405: Thriving Through an Emergency with Amy Sparrow
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What kind of emergencies are you prepared for? While we may focus on natural disasters, lost pets, or medical emergencies, what about you? After going through a severe medical emergency, Amy Sparrow had to make drastic changes to her business, Fur Kid Sitting & Services. Amy shares how having a multi-year business plan allowed her to accelerate a brand new business structure. From growing a network, to addressing your personal risks, Amy stresses the importance of getting a plan in place today. She also explains why it’s critical to give back to the community.
Main topics:
Building your network
Business planning
Planning ahead
Giving back
Main takeaway: A ‘knock on wood’ policy is one you hope to never use, but will be glad you have it if the need arises.
About our guest
Amy Sparrow is the president of the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters and owner of Furkid Sitting and Services. She began her business in 2013 to provide quality, loving care for animals in her community. Amy is a volunteer with a local animal rescue and has been fostering animals for over a decade. She understands the importance of providing continuity of care for both pets and their owners, and strives to create a stress-free environment for all her clients. When she's not caring for animals, you can find her cheering on her favorite sports team or spending time with her furkids and friends.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/furkidsitters/
https://www.instagram.com/furkidsitter/
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, business, pet, people, talk, pet sitters, emergency, animals, naps, years, plan, find, resources, stroke, work, amy, house, sitting, call, phone
SPEAKERS
Susan, Amy S., Collin
Collin 00:02
Welcome to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and the peaceful pet music, calm music for pets YouTube channel. Are you prepared for an emergency, not just an emergency in your business or a natural disaster. But for something that happens to you personally. Today, we're super excited to have Amy Sparrow owner of FurKid, sitting in services and also president of the National Association of Professional pet sitters. Amy joins us to talk about her experience of having a personal emergency and how she had to adapt and change her business to over come that to walks us through the importance of having a business plan to have something to compare to, and why you should build a network of community and support today. And not wait. Let's get started.
Amy S. 00:53
Like you said, I own X actually, for kids sitting in Services. I'm here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I started my business in 2013. After like most of us, we don't like grow up doing pet setting, we kind of start as a second career. And I kind of got maxed out after 18 years in the insurance and legal field and needed something that wasn't so stressful. So I was kind of on a break from that business and started pet setting sort of a pet sitting business. And you know that the wording of you do something you love you never work a day in your life. And that is true for me. That's what I do now. I do pet setting?
Collin 01:50
Well, and you've been doing it for coming up on 10 years, right this 10 year anniversary with that that's that's a huge accomplishment. Did you ever think that, you know, when you thought started 10 years ago? What were you thinking that your business would look like for you?
Amy S. 02:05
I, you know, I do? I kind of do, you know, plans, I think I constantly think about what I'm going to do in the future for it. And I always thought you know, I would be successful if I can pay my bills and have some savings. And so, you know, each each year, I kind of do a business plan in the beginning of the year. And I write my goals down. And that, you know, as long as I was growing my business pretty good and have my good clients, you know, I mean, that was my goal is having good clients. That, that and having nice clients, I'm very picky on who I have as my clients. That that was that was how I was, you know, that was how I was going to be happy. And because I didn't want to be stressed out. That was my goal not being stressed out, I did that. I was stressed out, I was maxed out and I wanted to be happy. And so that's, that's, that's what I wanted.
Collin 03:13
That's huge. You know, a lot of people when they talk about what does success look like? They think a lot of the financial aspects of it, they think about being able to have money, pay my bills, I think back to when Megan and I first started and we just had little goals of like, okay, if this can cover our insurance, or this can cover our gas, or if this can cover our groceries and kind of grows and expands. But then layering on top of that going, well actually, like there's a personal aspect to this as well. If like, I want to work with nice people, I love how you said that it'd be like I want to work with good people who respect me who enjoy what I do and see the value in it. And that we can add that as a measure of success as we look at the clients that we're serving.
Amy S. 03:54
When I when I get a phone call, I answered a phone, and it's a new client and or potential client I should say. And they finds a phone and the first thing they say is I need you to automatically not a client. They like when I say I'm picky, I'm picky. They they could say I need you to take a check for a million dollars. I don't care. You're rude to me, you're you know, it's telling you how you're going to treat somebody. And right off the bat. It's a relationship that we're gonna have. I'm gonna be in your house or my sister's gonna be in your house and work taking care of your house or taking care of your babies. You know, if you're not going to treat us with some respect, just even calling then I don't want you as a client. So I'm very picky on even how you're going to call and ask about my service. So that right? When I tell you I'm picky on who I take As a client, I'm very picky. That's
Collin 05:02
yeah, that's, that's really picky. But the reminder that, you know, I think when we like when we hire staff that the interview starts before the interview starts. But same thing with our clients do, the whole process leading up to that meet and greet is part of the interview process for whether you will take them on as a client. And to remote remind yourself, if they're not treating me well. Now, how has that shaped me later? And obviously, I do think that there is some we have to understand sometimes people call us stressed, anxious, they're freaked out, there's other things going on. So there's a lot of pieces of the puzzle to put together but immediately going, okay, is this how this person is going to view me and how this is gonna start? Because starting on the right, on the right foot? Is what you want?
