586: Stop Running Someone Else’s Business
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Are you building the business you actually want—or just the one you think you should have? In this episode, we get honest about the constant pressure to scale, grow, and do more in the pet care industry. We share how chasing someone else’s definition of success can lead to burnout, resentment, and misalignment with your personal goals. Instead, we encourage you to use data, not emotion, when making decisions and to define what sustainable success means for you. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone looking to grow intentionally and build a business that supports their life—not the other way around.
Main Topics
Growth vs. sustainable success
Data-driven business decisions
Defining personal success
Market demands vs. personal boundaries
Reclaiming joy in business
Main takeaway: “We all need to stop building businesses that we think we should have and start building ones that we actually want.”
It’s easy to get caught in the noise of comparison and industry pressure—everyone says you have to grow, scale, and offer more. But what if your ideal business doesn’t look like that? What if it’s smaller, simpler, and actually supports the life you want to live? That’s not failure—that’s freedom. Give yourself permission to build something that you love.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Pet sitter confessional, business growth, mental health, sustainable growth, industry pressure, business decisions, data-driven decisions, client acquisition, business insurance, entrepreneur mindset, market demands, work-life balance, business fun, essential tasks, business realignment
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin
Meghan 00:01
Hi, I'm Megan. I'm Collin. We are the host of pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. We appreciate you listening today and joining us on this journey, whether it's your first episode or many we love that you're here. We'd also like to thank pet sitters associates, dog ho launch and our executive producers on Patreon. They are Adriana Amber, Barbie, Beck Erica, Jan Janie, Jenny, Julie, Catherine and Keith Liz and Lori Lucy and Sarah Savannah, Scott, Theresa, Yvonne and our newest Rachel, woo. Woo. Thank you, Rachel for finding value in the show and wanting to give back. We are so grateful for each and every one of you. You help support pet care professionals everywhere, and let us keep doing what we love. Everyone has a story, and we want to share as many of those as we can. A lot of times, there can really be a lot of pressure to grow and scale our businesses and also to grow something that fits you and your life, not just what everyone says success should look like. So that's what we're going to talk about on this episode. The big myth here is that bigger always means better, and that's just simply not true. If you spend any amount of time in online groups or at industry events, you hear it constantly, grow your team, scale your business, grow your services. Do More, more, more, bigger, better. Is the way that you should go. Scale your operations. It's like there's this treadmill, and we all feel pressure to jump on and keep running. But what if that treadmill is leading you somewhere you don't actually want to go, or you're running at a pace that you can't keep up with. You feel this pressure to run at five miles per hour, but you would rather saunter at two miles an hour. So while everybody around us is telling us bigger always means better. The reality is is that we've never been more burned out in this industry. Our compassion fatigue has never been as high as it is right now. And that's not just a coincidence. The pressure to grow isn't inherently bad. We aren't saying if you grow a big team, 40 employees, 100 employees, that's a bad thing. No, we're not saying that growth can be good, but not if it comes at the cost of your mental health, or if you just simply don't want to grow that big, that's okay. We don't want it to come at the cost of our relationships or the enjoyment of the work that we do. Our work needs to be sustainable. If you're growing a big team, or if you're solo, or if you just have a couple people, it needs to be intentional. It needs to be built for you, not for the algorithm, not for your peers or the pet sitter down the street or for the coach or for your parents, because you're trying to prove something right. We're
Collin 02:34
all guilty of this. We're all guilty of looking around and thinking, wow, look at that person, what they're offering. Look at that service, or maybe I should do that too, but they just raise their prices to to $5 more than me. I bet I can match that, or I should match that for whatever reason. But what's really important here is your business is not theirs, right? You are not your neighboring business. You are not the competition. You are not another business. You live in a different area, you have different clients, your schedule, energy availability. All of these are unique and different to you specifically. And this is one of the dangers of Megan, you mentioned about getting in a big online group, and then all of a sudden you're exposed to it's wonderful. You're exposed to so many different business practices across the globe, and we love that. What we then have to do is behold it on us, is to then say, can I make that work for my business? Should I make that work in my business? And if so, how would I do that? Just because somebody else is charging a certain price doesn't mean that we need to be charging that same price. It might not work in our area and how we operate,
Meghan 03:43
or even marketing ideas, just because they try something doesn't mean that we should as well. Even listening to us or the other pet sitters that are interviewed on our podcast, something that may work for them or may work for us, but is not going to work for you.
