Mar 11

Mar 11 031 - Heather Scott

Brought to you by Time to Pet. Go to timetopet.com/confessional for 50% off your first 3 months

On this weeks episode we talk with Heather Scott, owner of Heather’s Pet Care LLC about taking her business from a side hustle to a full time business. She also talks about some lessons she’s learned along the way with employees and how she keeps her clients coming back year after year.

Topics for This episode:

- How did you get started?

- What kind of services do you provide?

- What makes a good pet care professional?

- As a client what are people looking for in a pet sitter?

- When did you decide to bring on team members?

- How do you manage and keep everyone organized?

- Setting yourself apart in a crowded market?

- Most memorable/influential client?

- the “little” things I do in this business? Ie holiday cards, lights on during winter time

- How do you keep clients year after year?

- Describe one of those not so very good kind of days. What did it teach you about the pet care business?

- What do you wish people knew about the life of a pet sitter?

Follow Heather:

www.heatherpetcare.com

Instagram: heatherpetcare

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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com

**A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE**

Provided by otter.ai

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

clients, pet sitter, dog, people, business, pet, walking, owner, day, hired, job, text message, whatnot, years, dog walker, house, llc, cameras, helped, prices

SPEAKERS

Collin, Heather

00:15

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

Collin 00:23

by time to pet. Hello and welcome back to another episode. This week we are joined by Heather Scott from Heather's pet care. Heather talks to us about some big hitting topics from what makes a good pet care professional and how she hires her employees and how she stays organized and manages all of the chaos. She also mentions about how she sets herself apart in her market. Heather's got a lot of awesome stories to share. Let's dive right in.

Heather 00:48

So my name is Heather and I've owned Heather's pet care for the last five and a half years now. I've always done other jobs in between I was a personal trainer for gym actually, when I started this business I did both for two years until I had to make a decision to either become a busier trainer again or to focus on this business and I decided to focus on the business instead. But I've always kind of done just odd things here and there. I'm a little bit of a hustler can always do just one thing. But I did just run this business first straight two years, that was my main income. I didn't do anything else. So I decided to pick up a job about a year ago. And so now I'm just helping people get tan as well as taking care of your dog show. kind of odd jobs in between being a dog walker, and a pet sitter, which is kind of helping to promote my business because it's not a conflict anywhere. Same with personal training. They didn't have a pet care business, they didn't care that I was telling people that I owned a business they really do. I was there to train, you know, and then I would talk to clients about that. So a lot of my my clients at first We're really from the gym, which was super helpful. Oh, I was a great kind of Yeah, yeah, that just kind of happened on accident. Yeah.

02:08

Great when it works.

Collin 02:09

Yeah, it is. So so so how did you get started in in pet care specifically, what was the the trigger?

Heather 02:17

Like kind of that aha moment, I guess? Yeah. Um, so when I was a personal trainer, I was working there, like 15 I think 20 hours a week was like my max. And that's really a job that you can't work eight hours a day at first, it's very boring, especially when you don't have a lot of clients. You're just walking around the gym doing nothing. So I had all this free time on my hands and I I honestly don't know how I came up with dog walking, but I came up with dog walking. And I found not care.com and I don't even know if this site is around anymore, but I found another kind of pet care dog walking type of site and it wasn't like homesteaders are pet sitters calm, which I know is one too. It was another one I can't remember what it was called. And I actually got my two first dog walking clients up around the gym that I was working at from that website. So then I was just kind of working them in between my clients or I would see clients for the gym, go walk them because they were local. Yeah, and then come back. So that's how it really started and then within I that was kind of my aha moment and I never really wanted to make it a business. My main goal, believe it or not, was to pay off my student loans.

03:33

Oh,

Heather 03:34

and I was like, well, what's a good hide side hustle to where, you know, I don't have to, you know, I can make good money but it's not like I'm breaking the bank doing it. Sure. And again, dog walking just kind of came into play. And I had these two clients that was like, cool, great. I'll just, I'll just have those two clients you know, for forever and help my loans in X amount of time and it'll be great. Yeah, and like, overnight, it just cut it took off. I ended up joining care.com I messaged This is when it was free. So now you have to like pay for everything everybody does crazy. But back in the day about five, six years ago, it was free. So I would send out my website, everybody. And then they would click on it care.com never really caught on. They would click on it and then find my website and then contact me through there. Okay, so that's like my first three, my first two clients were from that one site and then my third client that I still have to this day. I found him through care.com. Okay, so that's kind of how it all like stumbled into place. I guess those three clients I had for probably well the one I've had for five and a half years now the other two I had for over a year straight. Wow. So I was like, cool how just these three clients for forever, it'll be wonderful. I still do but then you know, when things happen, people move and whatnot. You know, so that's kind of happened with the other two they ended up just moving but yeah, I just really thought it was going to be just such a side hustle. It kind of just like grew in my lap. overnight. I was like no crowd. This is a business now. Like, within six months, I had to hire people. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah.

