285: From Finances to Felines with Wendy Thomson
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Summary:
How do you manage your finances? Wendy Thomson, owner of My Three Cats, spent over 20 years as an accountant. She credits her background with her ability to get her business off the ground quickly during Covid. She joins the show today to share her experience of growing quickly, why we need to understand our finances, and why she decided to start a cat only business. She also shares what she looks for in a good hire for business.
Topics on this episode:
Why finances are important
Understanding your income
Why go cat only?
Hiring strong team members
Main take away? Pursue areas where you have experience in, so you could be more confident in your ability.
About our guest:
Wendy has lived with cats since childhood and has never been without one or more in her family. At age 13 she volunteered for the Cats Protection in Warrington where she cleaned out pens and helped to feed abandoned kittens. She adopted two cats of her own - Clarence and Alabama - in 1996 and has since owned cats of every temperament and age, from tiny kittens to old ladies, and loved each one with the same passion and care.
During one particular two-week holiday she put her cats in a local cattery. In those pre-mobile/pre-internet days Wendy had no contact with the cattery during this time and spent much of her holiday worrying about them and missing them. The cattery was lovely and cared well for them, but on her return her cats were thin, anxious and timid due to the stress of being away from home. They hadn't eaten very much and had been withdrawn during their stay.
Once home it took them several days to trust Wendy enough to settle back into their routine. She couldn't bear to move them out of their home again and from then on relied on friends and family to feed the cats at home when she went away.
Wendy began cat-sitting in 2016 and her service soon became incredibly popular. Each new client said that their cats were so much happier staying at home, and less stressed and anxious when they went away. Wendy's friendly, caring nature and her life-long passion for cats continued to attract cat-owners following recommendations from others and the business grew from strength to strength.
By 2019 Wendy was at full capacity and still the bookings were coming in. Determined to look after as many cats as possible she decided to recruit a small team to help offer cat-sitting services to a larger area.
Wendy now works with her amazing team to care for cats across the whole of Warrington. All team members have been carefully chosen and are all cat-owners themselves, fully insured and vetted, with an abundance of feline experience.
She is passionate about both the physical and emotional care of all cats and understands their need for routine and independence. My Three Cats has an exceptional 5 Star record and all the feedback they receive tells them that the cats they care for are much happier staying at home when their owners are away. Owners return to find their cats calm, relaxed and happy (They often wonder if they’ve even missed them!)
Wendy lives with her partner and children in Thelwall, with their cats Coco, Billie, Ronnie & Reggie.
Links:
hello@mythreecats.co.uk
Website: www.mythreecats.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MyThreeCatsWarrington
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mythreecatswarrington/
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
cat, people, business, pet, worked, grow, clients, feedback, money, bit, owners, visit, finance, link, sitters, experience, bank account, review, happen, dog
SPEAKERS
Wendy T., Collin
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 brought to you by time to bed and pet sitters International.
Collin Funkhouser 00:21
After more than 20 years as an accountant, Wendy Thompson decided it was time to make a big move. During the COVID lockdowns. She credits her finance background to be able to get her business up and running pretty quickly. And now is looking forward to running it full time. My three cats was born out of a passion to spend more time with the pets that she loves so much. And today, Wendy walks us from finances to fee lines. Let's get started. Okay, hi,
Wendy T. 00:47
Colin. And first of all, thank you ever so much for inviting me onto your podcast. Just to say that I am a huge fan of your of your podcast after I've discovered it recently. And Wendy Thompson. I am the owner of my three cats, which is a cat only carpeting business. We're based in Warrington, which is a town in the UK. And we're actually located in the northwest of England, just between Manchester and Liverpool. And I live there with my partner and my two teenage children and our well our forecast. We we did have three cats is how the business name, but we somehow managed to acquire another another cat still on the way. So yeah, we now have that's me really.
Collin 01:48
And so but but you didn't start out in taking care of people's cats. Right? So what what is your what's your act? What's your background? And what brought you to the point where my three cats really needed to start?
