349: Pride and Passion with Savanna Westwood
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Summary:
How do you know when you’re overcommitted? Your commitment is a promise to others to render service or provide them something. When the return value on your commitment starts to decrease, it’s time to rethink those decisions. As a business owner, it takes knowing your limits and having strength to say, ‘No’. Savanna Westwood, owner of The Savvy Sitter, shares how she thinks through what to commit to and how to know when you’re overcommitted. She also discusses what it means to have pride in your business and why it’s important to view yourself as a founder.
Main topics:
Having pride in your work
Making overnights worth it
Staying committed
Being a ‘founder’
Main takeaway: Commitment is an exchange. It’s a promise.
About our guest:
Hello! I am Savanna Owner and Founder of The Savvy Sitter, Pet Sitting and Dog Walking, LLC. I have grown up with animals all my life and enjoy spending time with them. I have lived in the Winter Garden and Windermere Area for over 30 Years. Though I do not have any animals myself, I love taking care of them and giving them the cuddles, playtime, and treats they deserve. I am an active equestrian, big dogs and horses do not frighten me. When I am not taking care of your Fur Friends, you can find me reading, practicing archery, riding, and figuring out ways to provide additional and great services to our clients!
Links
Previously on episode 47: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/047-getting-and-staying-organized-with-savanna
Her website: https://thesavvysitter.org
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSavvySitter
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, pet, business, dog, people, area, service, dog park, walking, overcommitted, question, Disney, community, overnight, owner, pride, commit, pet sitter, thinking
SPEAKERS
Collin, Savanna
Meghan 00:10
Hello, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is Pet Sitter confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin 00:17
brought to you by time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. Do you take pride in your work? What does that mean to you? Our passion for the business that we run and the services that we offer fuels the pride that we take, when we have passion, we have pride because we know that there's something to backup what we say we're going to do. On today's episode, Savanna Westwood owner of the savvy center rejoins the podcast She was previously on episode 47. She talks about what it means to have pride in her work, a unique service that she offers to her clients and how to know when you're overcommitted. Let's get started.
Savanna 00:57
Sure, thank you for having me back. Collin. Hi, everyone. My name is Savanna Westwood, the owner of the savvy sitter pet sitting and dog walking LLC, we proudly serve as the Winter Garden Windermere and horizon West areas along with some of the surrounding areas. We provide pet sitting dog walking, overnight stays and a plethora of other services for our client till. And we just turned seven years old as of June of 2020, to 2014, the last quarter was pretty a rough patch for me, I had some health issues and some big changes and transitions in my life. And, you know, the opportunity came that I could start my own business and again, was a great business to start. And it was something I was good at. But it wasn't creating the revenue stream that I needed. So people heard about my availability and no knew how good I was with animals and pretty much word got out. So we pretty much evolved from organizing, excuse me to pet sitting and dog walking. And you know, it, you know, it was a hard transition because I was so dead set on, you know, wanting this to work. But I'm, you know where I am now, seven years, it's definitely a night and day experience. So
Collin 02:17
you said it was it was a hard transition? Because was that because you were you saw yourself more as the organizer and didn't quite see yourself as the pet sitting dog walking kind of thing? Or why was that a rough transition for you?
Savanna 02:32
I think it was like seeing almost like it was a failure. Because you wanted something so badly to work out. And I think that carried over from my last 2014 quarter. So you know, like, it wasn't, I have to remind myself that it wasn't a failure, it was more of an evolution. So it still was my own business. And it's mine. It just went a different route, you know, that I was expecting sometimes, you know, I jokingly say divine intervention, you know, kind of made what it is today for my business. So I you know, just follow the path and kind of the direction that I was seeing before me. So
Collin 03:18
that is a that's almost impossible to fully comprehend in the moment. Is this a failure? Is this a transition? Am I evolving? Am I a different person right now, we do have those moments of kind of have a lot of doubt about ourselves of going, No, I thought I thought that was the direction I was headed. That's who I that was the identity that I thought I had. And we can find ourselves kind of dragging our feet or pushing off a lot of this stuff. What do you think it was about that that finally got you walking down the path of becoming the savvy sitter?
Savanna 03:54
Well, I totally agree with that statement, like being in it, you know, you can't see the forest for the trees situation. So you have to when you're present, obviously in that moment of I guess, grief and emotion that you can't see what potentially lies before you. So I think as time went on, you know, and again, looking back now seven years, that's you know, you can look back on it, like a little bump in the road. So
Collin 04:24
it's put into a lot better context and in view from that, from that much further on. What do you what do you feel like? Or maybe you do or don't? Your your past is doing a professional organizing and you're that background? Do you how does that help set you up for success in your current business?
Savanna 04:45
I, you know, I think you're gonna laugh at me. So I actually came up with a few other little tricks to help myself keep organized so I have my own little collection of leashes. In my car, but you know those little hangers that you can hang belts on in the closet. I actually have one in my car for my leashes so they're not all a hot tangled so and I have all these cute little like foldable, collapsible bins, you know where I have like more leashes, poop bags, treats toys, so it's still there. But it's just kind of, again, that me wanting to be organized, just for me for my sake, and it kind of reflects into my business. My books are very tidy, my accountant loves me for it. So it's it, it's definitely ingrained to me. And it definitely a transition translates into the business because I have I think I've mentioned on the previous podcast that I have a list for my clientele, as far as you know, as a checklist for them to, you know, when they're getting ready to leave, like, Did we leave? You know, the cleaning supplies out? Did we notify our neighbors, you know, did we tell her where when the garbage is going out. And we actually transitioned to the time to pet software. So now that we have are able to take in more information for our clientele, to better service them.
