that. I know we don't like a no, I thought I was this is what I can do offer what we can do that. So for example, our clients call me today that I was going to walk around. I guess all of you actually have dogs at home, but I had trouble last night. So I came back pretty early in the morning, right up through room, so I got a call later. So I'm like, I'm like, this is a really good day, but this is what I can do like perfectly fine. No problem. Being flexible. So offering what you can do is always says you're not saying no, you're just offering something that you're So giving them options that work for big bold letter. You. Yeah. Yeah. So remember, you're the one helping them. Yeah. You're the one service. Yeah. But you're the one doing the service. Yeah.
Collin 47:22
Yeah. And that's that, that just that simple enough refocusing of the equation. lets you know that you have a say, in how this goes down to and, and, and that part is empowering as it should be, because they're coming to you for help. So now, what works for you.
Savanna 47:43
Exactly. And then
47:48
yeah, I like
Savanna 47:52
I'm always the ball. Again, going back for the last call scheduled happens. I don't know, if you've heard of your Noah's Ark. Have you heard of your ideals? I have not. Okay. So in marketing, there's a firm called your ideal client. So these are clients that you love working with them. You will do anything, almost anything for them, and they meet things that they booked in advance, or they're a, there's a dream. Like if everyone could be like them that's not always the case. But one of the criterias that I asked my client is client flexibility and understanding that you have other planets as well. So Again, going back to the aspect of how is this affecting your other clients at all? So, I always check with clients that I know this ad possibly affecting their my clients, as long as you're communicating in big or so I have found that most of my friends are very understanding if I give them this so I'm not saying like give them their full name, address phone number, but I'm saying, Hey, I have a client that no they have a medical emergency. They're in the area I might be a few minutes late coming to you. And most of these are animal lovers and pet lovers too. And they can either put themselves in my other the the emergency client or the last minute client again. I really want to describe the boss and the clients out They understand that and they would probably want to stay in flexibilities that they are getting, if and when that time comes for them. So having a flexible and understanding client is important, as far as that is concerned, and again, communicating that to your other clients, if there's an emergency that pops up now,
Collin 50:23
yeah, and knowing that, they appreciate that too, and they being you being honest, and keeping that communication open, and letting them know, Hey, you know, this may affect you. And if they're not okay with that, then you know, don't take on that, that schedule that new schedule or you know, re trying another way to get
Savanna 50:43
in. Exactly. So, and last resort is telling your client No, but I had a friend of mine tell me this. If you cannot provide a reliable service, if the request is unreasonable. We want to be reliable. But some time, you know, I can't go walk the dog on the limb, that's unreasonable.
Collin 51:10
Yeah. And you know, that comes back that gets to thinking through some of these scenarios, would I be willing to do this? Or what about this or what about this and just have some of those policies already in place. You don't have to publish them, but just have them on a Word document or have them on your phone so that they're there for to remind you in those situations.
Savanna 51:31
Exactly. Now, we're dealing with the after effects of the last minute schedule changes. Again, going back to what you mentioned, previously, the client history is just a repeat offender. There's basically a couple of options with this. But you know, either you stick it out and deal with it and just remind them of the policy changes or the policy and procedures. You can charge them for more for service, especially for lasting isn't our changes and schedule or my favorite? You let them go? It's not really my favorite, but I've met that. But yeah, sometimes, you know, what's that thing? A bad apple spoils the bunch. I mean, you don't want someone that, like calling you last minute. It's not good for you. It's not good for your business. Definitely not good for your other clients. Right?
Collin 52:36
Yeah, you know, it's, it's the, it's that 8020 rule or that 9010 rule of, you know, 90% of your clients are going to be just fine. It's that 10% that are going to cause 90% of your problems. And so at what point do you no longer offer them service? And in how do you balance that you know, that's, that's looks different for everybody how they handle that whether it's just charging them Margot, okay, you're going to be a problem client or charges, you know, 30% more that makes me happy. And I can deal with that. Some people might and they just don't want the hassle in their lives so they don't offer them service. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.
Savanna 53:20
All right. Um, so this is a weird question calling but that I received. I feel like I need more details. But if you want to go ahead and read it, then we can talk it out together.
Collin 53:32
Okay. Yeah. So this question was when people run late, how do you keep it from messing up your entire schedule?
Savanna 53:40
So I was a little surprised with this one because there wasn't enough information for me to kind of go off of like, the devils in the details by like, by though person that asked questions, listening My question to you is, are these people that you are meeting up with somewhere home are eating green? Like, what is it? Like? Is it really is running late potential clients running late? I mean, it's kind of a loaded question. But here's, here's what i do think that it's a meeting, for example, offered scheduled for another time. I try when I do meet and greet. Obviously, the general rule of thumb is obviously 30 an hour. As a general rule, I feel like I hour, but I always make sure that I have going on the day if I over sometimes adding that extra buffer of time. So like, you know, client x And find out 185 That way you have that window or whatever. And again, with any client, they have afterward, right? And you can always go and buy other.