Wendy T. 02:01
Yeah, I mean, I, I mean, I've worked in? Well, corporate finance is my background, I've worked in finance for over 25 years. You know, pet care as sort of came along, almost by accident really. I started my sort of working life working for various various companies within their finance functions. I did a degree at Manchester University back in the early 90s. I did a degree in accounting and finance. And then since then I've worked in various various companies and businesses, some large companies some small. And I you know, I've kind of learnt a lot of lessons from watching how other people run, run their businesses. I've worked for quite, you know, a number of companies that have made a lot of mistakes and have actually sort of closed and folded up. I've worked for some very successful businesses, I've worked for tiny companies that have grown very fast. And as I've kind of gone along, through those, the years that I've been working there, I've kind of sort of sort of been watching from the sidelines almost. And I've kind of been taking notes and sort of looked at looked at the mistakes that the managers have made there and sort of picked up on things that they've done and sort of seen how well some things have worked and systems that have I've used and sort of noticed things that you know, have worked well and other things that haven't worked and, and I think somewhere along the way, I've kind of realized that I've got a bit of an entrepreneurial side to me and I've, I've kind of always wanted to run my own business. And because I've had all this business background, I've kind of always known how to run a business, but I've never really had that sort of selling sort of selling side to me. So I've just never really sort of done anything with it. But I've kind of always known that I've wanted to do something I've kind of dabbled in, in sort of other areas. I had a like a spell of, you know, selling like the, the, the you know, the makeup selling and I've done a bit of like crafty stuff, you know, craft fair kind of sort of selling and but uh, you know, nothing sort of major that's really sort of stuck with me. And we were With regards to the, the pet care, I mean, that's just something that I've grown up with. You know, I was, I was my family, my parents and my grandparents all had cat, so I grew up with them. And one of my earliest memories was one stormy night, when I was very young, there was a knock at the door. And one of our neighbors was a vet. And there, you knocked at the door and said, asked whether we could look after it. A kitten had just found the kitten, like at the side of the road in the in the, in the drain, and he couldn't take it in because he had a dog. So my mom said, Oh, yes, well, you know, we'll, we'll take it, and we ended up keeping that keep them for years and years. And we've just always had cats ever since. And when I was, I think when I was about 13, or so I used to go and volunteer at the the local cat rescue shelter, the cat detection league. And so that was something that I always really just, it was just came natural, to me just, cats were always a big part of my life. So when I, when I started, cat sitting, it just sort of, I kind of put the two things together last year, I started to think, well, I can I can do this as a as a business. And and that was it really, it just sort of the two things sort of fell into place. And, you know, that was that was how it how it happened.
Collin 06:28
I, that's I love that story. Because it is very familiar for people who are listening of going, you're right, like I did start this something and it just kind of all fell into place. And yeah, and here I am. And I had a little bit of planning, or maybe not very much planning at all. And it all kind of just ended up and for your particular background in finances. You started off by talking about learning from other people's mistakes. And I think that as a business owner as as anybody, it just personal or in business, I think that is such a huge asset for for growing. I always like to say I like to learn from mistakes, just not my own, because they're paying Yes,
Wendy T. 07:13
exactly. And that's exactly what it was. I was learning from other people's mistakes without having to make them myself. Another you know, that was invaluable, because I could sort of see it happening in front of my eyes. But I wasn't, it wasn't me that it wasn't me that was doing it.
Collin 07:32
And for you specifically to be looking at it from the kind of the back end of of the numbers and of the operation side. So when you what kind of lessons did you take from them? And how did you decide, okay, now they did that I want to do something different whenever I run my own business?
Wendy T. 07:51
Yeah. Well, in particular, I am, there were at least a couple of instances where the company that I worked for, grew incredibly quickly. So they started off small and sort of immediately sort of started making lots of money, and immediately started just basically growing very quickly, putting that money back in and, and taking on a lot more staff. And I think that ultimately led to them to basically them folding up because they didn't, they didn't sort of plan properly. And they didn't see how their cash flow was going to be affected by taking on huge amounts of new staff. That was definitely, that was something that happened twice in different companies. So that's definitely something that despite, obviously, I would want my business to grow. But it's definitely something that has to be done in a controlled manner. And it's not something that you need. I think a lot of businesses will see, you know, money coming in coming in coming in and think, Wow, this is great. We can do this, we can do this. But I think you have to be careful because obviously you need to plan for things like taxes, because you know what the there's a lot of things that you might not necessarily immediately think of things you can get caught out with. So yeah, that was a that was one that was probably the main one that I learned from quite early on, actually.
Collin 09:42
We all want growth. We all want to be expanding our businesses in some capacity, but for it to take that step back and go Am I doing this too quickly? And do I have the resources to sustain this growth? And that comes down to like understanding how Our business makes money and where we're spending and what it costs us to perform the services that we perform, and we very rarely do we actually sit down and go, Oh, it actually costs me, you know, $13 to do this thing. Am I making enough money to cover the three?
Wendy T. 10:19
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, you don't, you don't tend to do that you don't tend to sit down and look at it. And in sort of that kind of minut detail, you just kind of look at it as a whole. And I think people don't like to get into the nitty gritty details. Although it's boring, you do sometimes have to do that. And that's where my accounting sort of background comes into it. Because that's the kind of bit that I like doing. The boring numbers bit that most people hate. But yeah, I suppose that's, that's what that's why i like i like that side of it really, because I'm an I'm a numbers person, as well as a as a people person.
