320: Considerations for Hosting an Event
Brought to you by Pet Sitters Associates. Use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
Summary
Have you hosted an event for your community? 🎉 We recently put on a pet loss memorial service in one of our service areas and learned a lot! This was the first event we have ever hosted so we were a little nervous. We share how we planned the event and what the main goal of it was. We also talked through how we plan to improve it next time, and give some things to think about if you were planning an event of your own. Then, Natasha O’Banion answers the question, “How do I do about inflation?”
Main topics
Why did we host this event?
How did we market it?
What did we learn from it?
Advice for hosting around
Ask a biz coach
Main takeaway: Trust that those who show up to your event need to be there. Build an avatar of who you want to attend and make sure everything meets their needs.
Links
Episode 110: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/110-pet-loss-and-grieving-with-coleen-ellis
Wolfie’s Wish: https://wolfieswish.com/
Check out Gusto: https://gusto.com/d/collin1453
Pet Sitters Associates: use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
ProTrainings: For 10% off any of their courses, use CPR-petsitterconfessional
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, event, people, hosting, business, parents, thinking, wanted, clients, put, community, attend, pet sitters, write, affirmation cards, grief, dog, pet sitter, support, continue
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
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. Hi there. Welcome to Episode 320. Hello. Thank you to pet sitters associates and our amazing patreon supporters like Jennifer Teresa, Katie Savannah Beth and our newest member, Julie.
Collin 00:35
Fireworks. Celebration emoji.
Meghan 00:39
We are so appreciative of you, Julie, thank you very much for supporting the show. And if that's something that you would like to do, if you got a few extra bucks every month, we would love for you to support us. You could do that at Pet Sitter confessional.com/support. Back on Episode 110, which was a very long time ago, we interviewed Colleen Ellis about pet loss and grieving. And if you've not listened to that it's a great episode how pet sitters can help pet parents in that grieving process.
Collin 01:08
Yeah, I don't think I cried on that episode. But it is pretty close towards the end. That's all.
Meghan 01:14
Well, and you have an interview coming up in a couple of weeks with her as well, again,
Collin 01:18
yeah, specifically talking about how to host and what it takes to make a pet last Memorial or Celebration of Life service, make it how to make that work. If you're going to host that elements, you should include things that you should avoid. So I'm really excited for that to come out.
Meghan 01:35
Well, and ever since your first interview, we have been talking about kind of hosting our own event. And we were a little nervous about it. But we did it. Yeah, we did. We committed and we did it today, actually.
Collin 01:48
Yeah. So we hosted it in the morning. And as of recording tonight, we are still I think coming down from hosting that event and everything that's involved there. So basically, we wanted to take the opportunity today in this episode to talk about the event. Things that we learned our experience there and what we'd like to do different next time,
Meghan 02:11
well, and then we want to take a holistic approach to this as well. And if you don't, if you're not interested in a pet loss memorial service, you can just host another event small or large, whatever it is, as a pet sitting and dog walking business, I think that it's very important to be connected to your community and to host some sort of event
Collin 02:30
in whatever way so we're going to break down the who, what, where, when, why, how of this event and our takeaways from there. So I think we should dive right in.
Meghan 02:37
Yeah. So why did we do this, we felt that there was a very real need for this where we currently live is not super pet friendly. But our other service area is very pet friendly. And so we are wanting to establish ourselves as not only an expert in the community, but also bring pet parents together. Not a lot of people recognize this form of grief.
Collin 03:02
It's a very, very lonely grief and mourning process that we go through and we lose a pet you go into work the next day, and you may tell your co workers Oh, my dog died. So I'm feeling really down right now. Not many people are going to say or suggest, oh my gosh, That must hurt an awful lot. Can I do anything for you? That's what we would expect if we told them a parent, a loved one, a family sibling, somebody close like that died. But who do you turn to? And who do you talk to when you go through this grief. So we recognize that it's a very isolating grief. It's very, very lonely. And so we are why for this was we want it to give people the space and importantly here permission to start their grieving process and their morning work as they understand that these feelings are okay and can start to embrace them instead of continuing to push them aside.
