432: Listener Mailbag!
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We reached out on social media for your questions, and you responded! On this episode we cover everything asking about client cameras and our long term goals, to getting health insurance and our favorite cartoon pet. Thank you to all who sent in questions!
Main topics:
Must have favorite tools for daycare
Our long terms goals
Overcoming a slow period
Finding people to hire
Going full-time
Links:
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/119
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/123
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/128
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/213
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/223
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/245
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/249
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/267
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/377
https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/380
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, pet, business, pet sitters, sitters, price, services, episode, people, podcast, point, check, cameras, part, question, speaks, feel, share, stories, associates
SPEAKERS
Collin, Meghan
Collin 00:03
Hello and welcome to pet sitter confessional in an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you to our sponsors today pet sitters associates and our amazing and stupendous Patreon supporters for finding value in our over 430 episodes. At this point, if you have found value if you've learned something, or if it's it has inspired you to make a change in your business, consider supporting the show and you can learn all about that at petsitter confessional.com/support. Last week, we posted on our Facebook and Instagram for questions for an Ask us anything, whether it's about our personal life, or pet sitting business or the podcast, we wanted to hear from you and answer the questions that you had for us. And the first one comes from a critters hotel which says What's your must have favorite items or products or tools for pet boarding, and daycare. And I will say that we actually do have a few episodes where we specifically talk about these episodes one night teen and 123 as part of our Back to Basics series talking about boarding and daycare that we did in our home. And for me, cleanliness and being a pleasing to the eye and lack of clutter was extremely important, not just from when we did meet and greets for clients were coming into our home to see where we lived and where their pets would be. But also, when taking photos of the pets, I did not want to have a lot of clutter a lot of things on the floor in the background that would distract it or make it look really messy. So for us having a really high quality vacuum cleaner was actually extremely important. This helped make sure that the home state clean and didn't smell bad. And then good organizers, good places to put your stuff. Utilizing your closets, utilizing storage shells, to make sure that the space was open, that pets couldn't get into that they were chewing on things or peeing on them at all really helped make sure that the space was nice and appealing for visitors and in photos.
Meghan 02:04
And speaking of cleanliness, my favorite thing was actually our cleaner that we used on the floor. Because while boarding and daycare can be fun in your own home, you need to make sure that the the floors are protected, the walls are protected. And so we had a wonderful spray by the name of trinova. And it's all purpose it's natural. And you can basically use it on any surface to clean it smells great. We even use it on you know rugs and
Collin 02:30
linoleum hardwood floors. It's powered by plants. It's all organic. It's absolutely wonderful. That's great, because we don't want to introduce any sort of VOCs or other chemicals or sprays into our home for us or the pets. We want a nice, clean, friendly environment for everybody.
Meghan 02:46
The next question is from the poetic petsitter who asked Is it appropriate to ask clients if there's cameras in the house? We say absolutely. Yes, this is okay. Outside cameras inside cameras. I mean, you need to be aware, particularly if you are house sitting overnight, you need to know is there a camera in the bedroom is there a camera in the bathroom, or you're probably not going to be comfortable with that, if so, and you need to have it specifically outlined in your contract of the client needs to disclose where the cameras are, it's for your safety, you need to know if you are being watched.
Collin 03:18
And it can be awkward to have that conversation with the client about the photos or about the cameras that are in the home or outside the home. So a way to approach that by letting them know that you know something simple as Oh, and I saw you had a camera over on the fireplace mantel, that's fantastic. That'll help you make sure that you're fully aware of what's going on inside the home. And by the way, if I'm not here and you see a concerning behavior about your pet that you notice, go ahead and let me know so that I know what I'm walking into. Or maybe I can get in another visit if my schedule allows to take care of that and address that if I'm able to. But that way, we're all on the same page and know fully what's going on while you're away.
