088- Supporting Your Staff with Susan Anderson
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Summary:
Susan Anderson, owner of The Pet Gal, joins us on the show to share why she got started, how she expanded across multiple states, and the importance of supporting her staff. Susan discusses how by taking care of the back-end work and making sure her field staff and well equipped with tools and knowledge, they’re able to provide better care. She also shared her very first meet and greet and some of the most unique animals she's every cared for.
Topics on this episode:
Her first client
Why offer wedding pet attendant service?
Most interesting pets she’s cared for
The “Smiles” sections of her website
Why they don’t do pack walks
Why she made her first hire and how she’s expanded into new areas
Keeping everything organize
What she has learned from offering pet taxi services
Navigating state rules and regulations
Her favorite products and services
Main take away? If you have staff, make sure they have the support and backing they need to do their job. And don’t forget to find something that makes you smile.
About our guest:
I worked in telecom, banking, and semiconductors; however, my passion is pets! I quit the corporate world to follow my dream of owning a business tending to the welfare and advocacy of animals. Since I was little, I always brought home bunnies, cats and dogs. I spent hours during summer breaks looking for critters under rocks, exploring the “giant creek” (the not so giant woods behind my childhood house) looking for turtles and digging through window wells in search of toads. In my teen years, I explored my lifelong interest in equines and volunteering for local rescue groups in our community.
We always had wonderful family pets and I always took full responsibility for their care. Our beloved Golden Retriever, Skol (who arrived the same year I was born) and I, formed a friendship lasting 15 years; he was my first love. When I am not doing Pet Gal work, I enjoy gardening, horseback riding, traveling, boating and spending time with my family. All of our pets are rescues, from our semi-feral cat, Tom, to our loving dog, Jake, a foster fail from our volunteer work with Gold Ribbon Rescue.
The Pet Gal was established in 2009 and we’ve had numerous opportunities to create wonderful relationships with our clients. It’s been so rewarding participating in the major changes in their lives from graduations, marriages, new homes to new babies. We’ve been there for last-minute dog walks when agents need to show a home. On several occasions, we not only provided pet sitting services when clients were married but even participated in their special day! It is very heartwarming seeing the gratitude in the eyes of new moms when providing mid-day dog walks so they could get some much needed and deserved rest. We find it especially rewarding when our pet sitting service allows us to form a bond which alleviates stress levels with dogs and cats related to recent moves. Our bond with our clients (fur and human) is irreplaceable; they continue to bring us joy every day. Each pet client truly becomes part of our family and we care for them like our own pets.
One of the most rewarding aspects of owning The Pet Gal is how it has allowed us to give back to the pet community. We participate in fundraisers, attend group events and give back by providing free nail trims at events with 100% of the donations going to local rescue groups.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, clients, dog, sitters, service, animals, hiring, business, people, colorado springs, offer, wedding, attendant, started, partnering, absolutely, employees, couple, support, vet
SPEAKERS
Collin, Susan
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet.
Collin Funkhouser
Well, hello, everybody and welcome back to another episode. Today we are so happy to have Susan Anderson, owner of the pet gal on to discuss what it's been like to be in business for over 10 years. We also talked about how it's been her expanding to multiple locations, adding services year after year of and managing all of that chaos and keeping everybody on the same track and everything organized. We also have a really good conversation about what it's like for her to navigate all of the different states rules and regulations for her to be able to operate. So let's dive right in.
Susan
Hi Collin. Thank you for having me. My name is Susan Anderson. I'm the owner and CEO of the pet dal. I have an administrative background in Telecom, baking and semiconductors. And however my passion is pets. I quit the corporate world to follow my dream of owning a positive bass business, attending to the welfare and advocacy of animals and I never looked back.
Collin Funkhouser
That's quite the resume that you have. What? What what really was it about, about that decision to jump into the world of pet care what what kind of triggered that for you?