Collin 11:05
So knowing your numbers is a phrase that gets thrown out a lot, I see that a lot of like, oh, no, your numbers, and we talked about the benefits of knowing your numbers have, it helps you make good financial decisions, it helps you see where growth is, it helps you make, make sure you're budgeting, make sure you are making these things. When someone says Know your numbers, like what runs through your mind, what does that mean to you? Yeah,
Wendy T. 11:29
so I have well, and this is where I find time to get really useful. So I mean, obviously, people will use different different kinds of systems and software. But I use time to pet which is a, the, like an online booking software. And in within that there are reports that you can download. And I use that on a Well, I mean, this, there's lots of reports that you can use, but I would highly recommend that you use any any of the reports within there, the sales reports, to look at your position, what you what you've got locked in on a monthly, weekly or even daily, on a daily basis. Because that will then tell tell you what you've got what you've got booked in, in monetary terms. And it will allow you to plan for the rest of the year. And you can see how much money you are going to be bringing again month by month. And it just allows you to plan and budget, you can look at your staffing and see how much that's going to sort of eat into your revenue. And it's just, it's just knowing and having a picture of the year ahead. So that you can you can sort of envisage any, any issues that are likely to come up, look at any shortfalls that you may have. And just it just gives you a bit of a comfort and knowledge of how your business is going to perform over the year. And and the ability to plan ahead really, and and it is something that I would say is absolutely critical for anyone who's running a business big or small.
Collin 13:37
Have you heard of trying to pet dog from bad to the bone pet care. As this to say,
Doug 13:42
time to pet has made managing my team and clients so much easier. Our clients love the easy to use app and scheduling features. And our sitters love being able to have all of their information organized and easily accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging by keeping conversations on time to pet we are able to monitor our team and ensure nothing ever falls through the cracks.
Collin 14:02
If you are 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/confessions I think when you Yeah, cuz you can look at it and go okay, what days Am I making my most money? What what service I think that just might vary basically which of the services that you're offering if you offer if you offer multiple, which is the one that's bringing the most money, but then also, how costly is that service to you? If you because that's that's where you really start saying because you mentioned earlier like oh, I've got money coming in. But if you're not paying attention to where that money is going after it gets in your hands, you can really find yourself going man I'm making so much money from dropins but they're costing me a lot because the service areas too wide or they take too long or or the the hourly labor is too costly for me, or whatever that looks like because then you can really start seeing how healthy is my business? Actually, am I actually, you know, first off, am I profitable? But then am I able to have money for other things that I need, you know, expenses and gifts and things like that that we want to do in our business? And if we don't just start slicing and dicing at our numbers, we never get to that point.
Wendy T. 15:20
Yeah, definitely. And you know, you can find that. Yeah, yeah, you're bringing in lots of money on on you say drop in visits. But then you need to look at the percentage that you're paying out for your your staff or your your contractors. And you can then look at where they do do you pay mileage? Do you pay an hourly rate? Is it more? Is it more beneficial to pay an hourly rate or cost per visit? All those things you can you can have different scenarios so that you can look at, which is more beneficial. And yeah, look at just have have different different versions of the same visit just to see what the differences are, and which is, which is likely to give you more money in your pocket.
Collin 16:16
Yeah, I also one of my things that I like to look at is where which one of my marketing outlets is bringing in the most money. And in that way, you can again, you can start saying, Wow, all of that posting and all that engagement that I'm doing on Facebook, let's say that's really paying off, because I'm getting a lot of people who are contacting me through that they're kind of my Facebook clients, and then I have my ad spend in the local paper or the ad spend on local Google, you can you can also start kind of lumping people into these big categories and say, hey, if I'm spending $1,000 on Google ads, but I'm only getting $20 a month, maybe I stopped spending $1,000 on Google ads.
Wendy T. 17:00
Yeah, definitely, definitely. And I always have a question on my, on my booking form as to where people heard about about us. So you can kind of track a little bit through there. So yeah, if it's a paid advert in a magazine, or whatever, you can sort of get some feedback as to where, where your business is coming from. And having said that, the vast majority of our business does come from word of mouth, which is the best source anyway, because it's free.
Collin 17:31
Well, and but what that does, like, so let's say we did that analysis, and we found that most of our money was coming in from the money we were spending on Facebook ads, or that we would invest more in Facebook ads, because we're going to get more from it. When we find out that we get more of our business from word of mouth and referrals. We need to invest into the word of mouth and the referrals. And that could be so Do you do any incentives for people who refer you to you? Or is it just more of a thank you? Or how do you manage investing back into the people who are referring you to new
Wendy T. 18:08
clients? I'm not. I've not so far done any sort of incentives. But yeah, it's on my list of things to do, I'm going to perhaps do some kind of, you know, some kind of Facebook incentive or you know, when the like, winner, winner prize, or you know, refer a friend that that kind of thing. Or even like, yeah, I don't know, I've got not decided yet, but it's definitely what on my on my list of things to do. And because yeah, they are the most powerful. Yeah, you know, sources of new business, from people referring, you know, new customers. So, yeah, at the moment, I just, I just asked for reviews because the minute anybody goes onto our website, pretty much the first page just halfway down, the first page is a link to our Google reviews. Page, and they're just all adjust all five stars. We pride ourselves on having 100% five star reviews. So for us, that's that's, that's, that's, that's perfect, perfect referrals to anyone really. Yeah.
Collin 19:28
When you ask for reviews, I know that a lot of senators actually struggle with asking for that kind of feedback or asking their clients to do that for them. How do you go about structuring that conversation and asking them to leave you a review somewhere?
