059- Scaling Your Business with Natasha O'Banion
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Summary:
Natasha O'Banion, owner of Walk with Renzo and Ruby and Start, Scale, Sail, shares what she's learned about growing her business, including having a strong foundation, goal setting, and the proper protocols to have in place. On today’s show, Natasha O’Banion shares her experience of planning, growing, and scaling her business and the hard lessons she learned along the way.
Topics on this episode:
Natasha’s background
Hiring and keeping employees
Balancing family and business
Laying a strong foundation
What clients are looking for
How we can stay competitive
Receiving feedback well
Underutilized marketing tools
What is Start, Scale, Sail?
Main take away? Setting a strong foundation, investing in your community, and having standard procedures all help you scale your business in a sustainable way for the future.
About our guest:
Natasha O’Banion has 15 years of extensive marketing and sales background from the automotive industry. She has successfully occupied roles such as Client Relations, General Manager, Executive Assistant, Service Advisor, Aftermarket Sales, and Automotive Finance Manager, and she has ranked highest among her peers in sales goals, high-pressure environments, and meeting deadlines. Natasha is a highly respected straight shooter, known for her no-filter approach. Some know her as an open book, happy to share a story or moment in her life, as her empathetic nature allows everyone in her presence to feel comfortable, acknowledged, and valued.
“The pet care industry isn’t easy, and it’s surely not for everyone, but if this is what you want, stick with it, and I’ll help you get clear and focused and find a more efficient way to achieve success,” -Natasha shares.
After her tenure in the automotive industry, Natasha enjoyed a well-deserved sabbatical to process her next move. Once again realizing that dogs are her first passion, she bravely decided to take on the pet care industry, thus creating a dog walking and pet sitting company, from inception to success status. Natasha is one of the few entrepreneurs in the industry to earn six figures in only six months, an incredible feat, given the short amount of time, unpredictable market, and specific arena. During this pivotal time, Natasha became a mother, and so, she put her company on autopilot to fulfill another one of her dreams – traveling freely across the globe with the people she loves most. As Natasha’s business continues to thrive, and she explores new places near and far, she has decided to reach back into the communities that have welcomed her ventures, now sharing several different ways to help others reach professional freedom and gain valuable knowledge regarding business strategies.
Links:
Walk with Renzo and Ruby: https://www.walkwithrenzoandruby.com/our-services
Start, Scale, Sail: https://www.startscalesail.com
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, business, people, dog, pet, natasha, industry, feedback, hire, social media, service, pictures, pet sitter, day, coaching, walking, process, offer, feel, sales
SPEAKERS
Collin, Natasha
00:17
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional.
00:20
An open and
00:22
honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet.
Collin 00:29
What does it mean to lay a strong foundation for your business? What's your end goal? And what are some of the most common social media and marketing tools that we should all be using, but we aren't. Natasha banyon, owner of walks with Brenda and Ruby and start scale sale joins us today to discuss all of these kinds of things and so much more.
Natasha 00:51
Hi, Collin. I'm Natasha OBanion. I am the owner of walk with Renzo and Ruby. We are based out of Washington, DC and we're current in DC, Maryland, Virginia and now Texas, Renzo and Ruby are my two babies, my pug and my Frenchie. And that's how we got started.
Collin 01:11
And so how long have you been petting?
Natasha 01:14
So this is our fifth year we started off as dog walker pet sitter and sleep over host and then the past two years we scaled to midday dog walking only
Collin 01:24
Why did you make that? Why'd you decide to make that change?
Natasha 01:27
I think our actual end goal for us was more so traveling enjoying our lives really getting that work life balance. And pet studying was never like our true passion for our dogs either. You know, our dogs are small and they want that like one on one attention. So I guess you can kind of say we like to service what we like. Please structure our business around what we would offer for our dogs. And so we kind of did the same although we do cat for a while. Our big one was our sleep omers which we love doing Our clients loved it. That's really where we got to really get to know our clients, our families out of the 30 minutes. Um, but for some reason doing a super host with the new laws and you know, the minimum wage stuff, it was just like, you know what, we're not gonna deal with it, we hire only employees. So we said, You know why we are sales and marketing people and actually, my husband and I, so we're like, let's just hit the pavement doing dog walks, it'd be awesome to close the doors at four. It'd be awesome not to do any pet taxis on the weekend, and we had a baby. So we had like extra dog hair and her hair and then our bottles. And you know, we were just having that kid all life in our house. And they were like, we can scale this thing. Why not just, you know, do 10 for life. So we did that. We just made this shift more so for a family lifestyle, I think.
Collin 02:52
Yeah. And you mentioned a little bit that you're both you and your husband have a background not in pet sitting, sales and market sales, sales and marketing. Yes,
Natasha 03:00
we are sales and market people. We come from the automotive industry. We worked in Highline sales for a long time. That's actually where we met. And we come from like the Infiniti Mercedes Lexus background. That was my last store. I was a finance manager there. And that's kind of how I got into dog walking. I had a dog walker coming twice a day for Rendon Ruby, and I worked 1213 hours a day and you know, I kind of understood how it worked and what he was doing and the whole gist of it. I was always coaching him like listen, if you really tighten this thing up, you could kill it, you know? He was like, No, Natasha, like, I got my own thing. I like how I'm doing it like it's fine, but he didn't give me any pictures or keep records. It was just I would come home and just see a note on the counter and that was about it. I just felt like it would have really made me feel good. If I saw like the day to day while I was at work, he really would have helped me and you know, especially for the amount we pay. I was like I really want that client experience. So I decided to offer it myself.
Collin 04:04
Yeah. And and how do you think that that's that's helped your dog sitting your business coming from a background of sales and marketing?
