392: Finding P.R.O.F.I.T in Your Business
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Are you profitable in your business? More than just finances, truly being profitable is about finding balance and building relationships when running your business. We break down the six aspects of being profitable and the major roadblocks to achieving them. From vague mission statements to your pricing structure, there’s a lot that could be holding you back.
Main topics
What is PROFIT
More than finances
Roadblocks
You need a mission
Main takeaway: It serves as a reminder that success in business is not only about financial gains but also about contributing to overall growth and sustainability.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, pet sitter, business, clients, profit, shoe, leashes, opportunities, services, profitable business, connected, good, joy, dog, prices, work, community, relationships, income, tangibles
SPEAKERS
Collin, Meghan
Meghan 00:03
Hello, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And we are the hosts of pet sitter confessional and open an honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you to our sponsors, pet sitters associates, the Florida Pet Services Association, and our newest Patreon members, Liz, Kathy, Barbara and Kristen. Thank you guys so much for supporting the show and finding value in it. And if you two listener have found value in the almost 400 episodes, now, you can go to pet sitter confessional.com/support and see all the ways that you can help us out when you think of being profitable. What do you think of? When I think of it? I think basically only in terms of finances? How much money am I making? How much money am I taking home? So today we're going to talk about how do you define being profitable in your business? And one way to answer that is to determine whether you have money leftover after you subtract your spending from your income. Again, we all think about the financial aspect of being profitable. There's even a book called Profit First, where you are thinking about numbers and how much you are taking home and how much you are spending every month. But what are some of the other answers to this? Are there other ways to think of profitability other than money?
Collin 01:13
And I'm not exactly sure when I first heard of this, but we're gonna take that word profit. We're gonna break it out into an acronyms who doesn't love acronyms? Right. So profit stands for six things, popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, and tangibles. So popularity, this is about building a brand about array name recognition in gaining a positive reputation in the market that you're trying to corner and the people who you're trying to go after. So popularity, do people know about your business? Are you highly regarded in your community? Do people know what you stand for? And what you're an expert in?
Meghan 01:54
This is important in both the digital and physical spaces. So yes, we post on social media and Facebook, and people know our name from there. But it's also important that you connect eyes with other people in your community so that you can have that positive rapport, that reputation, that word of mouth, that positive word of mouth that we all rely on, within our clients and potential
Collin 02:15
clients. Well, it's one thing that people know who you are, but then that second part of what do they think about you? And I know, we've talked about public relations as an aspect of running a business before in that podcast, but it really is about understanding and knowing the narrative about when people say the name of your business, or the name or your name, what are they associated with it? What feelings What aspects, what emotions come along with that? When people reach out to you they go, Oh, I've heard amazing things about you. Or is it? Well, you know, I don't know what else to say. But you know, here I am, we obviously want to be with the first one. So when we go through our business, we're looking for not just getting the most eyes on our business, but making sure that we are communicating the right message with them. This also
Meghan 02:59
does come into play when you are choosing basically your brand kit. So your font, your colors that you're choosing for your business, your logo, all of these things are wrapped up into how you want people to feel about your business, when they see your website, what evoke What emotions do you want to evoke in them when they see your flyers? Or maybe you took out a billboard? What kind of pictures or things are you putting on there that is going to represent you in a positive light they are in profit stands for relationships, again, establishing and nurturing those meaningful connections with clients, with community members and with others that you come in contact with other business owners that you may want to partner with? Who Who can you call when you're in trouble? Is it another pet sitter that you network with in your same area? Is it a statewide association that you are a part of or even a national one? Who do you go to for help? Are there people that you are reaching out to when you have questions about your business?
Collin 03:58
Do you have people that you refer out to so not just who you go to when you have questions, but people that come to you and you build those partnerships, relationships in a business where we know we've never seen anybody that can be can be hard to nurture and to grow. But it's important, it's integral to make sure that we feel and not just feel but that we are connected to other people that we can, yes, commiserate with, but also share ideas, bounce concepts off of it, see how they are operating, where they're struggling and feed back into them. So we can all be learning and growing along the way. Just because we have a business that makes us money doesn't mean that we have people that are filling our lives or relationships that are filling us and feeding back into us to make us a more holistic individual. At the end of the day, focusing on relationships allows you to build a broader connected community that's going to help and support you as you go through your time running your business.
