381: Finding Worth in Your Work with Madeline Best
Time to Pet. Go to timetopet.com/confessional for 50% off your first 3 months.
Pet Perennials. Go to https://petperennials.com/pages/register-for-a-business-account
What does it mean to serve others well? Pet care is a service industry at its core, meaning we need to be hyper focused on the needs of our clients. Madeline Best, co-owner of Happy Bark and Tails and Royal Dog of Honor, shares how she is balancing serving others, while running a business that meets her lifestyle. By leaning into wedding services, she’s found flexibility while also giving her clients a high-end service. She shares how she’s changed her staffing to hiring full-time only, and how we can continue to refine the services we offer, without losing touch with ourselves.
Main topics:
Rebranding with a purpose
Services that fit your lifestyle
Running wedding services
Refining your service offerings
Being clear to be kind
Main takeaway: When you come into this industry, you need to be able to serve.
About our guest:
Madeline grew up on a farm in the Dominican Republic with many different animals, including many herding dogs. Being around dogs for most of life, she developed a deep appreciation for what comes along with being a dog owner. After working for several years in NYC in the hospitality industry she moved to NJ where she met Gabriel. Together they got a dog, whom they named Lola. Lola has been the inspiration behind Happy Bark & Tails. Gabriel is a Computer Science major graduate, you know the geeky guy that programs our software, yeah thats him! Gabriel grew up most of his life in Puerto Rico where he played professional college basketball. There he rescued many street dogs and nursed them to health. Gabriel is a compassionate dog lover. Although he has a degree in Computer Science, he has followed his passion! Which is working with dogs and their families and co-founded Happy Bark & Tails with his wife Madeline.
Links:
Previously: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/182
HoneyBook: https://www.honeybook.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sourcingfreedom/
https://www.instagram.com/royaldogofhonor/
Follow their van build: https://www.instagram.com/sourcingfreedom/?fbclid=IwAR2g9X8y5msSOLHiFyfmt-FGapIHIhEdin3OcgZm2HcyxOwMBor-6cHqPkY
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
wedding, business, people, clients, dog, services, gift, pet, offer, website, feel, building, big, organized, photographer, husband, photos, walking, rebrand, clear
SPEAKERS
Collin, Madeline
Collin 00:01
Welcome back to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. What does it mean to serve others? Well? And can you do that while also living the life that you want to lead? Do you have to sacrifice something to get there? The answer, obviously, I think, you know, today, we're super excited to have Madeline owner of happy bargain tales back on the show. She joins us today to talk about how she is crafting a business to match a lifestyle that she and her husband want to lead, as they enjoy a love of traveling. Together, she shares how she is focusing on servicing her clients in new and exciting ways and how that drives everything that her company does. She walks us through how this has completely changed her hiring process and why it is so critical to be clear and upfront with your clients. Let's get started.
Madeline 00:52
So I'm Madeline, I am the owner. With my husband with happy bargain sales. We are a pet care service, we mainly focus on wedding services now. We do barking dog walking, pet sitting more anything dog related, we kind of sorta cover. So yeah, and we're in New Jersey, We travel now we're traveling all over the East Coast, which I'm sure you're asking later on. So I'll definitely touch base on that. So yeah, we're all about the dogs here. And the cats not forget.
Collin 01:23
Well, so it's been it's been it's been two years. So what's been some of the what have you? How has business been since we last spoke.
Madeline 01:30
So this has been transition for sure. As you can see, now our business is more catering to the wedding services. This has that has been the wedding services has been a long thing in the planning already. Something that we wanted to fully commit to. And then we did our website rebrand, which that's when I took the opportunity to kind of do and kind of put a put ourselves out there and to what we do for the wedding services. So So yeah, it's been a big, it's been planning like that it hasn't been like something we just jumped into. We wanted to make sure that there was a market for it, and that we were ready to take on that challenge.
Collin 02:13
Now, how did you start understanding if there was a market for that? Because I know many people get that I think about this, I'm going hey, I'd like to offer this. What it's hard to prove a demand when you're not sure where to start how to get connected with those clients.
Madeline 02:28
For sure. So that's one thing that we actually kept on getting inquiries about that we kept on getting people asking us, Hey, did you guys do this? Do you guys do that? And before it was more like, Oh my God, I don't know. Like, why can I do that? How do I do that? So my thing. I'm a very creative person. I like to do things. Like I like to do things that are already being done, but put my own sauce into it. So what I did I have I have photographer friends, people that photo, like do weddings and stuff. So I kind of just saw what they did what they were doing, how so kind of looking at them and what they were doing and asking them hey, do you think your client would like to include their dog in the wedding? And they're like, Oh my God, yes. They've been asking me like, do I know somebody? And I was like, okay, okay, that's a good thing. So from there like little like things in my brain, we're kind of just going. And I love events. I love like being I love being behind the scenes. I hate being in the spotlight like that, for me, it's I cannot I I do better behind the scenes, I like to do planning, I like to, I guess I like to set up people to be in the limelight and kind of me being in the background and helping them achieve that goal. So that's why I feel like it works out perfectly. Because I don't want to be the main the main source of like, Hey, I'm here. So when the dogs get to the wedding, it's like everybody thought everyone's so excited to get to see them there. So it makes me so happy. Because I'm like, wow, people are just so happy to see the dogs when the groom and it's hilarious. But yeah,
Collin 04:03
yeah. Well, it sounds like you did you just started asking questions and talking to people who are kind of in that in that area or in the vicinity of the kinds of services that you are interested to see. Hey, do you get these kinds of questions? Do you people request this? We've we get connected with a few people who do in our business who host events and they own big venues? That's always my first question people ever asked you if you if they can bring their dog and you'll see that look on their face with ago. Yeah, actually, they do that a lot.
