214: Success One Step at a Time with Becky O'Neil
Summary:
Becky O’Neil, owner of Becky’s Pet Care, left the medical field to pursue a career in pet care so she could spend more time with her child. After 20+ years in the industry, she has over 150 employees and has had to adapt, and adopt, new technology and business planning to continue to thrive and meet the needs of her clients. Becky shares what her definition of success is, and why it's so important to be running the business you want. We also discuss the upcoming NAPPS 2021 conference and what to expect from the speakers.
Topics on this episode:
Business Planning
Hiring
Success
NAPPS Conference
Main take away: People run their business their way; you need to run your business your way.
About our guest:
Becky’s love of animals originated in her childhood, spent on a farm in Pennsylvania where she helped raise and care for many animals including livestock, family pets, and horses. In 1998, Becky founded Becky’s Pet Care, Inc. as a one-woman enterprise, which she nurtured to its current status as a leading pet care provider in Northern Virginia.
In addition to running her very active business, Becky enthusiastically supports various local and national animal rescue groups and participates in several local community organizations. She serves on the board of the Community Business Partnership in Alexandria, is President of her local PTA in Arlington, and as President of the Northern Virginia Professional Pet Sitters Network, where she also fulfilled past terms as Vice President and Treasurer.
Becky currently lives in Arlington, Virginia with her son, her daughter, and her black Labs, Teddy Bear and Rylee.
Links:
Email: Becky@beckyspetcare.com
Becky's Pet Care: https://beckyspetcare.com
NAPPS 2021 Conference: https://petsitters.org/page/EventsTab
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, clients, people, goals, sessions, becky, pet sitters, grow, conference, pet, plan, industry, naps, employee, hire, important, reaching, staff, networking, involved
SPEAKERS
Becky O'Neil, Collin
Collin 00:17
Hi, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is petsitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. This special episode is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Hello everybody and welcome back Today we're really excited to have Becky O'Neil, owner of Becky's pet care and director with naps to talk about her time in the industry at the exciting naps conference that's coming up at the end of the month. So Becky, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Could you please tell us a little bit more about yourself?
Becky O'Neil 00:50
Thank you so much for having me calling. I'm excited to be here. As I said, my name is Becky O'Neil. My company is Becky's pet care. I started in 1998. And we provide dog walking and pet sitting services all throughout Northern Virginia. I'm not in Virginia is a suburb of Washington, DC. So it's right outside of big metropolitan area.
Collin 01:11
1998 is a long time ago in the pet care industry. What got you started.
Becky O'Neil 01:18
Prior to pet care, I worked in the medical industry, I was a member working in women's health, which I loved whenever I was going to help my first child and the medical industry is very demanding. So I wanted to do something where I would have more flexibility to do something I loved and to parent my child. Um, that led me to naturally to pet care. It was just a beginning industry. But I found out about it. I started to research and it was just a natural fit for me. I've always loved animals. I grew up on a farm. I had dogs since the day I was born. Cats, horses, cows, chickens, just love animals love being with them. And it was just such a natural fit for me.
Collin 02:02
What was that transition like out of the medical field? Getting ready to have your first child and also starting a brand new business? I'm sure that that requires a lot of juggling on your end.
Becky O'Neil 02:13
Yes. I never had any business experience. So while I was pregnant, I spent a lot of time researching how to run a business. My son was born about six months later, I actually opened the doors to Becky's pet care. And I juggled half a day sell in the doctor's office and half a day walking dogs in the afternoon. It was fun, challenging, interesting. I was learning everything on the fly. I did have my business structure completely set up. prior to opening the doors. I'm very much a planner, business plan and everything is prepared. So I was good. But there's no way to know what you don't know until you open the doors.
Collin 02:55
And you've mentioned your business plan a couple times already. And I don't think that that's something many people do is sit down next he write out a business plan. So what kind of advice would you give to somebody who maybe has never heard of a business plan or has never sat down to actually write a business plan
Becky O'Neil 03:12
is just a roadmap of where you want to go is a living document that changes all the time, at least once a year, I review and update things. But in my mind, you need at least a roadmap a plan of where you're going. So you have a direction. Otherwise, you're just willy nilly everywhere. It can be as simple as you want it to be if you want to give it to the bank to get a loan or something, it probably needs to be more detailed. But it's really just sitting down taking the time to write down. This is my marketing plan. This is my financial plan. This is these are my goals. These are my projections for money. This is what I can spend. This is my budget. This is the structure of my company. This is my HR program, department, all of your departments just a little plan so that you can kind of have a handle on where you're going. Even if you're wearing all the hats. I feel like you need to plan for all your departments.
