087- Industry Standards
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Summary:
We discuss regulations and industry in the pet care industry. It’s a hot topic, and one with lots of potential for needed healthy conversations. Some people will say regulations hurt business, while others say it puts everyone on equal footing. It’s important, however, that as an industry, we are proactive in setting forth regulations which will help instead of hindering advancement and innovation. Natasha is back to answer another question, “What tools does she use to run her business?”
Topics on this episode:
Discussion about the article from David Pearsall
It’s hard finding good information
What we AREN’T saying about regulations
What others ARE saying
Why we need to be prepared
What do the lack of regulations and standards do to us pet sitters
What do the lack of regulations and standards do to pet owners
What can we do?
Ask a Pet Biz Coach with Natasha O’Banion
Main take away? As an industry we must be proactive in speaking up about regulations to make the industry safe, equal, and welcoming to all.
Links:
Check out Start. Scale. Sail. and use PSC20 for 15% off.
The article that started this discussion.
Pet Business Legislative Review
Regulation of the Pet Sitting Industry
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitters, regulations, pet, industry, standards, client, people, business, dog walkers, potential clients, industry standards, automate, questions, sitter, care, contracts, trainings, hear, educate, experiences
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is
Meghan
pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Episode 87. If this is your first time listening to us welcome and if you've been with us for a while, welcome back. Hello, we have a whole back catalogue of wonderful topical episodes and interviews from pet care professionals around the world. So we hope that you can go back and listen to those.
Collin
We wanted to take this time to announce that we are so excited that a new sponsor has joined our podcast. This episode is sponsored by pet sitters associates and stay tuned for more information later In the show,
Meghan
Colin and I came across an article and we'll link it in the show notes. The article was written by David Piersol, who's the owner of business insurers of the Carolinas. And he tells the story of him coming across some inaccurate information related to the services and products that his company provides and sells. And his struggle really to get it corrected.
Collin
His focus was on needing to seek out information from professionals and experts in certain fields when you have questions about particular topics. So if you had questions about veterinary things, or pet health, you should really try and seek out help from the expert in that field. And it got us thinking about a couple different things. I think the first one was just thinking about how if it's hard for us, in our own industry to find good reliable information, how much harder is it for a would be clients or existing clients to find good information Just that we as pet sitters need to help them find that good information, and which means we need to be connected to good sources.
Meghan
There is definitely a smorgasbord of information out there. We see it every day, someone posts a question and one of the many pet sitting or dog walking Facebook groups, and you get hundreds of replies, offering hundred different facts, which for the most part is a good thing. Because
Collin
we we think that that's good,
Meghan
because not everyone experiences the same thing. And everyone's needs are different. So everyone needs unique advice for their situation,
Collin
Megan, and I strongly believe that hearing other stories and experience help us all to see what has worked and what didn't. And that's actually more important in some cases. And in basically an infinite number of potential situations. I mean, that's the whole reason. Megan I wanted to start this podcast was to get more voices out there in the more various stories that we can hear, we're actually able to learn faster because we are learning from others experiences. So we don't have to go through those experiences to learn, we can just hear about what somebody else did, and learn from that.
Meghan
But because you can find everyone and their mothers opinions and quote, facts, as numerous as the grains of sand on the beach, it's hard to really know, a couple things. One, does the person giving out the information actually know what they're talking about? And two, how do and how would we even know what the truth is or not from the outside?
Collin
And that got us thinking about what we're going to discuss for the rest of this podcast episode is thinking about industry standards.
Meghan
Are there any should there be any,
Collin
right? So now, Meg and I are not, but please hear us. We're not calling for any particular standards. And we think that there's still an awful lot of work to do to figure out Exactly what they should be and how they should be implemented.
Meghan
Also, we are just pet sitters we are and really hear this. We are not professionals in business, insurance, training, veterinary medicine, any of that. Yeah. So we wouldn't even want to guess where we should be starting with setting these standards, because we are just pet sitters,
Collin
right? And most of the things that we're going to be talking about this are going to be from a more us centric, but our current understanding and from what we've been hearing from pet sitters around the globe is that at large at a global scale, from country to country, they tend to lack industry standards or regulation, regulation, oversight for pet care. And Megan and I understand that it's never really a good time to have these conversations. Right now. It's bad because we are all suffering financially and have no idea what on earth the next week. Even looks like. However, these conversations don't come up when times are good, because we're so busy running our businesses. And that is why, unfortunately, most of the regulations and most of the of the standards that are put into place end up being done so by policymakers, by lawmakers, instead of people actually in the industry, being proactive and putting in good regulations, good standards that would actually benefit them. So make an eye are not calling for any sort of regulations to be put into place right now or any of that. So please don't hear what we're not saying. All we're wanting to do is have a conversation about this, and definitely hear what your thoughts are, and where you think some of these discussions should go. So some of the issues around lacking standards and industry regulations that we're going to discuss may not necessarily apply in particularly where you live, but just know that this discussion is kind of at a very high level as far as about the impact of regulations, or the lack thereof that have on the industry.