Amy S. 05:43
Yeah, yeah, it's a red flag from the beginning. And by the time we are even doing the meet and greet, I pretty much know whether or not I'm, you know, you're gonna be a client. So
Collin 05:56
I know, that's a question a lot of people have of going, where do I sell the client? Right? Do Am I selling them before the meet and greet? Am I selling them on my service at the meet and greet? And I really think it's important to view the meet and greet as like, it's if you're at the meet and greet, and you're still unsure, like, there may be some other steps that you need to put in before you get stuck
Amy S. 06:17
there selling me that it's the opposite for me, I, I tell them, you know, we'll let you know, if we're taking you on for me, it's it's a different for me. Have a referral basis pretty much only now. You know, it's, you know, we're, well, we're our services that we have now, Pete, we're busy. We're a busy industry. And you know, we should be taking in, we should be picking and choosing our clients. The way we are, you know, we're we're a busy industry.
Collin 06:59
Yeah, we're a service industry, that gets to be picky, that can be picky, right, we don't have to serve like we can decide who we want to, to serve in that context of going, you know, that kind of behavior is not allowed here. That kind of language or that kind of how you're going to treat me or my staff like, that is not okay. And, sure, I know, in the beginning, or there may be slow times in your business where you're like, oh, my gosh, like I share, I'll just take them, I'll just take them so that I can have that. But it's the it's the going, do you want this kind of person for the next 10 years? Or how to learn?
Amy S. 07:31
Yeah, and you don't have to fire clients, then the more you learn, and you learn how you want to be treated or don't want to be treated, you learn, okay, that will be a good client, we had a webinar one time for naps. And we had a lady who kind of gave us a sheet on like a point system. And these are the ways that you wanted, you know, these are our ideal clients on how to do points. It was a really, really good webinar. I wish I could remember that lady's name. I have it flagged because I like how she kind of, you know, did they, these are ways that you want to be treated, these are good clients to have. And I love that, that thinking, you know, these are the kind of like the points, these are kind of clients. So when I talk to potential clients, and I hear they're their ways of saying if they're last minute people, that kind of stuff. I don't really like that, you know, but if they're saying I'm booking something for June, July, I need a pet sitter. Okay, they plan? Well, you know, if they're being referred by a really good client, then I'll take them, you know, those kinds of things, because you know, that they, how they're if they're with their friends with somebody who's a good client, then you kind of know that they're going to treat you right, or your pet sitters, right. So you know, things like that. Those are kind of ideal clients that you want. If you're going to when I first started, I was taking everybody, well, then I was treated like crap. And I was like, Okay, I don't like this. This is not why this is not what I want. And so you learn and I've learned, you know, it's been 10 years, I learned hard. I don't fire clients anymore, because those are not the clients that I have. Wow,
Collin 09:14
yeah, you don't, because they're, they kind of self select yourself sort out through the process, and you can vary So, Amy, when you have that conversation with somebody, how do you how do you let them know? Okay, this isn't going to work out between us because that's as a people pleaser, telling people No, like, that's one of like, Oh, I just feel the dread right now. Even.
Amy S. 09:34
I'm not the one person. I'm a blonde person. It was, you know, I said, You know what, on this last, I don't have any more I got rid of, honestly. I said, you know, we can't make you happy. We can't make you happy. You're not treating us well. You're gonna have to find another senator. I don't make up stories. I don't say we're too busy. I don't say, you know, I'm blunt. I'm a blunt. person, I'm not gonna lie to somebody, it's just not right to lie to somebody I said, You're not gonna, you're gonna need to find another sit or we're not making you're happy, and you're not treating us well. I'm an honest person you're gonna get which, you know, you're gonna get me, you're gonna get an honest person with me.
Collin 10:18
I think that's really important. Because when we do say things like, oh, just say they're not just say you're not busy or say you're fully booked, they're gonna continue to come back to you. Over We I've we've had that we tried that in the very beginning of saying the plane that we're booked Carter were full. They just, they just continued to come back to you. And every time you have to say, Okay, no, it's not No, no, you think they wouldn't come back to you, but they will 100% of the time, and then you're not actually doing anything. And importantly, you're pushing a bad behavior off on somebody else without telling the client that it's unacceptable, right, they need to know that how they're acting and behaving and the demands and their demeanor is not acceptable in this industry. And in hopes that okay, well, well, I got shut off from this person, because of my tone and how I was acting, how I was treating them. I should probably be a bit nicer to the next person I encounter.
Amy S. 11:10
Exactly, exactly. Yeah.
Collin 11:12
So you, you came out of what you said 18 years and legal and the insurance industry? How did you know you said it was a kind of a transition period with their How did you know when it was time to go full time into pet setting? Or did you just jump in with both feet.
Amy S. 11:27
I had a break from that I was I was on a break from that job. In between, actually, I literally was on a break, I could have gone back to that business, or to that company. And I was talking to my therapist, I see a therapist every other week. And I was talking to my therapist, and I volunteer at our cat rescue. And, and I also like most of us was pet sitting for friends. And she's like, You know what, you when you take care of animals you decompress is a very relaxing thing. Why don't you do pet setting? And in talking with her about that, I was like, You know what? That's a great idea. And so I started researching right away, I just started researching about pet sitting. And actually during that time, while I was working in that career, I needed a pet sitter, and I hired what was supposed to be a professional pet sitter. And they did a horrible job for me. They didn't tell me whether or not they were at my house. They didn't tell me how my animals were doing. I find out later they lost my key and broke into my house to take care of my pets. So when I tell you it was a horrible experience, it was a horrible experience. It was like what not to do as a pet sitter. And so I started researching it and found naps and was like, okay, that I want to I want to join naps, I joined naps. And I learned a lot about pet setting. And so I opened up my business at that time, and left that job left that career, and pretty much transitioned right into opening up a pet sitting business. I learned I went to I don't know if you know what score is. It's a small business, nonprofit organization where you can meet with business people, and they will kind of give you guidance. And information is most low. Most most cities have a score chapter. And it's also online. You could go to score.org. And they kind of give you information and they have webinars also for business, small businesses. And so I did that as well. I just I just did what my business mind did. And I just jumped in and learn business. And I also met with pet sitters through naps. And I said, Okay, tell me about pet setting. And they helped me. pet sitters helped me they said I said what did you do? What do you do? What did you learn? What were the mistakes you made? What would you do again? What wouldn't you do again? And that's how I started my business. I went on to the naps, accessory. The toolkits, you know, all the forms, I downloaded all the forms. And that's how I started. And being a volunteer at a cat rescue. I had, like, people already I knew people already. So I said, Hey, I'm doing pet sitting. And I had clients built in from that. So I was lucky in that the connections that I had.