Collin 03:55
Yeah, offering a service because somebody else does, might actually hurt your business. Hurt yourself if it's not sustainable for you, or maybe it doesn't have the demand in your market, and so you're trying to make something happen that's just not going to work because the people in your area don't want it matching prices, just because somebody else raised theirs might price you out of your ideal clientele. And how you're trying to operate. You
Meghan 04:22
really have to make decisions based on facts and not feelings, not assumptions, not pressure, but because you want to, you want to try this new initiative, or increase your service area by one mile, or decrease it by one mile. Look at your numbers. What services are profitable? How much is your payroll. Is there even enough profit margin to bring on another person?
Collin 04:45
When you base your decisions based off of facts instead of feelings, you are actually more grounded in truth and reality. Many times, we got caught up in our emotions and we start making decisions because of the way we feel. But then tomorrow, we feel differently, and then in a week, we feel differently. Or in a month, something changes instead, make sure that you are tracking you have good data, you know, if nothing else, have a Google sheet where you're tracking how your clients find you, and have a way of knowing what your conversion rate from client contact to active client actually is. These simple things really give you a lot of power and understanding, and that's just from the client perspective. This isn't from your ROI on your marketing, and this isn't from your business operations and your scheduling and your routes. All of these are little touch points that we need to have with our business. We certainly need to trust our gut. We need to have that intuition, and we need to lean into that at certain times. But when we look at business practices, policies, procedures, business structure. This is where having good data and historical data really comes into play to make sure that you are making solid decisions. And importantly, here you can see how it is impacting your business and your bottom line well. And
Meghan 05:56
we're talking about changing something here, but sometimes we go off of feelings, and we don't want to change something. We don't want to raise prices because we're afraid that all of our clients are going to leave, or a good portion of them. Well, look at your facts. If you cannot pay your bills, or if you really want to bring on an employee, but you can't right now because your prices aren't high enough. So whether you're looking at bringing on an employee or raising your prices or changing your services, having data will help you make those decisions. Something
Collin 06:21
that I've really enjoyed doing recently is as Megan and I have made business decisions and changes to our business and structurally and all this stuff, I've been annotating our tracking documents so where we used to just track how clients find us, and you know, all that information now, alongside that, I've added a column of basically a comment of when we did a marketing event, or when we changed something about pricing, or when we did some wording, or when we did these things, so that I can go back and look and see, okay, look at all this stuff we did in March, and then look how it's coming up. You know, several months down the line, something as simple as this really helps you when you go to look back and reflect on what happened this year and specifically when you did it, because just looking at changes and fluctuations over time really is disconnected from all the work that you're actually doing in your business. Being able to pair and match these two is really where the power
Meghan 07:12
is. So it's important to ask yourself, What's best for how I operate, for where I live, for the kind of life I want to build? This is your business. Build it that way. Something that your business definitely needs is pet sitters associates. All professionals should have specific pet business insurance. As a pet sitter, you know how much trust goes into caring for someone's furry family members, but who's got your back for over 25 years, pet sitters Associates has been helping pet care pros like you with affordable, flexible insurance coverage, whether you're walking dogs, pet sitting or just starting out, they make it easy to protect your business. Get a free quote today at petsit llc.com as a listener, you get $10 off your membership when you use code confessional at checkout. That's petsit llc.com because your peace of mind is part of great pet care. So let's talk about the noise, the danger of that noise, the pressure from that noise, all the chatter in our industry, Facebook groups, forums, local circles, industry gurus. There are so many voices telling us what to do. You have to offer boarding. You have to post three times a day on Tiktok. You have to accept every client who calls. Well, the bottom line is you don't have to do any of that. All of that noise can make it hard to hear your own voice, what you want, your own goals, your own needs, if you start making decisions based on what everyone else says, or the hot new trend or the new marketing method that everybody's doing, but oh yeah, it's gonna cost you $4,000 a year, and you don't actually have that, you're gonna start doing what other people do, rather than what you want or what your business needs. That is a fast track to resentment and burnout when you are running somebody else's business. That's not going to make you happy.
