218: Know Your Customer with Brian Taylor
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Summary:
How are you building multiple ways to service your clients? Sticky services keep clients coming back because you keep solving their problems in new ways. From package pricing to customer service and retention, Brian Taylor, owner of Harlem Doggie Day Spa, joins the show to share how he's become known as the 'Dog Father of Harlem'. His passion for being neighborhood centric and servicing community drive him to connect his business to his community. Brian pursues servicing his top client's needs and making every interaction special. He shares why he continues to give back and where he hopes the grooming industry goes in the future.
Topics on this episode:
Background in banking
Branding
Mobile Grooming
Pup-Relief Tour
Future of grooming
Main take away? Sticky services keep your clients coming back and allow you multiple streams of revenue.
About our guest:
Harlem Doggie Day Spa is dedicated to providing the finest cage-free boarding, daycare and grooming facility in Harlem. We were founded in 2010 with a vision to create a one of a kind grooming facility. From there, business started expanding when clients began requesting care for their pets during the day or while on vacation. In 2016, we opened a second location, in order to serve our growing customer base, and to improve upon providing a better place for our dogs to be at ease with their doggie pals. By learning and catering to each dog’s personality and needs, we developed trust with our customers, by providing an enriched environment with your best friend. Harlem Doggie Day Spa focuses every day on safety, cleanliness, client-communication and tail-wagging dog happiness. Our care is distinguished by 24-hour on-site staffing, dog evaluations, daily activities for stimulation, groomer and dog relationships and more.
Links:
Website: https://harlembarknbreakfast.wpcomstaging.com
Instagram: Brian is @ https://www.instagram.com/dogfatherofharlem
Spa is @ https://www.instagram.com/harlemdoggiedayspa
Pup Relief Tour: https://www.instagram.com/puprelieftour
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dogs, business, clients, people, grooming, groomers, services, pet, money, love, parents, animal, pet sitter, harlem, daycare, offer, day, pandemic, sitters, dog walkers
SPEAKERS
Collin, Brian Taylor
Collin 00:17
Hi, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet and pet sitters International. The grooming industry is at one side of pet care that really doesn't get a lot of notice. And so today, we're really excited to have Brian Taylor, the dogfather, owner of Harlem doggie Day Spa on to talk about how he runs his salon, the importance of setting sticky services like packages and multiple ways to care for your clients. As well as where the biggest growth opportunities are moving forward in the pet care space. We caught up with Brian on a very busy day for him. So the audio is coming directly from his salon. So you may hear some dogs barking in the background. But there's so much to take in from this interview. So I hope you have your pen and pencils ready. Let's get started.
Brian Taylor 01:11
Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much. My name is Brian Taylor. And most people don't own a small business in Harlem, Harlem Derby Day Spa, where we offer all services from grooming and daycare, dog walking, boarding services, pet transportation, and mobile grooming services have a staff of six to eight, depending on what you need. Me help me run this business, typically service over three to $500 a month, depending on what services what parents want. But my true passion is dog grooming. grooming for a long time. And my second passion is just connecting people to the love of animals. So find ways to do activities around animal and people. And so far I've been successful for the last 11 years going on 12
Collin 02:04
that's a really long time to be in the industry. What got you started? What got you started in grooming?
Brian Taylor 02:11
Wow, it was by accident, actually. And when I think about all the time is like the most the accident that saved me in so many different ways. I was a banker turned down Gerber. So basically, I originally invested in ex partner mine business. And while she was running the business, our home, I was told talk to her like, Hey, we should open this business. I'm a Harlem community. And at that time, there weren't any animal services owned and operated by African Americans in Holland. So I wanted to venture out and just offer this unique services, keep it very neighborhood a century and then build from there. We got into it. A year and a half, I have taken over the business. Things didn't work out as planned, you know, sometimes passion and actually true work. It's different. And you know, there's lines that got crossed, and we just, we couldn't, we couldn't work anymore. So I made a emotional boy, very confident decision that I wanted to take their business. I fell in love with what I was doing. I was passionate about every aspect of it. So right when I noticed that we weren't going to work long term. I went to school and I became a dog groomer. And then after that I took a lot of dog training courses. And I started to learn the business going in and out, I go to all the road shows all the expos I would connect with other groomers. And I will work with her and just learn as much as I possibly can. While we were working together. So when we when I start going 2013 I just knew at that moment that I could take this business to the next level. And ever since then I've been running it and
Collin 04:02
you said a phrase there that I really liked. You want to keep the business neighborhood centric, you wanted to keep it focused on the Harlem area. Why was that so important to you?
Brian Taylor 04:12
Because there was no such thing like that at that moment. Yes, there was a couple of dog walkers. There's couple of pet sitters that were doing that at home. They weren't doing that at our level where we were servicing anywhere between three to 500 dogs. Always service that amount of dogs with I never wanted to be a big business. I wanted to focus on the customer and the medium being very convenient for our clients. We right next to the train station. We opened the longest hours at that time and at the same time. We did estimize services everyone never had the service some people wanted daycare for a couple of days and dog walking for a couple of days. So we created packages that customized to the working pet parent. So when we say essential to the company Unity, we wanted to give back to the community. So I've always had an internship when I had kids who were interested in animals to come into our facility, and, you know, work as an intern, or work as as a way to learn a new skill set. In order to get into pet industry, our clients, our clients has always been supportive. Every time we needed to do something like, you know, I needed to raise, you know, money to work on, you know, picking up poop from the city streets, because pet parents have access to back. So we create a bell pool, black barn decking. And we were able to raise over three to $5,000, on GoFundMe in 2013, to help people to station and so I've always finally like, you know, what, I have a business, more people who love what I'm doing in the services that are offered to them being involved in my business. So that was always been my thing from the beginning.
