Hey Gang,

I wanted to publicly apologize for 2 posts/emails you received the last couple of days. I hired a couple of so called professional freelance writers who took advantage of the opportunity. 

I respect you and your time and you. You have come to expect only high quality material from this site and that has not changed.

I’d like to do now what I should have done originally, and offer the opportunity to my readers to contribute.

If you have marketing or pet care information you think would be valuable to the Dog Business Daily community of readers please submit a sample of an article to me at: fran@dogbusinessdaily.com

When submitting an article consider what your fellow pet care business owners might appreciate. Share tips or tricks for marketing and promotions that have worked for you, especially anything unique and creative.

Any article accepted will be published on my site, marketed on twitter and emailed to the Dog Business Daily subscriber list.  Your business and website will receive credits in the signature of the article.

I appreciate you and am dedicated to helping you build your pet care business.  Hopefully this opportunity will translate into PR and increased authority for you in your market. 

Warm Waggles,

Fran

October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.

What are you doing in your dog care business to help promote you local shelter? I’d love to hear from you. Especially if you are partnering with the shelter or your community to promote National Adopt A Shelter Dog Month.

It’s not too late if you aren’t already involved. I’ve listed a few ideas below - you can contact your local shelter for more ideas.

Bring a puppy to work day. If you are a pet sitter, dog walker, pooper scooper, or other business without a storefront you can encourage your local pet care community to bring puppies in for their clients to see and possibly adopt.

If you run a day care, kennel or training facility with consumer traffic - bring a couple Shelter Dogs into your business for adoption.

Work with a local retailer like Sam’s or a small private owned business and bring a couple Shelter Dogs in for their clients to see and possibly adopt. This way you expose people who might not otherwise have an awareness of National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.

Get the word out in as many places an ways as you can. Of course you should always keep your customer and prospect base aware. It is easy if you are already sending them a monthly newsletter.

If you aren’t - it is a business marketing must. Email as well as hard copy newsletters are responsible for more new business and higher client retention than any other single marketing strategy.

Don’t fear the content creation or the distribution of a newsletter. It doesn’t have to be complicated and it will, absolutely guaranteed, save you time in the long term. A consistently sent out newsletter with valuable content will win you new clients and retain existing clients for less time and money than I suspect you are spending on far less successful marketing strategies.

If you still don’t see the value or can’t imagine taking the time and energy needed to create a newsletter -please read my letter about the newsletter generator and consider the value for your small business again. It is the one thing you can do to not only stabilize your businesses income but also keep your clients and prospects involved and engaged.

This is not just about the stability of your business. It translates into the quality of care your prospects and clients give to their animals. Their continued connection to a quality pet care provider helps ensure their ability to maintain and care for their pets.

This is business critical and pet care critical.

NOTICE: Pet care professionals - please spread the word to your customers…

Mars has issued a recall for several of their branded products including Pedigree for:

Potential Salmonella Contamination.

Please visit: http://www.petcare.mars.com for details.

Take preventive measures by bleaching feeding areas, food containers, bowls and preparation areas. Be sure to notify your clients. Post a bulletin in your storefronts. Send out e-mails - with signs and symptoms to be on the lookout for.

Pet sitters - Be pro-active…check your clients brand of food and take the initiative to call clients who’s food may be affected.

One sick dog is one too many.

One sick dog can spread throughout your client base quickly. Be sure to always practice good hygiene. Wash and sanitize your hands before and after each client visit. It is our responsibility to protect the animals in our care.

We should not be responsible for causing harm or spreading disease by lax hygiene practices or inaction. Advise and act as if your own pet were at risk…she may be!

Do the good work and be a blessing to your clients.

I used to think it was natural to take this one particular step until I started coaching pet care business clients.

In my corporate sales days, not doing this one thing gave the competition a green light to walk in and literally steal your best customers. It is the same reason pet care businesses loose clients.

Although one of the benefits of running a small business is the ability to stay close to your client - It is an odd phenomena most small business owners do not incorporate a client retention strategy that includes basic customer feedback.

Client retention is the single most important piece of your marketing strategy. It is also the area we see the least amount of effort and investment of time and resources in established pet care businesses.