Wendy T. 19:48
So at the end of a cat sitting visit, I will send an email usually to ask If they would mind just dropping us a note say that they've returned home safely, first of all, so that we know the home and that obviously the cat isn't going to be left without care. You know, now that we finished our visits, but then as part of that email, I would normally ask if they'd be kind enough to leave feedback, I usually say I usually ask for feedback rather than a review. Just because it sounds a bit more like, You're not asking them to say we're great. Well, thank you things you do anyway. But yeah, because I usually I usually say that sometimes new new clients are slightly wary or nervous of a new service, such as ours, were sent essentially it, they're allowing the stranger into that house. So feedback from other other existing clients is always really useful and really helpful. So I sort of put it to them like that and ask them, if they wouldn't mind giving us any feedback, positive or negative. And just because it helps new clients who may be feeling a bit unsure about us, and well, 100% of the time, they give us positive feedback. So, so far anyway. So yeah, send them by email and send them a link to our Google reviews page. And most of the time, they will put a review on there, as
Collin 21:38
well. And I like that slight difference in the term that you use of give me a review versus give me feedback, because I think in in that kind of changes the context, in my mind, when I hear those two words, just as a business owner of when I get asked for feedback, I'm asking for something I can do with and I'm already starting to change my mindset with whatever they write of going, Okay, I need to make this, this is useful to me, I need to understand where they're coming from, and this is going to help me versus a review is kind of like a in my mind. It's a Oh, I like them or I didn't. Yeah, yeah.
Wendy T. 22:15
I mean, essentially, it's the same thing, isn't it? Really, they were just so used to being being asked for a review. It's, it's like the, you know, that everyone uses it. And that's, it's kind of the norm to be asked for a review. IE, please say something nice about me. Just feel like asking for feedback is just slightly different. And it just, it just makes it sound as though you're just asking them for, you know, what did you think about us yet?
Collin 22:48
Yeah. And again, it kind of helps me start positioning myself to be receptive to it. Because yeah, I'm looking for it to benefit me in the way that I'm so I can improve? Right? Yeah, it can be better next time.
Wendy T. 23:01
Yeah. And I'd say that as well. You know, we're always open to suggestions. If there's anything that you weren't happy with, or if there's anything that you think that we could improve on, then please, please say, because we're always looking to improve the service that we give,
Collin 23:17
also. So when we open ourselves for feedback, sometimes we get, I don't know, not good feedback or feedback that kind of hurts us a little bit. At least I know, I can get be a little sensitive sometimes when people start giving feedback. How do you approach receiving feedback, both positive or negative?
Wendy T. 23:37
it well? Well, I am incredibly lucky in that so far. I mean, I'm touching all the wards that I can find. I've not had any negatives. So far. You know, it's, it's amazingly, just been all, all God. And, you know, I think that's why the business has just grown so So sort of quickly, and just seems to be so popular at the moment, because everyone just seems to really like because I think perhaps it's because there's not a huge amount of competition. So again, we're really lucky that in Warrington, that just doesn't seem to be there are a lot of pet pet businesses that cater for dogs and cats, but there doesn't appear to be that many, that well, very few actually, that are just cat only. And that and our customers just seem to really like that we are sort of cat specialists. So yeah, whether it's whether it's that I don't know, but people just seem to really like the fact that they use they can use us and not have to sort of send their cat to a category which most of them seem to have And incredibly traumatic.
Collin 25:01
Well, yeah, you had a I know you had an experience with a category when you traveled a while ago. And that's kind of one of the reasons you decided, you know, can I do this a different way? Why focus only on cats? I know, whenever we looked into going into Pezzini, our minds were solely around dogs and dogs. So but you've kept it to cats only over these years. Why is that?
Wendy T. 25:28
Well, from a personal point of view, it was purely because I, I only new cats I was growing up with didn't have a dog. So I didn't particularly know about dogs. I mean, I, you know, I like dogs. You know, I love all animals. But I knew, I felt like I knew cats. You know, more than anything else I grew, I'd grown up with them. And I just, they just kind of came naturally to me. So for me, it just seemed more natural for me to look after cats only. And I wouldn't have felt confident, personally looking after dogs, because they're just, I wouldn't have known how to sort of, I could look after a dog, but I wouldn't have known I wouldn't have felt confident looking after the different breeds of dogs, I wouldn't have understood the different needs, whereas with a cat, I just know how to look up. I just understand the wall. I know all the different types of temperaments. And I just feel like I just, I just feel completely comfortable with all caps. I think over time, as we've, as we've become more established, I think customers like the fact that we are cat only because there's so as I said, just before, there are there are quite a lot of dog. Well, there's quite a lot of dog only businesses in Warrington. But there are also quite a lot of dog businesses who also look after cats almost as a sort of, like, as a sort of add on. And I think customers like the fact that we specialize in cats, and we know cats, and we like to we we specialize in anxious and nervous cats in particular, because we know that they become really quite traumatized by having to leave their own home environment. And I would say, the vast majority of our, our customers, cats are quite like that. And I think our customers