Natasha 04:12
Oh, it's helped tremendously. We really didn't have a lot of the fears that I think a lot of pet care providers have you know, we're obviously not introverted. We are in your face bold, you know, take cancer type people so, rejection and networking and a lot to kind of that goes with building your business and since we came from the finance side, we work with the banks a lot so we knew like logistics, we knew HR we knew you know how to not get the dealerships food, because that was our primary job. So yeah, new foundation. That's what we were really good at first. And then just loving dogs was just like the bread and butter you know, is just like a topping.
Collin 04:58
And what I like about that is is you know you have all of the experience that it seems like every other dog sitter dog walker pet care professional wishes they had now that they are doing a business, how to how to properly run sales how to properly market those are some of the biggest questions that people have when they start looking around or they they wake up one morning and go, Oh, I'm running a business now I guess I need to do some things.
Natasha 05:26
And that's exactly how it goes down literally.
Collin 05:30
Yeah, it does. You know, a lot a lot of people get in just because they they love dogs and they don't have a lot of that other background and and so, all of a sudden you look around and you go oh, this thing is actually a thing. And now I need to do something about that. So you know, that's why I love hearing how you're coming at it from a slightly different angle. You know, the passion for pets is still there, but you're also bringing this, this background and knowledge of sales and marketing into and joining those together.
Natasha 05:58
Absolutely. And that's kind of what I will say like, for sure I do notice now being an industry for five years being in a lot of Facebook groups, you know, networking with a lot of other industries that have done really well, I think that we all a lot of us that do have that leg up, it already come from a business environment. So a lot of our business decisions, you know, a lot of the strategic moves that we would do with critical thinking it's already there naturally. So it is definitely an advantage. And that's kind of what brought me into coaching is I realized that I did have so many tools and so many others needed it. And I was like, You know what, let me go ahead and give back and start sharing more what what I know naturally.
Collin 06:41
And one of those things that comes up a lot in those in those Facebook groups and those online support groups is a lot to do with employees. So I'm curious, you know, you mentioned you only hire employees, and you have your spread across a pretty wide geographic region. When did you know it was time for you to hire an employee in Hollywood Look, you
07:01
know, instantly.
Natasha 07:04
Again, I guess going back to my previous career because I was an automotive and I worked so many hours leaving my career I loved it, but I was in burnout at my first career. So I said, there's no way I'm going to go into burnout in my second career. So I knew I didn't want to go before I started. So when I hit the ground going I told everyone I knew what I was going to do. Of course, they were like what you're doing a dog walking business. Are you okay? With that, and they knew, obviously, that I have strategy always are like, okay, I love it. We like it. You know, that was I reached out to some of my friends that had been in like bartending and yoga instructors and you know, some of those like side gig positions where they have extra hours in the day, so I actually reached out to them immediately, and was like, Hey, I'm starting this thing. I need you to help me. Remember like, what? I was like, yeah. I'm gonna call you okay. And I was like, What do you have like a Monday, Wednesday, what Give me your schedule, and they're like, Alright, I can help you out between, you know, 10 and 12, one person could help me out, you know, six and seven. And so that's how I kind of rallied my core truth. And they helped me lay the pavement for the first three months. And then I hired my first actual employee outside of friends and family at month three, and they already had a full shift available. And I think people miss that opportunity to not worry so much about what you don't have, but more so where you're gonna go and fill in the holes and the pots, you know, now where you can so then you as an owner can grow versus worrying about servicing.
Collin 08:40
I love hearing that, you know, you looked around and said, Okay, what do I have on hand right now I've got friends that I know and trust that would love this kind of thing. So I'm just going to reach out to them and see, you know, you didn't have to get to know somebody brand new and then see how you manage them. You already had a relationship there, and then you took those next steps. I think Too many times we get caught up in our head and go, well I don't know where to go from this or you know, it's everybody knows one or two people that would love to do this as a side gig or love to help out and grow from there.
Natasha 09:13
Absolutely. And if you can just get them to help you get started, you know, you can build up an entire territory and then you hire someone. So then when you hire and you you know, present your ad online, you actually already have a territory now that you know, you look back at the Golden Years of like you crack up with your friends drinking a beer like remember those days where you would run out and help me and we would do this and those years are so far behind you because you had a strategy to get them out you know, they weren't going to be your end all be all they were just beginning to give you a leg up.
Collin 09:43
Now you you came in with a sounds like a pretty clearly defined business model and path forward. What is your current business model look like now? And is it what you thought it would be when you first started five years ago
Natasha 09:57
is I think I could have I saw myself still doing boarding in some capacity because I just love it like so my family wasn't like a dog friendly family My mom was like you can't have pets kind of thing. And my dad was an animal lover. So I always crazy like having dogs everywhere was actually what filled my heart the most because I just watch TV on a Saturday night and have all my dogs next to me and it was awesome. That part of it but in the green, green do so you know scheme of things to be able to literally clock in it and have the business completely shut down at four o'clock and my staff has gone home. You know, my competition is outside industry. So I'm competing with the mall and I'm competing with, you know, some of the retail stores in my area. So it's nice to be able to go toe to toe with them. And that's kind of where I thought this through in the beginning. It was never the pet sitter or the dog walker that I was after it was to offer job offer. communities in my neighborhood to my community. So I think in the grand scheme, this style now provides full time employment day to day, which makes me proud.
Collin 11:09
You made a statement there that your competition is outside industry. Can you explain that difference for how you're set up versus how someone else may approach? what they think their competition is?
