089- Carmen Rustenbeck with IBPSA
Summary:
Carmen Rustenbeck, CEO of the International Boarding and Pet Services Association (IBPSA), talks about how IBPSA has adapted their upcoming conference to a virtual format, the state of the pet care industry, and what the road forward looks like. Carmen also shares how IBPSA has supported and fought for their members this year, and how that helps the entire industry.
Topics on this episode:
Changes to the IBPSA conference
How to prepare for a virtual conference
Meeting the needs of IBPSA members
Long-term vs short-term impacts
Making smart moves now to be prepared for the future
Area of opportunities in the industry because of Covid
Becoming a member
Main take away? IBPSA is working hard to make their brand-new virtual conference top notch. The road forward in our industry is rocky, yet filled with a lot of great opportunities.
About our guest:
Carmen Rustenbeck is Executive Director & Founder of the International Boarding & Pet Services Association (IBPSA), a non-profit professional business association for the pet care services industry. She has been involved in non-profit work for over 20 years and active in the pet care industry since 2004. Carmen founded IBPSA in 2010 and has dedicated herself to building a member-centered organization that promotes business education, best practices, and profit-maximizing strategies for the safety and security of pet clients and staff, and for the financial future of association members. Carmen has been named a Pet Age Woman of Influence and is a Silver Stevie® Award winner for Female Executive of the Year – Government or Non-Profit (10 or Less Employees). She also serves on the National Small Business Association (NSBA) Leadership Council.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
conference, people, pet, business, tradeshow floor, education, virtual, trade show floor, opportunities, care provider, sessions, business owners, mortar, class, virtually, reach, speakers, services, talk, care
SPEAKERS
Collin, Carmen
Carmen
I think even though COVID has destroyed our economy for the most part, I think that if we can start to focus on the positive things that COVID made us do as business owners, I think we can see how that will improve us in the future because now we're learning to cut the excess, sticking to things that are profitable sticking to things that we can do. And because we've started moving some of our services to a virtual platform, I believe that we don't lose those once we have a vaccine. I don't think we stopped offering virtual I think that is provided us a new way, a new customer, a new way to bring in the money.
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan, and this is petsitter. confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.
Collin
Well, hello everybody and welcome back. to another Friday episode, Meghan and I wanted to do a series on how the conferences of 2020 have changed in response to COVID. And spend some time talking about some big picture ideas as far as state of the industry and what the road forward looks like. So today Carmen Rustenbeck, founder and CEO of ibpsa, joins us to share how they've adapted to the change what they've been doing during this time for pet sitters, and what the road forward looks like, and some of the opportunities that she sees on the horizon.
Carmen
My name is Carmen Rustenbeck. I'm the founder and CEO of international boarding and pet Services Association, or a 501 c six. Our focus is on education, and helping small business owners who happen to care for pets. Establish a profitable business, and we do this education via online learning, conferences and trade shows. webinars once a month and sort of short To educational courses that are maybe two days long, and we meet in the city, and we focus on one specific business idea. So that's what we do here as ibpsa.
Collin
And we actually had you back on our show way back in Episode 26. In February or seven years ago, it feels like at this point, exactly. And that that show was all about what conferences and you were talking to us about your 2020 conference, that and how people could get prepared for it and what all was going to be included. But there's been some change in plans. And so I was curious, what how the conference has changed in response to COVID. And what you guys are doing with that?
Carmen
Yes. So once we realized that this COVID thing was going to be a long term, we realized that there was no way we would get people to travel to a brick and mortar conference in Orlando, Florida. beautiful facility we were going to have conference at but with so many shut downs. businesses across the United States and around the world. We realized that right away a brick and mortar conference was going to happen. So we then decided to make an adjustment to a virtual conference. Well, as you can imagine, as virtual conferences become more popular, there's more and more applications in which to do a virtual conference. So, while we worked out to get our release from our contract, we started looking through the multiple virtual conference applications that were out there. And three weeks ago, we found an application called feed loop. And so we felt that this was the best way to put a conference on and not contribute to what we call the zoom fatigue, which is really a real thing. So we we said, okay, in a normal conference, we start at seven in the morning and we go to seven at night, Tuesday, Wednesday. And then half day on Thursday is no way we're going to be able to do that. So now the conference is scheduled the actual conference itself is scheduled from 2pm to 6pm, eastern time, on the same date, September 29 30th, and October 1, so shorter hours. Basically, the first part of the conference will be your hour and a half session, which are mostly working session. So you're actually face to face with your instructor and you got little things you have to do. And then you come back and you touch base. Then the last two hour of the classes are actually one hour classes, including QA. And this has allowed us at this point to set up around 32 sessions in that short amount of time. The other thing that makes it better in some ways, is that when you go to a conference, brick and mortar, you only get to choose the class you're in. You can't divide yourself, replicate yourself and go to every classes being offered. So you walk away with From conference with a very select set of classes that you've attended with this virtual setting, I think what has been really exciting about it is that the classes will be open until March 31. So you go to the class you want to be live in, and then you have till March 31 to 2020 want to catch the wrestles classes. So that actually brings more value to the attendees.