Meghan 03:58
A lot of times clients will have cameras in their home to watch their pet when the pet sitter isn't there. So don't automatically get offended. If they have cameras inside their home. It may not necessarily be that they're trying to watch you do your job. It could just be they're curious about fluffy, who's 16 years old and sometimes gets doggy dementia. They just want to know Is everything okay? When I'm not there, not that you are doing anything wrong. Now I will say that we have had one client who had a I believe it was a Furbo camera, and she had positioned it in the kitchen. And when our sitters would come over, she would actually talk to them through the camera. This really freaked our sitters out and so we had to specifically ask her, please do not talk to the sitters while they're doing their job. If you have a concern, please message us through our software and we will get it addressed and taken care of because the client was talking to our sitter at 6:15am in the morning and the senator was not prepared for that. So it can be a little off putting if there are clients that are halfway across the world that are trying to talk to you or one of your employees.
Collin 04:59
And again, these are All frank conversations that you can and you should be having with your clients before they leave.
Meghan 05:06
A question from the pet printer Society said top three favorite cartoon pets.
Collin 05:11
Okay, Megan, do you have yours off the top of your head?
Meghan 05:14
Because I have mine. Go ahead.
Collin 05:16
Okay, so thank you for asking. So I don't know if these are really my top three. But these are the first three that came right to my mind. So the first one is actually from The Last Airbender. It's aka the air bison who's just amazing. And who would want to be able to fly around on a giant bison, right? That's pretty cool. The second one is Gary, the snail from Spongebob Squarepants. Third one, it's actually one it is mostly because it's from a movie that we've watched recently with the kids and it's from The Aristocats. So it's Duchess, mostly because boys by Eva Gabor, and it's a fantastic character. Megan, what are your three favorite?
Meghan 05:52
My first one is one of the Dalmatians from 101 Dalmatians because we don't really we I think we've sat one Dalmatian and our entire 12 years was our very first client was it? It was yeah, I've never had one sense. So I love Dalmatians. The next one, I would say is the hound from The Fox and the Hound. I have very fond memories of watching that movie growing up. I think Lady from Lady in the tramp is also a good one. Okay, he's very cute and loves spaghetti.
Collin 06:20
And who doesn't love spaghetti? Exactly. Duck Elaine, and then asked us, where do you see Funky Bunch and petsitter confessional in five years
Meghan 06:32
Funky Bunch is the name of our pet business. And in five years, I see us continuing to serve the same community that we are having expanded a little bit of our radius and then continuing to grow the dog walking and the cat setting sides of our business while also offering some very unique services that raise the bar for the industry and elevate our business above everybody else.
Collin 06:55
Well, it's that elevation part that I'm going to lean into on that one, because in five years, I hope to really be a part of the backbone of the business community, in our service areas to really be known as the go to, and a lot of the seeds that we are sowing right now. The connections that we are making the initiatives that we're being a part of the events that we're doing are a long term play something that isn't going to drive immediate business right now, which is fine, because we're plenty busy. And it's hard to keep up sometimes, but mostly going, we need to be looking 510 years down the line, how do we grow to be that that business that we want to be in all that starts now. So there's exciting things I see coming down the way but in five years, I hope to be able to be really integrated into the business world in our service areas to be known as the go to Company for that.
Meghan 07:45
And then as far as the podcast in five years, we will be just about cresting 1000 episodes, you did the math too, because I did as well. So I'm super excited about, I would love to get to 1000 episodes, nowhere near where Joe Rogan is. But you know,
Collin 07:59
nobody is
Meghan 08:01
and continuing to share the stories of the lesser known people in our industry, their stories are just as important. And just as vital to the success of the industry as everybody else. There are people out there who are solopreneurs, or teams who don't often get a chance to speak up and have a voice. And so I want to continue to giving give a voice to everybody in this industry, because everybody has a story and an experience and lessons that other people can learn from
Collin 08:31
more personally, I hope to be able to have hosted several more retreats, inviting pet sitters from across the country and globe to come and attend to who knows a book or two thrown in there as well. But then really focusing on all those stories, like you said, Megan, I think that's that has been something that has just been so wonderful and so rewarding to be able to share those stories. And that's something that I I truly never want to stop doing. Listen, or
Meghan 08:55
Morgan had this great question. What's your response to someone who says your price is too high, or I didn't realize the cost and would like to cancel? She said, just dealing with people whose number one concern is price in general, I suppose I live in a military community and a foreign country and I'm the I'm the only legitimate established dog sitting business within the community. She has napsw Red Cross first aid certification and she's registered and insured business. So I feel like my cost is justified. How do I get people to see the value in my business slash you get what you pay for, especially when my prices are double what other sitters charge
Collin 09:30
to me there's, there's there's two different problems going on here. It's people are finding out about price too far into the stage and to too far into the process. And secondly, how do I educate people about what it means to be a professional sitter? So as far as the first one, having that, that discussion of cost way at the very beginning, before you even get into type of care sometimes even before where they live? This is where you start to say Okay, hi. Thank you for calling us or thank you for reaching out out to me. Tell me about what you're looking for. Okay, great. Yes, my services are $30 for 30 minutes. So for three days, at three visits a day, that'd be $90 a day times three, that that's $270. For your three day trip,
Meghan 10:15
I do feel like you need to do the mental math for people, because a lot of times when they call, and we say our price for a 30 minute visit, that's what they hear for an entire day. Just happened today on a phone call. Yeah, and we so we have to do that math for them of okay, your expectation is day, so I'm going to give you my visit price, but then add it up for you over the length of an entire day and then give you that price. And usually by that time, they say oh, like that's fine, or no, that's way too much. Thank you. Goodbye.