Madeline 04:35
Yes, that's one thing. I always tell people like I have people asking me you know, the business. How do you start? What do you do? And my thing is always you know, ask questions. Be curious. You have to be curious because that's how I think any business, any startup usually, I like to listen to like podcasts about building businesses. And I put my myself into like those people's shoes and I'm like, okay, so dog walking, what do I do? Or this how can I innovate? How can I implement that? So it's about asking the questions and you'll get answers, you'll find somebody that will tell you something. And from there on, you'll start building this like, foundation on what you're doing.
Collin 05:11
Yeah. You mentioned that you did a rebrand. And that was one of the first things that I noticed after looking at a lot of your social media and your website, I would say it's pretty, it's actually quite different than the branding that you had before. So talk to us about that transition, and kind of what each brand meant at that time.
Madeline 05:30
So this rebrand that we did, we did it with a couple of designers, they are two designers from Chicago. And it was a it was an investment for sure. The website, the whole, everything, copywriting, everything was a huge investment. But it's something that we've been getting ready for. Because when we started the business, I started what, so let me backtrack. When I hear people say, I want to have a website for my dog walking or pet sitting business. And they're like, Yeah, and it's gonna be $2,000. And in my mind, I'm like, you don't need that. I started with a $200 website. That was it. I literally, I was going to school. And I was working at Chili's as a server. And a colleague of mine, a Chili's. She's like, I know a friend of mine, but he's a coder. So he can do up a website. And I was like, Oh, my God, can he do it for like, 200. And she's like, Oh, ask and see what happens. And he did. And that's why the whole website was good for us for like, three years. And we literally built the business from that to my toilet site. So for us, it was like a stepping stone. So it was like starting literally from like the bottom down and just kind of just building. So proving a concept. For me, that's, that's the biggest thing that I like to think about is proving a concept. So whenever I invest money in the business, I need to know that that's going to pay off that there's a purpose for it. There's a reasoning behind it. It's like you don't want to build a $3,000 website and not have any clients. So you need to make sure that you have income already generating from the business that you for the services that you're already telling people you're going to offer. And people need to feel confident, and the service that you're offering, because that's how you know you're going to get clients and then they'll talk about you and they'll keep spreading the word. So meaning you will be able to grow. And that's how that's how we thought about it. So everything that we've done from years ago, to now has been leading to this moment. So we were so excited about this whole rebrand, because everything changed. I mean, everything from like, as you can see, you saw the last one. And now everything is different, and we're targeting our target market has definitely changed. So it definitely made a big, a big impact in our business. And it definitely shows on what we are offering now clearly. And we're just so happy with everything how it came out.
Collin 07:57
Well, and specifically I was looking at the your about page, and the photos that you've selected of of you and those in your company. They don't really they don't evoke dog walker pet sitter, like it has a much different feel for it. So how did how did you decide on on the look that those would have? Yeah,
Madeline 08:17
so like I said before, I'm very creative. I like to, I go to sleep thinking about business, I go to sleep thinking about ideas. My husband tells me he's like, You need to just like turn it off. I'm like, I can't, I just really can't. I am passionate about this. I love what I do. And I went to school for business. So for me, I try to implement that into into what we do and Excel into this. So that's one thing for our pictures. I wanted to do more like a lifestyle pictures. So my friend, she's a photographer, Andrea, she's an amazing photographer here in New Jersey. She's a wedding photographer, and I told her I was like, Hey, do you guys do you mind? If we go to the city to do a photo shoot for us? And she's like, Yeah, she's like, bring one of the dogs if you want include them. I was gonna bring all three of my dogs and I'm like, okay, that's too much. Now we'll do one for toned it down. Yeah, so every time I have the website up and other my other dogs are in the room, and I'm like, I'm sorry, guys, you're not in only one of them. Is there don't look. Yeah, but yeah, I wanted to do more like a lifestyle pictures that shows more of us as human beings and are just pretty much ourselves. I mean, we love dogs. We love what we do. But at the end of the day, we're also human beings that we are we're passionate about what we do and we also have lives and personal lives. Everything tends to work together. But yeah, lifestyle pictures for me. I really enjoy that. I think it was a really cool thing.
Collin 09:49
It is it really evokes very personal feeling very that lifestyle and also because of how its shot and how they're staged. It does evoke a very high end feeling just me person I'm looking at these going, Okay, this is something different. There's, there's, there's something else behind this. And I guess, do you feel like that is part of what you were talking about earlier of getting connected to a different target audiences as you've been leaning into the wedding?
Madeline 10:14
Absolutely. So I think that in order to attract the clientele that you want, you have to play that part. And you also not only play the part, but you also have to show it, you also have to be it embody it, you have to even the way you send emails, even the way you communicate, even the way you message, you talk to people, it shows that it shows that you are that that vendor for them to select, you know. So yeah, I wanted that to have that field like airy, and like fun, but yet sophisticated. And also just like, easy, easygoing, like we're easygoing. Like, I think I have a picture of that with jeans. And it's like, you know, I wear jeans, I don't wear black slacks or whatever. So I wanted to be a little bit of both.
Collin 11:01
Yeah, yeah. Having that mixture and getting those people who are going to see that and connect with them. And I think that helps having those photos taken by a wedding photographer, I'm sure it was also able to help see, like, Okay, this is how we're going to stage these. This is going to help connect with some of those clients that
Madeline 11:14
you're after. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. Yeah.
Collin 11:18
So you did make a big shift into weddings. And you said, it's kind of been something that you've been pushing to and thinking about. Because last we spoke, you were doing a lot of dog walks, you were doing some adventure things and scouting out. And so what was that like? And now going okay, leaning more and more into weddings? Was it? Was it a plan like this? Is our five year plan? Or was it a hey, this is actually something that's going to work better for us and how we want to operate?