Collin
Yeah, I that's really good to hear. because like you said, you go and you try and pick your tracks or pick the topics that you want. And every now then there's one where you go, oh, that didn't fit exactly what I wanted, or animate, go back and see those other five. And this sounds great, or all of them, in most cases, right? It sounds like a great way that to attend the ones you want to immediately but then you have that time to have that extra resource for until March 31.
Carmen
There are positive things that come out of moving conference virtually in a response to COVID, which of course made it impossible to do anything in a brick and mortar with the six speed Apart thing. But the other thing that it brought was that this particular application that we're using for a virtual conference also allows you to see all the contact information for every speaker. So let's say that you don't get to see a specific class during the live conference, but you view it afterwards. And you need to get a hold of that speaker, that contact information is in the application for you to reach out and get a hold of that speaker if you have follow on questions. So that makes it even more beneficial to attendees. Because before you may or may not have that information to the speaker who taught a class, but now you will.
Collin
Yeah, cuz I remember in our conversation about the in person conferences, just the immense importance of ability to network and providing the opportunities. So it sounds like that those those kind of things are still there and still provided in even a more enhanced way.
Carmen
Yes, at down to in the application we're using you can you'll see everybody who's an attendee So let's say that I see you our conference call. And you and I haven't seen each other in two years. And I want to touch base, I can actually click on your name and say, Collin, I'm here at the conference. Can we get together and have a chat? And you can say, yes, it allows you to either do that via a chat box where you're typing to each other. Or we can say, hey, let's go in person, and you click a button, and we're face to face in our computers looking at each other. And now we can talk in person, one on one and you can do that at any time in the conference, you can hit that button and make that happen. So networking is instantaneous. Now, now you can see somebody you want to talk to you can type a message or you're ready. If they say yes, you can click the button you're face to face. So that is fantastic. It's the same way on the exhibitor floor with this application. When you go to the exhibitor floor, you can go into a booth. If you want to talk to that person face to face in the booth. You can ask them Can we talk face to face And you'll be able to do that right away, you'll be able to watch videos download information that they've loaded in their booth. So that makes the networking part really, really easy. What we are hoping that the application will have done by the time conference comes around, is that you will be able to do that with multiple people at the same time. So if I'm talking to you, and Natalie comes along, I can say, oh, Natalie's here, let's invite her in so we can bring Natalie and now we have a three way conversation all face to face happening, and we haven't left the application.
Collin
Wow. Yeah. And the reason I was glad that we are talking about that is because that is the one thing networking is the one thing that people take away from conferences every single year is their ability to see friends get connected and to have that still preserved through this and that idea of having even multiple people in a group discussion is is really reassuring.
Carmen
Yes, absolutely. And we've also built into our sessions. We've Built in some roundtables, and some Meet and Greet, and we're actually going to do that where you'll walk into a room. And that room will actually be a Zoom Room where everybody can see each other and talk. So we've built this into our conference setting so that not every class is necessarily has an instructor, you may go into a room where it's a roundtable discussion with a facilitator. So everybody's sitting there talking to each other, and you can see each other on zoom just like you normally would. So we're trying to make this as interactive as we can, and keep people's attention. Also this year. We've never done this before. We have two MCs, who will be handling the whole conference from beginning to end. So they'll start the conference off every day. In between class sessions will have 15 minutes, the world will talk about all the class sessions that just happened. All the new ones coming up. They'll do that for every 15 minutes. At the end of the day. They'll wrap it all up in a nice pretty bow, get set for the next day. And then they repeat that on Wednesday and Thursday.
Collin
Yeah, it's really cool. You're able to lean into the platform and say, Okay, how can we even make the interactions, the networking, the access to information better in some cases than it was before? And having those MCs I'm sure is really a game changer for you.
