536: Preparing for a Strong 2025
Brought to you by: Pet Sitters Associates. Use ‘Confessional’ at checkout
Are you ready to finish 2024 strong and set yourself up for success in 2025? In this episode, we explore seven key strategies for ending the year well, including reflecting on surprises, analyzing client feedback, and adjusting your pricing to better align with your goals. We also emphasize the importance of refining your marketing efforts and streamlining operations to enhance efficiency. Listen in to learn how to make 2025 your best year yet, starting right now!
Main topics:
Reflect on 2024 surprises
Evaluate client feedback received
Analyze pricing and services
Review marketing efforts' impact
Plan days off early
Main takeaway: Set up your days off now for next year and make it a fact of how you operate—your mental health matters.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitter confessional, end year strong, reflect on year, client feedback, price analysis, marketing review, streamline operations, professional development, schedule days off, tax preparation, holiday marketing, mental health, business growth, industry conferences, client communication
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin
Meghan 00:00
Hi, I'm Meghan,
Collin 00:02
I'm Collin,
Meghan 00:04
and we are the host of pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you also to pet sitters associates for sponsoring today's episode, and also our Patreon supporters who love the podcast. Thank you guys so much. We are so grateful that you guys want to keep the show going and give a few dollars of your hard earned pet sitting and dog walking money every month to keep the podcast running. If you are listening and you think that sounds like you too, you can go to pet sitter confessional.com/support, to see all of the ways that you can help out. It is hard to believe that we are in the last quarter of 2024 I feel like I say this every year, but the year has flown by. How do we get started for the next year and still end the year strong? We've got the major holidays coming up, so how do we make sure that we have enough in our tank to keep going for the rest of the year and propel us into the new year? There are seven things that we want to talk about today, the first one being to reflect on this year. Obviously, we don't have all of the data yet for the year, so we can't look at the totality of the revenue and the visits done. You can do a wrap up closer to the end of the year for that. But in general, think about what has surprised you in your business. Are there things that completely caught you off guard? Maybe a client leaving a bad review, or an award that you received in your business that you weren't expecting? What has exceeded your expectations? Do you generally get the sense that you are busier than last year? I had a feeling a few weeks ago that we had hired less people than we did last year. Means that we retained more of our employees this year, and we pulled some of the numbers. And while we're not at the end of the year yet, we are on the general path of yes, we retained more employees this year than we did last year. So that felt really good, well,
Collin 01:43
and that right there is one of the big reasons to do this, because what we want to do is go, how do I feel about my business? And then I can actually go and compare to the data that's going to tell me the true story, just like we did of well, it feels like we've hired fewer people this year. Let's go, actually go look at those numbers, and that'll actually tell you a lot about your relationship with your business. Are you starting to get burned out? Because you may be feeling like everything is terrible and everything is awful, but the data may be telling you something else. So what that tells you is that you yourself have a mindset that's not healthy, and maybe you need to be taking more days off, or trying to find ways to boost yourself back up, or to invest back in yourself into next year. So this kind of check allows you to make sure that your mindset doesn't impact business decisions or impact your outlook for better or for worse. Yeah,
Meghan 02:39
compare how you feel versus the actual data. And then if you have data that you aren't necessarily happy with, there are some things that you can do to change it. Maybe make a standard operating procedure, to make that better. If it was something that was broken in your business or didn't work exactly how you want it, to make a policy for it,
Collin 02:57
or you had things that surprised you and they shouldn't have surprised you, maybe you finally realize that, oh, I don't have as a robust of a lockout policy, as I thought I did, and I ended up being locked out five or six times this year. Well, maybe I need to go talk with a locksmith in my town and set up a corporate account so they can be faster to respond and Bill Me Later, as opposed to billing me on the spot where I might not have cash, or whatever you encountered this year. Now's the time to start thinking about how to make sure that the surprises I had this year don't happen again next year.
Meghan 03:31
Another way to end the year strong is to evaluate your client feedback. What have you received in 2024 go back to your Google reviews and your Facebook reviews. Generally, they're probably going to be positive. But are there things in your software or in your text messages where clients weren't necessarily happy with how you or your employees performed? How can you make that into a plan and guide yourself and your business into 2025, with the knowledge of, okay, this is how we need to change. This is what we need to do better at, and this is the new policy moving forward. So hopefully this doesn't happen again. You can really discuss how that feedback can refine services or your marketing or your operations. If you were attracting a certain type of client this year that you really didn't want to be but this type of person kept contacting you. Maybe that's time to shift next year into a new marketing message.