Madeline 11:42
Absolutely. So honestly, this tends to tie this ties in with our lifestyle, right? So it turns in with us being adventurous in our own lives. My husband and I, we don't have kids, we only have, we only have three dogs, having three kids a full house litter. But it ties into our lives. I mean, I'll tell you a little bit of what we're what we do on the side. So we are building, we have a Mercedes Sprinter van that we bought in 2021. And we're converting it into a travel home. So we want to travel around the country, we want to we want to tie that into our business, which we already we're so excited because we already booked like a few weddings out of state. So it's amazing, because we get to travel and also work and do something that we're passionate about. So we're in the middle of like building our van now, which is like another job because it takes a lot of work that out to my husband, because he is the builder, the brain, everything. I'm just the one that sits down. I'm like, Hey, we should do this. And he's like, how are you going to do it? And I'm like, I don't know can you do?
Collin 12:53
That's like you, but I'm not telling you.
Madeline 12:56
Exactly. So he's the one that's like doing the hard work. I mean, this guy, he built the electrical system in our van. And now we're self sustained. So we can go anywhere, and we have electricity, we don't have to hook up to anything. So he did all that hard work. So we're along the way going there. But yeah, the wedding service ties into this lifestyle that we that we that we have, and that we want to have, which is like we'd love to travel and explore. And one of the main reasons we purchase our van is because we want to be able to travel and bring our dogs with us and not leave them behind. I hate leaving my dogs I it's a and I know that we will taking care of you know, my mom come over, take care of them stay in my house. And it's just the feeling of like, I know, they're very social, they love to go out. And we wanted to make that happen. And then as we were doing that we purchased the van and you know, we were in the midst of the wedding planning, and how can we target? How can we like market our services? And what can we do? Or like we can just tie them together and do it as a travel thing where we can travel personally, but also be able to work and be able to help people and couples that are what they're wanting to include their dog elsewhere as well.
Collin 14:10
Yeah, that's really to be able to have a business that helps you live the lifestyle that you want to live. I think that's a goal that we all have and feel like sometimes we can get stuck in the business because that's what we quote unquote, have to do. I have to be doing these things while I have these other dreams and aspirations, but really stepping back and going okay, well how can I actually make this work for me and so you you decided that wedding services was a great way to help get you not just out of the business but now doing the business while you travel and finding those clients so so you're having when when you're traveling and doing this stuff, or when you plan to do that you've got staff and other people that are going to be doing the rest of the visits and dog walks while in your current service area.
Madeline 14:55
Yep. 100% So that's one thing that with weddings, it's a really different industry than anything I've ever seen. I mean, personally, my husband and I, we had a small wedding. And it was literally just like 123 We got married, because we were so busy with the business, but we couldn't have a huge event. But now being like, fully involved in this business, now, people are planning a year in advance two years in advance, so I'm planning my life around this. So it kinda kinda sorta helps, because we can now plan. So let's say, if we have a wedding, I think we have a wedding next year in Florida. So we go to Florida, we plan that around, we go see family, when we also go into work. So we try to make it like a little rat, like a little trip, and also get to live the life that we want to live, but also work because as you know, doing this business, you can get in the you can get tied in into the you know, the role of the rollover of like, you know, work, you got to be here, because you're busy in your schedule. And that can get really overwhelming very quickly. And I feel like that happened to us at the beginning of the business, which is like, we're working so much. And our schedules were crazy. And the holidays were there, and we were fully booked. And we did that for a few years, but I think I kind of was going through like a little burnt down towards like your for the business, because it's like it can get really, really overwhelming. And I'm sure people can relate that to this business, you can get super overworked, and you want to be the best service provider as possible. But you know, you also have to take care of yourself and be able to stay sane, because if you're not taking care of you, you won't be able to perform how you want to, you won't be able to feel great, and just have energy to even grow your business. So it's really important to stay and do something that you're passionate about, but also make time for your personal life as well.
Collin 16:47
And knowing that those can happen simultaneously, we don't have to have a big hard barrier between work in my life. And I think that that work life balance, but it's never really a true thing, right, you're investing in one means you can't invest in the other. So what we need to do is we just need to set our priorities right and make sure we have those set. So we know how we're moving forward. And you making this transition into focusing more on the weddings? Did you have to start telling the dog walking the overnight care those people? Did you have to start declining those services so that you could focus on the wedding? Or how have you managed communicating this shift in the business to your clients.
Madeline 17:23
So we did communicate, after the rebrand happened, we did send a message out to everyone and we had people, all of our clients, which was super excited for us, and we're just so happy. I mean, we've had our clients for years now. So they know like, what we're doing and how far we've come. And, you know, I'm so grateful for all of our clients that we have, because they have been super understanding whether that is you know, you gotta take a trip somewhere, and we let them know. But we definitely communicated that with them. And just kind of I did have to decline certain, like new new clients that were trying to onboard with us. But you have to make sacrifices, you know, you have to make sacrifices and kind of say no to certain opportunities to say yes to other things. And for me, it's like I have a clear vision of where I want to be I want to take our business to. So it kind of feels like common sense for me to do. Because I know where I want to go. And I am so passionate and driven. I'm just insane when it comes to my business, because I'm just so I'm so happy with what I do so and like I know that what we do makes a difference. So for me, being organized helps out a lot because I know we can take on I know we shouldn't take on and I know that you know there are certain things that you know I want to do. But I'm like I'm sorry, I can't because that's going to like hold me back from doing these other things.
Collin 18:44
Have you heard of time to pet krisanne from raining cats and dogs has this to say
18:50
time to pet has honestly revolutionized how we do business. My sitters can work much more independently because they have ongoing access to customer and pet information without relying on me. I save hours upon hours of administrative time on billing, processing payments and generating paychecks.
Collin 19:07
If you're looking for new PET scanning software gift time to pet a try, listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting timed pet.com/confessional. And so when you've made this transition, you're talking to a slightly different audience. Now, how are you finding the wedding clients? And I'm also interested so you've got your local wedding clients that you're serving? How are you finding the out of state clients and how you anticipate to be marketing so that you can travel and be out doing that in your Sprinter van, which just sounds like a lot of fun.