Collin 06:22
Yeah, just thinking ahead on a lot of those and problem solving. And that's, you know, organization comes down to just a lot of problem solving of where my pain points. And then what do I need to do about that, to overcome that and make sure that I can do that consistently?
Savanna 06:36
Right. I jokingly tell my clients when we're doing any type of interview or meet and greet is like, we try to least have plans a through d done for you. If at anything exceeds that expectation, we're in trouble.
Collin 06:50
Well, yeah, you can't plan for everything. But the part of planning is just having a plan to begin with, like that sets you both apart from a vast majority of people, but also sets you up for a lot of success. Because once a plan is in place, it can be adapted and changed a lot easier than having to come up with a with something totally new and foreign to you on the fly.
Savanna 07:12
I'll tell you a quick story real quick, Colin, but I'm not a lot of my other colleagues. I have found do this. But we always ask for two points of entry. Just in case the first one fails. And they tend to ask us like why do you need to I'm like, well, there was this one time when the garage came off the railings there was this another time when the lightning struck the house and the battery to the code, the door code wasn't working. I've like I've heard stories of an thank God hasn't happened to me of the key snapping in the keyhole. And I'm just like, like, I rather have that two points of entry. It makes sense. I'm like, okay.
Collin 07:57
It is we have policies for for very real reasons whether we experienced something or something has happened to an acquaintance or another business that we're aware of. And that's, that's one of the powerful reasons to be connected with other centers. And in a community like that, because you can fast track a lot of that learning process and have a lot higher quality policies and procedures in place because of the lessons other people went through that now you can benefit from and when you're interacting with your clients and caring for their pets.
Savanna 08:32
Yes, I always encourage them to have at least one key in a lockbox. And sometimes I get the call from the client like Do you remember our code?
Collin 08:45
Yeah, hey, that's a new service, a lockout service where you can come in help them get into their home. On your on your website. And also when you introduce yourself, you said that you proudly serve areas and you produce you proudly do dog walking and pet care. And that struck me because I don't think that's a word I hear a lot of people use and talking about themselves in their line of work in this industry. So I wanted you to talk about having pride in your work and kind of where that comes from.
Savanna 09:18
Sure. Um, I guess it was a very kind of, you know, I when you ask that question like, oh, okay, like, Was this something that's just not said that often. But I, when I was thinking about it, it was I think Pride goes along with passion. And if you're don't have any passion for what you do, you're not going to take pride in doing it. So I feel like in the industry, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, again, you're not going to have pride in what you're doing. And I think physically if you're referring to my website, as you mentioned, we is also reflecting on the location students that we serve as well. I grew up here where I serve like winter garden, Windermere. And I was actually born in San Diego, California. But I've lived here for over 30 years. So I've seen it grow and expand and, you know, change from what it was to what it is now, which is a very popular area where people want to move to where, when I was a little kid, it was all orange groves. And pulling from my moving industry, background, pre pandemic, about 1000 people were moving into the area per day are not my area, but into the state of Florida. And now, during the pandemic, and post pandemic, that number has gone up to 1600 per day. So if you could look out my window right now Colin, you definitely see a lot of new construction homes, houses are still on the market here for sale, new apartments and stuff are going up, my mom actually just showed me. She was at a conference down in South Florida because she works in kind of the real estate industry. And she was sewing kind of, excuse me, everyone coming into the state are either buying or renting. And it's pretty like head to head as far as how close those two are like it's, it's pretty much dead, even you know, people are buying and renting around the same pace. So
Collin 11:24
the area, you know, you mentioned that the prior to like your this is an area that you're in like, and how it's connected to the passion really linking those, I feel like it's important because that means that you're going to, you're going to do things differently, right, you're going to pay more attention, you're going to strive to be better educated, you're going to strive in your services to continue to be better and to try new things. It really ramps up a lot into that. And if we don't have that passion, if we're not connected to that, why, in our service in our business, the pride isn't going to be there for very, very many reasons.
Savanna 12:02
Now, it doesn't necessarily have to be your hometown, or where you currently because people didn't move but you know, be have great pride in where you're at, because there's a reason why you're there. And each you know, community has its own customs and cultures and traditions and events. And yes, there's some probably growing pains and some grumblings, but you know, I'm proud of where I live.
Collin 12:25
So how are you handling? Or what are you doing for your business in an area of such rapid growth? Are you are you changing anything about marketing services offered or anything like that?
Savanna 12:38
Oh, I would probably say more prominently. We're definitely having a stronger social media presence. And more of a expert and advisor in the community and just a great resource. You know, I tell clients all the time, even if they don't hire me for services, like we want to be a resource, not only for your pet for you, because I've lived here for so long. I know all the little secrets and you know where to go to eat to get a great steak. All that fun stuff, like this is the mechanic you want to avoid. So I think that's important, you know, to be that sort of advisor, you know, I've been asked kinda somewhat, in the past couple of months to be a moderator on one of our popular community pages. And, you know, a lot of my clients as well have said, like, Vana, we see you posting on social media pages all the time, you know, like, here are some of the preferred partners, you know, this is what you do when you when there's a lost dog or a missing pet, you know, like, here's some, you know, this is what you should be asking your vet or when you're trying to interview a vet, or groomer or trainer, here are some local, like, dog friendly restaurants and cafes and dog parks. So again, being that resource, you know, goes a long way. And, again, that rapidly growing area, because you are seen as the expert in the field.
