293: Decide to be the Leader with Julie Fredrick
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Summary:
Have you decided to be a leader in the industry? Julie Fredrick, owner of The Pet Sitter of Boise, has been running her pet sitting business since 2003, while still holding down a full time job. With a team of over 35 employees, she spends her time focusing on giving the best possible service to the right clients. Julie shares how her background in operations and process improvement helps her run her business better and why more growth isn't always better. She also encourages us to start being a leader in the industry.
Main topics
Process improvement
Full-time job
Saturation mode
Being a leader
Main takeaways: Instead of getting more clients, get the right ones
About our guest:
Thirteen years ago, Julie began fostering rescued animals. Her fostering adventure started with cats and grew into dogs (her first “dog” foster was a mama dog with 7 pups!). Since then, she has fostered hundreds of dogs for area rescue groups such as The Idaho Humane Society (I.H.S.), Idaho Domestic Animal Welfare Group(IDAWG), and the Fox Terrier Fanciers of Puget Sound Rescue. It brings her great joy to know that a small commitment of a few weeks of fostering saves a life.
While Julie is quite pet-centric, here are some other tidbits about her…Her career began in Research & Engineering with Kimberly-Clark Corporation, she earned an MBA from Boise State in 2005 (Go Broncos!), she was a process engineer in a toilet paper factory in South Carolina for several years and her favorite movie is Forrest Gump.
Throughout the years, Julie has been trusted to care for pets of friends and family. She truly enjoys caring for pets and getting to know them as individuals with unique personalities. Julie looks forward to meeting your four-legged, furry family members and would be honored to be trusted with their care while you’re away.
Links:
Email: julie@petsitterboise.com
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, people, clients, pet, Julie, employees, mindset, area, prices, grow, process, pay, big, thought, pet sitting business, website, staff, charging, person, boise
SPEAKERS
Collin, Julie F.
Collin 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 pet. Do you have to quit your day job if you're still interested in pet sitting? How do we bring the aspects of process improvement and operations management to bear in our businesses so that we've run better? Julie Frederick is the pet sitter of Boise. And she never stopped working her other full time job. After starting in 2003, she has since grown to have over 20 employees that work at her covering all of Boise and the surrounding area. Today, she joins us to talk about how more growth is not always better. And that at times, we do have to just decide to be the leader in whatever we do. We jump into the middle of our conversation here. So let's get started.
Julie F. 01:01
I have an area around me that's just eight miles down the road. That is I could double my business if I expanded there. I just don't know if I have so much work. Yeah. And they have no like they have no pet sitting businesses there. So like people are always calling and I did hire somebody. There. So but I'm not I haven't been advertising it because I'm a little nervous about possibility. So
Collin Funkhouser 01:41
the biggest thing for us is the is just client behavior right now is educating on that. of the I mean, everybody we've talked to every time I've given a presentation or anything to business groups or things like that. It's amazing. Just still, to me this day of people who go, I never knew this was a thing. Because everybody takes their dog boarding to boarding or stick around these things. And so we're coming in, and that's the that's the biggest hurdle to overcome is kind of breaking some of these habits or these mindsets. Yeah. And it just trying to do that through education and being good community members. But that's, you know, it's hard because people don't know what they don't know.
Julie F. 02:25
Yeah, I that's why I think rover has actually been good for our business, because people have heard that that's an asset, you know, people coming to your house, and they scroll down and where they are organic search. So there you go. That's what I think that's my theory anyway.
Collin Funkhouser 02:46
No, I think I agree. I think it's just elevated the awareness, general acceptability of allowing somebody into your home. And, you know, I get it all the time. You know, we're out here, again, very rural area, we serve as a rural part. And I get a lot of comments when we tell people about our services when they go, I thought that they'll say I thought that was only a big city thing. I've only heard cities, and all of a sudden there's this novelty and such to it were like, and they're intrigued, and it's kind of this this luxury, right, that we can get kind of bring to people and they see it as such. So it's been it's been an interesting, interesting time.
Julie F. 03:27
Now, that's cool. Yeah, I'm, I'm kind of in the unique thing here, where this is one of the top growing areas in the nation. And I'm like, there's only like two pet sitters professionally. And there's a shortage of candidates. So we, we are very selective of who we take right now. I had 55 employees before COVID. And now I have 35. And as for March, we're up about 50% over March 2019. Whoa, so my people are really getting tired. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't do any advertising. You know, people call for boarding and then I'm like, we don't do boarding they call for boarding all the time. I don't know why. Because somewhere on my website. Yeah, but some of them are like, Nope, it's got to be boarding or I'll stay home from my vacation. You know, but other people like, I'm like, well, we don't do boarding we come to your home and then I educate them and then some of them are like, Oh, I kind of like that idea. We get some of those too, but um, but right now we're just taking flexible cats for like the next for spring break. We just We can't handle anymore dog business and we're packed to the gills Yeah. Oh, man a unique and unique position here. But yeah, yeah. It's also a hard position, though, because the area is very spread out. That's why people start, you know, have big ideas, and then they start petsitting. And they're like, they get tired of running all over the place, you know, before they can hire.