Collin 06:02
Like many of us want to have passionate clients and a passionate community that support us and help our own business, how do you stay engaged with the people in your community,
Brian Taylor 06:13
you'd be very transparent, and you'd be very vulnerable. Open up, most of my clients that come here, my top clients, they know who I am, I know what they do, I know a little bit about themselves, their personal lives. And I also know about their dogs, and I find ways to connect them. And their dogs, and I make it very special for them. Like, in our I've done birthday parties for pet parents, what while they dog is he, you know what I mean? And our sharing our house, send them report cards, I make them special, because I knew whenever they go in their pocket to spend the money at my facility, I want them to see the value. And that's why this just really focused on the value. So that's why we from the beginning, when social media was such a beginning stage on Facebook or on on, you know, YouTube and all this, I started doing content, I did content and made it very focused on the pet parent that services
Collin 07:11
you had a background in, in baking. And that curious how that influences how you run your business and how you approach problem solving and all that stuff?
Brian Taylor 07:22
Yeah, I think banking was such a big deal. I think in banking, what they caught us, it was, you know, when you're in a consumer and a bank, and you're dealing with dealing with consumers, you're trying to pick out what products or services that matches, you know, when a bank has to offer. So there is time they're called walking work in the lobby. So what that means is, when you walk into a bank, you have this bank teller, there's been like, Hey, man, how can I help you or I just want to do a transaction, sure, I can help you do that transaction, then they take you in, they sit you down, they verify all your information, make sure your contact numbers is correct, make sure that all of that all your accounts are linked up properly, and you're not getting an emic fees. And then they'll do the transaction for you. But those few moments of just, they're speaking to the building report with the with, they look into your account to verify that what information that is correct. And also this whole KYC know your customer, they're also finding opportunities where they can say, Hey, you know what, I noticed you just got this large sum of money your account? What are your plans for this? Are you buying a car? Are you are you looking to invest in this money? Or are you looking for a down payment towards a property. So you look at these all these opportunities, and you set them up. So that's why in the dog business, I had really good operating system, I use ginger ginger app helps me do all aspect of my business. I collect all customer information, I collect their credit card information, I get a little bit of demographic information from them, I get the birthday. And also I really track how they spend money with us how often they come with us and future expense and revenue. So I build my business around packages, because packages is mean estimates best estimate of what potential income I'm gonna earn in the next 234 months because people buy packages and just like gym membership and all these things. People just want a lump sum of money, they'll pay you for it. And then from there, they want to forget about it. So I build my business about those services. And from that point on, I can almost predict when the client uses my services. And that helps me run a better business. So I'm not just dealing with, you know, handling the dogs and then being a burden or every client has some type of, I call it when I look at my clients I do right I do a lot of segments. And I can we can talk about that a little bit later. But every client plays a role on the bottom line, you know, and I look at a client and do multiple services as a client. If you just come in and you're doing a one off boom, and a one off daycare, a one off boarding, yes, your potential, but you're not a client yet. But when you're doing charity, doing grooming, you're doing board and your clients are looking for ways to honor and just continue to appreciate you spending the most on money, and money to my business. So that's what I learned for banking that I implemented in my business.
Collin 10:37
No, I've never thought about that about that process. Because when you you feel as a client or customer, when you go to the bank, you feel really taken care of you feel like this person knows me, they understand me, they're anticipating my next move my next need, and there have revolving everything around me in that moment. And it really does make it like it gives you a really special feeling to know this person is, is putting that level of care into thinking about me.
Brian Taylor 11:04
Yeah, of course, you know, if you looked at it now when, at the time they were offering you direct deposit, you can get a credit card for hope, which protection is set up online banking, they call those seeking services, those sticky services keep you at the bank, because if your money is going to this bank is probably not going to switch your direct deposit your money. So that's what I focus on, I think of ways where I can be multiple services for a client, you know, pick up services, offer grooming, offer daycare, and offer boarding services, I send you report cards, I honor your dog's birthday, I do a birthday party for your dog at times. I mean, I don't sell food like I used to. But you know what I tell you about all the offers and coupons that, you know some of these sites are having, you know, I do content one, your job that make you feel special that every time we spend five 9000 1500, to to my services, that is going somewhere that builds the business.
Collin 12:08
That may sound like a lot to keep track of, for somebody listening.
