283: Merging Companies with Therese Villemure and Lindsay Licata
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Summary:
What does it take to merge two pet sitting and dog walking companies? Therese Villemure and Lindsay Licata believe it takes passion and sacrifice. Owners of Suburban Pets, they share their individual journeys into pet care and what prompted them to merge in 2018. From policies to software, there is a lot to consider! Therese and Lindsay give advice for how to make the most out of the relationships in our lives and why you should pick your battles.
Topics on this episode:
Why merge and not just hire?
How to know it’s a good fit
Communicating with staff and clients
Have a good accountant
Merging software systems
Main take away: Ask why you want to merge. Are you looking for a manager or a partner?
About our guest:
Lindsey
Pet care has been a passion of mine ever since I was a little girl. I always dreamed of one day working alongside the most amazing creatures this world has to offer. I grew up in a household with dogs and cats, rode horses and attended horse summer camps where I was able to learn about the care for many animals. Throughout my life I have taken care of dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, farm animals, reptiles.. you name it! It seemed second nature to me. I have brought years of experience, and knowledge to many of my furry clients.
I attended college for business with no intention of actually becoming a business owner. During my two years of schooling, I gave up my Fridays to volunteer at a horse rescue. Being around animals is what truly made me happy, and giving back to non-profit organizations who helped animals made me even happier. At the age of 23, I decided to take a jump & start my own, certified NYS business. I called it “Lindsays Pet Care Services”. In just 2 short years I had a staff of 10-12 & a clientele of over 200! Knowing that in order to grow and obtain a healthy lifestyle, I reached out to Therese and proposed a merge, I’m so glad I did! Here we are today, running the largest dog walking company on Long Island! I am so happy that I followed my dreams and I encourage other young adults to do the same. Therese, our staff and myself are passionate about exceeding your expectations. We know how much your pets mean to you and we promise to give them just as much love, attention and care when they are in our hands.”
Therese
I have been an animal lover for as long as I can remember. As a child, I begged for a family dog. Eventually we adopted a miniature poodle who lived to be 16 years old. My life changed, however, when I rescued my first dog as an adult. His name was Caesar. Since then, I have adopted several dogs who I love endlessly.
When I was finishing up my MBA and working in the healthcare field, I had a change of heart. I decided that I wanted, actually NEEDED, to change my career path. Although I liked working in the healthcare field, it was not something about which I was passionate. I began brainstorming ideas and landed on one of the best decisions of my life. I created my own dog walking and pet sitting business. That was in 2011. Since then, Suburban Pets has grown tremendously.
In 2018, the company grew even more when I joined forces with Lindsay Licata, my then-competitor and current partner/friend. The wild ride that we are on has been outrageous, terrific, amazing. It has also been grueling, frustrating and challenging. I would not change one second of this experience for anything in the world. It is a blessing, and one that I hope lasts a lifetime. In my spare time, I love spending time with my husband and our three rescue dogs. I hope one day to add a couple goats to my pack and learn about a new species!
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, work, people, clients, lindsay, therese, pet, day, partner, accountant, manager, company, employees, hiring, suburban, software, ultimately, merge, hear, staff
SPEAKERS
Lindsay, Collin, Therese
Meghan 00:10
Hello, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is Pet Sitter confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin Funkhouser 00:17
brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. Lindsay and Teresa were busy running their own races, running their own businesses, meeting the needs of their clients. And it would have stayed that way until one day, they realized that they have a whole lot more in common than they ever imagined. They merged their businesses. And today, we're really excited to have both of them on to talk about what that process was like, how to know when it's time to make big changes, and working together as a team. Let's get started. So my
Therese 00:48
name is Therese. Hello. I am co owner of suburban pets with my partner, Lindsay. And we are a dog walking and pet sitting service on Long Island, we do dog walking and pet sitting in our clients homes. We've been in business since 2011. And Lindsay actually had her own business until 2018, when the two of us merged, and that's how we became partners.
Lindsay 01:14
So my name is Lindsay, and I started my own pet care business back in, I want to say it was like 2015 2016, I was 22. At the time, actually, I never had the view that I would be a business owner, or do this at all, I actually was in a completely different field of cosmetology, but things kind of fell into my lap. And I started kind of just taking off with it, I really enjoyed it, I didn't really want to be in the salon setting anymore. I was kind of getting annoyed with like listening to people's personal problems, and, you know, waiting on people hand and foot doing makeup every day, and I loved people's pets. So I started dog walking for clients. And that's basically how I became a company. One thing led to another, both of
Collin Funkhouser 02:05
you kind of went, Oh, this is a thing I can do this. I can there's all these opportunities out there. Now with both of your backgrounds, in in business, how do you feel like that those backgrounds influence how you're able to run your companies?