Collin 14:49
Yeah, and you have the having that built in network, right. And I think that's where many of us turn initially is going okay, who do I know? Right? We start we start really small. Where's my little circle around me? Do they know right and they And then you do branch and you grow from there. And I did want to touch back on maybe how you started by saying that you were you were, you're talking with your therapist, and they had said just how important pet setting was to you and how they noticed this change. And I think I think it's really important to note that and why it's important to set up boundaries to be picky about the clients that we have to be very protective of this, because we all have that connection with animals. We love this for a reason. And I think a lot of times we look up and we go, I didn't sign up for this. I didn't sign up for this kind of business to be to have this kind of life to have this kind of stress to have this kind of whatever it is going on. And going what how do I reclaim that joy a little bit more? How do I get back to where I started? And that that optimism or that love that working deal to decompress? I hear that a lot from people have going pets Help Help me, right. But whenever my business is running me, I can't I can't experience that right. I can't be in the moment the way I want to be.
Amy S. 16:03
Oh, yeah. And I left that industry, I left that craziness. I didn't want to bring it to where I was, you know, in my happy place. I didn't feel like I was working doing pet sitting, you know, so why would I get stressed out dealing with people? I didn't want that in my world. So yeah, that's, and I love animals, I love taking care of them. When I walk into a client's home. It's, um, you know, I, that was my happy place. So it's the best thing on earth that I still see that therapist. And that's all we talk about as animals. So you know, it's the best thing on earth.
Collin 16:46
Well, so this is just another this is just a good PSA reminder that if you need to talk to somebody go out and find somebody to talk to and have that and that it doesn't matter where you are in your life. Sometimes just having somebody talk to you is a really important part, whether there's a therapist or friend or family that that's that's incredibly important. And even if you're feeling like Oh, I know things are going well, I don't need that or I don't feel like why. Still having that connection is super important.
Amy S. 17:13
Oh, definitely, definitely.
Collin 17:17
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Susan 17:20
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Collin 17:38
if you're looking for new pet selling software, give time to pet a try, listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional. You were running your business in 2013. And I know just from from talking with you personally. Amy, you you had a pretty big medical scare come up while running your business. And I want you to talk about that. And kind of how that impacted you and your
Amy S. 18:03
business. Yeah, so I something I always do. And I think it's very important for small business owners. I was a sole, you know, it was just me doing my business. Every year what I do is I do a business plan. In my business plan, I kind of do a what I want him in a do a I do a preparation I do as something that hey, if something happened to me, because we're the majority of us, our sole business owners, it's just us. I always do a what happens, you know, we're on the road all the time, I always worried about getting into a car accident. And what would happen if I got into a car accident? Because we're on the road all the time. So I always worried about what if I got into a car accident, so I started taking some of the people from my rescue world and bring them to client's homes, I would always let my client know, hey, I'm going to have another sitter with me, so that they would you know, just you know, just let them know, hey, there's gonna be somebody with me. And I would have my, my backups, I'd call them with me every, you know, couple weekends, they would come with me, and so they wouldn't know what I do and how I do it. And I did that for a few years, and they would kind of get an idea of they didn't do professional petsitting but they got an idea of how I did my pet sitting. So one because I thought I was gonna be in a car accident. That was my plan B in a car accident. One one day, I'm at a client's house. I'm on a dog named Minnie. She's a mini bull terrier hanging out with many I get a horrible headache. So I'm I'm like, You know what many let's go take a nap. Oh, wake up. I can't say and I'm like, well that's not good. I probably have a migraine because my orders for migraine ends are usually vision. So I'm like, this is the Sox. And so I have a few clients left to go see, I tried to go drive out to my next client, I still can't see well, so I pull over. And I call a friend, a neighbor. And I asked her to come pick me up, we go to see next few clients, she comes in and helps me with that. And then I also dropped me off to the ER, go to the ER to get an IV because usually that's all it takes for migraine. And they come in and they say you didn't have a migraine, you had a stroke. And I was like, Well, that wasn't on my plan of, you know, emergencies. I was supposed to have an accident. And so that's, you know, that, like I said, you know, my plan, my, my emergency plan was an accident, because we're on the road all the time. So I call, I call my backups, my backup sitters, and I call them and I said, Look, I'm in the hospital, I need you, I need to see if one of y'all can, at least, you know, come and take care of my, my other clients that I have, thankfully, no questions asked. They dropped everything. They came to the hospital, grabbed my keys, went and took care of the of the pets. My plan worked great on that. That was my plan. They took care of my pets, I took care of me, I could then say okay, what am I going to do now. And I also called another pet sitter that I have never met, but I knew that they were in the area wasn't the person who I took care of my pet in prior years, trust me, that person didn't last long in the industry. But it was somebody else that was that I knew about and they took care of new clients that I had set up. So they took care of new clients. And I was able to take care of me until I can figure out what I was going to do. So that is how I was able to keep my business going. in that timeframe of this. Whatever I was going to deal with after the stroke that I had. So which was fun, I know what caused it if I'm going to do a PSA right now, I had for women who have to take hormones. Estrogen, I took estrogen for years. And that's caused my stroke stone doing a PSA for women don't take estrogen. Because it turns out it causes a lot of strokes.