Brian Taylor 12:14
I know I know he does, they really does. Especially what the challenges in our industry is that we have a lot of people that are very passionate about animals, but just don't have enough savviness in terms of running a business. So the idea is that it's gonna be a dog business or bakery, business, there's certain things that you need to understand. And the most, the most important thing is your business cycle. And I feel like a lot of dog owners and model one pet business do not understand the business cycle enough. So and you don't know how to ask for the money. They don't know how to engage their clients, so that their client will see them as a value. My clients see me as their dog father, but they're also seen as a reliable nanny or reliable groomer, reliable person that they know whatever happens in their life in terms of their dogs. And a person like that. You know what, during the pandemic, actually, they really saw me as more of a value and not because of all the great things that I've done. One thing that really got me it was one of my clients hit me up was like, Brian, I think I got COVID. And if anything happens to me today, or any time, I'm telling my family that give you my job, and I speak so much volume to them, like damn, I have all these other dogs. But I really love that dog in particular, and I felt so honored for her to even think of me as the next caretaker of an animal if something happens to her personally. So those are the type of values you should be leaving to your clients.
Collin 13:54
Have you heard of trying to pet Claire from Acton? criticizers has this to say
13:59
time to pet has honestly revolutionized how we do business. My sitters can work much more independently because they have ongoing access to customer and pet information without relying on me. I save hours upon hours of administrative time on billing, processing payments and generating paychecks.
Collin 14:15
If you are looking for new petsitting software, give time to pet a try. listeners of our show can get 50% off your first three months by visiting time pet.com forward slash confessional. You mentioned the one word they're reliable as far as being able to be predicted people can get they know they trust that you're going to be there. How else do you describe the Harlem Harlem doggy daycare spa as far as a brand or how you want to be viewed in that community?
Brian Taylor 14:43
Honestly, now, I think a lot of things are changing. What I'm really focused on is deepening that relationship with the clients who are paying the bottom line. We talked a little bit about segments so I really focus on segment and my clients more More and more, just based on how often they comment how much money they spent, where they located, what type of breed of dogs that they have. So it helps me get a sense of, you know, when they're going to use our business, and who were valuable on who, at the end of the year, when I decided to raise my prices for when I decided to make major changes that will be considered purged, you know, they're not going to use that services, because they at the bottom line, they're not really there. It's just convenient for them. So just to get a sense of that, and really cater to our clients to the best, but also have priorities also have boundaries. And also make sure that you charge for everything that they're asked for. But, you know, explain in a way that there's a value towards doing that. Those are the ways where, you know, Haarlem, WD spies looked at differently, it's not about money for me anymore. It's about really doing that type of level of services that I'm proud of, that at the end of the day, these people are satisfied, because they know that the dollars was being taken care of. And then I like to have fun, have fun with dogs called. So I do all type of tic tocs, and all these fun things. So the idea is that when they are brunch, or when you're with their family, or when their dog barks, like, look at my dog, look what's happened to my dog in this doggy daycare, I go to, I don't have to pay for advertising, because these different content that I create, is my appetizer.
Collin 16:31
Where do you come up for your ideas? Are those videos?
Brian Taylor 16:36
Good? No, no, I think you know, so let me let me even break it down for you. So I went to school. So I went to school, and I wanted to be a film director. So I love content. So I'm looking at all the Instagram rules, I'm looking at all the content that's out there, looking at what works, what doesn't work. And I just, I'm snapping pictures, video every moment of the day. And then I go and filter through all that stuff. When I say, Okay, this is good, that's good, this work that doesn't work, that just try to be authentic. I don't try to force it. I just have fun doing it. Sometimes some of it works. Some of it doesn't work. But what is every single dog that's in these pictures, our clients who use our services, they're happy, and they love us, and they love to highlight their dogs. It makes their days easier then on their part to want to support us.
Collin 17:35
Yeah, and I like that idea of just constantly being taking photos and videos and being vigilant and what's going around you because when it comes down to the wire, and you're like, oh, I've got to post something, it's am I missing something and you try and force something to happen. That's what it usually goes off the rails, right? And it's not going to have the impact to one.
Brian Taylor 17:51
No, no, definitely. But honestly, it's it's a fun time to be independent and stripping out to tell all my groomer friends this question, I was like, Listen, you want to look at this. So on, if you look at a pie, on the client side, the most trusted people that they trust as a veterinarian, they trust the vet out of all of the people. The next part that is spend the most amount of money is retail, which is who leashes, collars, whatever they spend money to have to spend money on, right? But the biggest opportunity is service. At the end of the day, when you add value service can go a long way. You know, they only see the back once or twice a year. They need to buy food every single month. So that that bucket is probably 40 to $50. But service when you pick them up declines. It's It's It's off the grooming average woman of New York, charged about 90 as a starter for dog grooming. So nine times, what times a year. You know, that's almost close to $500 in just grooming, dog daycare two or three times as much daycare prices for one day to 35 for five days a day. Could you add that up an average client can make it you can charge close to $5,000 a year. You know what I'm saying? So when I when I talk to my goal, guys, I'm saying listen, no matter if you hear me or you in Alabama anyway, the biggest opportunity where parents can make the most money comes from being a pet professional. And I think that grooming as the biggest opportunity because you can create content we deal with more dogs interact with more people. And then most groomers, groomers doctors, anyone that takes care of animals like in the capacity of being a pet sitter. You Have a wealth of knowledge. You know, you can touch base on, you can touch base on grooming, you can touch base training, you can touch base on what's the best pet near is up to us, with this happens to my dog, whatever, because you're around a dog the most. So being that adapt clean, if you act, if you create yourself, if you become the thought leader in your space, you know, people will come to you for information. And they will trust what you're saying in your recommendation. That gives you the opportunity, again to say, you know what, this opened more doors for me to be able to do what I do, you don't even say. But I think a lot of gurus and other, you know, pet, individual pet people, dog walkers sometimes, you know, pet sitters, they only see themselves as just one dimension of a pet sitter, dog walker, or dog walk in me pet sitter. And then we'll look at the full scope of what the pet industry is, and where the money actually comes in where people are spending the money. So I look at it that way. And I try to make sure that I know every aspect of the business just enough, by the same time what I'm good at, trying to make sure that I create a space again that people see me as top leaders. I mean, I do interviews like this. I write articles all the time, I collaborate with other brands, I work with startup brands, and I just find ways to just put myself in front of an audience. And that's how it helps grow my business and help build my personal brand.