Start ups are all too aware of the value of each and every client. Predictably, client retention strategies decrease dramatically along growth lines. It is a risk of growth that far too many businesses fall prey to needlessly.

It is easy to see why it happens. Without a marketing strategy in place it is easy to miss even the most critical business activities. That is why we encourage businesses from day one to work with a marketing plan.

It doesn’t have to be elaborate - just enough strategy to keep you focused. Once your business gets past a certain number of clients - you will appreciate already having a system in place.

As your business grows and you get busy filling your day with issues concerning winning new business and day to day operations you won’t have to learn this lesson the hard way.

The secret to success in any business is a combination of obtaining new clients and selling existing clients more services more often. Selling higher priced services and products is an topic for another article but it is one of the differentiators between running a successful business and wildly successful business.

Inherent in that formula and a critical profitability factor is reducing client churn.

We all know the cost of winning a new client is significantly higher than retaining existing clients. It is easy to understand, especially in a pet care business where you have direct contact with your customer on a regular basis how you might think you are performing your retention strategies.

Servicing your client is an integral part of retention but it is one piece of the puzzle. Just because you see a client weekly doesn’t mean you understand that clients existing needs or are meeting expectations.

I knew a lot of corporate sales people who thought that visiting a client meant client retention. I called these type of activities “howdy calls”. There was no real value for the client or the sales rep. As a matter of fact, it was a waste of valuable time, both for the client contact and the rep.

There must be a reason for a corporate sales rep to visit a client otherwise, you are devaluing the relationship. The same is true for a small business/client relationship.

Always bring value to every contact you make with your client. Relationship building is not about getting to be best friends with your client - it is about serving his or her needs. The relationship develops after and as an outcome of your attention to needs.

You service needs first by asking questions and understanding the clients current circumstances - which may have changed since your last visit last week.

Life circumstances change your clients need for your services. The easiest way to find out if your clients needs have changed is to regularly check in with them. Inquire about their life, ask how satisfied they are with your service and if there is anything you or your staff were not doing that the client wished you would.

Even the simplest conversations can be opportunities for you to serve your client if you stay aware. For example, if your client mentions she is dating someone new. You might ask if he is a dog lover; how the pet and the new boyfriend get along.

You may find an opportunity to offer grooming services if the new guy has fur issues; or offer obedience training if precious is annoying the new beau.

You will also find out critical things like job changes, schedule changes at work, more travel, less travel…all things that can affect your clients needs for your services.

Don’t wait for your client to call you and tell you about the new job. Be proactive, offer solutions.

Don’t forget to continually ask for feedback on your current services. No client feedback or complaints is not a sign that everything is puppy heaven for you.

Most dissatisfied clients will leave you without ever complaining. The calls you do get with questions or concerns are a warning sign that your service levels are not meeting that clients’ expectations.

Don’t assume you have resolved a problem because you feel like you have satisfactorily answered the clients questions. Most of the time, you may feel like you addressed the problem and the client hangs up, still concerned and less likely to call you back again.

The door is open for the competition. They don’t even have to knock on your clients door, you have put the client in “shopping” mode. Your client is now looking for someone who will better understand and serve their needs. Maybe a startup - things were so much better when you first opened your business.

Now it seems like you are too busy to care.

Show your clients you care as much today as you did the day you first met them. Remember the value you bring is only as good as how well you are meeting the clients current needs. If we know anything, change is happening in everyone’s life - faster than ever.

Change is nothing to fear. As a matter of profitability, it is to be welcomed. It provides the pet care business owner with new and often easy ways to sell existing clients more products and services, more often.

It is only welcome however, if your clients are in love with your existing products and service. Make sure they love what you do now, (never assume) and when you find needs changing, you will be positioned to provide solutions.

It is never too late to implement a feedback strategy. If you are afraid to ask your clients about their satisfaction with your service - you are at risk of not only loosing your client but your entire business.

If your business has focused too much on winning new business and you know your service levels have dropped - take action and develop a strategy to use that failure to your advantage.

Have a “growing pains” sale or a customer appreciation event.