Collin 22:44
So when you were doing your your your business review your business plan, I think of a business plan, sometimes as a one and done thing. What you added an emergency contingency plan in that what what does that looked like? How do you sit down and actually write that out? Do you just have a call person if this is like an if then statement of if this happens, then call this person or you know, what's a good structure for us to have in place for them?
Amy S. 23:13
Well, so you kind of look at what what kind of business you have. I at the time, like I said was just me, I look at it as I do it kind of two ways. I have my my personal one, it was just at the time, it was just me. And I was worried about who's going to take care of my pets in the event of me not being able to go there. So that's what I was worried about. We also here in Louisiana have natural disasters. So I was worried about, hey, we get a natural disaster, it's just me, I'm not going to be able to get to all these clients in the event of a hurricane or we had a really bad flood here a few years ago, I was not able to get to client's homes with this flood. So I look at those kinds of things. And I think about contingency plans, those kinds of things. So I when I do my initial setup with clients, I get emergency clients, our main emergency contact information from clients. I get neighbor information, you know, that kind of thing. You You have to talk with your you have to talk with your clients, you know, get their neighbor information, get their people who aren't traveling with them. And then that kind of thing. Because all the information you have to talk with these clients, not just email, literally on the phone call them because they need to be aware. They need to be aware. If something happens to you, I was on the phone in the hospital, calling them and saying look, I'm in the hospital. You're gonna have somebody different come to your house they used to me, you're gonna have somebody different coming into your house of just so you know. That was the biggest thing. Letting your clients know that something different was going on my plan. Every year I did a yearly plan first my bit of in January, I said, Okay, these are my goals. Also making sure my backups I had that. I also called clients I called the ones that I haven't seen in years. Alright, get them off my list, you know, so I didn't have to worry about so many clients, I thought about I also got with the other thing that were emergency wise, I have communication with local boarding and local vets. So that if something happened in one of my clients homes, and I had to get those animals out, where can I put them in an emergency? So I have contacts with a boarding place and also with a vet's office, I have no plans with them. So you got to think of those kinds of things. Because when an emergency happens, you don't want to start worrying about that. What am I going to do with these animals. I do have a background and with a fire department, I have fire department background. So I used to live out in the rural area. And we one day of brush fire was coming towards the house, my house actually was waiting forever for the fire department come and they finally show up. And they needed help put out this fire. There's only one person showing up at the fire truck. And then I find out well, it was it's a volunteer fire department, you know, you you get what you you know. So then I joined the fire department, because I was like, Okay, if you need a fire pipe out, you gotta join to put it out. That's how I that's how I got into the disaster preparedness and emergency. So, you know, did that for seven years until I moved about rares.
Collin 27:03
You do learn from your experiences. And I think you know, when we sit down to think about kind of emergency preparedness just for ourselves. I've already started talking about like, okay, personally, just broadly, what happens if I can't show up? I think that's a great place to start not, you know, sure you were thinking it's gonna be a car accident. But then the stroke happened. But the same result was the it was it was the result was the same, you were unable to show up. And I think that's, you know, you can start broadly like that, and then narrow down specifically, of okay, now in this scenario in this scenario, and that grows over time, and the first time that you do one of these, it's not going to be this big, massive, multi page document with branches where it's going to be very simplistically, I can't show up, then what what do I do? How do I approach that? So that you can start having that and letting them know, right? Like that part of the contingency contingency plans for the emergency plans is not just what do I do? But how, what's the flow of communication of going right at that that's important to in the in that process?
Amy S. 28:06
And so I've found when I called my clients and said, Hey, I'm in the hospital, I have some people going to your house, the first thing they did, was they worried about me? And then they said, Hey, I will have don't worry about it, I'll have so and so take care of my pets. And then you take care of you. That was the first thing they did. I had one person who said, Well, why don't you gonna do that person's not a client anymore? You know, that was and that was a new person. But so you find that the people that you take care of will take care of you. You know, it just shows you the relationship you have with your clients, it's really shows the relationship, because the first thing I was doing is telling him your pets are going to be fine. This is what the situation is right now. But like I said, I had that plan in place. I was telling them, Look, I have backups. They're going to be going to your house, it's not going to be me. You're going to because most of my clients have cameras, so they're gonna know it wasn't me at their house. But and they're gonna know on the journal, it wasn't me on the journal. But, you know, they're gonna probably want to know why. Well, I was gonna tell them, Look, this is the deal. This is what's going on. Same thing with disaster preparedness. I do the same thing during hurricanes. I call them ahead of time saying, look, the hurricane is coming. We're doing your hurricane prep. You know, we do what's called hurricane prep. So there's not going to be someone flying into a window or something. Most of the time, I'll call him and saying hey, you know, the hurricanes come and they're saying, Hey, we're coming back early. Don't worry about it, or we're not leaving. Don't worry about it. We're changing our plans. So there's a relationship you know, in that the were there We're going to change it to where, or, for instance, we can't get to their house because of the disaster. We've already discussed that ahead of time saying, hey, the neighbor is going to take care of the animal in the event we can't get there. We plan that ahead of time, we have all these plans ahead of time. You do the what f if there's that thing on the computer and says, If This Then That you ever heard of that? Yeah, so we have that ahead of time, we're like, okay, if we can't get there, then the neighbor can do it. You know, if this then that. So we have those thoughts ahead of time, you know, if we can't do it, because sometimes it could take a couple days before we can get to a house because of a hurricane. Because the trees down and stuff like that. We have the neighbors that are keeping an eye out saying, Yeah, you're not gonna be able to get to our neighborhood, we'll take care of them, don't worry about it, the clients will say, or if a house is damaged, you know, we worry about the animals if a house is damaged. So then we have that backup plan of taking the animal out putting them in onboarding, you know, we have all these plans ahead of time that you have to think about, you might not be able to write it down, you can't write it down some of these things, you know, but you have to think about it.