Collin 08:48
We see this all the time with people who take on too much advertising. They pay for way too much advertising than they can actually support. They're kind of acting as though they're a multiple six figure or a million dollar business when they in reality, aren't. And so we have to make sure that our business practices are also in alignment of for where we are and the realities of our business. I love that phrase, stop running somebody else's business that you said, Megan, like it really is a reminder of we need to stay focused on what we are doing and what's best for us. Instead of going, Wow, look at that shiny thing, I've got to do that going is, will that work for me? Or can I realistically, can I feasibly actually do that right now, for where I am,
Meghan 09:34
when you copy somebody else's business plan, it's probably not going to work out, no matter how successful they are. It's probably not going to work for you exactly how they're doing it in their own area, because their plan was built around their clients and their market and their strengths. You can copy letter for letter, word for word, exactly what they're doing on their website, on their social media, but it's like trying on someone else's shoes and. Probably be uncomfortable and it might just fall apart. And
Speaker 1 10:04
copying that stuff is also illegal, so don't copy people's stuff.
Meghan 10:09
Yeah, we're definitely not advocating for that. It's just
Collin 10:11
a concept to go even if you execute this exactly how they did, it doesn't mean that that is exactly what's going to be successful for you, or it's going to work, or it's actually what you want.
Meghan 10:22
Now, of course, you can use things as templates of, oh, this person did a pizza for pets. I would like to do something similar. I'm going to approach my own local pizza places and see if we can get a partnership going. There are ideas that you can use as inspiration, but to expect the same result as somebody else is a little silly, your business should be a reflection of you. What every other business doesn't have is you, how you approach things, how you problem solve, how you handle certain aspects of your business.
Collin 10:52
And we see it in things such as, you know, hours of operation, of looking at somebody else and going, Oh, wow, they're open 6am to 10pm seven days a week, 365 days a year. I guess that's what I need. What I need to do in order to get clients. Well, here's the thing, where is that person in their life stage? Does that person actually setting healthy boundaries? Are they actually able to take care of themselves and get the rest that they need and the family time that they need? Because if they don't, why would you copy something that's actually breaking another person, another human being. Too often we copy the most toxic aspects of businesses instead of the best practices, instead of the good things for our businesses, we go, wow, I guess I just have to ruin myself in my life, because that's what everybody else is doing. And I see look at them, and they appear successful. They appear to be doing well instead of going well. I actually like my sleep, and I like my time with my family. So how does my business need to look what things do I need to have exactly? Should I scale just a little bit so that I can bring on some employees to take off some of this burden so I can rest? Those are those decisions that we're actually making here of going, how can I live a life that isn't consumed in totality by my business, because
Meghan 12:05
everybody deserves time off. We've used the word success a lot, but let's also talk about sacrifice. We often assume that to grow or succeed we have to sacrifice everything, all holidays. No, we don't get any more weekends. We don't get any more holidays. We have no boundaries. We answer the phone at 11pm at night, we have to run ourselves into the ground in order to make this thing successful. But that's not the only kind of sacrifice. Sometimes sacrifice looks like taking a pay cut so you can hire an admin or that first employee in order to get your sanity back, or maybe it looks like doing your favorite hobby at a different time of day so you have a better energy for work, or it could look like turning away a high paying client because they make your day miserable. Hello, just because you can take on somebody doesn't mean that you should. Sometimes we want our businesses to look a certain way, but our market is telling us something else you can either burn yourself out fighting that, or adapt. If you offer adventure hikes, and you've been talking about them for the past two years and you've really been promoting them a lot and trying to give discounts on them and and you have very little or no clients, your market may be saying, okay, that's not a service that we are wanting right now. So you
