019- Setting Goals for 2020

Join us this week as we talk about our 2019 goals, and our goals going into 2020. We share some goals of other sitters and some general tips on how to go about setting and, more importantly, achieving them. We also share some updates about the podcast.

Strategies and ways to implement 

....if you have a plan to grow, what does that look like? Hiring someone? Or just gaining more clientele?

Do you have a plan? 

Some tips for achieving the goal you have (because lets be honest, most of us quit our goals by february):

Your goal (or goals) should be specific.

It should be something you can measure, like a certain income you want to make, or number of new clients you want to take on.

Your goal should be attainable and realistic. If you just started dog sitting 2 months ago, it may not be wise to have a goal of hitting 6-figures next year.

Understand why you have that goal.

Set a time limit for the goal (so here we are specifically discussing goals for 2020 but maybe you have a 5 year or 10 year plan)

Small steps

Track your performance.

Have accountability

Celebrate the small victories.

That will help you build momentum.

It may help to talk to someone about it if you are an out loud thinker? May help to write it down or create a vision board if you are a visual person.

Build your team! 

Tax person? 

Software for management? Time to Pet

IC or employee?

Team leader or manager? 

Emotional support?

If you fail, fail forward. Don’t lose sight of your end goal.

https://www.petsit.com/25-low-cost-marketing-ideas-for-pet-sitters

https://www.petsit.com/setting-smart-goals-for-your-pet-sitting-business-this-year

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

Provided by otter.ai

0:16  

I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional. An open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.

0:24  

Hey guys, welcome to Episode 19, where today we're going to talk all about planning for 2020 and goals.

0:30  

Right off the bat, we want to say a very Merry Christmas Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you guys. Whether you're listening to this while you're out busy, or you're able to have some time off with friends and family, we hope that you are enjoying this time of the year

0:46  

and not too stressed out.

0:47  

Yeah, which is really easy to do. Obviously,

0:50  

they were going to talk about business goals, and personal goals and basically just all the goals

0:55  

using this time kind of at the end of the year as a time of reflection and thinking about about The year that we just had and looking ahead to 2020.

1:03  

So for us personally, our business goal for 2019 was to gain 50 clients. And we had just moved to the area late in 2018. And so we were trying to start up our business and get a lot of clients. And so we had a goal of 50.

1:21  

So with 2019, being our first full year, in our new city, we ended with 76, which we were really stoked about. That was amazing. We were really excited about the response and the feedback that we're getting from everybody. And the wonderful word of mouth, the referrals that we were getting in the area.

1:39  

Now our 2020 business goal is to ramp up our repeat client business. So we already have a lot of them, but we want to increase that even more. And so we want to have a total client base of 100 by the end of 2020. You want

1:55  

to hit that 100 without increasing the number of daycares and boardings that we're doing in In our home,

2:00  

we want to do is increase the number of drop ins and housesitting. And we found that our area, there aren't really a whole lot of opportunities for that. But we hope that we can make some headway in that in 2020. for personal goals. For me, it's the infamous lose weight this coming year in 2020. I turned 30 years old. And so I would like to get back to my pre baby weight before I turned 30.

2:23  

For me, it's also in the same vein as getting more physically fit. I 1am wanting to get back into CrossFit and stop having so many excuses. The end of the year was pretty brutal with some minor health things and just a lot of business and traveling stuff got really hectic there towards the end. So really looking for a nice fresh start in 2020.

2:44  

So we asked some other pet sitters what their goals were, and you guys gave us lots of great responses. Some of them included. One person said doubling her clientele taking on independent contractor and of course the typical lose weight, which is what I just said. Another person had said double her current amount of clients. So she wanted to hire part time help and also wanted to buy a company vehicle and to reach 60,000 in gross income, which is pretty awesome.

3:12  

We also had some people wanting to branch out and do some travel sitting for some new experiences.

3:17  

Another person said to double the amount of bookings that she was getting. She said that she's only doing this part time now, but she would love to have at least one booking every month and a half. So this year in 2019, she had only six bookings but she was hoping to at least have 10 or 12, more in 2020.

3:34  

Again, more people talking about wanting to grow their business. So someone mentioned wanting to get more walks. But in the same neighborhood, this person currently has three in this really big neighborhood and they're looking to grow and expand more there to really upscale neighborhood so it's a great place to be working. Her name is definitely being spread for the good.