Collin 14:12
Well, in some ways, it's a it's a little bit easier to get in front of those kinds of new people to an area because they are naturally looking for a lot of information to make their life possible. They're already asking, Where's the best steak? Where's the best mechanic? They're already asking what interest do people go to? So getting in front of them when they're already in this mode of asking questions? Is is wonderful. I know we have a community page that we're that we're members of and it's for just the area. It's like, Hey, do you have a question about the area? This is where you go and posting in there has been extremely beneficial because it's where people go for, for areas specific questions. They don't really go to Google. They go to this Facebook group because they know there's a wealth of knowledge kind of institutional knowledge of both locals and New people have what they're kind of trying to get out. And so being in there has been really beneficial. For us. It's interesting to hear kind of it's been been similar experience for you.
Savanna 15:08
I definitely think it's an untapped resource for a lot of pet sitters. I know, our page is pretty prominent. And I know there are several pages like that for specific areas. But outside of that, I'm not sure you know, if there isn't even as a type of page like that, you know, in, let's say, Miami, or Tallahassee, or, you know, all that fun stuff, but it doesn't hurt to look, or even start your own version of it. So,
Collin 15:38
yeah. And again, the things that you're posting there, they're not hey, this is you know, I walked dogs, this is my price, the educational stuff that that is key, and we get, I think that that too, is an area of not just where to post but now what we post, that's always the question. Next up, what kind of things do I need to post to get in front of people? It's educate, it's be that genuine resources, if nothing if nothing else, if it's just a listicle of five places where you can take your pet, that's really beneficial to people, people love sharing that kind of information.
Savanna 16:10
Uh huh. I totally agree with that.
Collin 16:16
Have you heard of time to pet Susan, the pet cow has this to say,
Susan 16:20
time to pet has helped us grow exponentially. We believe the platform's features make us by far more professional than other companies who use conventional dashboards. They are the software gurus constantly developing and improving the platform based on user feedback. This decision was a good one,
Collin 16:37
if you are looking for new petsitting software, if time to put a try, listeners of our show could say 50% off your first three months by visiting timeshare.com/confessional. One of the services that you that you offer are called Park playdates. And I was really curious to see how you structure these and kind of what the thinking is behind them.
Savanna 16:59
So it's somewhat, I think, a controversial service to offer. Only because their insurance is obviously a big question mark. And obviously, you don't know all the dogs going to the park. But again, people don't know my location. So we have a lot of kind of semi private communities in our area that, you know, have the HOAs that are not gated, so anybody can kind of go in, but they have their own kind of private dog parks. So and a lot of our clients, you know, know each other. So that's, you know, how they refer me out is like, Oh, you need a dog walker pet sitter, we use it in a give her a call, here's your information. And chances are, you know, the dogs had some form of interaction with each other, or they met up at the dog park prior. So if I'm no have two clients in the same neighborhood, and like I literally have like five that are like probably two or three houses down. And I, you know, call the owners like, Hey, I'm walking Max today. Do you mind if I come by and grab Feeny. And we can go to the dog park. So and when we go to the dog park is usually dead. So we're besides myself and the dogs that I bring it over. So it's basically almost a private dog park, because everyone's usually out at work.
Collin 18:23
So that's a that's a very different take on what I think many people who when they hear Park playdates may think of they're thinking of the big open public parks where any, any Joe Schmo can come with their dog. Now, obviously, there's still that that risk, you don't know, 100% of the dogs in that community. But being in a private community, and a private dog park does insulate you at least a little bit from a lot of those other potential interactions.
Savanna 18:50
And we always make sure like, you know, you've met, you know, so and so before and like, yeah, they get along great. So as long as we get like consent from both owners, it's not a big deal. So we just make sure that, you know, everybody's aware that we're going to the dog park, and you know, and if there's another dog that we don't know, we're probably going to go to the next dog park over because there's a large park dog park in a small dog park.
Collin 19:14
Many of us may be listening, thinking of private communities that we service or know about or trying to get into. And that may be an interesting service to offer them as, as a perk of using them as you are using your services of hey, I can do this for you. And I will take them to this area where they're already familiar with or they already maybe have have friends. And so that may be something we can think about as far as an add on or an additional service that we only provide to certain areas. There's still these safety precautions and they're still these things that are being put into place because of the unpredictable nature of those but again, I think it is really important to kind of couch this discussion of the kind of park that you're that this is actually talking about.
Savanna 19:56
Right. So I think when you've sent me that question, I If you were under the assumption of like, Oh, she's going to the, the county parks, I'm like, No. I could, potentially, but that again, it's that safety issue, because I don't know who's coming in, like, again, the the Joe Schmo, as you lovingly called them come in and with their untrained dog, and you know, it can be a hot mess. So,
Collin 20:23
yeah, and now that you phrase that, I mean, I'm sitting here thinking of three or four different private communities that we service that have a dog park, and we currently don't take their dogs there. But I'm kind of processing this in real time now thinking of like, oh, that could definitely be something that I structure for it to provide to those clients in those areas. Because I think that kind of helps refine it a little bit and sets a little bit better boundaries about that. Because if you put that out there, I'm sure, I don't know if you get questions or potential clients asking to take to the big dog parks. But it kind of can help insulate you from some of that as well.