Collin 04:10
And that language may sound interesting to somebody who is a solopreneur or there are running their business all by themselves have departments What are you talking about? It's It's me, right? But I love how you encourage us to still write out the guidelines or how we want to grow or how we want to handle certain situations, just so that we have that down in black and white for us. So that we know and we can keep track of that over the years. Yeah, I'm
Becky O'Neil 04:38
a big planner. So I didn't plan is important. Yeah, even if I had a business plan prior to opening my doors, I had my legal structure. I had my accountant I had everything, including the business plan right now it was completely wrong. But as I said, it's a living document. So as things change, you just updated. Hello, I made it I plan the wrong route. Now. I need to veer off to the right and do something a little bit differently because this isn't working.
Collin 05:07
Is that easy for you? to course correct. When you find out something isn't working, because I know for me, I tend to get a little stubborn and go, Well, this is the plan, I've got to try and work the plan to make this work. How do you make those kinds of adjustments, sometimes it's
Becky O'Neil 05:21
more difficult to make adjustments when I really have something in my mind that this is the way it should be. But I'm really very growth minded, improvement minded, change minded. I always think there's ways to get better, I always think of things to learn. I'm always trying to learn network work from other people. And as soon as I see something that might work better for me, it's pretty easy for me to say, I need to pass a test.
Collin 05:50
I think that's a really important trait, especially as a small business owner, that we'd be able to adapt and change on the fly as new circumstances change, or as client expectations start changing service needs begin to shift over time, if we aren't being sensitive to those changes, we're going to miss a lot. And we're going to kind of, you know, be operating a business that was efficient 10 years ago, but you know, we're kind of have a business, it's in services that are outdated and not needed.
Becky O'Neil 06:20
Exactly. If you look at not just the pet care industry, but the world, you know, technology has changed everything so quickly. So it's always a moving target. And then COVID the talent is brought to everyone changing on the fly almost daily, to try to survive and keep up if you're not ready for change during COVID. I'm not sure how you survived it
Collin 06:47
by the skin of your teeth probably. Now, you started in 1998. And you had this business plan developed before you even opened your doors looking at where you are now, did you ever envision your company to be where it is or look like the way it does now?
Becky O'Neil 07:05
Oh, that's kind of funny. I had this gigantic dream in my head that I always tend to have big dreams and they don't usually come all the way through. So I'd never expected Becky's Petcare to become what I dreamed it to be. But I worked really hard on my path, all my goals and just really surround myself with great people to help me get from nothing to where we are today.
Collin 07:33
How have you adapted your your goals for your business as you became more and more successful? What was it like to redraft the next goal and the next goal,
Becky O'Neil 07:43
always looking for new goals. As soon as something is achieved or determined to be unachievable, then it's time to create a new and there's financial goals, marketing goals, policy development goals, the Caesars development plan. Everything is just everything that that you do. monthly, weekly, daily or goals, you've set a budget if it's covered under the budget, how to redesign it. Whereas differentiator from the budget to reality I've ever experienced. That was just developing goals to survive. Yeah, goals. I've lived through goals.
Collin 08:26
So that's a good reminder that we have daily goals. We have weekly goals, we have yearly goals, we've got five year 10 year 20 year goals for ourselves and our business, and we can change them when we need to. And you mentioned that one of the biggest challenges that you've ever faced was the financial and the budgetary goals for with COVID. What was it like wrestling with that, and communicating that? That challenge not just to yourself, but with your staff as well?
Becky O'Neil 08:59
painful, painful, painful, every day, trying to figure it out every day trying to see how I could keep people paid every day trying to communicate the challenges without scaring everybody away? I mean, I know that I'm not alone, but it was tough, a lot of sleepless nights to anti anxieties. Yeah, that was. That was tough time. It's still a tough time. We're still trying to recover. But at least there's light at the end of the tunnel right now.
Collin 09:37
Yeah, that's something that a situation that they don't tell you about in textbooks or in planning or in preparing for a business and working in pet care is how to handle those kind of situations. And you really do find yourself relying on a lot of experience and reaching out to people for help to try and figure out the best path forward and it can be stressful in those times because there's no right or wrong way path, there's just the path that you are on through those moments. And that can feel really isolating. And as you mentioned, like really anxiety and stressful. But continuing to surround yourself with good information and continue to try and plan in adapt is really what gets you through at the end of the day.