Collin 31:26
You do and it starts with little things, right? Like, if you're like right now on your phone, do you have the contacts for the emergency 24/7 vet in your phone right now, because the last thing you want to be doing when you ever have a dog that is completely motionless, or hemorrhaging blood is googling emergency vet near me, right? That's, that's the wrong time to do that. Now, you still may have to or if you're doing at that time, at least you're doing it. But the time part of her prepare for that is just have that emergency contact there, save it as a favorite. Yes, it's going to be right next to mom and granddad. But the emergency vet is going to be a favorite in your context. So you know immediately where it is. And it's those kinds of what can I do now to make the time later less stressful on me, because in the moment, I'm going to be running on adrenaline, I'm going to be moving a mile a minute, I'm going to have a lot on my plate. And the last thing I want to do is have to Google where the addresses are, or anything along those lines, and then communicating to clients. I encounter this a lot in our business of going, Okay, do I need to tell the clients that we change this? Or do I need to tell the client that we're doing this? And the answer is always yes, they most of the time, they don't care, but it's on us to let them know there has been a change to the plans. And not just that there is a change. But here's what we're doing about it. That is essential in an emergency context, whether it's for you personally or for the business, you know, it's me, you talked about it being worried about being in a car accident, I was rear ended a week ago on the way into a visit I was I was three minutes away from the VA. I was three i was i Okay, so beyond being really frustrated, it was just, well, I have I've got to notify people, you know, get eta A's start circling, my backups just start coming in behind me and just orchestrate this. And every single client said, don't worry about it. We're so are you okay? Or is this going to be fine? It does. You can show up in four hours, we don't care. We want to make sure that you're okay. And that was while I was sitting on the road frustrated and angry. It was like, Okay, well, everything's gonna be okay. Right? We're gonna, this gonna be fine.
Amy S. 33:36
I, I'll tell you a story I, one of my I have when I tell you, I've really good clients, one of my clients started paying my mortgage. I mean, really, you know, when you start you, we are so worried about our clients and our pets that we take care of. They, they really worry about us. And they're like, Don't worry, and we are so worried about everybody else. And then they turn around do those types of things. So when when I say you know, you pick your clients, you get your good clients, and you you know, that is one thing that I was like, Okay, I did good in my business when I when I did that, and they started calling me and are you okay? And so she's like, you know, don't worry about your Don't worry about your mortgage. Let me worry about that for you. And I was like, Okay, I one less thing for me to worry about.
34:34
So you're in the hospital in bed and you you're you're coming to terms, I'm sure with the stroke and what that means and you've you've solved all the immediate problems because all the media visits are getting taken care of. When did you start looking down? One week, a month, two years down the line and start going okay, now what does my business look like?
Amy S. 34:55
So I do a five and 10 year plan, my business my business You know, living working 18 years in the business world, we always did a five and 10 year plan, that kind of thing. And I had always done that my business. So my five year plan was to hire staff. I do. And literally, I, because of the way things were I had I had I hired ICs. And I, one of the people that I did was one of those people who came and started doing petsitting right away. And I've liked that. And so I contracted with her pretty much right away. She, you know, was one of those people that just jumped right in. Because of that five year plan. I went overnight Oh my from one year to five year overnight, I just jumped right into that plan, because that was a plan in five years I would inkwell would grow. It was a smart thing for me to do, because it it had a parameter it set my my goals and my parameters like, Okay, I'm going to do, I'm going to grow and have people to help me. And and so that's that set that. Again, like I said, I had a backup plan. Well, that was a future plan. And so my future plan just went into place rather fast. I did have, because I couldn't see the drive or anything like that. You know, I had them. I was able to drive to go see certain clients, I met with clients and said, Look, I'm not going to be able to see your pets. But I have some people that are. And so they said as long as you trust them, we trust you. And I was, again, the trust and the faith and my clients. They I have all of them still I didn't lose any clients. And except for that one that I you know, she didn't she was all about her when I was in hospital. But I didn't lose any of them. And that's that's what I did. And like I said I didn't my business continued it grew, obviously, because now I have staff or ICS.
Collin 37:11
That's pretty rapid. I mean, literally an overnight change for your family overnight. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure. So how did you tackle that problem? Because I know when people look to they go to go, I'm trying to hire. So this is going to be multi steps. I've got to get some policies and procedures, I gotta get some things I got some infrastructure set in place. How did how did you get all that together in such a rapid pace, and then continue to have your business function at the same time?