Collin 10:45
Yeah. So it's addressing that onboarding process and some of the questions that you're going to ask to them about what the service they're looking for. And you being the one to bring price to the forefront and reiterate do that mental math for them.
Meghan 10:56
I would also look at what marketing and advertising you're actually doing. So in our own pet business, we do a lot of Facebook and Instagram. So we tailor our content to what people would be interested in on Facebook stuff that they would find valuable things to note about our company, how we differentiate ourselves. And so if you are highly focused on social media, I would look into crafting your posts more to talk to your ideal client and speaking up about your professionalism and exactly what you bring to the table. If you're doing postcards, mailers, advertising and magazines continue to play up the professionalism, what your certifications are, and educating your clients.
Collin 11:35
You're not just talking about, I offer dog walking for $30 for 30 minutes, or I offer pet sitting for $27. For each visit that I come over, we're really talking about what you bring to the table, what is your difference maker, how are you going to set yourself apart now that comes through the language that you use, that comes through the look and feel of your what you put out there. And that's very important. If you are that high end, your your Instagram posts can't look like everybody else's Instagram posts, your flyers cannot feel like everybody else's flyers, the onboarding process has to be different that customer service has to be there. So making sure that the business aspects the customer service aspect to look and feel so that branding all come together and match what's coming up in the marketing and the messaging that you're putting out there.
Meghan 12:25
You're right, though it's not just about I provide dog walks, it's the problems that you're solving for the clients. So it's peace of mind for the clients, who exactly are you are you looking for? Are you looking to do a lot more midday dropins, okay, you need to be talking to that person that they let lives in this city. And they work here and they shop here and they make this much money and, and this is the these are the hobbies that they like to do. And these are the trips they like to take or, or long days at work or whatever it is. But getting into the mindset of that person will help you craft your messaging, and then use play up. I am a professional who offers peace of mind through XYZ. And it's more of a storytelling at this point. I feel like when we were just starting out, we wanted everybody, it didn't matter what their budget was what because we were cheap. And so we could afford to take on everybody, we were super busy and not making as much money as we could. But it felt good because we had a ton of clients. But now as we are honing in, we are niching down, we are getting to that higher premium level, you really do have to figure out exactly who you're talking to, and what method you're talking to, and then share that story that your potential client can relate to.
Collin 13:33
And that's not to say that the window shoppers aren't going to come by or the price conscious people aren't going to be giving you calls or getting in contact with you, that's still going to happen. And that's okay. Take that as an opportunity to educate them on the possibilities out there. Again, that phone call that we had today, if somebody we gave them our 30 minute price, they thought we were talking about a whole day, I told them our full day price. And they backed out immediately. They said nope, that's too that's too expensive for me. I said, Okay, I totally understand. If there's anything else we can help you with, please don't hesitate to reach out. And they went on their way. And that's just part of this. As you build brand recognition. People will come to you but you're hoping that your marketing your messaging, your look, your field will kind of in some instance repel those who are purely price conscious. We also have to understand that the way that the markets and the global economies are going more and more people are price sensitive. So that's just a conversation you have to have with people at that time.