Meghan 04:55
It also allows you to take opportunities as they come along. And that's the Oh In profit, identifying and seizing new chances for growth, or expansion or collaboration, partnering with businesses in your community, or maybe you do dog walks, but you want to open a doggy daycare, or maybe you want to grow exponentially and hire a lot of people or just take on a new concept in your business, maybe you want to start events or weddings or pet taxi, or dog adventure hikes, poop scooping, I even saw that somebody is trying to get poop scooping off the ground in their business. But what new things? Are you excited about? Do you have three things that you're working on in your business? Or do you have some projects that you're working on? Or you want to work on but haven't really committed the time yet? Or are there other businesses that you haven't reached out to? Or are businesses approaching you? And they're coming to you with opportunities of wanting to partner on events, or maybe a local shelter reached out and said, Hey, can you walk some dogs for us as part of volunteering, there are so many different opportunities that we can take on and as they come up,
Collin 05:59
a profitable business has opportunities to take advantage of. And this means that you as the business owner, as the operator need to be able to identify those opportunities as they come onto your plate. And then knowing when to seize when to jump on to them when to take advantage of that because of a profitable business. In the context that we're talking about, of this, this acronym, is seeking after opportunities to continue to grow, expand, learn, this is where changing and adapting to local market shifts and local client demands is really what this aspect is about of going. I'm not going to always operate the exact same way for year after year. How do I know what I'm going to change into? I know that by Yes, setting a 510 year plan, but then seizing opportunities as they come along, because we are open to newness, open to new ideas, having this growth mindset that allows us to see things recognize when we have a connection, and then take advantage of that. So that when partnerships do come up, whenever we have new ideas for a new service that we want to offer or expand into a new area, we see that as a growth opportunity. And we can lean into that
Meghan 07:06
the F and profit stands for fun. It's ensuring that your work environment, our jobs, are enjoyable, that we still are engaged with them, you're not checked out. And that's particularly important for your employees as well, making sure that they are enjoying what they do that they aren't dreading this next visit because it's five dogs and four cats and 18 chickens, making sure that their morale is boosted as well so that they can be productive and efficient so that you can run the best company that you can really asking
Collin 07:35
yourself, do I have fun at work? Do I find joy in this because we have to be honest, sometimes the work sucks. It just does. Sometimes that puppy has pooped all over the kennel. It's smeared all over the walls, it's on the floor, it's wiggling and it's getting up jumping up on you. And you have to clean that up. And now you're 20 minutes late to your meet and greet and everything just goes downhill. So are you connected to something deeper, something that actually brings you joy in the work that you do because fun is fleeting, but joy is everlasting. And joy is something that we can lean into and find and connected in much deeper level to help us push through those times. If all we were searching for was fun, none of us would actually be in this business, because it's not fun sometimes. But we do get something out of this. And that's that joy that we have to tap in from time to time or lean into when times get hard. And understanding that if we have staff, we need to help them connect with that connect them to the bigger mission and values that we have as a company so that they can approach things with with a smile and with a go to attitude of knowing this might not be fun, but I'm connected to something bigger and I can move forward through this.
Heidi 08:51
Hey everyone, this is Heidi with Heidi hope Pet Services. I'm the treasurer of the Florida pet Service Association. fpsa was founded in 2021 and became a 501 C three nonprofit in 2022. And our first ever conference happens later this year in August plated through the 27th in Orlando, Florida. We are so excited to help advocate the animal industry standards through collaboration of the animal industry through education and camaraderie. You look forward to seeing fellow Floridians and any pet or industry professionals that want to visit the Sunshine State.
Meghan 09:23
The eye on profit stands for income this is what we all think about when we think of the word profit it's the revenue generating income, financial gains through the pet sitting the dog walking in the pet taxi, whatever you do, you knew we'd have to talk about this one eventually because your business should make you money and it's okay that is the point of it. You are not running a charity you are running a business. So you need to be wise about your prices and how do you go about getting payments from clients not chasing them down making sure that your business is running as efficient as possible so that you can make as much money as possible because it is okay to make money. That is why You are here, you are here to put food on your table to provide for your family, if you have them or your employees or just you, you know your business should support the lifestyle that you want to live. If it doesn't, then you need to increase your prices, you need to go back to that budget and say what do I need to be making to cover my taxes, my expenses and to have profit leftover, whatever your lifestyle is, if you want to make $5 a year or $5 million a year, you need to be doing the budget and making sure that your prices appropriately reflect what the what kind of life you want to leave,
Collin 10:34
repeat after me. My business should support the lifestyle I want to live. And that it's okay, you have absolution to make a profit in your business. as care providers as passionate people, we all say, Oh, well we would do this, even if they didn't pay us or maybe we would pay for the opportunity to take care of their pets. Megan, as you said, we're not running charities though we do have bills to pay, we do have mouths to feed including our own, we have goals and things that we want to accomplish in our life. And that means we do need to make money. And so not being afraid to sit down, look at your prices and have a very tough, hard conversation with yourself and going do my prices, cover my costs in my business and leave money left over to me. And this is where our understanding of cost in running a dog walking and pet care company can be a little difficult, because we don't always put together the costs. Well, my driving Oh, that can't cost that much. Oh my My insurance. Oh, that's really not that big of a deal. I bought some gear, oh, I have this equipment, I got this. It really adds up. And so understanding is the money that I'm spending being covered by the visits that I'm doing, and do I have money left over to put on my pocket. It's that simple. It really is. And knowing that your time is valuable, you are a valuable person and your time is worth something. Make sure that whatever you are being paid and compensate and return for the services that you provide it is worth it at the end of the day for you and who you are and the quality and the peace of mind that you're bringing to your clients.