Collin 05:15

So what was the triggering point for hiring your first team member?

Heather 05:19

I was getting so many new clients that everybody was booking me at the same time. Yeah, sitting stuff. And I was like, well, I can't sleep at three houses at once. What the heck am I gonna do? At the time when I first started the business? I don't know if dropping visits were really a thing or if people just weren't interested in them. I offer that service. Now when I have to stay at somebody's house. I figured I'll just say hey, listen, I'm already staying somewhere but I can stop in. Yeah, but I didn't. I don't know if I just I don't think I've really offered that five years ago. So once a bunch of people once a bunch of people were hitting me up and asking me for pet sitting up Same time I was like, oh, crud. Well, now I, now I have to have at least one other person to help me out. Yeah. When I was at the gym, I ended up being paired up with this one girl, Amanda and she was actually a graphic designer, and she did my first logo for me. Because I was like, Oh my god, I don't even have a logo like me, you know, and I didn't know what to do. What did I didn't go to school for that. I was like, I have no clue. I met her. I was like, Hey, could you do my logo for me? You know, I'll come work for me too. It just all kind of worked in the place. So she ended up working for me had sitting wise because she had a normal job during the day. Yeah. And then one of my co workers at the gym. She ended up walking dogs for me for four and a half years. Oh, wow. And we started at the same time. We both had the same last name. She got married, but we both had the same last name. So it was just kind of it was weirdly meant to be Yeah. But yeah, she was she's always you know you have that one staff member you'll never replace Sure. It was her. So I miss her Every day, she left me this year, actually, she left me in June. So that that was a tough one. So that was really my triggering moment of meeting to hire because everybody was booking me at once. And I was like, What the heck? I'm like, I can't, again, can't be four places at once. And for whatever reason I didn't offer drop in, because it's definitely something I do now. Yeah. But and I really, I think those people really wanted somebody to be in the house overnight.

07:25

Sure. You know,

Heather 07:26

so I don't even think that was really because they probably would have brought it up as an option. And they definitely didn't. So,

Collin 07:32

yeah, people tend to know or have an idea of what kind of service Yeah,

07:35

so what Right, right.

Collin 07:37

What kind of services do do you provide now?

Heather 07:41

Sure. So I provide overnight care, which is really just a limited basis with scheduling, dog walking, which is pretty much every day. Same with pet sitting so that would be I guess the drop in visit. I call that editing. Okay, so we can come in up to four times a day if need be. Sometimes Dogs four times days. Apparently normal. Cats are anywhere between once or twice. And birds are usually just once. I do have some bird clients, people need to travel to Yeah, so and bird people really don't travel because they're nervous to find somebody I understand it's a lot of work with birds. You know, you kind of have to know what you're looking for, you know, like, there's no real like bird bet. You know? So it's it's such just people just own birds because they like them, but they don't go away because not a lot of people know how to take care of them. Like I have one bird client. She's wonderful. She worked in zoos for forever. And she was a bird curator. So like, knows she knows her stuff with her. Yeah, like, for sure. So I was like, Oh, I got when I first got this fight. I was like, Oh, wow. And I remember I got her at the gym. And the trainer, who knew her was, you know, was telling me he was like, Oh my god, she like chops up all these fruits and vegetables for the birds and he's like, your food. You're probably not going to have to do that. Like that's like So much work. Yeah. Oh my god. I have to do that. I actually do. Really I really enjoy it because it looks really pretty, you know, you saw rainbow colors you chop it up, but each bird has a different size beak. So I have to chop up the vegetables to a different size per cage. Oh, wow, she's got one. She has finches. She has a big white cockatoo cockatiel. So you know, the big one anarchie he can eat like, apples whole, you know, you don't have skin them he can eat grapes, no big deal, but all in Rosella has all these little birds. They have their beaks are small, they have to chop them up really, really tiny. They can't do any skins because it's poisonous. So those people need to go away too. Yeah, so you're good with following direction. You know, when these people trust you, then you'll be good but yes, I do service birds to

Collin 10:00

Okay, that's really interesting. I and and what I like about this kind of the pet care is the ability to meet those client's needs. You know, is that

Heather 10:11

and you're not just stuck with cats and dogs. Yes. You know,

Collin 10:14

all sorts of things come up. I know we we've sat hinge back tortoises and Ball Pythons.

Heather 10:21

snakes. lizards, and that's like as far as I'll go cuz they eat but they still freaking out.