Meghan 03:51
And yes, like I mentioned, it's also a way to elevate our business in the community. But we didn't want our business to overshadow this event. So we weren't blasting it all over the place of come. You know, this pet sitting dog walking business is hosting this event. And we're gonna you know, have our business cards there and all this stuff that's promoting us. We really wanted this to be a time just for pet parents and not have get Yes, we were hosting the event but not have the focus on getting more clients or really anything selfish there.
Collin 04:25
Yeah, it was it was hosting, not promoting, that's very, very different way to approach and event is is this event to host for something or is this event to promote myself and the event that we planned here was very intentionally non promotional. I think several people there didn't even know that we owned a pet sitting company and that's totally fine with us. We wanted to just have space available for people to come and go through this process.
Meghan 04:52
Well and so we wanted the community to be involved. So I made a Facebook event page for this and we He blasted it into all of the Facebook groups that I could think of even the Buy Sell trade ones which are not appropriate. But I wanted as many people as possible to know about this and to get as much traction as we could.
Collin 05:15
Yeah. And then I either went into offices of vets, groomers, trainers, or I called them directly and personally invited them to attend. And I also called our local pet, pet crematory and said, you know, this is the event that we're doing, we would love to have you there as a sign of support, and everything was really, we'd love for you to come out and show support for pet parents, please come out and support pet parents in this process. And we with the goal of having a community there of going, everybody here is here for a reason either to support somebody else or to go through the process themselves.
Meghan 05:53
Well, and I think involving the other pad businesses in our community was really crucial, because again, it it made it so this wasn't just our company, promoting ourselves to do this thing. It was, hey, we are completely opening this up to everyone. There's no some sort of competition here or Yeah, promotion of self, you know, we weren't having vendor booths or anything, this was really just to let pet parents know that they are not alone. And obviously, again, this is going to depend on whatever event that you have, if it's a dog fest, you know, if you are going to be hosting a dog fest where everybody can needs to bring their dogs that you know, then you might ask people to be vendors. And that's a much bigger event than what we put on here. But you know, whatever it is that you choose to do, I would highly suggest you let other pet businesses know, hey, I'm here, I'm willing to collaborate. And the pet crematorium here even offered to
Collin 06:51
financially support it in some way and pay for expenses for supplies or whatever. And we just said, No, we've got that covered, we would just like for you to be there and be present and show support and solidarity for people there so they can get connected with you
Meghan 07:06
well, and also, again, this was our very first one very first event ever that we've hosted. And so we didn't really know what to expect, we didn't know kind of the turnout. And so or the other pet businesses that were going to be there. So we just said, Hey, for this, you know, this first one, we're just going to kind of do our own thing. And you know, for the next ones, we're going to get more people involved.
Collin 07:27
Yeah, and I think that's very important here of if you are thinking about doing your own event, again, whether it's a pet loss Memorial, or whether it's a dog fest, or whether it's Corky days, or whatever you want to do, just start somewhere, you know, this event was extremely simple. We'll get into here in a little bit about what we actually did and how we conducted it. But this was very simple. And that was intentional, because we didn't want to overcomplicate it, we didn't want to have too many people involved, or too many moving pieces, and that would
Meghan 07:55
just sounded very stressful, and no, thank you,
Collin 07:58
it was something I knew that we would never actually get to, if we got to the point of going, we've got to get a video screen, we gotta get a sound system, we gotta get a PA, we gotta get this, we gotta get this, we gotta
Meghan 08:06
go. And that might be a couple years down the road. But for the very first one, testing the waters, we needed this to be very small, very intimate. And as long as one person showed up, that's what made it worth it for me.
Collin 08:17
So no matter what event you're planning, distill it down to its most simplistic form, and go maybe maybe it's hard because maybe you've attended or you've seen other events that people have put on. So you kind of get aspirational. And you think, Oh, if I don't do that, it's not going to be success. Again, start with your why.
Meghan 08:34
And what does success mean to me in this event?