just like the fact that we we really know those kinds of cats, and we know what they need. And we know, we know that, you know, quite often they'll just hide under the bed and they just, they just are so nervous and timid, that they they can't even sort of come out to see us and that and that's fine. Because we know we are our main aim is to keep keep the cat as in as normal routine as we can do without stressing them out and not upsetting them in any way. So if they're the kind of cat that is shy, and shy and timid, and just wants to sort of sleep, sleep curled up in their, their own, you know, cozy bed all day, then you know, that's absolutely fine. We'll we'll go in, we'll make sure they've got everything they need, we'll make sure they've got clean balls, fresh food, nice, clean little tray, and we'll check on them. And other than that, we'll we'll just sort of quietly leave and make sure that they're completely fine. All the cats are, you know, really energetic, so they'll need a bit of, they'll need some exercise and we'll we'll play with them and we'll you know, give them a good run around the house. And I think people just appreciate the fact that we know, we did we know and we we understand that there are different kinds of camps and they've all got different temperaments. You know, some some have very loving and they really the crave human company and they eat they they need attention and they want to sit on your knee and they want to you know climb up on give you kisses and cuddles and, and we adapt our visits to suit them. And so when we when we do our meet and greets we make notes on all this and we'll you know we'll we'll tailor each visit to suit your cat. So as well as the basics of obviously giving them their food and making sure the litter trays are clean and everything. We'll then tailor the visit to suit them depending on what kind of character that your cat is and and Bide by focusing on only cat So we can we can do that. And then and in that way your cat gets its own sort of its own special experience based on what it would normally normally be doing. You know, when it's at home with its own family
Collin 30:15
started off by saying, Why did I choose cats? Well, that's what I knew. That's what I was comfortable with. And I think that that is really important that we remember when we are starting in business, or we are looking to do new things is what am I already comfortable with? What do I already have a little bit of experience with, because then what that means is when we're comfortable with something means we are confident in moving forward. And it allows us to make that step to make that leap and to try something that takes a little bit of introspective introspection sometimes to go okay, what are actual, what am I translatable skills to this new thing that I'm doing? What past experiences? Can I pull from? How can I make this my own, and whether it's growing up with only cats and being exposed to them? Or, or maybe you grew up with, you have extensive experience with birds or whatever that looks like, going? Okay, I have confidence in my ability to do this because I'm comfortable because of my experience, and putting in stepping out in that really does allow us to, to do competently and clients pick up on that. And they they see that. And they sense that in your expertise and your experience?
Wendy T. 31:22
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. I mean, so many times, I've gone to do a meet and greet. And then the client has said to me, now, the cat here, but she probably will come to you very shy, very shy with, you know, with strangers and new people. And the next thing the cat, the cat was coming, marching over to me, and he's like, trying to get on my knee. And I think they're just like, I don't know what I do. But yeah, cats just somehow pick up on something about me. And it's the same with with the rest of my team. We, I think if you're a cat person, cats just seem to gravitate towards you. And I think it's immediately obvious. And the clients that can see it, they can see it in front of their eyes. And straightaway, most of them say, Oh, I'm so relieved that the you know, the MCATs taken to you straightaway. And it's instantly put them at ease when they when they see it. So that I mean, obviously we always do a meeting greets anyway, but if the cats there, and that happens, which does often happen. That is really great for the for the the new customer, because it really does help to put their minds at ease that their cat is going to be okay.
Collin 32:43
They're looking for somebody who's going to care for their animals like they do. Right. And they're they're going to be kind of picky, they're going to look to see how they interact and what
Wendy T. 32:53
definitely, definitely, yeah, yeah, I Yeah, we send, we send messages and picture photos and updates after each visit as well. So, you know, we're they're always, you know, in contact with us, so that they can see that everything's okay at home, and we can let them know of any issues that arise. So yeah, it's it's just the feedback that we get is just, it's, it just is so great. And it just makes me feel like we're doing the right thing and, and I just, I can only hope that it will just grow and grow and grow because the service that we offer, I can just only hope that we can offer it to more more people because it's, it's just going great.
Collin 33:48
Let's be honest, building a profitable pet sitting business on your own can feel overwhelming. Since 1994, pet sitters International has helped over 40,000 people just like you start and grow your business. From Access to group rate Pet Sitter insurance and discounts on background checks to free client handouts and a monthly member toolkit. VSI provides you with the credentials, continuing education and community you need to grow your pet sitting business. You'll also be invited to join a private online network of other pet snake business owners from around the world. Save $15 off your first year of membership by using the promo code PSC 15 at checkout, go to pet sit.com/p S C to learn more. You've experienced quite a lot of growth in your time because you started back in 2016 2017. And you already have quite a few members on your team. So what was it like bringing people into this this this business of yours?
