300: Listener Questions
Brought to you by Pet Sitters Associates. Use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
Summary
We’ve hit 300 episodes! On this episode we talk about why we started the podcast and answer some listener questions! We discuss how to take days off, addressing clients that question your prices, how to meet your money goals, and what to do about a biting puppy. We’ve learned and grown so much for hosting the podcast, so we share our biggest lessons from the last 299 episodes!
Main topics:
Taking days off
Meeting money goals
Too expensive?
Stop the biting!
Main takeaway: YOU make this industry amazing. Thank you.
Links
Episode 288: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/288
Episode 294: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/294
Pet Sitters Associates: use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, pet sitter, people, pet, pet sitters, dog, biting, clients, prices, important, month, episode, goals, industry, bit, puppy, book, listening, money, set
SPEAKERS
Meghan, 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. Hello there, welcome to episode 300. Hello, you have made it, we have made it to 300. We have all made it. If this is your first time listening, welcome. Thank you for listening. And if you have listened to any of the other 299 episodes, we are so appreciative. Thank you very much.
Collin 00:40
You have listened to a grand total of 219 hours of content,
Meghan 00:46
assuming you have listened from episode one.
Collin 00:49
All the way up until last episode. That's that's a lot. Yeah.
Meghan 00:54
So we are hoping to do this for another at least 300 episodes, but we'll see.
Collin Funkhouser 00:59
We're very excited. And we're very thankful for all of the people who have supported us, including our wonderful and amazing patrons, who every month support us financially, they get to go to monthly zoom meetups, and they get to help contribute to the show in other ways as well. And so if you want to learn more about what that is and how to start getting involved that way, please go to pet cert confessional.com/support. And we also want to thank today's sponsor, pet sitters associates, it has been a lot of episodes and a lot of hours. And we are so thankful for all of that. So if this is your first time listening again, welcome. I'm Colin, Megan is my wife, we run and operate our own pet sitting dog walking company here in Missouri. We've been doing this for over 10 years at this point. And very recently, we made the dive into staff and employees. And that has been a whole new thing for us. It's been great though it has been amazing. I've been extremely we've been extremely blessed by that. The podcast itself was born out of an idea for Megan and I to do something a little bit different together and to do something more creative. our backgrounds are in science and in research, and not in any business or creative. And we decided to go into podcasting. And the original goal was to tell our stories, and get connected with more pet sitters. But then we started doing interviews and that changed everything for us, we realized that we could tell other pet sitters stories and have other people share their information, their knowledge, their history, in pet care to help other people even more than we could ever do.
Meghan 02:35
And their stories are crucial. Everybody has a voice, everybody has a story. Whether you've been in business a week or 30 years, you have something to contribute to this industry, you are important, you make this industry better by showing up every day taking care of pets, doing an exceptional job and raising the bar for this industry.
Collin Funkhouser 02:56
Exactly. And so that's what this podcast in this community exists to do is to elevate everybody through the sharing of stories and experiences. So you can fast track your learning experience by listening to what other people have done their mistakes, their successes, how they implemented things and see if that works for you. We know everybody runs their business differently, but we only know so much. And so being exposed to new ways of thinking and to past ways of doing things will help everybody and we firmly believe that. So that's why this podcast exists. That was why the Facebook community exists. And that's why we continue to bring on people. And so if you would like to be interviewed and share your story, or if you know somebody who would like to be interviewed, please get in touch with us. You can send an email to feedback at Pet Sitter confessional.com. Or get in touch with us anywhere on social media, we'd love to get connected with you.
Meghan 03:52
A few days ago, we had put out and ask us anything on our Facebook and Instagram. And we got a few questions back. And the first one is, how do I get better about taking days off? What is your advice for that person?
Collin Funkhouser 04:07
I have come to recognize that taking days off is one of the hardest things to do in this industry. And if you listen to anybody who's been in this and for any length of time, they'll tell you the same thing. So how do we get better at doing anything in our lives, we start by taking small steps. So maybe taking a full day off is extremely scary to you because you're worried about clients abandoning you or you feel guilty about not being able to service them and provide the care. So start by taking off an afternoon. Start by taking off a morning or a lunch start putting off a little bit of time. And what's really important in critical to make these work is you have to start preparing for that time doing nothing. If we just take you right now and pluck you out of your busy, hectic insane schedule and set you down on a beach with waves in the background and a book in your hand. You would probably go insane thinking about it. All the things that you still have to do. So putting in prep work setting in calendar reminders, setting an auto reply messages turning on, do not disturb, and start clearing your plate leading up to that time that you're going to have off. So you don't have that guilt so you don't have those expectations that you place on yourself. So you can actually enjoy it. And then you can start building up and lengthening that time that you have that you're taking off.