Savanna 21:02
It's not a question that gets asked a lot. But I do mention, you know, if I'm going to one of those communities that I have an established client telling us a new client, I mentioned I'm like, we can walk like the dog parks within walking distance of a lot of homes. Yeah. So it's an easy hop, skip, and a jump, literally. So
Collin 21:24
when you think about or just reflecting on your services that you do offer, I did want to know, kind of what what do you see as being the most popular? And then my follow up question. That is why why do you think that is,
Savanna 21:37
um, so definitely our most popular services are the dog walking. So this could be any time during the day, obviously, lunchtime. And we actually have a lot of clients that need like dinner and evening services as well. That is definitely one of our popplers the vacation clients. So the multiple pet visits or one pet visit, depending on the animal per day while people go away. And the overnight stays. Regards to the daily dog walks. Obviously, people work, you know, are now back in their offices and whatnot. We do serve as a lot of Disney client or so people who work for Disney, so their hours are a little bit different. So we have some people that kind of do like the late afternoon evening shift. So like I have a client that goes in like at one or two and then doesn't get back to like 10 o'clock at night. So they they have those types of so that's pretty prominent and requested services or those evening dinner time visits. The vacation business or you know, kind of spoken for themselves, like people are wanting to go away and they're not wanting to board. But the overnights are definitely something that we get seen a lot of requests for. In particular, it's when there's a multiple pet home or there's a pet with some medical issues or anxiety issues. So that definitely a popular service. And I think they like the added bonus of someone is taking care of the house as well. So I actually made sure I put the story in here. But we had an incident back in March of 2021. Where the house was just renovated to completely renovated, head to toe Well, ceiling to floor,
Collin 23:24
roof to foundation.
Savanna 23:27
Foundation. And I was saying his name was Hershey. And he was a little Yorkie. And it was it was a multimillion dollar home in a private community. So I got there that night. And I hear some kind of the pipes groaning a little bit like it's probably you know, you're a little bit more sensitive to sounds in a place that you're not familiar with. So I'm like I didn't pay much mind to it because it's you know, you know, it's probably no water pressure changing in the house or whatever. So I wake up the next morning and I'm on an island so the water was pretty much surrounding the bed. Hershey was sound asleep floating on his dog bed. Wow. I walked out and the water's coming from the gym area and it's all wooden floor. So I'm in my flip flops and the wooden floors like squishing underneath and pushing more water out. And luckily I knew where the main water line is. And I turned off the water that got to the house. And I called the client, they weren't even gone like 12 hours happened. So if I was doing like traditional visits, that would have probably been more water damage because I probably would have been there another hour or two later. So leave needless to say that That was a very memorable overnight.
Collin 25:04
Yeah, for all the wrong reasons. Do you enjoy doing the overnights because I know many people will get into pet care and they think that they have to do overnights that they have to do that, but they are homebodies they miss their bed. They don't like living out of a suitcase for days on end. How do you how do you process that kind of transition that you're kind of going through from overnight overnight?
Savanna 25:28
Well, raising the price helps a lot.
Collin 25:33
Okay, yeah.
Savanna 25:34
So like, I think it's the question of like, price wise, can I leave my bed for $150 per night for a couple of nights? Okay. So I think because I think initially when you know, any pet sitter or dog walker starting off, and they're wanting to the offer overnight, sorry, is like 30 Nights 30. Sorry, $30 $70. You know, I'm just like, No, I started at that point, but like, how much is being in my bed worth, you know, having in being cold. And I have clients that will happily pay that amount. Because they know that I'm going to be there, you know, when I say I'm going to be there. And I also I think limiting myself to how many overnights I can do, I think the longest I ever did was like over 18 days. So but it was a nice home. And it was comfortable. And I think that's a big thing. And I joke, my mom jokingly tells this story. And it nothing is about is asking. So I was staying at a client's house, the mattress was super hard. I woke up with my back's aching every time. So when they called and asked me to do another overnight service, I asked them, can you please, please put a mattress pad on top of the bed? And they said, that's not a problem, you should have said something earlier. And I'm sure by God, they they put one down for me by my next visit. So sometimes, you know, having those creature comforts like I know, sometimes clients asked, you know, can we get you anything as far as like food or whatnot? You know? Yeah, I think depending on again, the client, like they're making sure that you're comfortable, you know, being there as well helps. So it's not just, you know, I'm just bringing my stuff and I'm there like, like, do you want apples? Do you want certain types of food? You know, all that fun stuff? So,
Collin 27:40
yeah. And I love that not being afraid to ask a question, right to make your job a little bit easier to make your life a little bit easier. And that goes for whether you're staying over at a client's home or not. I know one thing that I consistently come back to a lot is, Please, could you please leave out spare towels for us by the door when we come in? Because it's a headache for me to try and clean up your floor and to you know, to get your dog clean and scramble around and try and find this stuff. So just asking, Can you please do this for me. And that may be a breaking point, you may discover you know what, it's not worth it to continue to serve somebody if they're not willing to do this thing for me. And you only get to that point, if you if you ask and you make requests. And you have that conversation with a client that says is critical to understand that this is a two way communication that we're having. They have requests and asks of us and we certainly have requests and asks of them.
Savanna 28:42
Yes, I totally agree with the two way street. And you know, the way I always tell clients like the worst I can say is no and the worst that you can say is no.