Collin 08:37
Exactly. Megan, you said, if one person shows up, that's a success. And maybe nobody shows up. But people, you know, shared your posts, that could be a success as well define that going into this so that you know what you're actually shooting for. And that will kind of help everything else line out.
Meghan 08:54
I will say that we also reached out to our local newspaper about this event that we were putting on and they decided that they wanted to feature us
Collin 09:02
Yeah, and this was pretty this, all we did was approach them and say Hi, we are calling and Megan with funky budge, and we are going to be putting on a pet loss memorial service. And
Meghan 09:12
we kind of explained the importance of this of this is not really a socially acceptable thing. And we want to help bring pet parents together and unite them and let them know that they're not alone. So it was kind of a pitch in a way it was it was a very soft pitch. But we kind of let her No, hey, this, this is a good thing that's needed in our community.
Collin 09:34
Yeah, we said we are putting on this event we want to let you know and here's why we're doing it and she immediately reached out and said let's sit down and do an interview about this. And we got put on the first page of the local paper and I thought that was amazing and not what we were expecting at all but she's thought that it was worthwhile. She interviewed us for 20 minutes and I think that helps a lot to have going oh how other ways can we get out this but you know the Facebook blast. We did the event page I contacted people And then we reached out to our newspaper and said, Hey, nothing has been done like this before. We're doing this, when we want everybody to attend who can be there. And she's a huge pet lover, and was like, Oh, this is awesome. This is great. So that worked out really, really well.
Meghan 10:16
So whatever event that you're hosting, it doesn't hurt to reach out to local newspapers or magazines, or whatever kind of press that you would like to get.
Collin 10:23
And our theme of simplicity really continued on to where we were going to host this event, we have a local park with a beautiful lake right by it. And there's actually a fishing spot with a concrete path leading straight to the water from the parking lot. And it was the really the perfect place to be out in the open where people are going to feel comfortable attending and extremely serene, natural environment and very open. as well. Again, we're going to be dealing with a lot of big emotions, we're going to deal with a lot of new things and new experiences as we walk through this and do everything. So we want to make it feel as comfortable as possible. We didn't want to go through the problems and troubles of finding a building to rent, since also, this was going to be very small, and we had no idea what to expect from attendance levels are whatever, again, small and manageable for us was really our goal to make sure that that we were able to commit to doing this,
Meghan 11:19
we could have rented a pavilion at the park, that was another option, we had actually considered that if it was going to be raining. But magically, there were zero clouds in the sky, and it was a beautiful sunny morning,
Collin 11:30
it really worked out.
Meghan 11:31
So also time of day was important as well, we knew we wanted this relatively close to when the sun was coming up. Because that is just a great reminder that it is a new day, and to help with the grieving process. But with your event, the location is going to be pivotal to what you're doing. Depending on if you want vendors there. Or if you are going to be selling products or whatever the event is the location is very important. So you don't want to go too big. But then you also don't want to go too small. If you have 400 people wanting to come,
Collin 12:03
I think you try and fit the tone of the event that you're trying to go after here. Again, we were wanting natural, serene, peaceful openness, natural beauty that people would be connected with. And I think that really worked well for us. If you're wanting a more serious, more controlled tone, or maybe you are trying to host this during a time of year where weather is way more unpredictable. Go inside, go find a you know a church building, go find a boy scout office or things like that, that you may have access to that you can use for a few hours, or maybe just one hour to have the event whatever is going to work to set both the tone and making sure it's accessible to people to
Meghan 12:39
as far as how did we put on the event with this word keeps coming up simple, we made it very, very simple. We had a simple program for the event. So it was this wasn't written out anywhere. It was just between Colin and I of how this was going to go. But we had an opening statement of kind of why thanking everybody for coming. And then why we were doing this why we thought it was very important. Then we had a poem reading, we had a moment of silence. And we had a bubble reading and a bubble release as kind of a way to release you know, instead of a balloon release that a lot of people do, we had bubbles. And it was a way to honor the pets and release them into the heavens basically,
Collin 13:21