Collin Funkhouser 05:27
Yeah. Well, even once you do hire, right, I know, we that's something that we've basically had discussions with, almost on a weekly basis with our staff have them going on, I'm getting requests from these people, or these people or these people. And I'll say how far we are. And they're like, Oh, they're, they're 15 miles away. But I'm like, no, no, I know. It's, I get it. It's this hard struggle, because you don't want to, quote unquote, lose out on this business. I know it. But at the end of the day, it's like, that's travel time. That's gas. That's a messed up schedule. Because now for that one, that 30 minute visit. Takes 15 minutes total. And I can't now I can't optimize you are. So maintaining that small service radius is really, man, that's hard. That's really hard to stick to. Yeah,
Julie F. 06:17
it really is hard. And I was, you know, 20 years ago, I was younger, and I was crazy. And I I did all that. I ran the wheels off my car. So did that kind of stuff. And other people are just like, once they get a taste of it. They're like, not doing this. I you know, but anyway. Yeah, it's been quite an interesting ride.
Collin Funkhouser 06:49
I know for us, it's been hard, because we're marketing to kind of a larger town in our service radius is directly in that town. But there are a lot of these bedroom communities outside. Yeah. And that's where actually all the pet parents parents are. But it takes forever to get to him. Right. And so it doesn't make as much sense. So it Yeah, it's been hard to find the people who actually live in the town and work in the town and need us in the town versus areas.
Julie F. 07:18
It's it is like I like I was saying that area, that's eight miles down the road. It's booming. And I think it's actually going to be come bigger than Boise. It's all Californians. And they're working remotely. And but the area's like really spread out. And we had a client that moved there. And she got kind of, you know, a little upset with us. Because she's, she swore that we said, we covered that area. And we're like, no, no, no. And so like, just to appease her i, we took the visit, and I drove and drove and drove to get out there. And I saw, like, the sprawl going on. And, you know, just like, wow, we really need to come out here. But it's I don't know if I can deal with this, I'd have to hire 20 people right off the bat. Yeah. And then then they wouldn't be working consistently, you know, until we grew the area.
Collin Funkhouser 08:22
So and that is definitely a hard part to do. Is this chicken or the egg kind of growth? Of? Do I try and build up the business and then take on staff? Or do I have the staff to then take build up the business so that I don't miss out on opportunities? But yeah, for us, it's hard, because we, you know, we hired first and then have been working on building things up, but it's hard on on staff and helping them have a consistent schedule. And in those early days, the versus the
Julie F. 08:52
other way around. Yeah. And, yeah, it's really takes a person that it's like I first, you know, promoted this supplemental income. And I got some good people, but now it's, I have like, probably like five full time people. And the rest are part time. But yeah, it's, it's a puzzle for sure. That's good. Well, sorry.
Collin Funkhouser 09:21
No, you're fine. No, I love it. Good. Golden. I did want to give you an opportunity to introduce yourself and a little bit about about who you are, and what you do.
Julie F. 09:31
My name is Julie Frederick, and I have a pet sitting business in Boise called the pet sitter Boise. And I started it in 2019. Or I'm sorry, what year is this? 2002 1003 I don't know where he got that number, or that year. But anyway, I was in between jobs and going to school and I started like, pet sitting in my home sort of, and it just kind of grew from there. And then I got a job. You know, after I was laid off, I got a job. But they were doing random layoffs. And so I thought, you know, I don't feel very secure doing this corporate thing. But I decided to grow my business. I didn't get laid off that time. But I wanted more security in something I could control. And I got a website. And I was shocked at like, how the business took off after I got the website. And so I just kind of poured myself into it. And that's what we do. And we do vacation visits mostly. But we do have, you know, probably 20% of our businesses, midday. Midday visits, you've been
Collin Funkhouser 10:49
in business since 2003. Ish, kind of there. That's pretty early on in the pet sitting days. How did you when did you first realize that petsitting was a thing? Or how did you have that idea that that was the thing you wanted to try?