Therese 02:23
So the thing I always, you know, come back to is, I kind of joke a lot, you know, because certainly, you know, you don't require an advanced degree to have your own business, plenty of people who don't go to college have successful businesses, and they have that mindset. And so I think to myself, you know, should I have spent all this money on my, my education and gone through it. And at the end of the day, yes, I it was the right path. For me, it put me in a different mindset, it made me think much more, I was much more business oriented, I look at, I truly look at everything as a as a business. And when I'm introduced to somebody new that is a business owner, I want to learn more about their business, I want to learn how they market, how they advertise how they hire, what their margins are, how they can improve. And so for me, you know, having that advanced degree or you know, any degree in business just really made a switch for me, it made my brain go from, I don't want to say, you know, civilian, I don't know what the term is, but you know, it made me go from just, you know, a non business minded person to a business minded person, and I love to look at our business and you know, think about ways that I can improve it and take the all the things that I've learned from business school and apply them. So
Lindsay 03:49
for me, you know, I went to college for the experience of going to college because I went two years after I would have went if I went directly after high school. So I went there just like listen, I need to go to college for something, I'm not just gonna go for like, you know, liberal arts, I'm like, let's just go for business. So I didn't really have, like I said, I didn't have any, you know, future plans of starting a business. But once I started getting into dog walking, all that stuff that I have learned about the different types of corporations, and you know, all that liability and all this stuff. I kind of applied it that way. So it did help me in the term that it wasn't, it wasn't like a foreign matter to me. I was like, I know I need to do this. I know I need this. This was who I need to contact for this, which is why I kind of felt like I moved really quickly when I first started. And like Theresa mentioned you know she she always wants to learn about people's business. We're always we're so interested in how other people work now and it's and it's funny because we do you know talk about other Business is not in a bad way in a very, you know, positive way. And we're just so interested in how other people do things and their approach on stuff. So I think it definitely took a while to learn everything was you know, you learn more about things like the internet and the way people advertise always changing, you know, back when I first started and when to restarted, the way that you would advertise and market was more so okay, maybe in the newspaper, maybe in a magazine, maybe in a flyer, and now it kind of is totally is totally shifted to, we need to be online and social media is gigantic, you know, Facebook is huge. So, you know, that sort of approach. You know, I think when you go to school for business, and you learn about all this stuff, it definitely changes throughout the year. So you can still have a business degree, but I think everything kind of progresses as time goes on and changes that, you know, you could talk to somebody who's a very successful business owner, but what they did 20 years ago, isn't necessarily going to be what you're supposed to do now.
Therese 06:06
Yeah, I agree. I just want to touch on that. Like I always, you know, I got, we have the dog walking and pet sitting business and teaching, you know, dog and cat first aid and CPR, I always have to teach my students that everything in life is on a continuum. So there's always new evidence that appears, there's always things shifting and changing with the times and with, you know, more knowledge and education, everything, it changes, nothing is static, and which, which is a good thing. And that's the other thing, like Lindsey saying, with marketing, you know, we are now so research based and we want to get results before we start marketing, we want to have a target audience. So things like she said, have definitely changed a lot from you know, 1520 years ago, where you were doing paper advertisements. Now, you know, the term, their slogan, paper is dead. It's kind of true. And that's what we're definitely experienced.
Collin Funkhouser 07:08
Well, hearing that both of your backgrounds helped you set up help set you both up to at least interpret what is sometimes a foreign language of business lingo and navigate your way through both of those I know Megan, and I have no background in in business or in marketing or anything like that. It did take us a long time to kind of get our feet under us and figure out exactly, you know, what Lindsay touched on this like, who to go for questions. How do you approach this? What does this even mean? And that's where we find ourselves a lot of people get started in this because it's a passion and they don't have this background or way to interpret things are kind of lost and lonely at times to know, yeah, man, I want to make this happen. But there's, oh, there's all this paperwork, or I don't even know what questions to ask because I don't even know anything. So sometimes it can be a little challenging to look at what you have to overcome. Sure,
Lindsay 08:01
we still we still get to down those roads, sometimes where we kind of scratch our heads. So I don't think anybody should really be you know, feel like they're in the dark but cuz everybody's like that. Honestly, it's you know, you get things change every day. So you always kind of got to just keep researching.
Collin Funkhouser 08:22
That's a good reminder to have like, Okay, I learned this one time. That's not the last time I'm gonna have to look at it. That's not the last time I'm gonna have to revisit this. I'm going to need to stay fresh and on this and keep reviewing it and keep looking at it because marketing does change forms do change, business practices do change all of that is in flux. And it's kind of hard it's it's hard part of our job as business owners to to be to be knowledgeable of where that's headed. Have you heard of time to pet Dan from NYC Foods has this to say
08:52
I'm Tibet has been a total game changer for us. It's helped us streamline many aspects of our operation from scheduling and communication to billing and customer management. We actually tested other petsitting software's in the past, but these other solutions were clunky and riddled with problems. Everything in time to pet has been so well thought out. It's intuitive feature rich, and it's always improving. If you're
Collin 09:13
looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/conventional. Both of you are operating your businesses back in 2011 2013 1415 and 2018 happens. How did the conversation of a merger come up between your two companies?
09:39
I'll let Lindsey tell this story.