Collin 55:28
Yeah, yeah, the top the time buffer really is power is is helpful there of if you book yourself, okay, well, I'm gonna have a meeting from 12 to 1230. And then I'm going to next meeting is from 1230 to one and then you if you don't give yourself buffer, what happens if traffic's buckled or what happens if somebody does late then everything does get thrown off. So really building in buffer and some breakpoints in your day, so you can catch up if you need to.
55:57
Literally the domino effect. Yes, it is.
Savanna 56:02
So, the next question, I believe is about burnout.
Collin 56:07
Yes. So this so this person wrote you know, I stay pretty well organized and so they're they're pretty well organized to begin with, but they tend to go through burnout cycles because I'm always manic about one thing or another. But sometimes forgetting that no is an option. I know we touched on that and then they get totally burned out.
Savanna 56:28
So I think on by all these are fine guests. And when I got to this pub, that's just like, thank you. Thank you for like, yeah, so um, what I do is I ending a point for myself, and I treat it like a client. So obviously fallen you don't want to find Right. Yeah. Can you beat yourself up?
Collin 57:05
Yeah, no, I'd love that idea.
Savanna 57:07
Yeah. cancel your cancel on yourself that you're nice. I know for me, I'm usually officially off off regarding work like our allow for today. Yeah, I have little breaks during the day. But I do not. not cancel on yourself because you need to have your nice prices. You're worthless. You were burned out. Yes. Yeah. So I know for an example. I get those are all like we're going to Orlando. We're going to go today. So I, I have a standing appointment with myself with my, my riding instructor riding on a horse. Yeah, I always see that it's a standing appointment. And it's my me time. So again, going back to what I previously said, If you can't offer the specific time they're asking for offer what works for your schedule? Yeah. So if you give them an option, nine times out of 10, they're going to take it. No. But again, you're not cancel on yourself.
Collin 58:40
Yeah. Because, you know, as you mentioned, you're setting that framework of Well, I'd never cancel on a client. Why would I cancel on myself Aren't you know, don't, shouldn't I be making sure that I'm okay first so that I can give that best care so I can give that high quality in that consistency that I that I strive for, and That really helps block out that time and makes that important.
Savanna 59:04
Yeah, there's no, there isn't I and yeah,
Collin 59:11
yeah. And our next question that kind of lines up with this time theme of, I just lacked time in general. I'm often invoicing people at midnight or coming home from a visit at 10pm.
Savanna 59:24
What I say to this person is the money.
Collin 59:33
Thank you.
Savanna 59:35
You're welcome. But it's true. Um, I tell people all the time when I first started this business, I was the CEO, the janitor of the accountant, the CEO, the CEO, the CFO, whatever, Oh, you want to add? Yeah, and everything in between. and then it got to a point in my business where I'm just like, I don't have time for this and need to delegate the things that you absolutely hate. For me it was accounting and being a CPA. So I went and hired one. Yeah, yeah.
Collin 60:18
We mentioned like, okay, let's let's delegate that out. And I feel a lot of times when people are considering that when they start talking about being too busy as a pet sitter, when we start talking about hiring somebody, the first thing is okay, well I need to hire another dog walker or another driver or something like that. And that the administrative side gets kind of put on the back end of a wall just do all that but if you hate it,
60:41
why would you continue
Collin 60:42
to stick that you're with that past with you every single day? get that off your plate first, and, and so that you can focus on the other tasks that you enjoy doing?
Savanna 60:54
But again, I'm a also a pen and paper kind of girl like I have a journal with me. literally within arm's reach. So if I need to write something down or remember to do something, I write it in my journal. And again, that pleasure of list is so. And another great way like, again, if you're not really tech savvy, you don't like using Alexa or google assistant or Siri, I use my text as a reference point reminder. So it is basically like a mini checklist. So the communication that you have for the day is like right on the text list. So you can pretty much go through your text and see like, Oh, I need to email so and so on. Because they call today or
Collin 61:40
and I was gonna say, you know, when we're talking about digital assistants, you know, if you have it data that needs to get put into specific scheduling software that you don't find you're having time for hiring a virtual assistant or some or an actual physical system in your in an office somewhere and you give them that And then they manually enter the data and appointments. That may be a step too. If you know, you know, if it has to go to someplace specific that maybe Google Alexa or Siri can't hook into, you know, just if you don't like manually adding it, but it still needs to get manually added. Have somebody else
62:17
do that?