Carmen
It is it is because our MCs now, they have to be familiar with all the speakers and all the content so that they can speak with skills and understanding of what's coming up next, especially you know, there's right now we haven't set up so there's five classes running at a time, that's a lot to have to cover in 15 minutes, but if they can give you highlights, tweak your interest, oh, I might choose to go to that class. After all, you know, it might, it might give you a better choice as you move forward with the planning. The other thing is, is the tradeshow floor is going to be what we call gamification. So people are going to be able to earn points to win prizes from the tradeshow floor. So I think that's going to be sort of fun. Also, we've never done gamification, even in our brick and mortar exhibitor floor. So we're so excited to see how that works out.
Collin
Yeah, sounds like there's a lot of really cool stuff going on. So I'm curious about how this changes your outlook for, you know, next year conferences or conferences down the road. How does this going through this process change how you view future conferences,
Carmen
I think it is really expanded our understanding about how people learn, and what is the best way to help people learn whether that's in person, or virtually. So for for us next year, our conference will be in September again, and we had to change the date to work around the holidays and whatnot. But if we can go brick and mortar, it will be at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida, just like it was planned for this year. But we're also going to add a virtual conference to it. So we will pick certain things that we're going to record at the brick and mortar conference. And then we'll pick things that we're going to present live and we'll use our current app to do that with also our existing putters that are on the tradeshow floor at the brick and mortar will also be in the virtual conference trade show floor. So they'll basically be at two different trade show floor positions. So it'll take a little bit more, more people on the tradeshow floor virtually for them to manage that. But our goal is We now recognize that there's a lot of people first of all, that never have the finances to buy the airplane ticket, pay the hotel expense, and any miscellaneous including breakfast and dinner. And so they're never going to be able to come, but they would have the money to just get on and see it virtually. Then for those sessions that are recorded it those recorded sessions would be available to not only the attendees, but the attendees virtually so that everybody's going to benefit from the new way of thinking about things so you can go be in person, you could hug next kiss babies, see people you haven't seen him forever and choose courses that you want to go to live. But then after conferences done you You can go and watch all the recordings. So it's a big bang for your buck. So we've just increased the ability to educate people whether they can actually come to Florida or not.
Collin
Yeah, it sounds like this. What is kind of a, you know, it's a situation nobody really wanted to be in. But it's allowed you guys to take and make things more accessible and make the entire experience better from start to finish.
Carmen
Absolutely. Even our after conference. So for our members, we're doing it after conference sessions. And these after conference sessions will be okay, you went to conference and you went to these 30, or you've watched these 32 programs, how do you implement some of the things that you've just learned? Because that's another challenge that we thought, wow, through the virtual application, we can we can address this. I've gone to conference, I've taken all these notes. Now I'm back home, I'm in my business, how am I going to implement what should I implement first, and we get sort of overwhelmed, all the information was good, but how do we implement that in our business, so We are providing sub after education to help people think through certain areas about implementation, and help them get started to make 2021 better than they had in 2020.
Collin
Now all this talk about sessions and education opportunities, remind us of some of the topics and some of the presentations being given and what to expect while they're while you're attending.
Carmen
So we have this year so far, we've divided it up into eight or nine different areas. So we have areas of business operations, and this is about how you're functioning in your business. Whether that be how you're taking care of yourself legally with your branding, how you have set up your business for success. We have one family the last name is emkin. They have a brick and mortar boarding facility they were our it'd be winners, it'd be is our annual awards for the best of the best in 2019. They've been in business for over 25 years and they're going to talk about About how they've been able to motivate keep people motivated going forward. Do we have a person speaking on fear free? It's really a big subject now in the industry, how do we take care of pets in a way that does not cause fear? And so we have somebody coming speak on fear free. We have two speakers coming to talk about employee wellness, in your business. We have somebody coming talk about HR, we have add on services being discussed. If you want to start adding dog walking to your business, how would you do that? And is there a certification for dog walking, so we have a speaker coming in for that we have Joseph Corelli, coming in to talk about if you want to start adding on the surface of grooming, what does that look like and how do you get the training for that? We have people talking marketing. We have a person coming in to talk about business planning from the ground up, I want to open this business, how do I do the research? How do I get the financing? We have six speakers talking on animal wellness, we have some industry insights. I have two speakers who've done their own surveys one has this is her second year of doing a pet owner survey. What do pet owners really want? She's had some great insight, a lot of good questions for her class. And then we have Mark Sherman, who was who went to everybody's Facebook page. And he started doing surveys on Facebook page exactly how well was Facebook getting the information out to the clients in their area, he came back with some really interesting information. Then we have Mark Cushing, who was written a book about how we've changed as Americans toward our pets. That book comes out in September. So he's going to give us some insight into what is happening in the pet industry worldwide, and how our focus has changed. We have a section on leadership. We have two keynotes. Our opening keynote is Jan Spence. She is the first professional female football player in America. So that's sort of fed and then we'll end our session with a keynote. Dr knot is going to be giving a very, very short keynote, about how to maintain excellence in your business. And that goes along with our IB awards, which will be the last session. On Thursday we'll be able to see all of our new IB award winners and bring them on so people can celebrate with them. Then of course, we have roundtables and we have happy hours. And Monday night we have our meat breed on our virtual tradeshow floor like we normally do. So we'll be out about shaking hands virtually, making face to face contact, and starting the conference off, really in a big bang sort of a way. We're actually trying to have a wine tasting session, we just can't figure out how to make that work yet.