Natasha 11:19
Yeah, so I think a lot of pet sitters are, you know, we sometimes pay attention to like the tech companies or you know, your neighborhood dog walker and pet sitting company in your area, but there's more than enough dogs for all of us. I think a lot of people have hiring difficulties, just for the strategy have what they want their business to look like and long standing. So if I'm out searching for my ideal Walker, or searching for my ideal employee, I now have to compete between insurances between hours between wages and you know, what would make them work for a dog walking company versus, you know, working for a retail strip store. So that's my competition to provide that loving care, like you get everything here and I get everything I get. I get money, I get hours. That's really what keeps our staff long term and I've had my people for as long as we started as well because I also cross train them and I think that's underutilized a lot is cross training.
Collin 12:19
What does that look like
Natasha 12:21
we like to bring our team in for full potential. So these are the people that we that that we trust we believe in. And so we like to offer growth within so someone tells me they want to open up a dog walking company or they want to have some capacity and our business or market for us or social media and we love that. So I don't just look for someone who can love and walk dogs. I look in my interview process, I kind of say what are your strengths? What are what are the things that you feel you could bring to a long lasting business and they tell us and we're like great, that's what you know, they like to answer phones. I have great admins and answer phones. We have social media. We have marketing. We We have sales, we have people who do events for us, whichever they feel that that's their category. We want them to shine there. So I think people are like, I don't have enough work. And I don't have this. Well, anything that Natasha is doing, my staff can do too. And I'll show I'll train them.
13:16
Yeah. What do you want it?
Natasha 13:19
You can totally train these people because, you know, they're part of your team. They're almost your family at some point. So for sure, I remember when I worked in automotive, and if someone if you ever felt like you were capped, you know what your career like, I've hit the ceiling and I can't go any further. You know, that's a really discouraging feeling. So I do try to make sure my team know that like, you can grow here and you can do different, you know, tasks will train you. Right.
Collin 13:45
And that's, that's quite a different culture that you've that you've developed there and you're continue to foster then as you mentioned, in other places where no, this is the only position you have, this is the only task that you have. And as you mentioned, like that keeps people around and because they know They're being invested in they have resources that are being brought to them and provided for them each and every day. And I like that you mentioned that, you know, it's it's, it's, it's beyond just the pet care stuff. That's all everything else you mentioned answering phones, the books, the the social media, all those things, exposing them to that if they have an interest. Exactly. You mentioned earlier that one of the primary reasons for your business model is for time with family. How is it? How has it been running your business and balancing with family life?
14:28
It's unique.
Natasha 14:32
So I started this company on my own and then my husband jumped on and he's like, Okay, let's do it together. He's, he's awesome. So we start doing it together. And you know, I'm bullheaded, and I have my way and my style and you know how I saw the baby growing. And so because we were so intertwined as like marriage and business, you know, we kind of got to a point where we're like, all right, the business is doing well. Let's do our own thing. So now awesome. Like this year 2020 My husband has actually branched off from the business and he's doing his own, you know, he's into yoga, that's his passion. But now he's doing that. And then we have a toddler, which, you know, we had just started our business. Six months later, we got pregnant. No, six months later, we got married and then nine months after that we got pregnant so we were like, man, we're on fire. Fotolia like, balance it all at the same time. Was it easy? Hell no. No, there was definitely challenges but once we saw the greater vision and you know really what it could provide for us, we found it to support each other and we're really blessed that you know, we you know, the Patreon issue offers so much you know, freedom lifestyle, you know, you can work from anywhere if you want to, you can travel the world if you want to. You can work online if you want to. So, I think as a whole, as a family, we do benefit Having that quality time that a lot of families may not get in America. And the pet care industry has offered that to us.
Collin 16:06
It's really cool that you looked at that opportunity. And you made it your own. You said this is this is the balance that we want in our life. We can do that in this industry. And you went forth and conquered.
Natasha 16:20
Thank you. That was the goal. Yes. When I talk to you as well, and I coach, they're like, Okay, I have this poem. I have that promise. I don't care about all your problems. I want to know, what's your endgame? What do you want? At the end? Is my very first question. Yeah. What do you want in your life? What do you want to do? That's what I need to get you. Yeah. What else is going on? Just tell me what you feel is your greatest joy in life. And that's how we work.
Collin 16:45
And that doesn't get asked enough. I don't think and so that it's really cool to hear that you asked that because, you know, as I mentioned earlier, is a lot of times we look up and go oh, so I'm doing this business now. And oh, I must be doing this stuff and we never take that time to start either. Planning Getting Ahead or dreaming a little bit further down the road as far as like an exit strategy or any of that. And so taking that those few moments or just think about what does this look like in 510 15 years, or what do I want this to look like and what I want to be doing?
Natasha 17:15
Absolutely, it's so important, because I mean, just kind of I kind of do my coaching is like, that's your game plan. That's your strategy, right? You're, it's like when you're doing sports or anything else in life, you know, we need to play, play, you know, and so I think that's underutilized a lot in our business. You know, I think you said you jump in it just for the love of dogs, but you can look up and as I think all of us know, you can look up for months and months, like not when you have so many clients have not been time to kind of fix the business. It's like, Whoa, I kind of could have done that when I had just one guy, right? It's not impossible, but it's so much easier to have done that before. You know, you start getting busy. What are
Collin 17:58
some recommendations, you'd give to Somebody who says I'm too busy. I can't plan. I don't even know where to start. Well,
Natasha 18:03
you are that that's what I would say. You are too busy. Yeah. No, you can't afford not to think about your end game because you are too busy. Oh, what one thing I usually do with my current clients right now I'm like, you have to go into grit mode. If you need to wake up an hour ahead of your regular day to day, if you need to lose two extra hours of sleep that day. You have to scope out some time, even if it's a Sunday or what have you. If you have to say no to a family event. You just do it. You say no. This is my planning our bet. If that's all you have an hour, that's fine. This is the hour that I'm going to start navigating my goals, my dream and so I can make them happen. And if you can't do it alone, which a lot of people do struggle, they get busy brain, I got too much going on. I can't, I can't do it. Then you do bring in your coaches to strategize with you and work out the strategy and then it's kind of a pay to play You know, a lot of stuff that I've had to do with how to pay for it is I was like, I don't want to do that. hire somebody. I don't want to do that either. So now you something else we'll talk about what time is a lot of these services now you can pay to get your groceries delivered to you. Awesome.