Susan
Oh, well, I didn't care for my last corporate job. I I wasn't motivated. I I wasn't challenged and I really wanted to do something that I loved and get paid for it. I needed to follow a passion. And a friend of mine started a dog walking and pet sitting business a year earlier in California and she was amazingly successful and clearly, it was enjoying what she was doing. After a discussion with my husband and future business partner, I made the decision to leave that mundane corporate job for the world of animals and the freedom of being an entrepreneur. It was one of the best decisions of my life. It's not only allowed me to do what I love, but also to work with clients. And amazing.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, this this world is definitely it's anything but mundane. So, right.
Right. And how long ago was that? Oh, wow, that was
Susan
10 years ago.
Collin Funkhouser
Eight years. Wow. Yeah. That's, that's great. To do you thinking back 10 years ago, you know, what do you remember? Maybe your first client or first couple clients that you had?
Susan
Oh, yes. I was so nervous about that first meeting. Great. I showed up with a leather portfolio that I got from my banking job. You can say I was not dressed for petsitting success. The client even asked me if I've ever done That's before I've come a long way since that experience and he did hire me. That's great.
Collin Funkhouser
Well, that just goes to show, you know, like, we, you know, there's always a starting point and everybody's nervous about it because it is it's, it's so like, Oh goodness, are they gonna like me? Or you know, am I doing this right? Am I asking the right questions and you grow and you learn? Absolutely. So, you know, you're 10 years into this, you know, you've obviously got a lot of passion about this. Where would you say that your passion for animals came from?
Susan
Well, early on, I had experiences that taught me the value of unconditional love from pet animals. As a little girl, I brought home straight bunnies, cats and dogs. I spent hours during the summer breaks, looking for critters under rocks exploring the giant Creek, which is really not so giant was behind my childhood house, looking for turtles and I would dig through window wells and search for frogs and critters. And then in my teen years, I explained Florida my lifelong interest in equine and also volunteering for local rescue groups in my community. And we've always had wonderful family pets. And I always took full responsibility for their care and our beloved golden retriever soul who arrived the senior I was born. We formed a special friendship lasting 15 years. I think it was my first love. So I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to the care and empathy of animals.
Do you currently have any pets in your family?
Susan
I certainly do. We have. We have a golden rescue golden from Central Texas named Jake. He's about nine years old. 10 years old. We don't know since he's a rescue. And then we have a cat Tommy who actually came with our rental house. Yeah, so it took a little time but we I slowly got him to come inside and now he's sleeping on our couch right now. So
Collin Funkhouser
what kind of services do you currently offer?
Susan
Well petsitting is our most popular. We also offer a dog walking pet taxi. And when a pendant wedding and attendant services,
Collin Funkhouser
did you start off offering all of those? Or how did that offering list change over time?
Susan
We started with pet sitting and dog walking. And then the pet taxi arose when a client had the need. So we decided to get involved in that. And then the wedding pen attendant services. I love kind of story for that. How that started as well.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, well, yeah, go ahead. How's that? That's a very interesting service and one I don't think many people know about I certainly was kind of surprised to see that. So how did that get started?
Susan
Well, it was completely organic. A client now a friend of the gal was planning her wedding. She approached me and asked how we could help allow her first love Annie of the lovable Yorkie and cornflake, the couple's new golden rescue are taking their wedding. And after all dogs are our family and when we dig it, so without hesitation, I said yes, I am. I completely fell in love with the idea and had further conversations with my business partner. And so we had to make this niche service part of our growing business. So now over 75 weddings later we've hired a wedding pet attendant coordinator, we have for attendance and quote our motto dogs and weddings, what's not to love?
Collin Funkhouser
I'm curious as to what a typical day looks like for a wedding pet attendant, I'm sure it's different depending on how they want them involved. But what what does wedding day look like?