You might send out a notice to all of your clients offering 1/2 off of day care for one weekend this summer. You may want to admit to your clients that in a sincere effort to help as many clients as possible with their “fill in the blank” (dog sitting, doggy day care) needs, you took on new clients faster than you could hire and train great staff.

In appreciation for them you invite them to an open house to meet the newly hired staff and get doggy biscuits and puppy play time.

Do whatever it takes to re-establish your commitment to the service levels you promised when you originally signed the new client. Keep a positive spin on the marketing and you will once again gain the trust and loyalty of your clients.

Check in with your clients to be sure. Do random calls after pet sitting or doggy day care to be sure the service met your clients expectations.

Interesting thing about quality service - you actually free up more time. It seems like a paradox that taking more time to perform a task could actually free up time. But it is really quite simple…the better value you provide, even if it takes more time, the higher your client retention.

When your retention is high you aren’t forced to constantly scramble for new clients. Existing clients are far more valuable than a new client. Concentrate on impeccable quality and service and your existing client value increases - that is, you sell more stuff at significantly lower costs, ie., higher profits.

And your clients hang around a lot longer! They refer new business. They give you testimonials.

Doing the right thing is always best for business.

Warm Waggles,
Fran
fran@dogbusinessdaily.com

Your customer base is a gold mine! The first, easiest and cheapest source for new profits is always your existing client base.

It costs 300% more on average to get a new client than it does to retain an existing client. One of the surest ways to retain existing clients is to provide multiple services that your clients come to count on.It is easy to get a new pet sitter, but how easy is it to replace a pet sitter that also provides you with 3 or 4 other valuable services?

Whenever you can provide freedom in the form of time and energy – your service is going to hold a special place in the hearts of your clients. When they already know and trust you to take care of their precious animals, it is easy to add additional services.

Don’t start forming a mental block about “selling” to your clients. First of all, most clients who take the time, effort and money to have a pet sitter – love their pets and treat them more like people than animals. If you have a service or product that will be beneficial to their beloved babies – they would want you to share it.

Additionally, your customers have real feelings of guilt over the amount of time they have to spend with their pets. Don’t believe me…just ask them…or better yet…just pay attention to what they are freely telling you already. If you are able to help free some of their stress and some of their time they willingly and gratefully accept new services.

These seven money making strategies all revolve around providing additional services for your existing clients.

The first thing to ask yourself is – “is there something I noticed in feedback from my clients about stress in their lives that I could help alleviate?” Maybe you just notice their home or yard being in disarray when you pet sit for them.

• Maybe you notice the mess they come home to after a business trip or vacation
• Maybe you notice one of their dogs is gaining weight or already overweight
• Maybe your client complains that can’t walk their dog because it is too stressful to be pulled down the road.

All of the strategies we are going to talk about are going be implemented in either of two categories:

• First, do it yourself or have an employee do it (hire an employee if don’t have enough staff to handle additional work)
• Second, is to partner with another company and refer each others clients.

Our 7+ income generating ideas can be implemented by you personally or someone who works for you; or with a strategic partner with whom you swap referrals.
I’ve listed some of the easiest to implement strategies. There are a ton more, you will probably come up with ideas while reading this article.

Swap Referrals With Someone You Trust

Say you wouldn’t want to add, for example, house cleaning to your portfolio of income generation – but you have a housekeeper you really like. You’d prefer growing your pet sitting business so you refer pet sitting clients to your housekeeper.

Gracie, has cleaned my home twice a week off and on for about 8 years. I would be glad to refer my clients to her. She’s been in the house cleaning business for around 12 years, is trustworthy and does a terrific job. So, Gracie and I give our clients each others information with glowing recommendations and we each get new business out of the relationship.

Never give your client information out to another business. That is the fastest way to loose customers. Always use this strategy by directly referring the other business to your clients.

Simple strategy, no contract to sign, no splitting profits…just recommending business. We don’t swap services either. When I want my house cleaned, I pay her going rate and visa/versa if she needs pet sitting. This way, there is no room for anyone to get upset; no need to keep count of who has done more for the other one. Show complete and total respect for your partners’ time and services and you will get an ideal partner in return.

Remember, our respective clients love us and respect our opinions. They trust who we recommend by proxy. Of course you won’t want to pick someone out of the yellow pages for a strategy like this. You never want to risk your reputation by recommending someone you don’t really know.