Julie F. 11:03
Oh, yeah, that's a good question. I first believe it or not, I first heard of it. I was I was laid off for work. I lots of time. And I was at the groomer. And I was just kind of hanging out with my my groomer, while she was grooming my dog. And just kind of there weren't a lot of jobs back then it was a really bad job market. And she was well, why don't you watch the clip petsitting some more. And she was I have this book. And she she went got the book petsitting for profit. And it was like, a quarter of it was chewed off by a dog. And she was you can have this book. It's really good. And I read it. And I'm like, Well, this is pretty good. Yeah, so I just, that's the first time I heard of it. And then I'm trying to think how I just started googling it, I think, or just learn more about it and just made up my own thing. And then I made my own website, probably, but I, I first took cards to the vet, you know, I'm old. So this is like 20 years ago, started networking with that, some things like that. And I yeah, I just I joined psi, and learn from that learn, went to a convention. And that was weird, because everybody was just like me. We're all like CAD from the same class. And then I, after three years of solo being solo, I, I started with independent contractors. And I did that for several years, I had 11 of them, and then I couldn't sleep at night anymore. So I switched to employees. That was the best move I've ever made in my business that anybody wants to know more about that they can contact me
Collin Funkhouser 13:03
for the petsitting for profit book. It's amazing. That was published back in the late 80s. And how it really helped shape a lot of the perceptions and mindset about what it meant to actually run, run a business, right and view what we do as a business. Yep.
Julie F. 13:20
Yeah. And one piece of advice in that book was that you should start pet sitting part time. And not everybody does that. But I think that was good advice. Because, you know, it really gives people a taste of petsitting you know, don't go quit your corporate job right away. Just do that, you know. And that's why I still have my corporate job and because I like it and it's flexible. And it gives me a an outlet besides pets, which I find valuable. Yeah. Julie, I
Collin Funkhouser 14:03
did want to ask you about your about your background, and kind of what your corporate side of life the corporate half that you were and how you think that impacts or does or doesn't your your pet business and how you operate it.
Julie F. 14:18
So my background is I have a degree in chemistry and I, I done a lot of engineering work. I'm not I don't have an engineering degree. So I work at Hewlett Packard, and I I am like an analyst. I do like into intellectual property management. It's not really that impressive of a job to be honest, but it's it's flexible. It's low stress, and I like it. And then I have an MBA that I went back to school when I got laid off, and I got the MBA. And so, and I think that has really helped me in my business, actually. So there's different aspects of that
Collin Funkhouser 15:09
there's the business aspect of going, Okay, I need to understand how business structure works. And some of the ins and outs of I'm sure you know, the finances and marketing and those things. The the chemistry, the engineering background, do you feel like, I guess a question for that is when it comes to things like operations or process improvement in a business does does that? Does that play a role in how you view and run your pet setting?
Julie F. 15:40
Actually, yeah, it does not, I've never really thought about it that respect. But so my engineering background is process engineering. And I do see the value and in process, and I'm always looking for different ways to improve the process. And I have a 50 page SOP. And I actually look at it often. And, you know, like, I tried to streamline every process. And like the hiring process, and I have a very structured, hiring, you know, interviewing and hiring process, that's really been helpful. Yeah, I think anytime you can, you can streamline the process or make it better, it's gonna help the business. A lot of different
Collin Funkhouser 16:38
reasons, right, there's just first off thing comes to mind is whenever I'm more streamlined, I'm usually more profitable, because I'm not wasting time and or money to get something Yeah. And I'm also able to satisfy my staff and help them have a better schedule, and I'm able to meet my client's needs better, because I have these things ironed out. I gave a talk to a local business group recently, and I had a gentleman come up to me, and he said, You know what, I really liked your operations of your business. And I think you're managing them well. And it sounded so weird and foreign to me, because I don't view what we do in those kinds of terms or those kinds of lingo. But on my car, on my car at home, it really hit me of like, oh, yeah, I mean, that's all we that's all I do. I'm constantly permission, constantly looking at optimizing routes, and I'm optimizing my time and my schedule and my day, and it was really kind of empowering to me. And I don't think we use those terms enough in the business world of are you improving your processes? Because we don't have it in those terms? Right. We don't approach it from that. But that's, that's almost all of our planning and scheduling. That's what that actually is. In our businesses.
Julie F. 17:51
Huh, that's yeah, a really good point. And another thing is that I'm constantly finding holes in the process to like, you know, like, yesterday, somebody left the door unlocked, and the client said something, and she was, Oh, I thought the door locked automatically. Really, I wonder where we miss something there. But, you know, constantly, this business has so many details that you got to have some structure, you have to have a starting place at least, and it really sets us apart from the hobbies. Well, obviously, there's our fine too, but like, from friends and neighbors say, you know, you know, people are businesses peace of mind, you know. And if you have a good process in place, the clients get used to that, they expect it. And they value it. And now so. Yeah, processes are definitely important.