Becky O'Neil 10:22
Exactly. Yeah. I'm getting anxiety just thinking about,
Collin 10:27
okay, well, well, what, what, what, what are the aspects about your business is that you have over the years, and currently do employ a lot of people. And so I'm really curious how you went from zero employees, to well over 100 employees that you have now,
Becky O'Neil 10:51
one step at a time, one client at a time, one day at a time. Hiring my first employee was one of the hardest things I had done in my life up to that point, because I had no idea how to be an employer. But I use my networking and my resources to figure out all the things I needed to figure out hired, my first employee got them trained, I had policies procedures for them, for employment employee handbook, written, HR law is overwhelming to me. So I needed all of my ducks in a row for that. And after the first employee, then it was just one employee, one clients growing, it's a, it's a very much one case at a time industry. You can't just hire 10 employees, and then hope to get all those clients, you have to grow smartly. And then HR policies, procedures change all the time. So you always have to be updating that creating things to make your employees better, more accountability, it's hard, and especially in today's world, it's really hard to hire.
Collin 11:53
Yeah, I was gonna say that I see a ton of pet sitters almost daily across all the groups and social media platforms, posting that they're trying to hire, they're needing to hire, and they're really, really struggling with it in the current market. So from your experience, what is some advice that you would give to somebody who's currently struggling to hire,
Becky O'Neil 12:16
the pet care industry seems to be booming right now, the labor pool is not. So in order to try to keep up with that, really, it is looking at every opportunity, always keeping your eyes open, looking for the right fit, not hiring out of desperation, looking for that right employee, using your networks, to reach out. And just remembering that even though the clients are there, if you don't have the staff, you need to be smart about the clients who bring them in, because you don't want to bring on clients that you can't provide the level of service that you that your company provides. And you don't want to hurt your business, because you're trying to get back to where you were faster than you can hire staff.
Collin 13:07
That is a really frustrating part of going the client, there are clients now I need to grow. Now I'm able to grow. Now, if only I had the staff and in in, I appreciate the caution that you throw out there of going. Don't try and go to grow too fast. If you don't have that quality staff behind you to help support you along the way. You don't want to try and be growing, growing, growing, growing, and then try and backfill and find people to do those jobs, because you're going to end up hurting yourself and the clients down the line. But that can be a really frustrating time as a business owner who is ready to grow, I'm ready to do this, I've got to move now. I can't find anybody. And so you can start making these decisions that kind of come out of desperation or a fear of losing out.
Becky O'Neil 13:53
Exactly. And it's a very tough thing to do. We are turning away clients daily, even clients who use us in the past and that is one of my kind of building blocks in my philosophy of my company is that if you are my client, I will take care of you no matter what. And I've come to the point where the no matter what is here and I have to turn them away. Labor Day I can't turn away so many clients existing and new. But I can't take visits that are going to break my staff trying to fulfill and where they can't do the job that our clients expect.
Collin 14:33
How do we walk that line of balancing the the need for growth or the desire for growth with the with the reality of the world around us so that we so that we don't get ahead of ourselves? What are what are some ways that we can stay grounded and stay focused on what we're actually able to do today? Great question.
Becky O'Neil 14:55
I think everybody is going to be different in that aspect. But It's a fine line to walk in even when you think you have staff, and you take on clients, and then he somebody leaves. You're still juggling and struggling and balancing things. Yeah, I wish I had a whole answer to that question, because that would help me as well.
Collin 15:19
You're right. Yeah, I don't think there is a one size fits all answer to that question. And it is a very personal decision to sit, just take some time to sit down and go, what am I able to do? What am I capable of? and really focus on the the saying no, until you're able to say that yes. So that you, you're going to do the best job you
Becky O'Neil 15:43
can. And the other part of that is remembering that, it seems like all pet sitters are in the same boat. So if you have to turn away a client, put them on a waiting list, a contact list, so that when you do have the staff, you can reach out and say we're here because they're gonna have a hard time finding anybody to take their business at the time, it seems. So you have the opportunity to grow when you have the staff if you just put a plan in place for that.
Collin 16:14
You mentioned too many changes that have occurred over the year since you started. And I did want to pick your brain a little bit about some of the changes around advertising, because that is such a an interesting topic. And there's many advancements in that. So how does advertisement for your business changed since you opened your doors? Oh, wow.