Collin 19:18
Yes, yes,
Natasha 19:20
you can pay to get your house cleaned. So sometimes you have to put a little bit out to sculpt some time to make a strategy because if you keep running at 100 miles per hour and you got the gas going, you're gonna hit a wall and that wall is painful.
Collin 19:34
And I think sitting down and going, Okay, if I have an hour of planning, obviously, there are a million things you could be doing, but how much is that hour worth to you? Is it worth it? Is it worth it to pay the $8 delivery fee for groceries to be brought to your house? Probably probably at that point, you know, or whatever that looks like. And you can you can sit down and run those numbers and go Okay, this this hour of planning really isn't taking that much out of my bottom dollar. At the end of the day,
Natasha 20:00
exactly. And you know what it's actually going to increase your bottom dollar because if you can have a strategy and a plan, now you can scale now you can expand because now you know where this is going I like my husband and I are like we figured it out. We figured it out and then you're like well I can just keep going all 50 things if I want to because now you know the recipe, anything you're creating anything you're baking, you just need the recipe and when you have it, you can make multiple mm hmm you deserve that.
Collin 20:31
Yeah. And and knowing that it's going to pay its dividends and just peace of mind for you. You know if you're running around scatterbrained all the all the days, you know that's a lot of stress on you. If you're like I don't know where I don't even know all the things I should be worrying about where those are so
Natasha 20:48
I cannot say I'm more you just hit it on the nail right there calling mindset mindset you have to get your mind set because all of us we got to grow. We gotta change if we keep that same mindset that is the number one deterrent from getting anything.
Collin 21:05
At the end of day, if you are the one running the business and if you're not okay, and if your mind's not okay, and with the plan and everything in place, you know, a thriving business probably, isn't it? That's gonna be hard fought, at least at least more hard fought than if you had a plan to start with.
Natasha 21:23
Oh, yeah. Because we're the leaders. Yeah. And so even when I'm talking about my eight week course, it's like we have steps. The first week is always your intro week where you kind of go over your plan and where you want to go and where you see this. Your second week is your mindset. Are you there? Are you ready? Are you ready to deep dive? Have you rolled those sleeves up? And do you know what this is going to look like? And then skipping to the end is leadership and accountability. If you're going to hire people, if you're going to manage? It starts with you. You're the leader. Yeah. Tell me what you want from me. Tell me where you want me to go. And your business will follow.
Collin 21:55
What do you think clients are looking for in pet services in 2020,
Natasha 21:59
I think You're looking for what everyone's looking for in business, obviously professionalism, obviously, consistency trust, you know, if you tell me you're going to do something, make sure you do it. If you want me to trust you make sure you're showing me why I should trust you make sure you know you're following through with your commitments, but even more so now clients really want community, they want to stand behind something, they want to know what your messages they want to know, you know, what your company brings to the community. And that I think that that just you see in this community now we're kind of going towards you know, anything we can get now as online, we can put our hands and our fingertips on whatever we want. But what makes your company a company that we want to stand by? And I think that's really a lot of the questions that most of us need to talk about because you know, of course, we would insured bonded and today all of us are insured. Oh, sorry, I was offered up GPS almost give love notes. Okay, you know, that's not What makes you different, what makes you different is really that client and how you treat your customers and it doesn't mean bend over and get slapped in the head either, you know, right, it means stand for what you stand for. And also deliver your message accordingly.
Collin 23:15
That's another question that comes up is how do I stay competitive in this market that just seems to be changing every single day. And you you you really nailed that home there. It's about the client experience, and and in really honing in on that community, which I think gets lost in the shuffle sometimes when we get focused on Okay, what am I using? What's my website look like? What is you know, what, what are all these other, you know, tools, but it's that it's that it's those relationships and that experience that your clients are having with you.
Natasha 23:45
For sure, because the great thing about dog walking your pet sitting clients is that they're loyal. And we all know this. You know, we don't have to give overextend ourselves to have a great loyal customer, but if they know that you're my people, right, anytime you're looking for a partner partnership or, you know, a support. They're like, I know who my people are. I know who my go to players are that I can trust and rely on. I know what I'm getting out of them. That's what makes people stay with you. And no matter what industry you're in,
Collin 24:12
what I'm curious about is it's such a personal industry, how do you work with your employees to to either train them or help instill those values in them.
Natasha 24:23
So because we do offer the GPS and the love notes in our apps, we actually do have like day to day hands on with our clients. We're open from nine to five like everyone else, but in our walking hours, our clients can literally go on our app and chitchat with us. We can share pictures and reminisce about funny things with their dogs good that day. So even though we have a pretty large company now we're in multiple states, we still have that one on one. I still personally answer phone calls, I'm not traveling. And I do have a planning day that I call all my customers and say, hey, how's things going? I want to follow up, I want to get your input. The reason why we're great is because of your feedback. Help us be great help us to connect to new greatness, so our clients will tell us what we should or shouldn't be doing. And then they also feel like I'm extending that reach to them that they feel comfortable to talk about things. So that's kind of what keeps it personal. Obviously, if you want to, you know, give clients gifts and think about birthdays and all those others personal touches and speak their love language. But for the most part, it's just letting us know that you're there and you care. And I trust that I'll be able to talk to you when I need you.
