Episode 100: Solving The 2 Major Problems In Your Dog Walking Company

As we celebrate the 100th episode of Bella In Your Business Bella sits down with you personally to solve the 2 major problems every dog walking company faces. But first, did you know that as of the recording, the podcast has reached almost 40,000 downloads?!?! None of this would have been possible without all of you! In fact, it is the longest-running and most popular podcast in the pet care industry. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss Whether you're managing a pet sitting or a dog walking company, one thing is for certain. You can't do it alone! Seeking the right kind of help that you're able to delegate tasks to will help you EXPLODE your business. Even with this podcast, there are multiple people working behinds the scenes to produce the audio, write the show notes, create graphics, promote it online, and so much more! Marketing works 2-4 months before you actually hear from that new client. The key is consistency and staying on target. You can do this with social media by creating videos or asking engaging questions. Be different & be disruptive. Ask yourself, "How am I consistently trying to get new clients?" Whatever it is, it has to be visual, attractive, and showing-and-telling. Hiring is disruptive. But you need to make sure that you are always OVERSTAFFED. Otherwise, your business will not grow because you will have to step in the next time someone quits, gets sick, etc. Be an advocate for your business. We're not always in growth mode and that is okay. At the end of the day, you have to take care of yourself. It's okay to take a personal breather and be on cruise control. Show Highlights The two things you will ALWAYS be doing in your pet sitting business [3:00] Staying consistent with your marketing to gain new clients [6:00] Solving the challenge of hiring [15:00] How to hold yourself accountable [20:00] What do you want to see from Bella In Your Business? [23:00] Links The Google Of The Pet Sitting Industry: http://jumpconsulting.net/ The Answer To Your Hiring Woes: http://info.jazzhr.com/jump-consulting.html The Jump Mastermind: http://jumpconsulting.net/jump-mastermind Remember to use coupon bella25 for $25 off your monthly membership! Employee Handbook and Manual: /pet-sitting-employee-manual-handbook/ Employee Quick Start (Get employees in 30 days or less) /employee-quick-start/ Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Today is a very special episode for you. This is my 100th episode and I want to bring it back to you for episode 50 where I talked about consistency. Never did I ever think that I would ever reach 100 episodes of a podcast, but it really does come down to consistency and that little dream I used to have when I was a child and I used to play radio DJ. Well, let's get into it. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to the 100th episode of Bella in Your Business. This is a monumental centennial celebration that I have going on right now, and I'm just so ridiculously excited to share this episode with you. First of all, I want to tell you that if you were to listen to the very first recording I ever did, it was in my walk-in closet, sitting on the floor, talking to my laptop. I didn't have any speakers. I didn't have any microphones. I didn't have anything. I did it in my bedroom on the closet floor because my whole house was tile and I thought it would be the best acoustics. I had no intro or outro, wasn’t really sure what I was doing, wasn’t sure where it was going. All I knew is that I wanted an outlet, and that outlet was Bella in Your Business. Something else that you might not know is that I grew up my entire life being told M-Y-O-B. What that meant was “Mind Your Own Business,” which was pretty funny considering the name of this podcast is Bella in Your Business. In episode 50, I talked about consistency and how it took a lot of consistent work to get to the place that I'm at. I'm so proud of this podcast. At the recording, we've got about 39,000 downloads since we started counting, so it's probably a lot more than that. We started counting about the 20th episode or so, and this first started when my daughter, who is now four years old, was in the NICU. I didn't actually get consistent with a show coming out every single week until about a year and two months ago. Since then, we've just been really rocking and rolling. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Lauren, my amazing assistant, who I would be lost without, and also Chris, my podcast producer. My general rule of thumb is I record these, send them off to a file folder, let them both know it's there, Chris makes me sound amazing, sound engineers it, and puts the intro and outro on it. Then Lauren listens through and helps create the amazing show notes and graphics you see when I say, “Do the show notes.” I definitely would not be able to do this by myself. There’s actually a lot of things that a lot of us wouldn’t be able to do ourselves. And that’s what I want to talk about in this podcast. I want to talk about the two major problems that you’re always going to be solving in your pet sitting company or dog walking company or grooming company or non-pet-related company. You ready for them? It’s getting clients and finding more staff to work for you. I attended a conference about a year ago, and it was really neat. The speaker went around our small workshop room—about 25 of us—and built off every single person to prove a point that we are all really in the same business. We might provide a different service or do it a different way, but at the end of the day, all of our challenges are still the same: finding clients and finding workers. So I want to take a minute and just talk about that today. I want to talk about the evolution of my own experience with it, the solutions, and also the great resources that have really catapulted a lot of businesses I work with. In terms of getting new clients, that looks so different for so many people. Jump Consulting’s website is set up to be the Google for pet sitters. You can go to jumpconsulting.net and type in whatever you’re looking for. I’ve written blogs about how to get business, how to have a good booth at an event, top ways to get new dog walking or pet sitting clients, and different ways to use Facebook, video, and Instagram. The number one thing about getting new clients is that you’ve got to stay consistent and remember that marketing works and starts about two to four months before you actually hear from that client. It’s hardly ever that someone says, “Gee, I need a dog walker,” sees a Facebook ad, and immediately hires that dog walker. Unfortunately, a lot of business owners have this tunnel vision and think that’s how it works. Relationships have to be nurtured, and most people won’t buy unless there’s a relationship or trust. So being consistent in your marketing is really important. One way you can do that is being consistent on your Facebook page with your own content—not just posting blogs. Posting blogs to drive traffic back to your website is now a thing of the past; Facebook wants people to stay on Facebook and have good engagement. So go back to asking good questions or doing videos. One example you may have heard me say before is of a dog going to the bathroom. Whether you’re a dog walker or a pet sitter, one of your duties is to make sure the pet relieves itself. So why not go live and give out a prize for whoever guesses the right minute or second mark when the dog finally does? Things like that bring you out of the noise—they disrupt a Facebook feed when everyone else is saying, “I’m a dog walker,” “We’re the best,” or “We care for them like they’re our own.” You have to be different. There are so many amazing pet sitters out there getting on video. Crystal Hammond from Critter Sitter is doing an amazing job with video. She even hired a videographer to help at events, which helped her forge a relationship with her local SPCA. Maureen Dunn-McCarthy with Loving Kisses Pet Sitting has been killing it with video and Facebook groups, which has catapulted her business. Heather with Trusty Tales in New Jersey recently opened a brick-and-mortar location with grooming. Holly Cook in Toronto started her own Facebook Live show with a dog trainer. And Pam in my mastermind—who was terrified of video in January—is now doing it weekly. I’m so proud of her because she’s seeing it as a way to connect with people. If you’ve been listening to this podcast, shoot me an email at [email protected] and let me know if this is your first episode or if you’ve listened to many. I’ve had people I’ve never met or spoken to who have listened to many episodes and feel like they know, like, and trust me. That’s the power of consistent visibility. Am I saying you need to start a podcast? No. But you need to ask yourself: how am I consistently getting new clients in a way that is automated or reliable? It could be a Facebook show like Holly’s, the video strategy Crystal uses, or the live videos Maureen does. Whatever it is, it has to be visual. There’s a statistic that by 2019, 80% of consumed content will be video. Look at your own feed—you’ll see how much of it is video. Facebook knows you’re more likely to engage with it. And make sure your first five minutes have captions. When you go to a website and check their Facebook page, seeing real, relatable video content increases trust. Seeing the sitter live with pets, interacting with others,