Becky O'Neil 16:34
When I first started, there was there was an internet but it wasn't, you know, it was in its infancy, most businesses or websites. I didn't have a website for years. So everything was magazine, newspaper, The little local papers, darted off flyers, Yellow Pages, the valpak, coupon things. Everything, paper, everything expensive. Today, in it as it's grown, just getting a website was huge. My website brings in so many, so much business, as I've been in business for a long time, word of mouth and referrals from clients and employees. People that I've developed relationships with is exploding, send the website and referrals are huge way more than any paper advertising. I still put myself out there and some of the places that are important to me to be but but that is so scaled back on yellow pages.
Collin 17:45
It's kind of the advancement of technology is going lockstep with how advertising has changed. How did you stay up to date with the latest advancements and newest things to be doing with a business,
Becky O'Neil 17:57
I'm bringing in great people to help me with all of the things that I are not my forte, I brought somebody in to help with marketing very, very early in the business, but maybe after five years, because that's was not my, my background. So somebody who has the knowledge of marketing, and advertising and branding, and all of those kinds of things is very helpful. I had a consultant to just work a few hours a month for me at the beginning, and that develops, as the company grew, I was able to, you know, put more hours into my consultant, and she helped us grow immensely.
Collin 18:42
Yeah, reaching out to help acknowledging those weaknesses, and not being afraid to find somebody whether that's, you know, sounds like you reached out to consultants and other businesses that focus on that. But I suppose it could also be just friends or family or networking groups of what other people are doing or what experience others have had. Because I know for me, sometimes it feels like, Oh, I don't know if I can ask that question. Because I feel like maybe I should know this. And we start denying ourselves access to things because we don't want to come across as being a fool or feeling like we're behind on the times or something like that. But just going you know what this is what's important for my business and in asking those questions, because you know, there's those that's only going to help you so reaching out for the help when you need it is absolutely key.
Becky O'Neil 19:31
I don't have any problem with that. I fully acknowledge I recognize all of my weaknesses and look for people to fill them. I don't have as I said earlier, I don't have any business experience. So there was zero knowledge base to build on. And I wouldn't have even gotten out of the gate without reaching out to people and saying, I don't know how to do this. Can you help me
Collin 19:57
as you added and changed technologies you Got your website you have these these booking features now and all these all these advancements in the industry? Did you find that clients appreciated that? Or was that was that change hard to communicate to clients as well,
Becky O'Neil 20:16
when we first moved to like online bookings from the call or email, a lot of the clients were resistant. But as technology has advanced, across every industry, across everything that you do, people are more and more open to that our clients now love, the software features that we have that we provide to them, they get everything is instantaneous, they can book anytime they want, they can change add, cuz the website is open 24 seven, they love the feedback that they get in their texts or email the pictures. Knowing when somebody shows up and when somebody leaves, it's just plants today, at least 95% of them love the technology features that come with that care. But all industries, I think,
Collin 21:08
what would you say to somebody who is hesitant to bring on an automated booking process or something because they like the one on one personal contact that they have with their clients, and they're worried that they're not going to have the personal connection with their clients anymore.
Becky O'Neil 21:27
I guess it depends on the plan for their business. If they want to stay small and know their clients and have that relationship, then there's nothing wrong with that. But it will put limits on your time. And your resources. If you're involved in that personally, it takes a lot more of your personal resources to do that. So I don't think there's anything wrong, everybody has their own vision for what their company should be. I'm not here to tell anyone what's right or wrong. Just look at what you want and create your own path and then live that path
Collin 22:05
for your path, looking back over the years and where your business is now. Which would you call yourself? Do you consider yourself successful?
Becky O'Neil 22:12
I consider myself growing and learning and trying to get better every day. I have a lot of successes. But I don't know that I'll ever be in a place where I said, Here, I've done it, I'm done everything I want to do, I'm happy, I'm successful. And I'm just gonna sit back and coast on the laurels of my labor or whatever that expression is, I want to be better all the time. So it's hard to say you're successful when you still have goals and you're still trying to do things better and learn and challenge yourself and challenge your team and get better grow.
Collin 22:47
I think that that is so key that success is not a state that we arrive at. And then we are done. I think we I love how you said we've you have had successes and that's part of you've met your goals, that was a success. I love how you said that you're always learning. There's always other things to do and not that we can't rest in our and be happy and content with with what we where we are what we've done. But I think looking at the business and going, I can make improvements like I can, there are things that I can do. And I can be more successful. If I do these are these things. And I think that's a healthy attitude to have about our business that's going to grow and continue to be here year after year.