Susan
Well, if you've ever been to a wedding, I'm sure you're aware it's very fast paced, and couples have little time to oversee the details. And couples love the service. It's a unique way to include their dogs and their ceremony, photos and reception without having to rely on friends and family. To ensure all those according to plan a wedding pen attendant arrives to the venue one to two hours early to check in with the planners and the couple. They always hydrate potty and exercise the dog so they're familiar with the venue as well. Prior to the ceremony our attendant dresses the dog with any flower collars provided by the couple's florist. They always absolutely have to be photo ready. Yeah. They greet guests as they arrive, and guests absolutely love the surprise. And the attendant joins the wedding party to walk down the aisle and usually passes the dog off to either the best fan or the maid of honor. And then after the nephew nuptials, the wedding pet attendant assists with photos joins the reception and then at the end of the night, they chauffeur the dog back to the couple's home, typically for overnight.
Collin Funkhouser
That's really involved. The penitent is constantly active and doing something the entire day then that sounds really intensive.
Susan
Yes, and just super attention to detail and of course to make sure that everything flows smoothly. We're working with an animal as you know, can be unpredictable. That's
Collin Funkhouser
That's shocking. I'm predicting can be sometimes the name of the game no matter how well trained or how familiar they are with the venue or people around them. So that's
exactly.
Collin Funkhouser
That's, that's a pretty unique service. I'm curious about some of the animals that you've cared for and kind of maybe some of the most more interesting pets that you've cared for over the years.
Susan
Once I was asked to water, a worm compost, and that was interesting. And another time I was asked to water a toad that took up residence and a flower pot on the client's front porch. That was odd.
Collin
It's really sweet.
Susan
Favorite, though, is a Nilo a sweet little bird. He's an African silver bill is very friendly and socially loves. He loves to ride on my shoulders while I tend to my chores and flutter around. He makes me feel he literally makes me feel like a Disney Princess.
Collin Funkhouser
When people tend to think of pet sitting and dog walking. We tend to think of just the furry creatures in our lives, but I love you know that you've gotten everything from Word and two birds. I really love your website. And I'm curious on there, you've got a pretty in depth FAQ. And I'm curious what prompted your decision to have that on there?
Susan
Well, hiring a pet sitting company is an important decision. We want our clients to vet us as much as we vet them. So we like to have all the anticipated questions answered upfront. And so that way the clients have a full understanding and expectation of what type of service we provide and what our processes are like, what they can expect from the onboarding process to the visit. So we just want our clients to be well informed, make sure that we're the right fit for them.
Collin Funkhouser
It's really at the heart of that is you're setting expectations not just for for you set yourself as members of your team. But as you said more importantly for the for the clients that they know that process so nothing seems like it jumps out them are nothing surprises them from start to finish.
Susan
Absolutely, absolutely.
Collin Funkhouser
The other part of of your website that I really enjoyed was you have a dedicated tab called smiles with a ton of adorable fur babies. And I love that and what about that section is so unique to you or you know, having that on the importance of having that on your website.
Susan
I'm sure like you, you'll be scrolling through your phone and you'll see all this news of the day that does not make you smile. So immediately I can pop over to a website or you know, a favorite Instagram page of animals and it immediately makes you smile. It makes you happy. We're actually running an Instagram and Facebook section called Happy Face hashtag happy face. So I think we're just spreading the love spreading the joys spreading the smiles the purple.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, well and you've got the the world's best subjects right in front of you every day to help spread that though. That's great. You mentioned Facebook and Instagram. When a lot of people think of those they start thinking of marketing and social media outreach. Next question that comes to my mind is how do you find most of your clients?
Susan
Well, most of our clients find us college, from web searches,
Collin Funkhouser
plays well.
Susan
I'm grateful that our talented in house marketing team keeps our SEO and our social media on point, which has been huge for the growth of our business. We average five new leads a day. But we also rely on referrals from both of our clients enter pet sitters, participating in local events and partnering with local pet stores that rescues dog cat boarding facilities. daycare has been beneficial as well. And I'm excited to share that we recently started partnering with a local company to offer discounts for their employees. And also we've had several news features and popular industry podcasts like professional
Collin Funkhouser
Oh Well, yeah, that's great. Oh, my goodness I you mentioned joining with local companies to offer discounts to their employees. I've never heard of somebody doing that before. How did that get started?