Meghan 12:11
Because ultimately, this business does cost it's you know, if you're not having a brick and mortar store, there's not a ton of expenses but you are still having to buy leashes and first aid kits and tons and tons and tons of shoes and poo bags because you are a dog walker and petsitter so there are there are physical and material assets that you are acquiring through this and so that's what the T is in profit. It's the tangibles it's the equipment, the property, the the inventory if you are selling leashes or collars or whatever it is, and it can contribute to the overall success of the business. So it's important to have the best Do you have the best leashes for the style of business that you run? If it's a dog adventure hike business, you're not going to use little, little tiny leashes that are made for small dogs, you're going to have the thick ones that are durable and last long and clean. Well. Do you have the best shoes? We walk sometimes 10 20,000 steps a day. And it's a lot so do you are your shoes keeping up with you?
Collin 13:13
And I will. I will say that as far as shoes go. There is no one best shoe I see this question all the time and Facebook groups including our own and we get it what's the best shoe, the best shoe is the best shoe for you the best shoes best shoe for you, we'll make that into some sort of T shirt. Go to the best advice that we can give is go to an athletic store and get fitted for a proper shoe do a true shoe. So many things that Ryan do a true shoe fitting and make sure that you understand what kind of art support you need, what kind of inserts you may need to get what kind of shoe is recommended by a professional, who does the standout, go to a running store to do this if you must, but that is where you need to go to make sure that your shoe your footwork where matches your feet, your gait, your walking style and the activities that you are wanting to do in your life and in your business.
Meghan 14:03
Well, and really that applies to anything in your business. So if you are choosing software, and you're going Well which one is the best? Which one should I go at? Well, nobody knows your business like you do. Nobody knows your foot like you do. And so go to a shoe store to have your foot size. Go to the best software, try them out, see which one works for how you operate in your business. Because having high quality and good things in your business is going to help you run a better business is going to exceed your clients expectations and your own expectations as well. You're probably going to wake up one day and go Ah, I love having the best of the best and these great things and yes they cost but at the end of the day the peace of mind that they bring me and the peace of mind that they bring my clients is priceless or the quality
Collin 14:45
of life that it gives back to you if you're using cheap cruddy disposable leashes and ones that constantly breaking you're worrying about them and their strain on your body and on your arms and you don't wear good shoes you don't replace them frequently and you have knees and and lower Back Pain. Investing in those things is an amazing way to make sure that your quality of life is really good. Because when you wake up and you go, Ah, I don't want to do that walk today, because it's, it's really long, and my knees always hurt at the end of it, maybe I won't do it. Instead going well, is there a way that I can get better about this and knowing okay, if I seek after the high quality things, the things that actually fit me again, it's not about oh, go out and spend $2,000 on a pair of shoes. Because a $2,000 pair of shoes, that's not the best fit for you is a waste of money. So don't just spend money to think that you're going to get the best. Make sure make, like you said, with the software, make sure that the money that you do spend fits the way that you operate that the way that you want to run your business because that that is the best money spent is when it matches how you operate and who you are. So that's the
Meghan 15:51
profit acronym. And it really serves as a reminder that success in our businesses is not only financial, even though we think the word profit is just financial, but it's also aspects that contribute to our overall growth and sustainability and efficiency in our business. Something that does help you be profitable is pet sitters associates, as pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members. And that's why pet sitters Associates is here to help. for over 20 years, they have provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections, and complete freedom and running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote when you join by clicking membership petsitter confessional and using the discount code confessional when you go to checkout, check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again, at pets@llc.com. We've covered what the acronym profit is. So what is costing you profit in your business. So what are the roadblocks that you are coming up against that is that are preventing you from being the most efficient business that you can be?