Meghan 05:22
I was going to say something similar is basically plan so you know, months in advance that you're going to be taking days off. So let's say you want to take your, your Thanksgiving earlier in November and knots in you because you'll be working during the actual Thanksgiving. So you want to set off the first weekend in November, you want to take that time off. Okay, well start letting your clients know now through email newsletters, social media, whatever it however you let your clients know text message or whatever it is that you do to let your clients know about important reminders or changes in your business. That is what you need to be doing right now months in advance. As soon as you know some you're gonna days you're gonna be taking off, you need to let them know because we thought today would be a very relaxing day. But it turns out somebody actually wanted to book with us as last minutes Pro. So if you don't take if you don't set aside time people are going to book you.
Collin 06:16
This is a 365 day a year 24/7 business if you let it be exactly that is so crucial. It's only if you let it be this business will consume all of your time. And so if you don't plan if you don't set that time and start telling people that your time will be taken from you. And that's one of the most helpless feelings that you can have as a business owner, is when your time is no longer your own. So reclaim that. And block out that time. I see a lot of people have really good ideas. They say I take two days off every month, just blanket
Meghan 06:50
or I take a weekend off every month. Yeah, however you
Collin 06:53
want to structure that. But if you are looking at your calendar thinking, oh my gosh, it's been since March, since I've had a day off. Or maybe it was before Christmas, since I've had a day off. You have to block that time off and not feel guilty. We we absolve you of any guilt or any feeling that you have to allow that time for yourself to rejuvenate and feed back into you.
Meghan 07:16
The next question was a little bit of a personal one, it was how do you achieve your monthly money goals?
Collin Funkhouser 07:21
This one is tough. Previously, when I had a full time job, that wasn't the business, this was pretty easy to do. income was very predictable. We had my income from my job. And then we had this business running on the side. And we could we could project a little bit going forward. Now that we're solo, and we're doing our own thing, having a predictable income is basically non existent. There are highs, there are lows, there are cancellations, there's last minutes, it can be more difficult to understand exactly what's coming in that month. So here's what we do, we set a budget, and the budget is set on what we need to spend to keep our lives running.
Meghan 08:02
Yeah, our needs, insurance, food, mortgage, all that
Collin 08:05
good stuff the needs. And then we know we can project out we can mark it, we can have a known income of bookings that go further out in advance. And this is why we personally like it when people book further and further out with this with us. Because we know predictably, what's going to come in
Meghan 08:22
well, and this is even easier if you have a subscription model if clients are booking you every single week. And you know, I've got 15 dog walks this week and 15 dog walks next week, because they're the same clients on a rotating schedule, then you know, you have predictable income there.
Collin 08:36
Now what happens when you fall short for a month, this is why part of your budget has to include setting some money aside, to level off the playing field for your budget for your finances of okay, this month is really, really good. That means I need to sock away a good chunk of that maybe even more than I normally would to fill in the gaps for the more lean months because we know that those are going to come. And then we don't have to stress and strain and fear whenever things get a little tight. Because we have that savings, we have that emergency fund that we can dip into, that we can pull from to get us through that month. So how do we treat our monthly goals? It's twofold. It's one controlling expenses so that we aren't having to spend a lot of money in the week know that the business doesn't have to operate at an insane level, to feed a lifestyle that we're not living. And then secondly, we do a lot to drive the business and to get in front of people and stay top of mind through not just emails but a lot, a lot of interaction on Facebook, not just in our own Facebook group, but also on a community groups as well. And then interacting with a bunch of people on the ground level going boots on the ground knocking on doors, saying hi to people and other businesses, to build partnerships with him as well and start driving that referral network back to us.
Meghan 09:53
Well and if you would like to learn more about budgeting for your pet business, we just did an episode all about that in episode 294
Collin 09:59
which will be The link in the show notes and on our website to college has talked about
Meghan 10:03
personal money goals. But if you're talking about business money goals, I don't feel like we really have that. Like, we're not waiting. And you know, on the 10th of the month we go, Ooh, you know, we want to make X number this month. So we really have to hit the ground. And, you
Collin 10:19
know, yeah, we don't we don't sit there and go, Okay, how am I going to make $10,000 this month? How is the business going to make $15,000 this month? How do I get from 15 to 20. That's not really in our mindset. And we don't really focus on that part of it. Now, if you have those goals, I think those could be good metrics for you to just to see 30,000 foot view, how is the business doing,
Meghan 10:41
but that is important, though, the month over month, total for your business. And then looking at it over the course of an entire year, you will see ebbs and flows. And that is important for knowing, okay, you know, August, the fair comes in, that'll be a little bit bigger of a month, because I get all of those fair people. But, you know, October, when nobody's really traveling, that will be a little bit leaner of a month. So it is important to look at your finances and look at what you're making every month. But in terms of, you know, we have to hit X amount every month, we don't really do that.