Lindsay 09:42
So like I mentioned, I started my own business in 2016. So I had a couple of years under my belt but it was still very fresh and I was still very young. I was also juggling, you know still doing things in the salon still doing things on the side before I completely took this over. But I then knew of Therese because like I said, I took her CPR class and I knew of her. So that was kind of like my cue to you need to look into all these other companies, and what are they doing versus you? So I would spend literally countless hours, I would even make up email address and pretend I was a client and email her. I, I and you know what, it's funny, because, you know, really, you are supposed to know about your competition. And I never wanted to take anybody down. I was just like, I need to be at par with them. So I started, you know, looking into the other companies what they had to offer all this stuff. And I really did look up to her. And a lot of all my family and friends who knew me would always be like you always mentioning this woman, you frickin hate her. And I'm like, I don't hate her. I'm like, she has a really good business. I'm like, and that's what I want to be. So, you know, yeah, it's really cute. Nia Teresa's, like, Oh, my God shut up. But so, eventually, you know, I skyrocketed. I really did. I mean, I had, you know, in a matter of two years, I did have a very significant sized business, I had staff who worked for me, I had an accountant, but I was still ultimately the manager, I didn't really have somebody who took the reins who took the phone, I was juggling, walking, you know, doing everything. And I did have an accountant. But other than that, that's all I really had. So me and Cerise were friendly. And we would always reach out to each other, as far as employees, because, you know, as we know, people kind of jumped around, especially in this industry. So if they work for one company, they're not happy, then they go to another one, or you know, they do, they get terminated, or, you know, whatever. So we would kind of look out for one another, like, hey, somebody is leaving my company, they might go look, you know, just be on the lookout, not a good fit, blah, blah, blah, which was good. And, you know, it's good to have a nice relationship. Because we were in the same town, we did the same territory area. And, you know, if I was curious, I'd be like, you know, screw this girl, like, this is my like, this is, this is my domain. And I just kind of came in swinging. So one day, you know, a few weeks went by, and I was thinking to myself, like, I'm stressed, I'm young, I don't have a life, I, you know, I lost a lot of friends, because I was always working, like, I was doing evenings, weekends, I missed holidays. And I was like, something's gotta give and I don't know, if the hiring manager even went through my mind, I think it was more. So I want to have somebody to work with me that has the same motivation and dedication because, like a manager, they working for somebody, it's not their company. So ultimately, you know, if they want vacation, if they want to leave, they don't care. You just put in a request. I was like, I feel like a partner is more suitable, because we both would have our heart and soul in it. Like it's our baby. And I want somebody to look at it. Like that was me. So I reached out to her and I just, I just I straight out said what I was wasn't what I was looking for. I was like, Listen, are you open to emerge? Like we do the same towns? I think we offer the same sort of services. Would something like that interest? You? You know, like, why don't we meet up and just talk about it? I was like, because it's either that or I don't know what to do from here, because I was like, so stressed. And that's basically what happened. I mean, we met one day, you know, we decided that we obviously needed to get an accountant involved, figure out, you know, what, to do different roles, how we're going to divide up all this and how we're going to merge our company together with our software's our phones, our clients, our staff, and we work together?
Therese 14:01
Yeah, yeah. Was it good? It was as smooth as it could be, honestly.
Collin Funkhouser 14:06
So from your perspective, Therese, how did you know this was this was a good fit. You have this young guy out here swinging, going crazy. And you get approached by for this merger? Is that something that you ever thought was possible? Or what was going through your mind at that time?
Therese 14:27
No. And to be honest, I think even walking into the meeting, I was very apprehensive. Because although we knew each other and I knew she was a lovely person, and you know, like she said, we would kind of look out for each other, I would never want anybody's business to go down. You know, I had that, you know, at least that respect for her. I was still apprehensive because, again, it's like giving your child you know, over handing your child over to somebody and for me, that's very much what it was like she said, I didn't go to a holiday dinner. birthday party for probably four or five years. So my blood sweat and tears literally went into this business. So I was very apprehensive. But you have that spidey sense inside of you. And I always say that when I go against it, I kick myself later. Because if I have a bad feeling about maybe a potential employee, I always have to, you know, kind of investigate that and see why that's going on inside of me. So anyway, when we had that first meeting, it was at Starbucks on like, I remember it was an afternoon. And we just kind of started the back of Starbucks. And just immediately I could feel that there was so much genuine aspiration, there was so much you know, that she put into the her business is similar to what I put into my business, and that if we could come together with this genuine passion and love for what we were doing, then we could be bigger and better. So I left that meeting, very, very much on the other end of the spectrum, where my apprehension turned to
16:12
excitement. And then
Therese 16:15
we like Lindsay said, had our accountant involved, we had an attorney involved just to you know, draft up our documents and stuff like that. We decided to merge our software and you know, it takes it's like a marriage, you have to agree on certain things and pick your battles, you know, if things aren't that important than you let them go. And if they're really important to you, and you're passionate about them, then you fight for them. And that marriage is what we have dedicated ourselves to. And it's it's, it works for us, like we're very lucky in the way that it has worked. I don't want to cry like a jerk. But oh my god. Like, yeah, sometimes we want to kill each other. Like, don't get me wrong. I want to kill her sometimes. Yeah.
Lindsay 16:59
Yeah. The feeling is totally mutual. But, yeah, yeah. But you know that it works. Yeah, that that's what comes from a
Therese 17:09
relationship like that.
Collin 17:11
Both having an equal footing there have the passion, and you know that the other person is equally invested in the success and well, being of both you and the company really helps you have a lot more confidence and trust in how you move forward. You know, this idea of merging is it's interesting to hear both of your perspectives of it, because I know many times the answer, you know, and Lindsey even addresses I'm going well, I don't know if I want to just hire more, right? I don't know if caring is the answer for me. And same thing with you, Theresa going well, maybe hiring isn't more me doing more hiring might not be the best fit for this. So that's not always the solution. I'm able to look at each other and go, Wow, we have all these strikes, we have always come out of commonality we have all the same passion together. Yeah, let's let's let's bring that together. So I think it's really interesting to hear how both of you were thinking and approaching this trying to solve the same same problem?
Therese 18:03
Yes, we were very much both in that same place of stress and total
Lindsay 18:11
pride and dedication, I think it was like not wanting to let it go. But also like, Oh, my God, I'm running myself into the ground. And I think I need a change sort of thing,
Therese 18:21
like 90 or 100 hours of work every week. You just can't sustain that for the long run.