or release whatever they were holding on to so part of the poem is releasing guilt or releasing shame or releasing and letting go of them so that they can go and wait for you. And it's a very beautiful poem. And again, we can include resources and stuff like this in the show notes, so that you can go find these as well. But it was just a time to do a physical action get everybody involved. And again, with the sun coming up is a really beautiful scene. So if
Meghan 13:47
you are somebody who really stresses out and is type A like me and needs everything written out, and you're doing this solo, you don't have a partner doing this with you or a team of people who are going to be helping you with this, maybe have everything written out line item by line item, you know, the first five minutes or this the second 10 minutes or this you know, whatever you need, because some people can add live off the cuff stuff like you Hi. I cannot do that. Everybody works differently. And so I need it very clearly written out so that we know exactly what is coming next. It was also a reminder that I needed to give myself grace I needed to give us grace with hosting this event because it was our first time so I had said before you know we're going to start on time, right at nine o'clock. We you know, because we're gonna respect people's time, that's something that I hate is going to events or going to webinars or seminars and you know, they always say we're gonna give it a few minutes for people to come in, you know, late and I just I can't stand that so we never I am not interested in ever wasting anybody's time but we did need to give people is grace because that there were stragglers coming in at the two minute after Mark and so I realized that okay, we need to wait for them to come in.
Collin 14:58
And then after the bubble over At least we had the closing remarks. And then, because it was a small crowd, we invited them to share in their stories. And we just kind of did some personal approach them and ask them to talk about why they were there. And it had the purpose that they were looking for. And this whole thing seriously took less than 20 minutes. That that was it. While people waited, they could put their name, they could put the name of the pet that they were there to honor and grieve on a chalkboard that we had using chalk pins.
Meghan 15:29
We also provided a letter template for them to write a letter to their pet, and some awesome affirmation cards from wolfies wish, if you've heard of super zoo, this year, she actually won the Best New Product award. So that is super exciting for her. And so we bought these affirmation cards to help pet parents as they grieve, in which there's a deck of 30 cards, I think, and whichever one, they're all they have all different sayings. And whichever when the pet owner connects with most, we had them take that with them.
Collin 15:58
Yeah, we had those spread out on a table, so they could kind of pick through and see which one they wanted to take. And there's beautiful pictures and drawings on one side. And then a more written out affirmation on the back, we
Meghan 16:07
had little bubble containers, because everybody was gonna have to do a bubble release at the end. So we have those in a little basket. And there were just the ones that you see at weddings. And so that was basically it, the cost of everything was less than $50, we already had a table that we had bought for previous events. And so it wasn't really a whole lot.
Collin 16:25
No, but it But importantly, here, we make it a night, we weren't responsible for how people reacted, again, what was our Y, creating space, Everyone brought their own needs, we provided a safe space for them to bring that to this. And to bring that to the event. That's what it was all about.
Meghan 16:45
And so thinking through what physical objects who are going to be taking to the event. So, you know, for us, we have another table that we could have brought and I think we're going to bring that next year. But our car doesn't really fit that table because the table doesn't fold in. So just thinking that you know, you go to events, if you've been to events before, you know typically what you bring, but it is important to know for this event that you're hosting what you need to bring because as the host, it may be more things than you typically bring to just a regular vendor events.
Collin 17:13
Well, just like the chalkboard, it was like, Oh, we want we want them to be able to write the name of the pet that they're there to honor. Okay, we need a chalkboard, what kind of chalkboard? how big, how small, what do we need to write on what kind of pins do we want actual chalk to have all that together with us. So just taking back and thinking through steps three, four, or five or six to make sure you do have everything complete in your thought process of what you want to have there.
Meghan 17:37
Also make sure you have things prepped before you do this. So I had already opened the marker containers that we were going to use to write the chalkboard on I had already opened the wolfies wish affirmation cards. You know, we had gotten everything, prepped already the bubbles in the basket and everything so that I wasn't having to deal with a bunch of trash, you know, in the park and the wind and all that. So we just had everything prepped and ready to go.