10:31

Gosh.

Collin 10:34

Yeah. So you mentioned something there about if you can follow directions, you know you'll be fine. Yeah. As a business owner when you're when you're bringing somebody on the team, what are things that stick out to you that go, aha, this is this is good.

Heather 10:48

I have had, I've hired a lot of people over the years I've hired about 16 and four have lasted more than six months. Oh, yeah. This is the A tough industry. So I, it's hard for me to say because I when I meet everybody initially, I'm like, Oh my God, this person is great. Wow, they're wonderful. They have great references. No background check comes out fine. All of it looks perfect. Like oh my god, I really need the help. And then within a couple months, they do something stupid. And I'm like, Hello. Why did I hire you then? Yeah, you know it, and then they end up quitting. And I'm like, wow. All right, like, was that really good? Like it was good help at the time. But was it like quality health? Sure. I don't know. The problem is with my business specifically. I'm so busy personally, that my staff ends up taking all the extra jobs and all the extra clients and I can't always follow them around. Sure. So you know, like, I can't take off a whole day just to follow around by staff because I have my own personal life. So I don't know maybe and I do have everybody shadow me. furred you know, at least the first week I joined them with the first walk on any clients so they know the routine. They know how I do things. So I don't know if it may be just too much lacks, sometimes there can be too much freedom in this business. Sure. And you know, and sometimes there is a lot of quick thinking too with dog walking and pet sitting, you know, sometimes you can't call me in the moment you just have to deal with it. And I've I've had dog walkers and pet sitters do that and then call me after the fact. Which is fine because I I've been in situations to where I can't immediately call the owner, I just have to think on my feet do it. So those moments, kind of make or break pet sitters for me, but hiring them initially. It's just so hard to tell somebody work ethic until they're working for you. Oh, yeah. And again, like following direction is like huge if you can't follow my direction. You know, like, what the heck yeah. So that responsibility and trust on my end is massive because my clients at the end of the day, trust me for hiring my staff, you know, they'll always come back to me because it's me, but they're okay with using somebody else

Collin 13:17

the company is is Heather's pet care. Right. So So ultimately, we talked about like that. It does fall at your feet, anything and everything that does happen is your responsibility at the end of the day. Totally. Yeah, totally. From the other side there as a client, what? What are they looking for in a pet sitter?

Heather 13:36

Sure. So I gotten close with a few of my clients. Being a personal trainer is very appealing to some people. So my dog and pet sitting clients, I've also become my personal training clients and kind of work hand in hand. Pretty cool. So I've asked my clients over the years, you know, like why they keep using me or why they ended up choosing me because at the end of the day, you know, you don't You know, you want to know you're doing a good job, but you don't really know why you're how you know. And I know people are super blessed and grateful to have me in their life and whatnot and cool, but like, I know there's a reason why they still end up choosing. Yeah, so and actually it kind of happened a little bit earlier today I was walking the dog. This one neighborhood, I was on the phone with my friend and one of my clients, I this one neighborhood where I have three clients in there and one of them sees me sometimes she just needs actually, she's my lizard client. And so she pulled out today with her mom in the car and stopped and said, Hey, and we just chatted for a few minutes and whatnot. And again, I was on the phone with my my best friend and when they ended up leaving, I was like, so there was some customer service right there for you. I still have the fine so you just make it. I know a little bit of a personal touch. I think what people are looking for, you know is responsibility and trust are huge because you're walking into people's houses when they're not there. They're handing They're house key. You know, that's that's a really big deal for a lot of people. I honestly think about it. Wow. I really want somebody staying in my house like no. Like, I can't believe my clients trust me like they do what they really do. Oh, yeah. And I think also over the years, like, everybody's human, and I understand that, but I don't mess up. I don't this is my job. I take this very seriously, walking into your house is super serious, in my opinion, especially when you're not there, you know? So I think people just see that right away. And they, they just, they know, they just can sense it. I've also I built this business in my hometown, and I was a bit of a nerd in high school. So I really didn't get in trouble when I was a good kid. Yes, I've heard that from a lot of people, like they'll ask around town about me, and they'll just usually Sam, I was a good kid. So that also helped too, because if you did some stupid stuff around town, and you're going to try to build this but it's just going to come out really fast and people are going to find out and then they're not gonna want to use you know, I think from a client's perspective, they're really looking for that responsibility, that trust from that end. And really how you articulate I've met some people where I'm like, oh boy, like you can't you can't speak well, and I do you live in an area where it is very wealthy, I'm walking into a lot of mansions, you know, a lot of people that have made a lot of money over the years, you know, just being able to articulate and being, you know, and you can throw responsibility in that too, with being able to talk well, and you don't have to have, you know, massive amount of knowledge in this business to be able to even know what you're doing, you know, because I don't have my degree and any sort of animal care that tech certification, you know, I don't have any of that stuff. Yeah, so I just have a business degree. So how that turned into walking dogs, you know, weird, but yeah, it's always crazy for life, where life really takes you so I really think the two biggest things From a client's perspective is responsibility and trust.