Collin 21:34
It is about connecting. Right? I absolutely love love all of that. Because I think you're right I think many times not only do we like we can get very myopic in like our day to day operations of where we can get focus of where our struggles are, and what we're dealing with and kind of forget to look at the broader picture of holistically one of the pet care needs for this individual. And we might not have to be experts at with each of those. But knowing just enough to direct and then as you've experienced many of us do, you become that central hub that of resource for that for that pet parent, use day start trusting you for advice and for information. And then and then you have that, that there's that stickiness with that client that you've talked
Brian Taylor 22:15
about. Mm hmm. So most of my girlfriends, and most of my my clients come to me, hey, Brian, wish your best recommendation. But this was the best recommendation. And I help. And I and I be helpful and I support. Because at the end of the day, the universe didn't support me when I need to do something.
Collin 22:38
You said one of your biggest passion was for grooming. And so I dive into that a little bit and talk about you know, how you describe your your style of grooming, and what you really liked most about
Brian Taylor 22:50
it? Well, my philosophy around groom is to one is, if a dog doesn't come in like a show groomer, I'm not gonna let the dog leave as a show right now, because I don't want you it's just a safety thing. You know, so that means I set realistic expectations for my clients, when they are not on a routine schedule. I don't try to overdo something, and I don't try to you know, under deliver I just just enough so that they can get on my schedule, then I can over deliver down the line. My second thing is the one I love the most is that dogs to me are a canvas. When I'm grooming a dog, I never know how the dogs gonna look at the end, I just know for sure that I'm going to prove this out and it's going to look fabulous. So that's what I'm very passionate about. And sometimes I do get burnt out because sometimes is that the more I get, I get out of machine mode sometime and I want to do a lot. And then sometime I just I take time back when I whenever I learned we cannot be better. I'm inspired by the grooming world because you have not the groomers who are very like they're, you know, they've done all these different shows they do top now grooming and all that, which is great. I'm very inspired about the everyday glamour and Touching Lives of everyday people. So when I grew up, I really focused on doing that top notch grooming for the everyday people. But at us at a pace where you know, we have a plan in place. You know, I'm not giving you all of that up front when I don't understand your animal behavior. I don't know about your dogs. And I don't know about what what your schedule is like in terms of getting good dog regularly groomed, the conversation or the report building happens within a couple of sessions. And then I can say you know what, this is what my recommendation is in keeping your dog on a regular schedule, but also, most of the content that I do comes from Little dogs out on my regular schedule that they love what I do and I love the dogs are and I can grow my dog alive any day of the week, anytime and never have a problem. Knock on wood.
Collin 25:15
It's really interesting to hear you talk about that grooming process and how it really resembles there's that quote by Michelangelo talking about whenever he would do a sculpture, he believed the sculpture is already in the marble, I just have to uncover it through my process. I like to hear how you're like well, there's there's there's something under here that I'm kind of uncover that and it's going to be different and unique ever slightly every single time I can imagine that amount of creativity going into a dog I said, like that must be exhausting at times to be kind of creative. For 12 hours a day.
Brian Taylor 25:51
No, no, no. So I'm back on the go, man. So I make a final lap like today, I'm grooming a lot today, because one of my groomers caught outside took over a session instead of cancel those appointments. Get it gets exhausting. And that's especially in the summer months, it can burn out you can be very burned out from the whole concept. But overall, it's so excited when when you see the personality change when you're groomed, and you also feel the energy, how much the doctor like you service them. And then you know, the parents that you know, nine out of 10 of time really appreciate, you know what you have done.
Collin 26:32
You also offer a mobile grooming service, if I'm not mistaken, how did that get started? And what's it like writing?
Brian Taylor 26:42
That is a really it's, it's like, it's the icing on the cake that is good and could be bad. It's been several times, yes, mobile grooming during the pandemic was awesome. I mean, we're still in the pandemic, but those few months it was really the challenges for me is that it's finding quality groomers that really have a passionate agreement. And most time we're in a stage and in this wind is era right now where everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, pet owner, and everybody wants to start their own business, they don't have the formal training, they don't understand price, and they don't understand how to operate the business. So they don't want to work with anybody. They want to figure it out on my own. And no one really, really, really tapped into, you know, giving people the right proper steps in terms of being a boss, and at the same time, finding time for your personal self. So the challenges were mobile grooming is that when it's good, it's good. When you grab people to run it, and you're doing it, I have a whole business that you know that we do all the services. So sometimes I can be in there, I have to make sure I'm in the salon, doing something typing out someone. So you know, there's been several times when I have to let the things sit, because I couldn't find why the people don't want to do the type of services that reflects again,
Collin 28:12
I'm sure it must mean a lot of like last minute changes or issues that come up with that mobile service. What's it What's it like dealing? Or how do you handle like last minute problems or issues as they come up?