Collin 25:31
Have you heard about time to pet chrisann from raining cats and dogs as this decided,
25:35
becoming a time to pet clients has been a game changer for us. We can give our pet services clients real time, cloud based information they never imagined they'd be interested in. And most importantly, to me personally, I can better manage my company and look forward to more and not a small thing. Time to pet is responsive to my requests for new features and modifications to existing
Collin 25:59
If you're looking for new pet sitting software for your business, give time to pet a try. listeners of pets or confessional get 50% off their first three months when they sign up at time to pet.com slash confessional. Could you talk a little bit about how to receive feedback? Well, because you said, you know, that's one way to help them feel included and help them feel part of the community. Just speaking from my personal experience, it takes me a little while to be open enough to receive any feedback positive or negative. And that can be kind of a hard process sometimes. So how do you how do you process feedback or you know, positive or negative and make sure that's a healthy process?
Natasha 26:44
Well, I remember that my clients pay my bills. That's just the most human answer, right? Yeah. If they have feedback again, I opened up that relationship, like the first week or so after They work with us or have their couple dog walks or communication. I'll give them a call or a text and say, Hey, we're here for you, how's your first week on? Just know, if you need anything, if you have any feedback, please share. So they immediately are like, thank you. We love this, like, if we change our notes, or if we have a recap, you know, we'll let you know. So that just, it just opens up the culture like from day one, because I think a lot of clients also, they don't like to kind of say bad things. They're like, Oh, god, she's still taking care of my house. I don't really want to say something bad because I don't want to fire her. But I just want them to know what's going on. You know, you want to open that healthy relationship, because what's dangerous is the client who doesn't be you know, the one that's not saying how they really feel that is the most dangerous place to be in. So one practice that my husband tells me from Yoga is we don't internalize. When a client gives us feedback. We say thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate it. Let me take this in. I'm going to look at How I can work this into our day to day. And that is my answer to everything. Thank you for feedback. I'm gonna take this in and work with the team on how I can work this in our day to day, we look at what we're doing, we look at what we can change, or if if it doesn't fit our business model, then we just let them know oh, well, you know, we really appreciate your feedback. Unfortunately, because we service XYZ or whichever have you, you know, that wouldn't fit in our business model right now. But it doesn't mean that we can't work something in in some kind of way. But you want to remember that you want your reach to be greater than yourself. So if you're getting feedback from someone, you have to take it as a growing opportunity. You have to take it as a way to enhance your business. And same thing with our staff. whatever they're telling me is like a cakewalk. I'm like okay, great. You just hold what you want. Alright, I can do that by you know, it's not like, what do you need from me? What do you want from me? Whatever they say is like, great. Well, that was easy for me how to take care of you. Perfect son. You know that communication really helps the owner because if you ask someone their thoughts, and they tell you the battles over, you don't have to guess or play guessing games and all that they've already told you. So just take it, take it for what it is and put it in.
Collin 29:15
Yeah. And knowing and having that trust that they are that when when you ask them that they're going to respond with with pure intentions to help help you better yourself, you asked, you asked for feedback, they're going to give you that and I love what you said, I'm going to take this and process it and see how it fits into the business, letting them know Okay, I'm going to actually think about this. And I you know, and and what's great about that is it you don't have to give a response immediately and they know that and and then that follow up you know if they ask you later of Okay, you know, we we looked at the model and it didn't work but you know, just knowing that it's okay to to sit with it for a little while and talk about it with
Natasha 29:59
an adult For everything, you know, anytime there, even if there's an issue that arise or anything that happens, don't ever feel that you need to do an immediate response. Even with life in our partners, you know, something happens that I may not like or like, that didn't make me feel good. You don't have to internalize it, you don't have to answer it right this second, go take a moment, investigate the process, and then come back to the table. Nine times out of 10, the response is gonna be so much more professional, so much more elegant, and everyone's gonna win when you kind of take a little bit of the emotion out of it. Because you know, as pet sitters, we're emotional, we're like, what the heck, service and you but it's not about us, it's about them telling us something that can make us better. And that one person's feedback could then bring us 10 more customers with that same thought process. Right?
Collin 30:51
Yeah. And it's a growing process for yourself as well. of Okay, I you know, I might not like that feedback. Why don't I like it in actually thinking through all of those feelings and sitting with it, before you respond, it's going to be much healthier. And you'll be able to receive that same feedback or slightly different feedback, much better the next time and the next time and the next time because there will be a next time. So
Natasha 31:19
about this industry, it's like once you kind of have a grand idea of how everything works and what you got, you know, every customer, for the most part kinda wants it the same or has the same feedback. And of course, every now and then you get a wrench that comes in, you're like, Whoa, that's like a cleaning service, not even a dog walking service. And then you'll address it for what it is. But you know, you have your service agreement for your layout. But for the most part, I know I love feedback. Again, it's like, it's like having that divorce before the divorce. Like if someone were to tell you the things that were happening before they just dropped you with the divorce. It's like whoa.
Collin 31:59
We could have Been working on that? Yeah.
Natasha 32:03
I think it's just fair. It's a fair relationship. It's a fair partnership that the communication goes both ways.
Collin 32:09
Given your background in sales and marketing as you survey the landscape in 2020. What are some underutilized maybe marketing strategies or digital tools that most people in this industry aren't using and they should be
32:23
on social media.