3:52  

Another sitter said, My goal is to run my dog walking business full time, and then someone else had said in that same vein to continue You awesome care of my regulars and to gain some new clientele for 2020.

4:04  

So we hope you've been able to take some time to think about some goals that you have going into the new year. If you haven't been able to do that you can sit down with some friends and family reminisce about what this year has been like for you put some goals and some things too much achievable. goals down on pen and paper just have something to work towards in the coming year.

4:22  

And if you plan to grow in your pet sitting business, what does that look like? Are you going to be hiring someone as an independent contractor or an employee? Or do you just want to gain more clients? Or do you want to go from part time to full time is 2020 going to be your time to jump into pet sitting business full time? Ultimately though, you want to ask yourself, do you have a plan for your goal? We also have some tips for helping you achieve the goals you have because let's be honest, most of us hit our goals by February. Not good. So we want to have a plan and the first step is that your goal or goals should be specific It should be something that you can measure. So like a certain amount of income that you want to make, or like we had a certain number of clients that you want to have.

5:08  

That way, you know, when you've had it want to make sure that it's measurable so that you know when to stop or when you know whether it's been a success, or you still have some more work that needs to be done to make really ambiguous goals. And sometimes that's fine. It just depends on what you're after. But really ambiguous goals can drive you insane, because you never know if you're hitting the mark, or how much more work you need to be investing to something like, have more fun. Well, how are you going to measure that at the end of the year? How are you going to judge whether you did or you didn't, if you want to track something like that, start journaling or blogging about your experiences and see how many positive ones you write versus the number of negative ones that you write, so that you can measure it at the end of the year.

5:50  

And along with that it should be attainable and realistic. So if you just started dogsledding two months ago, it's probably not very wise to have a goal of hitting six figures next year.

6:00  

Now big goals and dreams are perfectly fine to have as always. But if they're too big when you don't hit them, it can be a really big letdown if you don't have your expectations set properly. So spending some time to think about easily attainable or slightly stretch goals, so that you can kind of stair step your way into the bigger ones as they come along.

6:22  

Right. And if you do have a big one, it's good to set a time limit for that goal. So here specifically, we're talking about goals for 2020. But you may also have goals for five years or 10 years down the road. And so you want to have a plan for those. Make sure that you can meet them in a timely manner. It's also very important to understand why you have that goal.

6:44  

We talked about knowing your why an awful lot as entrepreneurs as small business owners and as people that are in the pet care profession. understanding why you originally got into this in the first place and keeping that first and forefront in your mind can help Whenever you start setting these goals, especially as you start to work after them, so if you got into pet sitting because you wanted to have more freedom in your days and set goals that align with that, if you got into it to earn extra money, set goals that align with earning extra money, if you got into this so that you could just have a whole new experience, set goals that allow you to travel and to work towards those and to network with the people that can get you there

7:29  

are some people just wanted to cuddle more puppies and kitties and that's fine too.

7:35  

One way to stay on track with your goals is to line out and to plan small steps. The expression no one needs an elephant in one bite. Not that we eat elephants. But the saying goes, You eat an elephant, one small bite at a time. So when you set that really large goal, break it down into small steps that you can track over time and that kind of leads into the next tip here is tracking Your performance.

8:01  

Another tip is to track your performance as a way of showing small steps over time, that will hopefully motivate you to keep going and to achieve your goal. Also having some accountability, so letting others know of what your goals are, allows them to kind of check in with you throughout the year. And to ask about your progress,

8:23  

not in a nitpicky way, obviously, because if people are nitpicking about your goals and your progress, you don't want them in your life anyway. Just people that can encourage come alongside you to help encourage you, maybe give you some new advice, or new ideas for accomplishing your goals and just help you get there.

8:40  

Also, celebrating the small victories will really help you keep you motivated and help to build momentum so that you can at the end of the year, say yes, I did do this goal. I accomplished what I set out to do.