Collin Funkhouser 11:12
No. And again, it's important to understand how your business which is kind of like a living, breathing organism is alive and how it operates. And what's happening to it, that top line, income number is great to start getting some vitals from that. However, I think if you start chasing that number, you can start becoming a little bit myopic about your business and you start losing a lot of the relationships, you lose a lot of the connections, you lose a lot of the why. And if you're only chasing a bigger, better number, at the end of the day, you have to step in, take a step back and go okay, why is that number important to me? What does that business? What does that number mean? To me, it may be linked to your personal budget and go okay, I actually need to hit a business goal of $10,000 a month, so that I can step away full time from my business and do this and I can support my family. That's important to know. And if you're doing that, then it does involve promotions, it does involve connections and marketing and referrals. That is how you meet and achieve your monthly goals. But always connected back to that why so you don't lose focus on what you're doing in your business.
Meghan 12:18
And then a piggy back to this was also talking about advertising as well. And we're actually going to be doing an episode coming up all about ways to advertise methods, what works, what doesn't, all of that is coming up.
Collin 12:30
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Meghan 13:23
The next question is how do I address or answer people that think my services are too expensive. I'm a one one woman show and it's all done out of my home. I don't have staff this is my full time job. So I've had to increase prices because of inflation. We actually talked quite a bit about this in Episode 288. We titled it what to do when a client disagrees with your business decision. So you have a few different options here. You can either address people who say that or you don't have to it is your business. You don't owe anybody an explanation or a justification for raising your prices. You don't owe anybody a justification or an explanation for raising your prices.
Collin 14:04
It is hard though, just today we had a lady who called us and eventually found out our prices and said I can't afford you right now. And I said that's okay, we understand we're here. If you need us and you have any other questions, just make sure that whoever you go with has pet first aid and CPR certification and has Pet Sitter specific business liability insurance. And she said thank you, I appreciate that have a good day. We don't have to apologize for our prices when we understand the value that we bring to people. It is unfortunate that a lot of that the clients might not see that value. Even though this industry has been around for 30 years. The preponderance of pet care is done by friends, families, neighbors and acquaintances people they already know like and trust and will usually do it for free. So of course anything more than free, somebody will think is too expensive. And that's that's okay, that takes some education as to why those prices are there. Now you don't have to go chasing People and justifying everything you do, you can really discounting either don't discount, it could have been so easy for me to go, Oh, I'm sorry, that's too expensive. What would you like to pay? Or what if I gave you 20% off, we could have done that. But honestly, that's going to end up I know that over the next three months, as she continues to book us, I'm going to be more and more embittered that she is costing me money, or I'm not getting that and she's taking up space in my schedule. And I'm not making money off of that, you have to weigh the pros and cons of this. And what that means is understanding what makes you you. Why are you so beneficial to people, you know that and we understand that you have that. And you don't have to justify your prices to people, you can stand firm in that and know you are who you are. And you have those prices because they reflect your professionalism, your training, your background, your expertise, your dedication, and let that speak for itself
Meghan 15:56
well into this specific question she said is done all out of my home. So with your prices, you have to take into account you know, any damage that the dogs are going to do to your home, the fact that they are in your home, that this is like the most luxurious service out there have this is not a kennel, you are around these dogs all day all night they are coming into your home and being pampered. So your prices are absolutely what they should be. If not, you need to be raising your prices
Collin 16:25
should probably more than what they are given what that is. But it is hard because the people say oh, those two are too expensive. What they're actually saying is that's too costly. For me right now, your services aren't too expensive. They're exactly how much they need to be expensive versus costly are very different terms. And unfortunately, people don't use them correctly. Expensive is putting in some perspective there is it's putting in some quality testing some quality aspect to this. They're basically saying I don't think your quality matches the price. Costly is just pure dollar to dollar. There's no quality perspective from that. When people say it's too expensive. What they're actually genuinely saying is it's too costly for me, I cannot afford that. It's not a judgment against you. It's just their personal perspective on what their budget is.