Collin 04:25
Or maybe you can pull words and phrases or concepts from the positive reviews to try and play up those more in your marketing, on your website, in the messaging that you're trying to put out there, obviously people are saying these wonderful things about you, so taking that and using it back in your marketing messages is a great way to connect with similarly minded people looking for similar things with similar problems,
Meghan 04:49
as with most look backs and look aheads. It's all about the numbers. So do a price analysis. What were your costs this year? What were your expenses that you paid out? Did you participate in more. Events and have more products to either sell or give away. What are the other prices in your area? Are you middle of the road compared to everybody else? Are you higher or lower? Do your prices per service make sense? This is one that we had to wrestle with for a long time. If you know, say, if you offered overnight services for $50 a night, but a single drop in is $27 for 30 minutes. That really doesn't scale, because at 230 minute visits, you're already at $54 which is more than your entire overnight price. And if you're staying for 12 hours, that doesn't make sense,
Collin 05:34
especially if you are frustrated with how your business is going. We know a lot of people are actually trying to move away from overnights and reduce the frequency of which that they're doing those but they're not playing with their pricing. And so if you are actively trying to get away from overnights or away from a particular service, make sure that it makes sense in the context of everything else that you offer. Maybe you're keeping dogs in your house for $45 a night, but you say, oh, it can come to you as many times a day as you want for $30 a visit. That doesn't make sense to the consumer, and you're really having to sell them on the benefits that they may not see. They may go, oh, well, it sure. I can understand how a dog would be better in my home. But if you'll keep them for 45 bucks, I It doesn't matter the benefits. That's what I want to do so make sure that all that is in alignment, because it makes your marketing messaging a whole lot easier whenever it all lines up. And then when we talk about understanding the prices in our area, obviously we don't want to just price something, because that's what somebody else charges, but we do need to be sensitive to what the ways the markets are moving. Are they trending upward? Are they trending downward? And then make decisions on how we price services, or the kind of services that we offer, given the market that we have in our local community. When we
Meghan 06:51
talk about marketing, we have to review our marketing efforts. So think about that for 2024 what worked and what didn't? Were there events or advertising methods that didn't necessarily work out. Assess each one. When you go through your PNL to see your expenses, you can say, okay, was this profitable? Do I want to do this again? Was Does this meet the goal and have the success that I wanted it to? Or was this just a waste of money? Then also think about this year, what new opportunities? Have you found? Did a local magazine contact you and you jumped at the chance of that and it's been a success? Or maybe you're still waiting on that one, but need to give it a little more time. Or you've done yard signs for the first time this year, or postcards, assess the individual ways that you have spent money on getting your message out there, and see if you want to continue doing those
Collin 07:41
and go back and relook at maybe things that you said no to this year. Why did you say no to those? Was it a financial thing? Did you have the time for those? Did you find out at two last minute and you couldn't get everything together, readdress and reassess everything of what you said yes to, what you said no to, and ask why did it work out? And if you said no to something, maybe that's something to put on your plate for this coming year so that you can be ready for it. Maybe it was a good opportunity, or it could be a good opportunity for where you're trying to grow and change and you want to try something new.
Meghan 08:14
In looking ahead to next year, we need to make sure that our operations are streamlined and as efficient as possible. So review your scheduling, your booking processes, basically everything that the client goes through in your business or payment system that you have to ensure that they are user friendly, that they actually work. Do the buttons on your website go to what they say they're going to go to, do your emails work as well. Make sure that people are getting those a lot of times we set up processes, or we set up systems in our business, and we think, okay, because the computer told me that I need to do XYZ, and I've done XYZ, then I'm good to go. But computer is sometimes wrong. The robots aren't perfect, as much as we like to think that they are. So once you go through that process, whether it's a new client inquiry or a potential hire, and you're on your job application website, implement those changes and updates to really improve those experiences. Because the last thing that we want is to have a frustrated client or a frustrated employee trying to do their training and them not be able to do it, and then they come to us not happy, when all along, it was something that we could have fixed if we had just taken the extra 10 minutes to go through the process that they are going through.