Madeline 19:38
Yeah. So one thing that I've learned is that I try to learn so many things. I try to just be well rounded into not just business and dogs and clients and all that but also into like, let's say marketing. Learn a little bit about SEO, how your website is performing how What are the keywords that are happening there? I mean, these are things that you know, you can hire people to do for you. And I've done that before I've hired people to kind of go to my website and see what's performing, what page is doing well, what are people searching for. So that's one thing that I was really big on. So making my website, very SEO friendly. So pretty much just the search optimization, so kind of how your website's performing and having those keywords that people are searching for on Google. So that's one thing that a lot of people don't know. I mean, I'm sure in today's age, people might know a little bit they've heard of it. But that's one thing that was really huge on it was like, our SEO or the website, so making sure that we have those key places that we're targeting. So we go to Chicago, we love Chicago. So we have a wedding there sometime this year. And that's what they found us to find us on Google because our website is ranking meaning that people are looking for these services, and we pop up. And while there might be probably people that are in Chicago, that are offering the service, they probably go through our Instagram, and they see what we do and how we can how we differentiate our services from other people. So definitely SEO for me has been like the key thing for the website to actually have like those clients find those.
Collin 21:23
And I'm sure do go to things like wedding venues or wedding. I can't even think of the word but like for vendors where you can go with wedding expos, those kinds of things. Are you finding any luck visiting those? Or? Or how are you interacting with that, that side of that community?
Madeline 21:40
So I've never done the wedding expo, I've seen it. I'm interested in actually finding like conferences and stuff like that, to let the wedding photographers and planners go to just to kind of expose myself there kind of learn a little bit more about the industry. I love learning about things that I don't know. And like just expanding more my knowledge, just like I'm a sponge, I just want to absorb all the knowledge that I possibly can. So I haven't done that. I've actually just I mean, people have found us through like, Instagram, word of mouth is huge. I mean, I've had people that they're like, Oh, our friend, you did our friend's wedding. And we saw their pictures, and oh, my God, I wonder, can you help us out? So a lot of that happens, where people are finding us through those people, the clients that we serve before?
Collin 22:26
And you mentioned that your services are a little a little different. How do you find it is one of the services include for whenever they sign on for you? And how do you communicate to them? Because I know, I guess what I'm thinking of is I know kind of an onboarding process for dog walking client, kind of what that looks like, how do you take somebody who's interested in your services as a wedding pet attendant, and turn them into a book client?
Madeline 22:52
Absolutely. So like I said, Before, I have a have a different software for for our wedding services, which I'm actually kind of using for our dog walking services with because it works amazing, I love it. It's called Honey books, honey books, an amazing, amazing client management software. It is it makes the from, from them scheduling a call with you to you having a call with them. And then following up, you can automate your services, you can automate your responses. So let's say you have a call with somebody today, and you have an automation to two days later, automate automatically a message to get sent to them saying hi, you know, just like a follow up to a call, and just go over that. So it makes your life a lot easier. So that helps out a lot to kind of keep everything organized. And people want to see that you're organized. They want to work with somebody that has their thing, you know, just ready and they know what they're doing. And not just saying, Hi, I'm here to take your dog to your wedding and just show up, that we try to keep everything alive. Like steps. 123 steps,
Collin 23:55
do you feel like that's because that's what's expected to be part from wedding vendors. As far as that's just kind of how that world operates of having very clear, boom timelines, you know, set expectations, and it's very apparent, wouldn't it when they're planning that?
Madeline 24:12
Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. That's, that's one of the thing, people that are planning weddings are signing contracts, you know, a year in advance two years in advance. So I definitely make sure that we are up to par with that as well. So not just like another vendor of you know, petsitting, where I've had people booked our services for wedding and time, then they're like, Oh, my dog walker petsitter fell through. They just said they couldn't do it. And I'm like, Okay, well, let's see if we have availability and if so, this the contract for the services for the date for your day. So kind of just having like that expectation to, you know, have them sign the contract and have everything just set in place and set in stone so they can feel at ease that you're going to be like a photographer where you're going to be there when you said we're going to be there
Collin 24:58
because there's a lot of tension there. There's a lot of emotions, there's a lot of expectations, there's a lot of feelings going on, in a lot of
Madeline 25:06
sense. 1,000% I definitely feel that we and by far out of all the vendors and weddings, I love, love, love, love what we do, because our job is very simple. It's not it's, it's very clear as to what we do. So it's not something that we are, oh, yeah, you know, like a, let's say, like a, like a makeup artist or the planner, our job is more dealing with the dog. And we deal with the parents prior to the wedding. So when we get there, we just want a dog. So we have the best side, I think.
Collin 25:42
So do you have? Do you offer different packages? And what's all included? Once they book?
Madeline 25:48
Yeah, so we have different packages? Everything? It all depends on timing. So how long do they want the dogs there for? Like, how, you know, is there going to be just pictures? Or do they want them to walk down the aisle? Something we've done weddings, where the dogs are there for the reception hour? So they're, they're mingling with everyone, which is pretty awesome to dog as usually like the highlight of the reception. So, so yeah, so I know the pens on what that what they're looking for. So we have, let's say, two hours, six hours, then we have 12 hours, 24 hours. So it depends on what people need for sure.
Collin 26:23
So is that would that include? If they are flying in to a location? Would you take their dog and care for them in preparation for the wedding in that event?
Madeline 26:33
Yeah, for sure. So depending on the package, they choose, let's say they're doing just a two hour, which means that it would just be us bringing the dogs to the service and having them for pictures, that's ideally what the two hour would include. Then they also have options were like, let's say it's a longer period of time, where they will have us pick up the dog from let's say, the airport or they're going to the hotel or hotel. So we'll do that, and just kind of accommodated that, that itinerary. So every package includes like a certain amount of mileage that from the venue to, from to and from location. So they if the venue is further out, they can pay for an additional fee for that for the mileage. So the packages tend to be really accommodating for just like certain scenarios. And it works out really good because it helps us keep organized like that day that attend our RV that we've been doing for
Collin 27:25
them. And I think that's what that really centralizes around. There's a lot of how just executed and planned. The weddings are right? They really aren't. They're playing down to the minute in a lot of cases with timing of things. And here's coming and going and cars and moving around. And then we're going so making sure that you have that lined up and knowing how you fit in. So you said you interact, you interact with a lot with the with the with the owners beforehand. Who are you interacting with the day of? And how do you stay coordinated with everything else?