Collin 17:03

Yeah, yeah. And that just presenting yourself as a professional, right? Like,

Heather 17:09

yes, that is not coming up in like ripped clothes. You know, like I wear I actually wear a lot of the stuff that I wear dog walking because it just it smells like dogs and the dogs just don't leave me alone. So that was like, Oh my God, my dog loves you already. I'm like, I know. Cuz I smell like a dog. You know? I mean, I know dogs can sense energy and they know when you're not a good person. Yeah, but they can tell right away that I smell just like them. You know, they're honestly confused because they're like, not a dog. But the body smell like. So no. Yeah, there's still but yeah, because I wear the same boots every winter every day. You know, I do Switch up my sneakers, but my boots I wear every day. So it just it smells and I labs, you know, goldens dogs that shed like crazy. Yeah, so I tend to just wear that stuff. You know, like, Okay, good. But yeah, I mean, I've met some people that were like 15 And I interviewed a girl that wore like a rip shirt. And it was like ripped on purpose. You know, it wasn't like an accidental rip. It was like just a rip shirt on purpose. But yeah, maybe not for the interview is not a good idea because like, I had none of my songs. I wouldn't hire her because I know none of my clients would hire her. Yeah,

Collin 18:19

yeah, that's big. And that idea of like, you know, you are in people's homes. It's a very personal it's very, you know, intimate kind of business relationship that you have with people. And to know that whether you're being watched or not, you need to be you need to have that.

Heather 18:37

You pretty much are Yeah. Sitting you pretty much are I mean, yes, especially these days, because five years ago, the whole camera craze wasn't really a huge thing. So I felt like I got into the business at a good time. But even with all the cameras and whatnot that they have now, they're still neighbors. People are really close with everybody. You know, if you're throwing part If you're not there, it's going to get back to the owner really fast. Yeah. Yeah. And it's happened to me a couple times with staff, where the owners have called me or, you know, because their neighbor said something to them. And I'm God had arrived at houses where, you know, the neighbors have said something about me. I'm like, Oh, come on. Yeah. So it's like, you can tell the houses where people are really close and tight knit. But yeah, there always is the one or two that has a camera that you just have. One of my clients didn't even tell me and there was a camera right inside the house. And she said, Listen, you know, like, if you have people over be do something we're going to know. Just know that will know. Yeah, like I had no idea what that even meant. And she was my personal training client at the time. So I just I felt it was so odd because I was seeing her so much at the gym, that they didn't trust me being in their home with their dog too. But I ended up and I had no idea what she was talking about. So I was just, you know, kind of hanging out like normal and whatnot at all was fine. And all the sudden I turned around and I just saw it, like out of nowhere. And I was like, Oh, I guess this is what she was talking about. And it was like, right directly in the kitchen in the living room. Yeah. And they didn't put me in a bedroom. They put me in the basement. So I was like, Okay, well, I guess I'm just gonna hang out in the basement. That's pretty much all I did. I just took the dog downstairs and we just hung out in the basement. So I'm not a huge fan of cameras inside the house outside the house. Fine. I understand why people do that. Especially with all the package nonsense that's been going on. I understand why people do that. But inside the house, the dogs not doing anything but sleeping. Yeah. Nothing. Your dog is doing nothing. You really want to know because sometimes I I'll walk into a house quietly or they don't hear me right away. So then you kind of catch them in the act. Yeah. I'm not doing anything but sleeping. Watching them sleep for the eight hours. You're gone. All right. But we're not dealing with anything. Yeah, they're not doing anything productive. Like nothing.

21:01

Do you do you ask clients if they have cameras? Or is it you just not even broach that topic and just assume