Becky O'Neil 23:35
No other side of that is some people will get to where they want to be in their business. And they're perfectly concerned and they don't really want to grow anymore. And they have their business set up exactly the way they want to. And they feel like they've achieved what they want to achieve. The only thing to people who who are concerned with where they are is just to remember to stay plugged into energy changes so that you don't fall behind and all of a sudden, say oh, well, everybody else is here. And I'm not unless you're happy being there. I Everyone has their own definition of success. Everyone has their own business where their company should be or where they want it to be. Yeah, and that's okay. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, no, we're not all the same. And that would be you know, that would be bad. There would there's, there's, there's a business file for a client, the client might not be the right fit for me, but it might be the right fit for smaller company or it might not be the right fit for that company. They need somebody with flexibility or or time options or just clients are different businesses are different. It's all okay. Yeah, I
Collin 24:46
think that's really key is that it's because too, sometimes we can get curious about another business down the street and what they're doing and feel like we're not living up to their expectations or that they're successful. We aren't taking a step back and going, well, their goals are different than mine, their vision is different than mine for what they want for their business, they're in a different place in their business path than I am. And that's okay. And to not get caught up in trying to keep up with the Joneses, when it comes to running our business.
Becky O'Neil 25:18
And that's something social media, not just in our business lives, but in our personal lives. There's a lot of people who feel who look on social media and see other people's vacations or parties, or successes or events where or business goals and growth and you just have to remember what people put out there is only the best. Nobody is is saying life is terrible. They're putting out there, you know, tab one and award that their child got to do on the math test. So it's really my best advice is, decide what you want to be, and then work on your goals to get there. And it doesn't matter what other people are doing, because they're doing it their way and
Collin 26:03
but your way is your way. And one of the things that your business and you are involved in and I know is something that you're very passionate about is being connected with a lot of local initiatives in groups and different organizations. Where does that passion come from? And why is that so important for you and your business?
Becky O'Neil 26:21
At the beginning, that was important because I was learning and I wanted to learn and grow in that setting can be a very lonely industry when, when you're by yourself. So connecting with other people who know what you're going through, it was just important to me. I'm involved in the local petsitting network, National Capital Area professional pet sitters, I'm involved in one of the local rescues when we're trails, I'm involved with the community business partnership, which is a Small Business Development Center, I'm on all those boards. And after a while, then it's important to me besides what they can bring to me then what I can give back. So I was helped so much along the way. And now I like to try to help give back in any way that I can. And then there's also the national, different organizations that you can be a part of. I am currently on the on the board of directors of the National Association of Professional pet sitters. And I'm very passionate about that and their mission.
Collin 27:23
Tell us about the conference coming up. That's at the end of September here, the 25th and 26th. what's the what's the theme? And what can people expect? Yeah,
Becky O'Neil 27:36
as you said, the conferences September 25, and 26th. Saturday and Sunday, we have three speakers each day, our theme is getting back to business, as opposed COVID kind of how to rebuild and regrow in the new world. Sessions go on Saturday, from four until 730. And then we will have an online happy hour networking event from 730 to 830. Saturday evening. And then Sunday sessions go from four to 730. All online, if you sign up for the conference and can't attend any sessions, you will get the recording of them so you can view them at your leisure. If you're online with the conference to be able to ask questions and interact with the speakers, we're doing it on this platform called hooba, which is a very interactive app that allows a lot of things to happen, including networking with with your fellow attendees during the session, it's going to be a great conference,
Collin 28:31
the title of this the theme of it is getting back to business. So for you organizing it and putting everything get together, what's kind of your goal or what you hope the big takeaway is from the conference,
Becky O'Neil 28:43
we've tried to come up with sessions that touched all the aspects of business that people may be struggling with those COVID. We have sessions on readiness, preparedness, positive mental attitude, another session on setting boundaries, which you know, trying to do everything right now to get back is something that would be important for people, pricing for profit. So we all maybe didn't make profit during COVID. And now we might want to look at our prices and how we can get back the problem profit. We have a session on employment law, which if you're looking to hire one is is a lot of great information. We have a lawyer on speaking there. We have a session on hiring good talent post COVID that hopefully will understand how people understand how to attract good hires. And then just building your business back after the pandemic. We have some really great speakers online and I'm really excited. I think our sessions are going to be fantastic. Our speakers are great. They have Denise fleck, the pet safety Crusader chili lemon definitely Lauterbach Jennifer Anderson bigger from the from a law firm to talk about the employment law. Cody Morel from hydrology and then we have In Sedgwick, founder of the patent any coach, all people who are plugged into the industry to know what's going on who feel our pain, so they're excited for this? Yeah, I
Collin 30:09
think pain is a keyword or a different pain points in our businesses. And sounds like you've orchestrated the conference to try and address or at least place some savvy on some of those pain points that we're all experiencing. When people are looking at the conference, it's all online, which, you know, we've had 18 months or whatever, have have a lot of online experiences, but it's still can be a little overwhelming or challenging, at least to show up and be ready to, to learn and be engaged. What's some advice that you would give somebody to be prepared for the conference to they can get the most out of it. That's why I think Be prepared is to sign up early, to download the app to start engaging with the other participants early.