8:52  

Now is also a really good time of the year to start thinking about whether you have the right team members around you to do you have people around you that can help you accomplish these goals. These are some of the basics. Do you have a CPA or tax professional that you have in your life? Or have access to, to start building a good foundation moving forward? What kind of software or management techniques do you have on hand? Or are you currently utilizing, so that as you build and grow, you don't have those typical Growing Pains? Will you be hiring independent contractors or employees? Do you have systems in place? Or have you thought about what that process of hiring will look like? If that's something that you're interested in? And if you don't, you know, reaching out to other pet sitters have hired in the past to see what that process look like. Now, if you already have an established group or team of independent contractors or employees, maybe it's time to add a team leader or a field manager to the group, so that you don't have to be so hands on every single day, and you can start building other aspects of the company. And then something else to tag on here as far as your team goes, is where are you getting your emotional support,

10:01  

or where your team members getting their emotional support?

10:04  

Yeah, where can people be refilled and recharged? Is their time allowed off? Whether it's paid or unpaid? How full is everybody's schedules? Do they have a good working attitude and a good working environment with each other that's healthy, that isn't toxic.

10:24  

So if you're going throughout the year of 2020, and if you fail in one step, or more than one step, fail forward. So don't lose sight of your end goal. So make sure that if you do fail, that you see that as a positive aspect, and not as a negative aspect, continue to push forward

10:43  

because we all fail. Everybody fails every single day. Failure is not a bad thing. As Meghan said, failing forward means when you fail, you realize it is a learning experience, that there are things that you can gain from that. So sitting down and being reflective about That experience and knowing that you have now found one way to not accomplish your goals, and that's perfectly fine and not taking it. So personally, failure is very hard. And that goes back to having that team around you that emotional support, and those other people that can come alongside you that can help you be accountable, and reach into your life and make sure that you are coping with those kind of things. Okay?

11:23  

It's really all about perspective, you want to have a positive perspective, even if something doesn't work, even if you didn't achieve the goal. At the end of the year, you still want to have a positive perspective and to know that you have learned something at the end of so it may help to talk to someone about your goals. If you aren't outbound thinker, again, having that team around you that can be your cheerleader, and kind of push you forward. Or if you are more of a visual person, you might need to write it down or create a vision board to help you remind you throughout the year of these are your goals and this is where you want to be at the end of the year.

11:57  

So for us when we think about 22 And reaching our goal goal of growing our client base without increasing the number of daycares and boardings, but increasing the number of repeat businesses. One way that we have conceptualized how to go about doing this is proactively reaching out to the clients that we currently have, and letting them know about availabilities coming up, so that they're more likely to book or at least keep them looking ahead to their schedule, so that they know or already thinking about trips or times that they need us so that we can get those on the books really early in the year. And also for us, just really staying the course. We've got a lot of really good clients that are already telling a lot of people about us, so continuing to invest in them and making sure that we're really doing the absolute best quality care that we can provide for every single person who comes through our door, maintain those high standards and regardless of what happens and continuing to perform the best that we know we can

13:00  

Calm has a couple great resources for setting your goals and kind of marketing ideas for the next year. And we have a link to that in the show notes.

13:10  

As far as this podcast goes, we've been podcasting now for about five months. And we are genuinely sincerely blown away by the response that we've gotten. We are so thankful for each and every one of you that listen and take the time out of your really busy days to tune in every week to hear what we're saying and to listen to the interviews that we have.

13:33  

We have had some awesome people come on the podcast this year. And we're going to continue that into 2020. We have a lot of great guests and interviews coming up.

13:42  

We're super excited about some very just general topics. We're having some attacks professional coming on soon. We have some other really great business owners that have had some crazy experiences and growing their business and what it's like managing their employees and marketing All sorts of things. So at 2020 is going to be a really good year really amazing year for topics. And we're really looking forward to that. So we're going to continue to come out with weekly episodes every Wednesday, every Wednesday, about topics regarding pet sitting, and the pet care industry. And if you have topics that you would like us to cover, or that you would like to come on the show and talk about reach out to us, you can send emails to feedback at pet sitter confessional.com. We'd love to have you on to talk about your experiences, or any topics that you're really passionate about.

14:37  

You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook at pet sitter confessional.

14:42  

If you're not already a member of our Facebook group. It's sitter confessionals is a closed group but just asked to join and we'll let you in. It's really not that hard.

14:53  

So a very Merry Christmas to you and your family and your friends. We thank you so much for listening to us. We hope to continue this in 2020 and next week on January 1, we have another awesome episode from Kelly, who's going to be talking about new starts

15:09  

for a new year.

Keywords: goals, year, people, sitter, clients, business, pet sitting, business, experience, pet, grow, pet sitter, independent contractor, fail forward, failing, hiring, plan, clientele