Amy S. 37:41
Well, that's why I went to IC route, because you don't do all that with ICS was literally the decision. That was one of the biggest decisions. The other thing is my clientele our attorneys, doctors, all that one of my attorney, one of my clients is a labor and employment attorney. So I met with her. And she helped me do all that paperwork with the contracts and everything. And like I said, I'm very, very fortunate and who I chose as clients, because they helped me with all of that. They said, Okay, we can, you know, draw this up, this is what you need to do. This was the right way of doing it. And I, I I'm just very, very fortunate, I'm very fortunate in that. And so they helped me with that. And, and then I contracted with those people and I said okay, this is how we have to do it. And then I have a my CPA and my bookkeeper, they took over that part of it because I can't see to do the numbers and everything. Might with my vision. I they took over all of that part of it. Basically what I can do is work the phones, that is my data is what I can do. I can talk on the phone, I can be the phone person. And so I communicate on the phones. And so I pretty much have to outsource everything. But it works. It works for me. And that that is what happened pretty much overnight. Half so fortunate and finding good people to help. I started with one IC to do all of it pretty much. And I met with my clients and they said hey, look, this is who I have doing sets right now. And then I went to a contractor with another sitter and said hey, can you do these sets? And she said, Yep. And then now I that sitter moved and now I have another senator that I contract with. So I have a few, like two or three senators that I contract with. I'm very, very fortunate in that.
Collin 39:57
Yeah, to get everything set up and going And I like how you mentioned said, The future plan just went a lot faster, right? And you were able to do that. And again, this is where the importance of sitting down and getting something out there something on a piece of paper, some some idea and concept of what you'd like it to look like, so that when the opportunity or then necessity arises, you can accelerate or decelerate the advancement towards that appropriately.
Amy S. 40:26
And I've found that I'll go back to score.org. And also, our naps has that too. But score.org has that business plan on it. Okay, that's so just so you know, and the listeners know, score.org has that. So you can go on to that site, it's for small businesses. But you can go there, I, my local library also has it, but you can go on to score.org. And they have it where you can just write it out. They also have webinars out there, where you can watch them for your your business plans.
Collin 41:01
Yeah, I think they've got like a template and resources section that you can go to and kind of plug in what you need or help make that roadmap and, and again, that's actually it's interesting to think of the context of emergency and personal emergency planning and relating that back to a business plan. But what that is, is your your your roadmap, your understanding how you want your business to structure and function over time, and then going, Okay, this is how I want things to looks kind of like how doctors or doctors go, Okay, this is how the body is supposed to function. Right? Now, what what do I do when this is broken? Or what does it mean that this isn't working? Because you can always relate back to the ideal and go, How do we get it back to that, whether that's bringing in help, whether that's accelerating something or changing the whole structure entirely.
Amy S. 41:45
It's almost like when you think about your you have a budget for your business, it's a forecast for you, for your, you know, your, your business, you have to keep a goal in mind, you know, you have to have a set way of doing things. Yeah, so as important as my budget is for my business, that is very important for my business.
Collin 42:06
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42:56
When you mentioned that you you have you've taken on the role of phones in coordinating throughout the business. I mean, what other ways have you have you had to adapt and change since your stroke and how that's impacted what you can do in the business.
Amy S. 43:13
I don't want to say I'm limited, but I'm limited. So I can't do sets anymore because I can't drive. So I miss that tremendously. I miss it tremendously, you know, because that's why I got into pet setting is ago and then love on the animals. So I'm on the phone with the clients, I'm talking with the clients, that's the biggest thing I'm walking them through how they do the you know the system or petsitting software and talking to them about their animals. I do that mostly because they'll call in and talk to me about it. You know, I don't do the sets, which kills me. Every once in a while I'll ask my one of my senators to pick me up so I can go you know, go to homes and stuff, especially my originals. You know, those my Oh geez. You know, I every once in a while I'll go and do I have clients that go to like, right now I have a client going to Egypt. And they go in there for two or three weeks. And they asked if I can go and stay at their house, you know, for a day, you know, every few days, you know and just hang out there and I'm like yeah, I'll do it. I am definitely going to go and do that because I don't get out of my house to love on my aunt my babies, you know, so that has it is limited me in that way. But I can talk on the phone and talk to my clients. I have that very personal relationship I'm not rushed during the day, you know, but I am in quote in the office and talking to clients so I have that personal relationship with them.
Collin 44:54
Yeah, you can really lead into that and you know, I know that's something that you you you valued any you know in the beginning meaning as well. And so going, Okay, this is a bucket that I can fill in pour everything into right now and make make sure that my business is working for me.
Amy S. 45:09
Yes. And when they call and do the original request for, for to be a client, I have that time to really fill them out and see if they're going to be a good client. So I'm not as more of a one on one person versus a, you know, just go online and fill this information out that kind of thing. So I have that more of a, an ability to have a communication with them. On the phone, I answer the phone, when they call I answer the phone, you're not gonna get the voicemail or anything like that. I'm available, I'm able to do that I'm able to do that. I'm lucky in that aspect. But that's the way my business is. I'm not on the road all the time. So I, you know, I'm not at a client's house and can't answer the phone. You know, that's unfortunate in that aspect.
Collin 46:02
Well, it's an aspect that many of us wish we could devote more time to as well going, Oh, I really wish I could invest more in my my client experience, my customer experience my onboarding that customer relationships, building and nurturing that and recognizing that, you know, you have an opportunity to to make that a stellar feature of your of your company.
Amy S. 46:20
Right, right. Yeah, and, exactly, at least I have some, I feel like at least I have something to do, you know, because I'm, you know, that's the way my I have changed my business. To keep it to keep it going.
Collin 46:35
I know we've talked a little bit about the importance of the business plan and planning and stuff. But for for solopreneur, solo sitter, what are some things that they need to be considering or maybe just a business in general, when they sit down to look at a business plan and emergency planning? What are some tips that you would give them to get them started off on the right foot with putting that plan together?