Meghan 17:17
Well, and they may genuinely want to use you. They may see your Facebook and social media and think oh, I would love to have this person care for my pet. But I just cannot financially make it work. So it's not it's a lot of times it's not personal, you know, we build it up in our heads of, you know, especially when we're raising prices. Oh my gosh, everybody's gonna leave me what am I going to do or there's not going to be any business left for me. But you have to realize that it's not personal, it's business and they may want to go with you, but just can't. And our last question is about a dog bite situation. So she said today, I was walking a dog for the first time I did a meet and greet and drop in before but this was my first time out of the house. And this dog bit me a couple times on my arms and hands until I bled and I was left bruised and sore all over. She was a puppy but a big one and she seemed to be wanting to play but was fixated on my arms wouldn't stop biting me. It ended up in tears and embarrassment for me not being able to control the dog. What would you do in this situation I was told by another sitter to have toys on me so that I can deflect the biting. Well first, that doesn't sound like a very great scenario. I'm sorry that the dog biting you and scratching you. I do know that a lot of pet sitters will wear long sleeves around puppies because their claws are really sharp their teeth are really bitey and sad
Collin 18:27
long pants from the jump up on you as well. It can be tough and it is very emotional whenever you expect a visit to go one way and it doesn't go that way. And it's it goes downhill very quickly which it sounds like this one did as well especially being surprised having been in other situations with the dog is perfectly fine. If you're out on a leash, I would first ask some questions of what of this dog's leash manners. And if it is in a biting puppy phase, Leash training is very hard and trying to distract that dog. Definitely having toys on hand or throwing treats on the ground anytime it jumps up as a way to distract and deflect is going to help you in those situations. And then if you feel like you are overwhelmed and out of your depth in this, bring in and partner with a Dog and Puppy specific trainer to bring them into the situation and bring them into the fold so that you can provide additional resources to that pet owner.
Meghan 19:19
I would also let the owner know and ask if they have a similar experience when they are out on a walk with their dog and how they and how they deal with it and some tricks that they use because they may have some insight that since they know their dog best and
Collin 19:33
there are a lot of reasons for why puppies will go through the biting phase anything from they are teething so they are trying to non teeth through them. They could be dog could be bored could be overly excited. It could actually be anxious as well biting out of anxiety, and then they're looking to be socialized. And our favorite as I mentioned earlier with the toy is to redirect that behavior on to something else. Obviously there are biological and psychological needs needs that need to be met by biting a bite, especially if it's going through teething or anxiety. So redirecting them on to things that they can bite that they can chew on and not saying no hands and then offering that toy offering that rope, offering them something else so that they can redirect the energy and anxiety onto that, away from your hands and your arms.
Meghan 20:20
I wanted to end the episode by talking about the biggest lesson that you have learned and I have learned over the past 300 episodes, what is it? Does it have
Collin 20:29
to be just one? Or can it be two, it can be two. Okay, good, because I have to,
Meghan 20:32
I'll give you some grace here.
Collin 20:33
Thank you so much. My first one of the one that I have learned over the last 300 episodes, and this has really come from talking to more and more people has been the importance of sticking to your guns, sticking to your boundaries and your policies and procedures. First, you have to have those in place, and then you have to stick for them. But that is so critical for longevity and in this industry, because as we mentioned, this is will this will consume all of your life. And unless you set those in, you won't have anything left for you or the people around you at the end of the day. So sticking to what you say making your yes be yes and your no be No. And then my second biggest takeaway from the past few episodes is the importance of learning from others. And that when you're connected with a broader community, you improve, I see that in ourselves over the past. You know, we progressed so much over the year before we started the podcast, and then now running the podcast and interacting with a broader community of pet sitters. I know it's made me better personally and see things in a lot more different light than I would have ended a lot more different perspectives to now what is your biggest takeaway? What did you have to
Meghan 21:38
know I have one lesson really that I have learned. And it's something that really can apply to every area of life. But it is particularly important when you are an entrepreneur and it is to not compare yourself to others. When you hear these stories from other pet sitters, especially ones that have been in the business 2030 years, and you go wow, like that their business is amazing. They have so so many staff, they're able to really step out of their business, they don't have this luxurious life, or whatever it is, you know, you look on their social media, and it's amazing, and you want to emulate that. And maybe sometimes you find yourself getting a little bit jealous of other pet businesses. But looking inward instead of looking outward and comparing yourself to others is very, very important. Because no one runs the business like you do. You are unique. You are awesome. You provide excellent pet care, and excellent service to your customers. Nobody else has clients like you do. Nobody else runs the business like you do. So it's important to not compare. It's important to us, we can look to other pet sitting businesses and see how they are doing things and how we want to do things in our own business. So it's important to not compare somebody else's middle or ending to your beginning, everybody is at a different stage in their business. And everybody has a different purpose and goal for their business. Why couldn't like we always say you do you boo. And with that, we will wrap up our 300th episode. Thank you so much for listening. And thank you for sharing these episodes. Our goal is to bring together as many pet sitters as possible to share stories to form this awesome community. And it further the industry make it better.
Collin 23:32
And we do these Ask Us Anything episodes periodically. But if you have questions at any time, please feel free to reach out. We're everywhere on social media, our website, pet sitter confessional.com.
Meghan 23:44
There are also a bunch of resources on there as well if you ever need information on software to use or gear, business insurance, any any topic basically for a pet sitter is covered on Pet Sitter professional.com/resources. Thank you also to our Patreon members and pet sitters associates. Bye bye