Collin
I'm so glad that all those are gonna be available till March because it's just jam packed with so much stuff and to be able to go back and rewatch certain thing is gonna be really great. Absolutely. And so with all of that, and I know it previous discussion, we talked about how to prepare for an in person conference. So I was wondering if you had some tips about how to prepare for a virtual conference?
Carmen
I actually do, I think it's very important that you, you recognize that you're taking this two to six eastern time to set aside for yourself, and you so I say, Get yourself comfortable. Make sure you have water or whatever it is you need to drink, you've got some snacks, that and you're in a quiet place, so that you can really concentrate on what's going on. Because even though it's only four hours, there's going to be a lot of texting, meeting people, maybe sitting in a class, maybe getting into class, say, Oh, this is not the right one. Let me move over to this other class. So there's going to be a lot of things going on that is going to what you're going to want to pay attention to. So I think the quiet place, making sure you have water, that you have snacks and that you have enough pad and pen, and you're ready to go. And to help you with that have ibpsa is putting together the swag box instead of your swag bags swag box. And for every person who attends conference, they'll get a box in the mail. And that box will be the heaven magazine, which will have everything that's going to happen will have we're hoping to have pen and paper in there for you a screen cover where you could turn your camera off or on with your little slider of a cover. wine glass if possible. Your ear things Screen Cleaner. We're trying to make it certified desktop get something in your hand so that you you know that. First of all, it's for you. We've done all of this for pet care service providers, as business owners and we really want them to be able to take this time because you've been stressed out. You've been trying to see if my business going to live through the next week, then you know Am I going to closed down, I'm not gonna be able to open my doors, how do I help my pet parents? How do I service their needs? There's been so many questions in such high stress. And I'm hoping that just these three days, these four hours over three days, you'll be able to sit down and say, Okay, I'm bringing in things that are going to help me and are going to give me ideas to launch my business again.
Collin
Right? Yeah, absolutely. taking that time to invest back in ourselves. Yes, is and as you mentioned there, when content is published online in this kind of format, it actually can kind of move at a faster clip than if it was in a brick and mortar place because you don't have those transition times walking right in place to place those things. So do expect that it's going to be pretty fast paced, as far as transitions and having all of those things around you the included wineglass which sounds amazing, and all this stuff just to have on hand so that you are prepared for that and know and know that going into it, but the back end knowing that all these will be accessible later.
Carmen
Yes, exactly. So once the floor opens on Monday night, the trade show floor is going to open at 5pm. Eastern time once that trade show floor opens, that is the beginning of the trade show floor that doesn't close till March 31. And then at two o'clock when the conference starts on Tuesday at two o'clock eastern time, then as those speakers speak then all those things at the end of the day become available. So by the end of the week, you will have been on the trade show floor you've had all those speakers Friday, Saturday, Sunday, maybe take a break Monday go back in and say okay, now what did I miss? What do I want to approach first, and now it becomes easier because it's only each session including QA is 60 minutes. So now it's almost a lunch and learn so it makes it much easier
Collin
and I like that idea of going back to it and and just revisiting re chunking away at this stuff and knowing that that's there. I mean, that's that's really powerful.
Carmen
Yeah, because we are moving at such a fast pace virtually that it you do need to understand your goal. To have to go back in.
Collin
So all this talk about the conference remind us when the dates are and how people can go and get registered for it.
Carmen
So the dates are September 29, and 30th. And October 1, that's the actual conference dates pre conference is the 28th. So that's Monday night, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and you can get registered for conference at pet care conference.com. And if you're an ibpsa member, it's $199. That turns out to be less than $6, a class of education. And if you're a non member, it's $249. So I encourage you all if you want to come and you're not a member to look at membership, and how that might benefit you.