How many different businesses and people can you think of to swap referrals with?

Your income potential is only limited by your imagination and willingness to try something new.

This is marketing at its finest. No cost to you and VERY VERY warm prospects. This strategy alone can keep your business growing without ever spending a dime on advertising. Just keep adding businesses to partner with. If you don’t use other people’s services – then start. The networking benefit alone will pay for the services you are getting.

STRATEGY # 2: Start an entirely new business you can offer your existing pet sitting clients - that your company administers:

In the event that you want to add a house cleaning business as a compliment to your pet sitting business – they really do work hand in hand very well. You could advertise your house cleaning business as the only Housecleaners who specialize in cleaning homes with pets. You could be the Fur Free Cleaning Company.

You can put the “pet specialty” spin on any ancillary business.

Car detailers who specialize in cleaning pet hair are definitely on speed dial on my cell phone. How about pet sitters who also have portable dog grooming businesses? I don’t like bathing my dogs at home – I’m picking up fur for days afterward. But, I don’t like taking my girls to the groomers either – what a hassle and the stress on them isn’t worth doing it as often as I’d like.

Now, if someone came to my home and say was already here pet sitting anyway…chances are, I’d be getting the additional service pretty regularly. You could add just a few services, call it your “pampered pups” package if you don’t want to do the entire grooming thing…nail clipping, brushing hair and ear cleaning package for an additional $10.

How about adding dog walking to your portfolio?

Or, pooper scooper? You could really clean up with this one! (sorry, too easy had to say it).

Just think of services like menu items at the spa.

Or going to a fast food restaurant: One way is to add complimentary services: “Would you like fries with that?” Another idea is to Upgrade: Would you like to supersize that? Would you like to make that burger a “Combo Meal?”

You can offer packages at holiday time; offer a pet sitting client one free pooper scooper service with 10 pet sits as a way to introduce your new ‘menu item’.

If at any time my pet sitter had said, hey, I just opened a car detailing business and gave me a flyer (don’t forget, you can use the swap referral strategy for any of these ideas if you don’t want to do the work or hire an employee to do the work) or recommended a friend who would come to my home (or place of business) – I would be scheduling my pet sitting and car detailing together.

Remember, anything that will save your clients time will be valued and well received. If you are sitting for clients who are going out of town you can offer your car detailing service before their trip or upon their return.

If they want their car cleaned before they leave, you know they are crazy busy trying to get everything done before they leave. You accommodating your car detailing to their hectic schedule will be a blessing.

I often come home from travel up north to visit my family in Ohio during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with salt and dirt from the wintery weather. I can barely stand driving home that way.
If I knew my pet sitter also provided auto detailing, we could arrange for her to clean my vehicle upon my homecoming.

I love to come home to a clean house after a business trip and if no one vacuums after a trip lasting more than a couple days – with 4 dogs the floors are not even visible when I get home. So, even if you don’t want to start an entirely new business, what about adding a “welcome home” package to your menu and vacuum, dust and clean the floors for an additional $35 - $50 or whatever your market warrants.

Sounds Off the Wall Ideas – but I bet your clients who use these services NEVER go to a competitor for pet sitting (as long as you are providing the service you promised when you first got their business):

What percentages of your clients are using your pet sitting service when they are traveling?

• Besides the several ideas already mentioned can you think of any other way to help your clients?
• Would you be willing to offer taxi service to take the animals to vet appointments or grooming appointments?
• Would you be willing to taxi your clients to/from the airport?
• Pick up groceries for their return home?
• Provide a meal/or cook dinner for their return home (this is a seller in big cities especially) – it is successful for regular daily dog sitting clients who use the service as a once or twice a week “break” and also for clients who travel and would love to have a meal ready when they get home from the airport or from a long drive.

Run a “doggy grocery delivery” service. Offer the doggy grocery shopping once a month or once a week or whenever you happen to be sitting for them. You can add it on at a reduced charge with any in home pet sitting service. You are going to be driving there anyway.

Establish a relationship with at least one major pet care product line and let your customers know that you will pass along your discount to them…as a benefit of being a client of yours they only pay your cost plus whatever you want it to be 2% or a flat $5 plus something to cover shipping and your time to manage the inventory, invoicing, packing and delivery.