Meghan 14:29
And last thing on this if you don't have your prices on your website, I would highly encourage you to do so. It's going to weed people out and you won't be sitting on the phone all day fielding phone calls or text messages or emails. People will see the price they'll make a judgment call. I can't afford this or I can't and if they can, they will continue to contact you and if not, they'll just go away and you'll never have heard from them to begin with.
Collin 14:49
Rachel asks, My business has hit a weird, slow period. I have advertised on every small business Mondays, Tuesdays etc and nothing is happening. I have a sign in my yard Business cars. I just don't know how to get more business. I have a lot of clients, but apparently, no one is in need of anything. I feel defeated.
Meghan 15:07
I have a couple of follow up questions here. One, do you have a Google business profile? When people search dog walker near me, you would come up on the map if you do have one. So if you don't have one, I would definitely recommend getting one. Amy Tolman with petsitter. SEO is great at answering any questions regarding it. We had her back on episode 120 and 267. It would also be interesting to know if your current clients are exactly who you want to get. So it sounds like you have a lot of petsitting clients. But are those the kinds of people that you want? Or do you want to grow your midday dog walks and cat clients, if the people that you currently have on your roster are not the ones that you were really wanting, I would suggest looking at your messaging. And if seeing if it lines up I know you've advertised on. It sounds like Facebook and done yard signs or business cards. But really look at exactly what you were saying and see if it lines up with who you are wanting to target, I would also look into getting more connected in your business community. We just did an episode last week on joining the Chamber of Commerce or if there are other little business networking opportunities and meetings in your area. That's a great way because they're, at least in our two service areas, there are not many dog walkers and pet sitters in the networking groups. But at the end of the day, it could just be that you have a lot of pet sitting clients and it's a slow period for us. We experienced that basically twice a year, right after the holidays in January and February. And then right after school starts. So September, late September and October are kind of just the ebbs and flows. And then it booms during the summer and spring break and the holidays at the end of the year. Yeah,
Collin 16:40
I think really looking at your clientele mix and going, Who am I serving? What kind of services have they been requesting? That's absolutely what the first step here of going, do I have mostly pet sitting visits, or do or were these people using me for dog walks earlier and have since stopped, maybe I need to send them a flyer or part of an email newsletter or a message to them, letting them know that I'm still available. And right now is a perfect time to get back outside your pets enjoy the amazing fall weather, whatever that is you you can start to feel this, who am I serving? Why and then in direct your marketing to them, if you have served them in the past, you know them you know where they're coming from, you know what services that they've used. And you can again, that marketing the advertising, talking to them about where they are and how to use you more. And then just recognizing that something like 70% of people will travel for the holidays. That means that they only need you for about one or two weeks a year. So there's 50 weeks where they don't need you. And we're talking about pets and and client petsitting clients Exactly. So there's 50 weeks for those people who are never going to contact you. They have no need for your services. And sometimes no matter what you tell them, they're gonna say, well, that's great that you offer dog walks, I don't want dog walk because I have a cat. And I'm going to be using you into for two weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are clients like that, and that's just Okay, so looking at that client mix is really going to tell you a lot about who you're currently serving and when they're going to potentially need you very soon. If you
Meghan 18:10
have a software like time to pet This is great for forecasting and looking at when those slow periods are. It's also a good reminder to look at your budget. So when you are very busy during the holidays and summer, that is when you stock away a little bit more money because you will need that during the slower periods. Before we continue. We'd like to tell you about our friends at 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. Or over 20 years they've provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry. You can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote at pets it llc.com You can get a discount when joining by clicking membership petsitter confessional and use the discount code confessional when you go to checkout. Check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again at pets@llc.com actually have this question when doing drop ins Do you stay to the certain area the pet is in? Or do you check the entire house for example two cats that greet you at the door of the living room? They get fed in the kitchen and the litter boxes in the basement? Do you check the bedrooms out to see if there are any messes or do you leave those areas alone. For our business our protocol is you check the house anywhere that the pet has access to you check now obviously if there's a door closed, you're not going to go Snoop in the bedroom because the cat is not going to be able to get open the door and go into the bedroom. But anywhere the pet has access. We want to make sure that we are checking those areas.