Meghan
We also wanted to say that while pet sitters associates is a sponsor of this episode, that is not why we started this discussion. Nor does it impact our own opinions on standards, and regulations of the pet care community.
Collin
We bring our own background and from learned experiences to the table having both good and bad experiences. From the infinite number of opinions and ways of working in this industry. Many people in the industry have called for as far as we can tell three basic standards to be set forth that they think everyone should at least have in order to be considered a pet sitter.
Meghan
The first one is insurance and bonded. So this protects you protects the client, and it really sets your business up to be on the right foot. The second
Collin
one is that they should have CPR and first aid training for pets. And the third one that we see a lot of people calling for our basic training courses in animal behavior and dog training. are a ton more.
Meghan
pet sitters international has their own list of quality standards for professional pet sitters. And again, we will link that in the show notes.
Collin
Yeah, and just about every professional Pet Care Association out there will have its own guiding principles and standards that it asks its members to follow if they want to be certified under them.
Meghan
But these aren't industry wide standards,
Collin
right. And there is a growing demand for these kinds of standards and regulations. As the pet care industry grows and matures. cities and states are requiring registering, limiting number of pets, dog requiring dog licenses, and some require insurance to work in different areas.
Meghan
Some places like Seattle and Chicago, they even require you to apply for a petsitting license to operate. But most of the areas outside of the city limits are kind of the Wild West they're free game.
Collin
Yeah. Additionally, at a higher level, the federal government and IRS are also looking into ways to make sure that they get their piece of this $200 billion a year industry. So they're looking at business and tax regulations to make people follow.
Meghan
We understand that this conversation, this topic isn't really fun. I
guess we've been on a kick with a few of those episodes recently. Yeah. But topics,
Meghan
people may push back against regulations for a few reasons. One, it can kind of hurt the bottom line of a business. If regulations are too strict, they can also be too oppressive or the demands may be too much for a pet care business to abide by.
Collin
Right. But people may also like regulations when it puts competitors on the same playing field and everyone knows the rules. Ultimately, we feel that if good regulations are well written, and have had the proper input from people actually in the industry, and not just lawmakers that they can actually benefit everyone,
Meghan
and Contrastingly, poorly written regulations written in irrational or rash response to bad press or bad events in the pet care industry. Those really hurt Everyone. And unfortunately standards and regulations tend to get set after those bad things happen instead of what we think should happen being proactive, instead of reactive,
Collin
right. So whether it's from too many cases of pet loss or being killed while under the care of a pet sitter, or maybe two people not paying their own taxes, those are the where regulations can get put into place and can become too harsh or too oppressive in some cases, instead of helping lift the industry as a whole.
Meghan
So it's important to be watching the news to get connected to a professional organization to stay on top of what's in the works.
Collin
And just keep in mind again, here as as the industry continues to grow, and increase in visibility to potential clients, and unfortunately, government regulators, the eye of scrutiny, is going to turn more towards the industry to make sure everybody is doing the same thing and meeting the same standards. That's just Part of what happens when a particular industry matures, we see that time and time again, you look at everything that has come into play, it starts out when it's young and not very profitable. There aren't very many regulations in place,
Meghan
it's also going to vary depending on what services you offer. So a kennel is going to have different standards and different regulations than a pet food store than a groomer than a dog walker, than somebody who does boarding, you get the point. So industry standards and regulations can be very good or bad, depending on your view of government regulations in general,
Collin
right, or what particular part of the industry that you're in and what exactly again here, what exactly are the regulations and standards being put into place?
Meghan
And so obviously, the standards would need to be tailored to each service of pet care.
Collin
So we wanted to take this topic and approach it from two different angles, basically asking the questions. What did the last of industry standards and regulations due to pet sitters, and what did the lack of standards and regulations do to pet owners.