Madeline 27:56
Yeah, so usually the date I have, I have questionnaires sent to the parents prior to the wedding, just letting me know exactly what their itinerary is looking like because I don't want to get there and not know what I'm doing. I don't want to get there and be like, Hi, I'm here. Oh, okay. I like to really be organized in that aspect into like, just getting there and knowing okay, my photos start at this time. So the dog has to be here at this time. So on my end, I end up building that itinerary for the dog, according to the questions they answered. So we're interacting with the wedding planner, photographers. So and also like the guests, they want to say hi to a dog. So just making sure that we're covering like that a temporary making sure we're we have the dog where they need to be.
Collin 28:42
And making sure you hit those points because again, you don't want to you don't want to miss those don't be wondering whether or
Madeline 28:47
not at all in the wedding, it's like you get a one shot thing a one shot and you have to make sure you're you're performing and you're doing everything, which is a reason why I'm so like, organized when it comes to this because I don't want to get there and miss something that you can do over here. If you cannot, it's just and to a lot of people, that's a lot of pressure. And it is a lot of pressure. It's not easy at all. So people that want to, like do this. They need to be really organized people. It can't just be somebody that wakes up wakes up one morning with a headache and say, Oh, I can't go to work now. I'm sorry, you have to retire the nose and get up and go, go get go.
Collin 29:28
So are you are you also including photos and updates about their time with you? And are you worried because when I think of photos in a wedding, I think a really high end photos so my iPhone is probably not going to cut it. Are you are you using something different to capture these photos that that day?
Madeline 29:44
Yes. So that's actually one of the main aspects of our services. What makes us different from everyone. I am an amateur, completely amateur with a big capital A photographer. I do pictures I love I vote Is love photography, I just, I just did it on the side as a side thing for me just for fun. So that's one thing that we do we try to capture the dog's point of view is on our Instagram. So pretty much we capture your dog's point of view from their perspective. And yeah, the clients get a gallery, their dog, their the wedding day. And we make that very clear upon like the first meeting, just so the photographer knows that we are bringing our cameras and we are doing. So we're not trying to just show up and like, get the attention of the photographer. So we're just there for the dog, we always tell people the same thing. We're here for the dog. We're not here for anything else. So yeah, we try to capture, like, the view of how the dog sees the day.
Collin 30:46
There's so much tied into this kind of service. I mean, you're a photographer, you're the you're the dog walker, you're the pet sitter, you're you're managing a lot of chaos. How on earth do you go about even like pricing this kind of service? Like? Are you pricing just for trying to do it for time? Or for whatever services that what they're asking for the most? Or where did you start processing them?
Madeline 31:09
So I feel like when we first started, I just wanted to price everything according to market. So according to what people were doing before. So what are people charging in this in this state, or in here or in New York, and whatever, whatever state it is, and just kind of seeing what they're doing and what they were offering. So pretty much going from there. I'm a really big believer and pricing according to what you can offer, I would never want to price something. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna charge $1,000 for this and just offer a service worth like, $10. That's for me, it's always been like finding worth and to what you what you do. So people need to see value into what you do. And not everyone that inquires with us signs on, you know, I have plenty of inquiries, they get the pricing key, and they're like, no, sorry, it's either too expensive outside of our budget. And you have to respect that, you know, not everyone's going to be a client assigned flying, and that's fine.
Collin 32:09
It is and being okay with that, because it really does, it can be hurtful sometimes. Because especially whenever we feel like what we're offering is super high quality, super high value, there's a lot of worth there. And somebody looks at that price sheet and goes down, nevermind and walks away. And you're left there going. But that was
Madeline 32:28
passed. Oh, yes. 100%. That's one thing that this last year, I think it was. And I told my husband, I was like, I'm really struggling with projection. I'm struggling with being okay with that. Because I mean, I've faced rejections before and I feel like that is as a human being, you are naturally you get hurt, and, and it's a hurt of like, okay, what I do the past night, I offer this and look at my reviews. And people love what we do. And it's not the thing to learn about this is that it's not personal. It's not personal at all. It's just that people have a budget, and that's it, they have a budget and you don't fit it, and you don't fit into them. They're not taking into account what you do. And they're not demeaning your work. They're just saying, you know, I'm sorry, I think you what you do is great, but you just don't fit my budget. And I try to teach myself that and talk myself over it when that happens. Because it happens all the time. And, and that's one thing that you know, now with social media, I don't know people post like this beautiful and like, just like the finished product type of thing. But nobody talks about like, the sucky part of like, let's say an example. I had two reviews, positive reviews come in for weddings. And there was this inquiry I was really excited about. And I got the email and then say, Sorry, can't we're gonna go with somebody else. And I saw two reviews, positive reviews, amazing. And I saw that and I'm like, Okay, I have two choices I can look at I'm gonna look at the two reviews be happy, grateful, joyful. And when I look at this negative thing that I'm choosing to see as negative and I try to tell myself like when that's happening, it's like Hey, wake up, you're fine, get up keep going. This is just part of the journey. It's part of it.
Collin 34:21
It is and that's that's because that's our that's our basal brain that's our that's our base, our basic brain trying to preserve us that is trying to life preserving move, have this as a bad feeling bad emotion never experienced this again. So we're going to run away and we're going to focus on this so that we know what to avoid. And then the frontal part of our brain kicks in and starts trying to regulate that a little bit and go now now wait a minute. Let's try and relegate and look at this and in choose I think that's a really great word. There's to choose one of these two things and figure out which one is going to be best for me in the long run. What's next is gonna be more healthy.