Collin
Absolutely in on that idea of membership with ibpsa. Other than the virtual conference, how have you guys adapted or added to the new needs of your members in 2020?
Carmen
So the first thing we did right here with COVID is that we realized right away that we needed to set standards and processes for how you would take care of your staff or yourself, and interaction with your pet parents. So we set up a little short COVID Mini program that was free to all of the members, where we did some interviews with some veterinarians, with some industry experts, where we talked about what's happening and it has a downloadable PDF document where it gives you the basics for how you keep yourself and your staff clean and ready to address the care of animals. And for those who have facilities, how they can maintain facility cleanliness at the level they need during this covid issue. So then the other things we started doing is we started talking about the PPP loan, or the ELD loans. And so how did they get those? How did they apply for them, and now we're now we're coming to the other side of that where we're looking for a person who can Discuss how you start to get those grants. So now I've got the PPP loan, I want that forgiveness. Okay, what is that process? How do you do that? So we're looking for an expert in that field to help us with that. So all things COVID is sort of what we've been trying to do. Also, we went around the United States this year. And we went in sections and talked to people about what they were doing in their area of the country, his pet care service providers, what things were working, what things were not. We talked about switching some things that you used to do in person to doing them online, such as if you used to do dog training in person in a classroom. Why not now do that via zoom, because it's real easy for the pet owner and their pet to be on the other side of zoom. And you demonstrated on your side, and then you watch them do it on that side, and then make corrections as needed, show them how to make corrections with the pet. So there was a lot of things that we learned we could bring into zoom world and we could still keep that revenue flowing in. We also talked about what if you delete game to your pet owner. And at the end of the week, you switched out that game and gave them a new game to use with their pet. And so they would pay a rental fee on that game. And so that keeps you in contact with your pet owner that keeps revenue coming in. And it's literally a drop off outside the door. So, you know, little things to rethinking how we provide pet care, and how much that pet care now that people are staying home with their pets. How much can we help these people who are staying home with their pets and we do that virtually. So there was a lot of discussion about how to take things we did normally ourselves and move that virtually, and still deliver good service and still bring the revenue in. So that was quite interesting what people were doing.
Collin
Yeah, no, it sounds like everyone was going through this scaling process almost of well, I used to do all of these services by myself in person or with a small team. Now how can I take this and replicate it and make it virtual make these digital make these Yes. Different kinds of things. Yes. And it's really cool because that that actually sets you up for, you know, potentially greater growth or, you know, new opportunities down the road and pre COVID. You know, it was scary to make that shift. But now we've all had to joy or do you know, 10 years or more in in the digital world to get to that point?
Carmen
Yes. The other thing that ibpsa really moved quickly on with, I would say sub success across the United States specifically, was we reached out to our legislative group and said we need help reaching out to the governor's and saying that your service providers are essential services, because we're providing care for those frontline workers. If they don't have us available to provide care for their pets. It's going to stress them out. And we heard stories over and over again, of doctors and nurses and frontline workers who went to work and they didn't come home for two days. And it was only because They had a pet care provider, that they were okay with that because there was nobody home to take care of the pets, except for that pet care provider. So we really recognized right away that we do provide an essential service for those people that are first responders. And for those people who still could go to work, who weren't shut down. So how do we how do we help them? So we reached out to as many governors as we could try to position pet care service providers as essential services. We've had some, some failures, but that doesn't stop as we continue to reach out and say, okay, we've been in this this long, we can see that this long term impact not helping pet care service providers available is is stressful. You need to put us on the list. We even went to the CDC and had three conversations with them. I think part of the challenge has been when when a dog or cat comes down with COVID it makes the news where it would have never made the news in any other situation. But now it's making the news is so severe about how that is transmitted. So we've had some challenges on how do we call people's fears and say it could happen. But out of all the people who have pets in America, obviously, it's not happening at the capacity. We thought it would or could, you know, so. So that's that's been our other challenges from the legislative front is having that group of lawyers who could go and help us talk to Governor's in a way that they understand the need to make us essential workers.
Collin
Yeah, I mean, that that conversation feels like that was just eight years ago at this point of those initial struggles of who's essential, who's not essential. How do we make how do we stay in operation? How do we stay safe, like, thinking about it now, like those were so pivotal in helping the industry at large to have to raise the profile of it across the country?