Amy S. 46:55
Definitely do it, you need to do it, you need to think about it, you need to, like we talked about have get backups even if they're not pet sitters. I call it my knock on wood policy. If you know you have it, you hopefully you won't need it. I do a what I call my knock on with with clients, I have them give me their emergency backup plan. I mean, my the plumbing issue, I always call it my plumbing issue, give me Tell me where your water cut off is tell me where your electrical pocket boxes. Because if I have it, I could turn off the water. I'm not a plumber, I you know, you can have your emergency person come and wait for the plumber, clean up the water, that kind of thing. I could take care of animals, I could take care of emergencies with the animals, but I can't do the plumbing, you know, that kind of thing? You know, so my knock on wood is you know, tell me, you know, tell me where your water cut off is I could do with the I can mitigate that part of it mitigate the future damage to it. But I'm not the plumber that can go and fix your pipes. So at least get work on that part of it. You know, you need to at least think about it and work on it. Because if you don't, then you're going to be stuck like a chicken with your head cut off but running around trying to figure that part out. And that's not fun. That is not fun.
Collin 48:35
No, yeah, I think just like finding those categories of what your concerns are of going okay, personally, what could be an issue here, client dog or client pet, right and client home or natural does that like, you know, in every area is different with what they're facing and how you mentioned that how you run your business, what you're actually doing, how you're actually performing the visits. That's why all this is so unique and just going for me? How would I solve this? And if you don't have an answer, right, getting connected with some really good resources and talking to other centers to see how they, how they've approached it.
Amy S. 49:07
Right. And where I am, I'm so fortunate in the in the what I have surrounding me, as far as we have LSU veterinary school. So I have a lot of that, to you utilize as my emergency place to go for animals. You know, I have just a lot to use in my area. So more of my concerns in here are the homes and, you know, to mitigate the the the issues that we have in client's homes. So that is more of our problem areas are that the natural disasters and all that kind of stuff are issues that we have here.
Collin 49:56
Well, that's a good point to maybe you've recognizing what are my resources that I have access to, right? Because that's going to help go. And that may be for personally, that's okay. Okay resource for me is I my car insurance or if I have health insurance, those are resources in an emergency or my connection to a local vet or a boarding facility. Those are resources. And that way you can see, okay, what do I have already? And then what do I need to backfill here and find out maybe that could be more training, that could be different equipment, or that could be making a few phone calls to people in the area to get connected with them to help you in those situations?
Amy S. 50:31
Definitely. My biggest what I have found that during we had a really bad hurricane couple years ago, when I had found that we did not have here, actually, in New Orleans, they all evacuate during bad hurricanes, and we were getting a lot of the evacuation people. And I have an I answer my phone, I just answer on my phone. Because I never know if it's a client or who it is that's calling. And I found that I was just getting a lot of phone call from people that did not know the area did not know what they can do. You know, what their animals that kind of thing. So I was a resource for people who did not know, you know, what they can do with their animals where they can board them who was taking? Well, I have a lot of resources here that I call for my animals in the event, you know, like I was saying that I've you know, so I was calling them and say, Hey, do you? Are you still taking in animals? Do you still have in there? Like, yeah, we're still taking them in. So I was able to give, you know, contacts, you know, saying, hey, they're still open, they can take your animals. So you know, when you're a resource for other places, it helps, it helps in those, you know, might not be a client of mind. But at least I'm helping somebody with an animal that, you know, they can't keep their animals in a home where there's, you know, 20 people staying in there, because there's no place else for them to go. They need to put their animal someplace, and now they have a place to put their animal. So you know, it's not a self serving thing, but it's more of a resource thing. And that's, that's fine for me.
Collin 52:11
Well in emergencies and disasters, whether personal or business or natural disasters being a resource to the community, or it's something that we can do. And I know, you know, from your experience with the local fire department, like that's, that's a big aspect of that going well, this needs to get done, I can help. Here's how I can contribute in whatever way that looks like for us.
Amy S. 52:31
Exactly. And not to say that there is not days that I don't answer my phone, because, you know, the time right before a holiday when everybody's last minute trying to find a pet sitter, that, you know, that's not the time to answer your phone, you know, of clients, you know, is one thing, but you know, when people are last minute, that's not emergency basis for me, disasters emergencies, you know, those kinds of things. So,
Collin 52:54
early on in the in our conversation, Amy, you talked about your involvement with naps, National Association, professional pet sitters, and you recently became president of naps. And I was curious why, why you decided that that was important to you and something that you needed to do.
Amy S. 53:11
So like I said, when I first started, I was looking for information on how to be a pet sitter, all of that. And I came across naps. And I liked it. Because it's Pet Sitter Ron, it's a member run organization by pet sitters. And that's what I wanted to be. And that's where I asked, Hey, is there information out there, I utilized all the tools that we had. Now we because before it was a day, and when I first started, I got a phone call from a member asking me Hey, do you? Do you have everything you need? Do you have any questions? And I thought that was really cool. I was like, okay, you know, I'm being asked information. And I turned out that that phone call was from the president at the time. Yvette Gunn Gonzalez. I don't know if you know, Yvette, but you probably met her at the conference. And she and it was like, we had a really good conversation. And I was like, Well, that was pretty cool. And she was on the membership committee at the time. And they call new members. And I was like, Well, that was really cool. This is a great organization. And go forward. I think it was five, six years later. I am now you know, in the office, because I could talk on the phone. And I decided to join a committee and I do volunteer work. You know that I'm a volunteer person I give back. So I joined at the top then the membership committee. I was like I can call and talk to members and new members just like Yvette called me And so I called new members and talk to them and said, hey, you know, do you need anything? You know, you have any questions about maps, that kind of thing? So I do, I did at the time, do it. Event did to me. And so that was cool. And we have monthly webinars explaining, you know, having people come in talk about what membership would, you know, are interested in, like I said, there was a webinar about how to choose a good client, which, like I said, to this day, I still watch, that was a great webinar, we have vets come on talk about, you know, ways to kind of get an idea about behavioral aspects on animals, exotics, all that kind of thing. Kittens, just a variety of things to learn about. And so I just love that. And so I just joined a committee. And as I belong to the organization, more and more, I just then said, Hey, maybe I need to give it even more out. So then I joined and became, I moved up and joined the board. And then from there, became secretary treasurer, and then eventually, this year, became the president. So that's how that worked.