Savanna 62:18
Exactly. I know. I don't know, where would you find a virtual assistant these days? Like, I know, Fiverr has them. But, uh, yeah, and
Collin 62:29
I don't know if there's a good Listing Service I can, what I can do is I can add a couple links that do some research on that and add those to our show notes, though. So
Savanna 62:38
yeah, I think that would be good for the listener. I know Fiverr has it and that si p er are calm, though. And finally.
Collin 62:52
So a lot of times in our businesses, you know, as digital as we try and be there's still going to be some paperwork. And so this next question was paperwork receipts and trying to keep them organized. My mom is basically my personal assistant.
Savanna 63:06
Is your mom. Yeah. What an awesome, mom. Yeah, I love your mom, I haven't met your mom, I love your mom. Do ba ba.com and that's easy. So f. e. d has been my whole life when it comes to paper receipts. Basically, what I, you can literally take all the receipts that you have, either in the class or the Ziploc bag, whatever. You can mail those receipts up to their office. They will scan them digitally for you put them into categories, and you can create your own reports on the dashboard. Problem solved. You're welcome.
63:59
Wow, okay. That's kind of a game changer.
Savanna 64:02
Oh, it was a.
64:05
Yeah,
Collin 64:06
yeah. And yeah, it absolutely like there. There are very simple ways that you know, downloading a PDF scanner app on your phone, and spending just a few minutes a day at the end of the day processing all of them, you know, you mentioned you, you remove everything from your wallet and just take your photo, let it scan, then drop it in a folder somewhere so that you have infrastructure. And you know, maybe start there and then if you have too many receipts or it gets too overwhelming, move up to the QuickBooks or the shoe box and just get more and more of it off of your plate. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious, Savannah, if you have any other resources that you'd recommend that people could seek out if they're interested in diving deep into more about organizing for their business or just personal organization in general?
Savanna 64:51
Um, there are like I've been professional organizers are we doing this? We are like the parents godmothers decided we're not gonna do it for you. We're gonna help you get through it. So the National Association of Professional organizers of that area, so you're entering out on your own. I would recommend you get through and go. back. I think Have you ever heard of Marie Kondo? I have actually
65:42
she actually has this. Yeah. Tell me about her.
Savanna 65:46
So Marie Kondo Yes. Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up? Well, in a nutshell, right. This book is just a different way of organizing. So both organizers go by through three fondo bisti. So by category of those two categories those are out all the house as a pilot. And that's the boy, that tag is it for her is like, does this spark joy? does it bring us joy? If it doesn't, it needs to go. No, that's, that's one. Second is a different method of organizing. like reading, again, Marie Kondo. It's a different way of organizing it. Just again, like I said, there's no right or wrong way of for work. questions in general when I don't want general back? You're more than welcome to contact. So yeah, absolutely. So
Collin 67:14
yeah, so yeah, my next question was, how can people reach out with questions because you know, we covered an awful lot. And with you being a pet sitter, you have a unique insight into how to apply some of these to the life of a pet sitter. So how can people reach out to you and follow along with all that you've got with all that you're doing?
Savanna 67:36
They can reach out to me to my Facebook. It is the eBay like, jack Sparrow, Bobby. Yes, that's the nickname came from Thank you.
67:55
Very nice.
Savanna 67:57
So they can reach me at the fabricator on both My Profile, but I'm also on Instagram. And that's why by far, and I'm pretty responsive. If you don't hear me just do a follow up. There's one more thing I want to say is just know that change doesn't happen overnight. No one's perfect. And, you know, if you're striving to make a better view or make your business better, just eat the elephant, one bite. So it doesn't matter where you start.
Collin 68:43
Right? Yeah, yeah. I love that. No, nope. No better words to end on than that. Savannah, thank you so much for walking us through all of that information. I know we all need it. And there are all areas that we can all improve on. So thank you so much for bearing with us today.
Savanna 69:00
It's my pleasure. And I hope everyone has a awesome day.
Collin 69:05
Since doing this interview, I know one of the things that both Megan and I have tried to implement in our home and when we are out and about is to never leave a room empty handed. With kids that makes cleaning up so much easier. And as running a business, it keeps the clutter down in the spaces where we need to be working, especially now where we are home and we're kind of all on top of each other. So staying organized just as a home is so much more important now than it ever has been. And then as a business, building these habits into it right now at the very beginning, Savannah talked about how a lot of these things take time to build in and time to get seated and adjusted to how you want to operate with the lockdowns now and not being able to change things quickly. What a wonderful opportunity to start building these habits so that whenever things do open them back up, they're already ingrained in It's just how you operate as a business and as a PR at a personal level. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week we'll be back on Friday with another interview with a dog trainer Kara, from the doggy spot on things we could be learning now to bolster our animal handling or possibly certifications and things like that to be doing online, to continue to educate and learn more. While we have the time. We'll talk to you then.