Not everything you do for your clients has to be a stand alone profit generator. Remember, the more you are involved in your clients’ lives – the longer they are clients and the more profitable they become. Some strategies are entirely about client retention.

Others might be about establishing that 2^nd business. Offering your pet sitting clients a free pooper scooper service as a way to introduce the new service and launch the business.

MARKET DOMINATION

When you are the first pet sitter in your market to start utilizing these strategies you are positioning yourself as the leader in the field. Anyone who offers these services after you is just a “me too” provider and only doing it to keep up with you.

You are doing it to take care of your clients. You are offering a “unique selling proposition”. That is how new clients will decide to do business with you instead of the competitor. How else will they choose between all these businesses that look alike? Maybe they pick the one that has been in business the longest.

Maybe they decide to try the startup figuring they have more time to spend with the pets and more to prove. You have to offer something to differentiate yourself from everyone else. You don’t want to look anything like your competitors.

Random Great Ideas:

• Again, thinking of your clients needs first, you might choose to offer 24 hour emergency pet sitting services. (available only to your existing clients – making them elite, special, appreciated).
• Offer an online appointment scheduler and guarantee appointment confirmations within 2 hours. (you can offer the guarantee even if you just use old fashioned phone appointments).
• Even if you don’t have a doggy day care – you can tap into all the other doggy day care businesses in your market by offering taxi service for doggy day care pickup and drop off.
  • Check the hours of drop off and pick up at the day cares in your market. I bet you the hours are too close for many pet owners.
  • Offer your existing clients last minute pickup service (of course you can charge more for last minute requests)
  • Don’t worry about loosing pet sitting clients – your client base and prospect base will grow with this strategy.
  • I know plenty of people who end up paying extra nights kennel charges because they didn’t get to pickup on time whether that was caused by getting out of work late or coming home from an out of town trip later than expected.

Any one of the ideas in this article could easily generate an additional $1000/week for you. Take massive action and implement several of these ideas and you could have an additional several thousand dollars per week. Don’t think you have to do all the extra work yourself. Employees and strategic partners are great ways to increase profits for little or no extra time on your part.

Please send me a message and let me know what you did and how successful it was.

Warm Waggles,

Fran

We have received many e-mails from our readers who are not in business yet but want to be asking us how to start. This post is intended to be a quick startup guide to get a pet sitting business up and ready for customers within 7 days and in some cases with as little as $100 start up costs invested. This article is by no means comprehensive - just an outline of the required steps and some resources to get more information if you need it quickly. We will take each step of the process and break it down in detail in subsequent posts.

For now, we are responding to our readers request for a quick outline of the steps needed to get started. This post is intended for those of you whose most pressing need to for immediate cash. It is not intended to replace a business plan or more sophisticated marketing strategies. Anyone can start using this method and through implementation of some of our marketing strategies can grow a fledgling dog sitting business into a full blown profit generator.

We have set each step up to take a day to complete. Some of these steps will only require a just minutes up to a few hours of your time. You could complete multiple steps in a day and be ready for business sooner than 7 days.

Please feel free to post or e-mail us your questions. That will help us decide which segment(s) of the setup process we should create first - the more responses on a particular topic - the sooner we will write about it.

Our business is all about prospering the pet care business owner so that pets are given safe, competent and loving care. So, we don’t want you to think you can setup a business in 7 days and never have to do anything else except get more and more clients. Please keep visiting our blog and contact us with any specific questions you have. We want your business to flourish - that’s what we are here for.

Hopefully you have already done the first two steps before deciding to start a doggy day care…you have researched your market and you have developed the minimum skills necessary. We already know so many of you have a passion for animals and that has led to your decision and that is not at all a bad way to choose a business…it’s just not the only requirement.

Once you have completed your market research and you know your market can sustain another pet sitter…you are on your way. If you haven’t done your market research, let me just add this one disclaimer…almost any market has room for a new player if that player has a unique selling proposition. If you are committed to this business and to the animals in your care - we will help you build a healthy business.