Collin Funkhouser 18:28
You were looking for somebody as passionate as you were to come alongside you and help you.
Lindsay 18:33
Yes, yeah, we and we both brought different things to the table. And you know, I think she opened my eyes to certain things. And I opened her eyes to certain things. And we took bits and pieces of both of our companies and made it the best of both worlds. And the year after we merged was the most successful business, the most successful year. I mean, obviously, we haven't been together for super long and COVID hit and stuff, but we saw ourselves completely, you know, like, skyrocketing. We were doing fantastic. We had a great system, you know, we now work as a legitimate like a, like on a larger company scale. We've obviously since COVID taken it down, down and much bigger notch but we we came together in the sense of, Okay, we're gonna divvy up the powers we're going to you can do this, I could do that. And you know, let's get a manager let's get assistant managers. Let's make it so that you know we are a company and let's keep on going and you know, have meetings and you know, just delegate all you know, the power is and it worked out we can
Therese 19:41
take time off like we can go to holiday dinners and do different things because you know, one of us will take the reigns one week or one day and we switch off so it's it's to equal people, not just an hourly employee that you're depending on how it's
Collin Funkhouser 19:59
done. dive into that, that process a little bit more. You have these two separate companies, you said you kind of operate and have the same vision for them. But but can't when you're at that table? What was it like deciding what was worth fighting for? Versus? Okay, I'll give up on this and pick a different battle for each of you.
Lindsay 20:19
You know, um, so the first thing that we had to come to terms with was, what is our business name gonna be? Because I was Lindsay's pet care service, which was so not original at all. And hers was suburban pets. And I was like, Well, it can't be Lindsay's pet care services, not fair. And so we, we, I was like, I'm fine with suburban pets. Like, that's like, I'm fine with that. It is what it is. And let's just take you know, the colors from mine, and a little part of my logo with the your name. And it was just as easy as that. Honestly, I really, there was a lot of the process, I really don't know, with mergers, it would go as smooth as it was, I think that we, I think that we're like, we were both I'm more opinionated in many aspects. And I think I'm more of like, I don't know, I don't know how to explain myself. But we both get along pretty well. Like, you know, ultimately, it's just after the first couple years, that's when you say, you know, like, just stop fighting stop. It's a battle, you're not gonna win. And let's just move forward from this. But yeah, I mean, that was the first thing we conquered, I think was the name and the logo. Yeah. And
Therese 21:33
then there were other like, operational things. Like I remember, for example, my clients only had a one hour time frame for arrival. And, you know, it was preposterous to me to suggest that I would go to a two hour time frame, because then my clients would have to get used to that now a new way. And it was a little bit scary for me, because then, you know, right away, you think, Oh, my God, and my clients are gonna leave. But I accepted it. And we went to the to our timeframe, and not one person batted an eyelash. I mean, sometimes there are people that will, you know, kind of want their smaller timeframe for the dog walker to arrive. But for the most part, I mean, it was a very smooth transition, and it was a better move, it was definitely a better move.
Lindsay 22:17
Yeah, yeah. Especially, you know, with with hiring and having people work for us, when so many people want this specific hour in the middle of the day that I explained to her, like having two hours is just so much better. It could give people you know, our staff more work. Number one, rather than hiring somebody, let's say to do four visits. Now this person can maybe do six visits and be more worth their time.
Collin 22:45
Yeah, when I think about changing policies and stuff I know, I like least for Megan and I, like our policies are kind of our little babies, like we are pretty passionate about them. And we, for them with clients, and we teach them to our staff. And so I can't even imagine now trying to have, you know, Therese with her, her passion about her policies, and Lindsay with you passionate about your policies coming together and trying to rectify them kind of line item almost of how to make sure that it's still going to work as a company. And we're not stepping also not stepping on anybody's feet, because we want to respect what somebody else has and pull that together.
Therese 23:22
Mm hmm. Right. And that's, again, where the whole thing about picking your battles definitely comes in. If it's just not that important, then don't fight about it. Like that is just I think, any relationship whether it's business partnership, or friendship and marriage, like if it's not important, there's no reason to fight for it. So the policies that we have implemented are definitely a combination of what hers were and mine. And we just tweaked it and agreed upon it. And it's they've stayed the same since 2018. Yeah,
Lindsay 23:55
we've adjusted a couple like minor things. But that's just because as time goes on, your business grows, you grow as a person and you're just like, is this Do I still want to handle it this way? Yeah. You know, but yeah, for the most part, I also, like I said, I did my hardcore research on suburban pets. When I was Lindsay's pet care, found her policies and was like, Alright, I'm gonna run with this.
Therese 24:18
Oh, my God.
Lindsay 24:21
I obviously had my own little flair on it, but I was like, Alright, here we go. So maybe it was just like, oh, like, this is like what was in store for me? It was like, listen, like yeah, just gonna slide right in.
Therese 24:34
That's why there wasn't so much to change.
Collin 24:36
Hearing that, again, is just a reminder of, of why this communication is so important in not just our lives but also business and with clients and whatnot. So when you sat down to put the business together, you have these two separate ones. Did you as far as like business structure wise? Did you did you change how you were organized with a LLC or anything like that to bring everybody together?
Therese 25:04
Yes, we did we, I was an LLC, Lindsay, you
Lindsay 25:07
are an LLC as well. No, I was always a C Corp. Always.