Carmen
Yes, yes. And I think I think the challenges because each state can set up their own recommendations. Then, of course, each county is following the state recommendations or maybe they are have stricter recommendations based on what's going on. So that that became a challenge also So, but I encourage I encourage all pet care providers to reach out to their city officials to reach out to their governor to be proactive on that, because they haven't thought about the things you thought about when we're here where I live in Las Cruces, New Mexico, when we reached out to the city, and we were like, what are all those first responders going to do with their pets? They said, Oh, we didn't think about that. You're right. So they had so many other things to think about. So we had to remind him that we were here, you need to also consider this.
Collin
Well, true. And that's a reminder of Yes, there are people in charge of people making decisions, but they have a million things to be trying to take into account. And if they don't have somebody with a pet on their advisory board going Hey, how many We're gonna take care of this, like, that's so easy to slip through the cracks.
Yeah, as you
Collin
see, as you see problems as you have questions as you have concerns, let somebody know about that reach out to them and speak up and you know, kind of, you know, just let them know where you're coming from.
Carmen
Absolutely, absolutely. And I think I think this if nothing else, COVID has taught us that as business owners, we need to be very precise in outcomes. When we hire a new employee, what is he? What is the outcome I want to see? And what's the shortest amount of time I think I should have that outcome? When I am going to invest my money into a new program? What is the outcome I expect for that, and I'm sure I'm going to be able to implement that. I also think in our relationships with our pet parents, our relationship with other businesses, our relationship with the government, and the community. And in your state. I think it's what is the outcome I want and how can I make that a win win for everybody? And so now we've become very targeted in our conversations, and what we're offering and what we're willing to spend our money on. And who were willing to give a job to. So I think it has really focused our, our movement as business owners, we know you used to be when the money was a little bit better. And we'll take care of that next week. Guess what? There may not be next week to take care of that. Right. Yeah. So it has now focused us in and I think we're getting much better in relationship building and understanding what we need to get done in our businesses.
Collin
Yeah, I remember hearing many stories of right at the beginning, all of a sudden, people had time or the urgency to start looking back at backlogs of bills or overdue payments from clients where they, you know, well, it wasn't that important last time because it was only $100 or something. And now all of a sudden, it was like, getting these systems tightened down, taking the time to do that and work through those. It's You're right, it really does show the short term long term thinking and is trying to be as prepared as possible.
Carmen
Absolutely. And I think I think even though code It has destroyed our economy. For the most part, I think that if we can start to focus on the positive things that COVID made us do as business owners, I think we can see how that will improve us in the future, because now we're learning to cut the excess, sticking to things that are profitable sticking to things that we can do. And because we've started moving some of our services to a virtual platform, I believe that we don't lose those. Once we have a vaccine. I don't think we stopped offering virtual, I think that it's provided us a new way, a new customer, a new way to bring in the money.
Collin
Yeah. And that was one of my questions I had for you was kind of these areas of new opportunities, whether that's new services, new potential markets that in what you're seeing as you talk to your members.
Carmen
Yes. So I think when you start to think about I'm providing, let's say you're providing a dog training virtually as basic commands, sit, stay lay down, and you're doing that Virtually, and you're working with a pet parent. Normally, when you were doing that brick and mortar, you were limited to the community in which you lived. Now that you're offering this virtually, you have the world to, to say, Hey, I'm offering online dog training for the to the world. So now you're outside of the community that you're in, and you're building relationships in a different way. And I think also, now, it's really easy to get on to zoom, and record yourself, giving some kind of educational tip to your clients and putting it on your Facebook page. It's really expanded the opportunity to market yourself as a small business owner and get in front of other communities and people that you would not have if you were not virtually focused at all. We just didn't have that push to do that.
Collin
I think it's helped in the education of clients that those services are there because everybody is taking this big leap forward where maybe People didn't use to look for dog training online. But now they do. And they're trying to find who they like who works, what works best for them, and what kind of resources are out there. So we're able to kind of everybody progress, both the the business owners and the clients are kind of taking these steps together.