Collin 17:57
And then be ready for what people bring to events like this. We had a lady come in her eyes were filled with tears as she clutched a photo of her cat. And all she wanted was to come sign her cat's name on the board and tell others about her cat, and how she was struggling more with the loss of her cat. Then she did with the own loss of her husband. And it was pretty much because the cat was there to help her through the grief of her husband. And now she had no buddy to help her through the grief of her cat.
Meghan 18:29
And so it was kind of our job as facilitators as hosts to be like, it is it is so great that you showed up here today. Like that was a huge step because frankly she only stayed about a couple minutes before her eyes started just welled up and she said I this is harder than I thought it was going to be. I can't actually do this, I need to leave. And we said, Well, we thank you so much for coming today. This was huge that you were able to come and share the picture of your cat and share a little bit about her. And kind of really validating her feelings that you know, she didn't stay as long as other people but she at least showed up she got in her car. She made the trip and talk to us. And that that was huge. That was probably a massive step to her healing process.
Collin 19:16
Exactly. And we that the goal was to provide that that opportunity for her. We had another lady she's a little younger. She had just put her down dog down in this last July. And she was really struggling with a lot of guilt because she had to make the decision to let her dog go to make that final call. And she was looking for a place to let that burden go and kind of get some absolution that she had done everything that she could in that moment because nobody had told her that before. We had a family that brought their kids who were really struggling with the recent passing of their own dog and the kids absolutely love the affirmation cards. They grabbed a bunch of letters because they had lost several pets over the years and they want to take those in work on those later. So we really wanted people to be able to not just come and experience something, but also take something with them to continue that process. And so, again, thinking about your event and your why, and what's your goal is going, can everything that I want to do be accomplished at this event? If not, what can I give? How can I prep? How can I prompt people to continue working, doing or evaluating or whatever you want after they leave?
Meghan 20:28
Well, and if you're putting on a super fun, non sad event, you know, you can have little goodie bags, or if you you know, if you attend events regularly tennis balls, or poop bag holders like these things are pretty easy. It was just this event that we put on was very specific and more somber than a lot of other events.
Collin 20:47
Yeah, well, in those letters, they were basically just blank sheets with a little prompt at the very beginning. And so we were able to tell them in the closing remarks of a please go grab one of these letters and maybe write a story or tell your pet parent, tell them your tell your pet about the first day that you found them or that you saw them. Tell your pet about what you've been doing since they've passed. Tell your pet that you know that you did everything possible to just write to them, what would you want them to know right now, and then do whatever you want with that letter, you know, put it in there, put it next to the urn, go and bury it with them, send it off to somebody or just keep it for the future. That's kind of what you we want to give them again the time and space and people again brought what they needed. To get out of it.
Meghan 21:31
Something you'll get a lot out of is insurance. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members, pet sitters Associates is here to help for over 20 years they've provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today. At pets@llc.com. You can get a discount when joining by clicking membership petsitter confessional and using the discount code confessional at checkout to get $10 off, check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again at pets@llc.com.
Collin 22:12
So Did we learn anything from this? Yes, we
Meghan 22:16
did. Hey, look at that. Every experience something can be learned. It was a small event for us. But we had people grieving 25 different pets. So if this event if a pet loss memorial service is something that you are thinking about, be ready for really big feelings and think prior how you are going to handle that what things you should say what things you should not say. Because when people are grieving, they are very emotional, they are very vulnerable. And so try not to offend them or step on their toes in any way is very crucial. Now again, if you're putting on a fun dog fest or Great Dane fest or whatever you're doing, having an event at a cat cattery, you know, the, these are things that are going to be more lighthearted and more fun. So you won't have people coming, crying?
Collin 23:06
Well, and I know that whenever we go to pet events, I always if somebody has their pet, I always ask, Oh, who's this? Oh, who's this one? That's a great opener. But these people are bringing not live pets but memories of of dead pets. So we opened with we asked every single person who are you here for today?
