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447: From Leashes to Lattes with Alisha Riley

447: From Leashes to Lattes with Alisha Riley

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What does it mean to embrace change while staying focused on the client experience? As your business grows, you may face necessary changes that push you out of your comfort zone. Transform any doubt in your abilities into motivation to learn, grow, and discover new methods. Alisha Riley, the owner of Alisha’s Pet Playcations, exemplifies this. She restarted her business after relocating across the country. In her journey, she discusses the importance of integrating oneself into the community and leveraging personal connections through your network. Additionally, Alisha shares her decision to start a coffee shop driven by a very special mission.

396: Considerations for Starting a Remote Service Area

396: Considerations for Starting a Remote Service Area

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What should you consider before expanding to a remote service area? After a few years of trial and error, we've broken down 10 things you should ask yourself before starting in a remote area. We cover everything from planning your logistics to following local licensing and legal requirements. We also share about the biggest struggles we've faced and where you can expect to grow the most as a business owner.

393: Working From Your Passion with Stephanie Brown

393: Working From Your Passion with Stephanie Brown

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How do you know it's time to bite down and go 110% to make your dream a reality? We all find our own motivating forces in our lives. For Stephanie Brown, owner of Happy Trail's Pet Sitting & Dog Walking Services, she found her motivation in her family. She shares how her business has evolved and how it wasn't always easy to leave services behind. Stephanie focuses on client education and fostering relationships through a personal touch. She also gives great advice around implementing a power hour to stay organized in your business and how she's navigated bringing on a manager in her business.

381: Finding Worth in Your Work with Madeline Best

381: Finding Worth in Your Work with Madeline Best

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What does it mean to serve others well? Pet care is a service industry at its core, meaning we need to be hyper focused on the needs of our clients. Madeline Best, co-owner of Happy Bark and Tails and Royal Dog of Honor, shares how she is balancing serving others, while running a business that meets her lifestyle. By leaning into wedding services, she’s found flexibility while also giving her clients a high-end service. She shares how she’s changed her staffing to hiring full-time only, and how we can continue to refine the services we offer, without losing touch with ourselves.

376: Task Management for the Pet Professional

376: Task Management for the Pet Professional

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Do you feel like there’s too many things to get done in a day? Running a business means there is never a shortage of tasks demanding our time and attention. As pet professionals, our schedules are even more hectic, making managing tasks all that much more difficult. We break down the Getting Things Done system and how to apply it to your business. From capturing everything to regular reviews, once you get a system in place, your mind is freed up to do what it does best: create.

373: Embracing Change and Growth with Gricel Arroyo

373: Embracing Change and Growth with Gricel Arroyo

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How do you handle transformation and change? Gricel Arroyo, owner of Arroyo Pets, shares her journey of transforming her business over the past year. Starting with a focus on nail trims, she gradually expanded her services, with grooming now accounting for half of her business. She emphasizes the importance of up-selling services as a solution for clients. She highlights the need of being open-minded and learning from one another's experiences within the team. Becoming an employer has been a learning experience for Gricel, as she considers herself more of a team leader and mentor than a boss. Her primary goal is to create a better workplace where people feel heard and can grow within the team. She also delves into how she has changed as a person, learning to cope when things don't go as planned and understanding that she cannot control everything.

370: Experimenting Well as a Business Owner

370: Experimenting Well as a Business Owner

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Do you experiment in your business? Being a business owner means making changes, both big and small, so your company adapts to the constantly changing environment. But how do you do that well? By experimenting! On this episode, we share ways to approach making changes in your business so you get the most out of them. From setting time frames to recording data and results for later review, there are best practices you can do to optimize the results.

369: Leading a Quality Life with Taylor Leedahl

369: Leading a Quality Life with Taylor Leedahl

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How do you get better over time? Taylor Leedahl, owner and founder of Tiny Horse, joins the show to describe how to approach process improvement and how we can develop a healthier relationship with our businesses. Taylor shares how she got started in the business and the challenges she has faced along the way. We cover the development of new products, the importance of understanding customer needs, and how to keep mission creep from taking over a business.

359: Pet Behavior and Honing Your Pet First Aid Skills with Arden Moore

359: Pet Behavior and Honing Your Pet First Aid Skills with Arden Moore

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What does it mean to understand animal behavior? As pet care professionals, we need to make sure we are communicating well to our clients and are prepared for emergencies. Arden Moore, author and radio host, joins the show to discuss confounding behaviors for both dogs and cats. She also dives into how to make sure we have a great first aid kit and how emergency preparedness is all a mental game. Arden gives her best tips for pilling cats and discusses the importance of being a poop-ologist.

356: Using A.I. in Your Business

356: Using A.I. in Your Business

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Are you using A.I. in your business? Artificial Intelligence is a growing area of research and development. A.I. can seem overwhelming, but holds many promising tools to give clients more peace of mind. We break down what A.I. is and how it can help your business. We give examples of existing programs and also how we’re currently implementing it in our own business.