Susan
Well, actually a very popular venue in Austin reached out to us asking if we would like to partner with them. So that was very flattering. I don't know if you're familiar with Alamo Drafthouse. Yes. Yeah. So, so we're offering their employees discount discounted pet care, and in return, they'll offer us quarterly vouchers to hand off to our employees. So we're very excited about that partnership.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah. And the word that kept coming over, over and over through that was local groups, local events, local companies, you know, you're you're really digging into the community and, and becoming a member of that through each of those processes that you've got going on there.
Susan
Absolutely. That's that's very important to us. Just just, you know, we're small, local. We want to support other local companies, you know, not just within our industry, but outside of that as well.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, that's great. One of the services that you offer is, is is dog walking. And I think when many of us consider doing dog walking, we immediately think of, Okay, how can I scale this and start offering pack box but but I think you've chosen to stay away from those. And I'm curious why you currently don't offer that.
Susan
But we believe it's more important to provide that individual attention to each pet in our care, not to mention the safety factor for our dogs and walkers alike.
Collin Funkhouser
short, simple to the point. I love that. Yeah.
Susan
We're not gonna do that.
Collin Funkhouser
But, but it's, you know, you you have a clearly defined reason and you've got that's just part of your core values. And that speaks volumes about the kind of service and what you guys are really trying to do. Yes. Now I'm assuming with as busy as you're sounding, it's not just you doing all of this and you've got a pretty robust team around you. Can you tell us about the team that you have? No,
Susan
we have over 60 in Austin, Colorado Springs and Kona combined and growing. So you're pretty spread out geographically. How did that happen? Well, we started in Austin, just myself. And we quickly grew and we needed to quickly expand. So we expanded first to Colorado Springs. We had a dependable wonderful caregiver who was moving to the Colorado Springs area and asked if we could potentially start a business up there. So we immediately jumped on that and we started marketing and, and quickly thereafter, we started getting phone calls and, and started expanding and hiring more in that service area. And then, and then my husband and I opted to move to Hawaii, and we weren't sure if there would be a need here or not. And having getting engrossed in the community and talking with other people in the pet care industry. there absolutely is a need So we decided to start here as well. And we now we have four employees working for us here.
Collin Funkhouser
What's really neat about that that story is that the business kind of followed you around and your employees as they kind of decided to move out and spread out across that it was just kind of happened very organically.
Susan
Yes, absolutely. And it's we're fortunate to like you to have the opportunity to to grow the business in any direction we want to go. And we've really been enjoying the experience and starting over in different communities. It's like starting the business from scratch again, it's really exciting and it's motivating. Yeah. And you did that remotely with, you know, from at the time from Austin into Colorado Springs. What was that experience? Like? That's a pretty large leap. Yes. So we had to have everything set up in the background. We had to get our web presence we had to, you know, have our SEO in in line so we could find new clients. We are siddur to where, but going visiting veterinarian hospitals and local pet stores just to get the word out. So, you know, it took some time to develop, but we stuck stuck with it. And we're now successful there
Collin Funkhouser
in all because you had a motivated and dedicated path to employment move up there and want to continue providing those services. Exactly. Speaking of employees, you know, what was it like when you first hired your employees and what what was that trigger for you? Why did you decide to bring somebody else on? Well, like also sitters I was close to burning out. I'm sure you've heard that before. It took a long time to realize I needed to let go of that control and trust someone else to represent our company and this decision decision has led to continue the growth we see today. So I was very happy I got out of that, that space and move forward. Have you heard about time to pet krisanne from raining cats and dogs This deciding
becoming a time to pet client 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. times a pet is responsive to my requests for new features and modifications to existing ones.
Collin Funkhouser
If you are looking for new pet sitting software for your business, give time to pet a try. listeners of pet sir confessionals get 50% off their first three months when they sign up at time to pet.com slash confessional. Was that an easy thing? Was that an easy decision for you to make the you were feeling the burnout but part of that is feeling like you're giving up control sometimes or giving up ownership of the clients that you care for.