Heather 21:07

I can kind of tell with some people? I mean, people do make it very obvious, really. I don't tend to ask what it is. Sometimes what usually comes up especially pet sitting wise, but it's more of my dog walking clients that have cameras. For pet sitting wise, I'll ask in my checklist, if they have any security or alarm systems. And usually the cameras are some sort of security system or a link to an alarm or something. So it'll usually come up with something like that. But not I mean, people are usually pretty honest about it, too. Like my first very first pet sitting client before I started this business. The first thing they told me was they had cameras on the outside their house, ah, and I was like, Oh, okay. And I think they were telling me because the last girl that they had, and they used a real close friend of theirs daughter, probably to save some money and you know, to kind of help out and I'm sure they paid her a bit too. But you know, you want to do something nice for your friend's kid. Yeah. And they didn't tell her about the cameras. So he told Yeah, so he told me that her boyfriend was coming over and letting the dogs out. She wasn't always staying there when she said she was she was gone for like hours on end at one point. So it just was a hot mess. I was like, Oh my God. You know, this was like my first job. I was like, wow, am I sure I really want to do this. Yeah, they were going to Italy for two weeks. Yeah, they were good friends with my aunt. And that's why they decided to go with me because they the wife went to high school with my app. So that you know, really close personal friend of hers and I think that's why they trusted me because it was family. You know it basically at that point, so yeah, crazy, crazy. And I even asked him One point, I think I needed my brother to stay over. I can't remember what the situation was. But I asked them, I'd like I emailed. I think we're communicating via email because it was Italy. And this was six years ago. So I don't even think WhatsApp was around. Yeah. And I emailed them. And I asked if my brother failover, and they super appreciated that. And they were like, yeah, of course, like Dave really wants I asked like, once or twice, they didn't really care after that.

Collin 23:22

Yeah. Is that just speaks to, like, communicate with the owners communicate with the clients because they they crave that that that is something that they totally love to have is

Heather 23:33

the only communication. Yeah, the only communication you have between the dog and the owner is you. Yeah. Yeah. You know,

Collin 23:42

yeah. And, and so they're going to want you to, it's better to ask up front and just be honest with him about things then try and either hide it or not ask and assume that it's okay. Never assume those kind of things when you're dealing when you're in somebody,

Heather 23:57

especially the dog schedule to you know, because I I've heard people that will pet it on the side, you know, it's a side hustle, kind of like how I started, which is cool. But people who have the normal Monday through Friday, eight hour job, and this dog is used to being let out, you know, let's say at noon or one o'clock because that's what the owner does. Yeah, you know, that's where you have that disconnect a little bit, you know, and that can become a bit so convenient. So letting the owner know right away, like, Hey, I do work. I actually I have a pet sitter right now does have a full time job. She works at a bagel place by me. And she actually works early, like early morning, like 530, you know, some mornings to like 233. So she's not getting out really late. But it's just such different hours that most of my clients are used to that I flat out, tell them right away. Listen, Michelle works for a bagel place. She has to work there really early. I'm going to stop in. You know, kind of that and mid day at that point is like 910 o'clock in the morning. Yeah, cuz then she'll be back You know, three, four o'clock. So it doesn't really affect my schedule too much, but I'm able to at least help her. So then that way the dogs can be let out. The clients are fine with it. And then I'm also kind of taking a look and seeing what's going on and making sure everything's up to par. And you know, she didn't have a party the night before. And you know, all that. Yeah,

Collin 25:18

absolutely. So you mentioned Michelle, and you have a few other people on your team. Tell us about the people that work for you.