330: You Need A Not-To-Do List

330: You Need A Not-To-Do List

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What is a not-to-do list, and why do you need one? As small business owners, we have a lot on our plate and things that demand our attention. Being pulled in too many directions means we lose focus on the important things. Building a not-to-do list, we remove obligations from our days and are better able to refine what our actual duties are, while also breaking bad habits that waste time and money.

293: Decide to be the Leader with Julie Fredrick

293: Decide to be the Leader with Julie Fredrick

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Julie Fredrick, owner of The Pet Sitter of Boise, has been running her pet sitting business since 2003, while still holding down a full time job. With a team of over 35 employees, she spends her time focusing on giving the best possible service to the right clients. Julie shares how her background in operations and process improvement helps her run her business better and why more growth isn't always better. She also encourages us to start being a leader in the industry.

259: INSPIRE with Dom Hodgson

259: INSPIRE with Dom Hodgson

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Dom Hodgson, the Pet Biz Wiz, talks about growing your business sustainably through pricing and upselling on additional services. By continuing to focus on the fundamentals of our businesses, we’ll be less likely to make rushed and stressed decisions. Dom also shares what it means to give your clients a premium on-boarding experience and how to increase lock-in of existing clients. Dom has an upcoming live event in March (INSPIRE 2022) that we are taking part in, and would love to see you there!

249: How to Write a Job Ad

249: How to Write a Job Ad

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Have you ever posted a hiring ad? In the current job market it’s more critical than ever to nail the ad posting so you get what you need out of your hire. With more people switching jobs and careers than ever before, your ad has to connect with what they’re looking for and help them see a future with your company. We break down the ads we’ve placed and what you should consider before you post yours. Then, Natasha O’Banion answers, “How do I set good goals?”

247: Why We Hired

247: Why We Hired

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Have you thought about hiring? We have. A LOT. We recently hired for the first time and will be doing a series of episodes on what the process was like for us. Hiring isn’t always the answer to our struggles in business, so we break down some of our reasons for deciding it was time to hire. We also give you some questions to think through if you’re on the fence. Then, Natasha O’Banion answers, “How do I get over my fear and make big changes?”

239: Looking Forward to 2022

239: Looking Forward to 2022

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With 2021 almost behind us, it’s time to look ahead into 2022. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want your business to look like? In this episode, we discuss what next year looks like for pet care. We encourage you to take your answers from your annual business review and look ahead to making 2022 your best year. More than simply setting goals and objectives, it's about looking for areas to invest in your business, like marketing and finances, or conferences and education. The most important place to invest? Yourself! Then, Natasha answers, "What's your favorite technology in your business?"

220: Making Big Changes with Maria Teran

220: Making Big Changes with Maria Teran

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Maria Teran, owner of Chicawoof Dog Walking, has gone through many life altering events. From fleeing her home country, to uprooting to a brand new city to start a business, Maria faces change with optimism and opportunities. She joins the show to reflect on those events, how she found and stays true to her brand, and growing and selling businesses.

205: Switching from ICs to Employees with Amber Van Denzen Suarez

205: Switching from ICs to Employees with Amber Van Denzen Suarez

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What do you do if you currently have independent contractors (ICs) and want to make the switch to employees? There are national initiatives underway to make it harder to properly classify staff as ICs, so switching is something to consider. Amber Van Denzen Suarez, owner of Atta Boy! Animal Care shares what the process was like for her. She explains why she decided it was time to make the change and how the switch has helped her business. She walks us through the numbers required to make it all work and shares how she structured her employee’s pay.

195: Large Animal and Farm Sitting with Ariah Transmeier

195: Large Animal and Farm Sitting with Ariah Transmeier

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Ariah Transmeier has been farm sitting for almost 18 years. As a horse owner and lover, she knows the needs of owners and how to communicate her experience into solving their problems. She describes what it’s like preparing and caring for 300 acres of farm, while making it worth her time, and still providing excellent care. Ariah shares what it means to know your strengths and weaknesses, and how it results in a higher quality of care. We also discuss some of her favorite resources and how to go about gaining experience as a farm sitter.

187: Helping Clients Bond with Their Pets with Cherie Marquez

187: Helping Clients Bond with Their Pets with Cherie Marquez

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How do we help deepen the relationship between the client and their pet? With the pet craze in full swing and many owners struggling to connect with their new family member, pet professionals can help guide their clients into a deeper bond with their pets. Cherie Marquez, The Dog Mystic, is passionate about keeping pets in their forever home through education, training, and building trust. Cherie encourages us to set aside the technology and be present in the moment to focus on the pets around us. She also shares some awesome techniques to teach our clients how to deal with separation anxiety.

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