Collin Funkhouser 19:03
Yeah. Well, so for you. There's a lot of different aspects here. But when you sit down to review a process, what what are you how does your brain start parsing out? What's there and problematizing? What's before you, when you try and make
Julie F. 19:20
it better? Um, well, trying to think okay, so for instance, take for example, payroll, and, okay, here's some, here's one that I'm really looking at right now is credit card processing. So we do 80% of our business people pay by credit card, I'd say 80 Or maybe even more. And right now, I have to, to, you know, I have my own merchant provider and I it's a little bit cumbersome. So I'm looking at if I had to and admin do this. What you know, there's lots of room for mistakes, and there's our misunderstanding and you know, like had a match, you have to match the credit card up with the charge and all this stuff. So I'm seriously thinking I was grandfathered in. So I don't have to use the time to pet credit thing, but I'm seriously thinking about going to it just for simplifying things. And one thing that I think I'm not really good at is looking at the time aspect of things. Like, sure it's gonna cost us more to go to Time to pet use their system, but the time aspect is, you save so much time, and it streamlines everything is streamlines the process pretty dramatically.
Collin Funkhouser 20:58
Yeah, so it sounds like you know, step one, when you look at something try and looking at it with fresh eyes, big pretending don't know, Ins, and does it all make sense. And that's that's big, especially whenever we are looking at something. And we've started being in business for a while the processes, the SOPs, the things we do can start to become old hat, and we know how they operate. But the question I like to ask myself, if I designed this today, is this how I would do it? Is this how it doesn't make sense to do it this way? To somebody who's not me, right? If I have somebody Yeah, if I'm unable to. And sometimes that means handing it off to somebody literally, who's, who doesn't know what you're doing? And go do this. And yeah, and then and then, you know, Julia said that of like, understanding what the purpose of the review is, is it to save time? Is it to save money? Is it to give it to somebody else? Is it a combination of all three are something completely different to go, you know, it may not be saving me money, but it saving me time, and sometimes that's equal, but knowing the purpose of my review can help us look at those line items and go at this isn't getting me to that goal, and then either removing it or changing it.
Julie F. 22:10
Yep. And what you said about fresh eyes. That is, I love that you said that because I in a lot of ways, in my mind, I'm in my heart, I'm still a solo sitter, you know, I really am. And I'm like, why am I doing this this way? I'm not a solo sitter. I have 35 employees right now. This is, you know, this is outdated for my business, you know. And it is really important to really, really stop and look at how you're doing things. And I think I'm getting better at that. But I don't do it enough. And I don't realize, like how big of a company it's become and you know that the process is there. They have to keep up with that.
Collin Funkhouser 23:06
I think that's a really interesting point to bring up about. It doesn't feel that big, right of like, it just kind of is what it is. And they're looking around and going oh, wow. Like this actually is, is the thing. And it's interesting that you still feel like that, because that gives me comfort in that basically every day I realized.
Julie F. 23:29
Yes, I know. It's it's totally true, though. And yeah.
Collin Funkhouser 23:34
So it is a different mindset, going from solicitor to employees, though and remembering it's not just you or just about you or just for you, and that there is help out there. But there's that part of going, Yeah, but I, I need to give them these processes, I need to give them these tools and give them these things so that they can do the job. And that starts with with me, you know, I might not be doing a lot of the cits anymore, or you know, or them at all. But I still have to make sure that my staff are equipped and that starts with me going okay, if I was in their shoes, what would I do? And maybe getting feedback from them. Have you heard of tied to pet krisanne from raining cats and dogs has this to say
24:15
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Collin Funkhouser 24:40
are looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show could save 50% off your first three bucks by visiting time to pet.com/confessional. You work your corporate job and your petsitter job simultaneously. Yeah, I know you said you liked that. because it gives you something extra and some flexibility and exposure to different things, you know, how do you manage those 2am and switch between the corporate job and you're, you're running the petsitting side of things, especially
Julie F. 25:12
since COVID. You know, I work from home mostly now, and I deal a lot with the Asian countries. So I, I, a lot of times I work at night, and that flexibility has really helped a lot. Yeah, and I've just saw has been really lucky with this job that I have now that it's been pretty flexible. And I can just kind of toggle back and forth.
Collin Funkhouser 25:48
Yeah, I think that certainly helps having the part time aspect having a slightly different hours, aspect, because you can't really dedicate and set time aside. And I think, you know, people may be listening to that going, Well, I see you're still working, and you're, you're running your pet business, how do you how do you how do you find the time for growth and for investing in your
Julie F. 26:07
business? Um, well, like I said, I was talking to you before. I have never worried about growth, the growth has just come for me, I just live in an area that's growing. And so I don't have to do like the normal investment and time for that, I just get the calls. And I do have admin support. As far as I have an onboarding person, like, all she does is call the new clients back. And, you know, we have a very strict vetting script. And, you know, we vet them, they vet us, I have that support. And then I have another admin that does a few other things. That's kind of how I manage it.