Therese 25:12
Oh, so we we actually hired Lindsay's accountant, and we went with the corporation. So which was a really good move in many ways as well. So we did the C Corp. And it's yeah, it's been the right move for us as well.
Lindsay 25:30
Also, you know, what, when you're working by yourself, and you know, it was just me and me and Therese separately, you know, we also were paying ourselves differently. And you know, that everything, a lot of things changed in that sense, you know, behind the scenes like that. But ultimately, I think it all worked out for the better, because there's just no, you know, gray gray area. Now, it's like, we know, this is what we have to do. Our accountant follows us every step, you know, comes with every step of the way. So yeah, there was there was a lot of changes in that sense. And, you know, we will say that there were employees that she had, and there were employees that I had that weren't very happy with this change. But then then some of them fell off, which is fine, because ultimately, it wasn't, they weren't good fit for us. And some of them were great and are still, you know, with us today. So yeah, there's of course changes.
Collin 26:28
That's the other side of this is, you know, YouTube have decided that this is a really good move for both of you. But you still have each have staff, and you also have clients. So let's start with staff, what was it like communicating this process to them, and helping them see how it would benefit them?
Therese 26:45
How many, I definitely tried to use a lot of candor. So I didn't sugarcoat anything, I didn't go into the announcement softly, I just kind of announced it. And this is how it's going to be. And these are the new perks that you're going to have. And there were definitely some perks like we implemented a retirement plan for them, which is a nice perk that we do a small match, which a lot of companies don't do anymore. So that was a really nice perk, and then you know, another, but on the negative side, some could view as negative they were going to have now another bus that they didn't know that was relatively unfamiliar with exactly how we work every single day. So yeah, there were scary parts to it. But as as the leader, you have to you know, go in and, and just announce it and take the questions and act positive and, and that's how I had to handle it. And for the most part, like Lindsay said, that a lot of employees stuck around. We have about 50 employees right now. 45 or 50. And I don't remember how many I had back then. But I want to say like 90% stuck around. Right, Lindsay? I don't think a lot left.
Lindsay 27:56
Yeah, no, I mean, now since like, you know, the years have gone on, but no, most of them stayed on. There was a, there were a couple that fell off. And that was it. But then that's, that's really it, honestly, they really did. Yeah, they stuck around and we, you know, like, like to reset. It's just, it's you can't sugarcoat things like that, when there's a major change. I mean, we were merging our software, we were merging our social media pages. You know, we were changing the phone system, who's gonna have the phone is there like, you know, what number do you contact for this? So, you know, some people don't adapt to change very well. So I think those people kinda like were shivering in the corner. And then there were some people who were like, Okay, this is fine.
Therese 28:42
Yeah, yeah.
Collin Funkhouser 28:44
Well, because also, it changes like that it provides an opportunity for people to step up to the plate or trying to help see where they can fit in, in the new structure when you're communicating these things.
Therese 28:57
Yes, yes, totally at some Yeah, some use it as a sort of, sort of a boost to you know, see where they can help out like even and maybe in an elevated position and move up the ladder a little bit and that is also another thing we started doing this to make training managers so we bumped up the pay on some of our really amazing employees which by the way, we do have amazing employees overall but we bumped up the pay a little bit and have them now train our new employees. So that was something we also started which was a good move because then there was a little bit more excitement for some of the staff
Collin Funkhouser 29:36
so you've communicated to the staff and most of them are on board and you're working through that with them talk about what it was like now communicating to both of your your client bases.
Lindsay 29:46
I think we tried to make it so that it was seamless change for them like we did all the work.
Therese 29:52
You know, we did we did
Lindsay 29:55
you know what made it easy as well as that we use the same software system And I didn't take that from Theresa, I did just do my research on that. But it actually ended up working out in our favor because we contacted the software program manager, and we were like, Listen, can you merge our data together, we are going, we want all of our stuff in the same area, we'll go in and tweak it. And that was definitely a long process that that was, you know, things were in, put it in the wrong areas. You know, like you, we edited things, like I said, you know, we adjusted the timeframes, a lot of the things on the software programs, you have to manually adjust and edit yourself. So that was long and challenging. But when we told our clients like, hey, all you need to do is click this link, create a password, and it's everything you've you've already known before, it made it really easy. It was it was less, you know, of a change for my clients, especially because we stuck with a two hour frame. So it was the same. And I think actually, we took on a little bit of a longer hours. So that was another difference. I think Therese had like an extra hour in the morning and night that that I didn't do. And that was something she was really firm on. I want to stick with my hours. And I was like, listen, it's fine. That's, uh, you know, originally, if I was by myself, that would scare me, because I'm like, Oh, my God, that's two more hours, you know, seven days a week, then I need to now be working. But now I was like, listen, we're gonna have more structure, we're gonna have more staff. You know, I have someone to fall back on. So fine. So it was kind of a plus for my clients. And I, to be honest, I don't remember our pricing. I don't even remember where we were, I think we were in the same ballpark. So I'm not I don't really remember what that was. Yeah, yeah. I don't remember that either. And you know what, for me, it was also just trying to get through to clients with the new phone number, we took Teresa's phone number, because, you know, she had a, she had more clients, and it was just easier that way. And I think we took like, my, my Instagram page and her Facebook page, like it was it was a couple different things. But ultimately, it was, you know, a communication, you know, making sure that these clients got the message, they were set up, we kept our old software's open. So if we saw that there were requests coming in on our old software, reach out to that client, hey, don't know if you've heard about this. And you know, after a few months, it was, you know, like, just normal. Yeah, it
Therese 32:40
just was life as we know it.