Brian Taylor 28:25
That's what the best way to handle any last minute problem is, is to communicate. That's what I'm really good at my client newsletter. It's not necessarily you working appointment is like, Hey, guys, this is what we got going on this month. A lot of the stuff are happening, hey, you know, we have a little issue with mobile gaming, but we're going to try to fix it when we can't get to in that we're gonna get you in the shop. You know, I'm saying the expectation of blaming him now. I have challenges in this area. But my home base is still good. How can I still accommodate you? You know, I don't wait to the last minute for things that blow up on them when I do or when things like that do happen. They all came with it wouldn't because I'm good on my word. So that's where the trust comes in. So like yeah, if I can one event like that, but then run the shop properly because my small animal groomers, her dogs sick, she can come to work, and I still got to groom those nine dogs. I can easily like Hey, man, I'm so sorry. I've already told you two months ago I needed to be on this. You know this this routine. Now? I can't I cannot do this today. I have to find I have to cancel your appointments. No, I'm a groomer. I can go in there and I can go all those dogs. And I'll let them know like, hey, Sam, you know my groom is out today. But don't worry about it. I'm gonna take care of you. So Hey, the band can come out today, don't worry about it, I got a car, I'm gonna have somebody pick up this doc. So I just find ways around it because at the end of the day is expectation my preference put in a plan is, especially the ones who put it in a plan of Listen, you know, today I'm going to get my nails and my feet done. While Luffy has been grown. Has this happened. So fast what it is, well as a one man team is challenging. But that's what it comes back to just keep communicating with your clients. And it's okay to cancel, but make it up, find ways to make it up to them. And they appreciate you more because they know you're human.
Collin 30:41
But many of us may have fears of trying to let feel like we're letting people down, right? Whenever something breaks or our schedule, right? Like, oh, I I don't want to tell this person that I'm gonna be really upset with me
Brian Taylor 30:52
that makes it worse. Yeah, that makes it worse. I know, we have a luxury of clients, we don't have a luxury of really messing up. Because we mess up too many times, you're gonna have a meaning behind you. And I said, one day, reputation is messed up, you have to work three times as hard to keep your reputation. password, yeah, focus on what you can't please anyone. And the other challenge is students, I tell people this all the time. If your client base doesn't have repeat customer, you're not building a business. If you have a lot of new people in your book of business, right? You know, I said the magic numbers 200. For our business, I just love that 200. And this is why if you're not at like 7020, like 730, right, I say 7020. Because I'm gonna say 10%. Because 10% is going to be alone a bit more. Like, you know, like I was on a waiting list or, you know, dollar dog in there, if you're too slow, or whatever your book of business should be 70%, we estimate, just regular repeat customers regularly, you know, then I'm going to say 20% is new, you always want to keep them new clients gotta keep adding new clients, I say 10% is that in between that, I miss my point miracle, I'm a good client. But things are not, I can't be on a schedule. Or you know, I've need all these dogs, I can throw an extra dog in there, that that gray area of people who were could potentially be really good client, or can be really bad crime that to get rid of. So I feel like you have that good space. What I'm starting to see now you see a lot of people have more new clients than really good, consistent client, Daniel Wagner, mine is not being paid. Because you always got to be focused on a new client. You're not pre booking, not getting them on a schedule. So then guess what's happening, you get a lot of dogs who misbehave and not used to grow and they go six months in, they're not being groomed. And I got a challenge. So just like in grooming, daycare, dog walking, and pet sitter, and all of that needs to have a good mixture of clients who are retention, there you have a ride or die, you can say, you know what, I got to pay $5,000 worth of taxes. Let me just do a package. Let me do a fire sale right now. And see if I can just have people paid for bad services. If you can't pull up $5,000 from the book of business for bank services, which all businesses doing one way or the other with coupons, then do we need to rebuild your business along with retention?
Collin 33:47
And does that and that happens through the way you interact with them? Right? You set those expectations or serve patients?
Brian Taylor 33:53
Yeah, we service them, you know, and we say, Hey, you know, I'm not going to be perfect. But if something happens, guess what? free to call me. Text me, email me this, this email, I only comes to my phone. So if you don't get an email, and that eliminates a lot of issues when it comes to reviews, bad reviews, because I've set those expectation upfront. I deal with those reviews before it pulls up.
Collin 34:19
Yeah, that's really I love that way that you think about that as deal with the review before you get it by setting those expectations, communicating and then and then excelling. So that you don't get those. When you've gotten less than stellar reviews, how do you process those?
Brian Taylor 34:36
In the past, I used to get so mad and I'll block them. I used to get so emotional. I mean, what I realized is that take your emotions out those bad reviews actually gives you an opportunity to be a good business. So the people who read those reviews and see that you're not emotional, you're professional, you Acknowledging that you did wrong, or even if you didn't do wrong, just stating what happened, and that people make their own decision, then a quarter of these people are going to, like those reviews or people are not going to like those reviews. People are gonna want to use your services and people don't care. So you want to answer those reviews, secure emotionality, professional, you know, talk about your policies, if you have them, if you mess up, be honest and be well, like, Hey, you know, but just take the emotion out of it. And just say what it is. At the end of the day, we're in a space in this pet industry, there's so much client, and hapara clients don't really that stuff. They don't the ones that can do Be very careful with them.