Madeline 35:00
under the sun, I mean, like they say, your brain tries to keep you doing the things that you do normally every day, because it's trying to protect you. So that's why whenever we do something new, we're so scared, because it's new. So your brains like No, do not do that. Do not send that email, do not start that. New. So it's keeping you in this box of like, just like the same things you do. And for me, it's like a reoccurring thing of doing new things. And before I had a, I had a mentor business mentor, a long time ago. And he told me, he's like, if you're, if you're experiencing that, where you're scared to do things, you have to do those hard things every day. Try to do at least one hard thing every day. For me. I used to be like, hard email to send something where I would look at the email, and I'm like, I know I have to answer it. But I'm gonna just procrastinate for right now. I'm not answering. I just wait.
Collin 35:58
I feel I feel so cold out, right? Yes. Good to close my email client home.
Madeline 36:05
Oh, my goodness, that is me. And I still do that to this day. Now. It's just that I am in my head. I'm like, okay, so if I don't answer that email, what's going to my husband's like, well, that's on you. So I have to be able to kind of just like, Okay, your big, big girl pants on and do what you have to do. And once I do it, I feel normal. I feel great. And I'm like, Okay, you did what you were supposed to do.
Collin 36:31
Now, when I think of weddings, I know that they're not all just like monolithic services. There's so many niches within wedding, the wedding industry and services and how they're conducted and everything. How do you find connecting with those different niches? Or do you have a particular kind of wedding client that you really want to go after?
Madeline 36:54
So honestly, every wedding we've done, it's been so different. I feel like every, there's like micro weddings like the small, beautiful wedding outdoors, which are beautiful, I love their weddings, where more high end where we're going to New York with like a five star hotel, and we're going there. And so everything, everything changes, everything is different. So there are so many different, like aspects to it. I feel like it's just about, we have to win an industry where change is happening all the time. And you have to be able to keep up and kind of like adjust according to that.
Collin 37:31
Yeah. So how do you go through that refining process, Madeline, because thinking back about our previous conversation and watching how your services have changed, and what you've offered and how you've offered them? It just seems to be this continual process of chipping away, chipping away chipping away trying to find something that's going to work best for you. How do you go about that process in a good way and not be afraid to swing that hammer and hit that chisel on that marble that you're chipping away at? Because you know, for me, it's like, oh, I don't want to go too deep. I don't wanna take off too much. I don't know what's on it. Maybe I'll just not not chisel it. I'll be fine with how it is right now.
Madeline 38:05
Yeah. So honestly, I feel like I, like I told you before I burned myself out at the beginning of the business like year three and four. So now I know my limits. I know what I can do what I cannot do. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and lie and be like, Oh, everything's perfect. No, there. There's like, let's say wedding peak season, when it's like, March, May, October, through November. I know I'm going to be busy. I know this this past year, I had a wedding in Long Island, New York. And that was like almost an all day thing. And the night before I was up to like 2am editing photos that I was gonna send out. And then I have to wake up again at 6am to go to the wedding. So those are times you have to make a compromise with yourself like, am I gonna be okay doing this? I know I am because I've done it before. And I'm just like, I'm up for it. I'm just like, Oh, my coffee. I'll be fine. But yeah, definitely, I think I burned myself out earlier throughout the business. So kinda have an idea of like, how I'm going to go about it, how I'm going to how I'm going to continue on what can I do to not like to not burn myself out again? And yeah,
Collin 39:22
it's that maturing process. It's actually a lot of personal discovery of ourselves of why do I offer Why do I offer different services today than I did 10 years ago? Well, because I'm a different person, right? We are just like my business exists for a lot of different reasons for different purpose now than it did before. I have different goals and objectives for not just me but now our family and how am I going to make that work and how do I view my business as making sure my business is now in alignment with how with who I've become and recognizing that that's, that's a natural process and that's okay.
Madeline 39:57
Yeah, 100% is it's about to you know, just Making sure that you are being honest with yourself and what you're doing, and that it's fulfilling you. Because if you're not fulfilled, and anything that you're doing, whether it's your, you know, you go to work, and you come back home, you're gonna hate your life, honestly, you're gonna be miserable because you're doing something you're not passionate about. And then you're coming back home and you just feel the same way. And it's a reoccurring thing where it's like a, like a cycle, you just keep going and going. And then you also if you're running a business, you know, you have to make sure you're doing that. But you're also keeping up with like trends and keeping up with how business grows, nowadays, which is digital. So yeah, it's a lot to keep up. So that's why I feel like people need to kind of be honest with themselves and see. And, like, just figure out what is the thing that they enjoy to do the most. And keep doing that, and just be ready to grow with that and also keep up with everything else going on.