Collin Funkhouser 32:44
You're merging, you're merging the software to social media, phone systems, policies, procedures, what's something that came up that you were maybe shocked or surprised by or maybe even forgot about that would need to be addressed?
Lindsay 32:56
We really and this also goes along hand and hand was like the strengths and stuff that we had, I was very much like, I needed to look at paper, I needed to have a checklist covered. And I did have things that like I had missed on stuff that Teres did a little differently. But ultimately, we I think we covered like all of our corners. And the only thing that was a little tricky was, you know, the key situation, I think it was it was like, you know, yeah,
Therese 33:31
that was anything that shocked us. It was another obstacle, it was, you know, transferring, while I had started with my business, transferring all of our clients, to lock boxes, so we didn't have to hold any keys anymore. And not 100% of the clients had locked boxes yet. But with Lindsay's business, she hadn't started to implement the lock boxes yet. So that was that was a new, something new, not, again, not shocking, but just something that was causing us to work definitely some longer hours, just like the software migration did as well,
Collin 34:12
as I can't even imagine trying to keep track of all of these little things that are going on. But you know, you've said like, Lindsey, you said, like, well, I've got a checklist. It's something that I can be reviewing constantly. And if you have help, and if you've got your tax person there, and you've got this kind of team around you, helping you through it like that, that sounds like that really helps that process move a lot smoother.
Therese 34:33
Yeah, and I do have to say that along the entire way, I think that your accountant is one of the most important key people that you should make sure that you have a good relationship with them. For example, our accountant, now we can text him and he will get back to us within literally within 30 minutes. I mean all the time. He's such a great support. So if you can find an accountant that you love and have a good relationship I think it's almost See, the value is just tremendous.
35:04
Definitely.
Collin 35:06
Well, so other than the other failed accountant for just a little bit because I know that that's a recommendation. But what in your mind other than accessibility to in being able to answer questions properly what makes a good accountant for the kind of businesses that we run?
Therese 35:23
Well, definitely somebody organized and reachable and down to earth because the reason I say that is because prior to having this accountant who was Lindsay's accountant first, I had another accountant who he was great, he helped me set up my business and he was very helpful, but not really reachable at, you know, at times, I would wait 24 to 48 hours sometimes to get a response didn't text, you know, old school phone calls only email, but again, would wait 24 to 48 hours to get that back. So responsiveness organized and knowledgeable, really, like we look to Him for all these questions. And really, at the end of the day, if we do something wrong, he's not responsible. We are. So we have to trust what he's telling us to save ourselves.
Lindsay 36:10
Yeah, and you know, just to, you know, put him on his high horse, I can't wait to send him this podcast. during, during COVID. You know, there were so many things that, oh, god PPP long. Yeah, like federal and state that were so new and, you know, with businesses and you know, people and their payroll, and just so many things that without him. That's it, that's something that we would all be scratching our head about. And you could do your own research, and that's fine. But when you have somebody who's really knowledgeable on stuff like that, and knows what, you know, the correct things to do, it's so important, like, we could not have done it without him because we just really couldn't, it would have taken us forever, and we would have ripped half our head hair out.
Therese 37:02
Right? He's very, he's really great.
Collin Funkhouser 37:04
Yeah, careful with it, you say you may have your rates raised after he hears this episode.
Collin 37:13
Well, you know, I think hearing that is just really encouraging to know, like get support, get organized, and move forward in a in a gracious manner to try and see if this is going if this is going to work. And if it's something that's that's feasible with with each other. So if somebody is listening to this, and they're going, hmm, I don't know if hiring is the right thing for me. I don't know if doing these other things for me. How would you advise somebody to whether they should look into a possible merger with another company?
Lindsay 37:42
I think the first thing that they need to do is take step back and ask themselves why why are you feeling this way? What is your what is the problem? Can it be fixed, and if it can be fixed, is that a permanent solution? You know, because hiring more can be great at times. And we've all had that, you know that up where we have so much staff. And it's amazing, because we don't ever have to worry about, you know, not having enough people to work for you. But when it's when it's the end of the day, there could be a week where five of those people now cannot work. Whether it be you know, they're on vacation, they're sick, they have an emergency, they quit, whatever, they're fired, whatever it is, and ultimately, that's going to bring you back to the same problem. Now, if you are one that you can handle things get through it, and you know, you're fine with having all that workload on yourself. When there's those down points, then, you know, maybe push just push through, find out another another way to solve this. But if you're one of those people who's like, listen, I can handle this, but I would like somebody else to, you know, vent to and put our minds together. And let's figure out this together. Let's delegate. You know, when when this happens, let's figure out like how we could still have a life together. Because I think that's one thing about business owners that is overlooked, and they're misjudged. And people have this whole, you know, thing about business owners and what they should be and what they need to be. And I think that we need to kind of just push that to the side and realize that regardless if you're a business owner or not, it's really important to take care of yourself. It's important to remember that you do have a personal life. And it's very morbid to say, but we all are going to die one day and are you going to look back and be like, Wow, I'm really happy that I was able to spend that holiday with my family. I'm really happy that I was able to, you know, go on vacation with my husband. You know, and this wouldn't have been possible because I would have still had the phone with me. I would have still been doing emails. What happens is when I was The way my manager, you know, got sick and what happened and I would have to hold the reins, you know, I think you really need to just look at, you know, your personal life as well and your yourself before making decisions.