Natasha 32:26
Social media is our best friend and I can I can say this honestly, because I had my company for probably two years. Before I even really utilize social media. We just like oh, post them cute pictures, and then that's it. That's social media. Social media is a full connection platform. I was lucky enough to go to Social Media Marketing World last year and I had an amazing time. I went to amazing session and that's another thing about being a pet sitter dog walkers. You have to continue your education, your feet, reaching out, figuring out what Different ways where we can advance ourselves. So that conference was my way. Because that was my weakness. I will say I hate social media. So in personal, you know, I need to talk to someone and feel them. That was me, right. I'm a hugger and a feeler. But I used to also do pavement to pavement back old school style. So that was a slap in it Asha. You don't have to go out doing flyers anymore. That's old school. You don't have to print flyers and paper. That's old school. Sure, but on social media, work the hashtags, work the geo locations, find the dog parks, find your customers like engage, follow chit chat build a relationship from my couch. You know, that is such an underutilized platform and even I relationship you and I met you on Facebook and Instagram. We would have never crossed that right? Such a beautiful network and with when you're using it properly. Oh my god, you know, I'm getting sales now from social media, and I never would have thought that. But again, training, educating continued education. Now I'm getting sales from online. Yeah,
Collin 34:12
it's amazing. Yeah. Now you mentioned that, you know, when you're in your early days of your company, you were posting a few pictures. And that was it. And a lot of people think, Oh, well, that means you're using social media, but but you, you kind of mentioned that there's a shift there into what actual actually using is. So what is what is that difference?
Natasha 34:32
Yeah, posting pictures. It's not using social media. I was guilty. I did the same thing. I was like, I was a picture every day we're winning. Yeah. Nobody wants to see pictures of someone else's dog. It doesn't mean anything to them. But when you do invite them of like some of your services or your rate, or what people are saying about to what you're doing in the community or people you're partnering with, or birthdays or holidays or education, that's when you're really reaching back to your consumer. Something I do in my coaching is that I had people go through their email. And I'm like, look at find all the questions that you've ever been asked in your email, and then start creating content around questions. So someone says, How much are your rate? Well, now I just posted a story on my rate that's up there. Someone says, How many dog walkers do you have? Well, I just posted stories on dog walkers. So now that's up there, you know, so I'm showing the culture and the lay of the land through my social media. But more importantly, you can reach the customer. I can literally just click on the dog park that my clients are going to anyway. I couldn't find a picture of the dog that they posted. They tagged and started talking to that dog within my service area. How amazing how amazing. My couch in my sweatpants. I used to eat breakfast and be like okay, Natasha today is going to be a marketing day. Yeah, you're gonna get your backpack in your notebook and your breakfast and your lunch. You're gonna go out in the streets and talk to people and get client. Like, that was my thing. And I'm like, Oh, no, we're gonna do this. It's so underutilized. But I get so excited about it, because it's amazing because I remember those days, you know, building this industry by going out pound for pound day for day. And I know so many of us can relate to that. But that's old school. Now, y'all, that's old school. We don't do that anymore, not 20.
Collin 36:31
Well, and it does, it actually gives you time back like it's a much, it's much more efficient way to do some marketing. Because once you put that, that post in that, that hashtag and that geolocation out there like that's there that's going to be discovered and brought up as more people interact with it, versus the flyers which are just kind of static and don't cheat, you know, and you have to keep going back and attending to them. It really helps just propel them. And kind of accelerate that process a little bit more for your area.
Natasha 37:04
Oh, yeah. And think about money and marketing material and those expenses. Okay, well, now I'm just giving myself a raise, because I just see from printing and pressing and all the dead trees. And you know, and now when I go out and see people have an appointment with them, they know that I'm coming. So that relationship is more is better proceed because they're expecting. And that's something that I set up on Instagram, there's power in the DM, make an appointment and go talk to the head players that you need to talk to.
Collin 37:30
Yeah, cuz you have, you have direct contact with them. One on One, from your couch, in your sweatpants, right. As you do talk with other business owners, what are some common concerns that you hear kind of frequently brought up? And how how do you recommend that those they overcome those
Natasha 37:48
usually the common concerns, of course, is hiring and a lot of us you know, get that natural connection to our business and our clients and for some reason, you know, we think we own them. We're like, this is my client. So you know, a lot of us don't are not as open to hiring. And knowing that hiring means freedom hiring is amazing. So in order to achieve some of the life goals, you know, you have to have that trust to hire someone and step away and also managing your client and letting them understand that you've, you've hired a service, you've hired a business that you trust, and you've personally vetted. So now allow me to do all the work for you. And trust the team that I'm going to bring into your house. You know, it's having that full relationship with your clients to know that I'm not like your end all be all, you know, we have a full company that's outline for you that I'm going to bring someone else in. So it's kind of prepping the customer for hiring and then prepping yourself for hiring because I can give people the amazing add, I mean, people the amazing knockout questions and everything to do, but then they get there and they're like, but it's not me. They're not doing it how I would do. And I'm like, well, we gotta try that. Okay, so now Let's get our scripts together. Let's get our process procedure together, let's do a full brain dump. Because anything that you're doing or saying can be trained and duplicated. And so a lot of us get into this thing, the same thing over and over or thinking that common sense is common, which is not thinking that everyone has critical thinking, and they don't, because critical thinking and common sense come from past experience. And people in the dog industry, always, they have a lot of past experience from animals, but not always the business. So it's our job to teach, train and coordinate. So one thing that we do in our exercise, we find the holes, we're like, look at your business, find all the holes, you know, turn your phone off, turn it back on. If someone's texting you or emailing you, that's a process now, that's as good now, you know, I only answer questions once. Make it a company policy, make it a process, train it and then and then tell people where to go to find it. You know, don't answer that question again. Do it. Oh, Did you read your kin lockbox process? Oh, did you read your protocol, you know, always show them where to go because that gives them power.