Collin 40:58
Our friends at pepper anneals make it easy to send a heartfelt condolence gift directly to someone with a broken heart. They have this awesome director customer gift model that takes the effort off of us and ensures a thoughtful, personalized simply gift reaches your client or employee on our behalf. Org gift packages include handwritten card, colorful gift wrap and shipping fees across both the US and Canada. They also offer an array of milestone gifts and greeting cards that can be sent to celebrate birthdays, extend, get well wishes and welcome new and rescued pets. Additionally, there are gift choices in case you need to send a sympathy gift in memory of a special human client, or celebrate a pregnancy engagement or wedding of a pet lover. If you're interested register for a free business gift perks account unlock the all inclusive discounted package prices. Since the service is used on an as needed basis, there are no monthly or annual obligations or minimum purchases. To learn more, visit pet renewals.com. Check out their business programs or register for a free gift perks account by visiting the link in the show notes or on our website. On your website, you have this you have the sentence that reads with intention as our guide we set out to always provide you with pet care services that are transparent, dependable, and honest. And I love how you started that with with intention as our guide. What does that mean to be intentional in our
Madeline 42:20
businesses? So intentionality for me is a huge a huge word. And it means a lot because I feel like intentionality is behind everything that you do. So how are you? How intentional are you about waking up? And you know, doing those things that make you scared? And you know, and how do you choose to continue on and just move forward with it. So for me, it's like, I am intentional about my business, I just I don't have a business just to have just to say I have a business. No, it's more to that. It's a lot. It's a lot of hard work a lot of a lot of parties, a lot of headaches, for sure. But there's definitely people behind it, that we are passionate about this and about serving serving our clients. I think that's like the first, the first thing that people need to understand is like, whenever you come into this industry, you need to be able to serve, you need to be able to be of service to people, because that is what you're doing. You're providing a service, and people are paying you for it. You know whether you choose to do this do the service that you just you've set your offering or go above and beyond. That's up to you. And not everybody does it, which is why a lot of businesses like ours go out of business within like the first two years, they're not able to, to do those things that people are like, wow, and have that wow factor. So yeah, we want to be able to offer a transparent service where people know exactly what their what you know, what they can expect from us, what we're going to do for them, so not just saying, hey, you know, we'll be here whenever whatever the case is, no, this is how things work. Very transparent and clear. I don't want to have like a town that has no like the little letters and like contracts, we know when you can barely read. No, I don't want that I want to have the letters equally is big. O so people know what we do. And then you know, also be dependable. You can count on us, we're here for you. So we want to be able to have our clients that they can feel confident that we're going to do the job that are expecting us to do and I mean, our our industry has a big rep right for people that do dog walking and they're not they don't show up for whatever reason, or they missed an appointment. And that's a no go. I mean, you're not perfect, but in that in that circumstance, you kind of have to be perfect because if not you lose trust and trust is everything here
Collin 44:43
it is and I love your phrase though. It's what transparency is no little letters, right? I know. I have definitely had that feeling of when I'm communicating with a client trying to I don't really want to tell them about my cancellation policy or my not refund. Oh because that's the, that hurts. That's the bad stuff. And they're not gonna like me. And then I could choose me and I. But recognizing that I'm a business, like, it's my obligation and duty to inform them and tell them, because what happens on the back end, when you don't when you're not fully transparent, they accuse you of hiding that from you, and it becomes a big, much bigger deal.
Madeline 45:22
Oh, that is so so true. It's crazy. You mentioned the cancellation policy, because honestly, whenever people onboard with us, that is literally the second page in my brochure, when they come in all the cancel, I, I've learned so much. And if I tell if anybody listening to this, and it's half their business, and you know, oversharing is better than under sharing you, if you want to write two pages worth of cancellation notices, fees, you know, whatever that you need people to know, write it, send it out, have it on paper, because that's going to be your saving grace, that's going to, you know how many times I had to had to refer back to my cancellation policy and say, Hey, this is the policy, we were very clear from the beginning. And it makes you feel like, oh, like, I feel like I'm doing something bad I do. And I felt like that before, because I'm like, you know, nothing's gonna happen, they're never gonna cancel. And I'm just not going to show up, I'm going to show up and the dog is not home, and you show up, there's no dog, and you're like, Oh, but wait, I just spent this time here. You need to get compensated for that policy for a reason. But yeah, oversharing is better than other sharing.
Collin 46:38
I couldn't agree more it really is it really is just being confident in that you have those policies in there for a reason. And management, I'm sure it's even more important when you're dealing with weddings, when people are having these contracts that are two, three years out, they're paying 1000s of dollars, for a lot of things, they have a lot of moving pieces, if you're not crystal clear, and exactly what not just your expectations are for them, but their expectations for you. There's a lot that could fall the pieces there.
Madeline 47:06
That's 100%. That's why communication I feel like for me has been. There's one thing that I've tried to learn, I've always, first of all, I've always considered myself an awful writer, like an awful writer. And that's something I've had to protect over the years, because there's something that we have to do, we write a lot, there are a lot of emails or a lot of stuff going on, you have to make sure that you're conveying that message over to people, and just making sure that they have a clear understanding of what you do what they can expect from you. Because there's a quote that Dave Ramsey says, me and my husband always relate to that. And we're like to be unclear is to be unkind. Always want to be clear, have to be crystal clear with everything that you're doing. Because that way you're protecting yourself and your business, you're protecting yourself from being liable for anything that was miscommunicated along that conversation. So definitely, communication is key.
Collin 48:05
I did want to touch on your, your, your hiring for for staff for your for your business, just just here real quick. You I saw that you are only hiring full time people now in your business. How are you making that work? Because I know that's a big step where a lot of people right now are looking to hire, they feel like they need somebody, but they don't know how to structure that or how to offer that or what they need to have in place. So a full time employees is a pretty big commitment, Madeline.
Madeline 48:35
It is for sure. And that's the reason why is because the clients that we have, they are long term clients, they are people that, you know, rely on us as an everyday thing as an everyday service. And we don't want to hire people that are just I hate to say like, you know, they're just looking for like a five month gig. And they want to get paid for like, you know, Oh, just a few hours a week. Now we want a commitment. And we want some at least a year commitment, because that helps our clients stressors because they know us, we've been with them for years. So we want to be able to continue to make them feel comfortable with happy bargain tails. And not just you know, that's one thing I always tell people meet and greets is like, don't worry, you're going to see our faces, you know, the people that are coming to see your dog, it will never be a stranger or you know, we're going to have somebody new now and then somebody new next month. No, we want to have that person that's going to be committed to you know, giving us at least a year and you know, be able to serve our clients and with that consistency. So that's the reason why consistency for us has been like the key to everything I've done.
Collin 49:43
What scheduling look like for a full time person in your business.
Madeline 49:49
Usually will probably be from like 9am to like 4pm and there's flexibility from like, I would say like even like 11 to six, but usually I would definitely say from like, nine, like or 1010 to 494.
Collin 50:03
Nice. And so are you having them scheduled back to back to back to back with visits? Or are they doing other admin work? Or what kind of what did their days consist of?