Therese 40:16
So I do definitely think like, you know, we're kind of in the lucky we're on the very lucky side, because a lot of businesses partnerships do not work out, we all know that 90% of businesses fail. And I would put money on the fact that it's even higher, the percentage might be 95% of businesses who are partner owned, fail. And that's because the dynamic has to be on point. And that doesn't mean that the relationship has to be perfect, because no relationship is perfect. But again, picking your battles, picking the the right person, not letting ego get involved in all decision making. And the other thing that I think is really important is making sure that you're in a financial place with the business in order to bring a partner on and make sure that the finances are not going to be pushed in such a way that you are going to be suffering financially, you have to make sure that you're at the right spot for that partnership. So you know, we were we happen to be at a good spot, we both were had our businesses for a couple of years. And it was it was the right move. And it has turned out to be great. But you cannot blindly or prematurely go in and say, oh, I want a partner, you know what I think maybe the best question to ask yourself is can you do this business without a partner? And if your answer is yes, then you probably shouldn't take a partner on. Because I think we're not that actually is the truth. I think that we were both at a place where we felt that our lives were in such chaos, because we couldn't do anything personally, that we were just at that point. And that doesn't mean that we were we're partners out of desperation, because it's worked really well for us. But if I could continue to do it myself, and if Lindsay could have continued to do it herself. Happily, I don't think that the conversation or the phone call would have been made to do this merge. So I think you have to be in a place where you're like, I can't do it on my own, whether it's financially or mentally, physically, whatever. And if you can, then you probably should do it on your own. But if you can't, then I think it's a great idea to partner but it has to be that person has to be the right person. And sometimes it turns out that they're not.
Collin 42:34
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Collin Funkhouser 43:37
It really seems like you need to ask yourself What kind of relationship you're looking for. Am I looking for a partner? Am I looking for a manager? And we're looking for an employee? And what kind of help Am I actually needing? If I'm looking for somebody to come in and be as passionate about me as and invested in this business? Well, you can get really good managers, but they'll never quite be the same right? Or and at the end of the day, there's still another employee added to your roster, versus somebody who is just as equal champion and helping and brainstorming and doing all that stuff alongside you not looking for you to lead or anything like that, but right lockstep together and seeing what exactly is do I want moving forward? And how do I want that relationship to look?
Lindsay 44:21
Yeah, and I have to say that, you know, COVID came and took down a lot of businesses and the pet care industry definitely got hit really hard over the past couple of years. And, you know, having a partner during those two years was a blessing because, you know, we were able to express our feelings to one another but not only that, it was more so we couldn't financially keep on managers at that point. We were really low. With our revenue
Therese 44:53
our debt maybe I think it was 90% at one point 90% It was at least a stretch six months at least.
Lindsay 45:01
Yeah, it was. It was definitely a, like, really, really tough year and a half to two years that we were both feeling down depressed, you know, defeated. But having each other was good to have because without a manager, we were able to equally you know, distribute what to do. And, you know, at one point, you know, I broke down, I definitely broke down, I feel like there was a lot of people in the world that probably had feelings and breakdowns. Because it was so traumatic, what have we have all been through? But, you know, we now don't have a manager still, and probably won't for a significant time, because we now know how to operate.
Therese 45:46
Yeah, it's teach us that you're right, that and not having a manager taught us how not to have Manager, which we still do have one manager, that's a godsend for us. But now she's part. She's more part time.
Lindsay 46:01
Yeah. But um, you know, we, we now split the roles of, okay, you can have the phone one week, I'll take it this week. If you're going on vacation that week, I'll do the schedule that week. And you know, you do it next week. And, you know, we're now more into our business than we ever have been before, because we are 100%. In it, we are now dealing with the clients and dealing with the staff, but and some people will be like, Well, isn't that why you marched in the first place? Yes, but it's so much better, because of having each other and being able to distribute the, like, you know, everything, you know, having somebody to fall back on, and it's and keeping on, you know, one manager and we even have an HR manager who, you know, helps do background checks and higher marks. And those two were the most important for us to keep on because it still gives us that, that independent, you know, we don't need to do absolutely every single thing. These are the things trust, don't trust them entirely. Yeah. And that was kind of like, you know, now that things are starting to look up and are better, we're really even more thankful for them than ever before. Because it gives us the sense that we're still operating, we're still doing a great, great thing we didn't give up. And these, these, this is the crew that we need to have. It's like, you know, me and Cerise are like really strong partners. And we have, you know, a small management team, but that's all we need. And we could still succeed and go sky high, just like this. So it was a blessing. You know, we went down for a while, but now we come back up, and we're kind of stronger from it, honestly. Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser 47:48
I love hearing that. And of the lessons that you continue to learn from what was a very dark and scary time in business and in history and and just on a personal level to to know that there are still things we can learn and apply to our businesses so that we can make them the best we possibly can. You know, we've talked a lot about events that happened four years ago, or and we're kind of in the works even before then. So I did want to ask you both. What are you excited about for the future of suburban pets? Or maybe just you individually?
Lindsay 48:21
Well, um, both Theresa and I are now going to be taking a course to be instructed on how to teach first, pet first aid and CPR which Teres was previously but the Red Cross got away with their with that pet first aid stuff.
Therese 48:40
So we're doing a live classes anymore, so I'm unable to certify people. Yeah.