Collin 09:25
Well, yeah, one of Megan's wonderful things that she does is, anytime I make a new web page for our website, she goes in and finds those buttons. So it's testing that okay. It says, Click here to find more information. Do you actually find more information when you say, okay, client, you're about to get a new email that's going to tell you the rest of the processes. Do they actually get that? And when they get that email, what does that actually say? I know for one, the thing that we had to go back and change was when we switched softwares all of our we had an automated email system that when somebody wanted became a new client, they were sent a couple. Multiple emails that just automatically shunted out. That was like, welcome. Here's a little bit about us. Here's how to get started with our software. And it was that software one that we had to go back and make sure that we changed as part of that email series to talk about our new software, because otherwise they were getting old information that just didn't make sense and wasn't relevant to them anymore. And so now it's, you know, all outlined in everything, but it's about going, about going, Okay, I set this up one time. Does it still make sense for how I want to operate? Does it still make sense for what I'm doing in my business? Maybe you're pivoting from all pet sitting to just cat sitting. Well, do your emails make sense? Does your onboarding make sense in the context of cat sitting now or or adventure hikes or poop scooping, or whatever you're trying to do in your business, does what you set up five years ago still make sense with the kind of clients that you're talking to and the kind of business that you're running right now, as we look ahead to next year, make sure all of that makes sense so that you have a good experience Whenever you're working through and you're not having to just shunt things over or say, Okay, well, that that field Don't, don't worry about those fields on the intake form, because you that's not important to you anymore. If you find yourself saying things like that for new clients, just get rid of the fields because otherwise, you know it's confusing to them. Why do you ask for these, these things? Of me, if, if it's not necessary, those little things actually go a long way to streamlining your operations in your business, to make sure that you have less headaches and your clients have a much better experience.
Meghan 11:29
A comment we hear a lot is, I didn't know pet sitting conferences were a thing or that they were near me. But yes, they are. As you set yourself up for next year, think about, are there any trainings that you want to do. A lot of pet sitters and dog walkers do their pet first aid and CPR certification online, but there may be one in your local area where you can get actual hands on experience. There's also a lot of conferences, pet sitters international, national association of professional pet sitters, Florida Pet Services Association, Texas pet sitters Association, the International boarding and Pet Services Association has one there are a lot of ways to get connected and network with other pet sitters around the country. When you sit down to plan that professional development, don't forget about things like management trainings or books to read any of that is valuable.
Collin 12:15
The great thing about conferences is that they are a very intensive time to come together, to network and to learn a lot of information. The bad thing about conferences is that they take a lot of planning to actually go to. You've got to worry about travel and lodging and saying no to clients and budgeting that time and budgeting those finances and making sure everything is in alignment. They're not very easily done last minute, and in most cases, the conferences that Megan just listed, they all sell out well in advance. So finding a ticket last minute is really hard to get. We've actually compiled a list of all of the industry relevant conferences on our resources page at Pet sir confessional.com/resources, and you scroll down to the bottom there, you'll see information about conferences that you can attend. All of these organizations. List the conference dates well in advance. They might not have the exact agenda down, but is worth getting into that list and getting your tickets so that you can actually attend one and start seeing what they're about. And the last
Meghan 13:10
thing that you can do to set yourself up for success next year is to schedule your days off. It's important, even if you have a team of employees, you still need time off. We cannot work seven days a week, 365, days a year. It is not wise. So don't wait until you just find the time, because you're never going to just find the time, even if you block time off. But you have a problem with saying no to clients. Clients are going to ask you to do services on those days that you already have blocked off. So you just have to make the time and then stick with it. It really is important. Your mental health, your physical well being, is more important than this job. It really is a great email to
Collin 13:50
send out on January 1 of 2025. Is to all your clients as a reminder. The below are the following list of days where we are not available for services. We thank you for support of our business and look forward to caring for your furry family members this year, and just get it out there, and then you're going to send that email probably 100 more times next year to get that on their minds. And then any new clients that come on board and that you take on next year, you're letting them know. And these are the days that we are not available for services. We're happy to work with you around those for all of your other pet care needs, and just make it a fact that this is how we operate, so that you know you have that time locked away. And one of the best things you can do to be confident in taking this time away is by doing one of those things that we talked about earlier, is doing that price analysis. So often, pet sitters do not take time away that they absolutely need because they are worried about pricing, and so they sacrifice their time, their mental health, at the sake of pricing and finances, when, in all reality, if they raise their price by $1 or two, maybe $5 that would take away the need for all the weekends needing to be full or whatever services. If you could raise your prices just a little bit so that you didn't need to do four or five of them on a particular weekend, it would free up so much of your time and make it way worth your while. In doing that, before we talk about how to end this year strong, we'd like to tell you about our friends
Meghan 15:14
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. For 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 petsit llc.com you can get a discount when you join by clicking membership Pet Sitter confessional and use the discount code confessional when you go to check out, check out the benefits of membership and insurance. Once again, at petsit llc.com,
Collin 15:48
we've just talked about seven ways that we can begin preparing for a strong 2025 but as Megan also said the beginning of the episode, we've got a lot to do to close out 2024 so we also want to talk about, how can we close 2024 strong and make sure that it is still a good year,
Meghan 16:07
and we have about a month before the major holidays, if you're listening to this, in the middle of October. So it is important to do these now, while you have the time and not in a holiday rush.