Wendy T. 34:48
Well, that was something that I did find quite difficult as I'm sure probably most most small business owners do because If you've Well, it's your baby, isn't it? You don't want you don't believe that anyone could possibly have the same passion that you do and all those things. So yeah, when so I started it. I started doing it in 2017. And up until so for the first two years, I just was I just did it by myself. So by 2019, that's when it reached a point where I, I needed help. And it had grown to a point where I couldn't sort of manage. So that in that in 2019, I had two other well, independent contractors. And yeah, that was quite scary. They were both. They were both a friend of a friend. And one of them who still works for me now and also works at the Cats Protection in Warrington, so I knew that she completely knew her, her cats, and she knew what she was doing. And from then on. I really, if anything, I would I would prefer to have people who already worked with cats, where possible. So I mean, it's difficult, isn't it? Because you, you don't you want you want you basically want another you to work with because you just want to clone yourself because you want them to have that same passion. And luckily, so far I you know, my team has just been absolutely fantastic. You know that they're all They're all brilliant. The know that? Yeah, they just go in there. And they anything that I asked them to do, they're just in a straightaway. And they just they just love the cats, you know, as much as I do. But yeah, it is it is a bit scary. Because you just it I suppose you just feel like you've lost a little bit of control. But it's become easier. It's has become easier over the last couple of years. So yeah, so that was in 2019. And then I started 2020 With great plans and ideas of how I was going to grow. Didn't know, I was still working at that point full time. And I had plans to you know, maybe go part time or or give up my my finance job. Thankfully, I didn't at that point. Yeah, I had a new website, I had plans for taking on some more new staff. And obviously we know what happened next. So yeah, COVID came along, everything stopped, as I'm sure everyone else had the same thing. So yeah, it was all it all kind of. Yeah, it was all a mess, because we know. But yeah, since since then, the travel ban in the UK, was lifted in the I want to say the June of 2020 or so people, people started to travel locally again. And instantly, the bookings picked straight up again, because people were desperate to travel again. So we were busy. We were busy again in the summer of 2020. But it was all mainly for like short breaks. And it was all very, it was all very fluid. People were people were changing dates and rescheduling. And people had to sort of be very, sort of had to be able to change dates, you know, at the last minute because people didn't really know what they were doing. So it was busy but not it was it was just a difficult year wasn't it for everyone. So we then had another we had another lockdown at the start of last year 2021. So again, we started off with nothing last year, but then from May 2021. When travel was back on again, we've just been really busy ever since and every month since then it's just grown and grown. So I've now got 1010 Cat sitters and it's it's just me We almost every day I get inquiries of, you know, new, new customers new cats. So yeah, my, my day I've left my my finance job. And I'm doing this full time I've got 10 cup testers. And yeah, lots of plans. Lots of plans for the future. Exciting.
Collin 40:25
Yeah, it really sounds like it's what works for you, what makes a good member of your team, what makes a good cat person to come on and start working with your, with your business?
Wendy T. 40:40
The I think the most important thing is to be a people person as well, I think I've heard a few a few times. And I think you've mentioned it in some of your podcasts, that some people go into pet care, because they don't like working with people, but they like working with animals, but for me, it's, it's quite, it's really quite important to be both because, as you say, well, as you've said before, it is the people that pay the money, but it's the people that you're working for, and you know, they wouldn't work with you, if, if they didn't get on with you as well is, you know, you can love the animal and, and get on with the pets as much as you want. But you, you need to be able to communicate and really sort of bond with the owners as well. So for me, it's, it's the, it's the communication with the with the owner, I think it's really important that all my staff sort of are able to communicate with their, with their, with their owners, we use the we use the chat function on time to pet so they all they send them pictures and little messages, and then you know, I've made sure that they're all you know, give as much detail as they can, and the owners really appreciate that. And I get feedback from the the owners that, you know, my staff have worked, really keeping in touch, and they really appreciate the the little stories that they tell them. So yeah, it's, I think, and just being really passionate, passionate about wild cats in my in my case, you know, and to have have a cat themselves, because to me, that then then tells me that really they've they've got the experience that that I need. I mean, I I get I do get people all the time saying I'll help you out when you're busy. And I think with with cats, I think people just think they're easy. I think people think that, you know, they can just come in, put a bit of food down play with the kittens, but there's so much more to it, there's so many different types of cat, so many different personality types and characters. And, you know, some are, some are very elderly and need needs, you know, medication, some are, some can get quite aggressive when the when the, you know, anxious, or if they've, if there's, you know, if they're frustrated, because they, you know, their owners aren't there. And it's just being able to read those different types of characteristics. And that only really comes with the experience of having your own cat or having worked with cats. So quite quite a lot of my, my cat sitters either work at the cat shelters, I've got one lady who is also has their own cat grooming business. And so they all kind of work with cats in some other capacity as well. And I really would ask for that in any future cat sitters that I take on as well rather than just, you know, somebody who likes cats. Because I think it's that's not it. That's not enough. You know, people need to know that they they knew the experience rather than just, you know. Yeah, just just just liking of cats, because there's more to it than that. I think I think cats get a bit of a bad press sometimes because people just don't really understand them.
Collin 44:40
No, they don't. I know in our business many times the cat is kind of a an also and it's oh please come to that for the dog. And then oh, by the way, I also have this cat that will be in the back room. And it's trying to so it's sometimes it's both us as the business owners and pet sitters learning more about cats so that we can provide that but also educating their owner. Yeah. On the owner. Yeah. So they can see, note, there are still a lot of needs that need to be met here. And this is how, right so it's Yeah, both sides of that coin.