Becky O'Neil 30:57
You can as soon as you download the app and log in, get into the conference there. You can talk to speakers, ask questions, talk to fellow attendees, talk to the organizers, talk to you know the head people at naps, all kinds of opportunities to engage ahead of time get to know people do networking, it will be from the time you sign up through. You know, Paul, I think a month after the conference there will be open for all of these things, including viewing sessions, giving feedback. So the sooner you sign up, the better.
Collin 31:30
And I'll add the the huva app, I know you it's being hosted everything on that really does provide a great way for for networking for communication and for contacting people. I know that's something that we all really appreciate from in person conferences is the ability to be involved in conversations about certain topics, or find people that we've gotten connected with in the past and a lot of online platforms that I've had experience with kind of struggle in that department. But I know that Hoover really knocks that out of the park. As far as being able to engage message people get their contact information, and be involved in those conversations.
Becky O'Neil 32:08
And we were so excited discovered to discover this app, I think it's going to make a real difference in the conference experience for everyone attending.
Collin 32:16
So where can people go and get signed up? What are some of the deadlines for registration and all of that good stuff.
Becky O'Neil 32:24
There are no deadlines for registration, but the earlier you sign up, the more benefit you'll get out of it. Yeah, to sign up, you can go to pet sitters.org class page slash Events tab. Or you can just go to the main naps website, which is pet sitters.org. And you'll be able to find it from there.
Collin 32:42
And I'll have a link to that in the show notes to it on the website. So listeners can go and get registered today. So they can start getting connected with with other pet sitters too. Because like he said, The earlier you get signed on, the more you can be involved in conversations and be part of that too, even before the sessions actually start. Yeah. And get
Becky O'Neil 33:03
familiar with happen. Absolutely. The networking is is extremely important. I'm a firm believer in networking. I know Well,
Collin 33:10
it's something that you've been involved in basically from day one of your business of getting involved in with local organizations and initiatives getting connected with other pet sitters. And then you've continued to do that over the years and being involved in naps too. I really agree that that is something that is absolutely foundational to to the industry and to having it survive for the future and to be better and continue to grow and raise the bar for everybody. Absolutely. I fully agree. Well, Becky, I haven't really appreciated this conversation. I love your story and all the experience that you have that you've brought through the years and encouraging us to network. And really looking forward to the naps conference this year as well. I know that there are a ton of other topics and things that people could probably pick your brain on. So how best can people get in touch with you and follow along with your work?
Becky O'Neil 34:09
I'm happy for anyone to email me my email is Becky at Becky's pet care.com. I will get back to you as quickly as I can. Some days I'm a little more overwhelmed than others seven might take a minute but they're happy to chat with anybody set up a time to talk on the phone. anything they want. I'm happy to help network give back.
Collin 34:28
Absolutely it all have that link in the show notes as well as people can can email you with with any questions that they have either about the conference or about your business or or advice that you have for them. So again, Becky, this has been a real pleasure. Thank you so much.
Becky O'Neil 34:43
Thank you very much for your time column.
Collin 34:44
I'm pretty Becky's story is a story of planning, executing, adapting, planning, executing, adapting repeat for the next 20 years. And I think what is so critical about her story is the fact that she continues reaches out for help for expertise and for guidance at every step along the way. And that starts with getting connected with a local group with local initiatives, and then going out and getting further education and learning from other pet sitters. That's what this podcast is all about. And that's what the naps conference is all about. But love to hear if you plan on attending, and how you have benefited from continuing education conferences, and things like that in the field. If you're interested in attending, but right now, the finances don't just quite aligned with your desire. Please let Megan I know reach out to us at feedback at petsitter confessional.com. We'd love to be able to find a way and help you to attend a conference this year so that you can continue to invest in yourself and your business. We want to thank our Patreon supporters for making this extra show this bonus show this week possible and for you for listening. Hope you have a amazing weekend and Megan and I will be back on Monday.