Collin 16:16
And the first thing that we need to do to make sure that we're ending the year strong is to consider our taxes and make sure that we are well prepared for those we know that there's going to be a lot of paperwork to do. There always is. The date never changes, and whether you're in the United States or not, taxes are something that we all have to consider and make sure that we are prepared for as a business. So as we're doing our reflections of how this year went What do we need to have prepared for next year? What paperwork did we not have on hand? What didn't we get filed on time? What did we miss? And how can we get ahead of that? Is this year we need a tax professional, because we've grown so much. Or maybe we took on a company vehicle, or maybe we took on employees, and now that's not something that we really want to deal with. What even happens with W twos, and how do those get sent out? Right? All of these questions become way more complicated, and sometimes we just stop caring, and we don't have enough initiative to actually get them done. So if you find yourself in that as you're doing that reflection, if you're looking at what you struggled with and what went well and what didn't, if taxes come up right now, go to your calendar and start setting prepare preparation dates for paperwork that you know you're going to have. Do you have all of your receipts? Have you been tracking your mileage? What kind of deductions are you eligible for? Did you start making a home office? Those questions are going to help you make sure that you're getting the most out of this tax season and make it go much better for you. And
Meghan 17:37
obviously, there are going to be documents that you don't have until the beginning of next year. You won't have your final revenue numbers and exactly how much you pay down in payroll. But I do think your point is very valid here of setting the deadline, say, Okay, I'm going to give myself January to try to collect all of my documents, and then I'm going to set deadlines. The first week of February I'm going to work on this, and the second week I'm going to work on this, and that way by the end of February, you'll have the bulk of it done, so you just need to do a couple more things to tighten it up, and then you won't be late for the
Collin 18:06
deadline. The more we can do right now, the better, and the faster the tax season is going to go at the beginning of next year, when we are probably off to the races doing all sorts of other crazy things or busy with business, get it done now,
Meghan 18:19
ending this year strong also means adjusting your marketing strategies for the holidays. Maybe you are completely closing your doors and saying, Nope, I am not going to deal with the craziness this year. I don't want the headache. I don't want my team to have the headache. We're just we're not going to operate. But if that's not you explore strategies to leverage the holiday season. Maybe you want to do special promotions or social media posts that really get engagement going and targeting
Collin 18:43
those seasonal needs of our clients where their demand is way through the roof. So do you have the capacity to take on the high needs of your clients as more and more people are going to be booking you, or like Megan mentioned, if you're not interested in doing that at all, have you already blocked those dates off and then finally, with so much on the plate at the end of the year and to prepare for next year, make sure that you're taking a moment right now to breathe. You probably made mistakes this past year, or maybe things didn't go all that you had done, and according to your plan, that's okay, forgive yourself, take a moment to breathe, let this year go so that you can go into next year with a fresh look on things, with a new slate, knowing that anything is possible. Today is a new day. Tomorrow is a new day. We can still learn, we can still grow as a business, and know that we can do better and try new things,
Meghan 19:36
because the easiest way to be successful is to know where you've been, where you are at now and where you are going when you get those three components going, you will be unstoppable in your business. We would love to know how you are planning ahead for next year and how you are finishing this year strong. You can email us at petsitter confessional@gmail.com or you can look us up on Facebook and Instagram at pet sitter. Confessional, thank you for listening today. We appreciate you. We also want to thank our Patreon supporters for finding value in the show and also pet sitters associates. We will talk with you next time bye. You.