Heather 25:28

Sure. So I have Michelle now. And she's been great. No problems. I I've actually known her for many years, just going to this bagel shop. And then we just, you know, kind of chatted there for a while then she actually approached me, she's like, hey, she's like, you know, do you need help with like, pet sitting or whatnot? And I was like, oh my god. Yes. Yes. Like, why haven't we talked about this forever ago? I just didn't really bring it up to her because I was always going to her job, you know? Oh, yeah, I don't run. You know, we don't even speak about it. When the owners are there. You know, it's a completely separate thing. With us, and I know that and I respect that. So she's been great so far no complaints, but she's just strictly pet sitting because her schedule is so crazy and works a bit of a normal job. So the my dog walker is actually a dog trainer, and her name is Amy. She's been a dog trainer for about 10 years now. Super excited to bring her on board because I don't know anything about dog training. And I'm not about to drop 10 k on that sort of, I was like, Oh my god, I was like a dog trainer. Please join my group. So we actually do a lot of cross promotion with each other. Oh, cool. Any Yeah, so any new clients that she gets, she talks about me and any new clients and all of my old clients, especially once I get a second dog. I immediately sent her card over and say listen, you need to get in you know you need to she works for me. You need to get in with her like now. Yeah, so we both have two very different businesses that she's not really competing with me. I don't do anything Dog Training buys. She has her own proof for that, you know, it's dog training. not consistent. pet sitting and dog walking is way more consistent than that. So that's why she's kind of working for me and doing the dog training. So at first I was like, Well, why? Why do you want to work for me? Got a weird? Yeah, do you I can't pay you $100 for a dog walk, you know, just kind of a normal dog training session. Well, so the consistency of it just really, you know, that you'll you'll do great for a while, and then you'll have nobody for like a month. So I can understand that. Because that was really in the beginning of this business. It's very up and down with the schedules. And if you don't build your clientele base up, not necessarily quickly, but if you don't keep building it, you'll just lose everybody in that fat. Yeah, so But anyway, so Amy's been great. She's strictly a dog walker of mine. There is a lot of extra hours and a lot of extra time and this is I'm sure as you know, it's not an easy like, hey, you're walking dogs from 10 to three today. You're done. Yeah, you know, and then like, yeah, so with them, I really kept that like with her. That's pretty much her schedule. I do her schedule every week for her. And I'll map it out literally to the hour and to like a half an hour mark that she needs to leave. So that way she knows where she needs to be. She can schedule her clients around that and then that's that but that does change every week and every day. You know, it's not like she's walking dogs from 11 to two every day. Okay, you know, she's not some days and she starts at noon some days she starts at 1145 love her to pieces. Yeah, she I cannot run this business on my own. I've been saying that a lot with lately. I don't know why but I did happen to me in June where I had a dog walker that was going to replace Erica and within a week of me almost losing Erica, this girl gave me five days notice and quit. And I was like, wow, yeah. Wow. Like you have your own book and I have my own book. Yeah, I'm like, Oh my god, what am I gonna do? So? Yeah, so it was a panic. So I literally had to drop my personal clients that I had for years until I was ready to take them back because I didn't want to lose the new business. Sure. My old clients were okay with it. Weirdly enough, they were like, no, come back when you need to. We understand. We'll cover it for now. That's great. Nobody dropped me. Nobody dropped me for that. So and it was two weeks that I was running it by myself and I couldn't do it. Yeah, so that's, that's when I hire I hired the mom and then I hired dog trainer to all at once. I got three. I just separated those clients and they each had you know, the start of their book and then I could breathe and focus on thing.

29:55

So yeah, you have some relatively new hires. How are you managing them and keeping everybody organized on the same page,

Heather 30:02

but each staff member that has worked for me has kind of taught me what to do different next time. Yeah. So it's usually really bad stuff that happens, where I'm like, Whoa, wow. Okay, now I really have to drastically change things. So what I do now, which I find this has helped me the most, writing out their schedules via email. Huge. That's been super helpful, because in that way, I can look back on where they need to be. It's the email, you know, it's not like in a text message where it's lost. And I have an app on doggy logs. I don't know if you guys have heard of it. There's a few of like, those kind of GPS tracking apps to for walking dogs. There's one called tractive as well. I looked into both and doggy logs, honestly was just more fun. Like it's very user friendly. Just like cartoony type of, you know, find a layout So that is really that's huge for me when I bring on because sometimes I'll bring on like old staff, I hired a girl for the holidays this year, who helped me out with a job last year. And just to make sure that these girls are staying at the houses for as long as they need to be, that's where the app becomes handy, because you have to go into it and start and stop it. And I get the email. And all I really look at is just making sure that you're there. At the time that I said you were going to be there because if you don't need especially if you're stopping into a house three times a day, you're not getting updates three times a day, right? Yeah, God that's like so much work. And like what are you gonna talk about, like, by the end of the after the third day, there's nothing left out yet. So I usually do one update at the end of the day, but that's where the doggie log app comes handy because you don't have to touch base or really say anything to me as long as I get that email. Sure if there's a problem where like, you know, you found something in the house need to call me call me. You know that That's always my Mo, please, if you need to reach me do, but if you were just there for a normal visit and everything was fine, I'll just check my emails, make sure that you were there and move on with my day. Right? Yeah, that's how I felt that I really kept everybody organized now.

Collin 32:16

So what? What's the market like for pet care where you live huge,

Heather 32:21

it's huge. Everybody has pets. Everybody needs to go away. Everybody needs help. Well, it's massive. I'm in a extremely crowded space over here. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm part of a Facebook group that's in my town just specifically for my town. I got about 10,000 people in it and I don't live in a city. I live in a farm town. So don't think of anything huge. Yeah. And, you know, I I grew up next to three farms. So, okay, I lived in Farmville. Everybody has a lot of animals. And in this Facebook group, people will ask for dog walkers or pet sitters, you know, they'll always and I'm telling you, there are 50 comments, 60 comments, all different All different. Yeah, it's not like the same person. You know, I actually got a client so blessed to have gotten this client got a client because he went on Facebook saw one of the posts, started writing down names of businesses. I was the first one. Nice. Okay, he contacted me and I emailed him back that day, and we met like, I think two days later. Wow. Wow. He didn't even contact anybody else.

Collin 33:26

Right? Well, he didn't need to because you got in touch.