Wendy T. 45:15
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's amazing the difference in some of the weigh in the, the, the owners treatment of their cats, I mean, even when we then the owners that we work with, you know, some of them are just like, oh, yeah, just just give them a few biscuits, you know, every, every so often they'll be fine. And to the opposite extreme, where, you know, they are their absolute babies, they, you know, they must have food measured out what, you know, every three hours, and the they have their own bedroom, and they, they have their own special clothes. You know, it's, it's really extreme, though, the way the capsure have treated within the family. So yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting, the dynamic of where the cat falls within the family as
Collin 46:10
it is. And obviously, you your business is naturally attracting people who view their cats kind of more elevated than other people. Do you ever get people who contact you that just want like, very, very basic services or for you to come once every three days? And how do you handle those kinds of inquiries?
Wendy T. 46:30
Yeah, we have had that actually. And I now have a policy where we don't agree to we don't do anything? Well, we have a minimum requirement of once every, at least once every day. Is that right? Yeah, that's every day. Because for me, if you if you're only visiting once every, every two days, or once every three days, say for example, for me, if if something happens, if something happens to the cat, on stay day, even day one, after you visited in the morning, and you're not then going to be going there until the day after, or even the day after that, you know, that cat then could be injured or or ill, you know, two or three days, and there's nobody there to to know that. And that I that wouldn't sit right with me. Really? I would not feel I wouldn't feel comfortable knowing that. So for those for those that I would, I would have to decline that booking going forward. Having said that, I have done them previously, in early years, when it's not been something that I've kind of really thought properly about. But yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't accept those anymore because it it Yeah, it I don't feel that it's given the cat the proper care.
Collin 48:09
You're right, it really it I think most for me, the fundamental part of that is understanding that things can happen. Cats are static, right? Very recently, we had a cat sit where it was kind of this person had an outdoor indoor cat. And they were leaving for a week. So they wanted the cat to be moved indoors. So there was obviously a lot of questions about whether the cat would regularly use the litter box and all this stuff. We were gonna go over regularly. And she was very fine with that. I went over the first day and the cat was going to be cordoned off in the laundry room and she had all of her stuff set up and was kind of like her little own category in there. And I couldn't find the cat for the first couple of minutes. And then I started to hear a very stressed meowing and I quickly looked behind the washer and dryer and there sat a cat stuck behind Oh tiny wedge it had slipped or fallen and gone down into the gap between the back was only was four inches or less the Fallen aisle way back there. And so, you know, got the cat out and everything. But I was like, This is why we come over every day. Like yeah, things happen. And that cat, you know if it was stuck for a day or more like that's what an honor to be in and how strong that cat would be.
Wendy T. 49:28
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. You don't really ever know. What, what's what could happen. So you can't like sort of give an example. But yeah, things like that do happen naturally. Like you couldn't say to you know the owner. Well, what happens if the cat falls down the back of the the washing machine or you know, because you wouldn't really expect that to happen. But obviously,
Collin 49:53
yeah, we can't come up with all of the possibilities. But we just need to be keep communicating like this, we do this so things don't happen, or one very basic one is when they if they set out an automatic fear, and you know, how often do those automatic feeders fail? Or do they get pulled over? Or did they get jammed or something like that happen? Yeah, we're there to fix it. And it's, it's so that that comes in this client education and awareness of what the possibilities are. And I think for too long, many people just kind of settled with what they thought would be happening because they didn't want to be a burden. So they're bringing in these past expectations of Well, I always used to ask my mom, or I always used to ask my brother or I always used to ask my neighbor, and I never wanted to burden them. And so that's why I asked them to come over every two days or three days. And it's like, no, this is not a burden to us.
Wendy T. 50:47
Yes, yeah. This is what we do. Want me to go out of it every day? Yeah, yeah.