Collin 27:02
So for you, it kind of sounds like many of us grow our business, and then try and off board these processes to step away. For you, it was basically necessary for you to off board some of these processes and not be as actively involved with them from the get go, because you still had this other position this other job, so she couldn't dedicate most of that time there.
Julie F. 27:25
Yeah, but I do do most of it myself. I never really figured out how to have like a full time manager or admin. And that's kind of my solo mindset, too. So that's something I want to look at more in the future. But the growth, like, I don't know what see, like, more growth is better. Like, we were talking, I could grow, I could almost double my business if I went eight miles down the road and basically duplicated my business. But there's a price to pay for that. It's hard, I think it's hard to scale a pet sitting business. I don't know it, here it is, anyway, I just think because it's kind of spread out. At some point, like, enough is enough, you know, I am happy with the income. happy with the size. In fact, I'd like to even reduce the size a little bit.
Collin Funkhouser 28:28
So how did you get to that point where you realize that enough is enough sometimes, because I know, I see all constant talk about growth about more and more and more doing more, more more getting bigger, more clients, more staff more things? How do you find that balance of going, you know, what, what I have right now I'm really content with and I'm more content with like, this is this is more than enough for me? Where does where does that come for you?
Julie F. 28:53
Um, because to grow, like, what I was talking about that, that other area that I could expand to, it's kind of like you have to take two steps forward, and then or two steps back to get the three steps forward. You know, and that takes a lot of energy and time. And it doesn't just, it's just not like a straight line growth. And I, you know, I've been doing this for 20 years, I've been able to save some money. I have, you know, my house paid off all that stuff. So, to me at my age, it's not it's not something I'm interested in covering like the whole state of Idaho. So, I don't know, I've done my growth and it's just I've been lucky it's just kind of happened for me. Just because Where I Live and how it's growing here. So I yeah, my goal isn't just to be bigger and be, you know, making a ton of money. Although I, with that said, I do look at my rates, and I do, I do charge a lot compared to other options. So I'm kind of like in a saturation mode, like, where, instead of just getting more and more business, I just want to get the right clients, if that makes sense.
Collin Funkhouser 30:40
Yes, I really, really love that mindset of, instead of getting more clients getting the right ones. And that's, and we, you know, that's kind of a switch that we can flip whenever we're comfortable, right, like, and I think that's a danger of like, it may feel like we have to grow, we feel like we have to do these things. But at the end of the day, we don't, we don't, we don't have to go eight miles down the road, we don't have to go into the next town over unless we really want to, and, and you know, seeing how you are going, the income is there, the clientele are there, they've got the staff. And now we're like you said the saturation mode of like, now I can pay attention to these details, I can pay attention to these clients and whether they're happy or not. And I can pay attention to these little things. And I can really hone and perfect everything. Because that part is hard when you're growing fast, the refiners is hard and almost impossible. While we're constantly overwhelmed with people coming through the door in phones ringing off the hook. That's not the time for refinement. But we do need to refine and sometimes putting that hold on the growth or saying no more. So I can focus on refinement and and getting things nailed down. That's an insight that's an essential part of growing a business is the refinement and the honing of what we are and how we're going to do it.
Julie F. 32:00
Yeah. And it's, it's so true. And yeah, when you're just growing and you're not charging enough, you're spinning your wheels. And here's some advice I want to, you know, such as I have the platform here. I want to give some advice, and that is decide to be the leader. For years and years. I'm like, Well, what does everybody else charging? What is everybody else doing? And then I noticed they weren't doing anything. They were raising their rates. They weren't, you know, they weren't doing anything. And I was looking at my income. And I'm like, I'm not making enough. And I'm trying too hard to stay in the middle with everybody else's pricing. And so I just like, what happens to me is I hit a wall, and then I make all these like, I start flailing and I just start making all these major changes. And I hit a wall a while back, and I'm like, well, these lazy competitors are not they're not making any changes. So I, I like increase my rate, I want to say like 25% over everybody else. Like I was way higher, and I still am. And I had this one competitor, he even did a video and said, You shouldn't have to pay a ton of money for a petsitting No, and I'm like, I think he's talking about me. But I, I just got to a point where I decided I'm going to be the best, I'm going to be the leader, I'm going to have the best employees, I'm gonna have the best software, I'm gonna have the best insurance, the best website, and I'm not going to look at my competitors, I'm going to be the leader. And I've never looked back and it's worked for me. And I really encourage people to stop looking at what everybody else is charging. We provide a very valuable service. And people need to, you know, business owners need to have competence in that. And don't try to cheap out on everything. You know, it's like, have the best have employees have whatever the clients want. Give it to them, you know, as far as as far as quality, I'm saying not everything but and that then they like here's another thing I do. A really good friend and mentor of mine pushed me for years. Like you need to have a registration fee. I'm like, Nah, I have never free me great. Well, I was in the back of my mind. And I had a couple situations where people use us like one time and I'm like, I put a lot of energy into that you know, so I started charging a registration fee and nobody else My area does that. But I do. And it hasn't hurt my business one bit. In fact, I think it makes it look more professional. So those are my pieces of advice. And that way, if they use us one time, you know, like, they usually usually are friends and neighbors. But they're not home. Well, I didn't lose out on anything, you know. And it also gets rid of the last minute people. And it gets rid of the the one hit wonders for the most part. Because those people don't want to, they want to put other people out. They don't want to invest anything. So yeah, we don't get the last 100 people anymore. Anyway, those are my What do you think about that?