Collin 35:48
Do you find Do you have a lot of overlap of clients between your different services that you offer?
Brian Taylor 35:53
Yes. And I love that. I love that. That's something when a client to me is when they do daycare, boarding and grooming. That's a client. Wow, that's amazing. three buckets. And Timmy, when I lose that, that that hurts me, I'm like, hey, what could I have done differently? to not have music now? Honestly, so when I look at, and I talk about service, that obviously is multiple services, but you know, selling services, bringing the clients, the groom, and bringing clients to seeing so many people, because you've grown up with different dogs and all of that. But now, you haven't been real and then given a reason for them to stay. Keep them on your schedule and find ways to deepen the relationship.
Collin 36:41
Yeah, by continuing to solve the problems and need that they have in multiple ways.
Brian Taylor 36:45
And Zach,
Collin 36:48
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Brian Taylor 38:02
in his heart. So I set the expectation with my my my viewers and my staff. I live with the dog so as a two four on building and have a small area as mine so when I go on the tour, I asked my staff Hey, I need one of your to stay over and I pay them back pay them good to stay over. I overpay them because I cage free. What makes our cage free works is this. All the dogs come to doggy daycare. Only a small percentage only comes to board. They come in they played one and they are super active all day and at night. They usually find a nice little corner and they sleep on dogs and spayed under our dog costume temperament as an adult, overdo it, I just have chest enough dog I like my ratio to be eight dogs to one handler, we typically have 20 to 20 hours a day. Well, so that way when we were bored six to eight dogs in a big space like this dogs don't get along with each other, we put them in different rooms. By the end of the day, every day they are tired and down to more than two weeks boredom because I feel like this facility. So these are the ways that works for me is an activity based on daycare with an overnight stay with a staff member. And it's kind of times when the dogs stay over. Unless they're super energetic. They don't have to know how to socialize, they're not part of the pack. Then we may have issues but the issues are so slow. Most of our dogs are born with us come to dominate a cat on a regular basis. So itself I happen to have problems long term when I'm looking to grow would I do that now. I think that This intimate set of services there was as good, it took me five, six years here, you know, I want to get bigger, there will still be where they all come to doggy daycare, and then at night, each of them are having individual suites. So that night, they slept alone, then during the day they are asleep, and then they come and play, get bed and all that. So that's the ultimate goal. But my intimate setting is the hive. So eliminate a lot of patients who are trying to nickel and dime, creative packs are not consistent. Because at the end of the day, all you want to take care of all you want to talk through around me, because they are my dogs, when they pass away. I don't have a dog.
Collin 40:49
Yeah, how you have that connected with the play time with the energy getting out with the consistency in in seeing them, you get to know them, and then they get to know the group too. And you have that group dynamic that you can really predict. And then as you know, you said I love those two words. It's it's intimate, it's small, it's it's close to that because you do get to know them. And you can really allow them to you know if that helped, that does help keep the stress down. It's not like you're trying to keep 25 dogs also overnight, in addition to turn on the day.
Brian Taylor 41:21
No, no, no, it's all fine in the back. Yeah, parents love it. They love it. And it pays itself.
Collin 41:29
Last year, you were busy with a lot of things. And one of those was, was was traveling around was traveling around the country and giving away free haircuts to people who needed that. Where did that Where did that come from? And why was that important for you to do?
Brian Taylor 41:47
Wow. That's the impact portion. The best way to answer is like Remember I talked about how I've always find ways to connect community in my business. That's the way I work my business. You know, I have done a lot of different things like we should do pool parties and BBQ with pet parents and their dogs, we invite new ties calm in the backyard. We shut down a street in New York, and we had an following fashion runway with pet parents and their dog had Halloween costume we had councilmen come in and they became you know, hosts and guests and they judge the dogs. So we have over 75 dogs that that where they walk down the runway with their owners. And I've always I would do I did a black tie event with Donald owners and they paint parents, where everyone and their dog came in and black tie. I find ways to connect people in and do that too. When I saw how the pandemic was impacting everyone, and when I look at my business cycle, so my business cycle if when services go up and down, we know on the downturn of things, so grew, was really up and then goes down in January, some part of February. And then it goes back up and march and tax season calm to April and May and I was like man, this is the time where all those people who could get their dog groomed early in the year to bring down this this Matic coats. And and I was saying to myself, like I see restaurants lost all their businesses, but they still feed on frontline workers, you see been going above and beyond doing all the stuff and they don't have no money to fit the table that inspired me in some ways can I help my people. So I started offering a raffle services and also doing, you know, gift cards to reopen the business. I have this other brand. I've made t shirts under what our logo where they then donate the money to my business. We had all these different things going on. But what started to happen is that pet parents started to give me the money for the grooming and I increased my price during the parent have any money towards grooming, they started giving me a tip and again donations of their parents can be. So from there raised over $2,000 I was like you know what, I need to do more. So