Carmen
Yes, it does since and the other thing is, people know this, but I think they get sometimes it gets lost and what that really means for business owners, all these families went and adopted all these pets, because everybody was home now, let's get a pet. They adopted those pets. So we've been doing some online stuff, trying to train them help the pet owners with their pets. And so we have all these pets, but eventually, remember, when we get the vaccine, people are going to start to go back to work. Now, what are we doing as business owners to prepare for that? Because when those people start to go back to work, those pets have been home with these people now for let's say, six months, nine months, maybe as long as a year. They're gonna be looking for that picture. care provider. So my question to pet care providers out there is what are you doing now to prepare for when the vaccines done and people go back to work? What do you need to be doing now to prepare for that, because that's going to increase again, it's going to increase your revenue that's going to increase your reach, that's going to increase your influence capability. So we can't just stop and say, Okay, I'll just wait till we get back. We have to prepare now, for when we do. That's one thing we've learned with the grooming. Once people were released to go back to work a little bit across the United States, people needed groomers, their dogs hadn't been groomed forever. And so grooming was like the number one thing it just shot through the roof on virtual searches, whereas the groomer so then then we saw doggy daycares and overnight boarding and pet sitting coming back up, but not as much as grooming dead. So we see that at this point in time. What it'll be like when the vaccines out and there's freedom once again to move about, there's going to be a lot of things happening. And we need to think about that. How are we going to provide services? when that comes? Not if, but when that vaccine hits?
Collin
Yeah, I know the grooming thing. I mean, our poor dog, Coby, he was needing a groom right before COVID hit. And then he got really long. And it was one of those things, as soon as there was even a little bit opening, we were like, We gotta get him in, we gotta get that done. And we were the ones that, you know, we're still providing the service in a safe and sponsible manner, because they were there and they could meet our needs and was just a big weight of off of our shoulders. I know, and in our plans to be able to recommend that too. But yeah, looking for those opportunities and staying alert to, you know, certain requests that you're getting or what you're hearing and other requests. And that makes it even more important to be part of a larger petsitting Community Impact care provider network so that you can have access to that kind of information.
Carmen
Absolutely. As Absolutely. And I think also, as you as pet care providers, as you're moving forward to next year for 2021, all the education you're getting for yourself, you need to turn around and talk about that with your clients, you need to talk about that on Facebook, you need to tweet about that you need to, if you have a website, you need to put it on your website page. If you have a blog, do you need to do that? If you do a newsletter, you need to put it in there. I went, and I got this education. And this was it. This is what it means for you. And so I'm looking to see you in 2021. And on the way there before the vaccine comes out, here's all the things you need to do to prepare to start asking your pet sitter to come in or your groom to come into the house or your dog walker, or your boarding facility, what things you're going to have to do to get that done. So I think we start educating the pet owner and community on what they need to do before they go back to work themselves. And so that then again brings that makes you the preparation And they're going to come seeking you for other things that they're going to need.
Collin
Right? It's really centering you as a wonderful resource as the resource. Yes, people can reach out to because as you mentioned, just because things open up doesn't mean people are going to be comfortable going out and doing things. So how do we help them be more comfortable letting them know what we're doing the education that we've had the processes that we have in place, reduce that barrier to entry as low as possible by helping educate and talking about it. And that will allow that process to happen a lot faster.
Carmen
It Well, it well, and because you, you, as pet professionals, been out there talking in the community, they're gonna remember your name, and so they're going to come to you first. So to me, this is the perfect opportunity to build your reputation in a new and different way. And really reach out to the pet owning community and advertise who you are, what you're doing education that you've had, how you're protecting yourself when you're interacting with other pets how you're protecting those pets, multiple opportunities. To have little short comments, little short statements, little short educational moments, five sentences, you know, it doesn't have to be extravagant. It doesn't have to be big. It's just constant feeding of that information about this is what's happening and people will start to follow you. And that'll be a great opportunity in 21 for you.
Right? Those are really some some great moves that we can be doing now to set ourselves up for success moving forward.
Yes, absolutely.
Collin
If somebody isn't a member of ibpsa, what why should they consider it? And then how can people become a member?