Collin 13:16
either there's these two different paths that you can take in that scenario, some people would say, Okay, well, you need to double down. You need to rebrand, you need to find new ways to market. You need to be networking. You need to be changing your pricing. You need to be doing all of this stuff. Another path is to say, You know what? It's not working right now. I need to push this aside. I really wanted to have an adventure, hike based business, but for whatever reason right now, it's not working in my community and my clientele are not latching onto this. I need to go somewhere else and do something different. And this really is where the mindset of an entrepreneur comes in. Yeah, we're small business owners. That means we're operators. We're operating our business and running it and running it well. However, the mindset of an entrepreneur would say, where are my opportunities? Where do I need to be moving and pivoting my business? What is the market telling me that it wants? And then I decide, do I go into that market? Do I do go into those services? Do I start offering these things? Because if we sit back and we go, the only thing that I will ever do, or can ever do, is this one thing that I only want to do. You're gonna have a hard time in a lot of cases, because what if that's not where what your market wants? What if that's not where people are ready for where you are putting ourselves aside, our egos to the side, and instead embracing what the clients are actually wanting and serving them in that way. Now, again, we've got to take this with a grain of salt and go, Well, if they're only asking for overnights, but I don't want to do overnights, and that's going to break the boundaries, and that's going to ruin the lifestyle that I want to lead. We have to say no to that. So just because the market says they want something. Thing doesn't mean that we need to be the ones filling that. And it is tough to carry both of these things side by side. I need to have an entrepreneur mindset and follow the market where it's leading me so I can serve them in the ways they want to instead of only trying to offer the one thing that I want. We have to hold that in our mind while also recognizing that if we exclusively follow the market, we will continually burn ourselves out and be doing things that we don't want to. There is a balance in the middle where we try and meet the need in ways. Here's what we do. We see the need that the clients are asking us for, then we come up with a new, inventive, personal way to meet that need that still is protecting us and ourselves where that's where we make it unique. That's how we can serve it in a different way, and that's how we find our niche. When people ask for overnights, right? We go, Well, look, I don't want to do overnights, and I'm not going to leave my bed, because I really enjoy my sleep. However, what I can do is offer you almost overnights, and here's how I make that work. That's exactly what we're talking about here. And we do that with everything in our business here, where the market is pulling and then we dictate and decide how we want to serve them.
Meghan 16:18
True success is building something that aligns with your life, not forcing your life to align with a business that you no longer love. We always say we left our nine to five so we could work 24/7 and while that's funny, it really shouldn't be the case. If you really do want your business to be here in 20, 3040, years, you need to have sustained growth, and that means it's a marathon, not a sprint, not burning ourselves out. And now a quick message about the dog co launch Summit.
Speaker 2 16:44
Are you attending the dog co Business Summit located in Winston, Salem, North Carolina, September 26 to the 28th This is a place for scaling pet care companies to come together, learn from industry leaders and level up your pet care business to the next level. Go to dog cosummit.com, to learn more and to purchase your ticket before they are all gone.