Meghan
But before we get into that this episode is brought to you by our friends at pet sitters associates. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for your furry family members, pet sitter associates is here to help. For over 20 years, pet sitters associates has provided thousands of members with quality pet care insurance. If you work in the pet care industry or want to make your passion for pets into a profession. You can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today. At pets@llc.com. You can get a discount when joining them by clicking membership pet sitter confessional and use the discount code confessional at checkout to get $10 off today. Check out the benefits membership and insurance once again at pets it llc.com.
Collin
So what does the lack of industry standards do to us pet sitters? How does that impact us? at our level?
Meghan
I think it adds confusion, unfortunately, right? Do you need to take CPR training? Well, it would be nice. You don't have to, but it would be nice and it would set you apart from others in your area.
Collin
But that doesn't exactly scream confidence, or understanding what's going on. Right? It feels like it having CPR training feels like a no brainer. But which CPR training is sufficient? Is there oversight on what is or isn't or should or shouldn't be included? In the course that you take a new pet sitter is faced with an absolute avalanche of choices and decisions and weeding through the right choices becomes increasingly difficult.
Meghan
Yes, and unfortunately, even experienced pet sitters have to weed through information and knowing who to trust can really do Lay making decisions or lead to further confusion, it makes it hard to show that you're following the rules when the rules are unknown to most people.
Collin
So with a lack of rules and regulations, does it even really matter that you've taken X or Y trainings? And then I think this other component here is how do you then communicate that the trades that you've taken in particular, are better than the ones of someone else, and they'll change that they've had,
Meghan
right. So without standards and regulations, pet sitters can overspend or waste time, money on certifications and trainings that actually they don't need or aren't really valuable to their business,
Collin
which is frustrating. And as a business that increases your operating expenses just in for something that you don't even know if you actually need or if whether it actually is or isn't setting you apart from somebody else.
Meghan
Within this industry. The barrier to entry is virtually zero, right? And companies like rover and wag have really enabled this and enabled an entirely new level of industry to spring up.
Collin
And we know that the conversation around rover and wag is a whole nother topic, which we're not getting into today, which we will not get into today. Maybe another on another episode. But briefly, touching on both good and bad that rover and wag have brought to this
Meghan
the good side of this is that it raises awareness of pet sitters to potential clients, it raises the awareness of the industry as a whole. These companies spend lots of money on ads, and more people are realizing over the past nine years rover has been around, the more people are talking about pet sitting that it's a thing and they start using a pet sitter or a dog walker. And it's really put petsitting on a client's radar,
Collin
right, that's education that we as pet sitters do not have to do. We are having to do less and less educating to try and convince potential clients that they need a pet sitter, there are other agents He's out here doing that. And as a byproduct, we are being lifted along with that. Now, the bad. As Megan mentioned, the barrier to entry is essentially zero. Well, that's a bad thing. And there aren't any boundaries. Meaning that untrained unprofessional, people getting into this for the wrong reasons have no way of being weeded out. So
Meghan
we aren't here to discuss whether those platforms should exist or not. The fact is they do. And that's likely not going to change anytime soon,
Collin
right. So we take the good with the bad, and that's why this discussion of industry standards is so important. How can we lift everybody up to make the whole industry better with what we are working with today?
Meghan
The second part of this conversation is what does the lack of industry standards do to pet owners? Well, I would say it confuses them as well. They can't really tell the difference between you and somebody else.
Collin
They don't know what bonded means. They don't know if a pet sitter should or shouldn't have that. It makes it hard for them to see why paying you more is worth it in the very beginning. Now, after they've booked your service, obviously, they'll see the real difference. But it's that barrier to getting them into your door. That is difficult whenever your prices are higher, because you're doing all of these other things. You have all these other certifications, there's still some education there that's required,
Meghan
and they may not know how to filter between multiple sitters. One may have CPR certification from one place, while the other one has a CPR certification from another, which is better. And how would you even know if you were a client?
Collin
Yeah, in on this, I am shocked how many times we do a meet and greet. And we ask all of our questions. And then we ask, do you have any questions for us? And the number of people say, I don't even know what questions I should ask. And they look at us and they go, what should I be asking? That happens quite a bit. So we have to say, Well, some people want to know XYZ and this got us thinking about as pet sitters, we can start advertising, quote unquote, things to ask your pet sitter and just list some questions. Not even really mentioning what your responses to them. But things like a question, what insurance do you have? And are you bonded? Do you have a business license with the city and state? Or what trainings or professional organizations do you belong to? These kinds of questions are getting part of this helping educate potential clients about the standards that we are holding ourselves to?