Susan
It was a struggle at the time I felt like only I could give the service that Customers are expected and their pets deserved and letting that go was so freeing for me and allowing that trust and knowing that there's a lot of people out there who really enjoy caring for animals and want to stay to their best interest.
Collin Funkhouser
That's that's huge because it is you do take ownership but you do have that feeling of I'm I know I'm providing the best care and it's really hard to trust that somebody else can as well. Did you have some some training or oversight during that transition of the people that you were bringing on our pet gals
Susan
and guys undergo a rigorous interview process to verify the right fit for our team and match our positive approach to pet care. So we have a thorough online application own interview in person interview, reference and background checks in hand and hands on training. You know how one of my favorite vetting processes is watching the personal videos submitted by our applicants, you can really get a good feel for their personalities there. Oh, whoa, that's that's an interesting step. What do you what are those typically look like or include? Well, it's usually like sitters home or in their backyard and the funny aspect is they usually include their animals and one applicant had a goat who wanted to take over and be the star the video just kept like, head bumping in being goofy about that was pretty funny.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, that's that's a very it's a very unique way to just start looking at some personality characteristics and see how they handle situations or, or how they choose to present themselves in a very different setting than a typical interview style. Play and it gives us me an opportunity since I'm remote to see how they would interact with a client at a meet and greet. Where did that idea come from?
Susan
Well, since we, since we did have Colorado Springs as of our first location, and I couldn't always make it up there to do interviews, you know. And several weeks out of the year, we decided we should do videos so that way we have that that vetting process in place, we can get a full, full idea of a core talking to and how they interact with their pets.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, using that wonderful world of technology to make that process such a lot simpler.
Yes, I love it.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah. So you're operating in three very different locations with a lot of people working under you and around you. How do you keep all of that organized? That's a big question I know. But
Susan
as you can imagine, it's challenging to stay on top of every aspect of running a small business. Early on, we have the mindset to keep the business processes scalable and repeatable. We utilize scheduling software, which includes an app for our clients and our servers. We have a CRM to better manage and process leads we have in house marketing and IT department that's huge hiring coordinator or whatever penitente coordinator and a stellar scheduling team to do the day to day tasks past they were escalations along with customers that are support and finally proven policies and processes.
Collin Funkhouser
A lot you know, a lot of the the what you were talking about there was really you know, you hired, support it administrative people to come alongside you and in start handing off those tasks to other people and go you know what this is, this is something that you can handle and you can handle you can handle so that not any one person is trying to keep all of this all the balls up in the air at one time.
Susan
Yes, yes. Because I've been there and it's very, it's a challenge. So giving ownership of those roles to seller individuals is is really helpful for growth.
Collin Funkhouser
Typically, when we think of hiring somebody, it's all I need to hire another pet sitter, but as you mentioned, you know, you keep it all you managed to help keep it all organized by hiring people to do you know, office work and scheduling and marketing and it and all of those are Equally as important, as in the field caregivers,
Susan
right, right. Yeah. And our sitters, you know, dog walkers. They come from all walks of life. professional dog trainers, vet techs, Animal Rescue volunteers, retired police, detectives, social workers, and MBA PhD students. But they all you know, they all have a passion for animals, and every pet sitter is required to continue their education by attending animal behavior classes, renewing their pet CPR and first aid certification annually. This hiring education process means our clients are partnering with professionalism and smart motivated highly responsible pet sitters and dog walkers. Our office handles all the aspects of running the business. So we do support marketing provide insurance covered so our sitters can focus on caring for pets and developing relationships with our clients. And then we vet our clients carefully. So sitters have a positive work experience and don't walk into any uncomfortable environments. And we're continually growing source that are can rely on animal income. We also have a solid foundation and great reputation and all of our service areas. And our tech cows and guys are proud to represent our business.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Especially with all that support behind them It makes that makes their job easier at that point, you know, in some instances, right. After 10 years and thinking about the employees that you have on staff and the pet care professionals that you work with, how do you retain all star the great ones to keep coming back and be with you year after year?