Meghan 23:26
It and so it's important to do a lot of listening. Yeah, in those situations, you know, don't be afraid to ask questions about where the pet was when they were alive, how old they live to be we know some of their favorite memories, because people love to talk. And people love to talk about their most valuable, most wonderful furry family members. were wanting to foster a place for them to tell others about the amazing an animal that impacted their life in a massive way. And it helps validate that those memories are real, that it was worth it that their feelings are real. And while we liked the length of it, at least for a small group, we definitely know that we could lengthen the service in some way. And that starts by inviting others in the community to speak and read. So the crematorium guy who had reached out to us and said, Hey, I would love to help in some way. We should have taken him up on that should have done that. Because again, the more pet parents can feel like okay, it's not just this pet sitting company that's putting this on. It's this pet sitting company and this veterinarian and this groomer and this pet crematorium that are all coming together to really help me the pet owner who's grieving. That is a great way to bring them in the fold and say, Hey, you are not alone in this. Yeah,
Collin 24:43
that was something that I think that we will definitely do a lot better on next time as involving the broader pet care community and pet professionals to put on the event and get more people like that involved.
Meghan 24:55
Yeah, so not just inviting them but saying Hey, we love what you're doing. We recommend and your vet all the time, would you be willing to show up at this date in this time to do this thing, whether it's read something or, you know, talk about an important pet care tip or aspect of something that they do in their business, and it's not in this event, it was not to, again, highlight the awesome things that our company does, or you know, this vet does, but it was, it was, hey, we can, we're all in this together.
Collin 25:23
Yeah, like you said, this, the purpose of this event was not to get new pet care inquiries. But this event fits with our goal as a company of being there to support pet parents through their entire journey of their pet. Right? That that is a big goal of ours from new puppy to grave, we want to be there for them, and then to continue that process. So that's why we want to make this an annual events that people can, in some sense, look forward to this, it became become another part where to memorialize and honor their own pet. Our goal was to do what we could to help grieving pet owners, and get them connected to community and more resources. The event was super, super simple, again, not flashy, in any stretch of the imagination, but every single person left saying, I needed that. Thank you,
Meghan 26:16
which was pretty impactful, because we didn't know what to expect. And, you know, at least one person showed up, but not not a whole lot of people. And that was okay, because the people who came there needed that
Collin 26:29
Exactly, yeah, one lady who left she even came up to us. And she said, I wasn't expecting to feel all of this. I guess I needed this more than I knew. So, to us, this was a resounding success, a because we actually put it on and B because the people who showed up were supposed to be there, right like that. That's what is really important to remember when we put on events is that we have to trust that the people that are supposed to be there will be there. And then what what what do we need to do? We need to serve them well serve them with excellence, regardless of whether it's one person 10 People 1000 People, make sure we're serving them? Well, because they chose to be here. Yeah,
Meghan 27:15
they took time out of their day out of their Saturday morning, when they could have literally been doing anything else. It was a beautiful day. They could have been hiking, they could have been sleeping, whatever. But they chose to get in their cars and come to this. And that is
Collin 27:28
huge. Yeah. And interestingly, none of them were our clients. Yeah, no, I knew nobody who was standing out in front of us today. And that made it even more impactful for me to know, I have no idea how anybody heard of this, or where the what connections are. But they came, they went, that's for me out of it. That's what I need to do that, that that will help me in some way. And they showed up, they did it. And they said thank you. And that's that's the key, right vibe, we keep coming back to this, but creating that space, creating that time, you know, that hope, if you build it, they will come create the space, create the time create the purpose, and the people who are meant to be there will be there and trust in that. And that's all you can do with your events. There's it's there's not, you know, being frustrated with too little or too much attendance or anything like that it's going where the people who showed up are they serve? Well, were they impacted? If so, success,
Meghan 28:25
something that we did not do, but you may consider it for your event, depending on what type it is, is charging for your event. And then thinking about how you're going to process that payment, if you already have software that would be able to do that type of thing or not. We made this event free. And I don't think that for this event we would ever charge
Collin 28:46
no, it will continue to be free. For sure. Yeah. But if you're
Meghan 28:49
doing something and on a grander scale, if you're, I don't know hiring musicians or getting speakers or something much more grand, you may consider having a ticket price on this,
Collin 29:00
again, goes back to your purpose and what will help once you find your purpose going, how do I accomplish this, and making sure everything's on the table, maybe maybe that means I have to charge something, to meet this purpose and meet this goal. And being okay with that.