If you are able to differentiate yourself from the rest of the market - almost any market will not only sustain a new business but it will actually allow you to prosper and grab market share. We aren’t going to get into the market research or creative marketing strategies in this post…this article is for those who have already chosen Pet Sitting as their business of choice and need help getting up and running.

Let’s get started….

First is the Legal Considerations

(Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice. Please consult an attorney for legal advice).

1 - Choose Your Business Entity Structure

• Corporation
• LLC
• Sole Prorietorship
  • • you can use online service to get more information about each structure and/or to setup your business quickly and inexpensively

    It is important to understand from the beginning that if you choose to setup an LLC or Corporation, you must keep your “personal” and “business” money and bookkeeping separate. We won’t go into detail here because most of you will start out as a Sole Proprietor; for now just know that if/when you choose to setup your LLC or Corporation keeping separate books and bank accounts is a requirement to maintain your legal status.

2- Understand Employment Laws - applicable if you intend to hire employees

Find more information by doing a google search on “employment laws in “your state”"; or you can go to your state’s official website and search there.

• Minimum Wage
• Overtime Pay - over 40 hours per work week
• Restrictions on employing children
• Taxes
• Record Keeping

3-Understand Local Zoning Laws if you are planning to run the business out of your home

You can find information at your county’s official website or by googling “zoning laws in “your” county, “your state”

4- Obtain Necessary Licenses and Insurance

• Business License
  • You can find information regarding your state’s Business License requirements here

• Pamphleting or Solicitors License
  • Contact your city clerks office or local police department if you plan to solicit within city limits to obtain a solicitors license
  • many cities provide information including cost and applications online - start with a google search

4a. Insurance

Insurance providers are listed below. Please get all of your coverage and quotes in writing and compare policies to meet your specific needs. For example - some policies only cover pet sitting performed in a commercial building. Please review your options carefully to be sure they fit your needs and always get coverage terms in writing to assure your safety.

• Mourer-Foster
• PSI
• INSFAC

5-Inexpensive Basic Marketing Tips Strategies and Price Setting

The fastest and least expensive way to get started is through word of mouth. If you know people who own dogs - whether or not they use pet sitting or not…let them know you are in business. Ask for referrals.

Offer free pet sitting to your friends and family in exchange for referrals. This serves three important purposes: one of course is to get referrals; second, to iron out your processes on family and friends before you sign up clients who are strangers to you; third, it lets your family and friends know right from the start that you are in business and if they want your services you will expect something in return.

I hope you aren’t cringing at this…it is all out critical to your long term success. You must set boundaries with the people closest to you - right from the start is best. Think of best friends, neighbors and family members as your biggest time thieves. If you don’t control the boundaries you will end up working for them for free when you should be taking on new clients; or engaging in activities that have nothing to do with business when you should be focused on work.

People closest to you will have a tendency to think that since you now work from home you have an open door policy to their every whim. Just watch if you don’t believe me. It won’t be long before your sister or neighbor call you up to baby sit while they run to the grocery store right in the middle of the day.

You will want to say ….HELLLOOOOO, I’m working! You can avoid the whole uncomfortable scenario by setting up boundaries from the very beginning.

I don’t mean to suggest you shouldn’t help out friends and family - aren’t we all interested in personal time freedom when we decide to go into business for ourselves? Just remember, your small business failure or success will rely a great deal on your ability to discipline yourself and your schedule.

Okay, basic marketing strategy number 2: Flyers

This is extremely basic but very effective. You can put up flyers any where you find a public bulletin board. You can get permission to put up flyers in places of business; high rises, apartment buildings, veterinarian clinics, pet stores, grocery stores, any where there is traffic.

If you get your solicitors license you can also canvas the neighborhoods around your home. It is best to try to keep your sitting clients within a few mile radius especially in the beginning. You can just blanket communities, don’t worry about finding just the dog owners. You never know if the home owner has friends or family they can pass the flyer on to.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our newsletter on our homepage: http://dogbusinessdaily.com we are sending out a message about creating effective, high converting flyers in the next issue.

6-Supplies and Equipment Needed

Unless you are going to be sitting in your own home - you won’t require much in the way of your own supplies or equipment. Even though the pet owners provide leashes, collars, food, toys etc., I always recommend keeping a “kit” in your vehicle at all times in case of an emergency need - like the owner drove to work with the leash in her car.