Meghan
Right. And this could be a FAQ frequently asked question page on your website, but it could also be just within your marketing. If you're putting out flyers at a local community center or passing out flyers at groomers, whatever your method of marketing is, it could just be these questions you would want to be asked at the meet and greet right
Collin
and on that too many pet sitters have that they are a certified pet sitter, but a potential client has no idea What psi or naps are, they don't even most people don't even know that professional Pet Care Organizations exist. They clients won't know the difference between the different insurance provided or the different trainings that people have taken. So unfortunately that does fall to us as pet sitters to educate our clients on those differences and why we've chosen certain things over another one.
Meghan
And we're not saying that being a member of an association is a bad thing or you shouldn't be doing it you should definitely want to educate yourselves and be part of as many pet care industry things as possible.
Collin
It is just because it is such a wild west as far as different organizations or different people holding themselves to different levels or different standards that we we do have to help people understand what those standards are, and why we think certain ones are the ones that we want to follow versus another one right here. There's no good bad indifferent here. Just because the options are so many, that it's hard for a pet sitter to understand what the differences are, let alone the client looking at going, Oh, pet sitter X has this certification, etc. Why is this certification? Think they say the same thing? But I don't know, why would I choose one over the other
Meghan
so you can also educate them through your social media. Explain what the certifications mean, and why they are good for the pet sitter to have them when they are caring for the pet.
Collin
Right? Exactly. It's it's us, it's helping explain why it's beneficial.
Meghan
Good standards and regulations also tend to make sure everyone is on a level playing field, and that the industry's value, and expectations are being met with excellence. So
Collin
that's why we should all want at least some standards and some regulations of the industry, but why would we possibly want to limit them? And again, these are just a few points that you will hear from people who argue against regulations of any sort. One is that they may stifle innovation right now. Each pet sitter can call themselves a pet sitter and specialize as much as they want to and do exactly what they want to do and give the kind of care that they want to do. Adding certain regulations could limit the variety of care if everyone labeled as a quote unquote pet sitter has to have certain trainings or do the exact same thing. So those are just some of the issues that Megan and I have talked through as far as what we see as issues impacting pet sitters and owners due to the lack of industry wide standards.
Meghan
So what are we as pet sitters to do
Collin
what to do? As we started off this episode talking about and with that article that we had been reading, first and foremost, seek out individual professionals, whether those trainers, insurance, lawyers, whatever you name it, and see what things will actually benefit you to have to know to be doing. Seek out the source of those information, to get good comparisons and a good understanding about what actually is or isn't better. Official
Meghan
to do your own research. That's hard. And that's not fun. It takes time.
Collin
It takes a lot of time. But going to the source will give you the best possible information to then make the best decision you can for yourself in your business, and then help educate clients.
Meghan
You can then also let legislative bodies and organizations know about it so that they can lobby lawmakers to get good things in place.
Collin
And we will provide some links on our website to professional pet organizations and other organizations that you can get involved in to help that process.
Meghan
And with that, join a professional Pet Care Organization. Hey, it makes sure that you are part of the discussion around regulations and industry standards. These conversations need all voices at the table
Collin
especially because these impacts us these impact you and how you were able to run or not run your business. This is an exact case where having everybody at the table benefits the entire industry, not every not any one person is a complete expert and the ins and outs the intricacies of what we do on a daily basis. So helping to lift up those voices give your voice to those discussions will help everybody out in the long run,
Meghan
also educating potential clients about the questions that they need to ask you at the meet and greet or beforehand, and whether they choose you or not. We can all help educating the public about the standards that we as pet sitters hold ourselves to, and then ultimately continue learning with the knowledge that everything that you learn always makes you better
Collin
in closing here. What are your thoughts on regulations and setting industry wide standards? Let us know whether you think they would help or hinder the industry.
Meghan
And now because it's Monday we have our pet business coach segment with Natasha Oh, Banyan,
Collin
what are some of your favorite tools products that you use for your business?