Collin Funkhouser 35:55
Oh, there's a lot there. Julie. In the middle there, you had said, you know, business owners do these things. And everything that you talked about starts with viewing ourselves as a business as operating a business. And that is really hard. Because we don't see ourselves as running a business, a lot of times the world doesn't see ourselves as running a legitimate it most of the time. And the decisions that you have made that you laid out there have stopped looking at others be the best, don't skimp out on things. That's, that's a business mindset there of going. I want to provide the best service possible. And I need to be a business to do that. And that I need to view how I operate as such. And there's a time you know, when we're first starting out, there's sure there's a time to go with my free options, what are the things that I'm doing? How can I do this, but at some point, in order to provide that top notch service, or to provide the best possible, you know, that takes paying for training that takes paying for the website that's paying for your back end, you know, CRM and all this stuff, it that takes stuff. And if you decide to step out and do that, that does take commitment. And that's really scary, because now all of a sudden, what I used to be able to do for super cheap because I don't have a lot of overhead, I now have to pay for things that kind of gives me a little bit more stake in the game about what's going on. And to recognize that the middle of the pack will only get you so far. And and recognizing that if you want to do things and be different, that means being a leader, right? That means stepping out and doing things differently. And that's that that does take courage, right? But that does take some like, Okay, I have to do
Julie F. 37:45
this. Yep. And we are educating, like you said, a lot of people don't know what a pet sitter is. We are there to educate them. And when somebody calls you, you have to be competent, you have to be confident in your policies confident in your product. And when you're on the phone with them, they assume that's the norm, you know, because you're telling them you're educating them. And one thing I did when I, when I raise my prices substantially, I was uncomfortable with it. Because of my I had this like, solo mindset, like I'm a pleaser, I'm, you know, that's kind of person I am I just want to make everybody happy. So I went to my my admin that does the onboarding. I, she doesn't care what the price is, the rates are, you know, like, it's not personal to her. It's like, she's, you know, just very professional. And so I would just like I would every single call, I would just let it go to voicemail. And I would just pass it on to Shannon. And I'm like, Okay, call them back and tell them the new rates. To my surprise, there wasn't a lot of pushback. And, you know, people just assume that was the rate and it seems fair to them. And it is fair, it is a fair rate. So we've got to get outside our own heads on this kind of thing. And but if you have something like that if you have an employee and you're not comfortable doing some things, and they are just pass it on to them.
Collin Funkhouser 39:35
I Megan and I do that from time to time when we're like, Oh no, you send the message. No, you send the message and we can kind of offer to each other but it is hardest, you know, and I think many of us because of our backgrounds have come from our passion that we have for this many times it's Oh, I wouldn't pay that much for the service or that's, that's steep to me. But that's because of our our preconceived notions and how we are approaching this. And so when it comes to trying to communicate with confidence, our business and our prices, if we're insecure about them, that that comes across to a client, right? And so
Julie F. 40:12
it does, and you have to also get comfortable that not everybody is your client, and, you know, like, every now and then we get somebody who, well, you know, I'd say we only probably onboard like half the people that call or, you know, we use the contact form. But, you know, they're like, oh, yeah, let me talk to my husband about that. And, you know, and then you never hear from him, but you just have to get used to that sales person type thing, like, okay, next call, please. You know, and then the next one is just like, can't get onboard and fast enough like that you have what they want, and you just have to be, you have to get used to that mentally, that you're not there for everybody. And you're gonna get a better client to, by the way, you are you are,
Collin Funkhouser 41:03
I remember the first time somebody laughed in my face when I told them my price. And it didn't impact me. And I thought, Wow. Well, but like, it just like six months prior to that, if somebody had done that, I would have been a wreck for like, another year, just like so broken by it. But it took. But it got to the point of like, we were totally slammed, my books were full. Yeah, I could barely squeeze in another person. And this person was laughing at me about my prices, and I was just able to be like, Okay, I don't need you. Anyway, next.