I recommend keeping a small, medium and large choker type collar or a leash that you use as a collar and leash combo for any size dog (like the one your vet uses).

I always keep biscuits or puperoni’s in the event behavior needs to be coaxed with food (of course you need the owners approval before handing out any treats). There is nothing more frustrating than letting a dog out in his own fenced in yard and then not being able to get him back in the house.

*tip: some pet sitters keep dogs on a leash even in their own fenced in yards. If the pet owner wants you to let the dog roam free - it is up to you to decide whether or not you can handle the job. Base your decision on how well behaved the dog is, how safe you feel in the environment (is there a high risk of injury or any risk of escape)?

Always ask if the owner is okay with you keeping the dog on a leash if that is your intention. If the owner doesn’t agree and you aren’t comfortable controlling the dog - pass on the job.

You will need client information forms, contracts, a billing system and an organization process in place. We can get you started very simply - I am going to add a post for forms and business processes in the next day or two.

Just know you will need an iron clad way of keeping your keys and schedules in order. You are taking on the responsibility of caring for these animals and there is no place for lost keys or schedule mishaps.

7 - Naming Your Business and the Internet

I added this at the last minute - just to make a note that if you plan to have an internet presence at some point in the future and we recommend that you do…you might want to make sure you can get your business name as a domain name.

Naming your business is an important part of “branding” you and your business. You can make it simple, cute, professional, funny…anything that conveys the business attitude you want to portray. We will often recommend branding your own name in the business.

There are long term benefits - we will discuss in other posts.

For now, go to google, do a search for “godaddy sale” click on the link that gives you the best domain sale price..usually running around $6.95 and go to godaddy.com and select and reserve your domain name. You don’t have to do anything with it right now.

There’s lots of information and lots to keep you busy for the next couple days. Sign up for our newsletter to get additional startup information as well as marketing tips to grow your business and check back soon for more detailed explanation of the 7 steps above.

Good Luck and Congratulations on your new business.

Waggles,

We have all heard the marketing adage that first to market is always going to be the biggest. That is true with respect to products, services or marketing strategies.  The biggest translates to market domination over market share and profitability.

We talk a lot about the importance of providing the highest quality service to your pet care clients and we don’t want you to confuse what we are about to say in any way. The strategy we are about to discuss in no way means we are endorsing a compromise in the quality of care you provide for the pets entrusted to you.

Having said that, the marketing world, the creative world, the universe…likes speed.

When you get an idea for a new product, service or marketing campaign take immediate action.  You do not need to wait for the idea to manifest in all its perfection before you launch.

Get the ball rolling fast, release the product or campaign when it is good enough.  You will be able to tweak and improve on it as you go along.

The interesting thing about the long term results of adopting this strategy is not only does it guarantee your business success, it saves you so much time in the long run.  There is a compounding effect you begin to see when you implement strategies with lightening speed.

When we look at successful business owners in all areas of commerce we notice those who thrive are the ones who are able to take quick action on their ideas.  The most successful business owners are the agile ones who are first to market with their ideas.

Now, when I say first to market, I don’t mean you have to invent or create something entirely new.  You may just be improving on something already in existence in your market or borrowing a concept from another market and adapting it to your pet care business.

When I say that you will save time…consider the process you go through when you create a new product or service.

How do you determine exactly what you include in that product/service?  If you are connected with your customer base and a savvy business owner (we know you are since you are reading Dog Business Daily) - you will get ideas from your customers.

Many times the idea and direction you had originally envisioned takes a different turn after you see the response from your prospects and customers.

When you produce a product or marketing campaign and get it out to market quickly, you will save time because you didn’t waste time creating something your market didn’t want.  You don’t waste time thinking about what’s next, all the different nuances and layers you might add to the idea - that ultimately may have been scrapped anyway.

The layers and direction will naturally come from the feedback you receive from your clients and prospects.  You can make revisions, updates and improvements faster because you are starting lean to begin with.

No revamping clunky and complicated processes….add on, tweak, re-market….profit and grow!