Carmen
So I think that when it comes to pet care service providers, ibpsa is focused on you as a business owner? Do you have your business set up in a way that it's going to be profitable? Have you given yourself all the education or knowledge you need to set up your business correctly? What about your marketing? All the little things that come into your business? What does your website look like? What are you doing on your Facebook page? How are Are you positioned on Google? All these things come and affect your bottom line as a business owner? And I don't believe that any of us, no matter what our industry is, can say, oh, I've got it. I'm done. I don't need any more education. I don't need any help. I think that that's the first step into failure. I think that we always need to be saying, what is the thing I need to be learning? How can I improve? We sort of look sort of look at your business with that SWOT as we call it, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You need to be doing that all the time, what is my strength? What are my weaknesses? What are some threats, but then what are some opportunities that those threats may bring me? And so we're always using that then we're always looking for the next thing. ibpsa is out there as the leader saying, we believe this is where the industry is going. And so we want to help you manage that through the lifecycle of your business from the time you open your doors. All the way through the exit planning. So that's our focus. We do have education courses for employees. We have species education courses, specifically canine feline, avian small mammal exotics, including rabbits, guinea pigs, we just finished a reptile program that was built for us by reptile society out of California. We've not brought it to market yet, but for those who have reptiles that they take care of, we've got the most popular reptiles in America, and how do you take care of them for your clients. So we've also partnered with Jamie McDonnell at fetch fine and her education. So ibpsa members who join at the premium membership level, which is $402 a year, they get all affiche fine curriculum for free, and all their employees get it for free also, so we thought that was a real value added to there's 100 hundred plus courses there. And they're short videos to choose from With some downloadable PDF documents that make it easy for things like if I'm a groomer, what do I need to carry on my belt? If I'm doing daycare? What do I need to carry on my belt? a pet sitter, what things should I have in my little bag, my go bag. So all those kinds of things help to educate the industry. So we feel that we've done our best to help business owners and their employees. Also, we're setting standards. And we have a full time legislative group that works for us. And that's included in your membership. And if any of you've ever tried to go out and talk to a legislature for your industry, and you thought I'll hire a lawyer, you know, you started about $10,000 and it works out from there. So right away, having having ibpsa on the legislative side is a big help. So our lowest cost is $302 a year that's a membership for your business. So you're listed in an online directory. You have access to educate. We do free webinars every month. So you have access to free webinars. We have three years of webinars in there about 80 hours of education that's free to you that you can go back and look at. We try to update those every few years. We try to update education to keep that smooth flowing. Keep it kind of consistently fresh. Then we have certifications which I talked about the CPC certification, those are extra, they are a $75 a class and then you get a certificate of completion for that. We have a free online COVID class that you could take we get a certificate saying I've passed this class we offer that broke down at $302. We offer that as a quarterly membership. So when you go to the website ibpsa.com. You can choose quarterly or yearly for the $302 which is a regular membership or the premium membership at $402. will get you all that fetch find curriculum for free. So we have that there. And you can also get that at a quarterly rate. I hope that's easy enough. And simple enough. Once you join ibpsa, you get a certificate of membership. We also every month, you get a little free something in your email box from ibpsa to help you as a small business owner.
Collin
Yeah, it's it's the community, it's access to information. It's so just a huge and vast amount of resources to that, you know, have it Yes. Oh,
Carmen
yes, we have a private Facebook page for all of our members. So once you become a member, you can join the private Facebook page. And that is the place to go to ask questions. And it doesn't matter what the question is, there's going to be people who are going to have all kinds of answers for you. And the great thing is we all get to learn if there's a new challenge out there. We all learn for that for that private Facebook page.
Collin
Yeah, no, that's really cool. And Carmen, I really thank you so much for coming on today, taking time out of your schedule to sit down with us and and talk through some of the struggles that the industry is facing. And yes, the office optimism that you have for the future and all those opportunities out there, too. So once again, thank you for coming on.
Thank you, Colin, it's been my pleasure to talk to you and your listeners,
Collin
like Carmen said, I hope you were able to take some time out of your schedule, to sit down and reinvest in yourself, whether that's through the education, whether that's through the networking, or whether that's going out on the showroom floor and being able to see what products and services are out there this year. Take a few moments to give yourself that or give your employees that opportunity. And then there's that one big question that Carmen threw out there. What are we doing right now to prepare ourselves for when things open back up when that the vaccine becomes more readily available? That's a big, scary question. And the answer isn't the same for everybody, even within the same kind of niche. It's unique to your business, your location and what your goals are for the future. But spending some time right now thinking about that. Getting in touch with others, bouncing ideas off of each other is the best way to do that and do some experiments and reach out to your customers reach out to your current clients, to see what they would like what kind of services they might look for in the future, to stay on top of that, and to always be adaptable as we all have been in 2020. That's just a big word for this year, adapt. That's all what we're doing. That's what we're going to have to continue to do as we move forward. And that's not a bad thing that puts ourselves in a wonderful position to be able to take advantage of new opportunities as they come along. You can reach us on Facebook, Instagram at petsitter confessional and check out our website petsitter. confessional calm, you can see our entire back catalogue of old episodes and see all the resources that we've been compiling from recommendations from pet sitters and pet care providers like you. If you have questions, comments, or particularly feedback, or maybe would like to tell your story and things that you've learned along the way. Get in touch with us at feedback at petsitter confessional.com. Until next time,