Natasha
And number one is my software I use pocket suite and I Absolutely love them. I'd have been heard any other pet care provider using them. They have a bunch on their profile, however, but they are an entrepreneur app for cleaners, life coaches, dog walkers, trainers, musicians, they're just a full entrepreneur app. But they have a lot of the same features just for dog walkers. I run my whole business on my cell phone. So I love pocket three for sure. I also use Google Drive a lot. Login template, grid processing procedure, how to answer the phone, how to take a client from A to Z, a lot of those things, you can just pop right into Google Drive, and you can share with any of your managers or your staff. And it makes it so simple to train. I remember sitting on the beach with my family and someone's like, Hey, I have a question. Can we book a call? And I said, just text me really quick. What is it because I know like everything's already written out. And they just sent me a quick question. I said, Oh, cool. I'll just go ahead and link you on Google Drive. I've already written it out. And they're like, great, and I'm back to my family. Use definitely any, like they have slack or I think is Sanya, some of those workforces, but I really don't like a lot of software I really like I'm very minimal. So I like Google Drive pretty much does everything I need the least apps as possible as we know our phones drain and as we're walking batteries are going to start dying so and I use grasshopper, similar with Google Voice. grasshopper is my phone system and it's able to manage the states that I work in, it's able to forward calls to all my staff. I like to train everyone on how to answer the phones had to book a client if they did call us they also have like hold music, which is really nice. If you call me it sounds like you're calling a corporate building, but we're just like mom and pop dog walkers. So it really has a lot of cool features that allows you to scale your business and automate also I can send a text message so Someone calls and we missed the phone call and I'll say, Hey, we're in business hours of nine to five, we'll get right back to you. That also offers a lot of those automated features that I don't really have to be there. Someone doesn't have to answer the phone, they know that we'll call him back. And besides like the social media, everything I've talked about before on his podcast, I really like later, later is really inexpensive for what you get. And you can automate all your social media. So like I said, sit at home, and plan it all out. Do it like the first of the month and that way you can just relax for the rest of the month. You're not just like, what should I post today? What should I post today? You sit back, you have like that one inspirational day that you're like, I'm gonna make my whole content planner. That's really what it's called. And social media managers utilize it that way. It's a content planner that every day you're going to talk about something different can automate it. Some authors are still using paper and pen or they believe that they like to go to the client's house, print off that sheet of paper and have them sign their service agreements but it is really cumbersome. Some, it really affects the client experience. Just imagine you're sitting there and I used to do this so I can actually speak freely on it. When I first started, you know, I was a finance manager. So I always used to go over contracts with people, that was my job. And I remember sitting in a client's house and my clipboard just so funny, but give them my clipboard, they fill out the paperwork. I'm playing with their dogs, we're kind of chit chatting a little bit, but they're trying to engage with me while reading the next topic of my service agreement or trying to fill out their name and their address. It kind of takes away from the value and I found myself having to replay the conversation a lot like I'm much of a cross your T's dot the eye person. So some people I realized was missing a lot of the topics that I was saying, I'm like, Oh, I talked about it in the meet and greet. Remember, I said that the meet and greet, remember, and they're like, Oh, you probably did, but you know, who knows I was filling out the damn contract. So as much as you can Have these forms done sent to clients in advance or just in an app where it's done for you, you also want to compete with some of these automated app stores, you know, if someone can book from start to finish and get themselves a walker, within five minutes, you want to be able to say, Hey, I can do that, too. You don't want to say, Oh, no, I need you to fill in my paperwork. I need to come there. And then once I get my forms back, then we'll see how it goes. You know, I'm like a bill blah, give me someone else, you know, it just takes away the client experience. And then personally, for me, I actually survived the hurricane Harvey hurricane. So where I did have my big old briefcase file in my house in my office that had all my client contracts, and luckily, I had already scanned all those in my computer system because I lost all those. So even though I had all these paper contracts, they were gone in the hurricane. So thank God, I had technology. And from that experience, I was like, boop no Paper it's wasteful. Let's you know we're obviously dog people we care about the environment as well. So, you know, you want to automate and be like I said, you can go from anywhere you can be on vacation, you can be in Canada,
you can be in Australia,
Natasha
and you're still sending out contracts or someone can click on your portal and book sign pay and keep it going. That's how you want to run your business.
Meghan
If you would like Natasha to be your personal pet business coach, you can go to her website, start scale sale calm and use the code PSC 20 for 15% off any of her coaching,
Collin
we would like to once again thank our friends at pet sitters associates for making this show possible.
Meghan
If you would like to give us feedback you can do so at feedback at pet sitter confessional comm You can also find us on social media at pet sitter confessional or you can call us at 636364826 Zero
actually almost forgot that we had a phone number.
Meghan
We do. You can call us
Collin
you can love to hear from you. Thank you so much for listening this week. We wish you all the best
Meghan
and if this has brought you value, please share it with someone who you know would find value in this as well. Please join us next time for another episode.