Susan
Yeah, and I think that support is huge. They know that they can depend on our office and our team to help them through challenging situations, whether it's, it's a lockout from a client home, we have an 800 number that rings through several people until someone picks up so that way, they can get immediate help in a situation whether it's an animal that needs medical attention or lockbox won't open, and things of that nature. And then also, as I mentioned our reputation, they're proud to work for an organization that's well rated and in all of our service areas, so that way that they know that they'll continue to get work. And when it is slow that we'll know that there will be opportunities in the future. You know, we have a down period and of course, very, very busy periods having this established well grounded business, I think it really helps them know that there's as their stable income and support.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's support is so huge, because that's, that's a big piece of the puzzle that can be hard for them to provide on their own and a lot of work and so whenever you have someone to come alongside with and work for that, that offers those, hey, we'll take care of all this. So you can focus on the care that really eases the burden on any one given sitter. Absolutely. So they they can really focus on what they what the client wants them to do is their pets and of course their clients home. One of the other services that you that you mentioned was pet taxi. And and this is a very interesting service as well to me and I'm curious how that service got started and how that works for for you guys.
Susan
Yeah, well, very early on I had a client who couldn't get away from work but had to pick her her pet up at a doggy daycare facility and they were due to close before she was able to arrive. And otherwise her dog would have been boarded overnight. So she reached out to me and and I said absolutely, I'll pick up your dog so and then from then on, it was like well, here's an opportunity for a service that's, that's in demand by our clients. So let's let's put it out there. And so, you know, we transfer pets not only you know, from the doggy daycare, but to necessary vet appointments, to boarding and to grooming facilities.
Collin Funkhouser
That was such a unique service, as that is what kind of learning curve or or maybe unexpected things come up through through offering a pet taxi service,
Susan
not fully vetting the pets. I'll never make that mistake again. I picked I picked up an excitable lab who just broke out of a two week boarding stay and knocked down the gate in the rear of my MDX he climbed over the seats, scratched my interior, and then did a full headshake spraying drool all over me and all over the windshield. That was that was enough to make me I had to set up a process for that.
Collin Funkhouser
So what does that look like? You know, what, what takeaways Did you did you bring from that experience?
Susan
Yes, well, first of all, sometimes circumstances come up where their clients on they're not vetted, but they need that service. And so we try to set something up in the future or prior to needing that service. So we can do a meet and greet and meet the dog and have an expectation. about what the dog's behavior is like. And then secondly, having my car equipped properly, I had a gate to keep the dog secure in the back of the car. But it wasn't enough. So having some sort of harness system that attaches to a seatbelt, that's something that I learned that we should do in the future. Also, now that we've been doing this for some time, we bought a band afford band and that we use also for chauffeuring dogs for our wedding pet attendant services. And then we're in the process of installing secure operating system safe during transport.
Collin Funkhouser
So that was my next question of how you keep though all the dogs in you know safe and secure if you used harnesses or if you went to a more of a crate system.
Susan
Yeah, so we do it differently in Austin, since we have that ban. The crate system is going to work perfectly once we get it fully installed. And then and actually in Colorado, we're not allowed to provide transport pets. They have some pretty strict laws regarding that. And then in Hawaii, we have a harness system So we have the dogs who are required to wear a harness and we have a seatbelt attachment that attaches directly to that harness. So they have some mobility. But if we were to stop short, or the dog was excited and wanted to move about, we have some control there and they can they will get hurt.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah. You mentioned that in Colorado, the rules regulations are very different. And I hear that not just Colorado, but that's a thing that comes up a lot with with pet caregivers is the rules and regulations where I live won't allow XYZ, right? What's that been like for you navigating three different states? And the rules and regulations?