Heather 33:28

Yeah, exactly. So it's crazy the amount of people that will refer other pet sitters and dog walkers in this area. And I usually don't get the person who posted the job. I usually get people that see it like this particular client. How about Susie? He just saw it online. So that's how I've gotten a lot of my extra clients just from the people seeing this from the Facebook group. Maybe they tried somebody else. Didn't have good luck, like I got a client once Cat actually, and they had an alarm system and you had to put in your own code and that you know that again, you know that stuff this is something that you know, and they hired a girl that literally came just like in and out still put her alarm code and and everything and left the and after like five minutes. Wow. Wow. So of course they asked me how long do you typically stay for blah blah so I'm like, wow this girl like they get those text messages you know, because she even told me to if you ever have an issue with our alarm system, just let me know I can do it remotely. Yeah. They knew when I was coming in and out of that house, so I was like, wow, I'm like, Oh my gosh, so that's I think they tried somebody else from the Facebook group and then use her once that happened and then they've had me ever since.

Collin 34:46

Have you heard about time to pet Dan from NYC pooch as this to say, I'm too bad. It's been a total game changer for us. It's helped us

34:53

streamline many aspects of our operation from scheduling and communication to billing and customer management. We actually have Said other paginating software's in the past, but these other solutions were clunky and riddled with problems. Everything in the past has been so well thought out. It's intuitive feature rich, and it's always improving.

Collin 35:10

If you are looking for new pet sitting software for your business, give time to pet a try. As a listener of pet sitter confessional, you'll get 50% off your first three months when you sign up at time to pet.com slash confessional. How do you set yourself apart in a really crowded market like that? What do you think, you know, helps you bubble up to the top there?

Heather 35:33

I really think my website helps. I'm not a lot of people in this industry have websites, it's usually either a Facebook page or phone number. Okay. And people want to make sure this is a legitimate business. They want to see testimonials. They want to know what you actually do. because not a lot of it. We have businesses over here that just service cats real or businesses that just service dogs. Yes. Okay, there's some people that won't touch cat. And there's some people that, you know, don't want to deal with dogs. Oh, yeah. So you're limiting yourself a little bit in that regard, you know, but there are those types of those. Those people do exist around here. So I and I always get a lot of compliments on my website, and it's a Squarespace website that I just died my best friend and I designed it six years ago, you know, so it's I haven't even changed it. I've changed the pictures and testimonials, of course, but I haven't changed the layout of that in six years. Because I always get a lot of compliments on it. And I feel like that stands out the most with me. Because once you need to have a good first impression before you then meet the client. Yeah, so I feel like they see enough where they're like, Oh my gosh, I can't wait to meet this girl and I you know, right away. It's usually like, Oh, your website was so cute. You know, I can't wait to meet you. And I've gotten that a lot over the years. So I really feel like that's the winner right there is just a website which seems so basic. It's super basic. Well, it really is. And on this Facebook group, I'm telling you, I'm probably one of two or three people that have websites. That's it.

37:10

And when when these days, it's it's shocking to hear that because these days websites are pretty ubiquitous. And

Heather 37:16

they're pretty much free.

37:17

Yeah, at this point,

Heather 37:18

you know, yes. Or you build your own. You know, Squarespace i think is $100 a year. Yes. It's less than $10 a month. You know, I can't even How can you not justify that cost? Yeah, yeah. For something that I don't even pay for Google ads, or Google, you know, none of that stuff. And I'm found off of Google a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So all the time.

Collin 37:42

Yeah, so so to so anybody listening to this, if you don't have a website, just getting a simple one out there with your name prices, contact information, and some testimonials like,

Heather 37:54

you know, it's interesting. I don't put my prices online.

Collin 37:56

Okay. Really. So I do

Heather 37:58

not know I do not Because for me, I find not everybody just has one dog that runs You know, that's a golden retriever that needs to be walked at this time. And that's what it is. Yes, everybody has different animals, you may have more than one dog, you may have a dog and a cat. You know, you may not need me for dog walking services every day. I have clients that just use me for when they go away. And my dog walking clients, they don't typically go away or they'll use friends and family because they you know, use me for dog walking and I get it. They don't want to spend any more with me. I understand. Yeah, I see after a while so then they kind of you know, I think they just their wallets are curtain a little bit so then they use friends and family. That's totally fine.

Collin 38:47

Yeah. So well, I liked I think that's interesting, because basically you're saying by not really putting prices on there, you're kind of Yes, you're making a second conversation happen of allowing yourself to curtail the exact service is in the exact pricing at the time that it's being asked for

Heather 39:04

the answer because it doesn't overnight care really does vary on how much work is being done and I don't know if that's how you guys price it too but you know you I definitely have underpriced myself before. Work doesn't seem that bad. Yeah, actually the the woman that I charged the most ever in pet sitting was this summer, and she had four cats, two dogs, and like 30 chickens. And I didn't even charge her $100 a day.