Collin 56:24
Finding ways to give back right is what is what I hear about that Amy? Is, is going here's my experience, this is what I've gotten from help from people, what way can I give back? And that all circles back to being that resource in the community, whether that's your local community with pet parents, or the community of pet sitters and other pet professionals? In some way of going, what? What resources? What tools knowledge do I have? And how can I give back in that in that capacity?
Amy S. 56:52
Exactly. I learned from other pet sitters when I started 10 years ago, you know, and I've learned a lot from, you know, 10 years, so why not start and help other pet sitters who are starting out now? Because it's like I said, we it's pet sitters at center run, you know, that's what I love about
57:12
it. Listen to your story, you know, starting the business after burnout from from legal and accounting and running your business, when you having the stroke and continuing to operate a business that looks completely different. And as you said, like even doing some things that, you know, it's like, well, this is how I can do this and, and pursuing the being a president of naps. I am curious, did you ever did you ever think about stopping the business and not not pushing forward with with those goals and things that you want it to do? And just go well, that's not I've gotta check that off my list, I need to find something else. No,
Amy S. 57:49
I did a lot of therapy. Therapy helps I still see I see that I see two therapists, one is for my stroke. And one is the therapist I've been saying forever. So I just like I said, there's new challenges with that. I, I went through I went through training for for blindness. And, you know, so I learned how to adapt with my, with my, with my vision, which was, you know, very helpful. So I use a cane when I when I'm out in areas that I'm not familiar with. And I have different techniques now that I learned. So once I gathered different ways of adapting to things. I think that that has helped, you know, now there are certain things that I cannot do, and I will tell people that is I cannot do that. And that's very important to do. You know, I've, in my in learning, you know, working for my prior career, I've learned that I have I cannot I max out. And when you learn that, hey, there are certain things I cannot do. It's beyond me now. And you have to find ways for help and or, you know, to know when Okay, that's too much. And, and to ask for help or to say look, I've got to find another way of doing this. And I do that even with naps. You know, we we have a board we have a board of directors that are all pet sitters, and you probably met most of them at the conference. You know, we divide and conquer, you know, we use our strengths and the entire board you know works together and and And you, you know your limits? And that's what I do. I know my limits now. So that that's all you can do. I can't max out, you know, so what else can you do?
Collin 1:00:18
You lean on your strengths. And I think having those good people around you is really what makes that difference of going, No, this is what I can do. This is how I can contribute. And we all we all do that in our own lives, right? Just think about in our business going well, I'm not the best with like bookkeeping numbers. So I'm gonna find a CPA do that that's not my strength. I don't want to do that. And so we look at both the need the ability and the necessity to make those changes in our business to make sure it's working for us.
Amy S. 1:00:44
Right. Right. We do blogs, so naps, those blogs, like every week, I think on our thing. I can't read those. I can't read those to my I have a limited vision for reading things. And I use a machine to help me read. I I'm like, No, that's too much for me. So those go to that goes to a committee that goes to a marketing committee to read and review. You know, so I know my limits.
1:01:12
Well, Amy, I want to thank you for spending your time today talking with us about your your journey in pet care and encouraging us to get that emergency plan because we never know what's going to happen. And just starting with something is the biggest thing that we can do, and for sharing about naps in your role with that. But there's a lot that both naps does and that you do. So how can people learn more about naps and get connected with you, if they want to learn more?
Amy S. 1:01:37
Sure, so naps is pet sitters.org. And the lot of information out there. And I definitely suggest people go out there and look at it. If you have any questions on that, you could just email naps at Pet sitters.org. And you know that information can be responded to easily. For me, you can reach me at Amy at FurKid ciders.com. My website is for considers.com.
1:02:09
And I will have links to everything that we've talked about in the show notes, including to score.org so that people can get that in and start checking out all those links and resources. Amy, I'm so thankful for time to get to talk with you today and everything you've learned. And I have some things that I have to do for my emergency preparedness list now. So I appreciate I appreciate that. So thank you, thank you so much for coming on, Amy. Sure.
Amy S. 1:02:33
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Collin 1:02:35
Many of us may be scared away of implementing or trying to sit down and plan out a business plan. But the power comes in is that it is a plan you have on a shelf for this is where I want to be this is how I want to be operating. And this is what that would look like and how I would make that work. This isn't just so that we can meet our milestones or that we can know how to progress from our business plan to business plan. Wow. That is also important. It's also a great way when emergencies strike to move or shuffle back or rearrange our thought processes for what we thought our businesses would look like. It makes us project and forecast into the future for possible outcomes makes us look at the landscape of obstacles in our way for running our business and make sure we have accounted for them appropriately. When we are forward thinking enough to implement these kinds of plans. We are setting ourselves and our businesses up for success. We want to thank today's sponsors time to pet and peaceful music calm music for pets YouTube channel. Well, I thank you so much for listening and contributing and being part of this community. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