Collin 28:54
Exactly. Yeah, you that's the worst thing that can happen and then you you get to decide okay, now now what do we do from here?
Savanna 29:00
I got my mattress pad so I got what I want.
Collin 29:04
So now you you also have been hiring staff and I was curious when the how that process has been going for you and also do they do all of the same services that you currently provide yourself.
Savanna 29:22
Okay, so going back to the list. So this is the organizer part of me. So I probably started hiring my first or second year into the business it was an accident of I double booked myself without realizing it oopsie on my part, but I had a contact at the Wolfing bakery, which is a dog boutique and grooming salon and I was great friends with the owner and I knew the person at the register. And I asked her point blanket like, Would you be interested in working for me? She said, Yeah. She said yes. So I knew she was, you know, thoroughly background checked in, you know, like this, the owner wouldn't just hire anybody, you know, so I knew I was in good hands with that. In regards to the hiring, you know, I guess, the timeline of that, it just kind of started to tack on a little bit by a little bit. So I think when we last spoke, Paul, and I had about two or three, assistants plus myself, and now that's doubled. So I have six, including myself. And some of it is I think, some of the stories I think we hear a lot is the client wanting to come work. I had diverse experience and like, you want to do what now? Like, I want to come work for me like, okay, here, here's our paperwork. You kind of know what we do. So that helps. A lot of it's um, word of mouth as well. So when I was pulling out feelers and like, Hey, I'm looking for some extra help. And a lot of it was through my other assistants. And if it wasn't through them, it was through their friends that they knew, ironically, which is, I think, a compliment to how you treat people. My first assistant, she had to leave town to go take care of some family matters out of state. So I lost her sadly, as you know, everyone kept asking for her. I'm like, where is she? I'm like, she had to go and take care of some things. So she's not here anymore. I can't do not call in a text like probably at the beginning of December. Hey, Savannah, I'm coming back into the town. Can I come work for you?
Collin 31:52
Yay. Oh, my gosh.
Savanna 31:56
Yes, people have been asking for you. So in regards to I guess the same if they provide the same services? I do. Yes, and no. So I have some client, some assistance that will do the overnights, I have some that will not I will have some clients that will do have usually some size restrictions and the animals that they service, or breed restrictions. So I'm just mindful of that. So I primarily go do the meet and greet first, just to kind of like see what the situation is or bring somebody that is available. And you know, I'm kind of oak like, okay, it's cats is too small dogs is a German Shepherd, you know, it's a guinea pig, it's a pot bellied pig, it's a parrot, you know, just kind of going through the back of my head and like this is in the location like this is a good fit for so and so this is a good fit for so and so this is not a good fit for so. So we're just going back because they all have their preferences and specialties like we all do. And I jokingly put in the notes like I will not do snakes. I will not do snakes in my seven years of doing this. I have not had to do snakes and hopefully that will stay that way.
Collin 33:12
Let's not break that streak. Yeah,
Savanna 33:15
no, no, no snakes were Savannah
Collin 33:19
that a conversation you have with them as you're bringing them on of what are you willing to do? What are you not willing to do? Or is this just what you've learned about them and their preferences over time?
Savanna 33:29
Well, it's when we kind of sit down and go over coffee. And a lot of these you will I've known for many, many years personally. So I kind of know a little bit of their, their backgrounds and stuff like that. So you know, I asked them kind of point like, Is there things that are you are comfortable doing or not doing? You know, and I tell them like this is the services that we provide? These are the types of animals that we normally see, do you have any problems with either of them, and I usually bring up the topic of me not wanting to do snakes and that usually breaks the ice.
Collin 34:02
But that's nice to have something to point to as an example, because I'm sure I know when we interview people, they didn't know anything and everything's perfectly fine. I don't care, but they're not quite thinking the breadth of animals that we could put in here, right? It's very specific, like okay, you said everything scorpions still good and they're like, wait, what that's that's a thing.
Savanna 34:22
I definitely seen Colin I was gonna mention just like we're definitely seeing a lot more exotics coming into our realm. I just finished taking care of an axolotl. Oh, they're so cute. I know. They're always look like they're smiling. And when when I go to networking events, you know, and like our tagline All creatures great and small. We're not kidding. So like obviously dogs and cats are our bread and butter but I've done poison dart frogs I've done several different types of geckos and lizards and turtles and tortoises saltwater fish, freshwater fish koi fish snails for ABS what else? Is there? Several different types of birds, chickens, goats, pigs, horses, cows. I know. Yeah. The axolotl is probably the most interesting one and the poison dart frogs, everyone's like, people keep those as pets like, yeah,
Collin 35:20
they do. They do. And that's incumbent upon us to, as we start, this process of bringing on staff is, is going in part making them part of our team is educating them on that, like, it really is not just educating them on how to take care of certain pets, but also not just our policies, but also all of the types of animals that we could encounter, because we want to, it's interesting that you mentioned that you kind of curtail who's going to be on visits based off of their, their wants, and kind of where their specialties are. I know other companies decide, hey, everybody has to be able to do everything. And so we kind of have to either we have to meet somewhere in the middle for for care. So I think, I think it's when you're bringing on staff you can get you get to make that decision of how you're going to structure that.