Collin 16:57
The biggest one has got to be poor boundaries in running your business, never saying no, maybe I think one that's been increasingly common that we have to continue to push back on our clients is letting our clients add on things that really set you up for failure. Right, these are where they make little tiny requests that normally where you wouldn't do, but you try and do that to accommodate them because you're worried about them, leaving you or not booking you again. So maybe that's well I don't normally let the cat outside but this client wants me to so maybe I'll just do it this one time. Or maybe it's they want you to leave the back door open so that the neighbor kid can come in and grab some something on a Tuesday. Well, I wouldn't normally do that. But man, this isn't a really good neighborhood. i This client really said that they liked me. And they heard a lot of good things about me. So I'm going to accommodate them. So that they they liked me and they continue to use my business. What this does, is it actually ends up robbing you of joy. Remember that F remember, the fun part of profitable, fun needs to be equated to joy here, because you keep doing it. This keeps you from doing things that you actually want to be doing, you know, in your heart of hearts, that it's not the best idea. It's not the best options, but the best thing for you and your business, but you're doing it anyway. So you're living a lie at that point. And you're living counter to your beliefs, your goals, your personal values. And the longer we live outside of that in some other world, the less joy that we're going to have. And the more likely are likely we are to burn out from this.
Meghan 18:34
I just posted this quote on Facebook and Instagram this past weekend. But it says if someone gets upset because you set boundaries, it's more evidence that the boundary is needed. And that is so true.
Collin 18:45
Can you hear me clapping?
Meghan 18:49
I mean, it is true. I mean, we are not we're not in the business to please everybody. We are not in the business to serve every cat dog fish lizard snake out there. We need to be hyper selective and niche down in our services. There are enough clients for everyone. And so we need to be selective because when we aren't that's when we start having that compassion fatigue that burnout those those poor boundaries we keep saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, all the time. And we don't say no. That is one of the roadblocks that prevents us from really being a true profitable business. And another one is low prices. Going back to what that word profit usually means to a lot of us is income No. Yeah is income your pricing dictates a lot about how you run your business. Again, if you are not able to buy the best of the best things, it's probably because you need to take a look at your pricing again is it is it reflective of the lifestyle you want to lead the things you want to buy the charities or activism that you want to give back to. If your prices are too low, you're not making enough money. If you're booking yourself too much. You're not going to be able to have the space that you need to have fun and bring joy into your work and ultimately fulfill that personal satisfaction that we really need because the job can really only provide so much. But we cannot be all consumed. In this job where we don't have hobbies, we don't do other things.
Collin 20:16
That's such an amazing point. Megan, I'm glad that you brought that up. Because our business is most of its most of our lives, right? But we are so passionate about this, that we find ourselves was that running joke, I quit my nine to five, so I could work 24/7 That's not really a bragging, right? Right. It's really not, we need to we must be connected to something outside of our business. And unfortunately, when our prices are set so low, it means that we have to book ourselves from 6am to 10pm 365 days a year, because we have to work that much in order to get what we want and what we need. But understanding if I raised everything by $1 $2, how many fewer visits would I be required to do in a day? Then what could I do with that time? What opportunities Am I missing out again, profit, what opportunities Am I missing out on because my prices are so low, so I have to work constantly, in order to meet that if I worked less, I might have more opportunities to be opened up to explore things in my business or in my own personal life.
Meghan 21:14
And even those sitters who say I do this on the side, this is not my full time job or my career, I just do this for a little bit of extra money. But even more so because you are taking your precious time when you're not at your normal nine to five, you could be out skydiving or, or skiing or putting together a puzzle, whatever, but you're reading the book, you're you're spending your time with the pets, so it's even more so how much you should be charging your worth, and what your budget dictates. So don't undervalue your time when you're really giving them opportunities that you could be doing other things. Another roadblock is having a vague mission and goals and values for your business. It ultimately means you don't really know which opportunities are good fits or which relationships you should invest in which businesses you should be partnering with. Because you don't have those clearly lined out. It really makes it harder to focus when you don't know which rabbit you're chasing.