If you are still resisting producing a “less than perfect” product or service…let’s take a look at the most successful product on the planet (outside of life sustaining necessitites and mind altering substances - who can compete with those?)!

Microsoft Windows.

If you are not into technology, you might have to ask around to find out if this is widely held belief or not - but everyone on the planet knows that Apple makes a better operating system than Microsoft.

If quality is the most important factor to a products success then why do recent statistics show Microsoft controlling 97.46 % of the global desktop operating system marked, compared to a measely 1.43 % for Apple Macintosh?

Somewhere back around 1982 in that garage Steve Jobs and Bill Gates disagreed about the direction for their new product.  I could hear it now, Steve “it’s not even close to being ready” ; Bill “we have to release it now!”

*disclaimer: this conversation is fictional…and the story of Bill & Steve parting ways is not intended to be historically accurate.  I am using the example to illustrate my point and am taking “creative liberty” for brevity.

They parted ways, Bill stole the idea and ran with it.  This part is actual fact - Gates released the launch announcement a full two years prior to the operating system actually shipping. Of course it was scheduled to ship within a few months of the original announcement.

Hmmm, hasn’t seems like we’ve seen a similar pattern with every launch since?

My point is many of the strategies we will teach you are going to be new to you. Chances are pretty darn good they ideas are going to be entirely new to your market.  The first one to grab the idea and run with it in your market wins.

If you take massive action and implement the ideas we give you - not only will your business flourish and you will be establishing yourself as the “guru” and your business as the ”go to business” in your market segment. 

When you attain “guru” status - business becomes incredibly fun and profitable.  Clients are attracted to you without any effort on your part.  The best employees want to work for you.  You are solidifying your business for the long term.

If you choose at some point to sell your business you are building the kind of value that makes  a small business  a gold mine.

Decide right now, when you come across a brilliant idea - most likely you will hear it from me …you are going to get into action immediately and put the strategy into effect for your business.  Do this a few times and …look out - there is a new sheriff in town!

Warm Fuzzy Waggles,

If you’ve turned on a television or you work with people (I work from home with 4 dogs - many days - no people contact!) there is no doubt you’ve heard about the Britney breakdown and Lindsay lapping up the alcohol like a parched puppy!

Drug and alcohol addiction are not topics I poke fun at - but I wanted to take this opportunity to challenge your prosperity thinking! What in the world do addictions and mental breakdowns have to do with prosperity consciousness?

A lot actually - but I am not talking about the addict or the mentally ill. I want to talk about you….and your reaction to the Britney Spears breakdown news.

How did you feel when you heard the story about Britney? Did you think to yourself or say out loud anything like - “she’s got more money than brains” or “that’s what happens when all you have is time and money!”. What were your conversations like about the news? Did you and your friends spend 10, 15, 30 minutes talking about everything that is wrong with having too much money?

Don’t allow yourself to dwell in this place of mediocrity.

The sense of oneness and belonging you feel during a “yap” session (notice the doggy references everywhere in my writing ) is not worth keeping yourself stuck in mediocrity.

If you are not enjoying the business and personal success you desire - it is very likely that you have negative thoughts about money that are keeping you stuck.

The first step is awareness. Take honest inventory of your thoughts and words…just observe yourself like you would a stranger.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. When you realize that you have negative feelings attached to money - you can do something about it. Don’t think that you have to go to therapy for 15 years, do past life regressions, blame your momma and pop for you to heal and move on.

Awareness is the key!

Watch your thoughts and be vigilant to what you allow in your head…especially in the beginning when you are just learning to be aware of your thoughts.

Next step - be on purpose about what you do allow in your head. Be on purpose and be relentless. Surround yourself with music that inspires you…I just downloaded the song “I Believe”, by Blessid Union of Souls on iTunes..I’ll listen to it tonight before I go to sleep.

Read inspiring books, watch positive movies…and be careful about what you think is a positive movie. If a movie is a blockbuster - you can almost bet that there is a negative image of wealth and the wealthy. Don’t believe me? What was the message in Titanic? How were the wealthy portrayed? Who was the villain? Who was the hero?

The way you think is the reality you create. Your world is a mirror of your beliefs…what do you want your world to look like?

Prosperity Waggles!

Fran