that's how it came up. It was originally the pandemic Fund and the fund was we're going to use this money whenever someone can not afford grooming, we'll take from it the coverage. But there was this idea of just doing more. And Black Lives Matter happened I started to look at ways where I can connect people together, especially doing Black Lives Matter. I was like you know what I've always wanted to go across the country and just made up for people and groomed out to learn some stuff or give back some of the great things that I have learned over the years and I've been extremely successful overall in Alaska. IVs before everything, so I was like, You know what, I need to find a way to do that. So I sat down with one of my good friends, like, hey, I want to go to different places and how far she's like, let's rebrand, and let's call it properly tour, let's put up a GoFundMe. And let's tell people that we're willing to offer free grooming services around New York free. And then if that goes well, we can do something like maybe across the country. So I put it up, I reached out to my Boomer friends, I don't know where we had 20 people were interested, like, Hey, we want to help you want to support I'm like, oh, and then we had the CNN article that came out raised $22,000, just like that. I was like, This is real, I need to do more. So from there, we just had a whole bunch of African American groomers who wanted to leave a name one of the Connect, let people know, like, Hey, we're African Americans, and we love grooming so that we can groom dogs, and we serve as animals just as similar as our white counterparts. And at that moment, it was just such a impactful moment where people just wanted to support us and I just took it and ran with it. So far, you know, this year we open it up, we have all types of race. on our part of the tour we have we've already got over 90 people that have been part of the tour and we groomed over 101,461 dogs and we've been to 12 states already and we raised over $75,000 and my plans is to continue raising money so we can still do more tours and just find new ways to connect people to animals give back and have fun doing it you know what the groom's are doing now that they are learning from each other. And you're doing a lifelong friendship tour and I love that
Collin 46:58
I can imagine how that would be really inspiring to see people from across the country coming together for a common cause and purpose. You know, in especially in the the niche world of grooming, right that doesn't usually get a lot of spotlight in it. And to have a lot of people involved you know each belong that stage you mentioned a few times you wanted to do more you wanted to do more What was it that drove you to do more at each step and not just go maybe we'll just keep it to New York and
Brian Taylor 47:30
because it was saved in me. Yeah, that's why I put a nice hard sweat and tears into this business since 2013. I mean, I was a partner at 2010 I started a business when I was 26 I'm 38 I sacrificed a lot I bad divorce I lost so many. I sacrifice I miss so much. You know, birthday parties, family marriages, and you know, people died. So I guess business it's me. So if I was sitting here, looking at my business, losing 90% of it and then in this apartment not knowing I can I can't do what I love to do I think I would have been a really dark place because I was kidding there. So it saved me. That's why I needed to do more and I'm Aries we never we never there's no stop when we do things we go all the way we go to we don't go so that's what it was when it saved me more from connecting with people mean people do my job than anything else. That's why I want to do
Collin 48:48
well yeah, I think it was very, very personal to you. Right is that is that is that's what it means. It's it's personally we're able to see and help others succeed when maybe you weren't busy or things were going on as well. So it's like I've got to do something. This is something that I can do and invest in.
Brian Taylor 49:04
And I was good at it. So yeah, that was
Collin 49:07
what's the working it's called the pup relief tour. Where can people go to learn more about it and donate and help out?
Brian Taylor 49:12
Yeah, yeah, the website is still there. We're pretty active on Instagram we about to actually release a lot of content through Instagram for the next few months. You know, we can remember a GoFundMe page if you want to donate whatever amount you want to donate helps. And just look out I mean, we plan to do more tours, we're probably done for this year. But next year, you know, I thought I shouldn't do nothing for next year. But I'm there's there's a renewed focus on me. And we have so many people who want help that's been part of this tour. And I really don't want it to be buying thing. I wanted to be a community thing. So I'm excited about it.
Collin 49:53
You've been through so much as you just relayed in the past 11 years of business and everything that you've been going through what what, what keeps you What kept you going through those tough
Brian Taylor 50:05
times. It's my clients, it's my clients, dogs, my clients I've seen, I've, I have witnessed so much from them. And that they're there, they some of them have become family. You know, when I get married one day, they are going to be there with their dogs. Bye, bye. That's one. And then it's the dogs, like some of these dogs that are so impactful in our lives. And they touch disaster in so many different ways. So it's that, you know, it's my staff, like, I have gotten some really great staff, some bad ones, too. I've been sued I've been everything is the staff. I think that it's all of that. And then lastly, is the fact that I feel like I haven't worked since I left bank and I'm in a good place. I have a business that I can recreate and transform, we advance and do so much fun things with all the time. So these are all multi level independent highway bill a day. Each of them have his own reasons why I still do this.
Collin 51:19
I think that's really critical. When we talk about understanding our why in business, that we actually have multiple of them, you've got kind of like, as you talked about the importance of multiple revenue streams for the business, having multiple why's to pull from in good times and in bad so that you always have a well, that is supplying you with motivation to keep moving forward.