Collin 40:08
I mean, you really touched on something there of fear of, of giving up responsibility and giving over clients because you do take ownership of them and you do start having that no one can take them as take care of them as well as I can and, and everything that I do is a special, unique little butterfly of a service. And, and, and as you mentioned, like, train, train that in, write it down build processes, so you can hand that off to somebody else. And and that, that step I feel like that. That's scary. That's can be really,
Natasha 40:41
I mean, it's the best thing that you can do. I like a lot of people who work with me, I always tell them the story that I was the worst player of my business, because when I would go into someone's home I write them like two paragraphs of a love note. I would give them like edited butterfly hearts pictures with a collage in their name like I was just Doing like dubbing this whole thing out every house every time. Right? Like we go above and beyond Yeah. Likewise, we're getting this like, amazing. Like who the heck is sitting there writing two paragraphs? I don't even know how had the time, right? But voice to talk is amazing. Yes. Use my voice to talk. But that's nice. Natasha that's not scalable. So we wrote a process where every client gets four pictures. Every client gets three to four sentences, like that is the process. So now when a customer gets Collin or Megan or Natasha, they're all getting three to four sentences or on getting three to four pictures. So now they're like, Oh, I don't care what you said. It's all the same. But when you start to allow clients to feel the shift of Colin versus Natasha, and like, Tom's like, Oh, great. It was awesome. And she's like, Oh, my God, and they're like, Well, I mean, how should I I mean, I'm falling school. He's lovely. Want the carpet now? And the carpet is just not realistic at the extent that I was doing.
Collin 42:08
Yeah, and remembering, as you said, Is this scalable? If you did this, if you had to do this action 10 more times 100 more times 1000 more times. Could you do it? And yeah, it's pulling back and going, Okay, maybe the, the bespoke, you know, sweater that I knit for each person is probably, I probably can't keep that going for, for a while.
Natasha 42:32
It's not scalable. And that's like, again, when you know you want to scale or you know, you want to take a vacation or play golf or go to a friend's wedding or do real estate or take on a hobby that you always dreamed when you know, these things before you get started. You do not make some of these mistakes that we make when we're just winging it. You're like, well, am I gonna be able to play golf if I'm like, my sitters aren't writing time paradox. Oh no. I will be calling me and complaining. Because that's what they're used to, there's something just so small as bad, but paying attention that makes sure everyone can do this or make sure you're requiring everyone to use, you know, picture app and all that, you know, it has to be, you know, robotic at some point. We all do it the same
Collin 43:17
as speaking of scaling, I'd love for you to talk about start scale sale and and how it got started and kind of who's it for?
Natasha 43:28
Yeah, so I started started scale sale when I went to travel. So 2019 was my traveling year. And I had taken my business as far as I felt comfortable. I was like, I think we've done it all. I think we've, you know, done everything we need to do we put everything in process. We got our manuals, I think we've done it. But you know what, let's go online. Let's find some groups. Let's find books. Let's see if we missed anything. Well, turns out that we didn't miss anything. It actually turned out that there was a lot of heartache. It crushed me because I was in such a happy place like oh my god, I'm gonna try With my family, I can't wait. I just want to like, do what everyone else is doing. And I realize everyone wasn't in the same place as I was. And I was like, Where's all the travelers? It's just because I love this industry so much. And I'm like, people who are like going to coffee in midday because I got a coffee in the day, you know, what are the people that are taking naps and traveling and I just wasn't finding those people. And I was like, Well, you know what, I am going to fix this. I am going to give back I'm going to teach people what I know. I'm going to help them I'm going to bring everybody from the sidebars I need help, who want the help and who want to maybe go in my place because you know, all of us are not the same. Some people really like doing all the walks themselves. Some people really like, you know, doing sleep overs and you know, everyone has their own niche, but people who would like to scale and travel and enjoy the fruits of their labor, where I come from, that's where I wanted to really excel and help people and kind of pull back that way. So that's our coaching business. It's an online course eight weeks And we take them from the beginning to the end. And at the end of the course, you should be able to walk away from your business and work from anywhere. And that's our goal,
Collin 45:08
really exciting and really cool. And again, you know, in addition to the kind of services that you now offer of, what would I want someone? How would I want someone to treat my dog and what provide for them? You looked and you said, what kind of service would I want to have the same lifestyle that I have now? And how can I help people get there? So like, this common theme of, of it's very personal for you, because you looked at what would I want out of this? How can I make that happen? And how can I help other people make that happen for them?
Natasha 45:39
Oh, yeah, I'm branding is crazy dog moms servicing other crazy dog moms and dads are my dogs and I'm gonna do everything I need to do. I'm gonna give them the best and I and I feel the same for my customers. And when they give us that feedback, and like, you know, and I really feel like you guys get it and your team will do above and beyond. For us within reason, we really appreciate that. And then they refer and they share the name and you can use them as brand ambassadors as well. Like, I love getting my clients involved because they're part of the community. I think now it's like I just want to do with the, just the pet me the dog and I got that section, but it's the client that you need to nurture. They are like the route the heart, you know, with the GPS and pictures. It's like, why would I keep this service instead of canceling it? Can my dog last in the house? Seven hours? Yeah, they'll be okay. They might be uncomfortable, but they can survive. Right? Yeah. But when you're bringing them into this client experience of looking at how happy they are, look at their friends, look at the social lifestyle they have looking at you when you're at work and you're in a crazy meeting and you get this amazing picture of your dog. Look what that does to your soul. That's value. That's internal emotional value. And that's what I feel because I was that mom.
46:59
I know how it feels.
Collin 47:01
Yeah and that that word nurture nurturing your clients, you know because because as of yet, after almost nine years of pet sitting, I have yet to be paid or tipped by the dog after the walk. It's typically it's been the client each and every time. And so you do have to also invest in in them as well.