Lindsay 48:45
Oh, wow. So now, you know, Teresa had approached me about that and was like, Listen, I want to I want to do this. And I was like, You know what, I think it's important that we both do it. If we want to ride this through as partners together, both of us should have the same knowledge on something that's really important like that. Again, you know, taking on the reins, she gets sick one night and was teaching a class to our staff, I need to be able to teach them and certify them as well. So we're both going to be instructors, which is great for our company, because we can certify our staff now make sure that they know what to do. And then, you know, it's not like if if somebody calls me and is like, Oh my God, what do I do in a certain situation, I can very confidently talk them through without being like call to race, you know, because, you know, for a long time, that is what happened. I was like, I'm not as educated on this stuff like she is so she'd be able to talk somebody through CPR doing in a car which had happened when I would be like, Oh my god, I kind of forgot what are the compressions and all this stuff. So I don't want that to happen. You know, for either of our safe. I want to be able to be just as reliable with that. So I definitely see that as a positive for our company and making it stronger.
Therese 50:06
And I think overall, like we both have the attitude of like taking over the world, like we both still run with it, we both still want growth, although like, we both we said, you know, the pandemic has changed a lot of things. And it has definitely changed the minds of potential candidates, you know, the people have the pick of the litter now as to where they work. So the staff turnover has been a little frustrating. It's always going to be frustrating in every industry. But it has definitely been more frustrating since the pandemic began. And I forgot where I was going with this.
Collin Funkhouser 50:43
Taking over the world,
Therese 50:47
right, so so. So actually, what we had to do it, which is interesting is, although we continue to desire to take over the world, we actually scaled back on the territory that we cover. So instead of servicing 40, towns, we're now servicing 20. But I will tell you that since we dropped those towns, and we were able to shift our staff over from the territories that were no longer servicing, we were able to now accept new clients in those territories. And now we're really doing just as we were doing over 200 walks a day, again, we were doing 300 pre pandemic that were over 300. So now, you know, we're back up, like we're at 65 to 70%, of where we work. And that's, you know, considering that the pandemic happened, and also that we had to cut our territory in half. So we're still on the right track to do what we want to do, which is continuously grow,
Collin 51:41
that's really cool to hear, again, is continuing to adapt and change. And even with that, that kind of seismic shift of going from 2014 rounds down to 20. I know for a lot of businesses, that would be super scary to think that you're decreasing your service area by half.
Therese 51:56
Oh, it was scary.
Collin Funkhouser 52:00
But then your that you've been able to meet, meet the demands and meet the needs even more is is really cool to hear.
Lindsay 52:08
I think that you know, and a lot of businesses experienced this that with the staff and not people not wanting to work. Me and Cerise both had the same. You know what, what we thought we should do, we were like, We need to fix this problem. And we obviously cannot hire, so we need to take this a little bigger step. And it was definitely upsetting, and scary and concerning to us. And we both felt you know, uncomfortable, but we both knew deep down that it was the correct thing to do. And ultimately, we are so happy with that.
Therese 52:47
We were just spinning our wheels, really we were just continuously spinning our wheels. So it was the right move for
Lindsay 52:52
us. Yeah,
Collin Funkhouser 52:54
Therese and Lindsey, I have, I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed learning from both of you about how you've made your businesses into one and how you've made that work through dedication and through recognition of passion and strengths and weaknesses, and have continued to adapt and change. But I know that there's a lot more that we didn't get a chance to dive into. And you both have so much knowledge and experience to share. So how best can listeners get in touch with you and follow along with everything that you both have going on?
Therese 53:28
Follow us on social media, Facebook, suburban pets, dog walking and pet sitting. And then our Instagram account is suburban underscore cats.
Lindsay 53:37
Is that right? Yeah. And you know, we're we're both in a lot of the pet sitter groups that are on Facebook. And you know, when we have time occasionally will chime in. If somebody was like, Oh, I have a situation, you know, I'll kind of, you know, put my two cents in and be like, you know, your failure, you're doing the wrong thing. You know, we don't do that all the time. But you know, somebody, I always tell people that asking other pet sitters and dog walkers really is is a good idea to lean on and asked for advice. Because we're all in this together ultimately, you know, and, you know, asking people for help is not always a bad thing.
Collin Funkhouser 54:21
Right? Right. Well, I'll have I'll have links to Instagram and Facebook, on the show notes and on the website, as well so people can start following along and start picking your brains on some stuff to this has been a fascinating conversation about your merger. I'm just again, so thankful for both of your time today. And really appreciate it.
Therese 54:42
Thank you for having us.
Lindsay 54:44
Thank you. Thanks so much.
Collin Funkhouser 54:46
Merging their businesses was like a marriage the had to pick their battles. I've been thinking about that quote a lot since I had my conversation with Teresa, and Lindsay and it was reminder that we pick our battles in things every single day. In business, whether you're a solopreneur, you have one employee or you have 30. There are battles that we have to pick, there are relationships that we choose, we intentionally decide to preserve, to nurture and to maintain, day after day. It's not easy. Having a healthy relationship in a business or at the personal level means making sacrifices and each person commits to that. In business, it gets a little tricky knowing what it is important to sacrifice and what we need to stand firm on. But that's why understanding your why and your mission statement. And having those goals lined out is so important, so that you know exactly what decisions will bring you closer or further away from where you want to go, and what relationships are going to be important to you as well. We'd like to thank our sponsors, time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you so much for listening. We know this is a busy time in a busy season for you and it means so much that you would spend some of your day and week listening to us and the stories that people share. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