Julie F. 41:40
Yeah, next. And the thing is, we're not ripping people off, I mean, we're at any price that you have, you still have to offer value, you know, and, but you can also decide that you are going to offer value, you know, you're going to have the best of everything. You're going to be there when they pick up when they call you, you know, just there's a lot of little things you can do to be the best. And you can choose to do that though. And don't hang around with the middle of the pack, jettison out of there. You know,
Collin Funkhouser 42:21
I like how you were also more inclusive about being a leader of, of your, in the area, it's more than just prices, right? You mentioned things like get the best insurance, get the best software, get the best employees, it's a holistic approach to because all of those things, just as you said, all those things, provide value to the people and and bring you raise you up and raise everyone else around you up, as well. So it's more than just the pricing increase? It's, it's looking holistically like what aspects of my business, can I make the best? And then investing in those? And yes, sometimes it does mean investing money, which means we have to have commensurate prices to be able to invest in the best of those things. So that, you know, we start seeing this the cycle.
Julie F. 43:08
Yep. And you know, just really look at the return on an investment, like the website, you don't want to cheap out on that, you know, just spend the money and get a nice website. You know, people look at that. And anybody who says you don't need a website, I, you know, a Facebook page is not enough. You really need to have the full package.
Collin Funkhouser 43:32
What's about discoverability? And it's about accessibility to people and going. I know, I know plenty of people who only search on Facebook for their things that's kind of their little window into the internet. Yeah, I know, people who are not on Facebook at all. And so they need to find me in other ways. And that doesn't mean I'm going to put 100% effort into every single platform that I'm on. But it does mean I need to have a presence so I can be found where people are looking.
Julie F. 43:57
Right, exactly. You have to be everywhere. So yeah,
Collin Funkhouser 44:02
Julie, you've talked a little bit about the pet sitters in your area. And I wanted to ask about what kind of community of pet sitters and what kind of collaboration or support you have with them.
Julie F. 44:15
There's only like two other professional penciling companies here. That really, I don't know, I consider a part of the community, I guess. And, yeah, I've talked to one of them. I talked to like, we don't talk a lot, but um, I'll text her I'll say, Hey, I sent somebody over your way we can help them hopefully you can, you know, stuff like that. And then another guy, he has a dog training business and he wants to get more into pet city. He's doing more of that. And I like I mean, I think he's got a good business model. He's got employees and stuff like that. And we've talked on the phone he's even offered to training for my staff on dog behavior. You know, so I think there's lots of pets to go around. And I'm always referring I refer kennels, I refer all kinds of things to people. My goal, when I talk to a person, I can tell right away, like if they're a fit, and if they're not a fit, I want to offer them some alternatives. So I, yeah, I don't have any problem with, I don't look at it as competition, there's just there's plenty to go around.
Collin 45:37
That's a different mindset yet, again, of recognizing, like you talked about earlier, like, I'm not for everybody. That could be my service area, that could be my prices, that could be the level of specificity or training or problems that somebody is is dealing with, and whether it's an actual good fit. And being honest about that. I know we've had people call us for dog walking and pet sitting and we've had to go, I don't think your dog is going to do well in that environment, they actually may need a kennel or they may need some some behavior work before we get to that point. And it would be easy for us to just say, Oh, sure, yeah, we'll help whatever we'll do whatever. But that's not, that's not going to be what's good for them. In the end, it's actually may put us in a bad spot, if we do take on something that we kind of have an icky feeling about, and just being upfront with them and going Nope, that this is do that, do these couple things, talk to these people. And then reach out to us. After you've worked through those. We want to be able to do that we want, like you said, my goal isn't to grow exponentially. My goal is to give the best pet care possible whether that, and that's whether it's with me or with somebody else who I know and trust, right,
Julie F. 46:45
we're there to, you know, solve a problem for somebody. And if we can't solve the problem, and we have knowledge of somebody who can, why wouldn't we try to help them? You know? Yeah,
Collin 46:57
yeah, why wouldn't we get them connected with those resources? And why would we Why would we withhold that? Yeah, just for a company, some few extra dollars, like, that's not doing right by the person on the other end of the phone now? Yeah. You said you started back in 2003. And that's 20 years ago, 20 plus years coming up on? And the world's not the same, though. So from your perspective, and I did want to ask, How do you stay on top of changes and adapt as a company and not get stuck in your ways?