Meghan 29:15
So if you make it accessible, if you make it open, people will come.
Collin 29:20
I'm sure we'll have more things that come to mind as far as nitpicky things over the coming months as we prepare for the next one. But I'm really happy with how this turned out. And I'm really proud of us.
Meghan 29:29
I'm incredibly proud of us doing this. I'm I'm an introvert and I don't like putting myself out there. So I knew that as long as I had you. We were gonna be okay.
Collin 29:42
That well and I appreciate that. And I think that we were able to work together well on it and make it make it worthwhile, make it worthwhile for people to come and attend. So if you're listening to this and have put on an event, we'd love to hear about what your process was like, what you thought of it, what you put into it and whether you're going to continue to do them, or ideas that you have had for events, and maybe you never want to do them again. Either way, we'd love to know and find out,
Meghan 30:07
you can let us know at feedback at petsitter confessional.com. Or you can call us and leave a voicemail. 636-360-8260 business coach, Natasha, Albanian is going to answer the question, what do I do about inflation?
Natasha 30:20
I know, I hate to always talk about money. But sadly, when it comes to businesses about the money, we're in business for profit. So when you aren't going like one thing I want us all to know is that inflation is always going to happen, and you want to be in business for 20 plus years, you're always going to go through inflation, it's just something that happens, like look at the trends, it's always gonna happen, that we want to make sure that we can afford the influx, and the ups and down pricing and gas, we want to make sure goods and services now and like that's the thing that immediately makes me sad, because now groceries are so much more expensive. But are we giving our staff that price increase to to afford that. So I want to make sure that I'm charging enough money. So if inflation happens, I can increase the pricing that I paid my staff so they can afford to keep working with me. And I can also make sure I explain to my clients paid, this is the fee. I've been noticing lately, all the businesses that I'm working with are adding like a $25 travel. So now they're like, Hey, this is our travel fee. And I don't even bat an eye because I'm like, Oh, I get it. Come on. Please come on. So they are adding small little additional line items. So clients do you understand and don't be afraid to add that, hey, the start travel fee now is going to be additional, you know, $10 or so whatever you feel comfortable in charging, but obviously make it make sense. If you don't want to raise rates, just add a fee. And the client will run that fee with you until you decide that we've you know, gone through the curve
Collin 31:51
digging back into those numbers and going where am I losing money and making as much money as I was before and really critically if you have those staff going are they cared for because they're feeling this too. It's not just me, the business owner or just the business in general, I've got people who I am relying on to make this work. So I need to make sure I'm caring for them as well.
Natasha 32:11
Yeah, looking at the business as a whole is the most important, especially when you have a staff, you have to make sure the same things you're thinking about for yourself you're thinking about for them. I think about my staff first before I think about myself, so we have something like inflation. I'm like, Hey guys, I know we're going to this riff we're going to add a travel fee now so I'm going to cover all your old gas. They're like Wow, thank you for doing that. That creates company culture that goes a long way and they feel secure within their income that they know that I'm ahead of this and I'm doing things take care you are like perfect. But just add a fee if you don't again, you want to raise rates no like whoa, like just raise rates in the new year. I don't want to raise rates again. Okay, well don't raise rates just charge.
Meghan 32:57
If you would like to join Natasha's monthly membership group, you can do so at automated ceo.com and use the code P SC 20 for 15% off. Thank you for listening to this today and we hope it's given you some ideas on what events you can put on in the future for your business.
Collin 33:13
We want to thank our sponsor, pet sitters associates and our amazing patrons including our newest one, Julie for making today's show possible.
Meghan 33:20
I'll talk to you next time.
33:21
Bye