Natasha 47:20
Oh, yeah. And I mean, even when the relationship you know, God forbid, goes sour. You know, the worst thing when you lose a human client is the dog is sitting in the window like, well, what the hell happened? My friends and you're like, well, being the human didn't communicate properly, and now I can't see you anymore. It's like, look what you're doing to that dog or that cat? Or the bird or you know the chicken. That is like, wait, why? I want to see Collin. What. But now that human to human relationship was a breakdown and the dogs just sitting in the wings of like, well, I want to see my people. You know, that's what I think about
Collin 47:57
you're in the business of inspiring others. and inspiring clients and the people who work for you. I wonder who you look to for inspiration.
Natasha 48:06
I actually look towards other business owners. I think we out of everyone knows, like the grit, the sacrifice, you know, the hard calls and the decisions that we go through. So I do try to find different people online and see what they're going through. I love people who tell stories, I love stories. And everybody always says like, the beauty, the beauty of what's going on, but if someone can actually keep it real with you, and let me know, like, what does this look like, right? A lot of us if someone were to be out there, and we're actually we're saying, Hey, this is what this real life looks like, then that would give a lot of new pet sitters a lot more insight to know what they're actually signing up for. And I think I've had to look, again, I look towards other entrepreneurs and all kinds of industries and I try to do meetups with them and pick their brains and they pick mine because just getting that you know, versatility is amazing.
Collin 49:00
Yeah, being able to connect with somebody on those, as you mentioned, past shared experiences is so powerful. And to get a little bit more insight into what is the what is your world look like? Oh, that actually looks a lot like mine. Okay, there's a lot we can talk about now.
Natasha 49:18
Exactly. And it's power. I mean, this business can be very lonely. You know, I think I saw that on a post a couple days ago. They're like, how do you guys find friends? How do you find, you know, people to connect with because we can't talk to dogs? Well, we can I do. If you're looking at me, I'm talking to them. Yeah. You know, it's like we do have to kind of come out of our shell more and give back to each other and support each other because there's just so much that we can offer each other and I really want to nurture that more is like partnership. I mean, if if I had a dog word that came to me like Natasha, do you want to open like Vegas together I'm like, right because we would get so much further together. We are better together. It's like why are we in the concierge desk? I'm waiting for keys. You're waiting for keys. Like, why don't we just partner up? Yeah, yeah, you just do this. So I want to get us more like them camaraderie within our industry that we can lean on each other. Um, I just had one of my friends, they just deliver their baby and they were like, Hey, I'm gonna go on delivery. Can you help me out if something happens? I said, I got to go have that baby. We will be there to walk your clients, dogs and they will be right there waiting on you when you get out when you come on and deliver. Yeah, like that needs to be
Collin 50:32
Yeah, yeah, it really does. And understanding that going in alone makes it a lot harder. And when you have those relationships with other pet sitters and other pet care professionals in your area or across the interwebs you know that having that that cheer squad and having that support group around you just makes those it makes those highs so much higher and it makes the lows a lot easier to work through. Whenever you know things don't go so well. When you have People come around you go, yeah, I happened to me too. And this is, you know, this is how I got through it or just somebody to listen to you when you need to talk through some some hard stuff you're going through.
Natasha 51:09
Oh, yeah, mental health is such a big deal in any entrepreneur and any business owner, like, especially with animals. You know, we put so much of our heartstrings to each family. And it is hard to separate you know, business from dog or cat or chicken because it's our babies now. Welcome to our team. You're part of our family. Yeah. So it's nice to have, you know, other people who get it and say, Listen, you know, this customer can't afford you anymore, or they moved or whatever reason why you're no longer with them. But it's just nice to be like Alright, guys, I got it. We're cool. You know, just it's nice to just keep it real with people but no,
Collin 51:46
being able to share those again with people who have gone through it before or may have something that they can add to it. Just if you don't, if you don't reach out, you don't have that there. It's harder to process.
Natasha 51:57
Oh, yeah. And then it's hard to grow your business because we To keep that mental health like fully, fully actioning any resource or super medicine we can take, we need it.
Collin 52:16
Natasha, thank you so much for coming on today. I've really enjoyed this. And just, again, I feel so inspired and love hearing your approach to this in making sure things are scalable and building that community and really nurturing and investing in your clients and, and I know other people are going to have a lot of other questions that they'd like to follow up with you on. So how can people reach out to you with more questions or look if they're interested in start scale sale? and talk to you there?
Natasha 52:47
Absolutely. Thank you for having me on. I was super excited to see you and your podcast and what you guys are doing because there's not enough people out here that or blame these platforms. You know, we're out walking dogs. It's great to hear your guy's voice here. People are on your show. So this is a great platform and thank you for having me on it. If anybody wants to chat more with me, they can find me at my website start scale, sale, calm, or anything social media, Natasha ob onion.
Collin 53:14
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Natasha.
53:17
My pleasure. Thank you.
Collin 53:19
One of my biggest takeaways from my conversation with Natasha was about the fact of understanding what your recipe is. All of our businesses should and do look completely different in their operation in their goals in our objectives as we move forward. So what recipe do you have in place already? That is working for you, then how can you take that to the next step, to continue pushing forward to grow and scale your business to make it work even better? It's not about throwing everything away. That may have to happen in some cases, but most of the time, there's something there about the business About the structure that's just working, finding out what that is what the customers love what you love, and then building and making that better and better is what it's all about when we think about how to grow and expand our businesses. Join the rest of the conversation this week by joining our Facebook page pet sitter confessional and join our group as well. sitter confessional, you can also check out our website pet sitter confessional.com to find links, full transcripts of this in every episode that we have so far. Also, give us a call. Let us know what's been working for you and how you are doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our phone number is 636-364-8260. We once again want to thank our sponsor time to pet for making this show possible. We hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