Collin 19:39
Yep, we do at a perimeter walk so we're just going to walk in and quickly check we're looking for messes looking for two marks. This is going to help you go where are they getting into something in that room or they chewing on something you don't have to spend a lot of time doing this. You can just take a few moments to walk through the house wherever they have access to to get eyes ears, get hands on material on fabrics on whatever's going on in that room to make sure that you're not missing an object because that's one of the worst things that could happen where the client goes cold goes away for a week and a half, and they come back and they go down to the basement and they find out that the cats have been throwing up all week and a half long in the basement and they just find them dried and crusted to the floor. That's going to help you maintain that home and better understand the pet's health while the clients away.
Meghan 20:24
Now this can be really difficult if you were taking care of a home that has a very large square footage, and you only have 30 minutes to do the visit, it is going to be hard, but we feel it's necessary to give the client ultimate peace of mind.
Collin 20:35
So if you've got that large square footage home all just all you need to do is each time you're over check to the three rooms, maybe not get to the whole house, depending on what you have to do. But that way you can at least cycle through everything knowing you have looked at something at some point. To give you an idea of what's going on.
Meghan 20:52
Listener jewel have this question where I need advice on getting health insurance as we are self employed?
Collin 20:57
Yes, health insurance and being self employed are very fun. And it's very terrifying when I say fun. I mean, it's it's terrifying. So there are a couple of different options here, we actually did a podcast all about finding health insurance and the basics of coverage with Scott Dowling. And that's episode 213. Links will be in the show notes again for that. But basically you have several, you have really two options, you can go to if you're in the United States, the Health Insurance Marketplace and look for affordable options there look for coverage that you can afford. And the best thing to do with that is get an HSA health savings account, you'll have lower premiums every month, little slightly higher on what bills we're going to be covered on that. But basically, you can save money into the special account to pay towards bills as they come up all tax covered, we go into that a lot more in depth on that podcast. Additionally, if you want to avoid the open marketplace for that kind of thing, look into health sharing premiums and memberships. This is where groups of people come together, they pay one monthly price that gets pooled into one account, which then is shared back out as members have needs. There's all sorts of ones out there, some are religious, some aren't not religious, it just depends on what you're looking for, and what they will cover. Now those are not covered by any laws and regulations. So you have to be extremely careful about who you're getting involved with. And if they will actually cover you and take you on especially if you have pre existing conditions. So check out the marketplace, see what kind of coverage you can get, what kind of subsidies you qualify for given your level of income and you know, again, what you need to provide for yourself, then go look at those share memberships, to see if that can be an option for you potentially.
Meghan 22:39
Well, and again, this is just the United States, we don't have experience in other countries. So you will likely need to go to your own government if you're in a different country and look at what they have there. Yeah. North Dallas petsitter had two questions. The first one was how do you find great people to interview for the podcast? First of all, we are so glad you enjoy listening to the podcast and hearing other sitters stories. When we are on social media, we see people doing really cool things. So it's all about getting connected with them and seeing if they are willing to share their story. They also have the question, What made you start your podcast, Colin has been listening to podcast for over a decade now. And about four years ago, he listened to one that was about starting a podcast. And so he had written down a few ideas in his journal on what we could talk about, he brought them to me. And he had outlined about the first 12 or 13 episodes of this one about petsitting. And I said, Hey, we know a little bit about this. And turns out it was just a very little bit at that time. But I said hey, let's do this. We can work together on this project. I like you a little bit and it'll be fun. Let's go.
Collin 23:42
Yeah, the original concept of the show was being Megan and I sharing some stories or things that we've learned during our petsitting journey. And this quickly evolved into interviewing other pet sitters. And we really found a lot of fun, a lot of joy in sharing their stories, because we have only our lived experiences and what we have tried and what we haven't tried listening to other people talking to them sharing their stories, learning from them, fast tracks through that process of I can't live 1000 lives, I can interview 1000 people, and I can learn from them out as well. And that has been absolutely wonderful.