Susan
Yes, yes. We, you know, we strive to be transparent. We want to we want to follow the local laws and rules. We want to make sure that we're our clients. No, no, that we have studied up on the on the rules in the community to make sure we're doing everything correctly. So So yeah, that's been a challenge navigating and reading up on The laws and requirements for each service area. But yeah, Colorado was interesting and they they're assuming we're agricultural, that's that's the route I think that they're going down and you can transport animals but you have to pay each each sitter would have to have a license and we opted not to we just opted not to provide that service.
Collin Funkhouser
Sure. And and you know, that speaks to that sometimes, you're going to run up against rules and regulations that just maybe aren't worth the battle to try and overcome. And so that they that may dictate some of the services that you want to provide in an area. It's not just where's the demand, but also what what is that what are the hurdles to overcome some of those rules regulations,
Susan
right, and unfortunately, in Texas, there's quite a bit of advocacy for changing the laws for Animal Rescue animal rights, you know, tethering and and whatnot. So fortunately it Texas is a really great to work with Hawaii is another challenge. There's especially the island of the Big Island of Hawaii. It's not typically pet friendly. So there's, there's teams here that are working to to make the island more pet friendly. So we're getting involved with that as well.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah. And and, again, that speaks back to being, you know, investing in the community and partnering with other people to make the lives of pets better for everybody.
Susan
Yes, that's a great angle.
Collin Funkhouser
When you think about, you know, the services, the variety of services that you offer and your experience over the past 10 years, I'm curious if you have any products or services that you enjoy using or recommend that you would recommend other sitters be using if they're not already.
Susan
Yeah, a great resource that I want to share that that we've found that works well for our business is a course on Udemy or Udemy. It's called dog CPR. First Aid safety for pet pros and dedicated owners. It's I like it because it's comprehensive and affordable. And most importantly, our fit our sitters find it very educational and useful. Another is scheduling pets that scheduling software time to pet. I can't say enough good things about the platform. It's really changed our business model and really helpful. And again, going back to keeping us organized and communication between our team and the sitters and the clients is invaluable. And then a simple tool that I always use and I do pet today is own dog walking is a simple Runner's belt. It's it's a must the whole the essentials like the phone bags, air horn treats keys, and allows you to be hands free during law.
Collin Funkhouser
That's great. Yeah, cuz a lot of times you start thinking of like, Where do I put all of this stuff? Something as simple as running runners, belt keys, all organized in one location. Yeah, and
Susan
it's not a fanny pack. It's a runner's belt. Clarify
Yeah, runners belt. Okay.
Collin Funkhouser
Well, Susan, thank you so much for sharing your story of growth, expansion and how you've moved different to different locations and things that you've learned and how you provide continual support for your clients. And I know a lot of people are gonna have further questions and want to reach out and get in touch. How can people send you questions or follow along with all the stuff that you guys have going on?
Susan
Oh, yeah. Well, first, I want to say thank you for inviting me to talk and it's been my pleasure. And if anyone wants to reach out, they can find us at the pet gal, calm.
Collin Funkhouser
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Susan. My pleasure. There were really two big takeaways that I had for my conversation with Susan. The first was the importance of hiring somebody to do something that will help you grow and expand. And most of the hires that she discussed, were all about support, that when you have the support when you have the back end taking care of your walkers, your sitters will be able to better focus on their job, and you will be able to better focus on yours as well. And then the second one is what makes you smile, especially in times like we're going through right now. We all need something in our life that can help us smile or remember what it's like to do that. So whether it's cute puppies, whether it's hanging out with friends, or getting in touch with family, remember to take those moments remember to take those time to keep yourself on a good path mentally, spiritually, physically, to make sure that you're taken care of and that those around you know that you're well. And then if you see someone around you struggling to reach out to them and make sure that they are okay give them the support, give them the tools and Linden ear or unhealthy hand if they need it. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We'd like to thank time to pet for sponsoring us and making it possible to head on over to time to pet slash confessional. To find out more. We've been asked how people can help support the show. And if you have found this episode or any of our now 88 episodes valuable or informational, please share it with somebody who you would think would also benefit from it. Thank you all again so much and we'll be back in two