Savanna 36:10
Right. And I think, you know, being understanding of, you know, people's preferences and limitations is important, though, because you want them to be able to provide, again, that passionate and prideful care, you know, like I one of my assistants is not a personal pan of pitbulls because Pitbull apparently tagged and killed her dog. And she's, she's like, I would prefer not to, but it's, it's not the same dog, you know, as far as you know, what happened to me and my pet? So it's just being mindful of like, because again, you don't know, you know why they have those personal preferences and limitations like Sudan hate snakes, because she feels like she walks across them every day of her life. That was a true statement. Yeah. So I mean, that's being you know, courteous and mindful as an employee or serving employer.
Collin 37:03
The National Association of Professional pet sitters in a person conference is now just three months away, joins us from across the country in New Orleans for three days of excellent high impact speakers. They'll be covering topics like employee versus independent contractor building your dream, pet sitting business, strategic growth and marketing. And one talk about the life of a professional pet sitter by Megan and myself on Saturday night, the event is March 3 through fifth at the conference center on 11. Get registered today at Pet sitters.org. And you mentioned that you had hired in your first or second year because you had double booked on a set of occasion. That leads me to a question that I want to ask you as far as knowing when you have overcommitted in a business and kind of how you what are some warning signs to you both in the business on a personal level?
Savanna 37:59
Okay, so we're going to go into the philosophical portion of this. So the commitment, I think it's more of an exchange, and an agreement to something, it's a promise. So I'm usually the school of hard knocks is our greatest teacher. So learning what those are, and those limitations are different for everybody. So, like people kind of jaw dropped when, you know, I say I can sound my most business I've ever done is like between 24 visits in the day. And then some people think like, that's a lot. And then other people's like, Oh, I do that in a day. So I think understanding, you know, as far as being overcommitted, you know, what your limitations are and then learning from those experiences, like how much you can do, and looking at your your team and your staff and knowing what those limitations are themselves before you commit them to something like that. So it's also again, that exchange, so it's the promise in agreement, but you're also getting something in return. So whether that be monetary growth for yourself goal wise, you know, time as well. So it's when those returns from the commitment when it's not as valuable or it's not worth that commitment anymore. So I'm going to give you an example. I used to serve as Dr. Phillips which is a neighboring area to winter garden in Windermere. So about a 2030 minute drive, give or take. We serviced that area initially we had for many years. And when you're getting into the 2021 so March 2021 This year The timing wasn't right. So we were starting to lose clients because of age and health reasons and moving out. And we were basically trickled down to one client per day over in that area. So we were committed to servicing that area. But the return value on it wasn't enough to continue that commitment. So we had other opportunities in that were closer to home. So do we commit still remain committed to that one client that we service Monday through Friday, and for an hour round trip for one service, and potentially sacrifice and have other clients suffer, because, you know, we ran into traffic just for that one client, that's when you know, being committed is not worth it anymore, is that it's again, that exchange of the time, you know, the the value and all that fun stuff. So we decided, and it was kind of again, that that path that you didn't see it before you but there were like little nudges that were pushing you in that direction. That are our contact over at the Wilson bakery was selling the business so they will no longer be owners, we lost several clients due to age and moving out. And we weren't getting a lot of inquiries for services over that area to make up for those losses. So we just had that one client, it didn't make sense to continue to service when we had other inquiries closer to home. So again, as much as commitment is important, you also have to make sure that it's a good exchange for that commitment of time and value.
Collin 41:43
It's interesting, you mentioned that because we just went through something similar for coming up into into the holidays, when we're recording this, we kind of had our schedule set, we had our routes planned, and then someone requested and they were 27 minutes away. And technically, it could have worked, it could have been done. But when we sat and thought about what we were asking our staff to commit to have an hour of drive time to hit that client and then come back versus having a little bit of downtime and space in their day. It doesn't it didn't matter that he was willing to pay our price, it wasn't worth it. For the mental and the mental burden, the drive time, everything involved in that it just didn't add up. Now, sometimes you may look at that and go okay, well, now what I need to do is I need to try and drum up business over there to make it worth my time. And that's that's certainly a decision that you can go and do as a business to try and, you know, again, capitalize on the time of while I'm over there, let's see if I can get two or three more visits to make it worth it. But if you don't want to do that, if you're not interested in growing in that way, you have full right to retract and go no, I'm not going to commit to myself to that.
Savanna 43:00
And I think again, just going back on, like, you know, your limitations, you know, it's under an understanding those and that comes with obviously time and experience. And learning to say no, I know, initially, like with many new pet sitters, I think no is such a taboo word. Because you're wanting to build that clientele, that you're afraid to say no. And in, you're emotionally invested in, you know, what people think of you. So I think, as experience and time has gone, you know, I can definitely say, you know, you can look at, you know, is it worth it? Like, can I commit to this, you know, without, you know, losing anything, or much in the process? Yeah,
Collin 43:49
well, it is. And what I do is I sit there and I just start adding zeros to either the timeframe or the cost and go okay, if I had to do this 1000 more times, right? Would it be worth it? Maybe maybe not something that I know we've been committing to more recently as because we have because of the way we have our team scheduled, we are able to take on care for pets, that whose owners are in long term care facilities, actually. So we're coming over three times a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. If I was by myself, I couldn't we could. That's not something that we could commit to. And so it's sustainable either. No, no, it's not. And so trying to realizing that not just with experience, but as your services changed as your team changes as your service area, differentiates as your interests change, what you used to commit to may not be the same thing and something brand new may come across your plate that you've never thought of committing to that may be a great opportunity. And it's just being aware of those kinds of things as they come across and knowing what what is it at the end of day that I want out of this.