Julie F. 47:30
Well, I'm always trying to keep up on what's new, I learned a lot from the Facebook community. And I have a set, you know, I have some peers that are bigger companies like myself, and, you know, we exchange ideas. And yeah, I mean, I just I don't know, I just a lot of different areas. And I, I do try to really stay ahead of the curve, because I realized that somebody else could come in and, you know, go full guns and become a really big, peasant company in my area. And I want to be ahead of that. And so I do try to, I do try to stay ahead, you know, like, I timed to pet, you know, like, that's a big thing to me, that really helped my business and you got to look at, like I said, return on investment. And I, I want to be ahead of the curve. And so I do I do watch for that, and I live it every day. So sometimes I get stuck in my solo world, in my head. But overall, I just try to, I try to evaluate things as I hear about them and see if they're right for my business. Well, I
Collin Funkhouser 48:54
love how you started off by talking about how you do that by being engaged in Facebook groups with the community of peers that are surrounding you. And that you're right, we do look at return on investment. And the same thing goes with the community that we surround ourselves with, I invest in my community, and that is my time and talent, treasure, however, I'm investing in them. And you will reap rewards from that it's always a financially it's a lot of knowledge. It's a lot of learning, and it's a lot of exposure to things that come up. You know, I I enjoy being in Facebook groups and going huh. And that person is encountering this problem or that person's trying this. I never thought of that. Or I've never encountered that. How would I handle that? What would I do in that scenario? And what does that mean? My business is just kind of asking simple questions like that as you come across information, or picking people's brains and just hearing their stories of what they're going through. That is invaluable to us. And that's a that's a quote unquote free resource and way of continuing to learn and stay on top of things that it will pay back dividends year after year.
Julie F. 49:58
Yeah, and uh, their pet sitters love to share, you know, they like to, they want everybody to succeed. So
Collin Funkhouser 50:05
yeah, that's where that's where we get to have understanding that. It's Yes, you know, we want success for us. But but we want to have more altruistic sense of, I want everybody to be better. I want the pet sitting community to be viewed in a better light, and in a better sense, and have a better reputation. And what role do I play in that? And how can I help other people raise raise the bar and get to that point as well?
Julie F. 50:30
Yeah. And, you know, I think you have to have the mindset that if you give, it's not, you know, giving is a good thing. And, you know, there's givers and there's takers, and I want to be a giver. And it's no, I'm never, it's never done me wrong. You can't be afraid that,
Collin Funkhouser 50:55
Julie, I have really, really enjoyed our conversation today. And I'm so appreciative of your time, and for all of the wisdom that you've shared, and helping us to understand that giving and being involved and looking at tried to try and be a leader, and in new ways, what that looks like for our business. I know you had mentioned about people reaching out for questions, especially around employees and ICS, and how that works, and in other things as well. So if people do have questions, and they want to get in touch with you, or follow along with what petsitter Boise is doing, how can they do that?
Julie F. 51:30
Yeah, you can just find me on Facebook, Julie Frederick, or you can Google the petsitter Boise. And that is the only phone number I have, you'll call me directly and I'm happy to talk to someone, you know, just I, I like to help people. And if I can help somebody answer a question or going getting employees is a scary thing. And I lost a couple ICS that wouldn't switch and you know, things like that, that people are afraid of. But I'm happy to support, support anyone? And answer questions. So
Collin 52:14
awesome. Julie, thank you so much. And I'll have links to your Facebook and website, as well. So people can click right to those. I've really I'm so appreciative of this delay. I really, really thank you so much. You too, It's great talking to you guys decide to be the leader decide to do the best. When I had my conversation with Julie afterwards, I really sat down and thought a lot about our own personal business that Megan and I run about how we were implementing leadership as a pet care company. What were we doing to set that bar high? How were we leading the industry, from our onboarding processes, to our training techniques with our staff, to the software and insurance that we carry, it all comes into play, to allow ourselves to give that best service possible, to be the best to lead and to think three, five years down the line and start implementing those practices today, so that we can be leading the way. It's not easy. It's hard work. But it is worth it. At the end of the day, if we truly want to help make the industry better not just for ourselves, far from it. But for everybody else around us to continue to strive to do bigger, better, grander things, not merely bringing on more clients. It's not just about the quantity of clients that we have, as Julie said, but about the quality with which they help and provide our company with revenue and with our ability to serve them better. It goes hand in hand. My company is at its best at its peak when I am serving the best possible clients for my niche. It takes time to figure that out. Have you figured it out? How are you being a leader in this industry? Let us know. Send us an email at feedback at Pitzer professional.com. post about it on social media this week. Let your clients know how you are leading the industry because we know you are we know you have things and you do things differently that more people should be doing. So shout from the rooftops and let us know about that. We want to thank our sponsor time to pet and thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