Collin 22:11
I wanted to take a moment especially on this because finding a good mission statement for your for your business is incredibly clarifying. So I want to give three examples here that I kind of roughed out into see which one you connect with or what you you would want to do. So the first one is, our mission is to provide a holistic pet care experience that prioritizes the well being happiness and safety of your pet. With dedicated and personalized dog walking and pet sitting services. We aim to enhance your pets quality of life and bring peace of mind to you as a pet parent. I think this is a fine mission. It's a bit vague and a bit generic because we all want the well being of the pet and peace of mind for the pet parent. So let's let's get a little bit more focused here. How about this one. We are committed to ensuring the safety and security of all pets under our care. Our mission is to offer peace of mind to pet owners knowing that their furry family members are in a safe, competent and loving hands. We aim to maintain a professional standard in all our service using the best practices and pet care and following all regulations and guidelines, meticulously the focus of this mission statement is safety. Now, where did this come from? The owner is concerned with safety. So from them flows the mission statement that the company then follows. If this is something that you have in your business, you're able to make really good decisions. Does this investment helped me run a safer business? Does this education allow me to provide safer services. And then I kind of liked this last one here. Our mission extends beyond individual pets to building pet friendly communities. We are committed to encouraging responsible pet ownership, promoting pet adoption and participating in community events. We aim to foster a community where pets and their owners feel connected, supported and understood. The focus on this one community, how would a pet business go about doing this? Well, you can have a small percentage of every of all the proceeds, go towards an adoption agency or go towards a rescue or go towards some other mission that you can connect with in your local community to see this through whatever you prioritize whatever values you bring. Make sure that your business reflects those and make them apparent so that when decisions come up when opportunities are put on your plate, you can no this is a good one for me. This is not a good one for me and you can clearly navigate those decisions.
Meghan 24:38
Because when you aren't clear on what you want for your business clients certainly aren't going to be clear on what you offer or what your business is even doing in the wild. They leads to confusing marketing messaging. It really does. You know you bring in clients and aren't actually a good fit because you as the business owner are not clear on what you want. So you just tried to grab everybody as they come in, it confuses people about what you do it Ultimately though, wastes your time it wastes their time. And you end up having bad relationships with clients because you are not niching down, you are not serving exactly who you want to be serving.
Collin 25:16
And this sets you up for failure. Because when you are not connected with the right clients, it means that your services are not a good fit for them, and they aren't going to be happy. Sure, there's a small chance that you'll be able to do enough education, outreach and working with them to bring them over to help them understand how you actually are a good fit. But that's a really risky business, you want to make sure that everything is laid out plain clearly communicated and on the table so that they know what they're getting into and exactly how they can help you. So confusing marketing messaging, just really, it really muddies the water and starts that relationship off on a bad foot, again, that are in profit, we want to make sure that our relationships are starting with honesty with open and with clarity and everything that we're saying.
Meghan 26:01
One way you don't have clarity as offering too many services, which can be another roadblock to ultimately being a profitable business. It adds the unnecessary complexity of okay, I offer a 15 minute 20 minute 30 minute 45 minute 60 minute dog walk pets, any visit drop ID and quick potty. What like what all of these terms are very confusing to the potential client who's never had a pet sitter before. And if you offer too many of these services, it's it's overloading to them. It's when you go to a restaurant and you can order 100 Different things off the menu and you go well, I'm just going to pick up the first five that I see I'm going to pick one of those because it's sensory overload.
Collin 26:40
Well, it helps it hinders your ability to know what tangibles you need, again, that T and profit, What materials do you need? What kind of leashes do you need? What kind of shoes do you need? What inventory do you need to have on hand to conduct those services makes that super complex makes your decision making really overloaded, it can impact your income, because some may be profitable, some may not be in the financial sense. It can also mean that if you're operating in you're offering services that go beyond your scope of expertise, or your comfort level, it's going to impact your joy and actually offering those. So if you do add services, make sure that they overlap with what you're already doing. So that you can know that you are set up for success in that, or at least that they are coming from a true passion that you have to serve people in a new and unique way.
Meghan 27:27
So if you're offering dog walking, maybe a branch off of that is that I'll give venture hikes. Or if you specialize in senior elder care for dogs and cats, maybe you offer pet photography, so that they'll their clients can have a lasting image or a few images of their pets. So hopefully you think of profit and being a profitable business as more than just financial now. But what are some other aspects to being a profitable business, we would love to hear your thoughts and your opinions on this and how you implement them in your business. You can leave us a voicemail at 636-364-8260 or you can send us an email at feedback at Pet Sitter confessional.com. Thank you very much to our sponsors, pet sitters associates and our lovely Patreon members for supporting today's show and ultimately thank you for taking your time after almost 400 episodes. Thank you for taking your time every week to to listen to us and to the people that are interviewed on this. We are so appreciative of you. We'll talk with you next time. Bye