Madeline 50:12
So it will be just back to back visits for doc logs petsitting. There will also be like accepting jobs to the client's house. So let's say it'll be like, Hey, can you guys work during this time? And for like an overnight visit overnight care? So yeah, it will be something like that. I'm actually trying to delegate and hire something for like social media, because social media, as you might know, it's a full time job right now. It's crazy. I mean, keeping up It's kind of insane. So I do the most I do all the admin work, and tends to be a lot, but with the automations. And those, the software I told you before, helps out to take off a few things on my plate. So yeah, try and stay organized with everything, work. So
Collin 51:02
it is, and you know, that word commitment. And I think that's really important to look at that relationship of, I might like I am committed to my clients, right, I will always be there. So what does that mean for the kind of person I need to bring into my business? I need somebody who's committed, which, yes, you can find part time people who are equally as committed. But if you want, look for something different, or something that is much more consistent, that full time position really goes a long way to speaking to what you can offer, even though I know that that comes with a lot of different different costs and obligations now that you happy bargains have to give to that individual. So what was it like trying to understand all of those new new costs and things that you had to do?
Madeline 51:47
Definitely. Lot of eye opening things that people don't think about normally, when they're hiring, it's like, oh, you know, quarterly taxes, you know, this tax, this kind of tax. So there's a lot of cost that comes with it even. I mean, they say, statistically speaking that hiring somebody, I think it's really expensive. And I never understood that until I hired someone it is it's really expensive, is an investment for sure in the business. And I feel that once you have the right person doing the job, it's all worth it. It's amazing, because you can have a peace of mind. And you can also have some free time to do other things that you weren't able to do before. Yeah, it really
Collin 52:29
does give you a lot back. And yes, there's associated costs with that. But those are, those are opportunities that you that you're good taking on going, Yes, this is costing me a little bit more to make this happen. But it's allowing me to do XYZ, it's allowing me to go spend time with my family now like me to kick out a sprinter van, it's allowing me to go do read a book, and there's a lot more, there's a lot we have to basically understand, there ultimately is a lot more to life than the money that we bring in. There's the quality of life. And sometimes you reach a point where you go, how much would I be willing to pay for? To get that taken care of? And, and that's, that's what each their own is trying to figure out what that's worth
Madeline 53:11
100%? Definitely, it's like, everything, there's a cost. And you know, it's like you said, you know, how much are you willing to pay for this? How much are you willing to pay for free time for spending time with your family. So everything has a cost related, but you know, sometimes it's better to just you know, have that costs taken care of, and you are able to have this quality of life and you can actually you know, have energy for different things. So whether that is going to the gym, hanging out with friends or family, and just have that time for yourself because it makes you a better entrepreneur think to have that energy and it brightens up your brain and you have no idea but lets you allow it allows you to think more.
Collin 53:51
Because, well, now I know people are listening to listen, wedding services are definitely something that is growing and growing in popularity. So what advice would you give to people to for for getting started or finding their market? Or maybe something that you wish you would have known when you first started out on this adventure?
Madeline 54:07
Yeah, for sure. I think I think anybody that's willing to that's not afraid of hard work. This is a lot of work. It's a lot of a lot of staying organized, same type of things. So it's like, you know, if you're with you're ready and willing to put in the work to if you've been thinking about this to adversity, this is definitely it's worth it's worth the chance is worth it. Like to actually try it. But just be ready that you need to be organized. Yeah, that has to be your main priority of you know, staying organized on top of everything because you're now dealing with something that's like a one time shot. And you need to be able to deliver. So I feel like anybody that's that's anybody tried to do it. You just have to be organized and you have to be able and ready to put into work because it does take a lot of work and energy. So yeah, I feel like anybody could try to do this Be successful it just be have a clear end goal, what you're doing, and being ready to serve people and make sure that they have the best day ever with their dog there.
Collin 55:10
Well, I appreciate that man very much. And I appreciate you taking time out of your day to come in and talk with us about this, to encourage us in getting started in the wedding events and and how to make sure that we are organized and we stay connected. We're crystal clear in our expectations. There's a lot here that we didn't get to touch on. And I know you're you have lots of things to share. So how can people follow along with with your with your company and get connected with you and start seeing some really cool photos of a sprinter van and dogs?
Madeline 55:42
Yeah, for sure. So our Instagram for our wedding service, or wedding service is called Royal dog a partner. And if you're interested in following our band adventures, it's called sourcing freedom. So you can find a third so you're building Ben process. But yeah, you can you can find this there. And you'll see what we're all about.
Collin 56:03
Mel, it's been such a pleasure and honor to get to connected with you again and catch up with everything. It's super exciting. And I wish you all the best of luck in that. And so thank you so much for coming on today.
Madeline 56:14
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Collin 56:16
When you come into this industry, you need to be able to serve. Madeline's focus on serving her clients and serving them well is what drives how she crafts. Her services is how she crafts the offerings that she provides to them, so that she can then design a business that fits the model and the life that her and her husband want to lead. By focusing on the people we focus on our clients, we focus on their problems, we put them first. Now, the fine line here is that this doesn't mean that we let them run our business. But we take the time we take the effort to design craft and implement a service or a suite of services that exactly meets the needs of our desired clients. We have to get to know the kind of client that we want to serve. We have to understand their purchasing their buying habits, why they need us what problems what pain points they have. With a servant attitude and a servant heart we find the people that we can connect with and that connect with our business. That process builds trust, it builds loyalty, it builds commitment to us because they know we are going to serve them. Well. How do you serve your clients? Well, what does it look like to serve them in what you do? We'd love to know a bit more about that for how you work that out in your business. When I thank today's sponsors, time to pet and pet rails, make sure to check out those links in the show notes and go see if they can assist you and help your business today. We really want to thank you and all that you contribute sharing and being part of this growing community. It means so much and we hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend. We'll be back again soon.