Collin 17:08
We have a very radical idea for you, and we hope you're sitting down. Your business should be fun. You should be able to wake up in the morning and not dread what's going on ahead. If you're cringing at your calendar because of certain clients or certain tasks, or you have a yet, you have to do something yet again, it's probably time for a change. We need to take that signal as a change for ourselves. If we see that we're we're searching, we're yearning, we're working towards a level of success just because somebody else has it, and yet, I don't get time with my grandma, I don't get time with walks in the parks. I don't get to read a book, I don't get to watch a movie, I don't get to do these things because I'm searching and going after somebody else's success, because I'm trying to run their business for me. Right? If we're doing that, we're finding these things and we're getting burned out. We're getting resentful. We need to take a big step back and find where we are misaligned in our business. To
Meghan 18:06
get your business to be fun again. It may mean off boarding a difficult client. We've had to fire clients. It's not fun. Nobody likes it, but sometimes you just have to do it. It may mean hiring somebody to handle your social media, if that's not your strong suit, if you want to do short form videos but you're not good at it, or you just don't want to learn the skill. You may want to give that to somebody else. It could also mean just say no to services that you no longer enjoy offering. If you want to sleep in your bed, you should be able to sleep in your own bed. If your business is sucking the joy out of your life, it's not a sustainable business. Your life should be fun. Your business should be fun. We got in this to play with puppies and kitties. And yes, we do have to do the business side, the admin side, the route planning, the paying the taxes, the updating the website, that keeping the social media going, the marketing, doing events. We do need to keep getting our business name out there, but it should be something that we are able to keep up for years to come. The goal isn't just profit. It's not always to make more money. I'm not saying that's not a goal. Of course, we're in business to make money, but we want a good life, a well rounded life, is essential. So think about what that looks like. What is needed to keep your business going, what's essential, what tasks are truly worth your time, your energy, your focus, because you don't have to do everything. You don't have to offer every service in order to get more clients, in order to get more money, in order to get bigger, in order to hire employees, in order to get to be the biggest company in your city. If you don't want that, you don't have to do that. You don't have to do every trend on social media and dance thing on Tiktok and the newest marketing tactic just because everybody else is doing it, you don't have to take on every client. What is essential for you running an enjoyable business? Because sometimes doing less is the best move that you can make, maybe offering less services, doing less of a service area, having fewer employees ask yourself hard questions and make decisions. That give you space, give you clarity, give you space to breathe back in your business,
Collin 20:04
you've got to ask, What can I stop doing, even temporarily? It's not something that has to be permanent. Maybe you just need enough space to get enough sleep for a little while and get back on track and find a good rhythm, and so you cut out late night visits for a while, or you charge extra for them to kind of reduce the demand for those what can you let go of? Ask yourself, What can I let go of that's not serving me or my clients? If I'm doing something and it's and it's killing me inside, if it's breaking me, if I'm resentful of this, I've got to stop doing that. Or maybe you think you're doing something for your clients and they actually don't care. It's actually not really all that important. Maybe for your clients, you were trying to do a weekly newsletter, and it's just the open rates aren't there, and you've tried and experimented, it's just not what's working for your clients. Shift to a quarterly or a monthly newsletter, find ways to get that space back. What's worth doubling down, actually, what's worth doubling down because it brings you joy, because it actually brings you success in how you define it. This is where tracking and understanding the baseline, the fundamentals of your business is important. Because when you can find Wow, when I put 5% effort into this, whenever I do this a little bit here, I get so much back from that. I get so much joy, I get so much time, I get so many clients. That's where we need to be focusing our efforts, instead of trying to do absolutely everything all the time without ceasing pulling back. Because when we can reduce that, when we reduce both, this is also coming in reducing the noise in our business, focusing only on what we're doing and how we're operating. When we pull back, you actually do find what is essential. You may over cut, you may cut too much in one area, and you'll actually reveal that this was the what was driving a lot of your success and driving a lot of your joy. So you're gonna build that back up, and you're gonna make sure that that is gonna redouble there. But as you trim the hedges down, you're gonna find that there's a lot of dead space. There's a lot of things in your business that you have no business to continue to do, but you think you need to do it because somebody else is so
Meghan 22:10
the bottom line is, is that we, all, including us, need to stop building businesses that we think we should have and start building ones that we actually want. We need to build businesses that support our life, our goals, our values. Think about this week, one step that you can take toward realigning what you want in your business. That might be saying no, that might be hiring help, that might be saying yes to something, or it might be just giving yourself permission to ignore all the noise and trust your gut. We'd love to know how you would realign your business. You can email us at Pet Sitter confessional@gmail.com, or look us up on Facebook and Instagram. At Pet Sitter confessional, we want to thank our sponsors again, pet sitters associates and dog co launch and our executive producers on Patreon. Until next time, stay safe. Give those pets some extra love from us and go build something you love. We'll talk with you next time, bye, bye.