Meghan 24:17
Listener Andrea said, how do you find dog walkers? We need two more for our team. Well, that's great. I'm glad you're growing. Typically we find a lot of people through indeed it's very easy to set up a job ad and kind of have it running then people apply. We've also had several clients reach out and want to be pet sitters for us we send out in our email newsletter whenever we need to hire it's like on a quarterly basis of hey, we You are awesome. You are great clients and kind of asking them for referrals if they know of anybody that would be a great fit that they know our service. They love our service and if they themselves want to apply or know somebody who would be a great fit. There's other methods as well like going to Job There's job posting boards online, going to community boards, putting up a flyer of, hey, we're this awesome company. These are the benefits we provide. And we are hiring. So come join us, you can utilize the power of social media, Facebook and Instagram to put out messaging that really highlights the exact person that you want to go after in your community.
Collin 25:19
I'll also add that almost as equally as important as to where you are posting the job. It's also important to know what you are posting, what's the language of the job? What's the title? Do you talk about the benefits? How are you connecting with people who you want to be working for you, just as we stress out about how we connect with our ideal clients, there is an ideal employee out there for you and your messaging. And the really, the marketing of your job posting should match that for you. So take some time to think about who the ideal person is, the language that you would use to attract them to your business, and really how you're going to explain the position to them to make sure that they fully understand what it is that we do.
Meghan 25:58
Yeah, and making sure that you are encompassing all of your circles that you have. So if you are part of a networking group, telling them, Hey, we're hiring, if you're a member of the Chamber of Commerce, tell them as well again, go to your clients, your email list, your you know, if your social media, Facebook and Instagram, having lots of different avenues of where to find people is going to help you get the most robust list that you possibly can to start off with and then you can start weeding people out. Or sometimes they weed themselves out.
26:26
We had a listener write in from Instagram, freckled Frost, who asked did you have to write up a business plan? If so at what point in growth did that become necessary? For Megan and I personally, we did not start off by writing a business plan. And to be specific here, you do not have to write one to start your business. And we actually talked about business plans a little bit in Episode 380. So check out the link in the show notes there. But there are really five points to consider. Here's you're going to start off with an executive summary. This is just going to talk about all the things that your business is going to encompass. Then you go into a business description and structure. You explain why you're in business, what you're providing the services, describe them in detail the value proposition that those bring to your clients, you're going to talk about strategic relationships and other things that you may own or expenses, legal structure that's
Collin 27:19
going to come up the third structure. The third part of this is your market research and your competition analysis. This is probably one of the most beneficial aspects of a business plan is the market research, spelling out your market analysis, look at your strategy forecasting forward looking at milestones that you're going to have to hit and how you're going to advertise to speak to these people. This is all about your, your, your ideal avatar, the people who you are trying to reach and talk to where do they live, you know, part of this is is also understanding that maybe you can't get all that data, or it's kind of hard, because you're so new. Well, if you have clients that you've already servicing, add these to your market research analysis to show that there is a need for your services, and that you are doing what you say you're going to do. The fourth aspect is about management personnel, the kind of people the team, the structure that you're going to have to make this work. And if you're solo, you could, you should still have this in there. As far as how you're going to make this work as being a solopreneur. And all that's included with them. And then finally, you're going to talk about projections, you're gonna have pricing, if you have any startup costs, or ongoing costs and budgets that you're going to have to take place. And this kind of business plan is something that you can use, we can work through on an annual basis. And maybe all this sounds a bit too complicated and formal for you. Because you're not going to be going getting outside investing or, you know, you don't need a loan or something to do this kind of business. The basics of a plan is what does my How does my company look right now? And then what do I want to look like in five years? And 10 years? Right, what you want your company to look like? And then the planning is? What do I have to do organizationally, structurally, to get to that point?