Savanna 44:53
Exactly. And I think people need to be mindful that promises can be broken. Yeah, and it's okay. Like, it's not like you're doing it intentionally, you know, but it's, you know, you have to look out for yourself at the end of the day and your business because it is a business.
Collin 45:13
Exactly. Okay, this, this business relationship isn't working out anymore, no harm, no foul, we're moving on to do something different. All the time.
Savanna 45:22
Yeah. And I always, my, my greatest piece of advice to anybody starting a business is, you know, in our industry is like, if you can provide a solution to the problem, or how you're going to fix it, that makes the the break or the the problem solving so much easier. versus saying, I'm sorry, it's not working out, we're done. But you can say, I'm sorry, we can no longer service you here are some other recommendations for pet care providers in your area.
Collin 45:51
Something else that I noticed, Savannah is that you you describe yourself as, as a founder of the savvy pet sitter, and I want to know, kind of how that where that view comes from? And what that changes on how you you interact with your
Savanna 46:07
business. So I can these very deep, insightful questions, Colin, the founding part, I thought, It's true ownership. So it's, it's mine. So I think when you look historically, at some of the the long lasting businesses, Disney, for example, so Walt Disney was not just the owner, he's also the founder. So giving, being the founder of something gives true ownership and possession. Anyone can go in and buy a business and be the owner, but building it from the ground up creating the culture, you know, the policies, procedures, you know, your, you pour your blood, sweat, and tears, like, I hate to say it, but my business is like my child or my significant other, that is sometimes selfish, and very demanding. But you know, it's, it's your baby. And sometimes it needs your attention 24/7, and you have to go in and solve the problem. And there's, you know, just obviously, need to make sure that you have that separation and be your own individual. But, you know, going back to, you know, the pride and being proud of something in the passion. If you know, you would have asked me when I initially started this business, would I consider myself an owner? No, I'm working my butt off to build something. So but it's also a matter of legacy. So Disney is actually celebrating its 50th Walt Disney World, the Magic Kingdom is celebrating its 50 years, and then Epcot celebrating its 40 years that the legacy for Walt Disney. So it's, you know, I've been doing this for seven years going on eight, and now it's a matter of legacy. Like, I founded this company with no blood, sweat and tears and time. And it's something that I originated I built, I created, and it's, it's mine. And that's, you know, again, being a founder, versus being an owner, because anyone can go in and buy a company and be an owner. But it's building, you know, the foundation of the company. Yes, I'm looking in the pans. I'm sorry. But again, it's building that foundation. I mean, a lot of the petsitting companies I would consider they are founders of their own company. So
Collin 48:49
yeah, yeah, it's stepping back and realizing nothing existed in this space until I did something about it. That's fairly profound, insanely profound, and then not just that it exists, but also it's serving others, it's making money. That's not a bad thing. It's providing for staff, if you have them, it's providing a livable income for you. It is doing all of this stuff. And that's started because you did it. Right. That was something that you said that phrase, I originated this, this was from me. That's important. I don't think we should lose sight of that.
Savanna 49:28
No, and I think a lot of people don't don't give themselves credit for building something from the ground up. And and I think, you know, again, if you would have asked me when we first interviewed or prior that I wouldn't, you know, consider it but again, going into year seven, eight, and seeing what I've accomplished not just as a as a business owner, you know, I It's I'm still pinching myself.
Collin 49:59
Oh, Oh, for sure I know each time that I have to run or do payroll and just look at the, like, the taxes that I'm paying on stuff. I'm like, Man, when I was in the T word, ya know, that stuff, it's like, like, that's real, like, that's money that is generated that my company is paying, that is a not insignificant amount of money that, you know, 1015 years ago, when I was doing other stuff was like, that is it's life changing to think about it in that in that perspective,
Savanna 50:29
so you have to add Uncle Sam, on your payroll, it's not.
Collin 50:36
So you mentioned that you're interested in more about legacy now. So what what is your view of the future? And I don't know, if you do have an end goal for the business, but kind of where, what's your mindset on that these days?
Savanna 50:48
Um, I would like definitely, to grow my business bigger. I'm obviously a controlled growth. Um, but I think, you know, in this can obviously change, you know, my, one of my goals, when I hit if I hit my 10 year was to break into six figures. And I broke that last year. So and I'm on track to break it again, this year. So the, I think, you know, things can change, obviously, but you know, as of now, I think when I retire, I will retire the business as well. But that's not saying that, you know, if the opportunity came is like, hey, I want to buy your company for X amount of money. And you're retiring? Yeah. nudge nudge. Sure. I mean, that's, you know, I actually, one of my colleagues actually just sold his business. And it's in primarily services, same area as me, but he started this community called celebration, which was in Disney property. So he went through that process, but he still started or restarted his own pet sitting and dog walking business as well. So But initially, like, if I could, you know, this is what's going to happen. That's what I would ideally would like to happen. But again, things change, you know, you know, we can't, we can only control so much in our lives.
Collin 52:22
That, that is, this is true, that sometimes those those changes happen. They're just kind of serendipitous, and how they come about, and some of those times they're pretty, pretty intentional. So you, you've started something brand new as well. Is you started a YouTube channel specifically for for calming music for pets. Yeah. This is this is fascinating. Savannah. Why was this important for you to start?