Collin 50:53
So we do get to kind of change and flip those expectations for the positive and start seeing, ya know, you can have a higher quality of care because we we are here, when you thinking about your experience, and kind of how you've worked your way into business. What are some of your favorite resources, whether that's for business or for running, being an entrepreneur? Or maybe it's for learning more about cats in their care? And what are some of those resources that you would like more people to know about and be using? First of all,
Wendy T. 51:25
most importantly, is time to pet which is I think, is probably the single most important one, which is probably going to change really has changed the way I'm running my business. It's, for me, it's been a game changer. I was I was I was basically running off a lot of spreadsheets, and sort of my own sort of version of, well, my own version of time to one that didn't sort of link through to like the invoicing side of it. But yeah, time to pet is just been Yeah, really has changed everything. It you know, I can put all my shedule bookings in, I can see exactly who's doing what visits easily on a on a calendar, it goes straight through to the invoicing fires off the invoices to the customers, the customer pays straightaway online, it links straight through to stripe and Stripe, pays all the money straight into my bank account without me having to do anything at all. You know, it's it's got the messaging function. So all my all my cat sitters can just easily send messages through to the owners, without them having to save the phone numbers in their own phones. I can see what the cat sitters are messaging. So keep an eye on those. And it's just I have it's just fantastic. I'm so glad I found it. And obviously, provided that I found you guys as well. So that was great. So yeah, and obviously like all the reporting function of it as well. Brilliant, brilliant, funny as well. So yeah, time to pet, definitely get it if you've not got it from the accounting side of it, I use now have not checked this, whether it's actually available in the US, obviously, in the UK. software called free agent, which is an online accounting software dead easy to use, it links through to your bank account. So all your bank transactions will basically show up each morning. You can auto you can basically get them to automatically link through to our you know, it'll tell you whether it's a sale or whether it's an expense for advertising or insurance or whatever it is, you can tell it to do that automatically. So a lot of it is all done for you. And then it can link through to your your tax software at the end of the year. So when you do do your tax return, obviously it's different again for me, UK to us. So yeah, for me, that's exactly what I need as well. So just everything's Daddy's a little bank, bank account, I use Starling bank account. I don't know whether that's anything that you've heard of over there. But yeah, it's one of the sort of new, new New bank accounts where it's all very much sort of online and linked to you linked to your phone. So you, yeah, you don't have to sort of log on as such, like the more traditional bank accounts, and it's all very much automated. Yeah, that's, that's another good one that I couldn't be without. And then with regards to just sort of the marketing side, I guess, Canva can't do that, that Canva for creating Instagram posts and Facebook posts on just Instagram or Facebook, you know, I've basically ran the whole business through those for most of the first couple of years of, of it, I didn't even have a website at first. So yeah, just posting regularly posted, you know, good, good quality photos, and good, good pictures of, of just everyday, everyday business life, or at least sort of that people are interested in pictures of cats. pictures of me. Yeah, which are the resources? Yeah, that's, they're the main ones I think, that I use all the time. Yeah.
Collin 56:24
I mean, it's a big list. But as a business owner, you're caught we're constantly looking for how do I make a my life easier and less stressful and be like, have higher quality of work and output at the end of the day, and whether these tools are work for everybody or somebody, it's just a process of starting to look at what you have access to? How can I make this work for me? What does this do for me? Does it fit my workflow? Does it fit my schedule? Does it fit my needs? If not, that's okay, go find something else. But it's all about using the tools that we want, and that are going to make our lives easier, because we just, we want to spend less time doing a lot of these things. And so it's or whatever we can find, right? It really does help us out.
Wendy T. 57:09
Yeah, I'm very much a YouTube learner and a podcast learner. So if there's something that I want to find out about ALS, first of all, see if there's a YouTube video about it from somebody who can tell me how to do it. I just, I just love podcasts out. I just have I learned so much from listening to podcasts, I just find them. It's like listening to the radio, but you pick the subject. So you know, well, you're you're this is the perfect example. It's that it's the subject that that means the most to me, and it's just what, well, 200 episodes of my favorite subject. So yeah, I mean, I just listen to it every day in the cast.
Collin 57:58
We really appreciate that. And we love getting this being part of people's education and access to more stories and experiences so that we don't have to learn from our own mistakes, we can learn from others, and we can continue to be get access to, to new things. And so when the I'm so appreciative of you taking time out of your day, and for you telling telling your story and helping us be better at at finances and felines, and I can't call it, but I know that you do an awful lot on theirs. And you're you're you're busy with growing and things like that. So how can people get in touch and see all the work that you have going on? Okay,
Wendy T. 58:36
so my well My website is www.my Three cats.co.uk And three, the word three. My email, if anyone wants to be an email is Hello at my three co.uk Is my three cat Warrington and Instagram is also the same. My three gaps are worrying. But if no one wants to get in touch me or message me lovely to hear from you.
Collin 59:10
Okay, well, I have I have thoroughly enjoyed this windy. I mean, I really have and I'm so appreciative to do this. So it really means a lot. And thank you so much for coming on the show today. Oh, thank
Wendy T. 59:22
you colleagues, we had really great I've really enjoyed it.
Collin Funkhouser 59:24
Start with what you know, I think many times when we look to make a big change or do something different. We try and think outside of who we are or where our passions are because we think we need to do something different and unique and special, and not so humdrum and boring as just ourselves. But I love how windy when I asked why did you decide to do cats? She answered, well, I only know cats. And that's a great place to start. We often overlook some of the simplest things about who we are as people where our passions lie, where our experiences To lie, the next step is then to compare that with where our passion is, and where we think we can move forward and expand on that. That's where the rub comes from, is where my passions and or where my strengths are, where I want to continue to move forward. It's okay to admit no, it's okay to go on and do other assessments get more education, training shadow people do other things, to try and figure a lot of that out. But first assessing where am i right now where I am today. And then I can move forward without that first step will be wandering in the wilderness for way too long, making way too many mistakes. We want to thank our sponsors time to pet and pet sitters international for making today's show possible. And Megan and I, from the bottom of our hearts want to thank you so much for listening. It really means a lot. You have a lot on your plate. There's a lot that you do and there's a lot vying for your time attention. And we can't tell you enough how much it means to us that you spend your time listening to us and being part of the community of Pitzer confessional. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