Meghan 29:08
Yeah, it's basically setting goals and it may not be financial, but you could say in five years, I want to be a six figure business. So okay, each year, what is my revenue that I need to make to get that, then break it down by a month and say, Okay, I need x number of new clients to get to this revenue based off of my expenses and my p&l. And this is how I will get to the number that I want in five years. I can seem very daunting, though, all of the steps of a business plan and it's a language is kind of scary. But if you sit down with somebody like a mentor, either in the pet care industry or outside who's got an MBA and knows the exact things to do here and has done this before, either in their own business or coached people through this, it can be very helpful to have that kind of accountability of this is something that I want to do in my business. I don't know exactly how to do it, but I'm gonna go seek help. And they're going to help guide me through this to make sure that I get this done because I believe it's important. Your local community college may have resources or university or even the SBA, the Small Business Administration may even have resources for you on exactly, you know, outline step by step of how to get you where you want to be.
Collin 30:18
And listeners sit, walk and wag wrote in and asked, What are your thoughts on meet and greets or initial consultation, I'm starting to feel if you've already had a phone consult, and decided to proceed to an in person consultation, that I need to build them for the personal consult too much time spent meeting and not being compensated for it. I currently have a 30 minute free consultation. Absolutely. If you're getting to the point where you are doing a lot of meet and greets, and they do take up time they take up your planning, they take up your expertise, you need to implement a paid consultation. And exactly I love that word of consultation, because at this point, that speaks to exactly what you are doing. Finding that language that coincides with what the purpose of this time together is. Is it a new client consultation? Is it a new client onboarding? Is it a behavioral assessment and consult whatever you want to do make sure that you have your onboarding process lined out and streamlined, so that your phone consult is solving certain problems, your in person behavioral consultation and assessment is solving other problems, the the onboarding into software, then all of that makes a logical flow from one point to another and that you're not duplicating work. So yes, in the end, if you are to the point where this is impacting you, and you want to be compensated for this, because it comes with a bunch of other benefits as well, this speaks to the professionalism, this speaks to the inherent dedication that you have, and that the other person has to bring you on to your for your services. And it limits the amount of looky loos into your company and price shoppers, because in order to get access to you, they have to pay so there are a lot of other ancillary benefits that come along with doing something like this. Our final question comes from Mia's mutts and they ask, How do I prepare for this business to be full time in the next 12 months? Well, first, congratulations on taking that huge step. There is a long road ahead of you, but with the right preparation, you are going to be successful. The first thing to do is get in the right mindset, you are now a business owner. And to have that separation between you and the world around you. There is a business there is a legal entity that exists between you and them. This will help frame how you approach problems.
32:50
We have an entire episode about the business owner mindset on episode 377 with Maria Turon. I'll also point you to Episode 223, about starting a pet care business there we dive into all the basics, but But essentially, the first thing is is to have a game plan. And we already answered a question earlier about what a business plan is, but focus on what success will be to you so that you can know how to work towards them. When we start without a plan when we have nothing that we are shooting for making tough decisions becomes really difficult. Then you need to look into your insurance and your licensing and make sure that you have these nail down that your insurance coverage actually matches the services that you're offering. And that you are carrying a business license to operate in your towns and your communities where you will be doing that. Take a look at your business structure as well. Now's a good time to start thinking about solo LLC, what's your future plans, maybe
Collin 33:47
an S corp down the line, have those conversations with a really good tax accountant, CPA and a business lawyer to get all that ironed out, then make sure that you have that bank account set up that is separate from you and your business. Your business has its own bank account, because it is its own entity, mixing your personal with your business will lead to headache down the line and makes it harder to lower. It makes it harder when it comes to tax time. We also recommend looking into how you're going to be scheduling and managing your growth. just starting out, you may feel that you have good systems in place. But the backbone of a strong business are the systems and procedures and policies. Make sure that your systems can scale with you that whatever booking software, that whatever booking procedure you have now, can you 10x That can you 100x That if you wanted to. Those are questions to look at now so that you don't feel pigeon holed or cornered into a decision later on where you're having to overcome this basically this this technical debt to get caught back up to run the business that you actually want to be running.
Meghan 34:59
So If you listening to this would like to share your story and come on the podcast, we would love to have you you can email us at feedback at Pet Sitter confessional.com. Thank you for listening. Thank you for asking great questions and hopefully some of the answers provided value today. Thank you also to pet sitters associates and our Patreon members for supporting today's show. We will talk with you next time. Bye