Brian Taylor 51:40
Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You just never know every day is different. Today be like, man, I love it. I love it. So this is the reason why I still do. But tomorrow could be Oh my God, this story really touched this client's heart. This is the reason why I said it varies depending on what's going on. It really varies what I mean, is that last thing is the money. But money is also to me, it makes me do the things that I like to
Collin 52:11
do. You mentioned that you've got dreams of growing and expanding into the future. Where do you see yourself in another 11 years? And I think, on top? On top of that, where do you what do you hope the grooming industry looks like
Brian Taylor 52:25
in the next 11 years? Now we'll be working with dogs, I think my capacity is teaching and educating. I really see that's the problem. I've been trying to jump into it. And I jump into it a little bit and I jump out. But I just want people to witness what I have witnessed and what type of success I have suggested that we encourage more African Americans to get into this industry and to know what you can make 60 to $100,000 a year doing something you love at the highest level possible. I think leadership I've been really moving in that thought leadership concept where I'm creating content. And I'm also helping people and educate the next group of you know, pandemic pet parents or people who just want a wealth of information in one area. Honestly, I would say when I think of the property tour, I think of like Anthony Bardot traveling around the country traveling around the world, you know, grooming dogs talking about how bouncers impact people's lives and being able to share those moments with people about their dogs so I think like these are ways where I can add the most value
Collin 53:50
a lot of impact coming down the pipe
Brian Taylor 53:55
Yeah, yeah that's the way so that's I've definitely seen the grooming world as especially in the pet industry in general just the aspect of grooming I see changing and growing at sea and Korean Alana jobs seem to help in a lot of people didn't want their love.
Collin 54:14
Well a lot of our listeners are most of our listeners are actually actually pet sitters. And so I would like to ask you, what can we do? What can we do as pet sitters to help our clients dogs be better at the groomer for you so you don't get you guys don't have such a such a rough time with them.
Brian Taylor 54:30
Like I always say that, that boomers are the bridge between the that and the reason why I say that is that most of time when we analyze this for and we look at different knock things down like hey, this wasn't the last time or this smells really bad in the ears. Or this looks super impacted in the rear. Like we get when you guys clues or things that you haven't seen and then you can make that personal decision. Should I have my bet take a look at it. Sometimes Some of the stuff are just home remedies that we can do. That will save you some money. Same thing as pet sitters. I'm also pet sitter when you look at it in a big scope. I'm not just a groomer, you know, I'm a professional animal handler I care and I take care of animals in all aspects. So your dogs like eating Why are you know what this food right here that you found your dog? I see that dogs scratches a lot. Oh, I see. starting to see things on the on the skin. You know, Oh, you know what, you've got your doctor very uncomfortable with all this math, you know, pleased to see a groaner. So if we all just take the responsibility, and this focus on animal health, animal care, I think we all can educate the parent in a way that you know, so important to maintain proper diet is so important to maintain regular routine is so important to take care of the animal. Because at the end of the day, the whole thing is about animal care, and health. That's what it is. So if you care about animals, as a pet sitter, you should know a little bit about pet grooming. And you should be able to advise your clients get your dog on a regular schedule, or that doodle nice to get regularly bribes. You know what I mean? So like, these are things that we all can tap in and help. And the reason I said earlier to buy pet groomers are usually the one that gets the wealth of knowledge. Most veterinarians don't give any advice on icon or anything else. They'd like, Oh, we know, there's two groomers on the street, go check them out. Which I think that's not really the right way, it should be like, you know what, as your bet I recommend this dog get on some type of grooming schedule. Because if anything comes up, I know those groomers can reach out to you and tell you and then you can bring your dog and that's what he needs to be asked to be a center of referral, where we respect each business areas, but at the same time, we support every single business. Yeah,
Collin 57:09
growing that community growing that, as you said, support and knowing that, knowing who's there and who to reach out to who and understanding where people are coming from where their expertise and what's what experiences they've had. And that just gets down to, to knowing who they are.
Brian Taylor 57:25
Yeah, of course, yeah, honestly believe that, like, you know, I have that style work where I have roommates that I work with I have tested as our work we have dog walkers that I walk in, because I can't do all of it. So I have this central referral that I give out to people that I trust, and I know the business.
Collin 57:43
Brian, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing your your experience and all of the stuff that you've got going on and encouraging us to build that those connections in that community. But I know that there's a lot more that people are going to have questions with or pick your brain on. So how can people get connected with you and follow along with everything that you're working on? Max, you're
Brian Taylor 58:08
going to start tapping into the clubhouse again. But they can always tell the doc father Harlem, and just send me a DM and reach out that way I think or you can send me off by the Harlem at gmail and send me an email to but like the best the fastest way is DMS on my my social pages. And I'm trying to get back into the clubhouse. It's just that time I just don't know when and how I'm going to get into clubhouse.
Collin 58:37
It's a vacuum for sure you really have to schedule, schedule, schedule that for sure. But I'll I'll have links to everything that we've talked about in the show notes and on our website. So people can click right to that. So Brian, again, this has been just tremendously fun. Thank you so much.
Brian Taylor 58:54
Thank you so much for stopping by thank God, we're able to do it.
Collin 58:58
Do you KYC know your customer. That language has stuck with me ever since I had my conversation with Brian. And it really has us thinking do we really know the people that we're serving? Do we know them so well that we can know when they're going to need service or we can get ahead of them on expectations and be one step ahead to solving the problems that they come to us with and when we're at that level and operating our business. So in sync in tune with our clients, that's when we really do hit our stride. And we're able to then expand and build out those sticky services like Brian talked about, and then build out from there and build our packages. So that yes, we know and have more predictable income, but also so that we can do a one click solution for our customers and for our clients so that they don't have to worry about things moving forward. So let us know who your customer is and how you meet their needs before they know they need to met. You want to Our sponsors time to pet and pet sitters international for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you for listening this week. And we hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