Savanna 52:49
Um, so I think a lot of it had to do with I hate that we use the P word and the T word a lot for this podcast, but the pandemic. So the obviously a lot of pet sitting and dog walking businesses close or lost a lot of clients, because, you know, people were working from home, they weren't traveling as much. And I think a lot of your conversations, like, I think after that, when people were going back to work, we're had to diversify your income. And that was kind of a key word, like diversifying your income streams. So a lot of talk was about e commerce and you know, offering training videos and coaching videos and books and all that fun stuff. And I'm just like, I like those ideas, but I'm just like, I'm not 100% feeling them. So. Yeah, yeah. So when I don't know about you, Colin, but when I'm usually working on something, I like to have some background noise. And, you know, while I'm working, and I don't, I wish it would have hit me sooner, because I would have been so much further along, but we I leave music on for my clients all the time. Okay, and there are actually four primary YouTube pet music channels on the on the YouTube. So there is opportunity to compete. It's not like there's hundreds of 1000s but there's there's four, but I feel like with my connections and the community of the pet sitters and dog walkers like this could, you know, take off you know, with, you know, me connecting with them, it's like, Hey, here's my pet music youtube channel. Please take a look. And you know, I hope you can, you know, get it onto your clients TV when you go away after your fifth or between visits. So it literally again has happened when I was just like, why am I not doing this? Because I do I do it for myself and I Do it for my clients. So like, why can't I get a piece of the pot new to pie here. And I know Doug Keeling and a couple and Dan with the installed walking, they have their own YouTube channels. I'm personally not comfortable being on screen. Sure. So let's go a different route here
Collin 55:23
it is, I recommend people leave the white noise fan video something playing for their pets, even if they don't really experiencing any of the separation anxiety or much of that, it's just a nice benefit to have. And as in a lot of people, a lot of pet owners don't even think to do that or that it's an option for them. So this is a great tie in to your existing business to be able to again, say I'm the originator of this, this is how passionate we are. This is something we're trying to do about this problem for you.
Savanna 55:58
But I also add on to that is like would you like to listen to deafening silence for eight hours a day. And I also point out to them, it's just like, we don't know what they're hearing when we're not around. So like you may have a dog that, you know, like was never afraid of thunderstorms allowed beings and then suddenly, like the next day, like you drop a pan and you know, God forbid the dog's leg is high in your heart. So it helps like cancel out any outside noises like we were in. We're in Disney territory. The fireworks go off every night. You know, we have thunderstorms, we're in Central Florida. So I mean, if I can cancel out that noise and mitigate any additional stress or triggers. I'm more I'm more power to the YouTube channel. I say.
Collin 56:51
Yes, I'm sure it's it's another just kind of creative outlet as you come and think of this stuff. And that's that's another part of being a founder being an entrepreneur is going what other things what new things can we help set the tone for the business?
Savanna 57:04
Yes, um, your pet sitting and dog walking Imagineer. So
Collin 57:09
oh my gosh, I Okay, I'm writing that down. I love that so much. Oh, my gosh,
Savanna 57:14
I'll send you my consultation fee later.
Collin 57:17
Thanks. I'll you get the rights to put that on a shirt. Okay.
Savanna 57:21
You can only sell that jersey would sell it Disney, I promise you.
Collin 57:27
That's awesome. Savannah, I really want to thank you for your time today and for sharing your experiences through this, but I know that there is a lot more. And if people are interested in going and checking out your YouTube channel, how can they follow along with savvy sitter and go check out that channel.
Savanna 57:43
So right now it's kind of hard to find if you just put in peaceful pet music. A lot of the other videos will show up that with the more established channels, but I'm sure you're gonna put in the link directly go to the the main page for the YouTube channel. Yeah, so that and all you have to do is subscribe and push on the notification button and it should pop up. You know pretty easily when you put in peaceful pet music or subscribe to my channel and we pretty much update videos every week. So I have a nice snowfall video now with a cat and the dog. And it's a pug with its tongue sticking out trying to catch the snow flurries so it's quite amusing. But I have Santa Claus. It's coming next week, so he'll be flying over the skies delivering presents to all the good pups and kitties. So it's the savvy sitter on Instagram. And then our website is the savvy sitter.org And we're also on Instagram for peaceful pet music as well.
Collin 58:51
Perfect. Yeah, that's awesome. And I'll have those I'll have all those links on there. And I know you've got some QR codes that people can get access to to make it really easy to download and get access to those videos. You can use them as stickers I know you've talked about that and your you can include them on your website and people can just contact you if they want to get access to those. Savannah I really appreciate getting to catch up with you just I really enjoyed the conversation. So thank you so much
Savanna 59:18
for being with tons. I'm happy to entertain at any time but it's always nice to talk to you as well. Colin and I have to say congratulations on creating a possum petsitting community, both here audio Lee and on social media as well. He's definitely created something. Awesome.
Collin 59:37
Thank you. That means a lot. Savannah, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you.
Savanna 59:41
My pleasure.
Collin 59:42
What are you committed to? We commit ourselves to so many things every single day and we overcome it ourselves easily. Sometimes without even trying too hard. When our passion is fueling the commitment though, it's easier to see when we have have overstepped that boundary when we have overcommitted ourselves, because the passion is not there to fuel the commitment. At the end of the day having those good boundaries. And knowing why you started and why you continue, will help you make good decisions on what you ultimately will commit to and what you will not commit to. We want to thank today's sponsor, time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. Make sure you check out our show notes and on our website to learn more about them. Megan, and I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your week and you're looking forward to an amazing new year and we'll be back again soon.