39:35

Oh my. Wow. Yeah,

Heather 39:37

yeah, I should have because it wasn't so much with the dogs and the cat. Well, the cats got fed three times a day. That was a little bit of work and two of them were kittens. The other two were fine. The dogs were Oh my god. Phenomenal. The one was a retired working line German Shepherd. Like he had airport security clearance. What? Yeah, like that loves him. God Yeah, he was great rain on my end Flint, beautiful, beautiful German Shepherds. And they just I had no problems with them. And I really didn't have any issues with the chickens. It was just all the work with the chickens. Yeah, so I had to let them out first thing in the morning collect all the eggs. I had to make sure they all and they can't see at night. So of course in the summertime, when does it get dark at like 930? Yes. So I had to stay up until it got dark. And then put on my chicken boots put on a jacket because the speedos are everywhere and make sure all the chickens are in. Like I had one that I had to chase around for like a solid five minutes because he just one go in. And I'm like, Dude, it's getting dark. I know you need to go in and I can't leave this like you need to go in. Yeah. So I should have charged her like definitely charged myself with that job. Yeah, and it happens you know it totally so I was like, You know what, I'm not gonna put any prices with overnight Aaron because if you have one dog where I have to let out in the backyard three times a day. I'm not gonna charge you $80 a day for that, you know, that's like really ridiculous. That's easy. You know, but if you have a job that I have to walk three to five times a day because sometimes that happens, it's, you know, you're gonna, you're gonna pay for that.

Collin 41:14

Yeah, and I think it is very easy in this business to to constantly undercharge your services, because because you

Heather 41:23

want the client

Collin 41:24

you want the client you're afraid of losing them. Yeah. And you really end up hurting yourself in the end because you're you run yourself ragged and and at the end of the day, you know, the person who traveled with the chickens in the castle, the dogs who else are they going to get to do that? You know, if that quality of service and you have to remind yourself of people are reaching out to you for a reason because they need somebody that they can trust and and you know, they're going to pay for it be to a certain quality of service that they that they can trust and believe in and that

Heather 41:58

and I I worked with people from The first two years of starting this business. I said, Listen, then let's let's work out a price them. Yeah, especially for dog walking, because that's, that's consistent, you know, so a $5 increase or decrease is a lot of money to a lot of people, you know, so I used to work with people in the beginning. Now I don't because I've been doing this for too long. My time is really valuable. People get that and they really don't talk about my prices too much anymore. Yeah. Because they know I've been around and, you know, I know what I'm doing at this point. And I don't really I don't need to work with people to get the client to get them to stay, you know, because it does end up hurting you in the long run. Totally. Because how do you then say, like, how do you then increase the prices? That's a very awkward conversation to have with people. Yes, it is. It really is, especially people who use you, you know, consistently and more than just once a week if it's once a week. Those people don't really cry about it because it's like, okay, I understood I didn't raise my didn't raise my prices until this year, I think or maybe like, sometime last year. Okay, I kept them the same for like a straight four years. Wow. Because I also I was like, Well, why are these people going to pay? You know, they're not going to want to pay more. And I'm not going to have a dog walk from $20 and $22 Why am I going to deal with change? You know what I mean? I know some people do that. And especially in Jersey, they have a half hour walk for $22. And I'm like, who was ever going to have dollar bills, and they're gonna pay you and change, but I've had clients pay me and change for $20 and they're gonna pay you and change. Yeah, I'm sure for two bucks. And then if you're paying staff on that, too, like you're just dealing with more unnecessary money that you don't need to, you know,

Collin 43:46

yeah, from a management decision, you know, it's much easier to manage that. But you know, eventually you do need to start adjusting those prices because yeah, the costs are going up all the time. stuff and the gas

Heather 43:59

Yeah. Yes, yeah,

Collin 44:00

not damn down anytime soon.

44:05

Exactly.

Collin 44:06

So after after five and a half years do you have a most memorable or maybe even influential client that has helped you know help the way you run your business or view what you do?

Heather 44:18

I would say probably Amy, Amy's the owner, Chaplin the dog. He's been my buddy for it's my god loves me to pieces. everybody's like, oh, he loves me so much. I'm like, I know, but I literally had him since he was a 10 week old puppy. Oh, gosh, yeah, I hadn't. I still have my black lab for three. Riley's gonna turn four soon. I had her when she was eight weeks old. I held her in my hand. Can't do that. Now. She's like 40 pounds now. I have a before and after picture because getting selfies with her is really hard. I think we kind of all grew and did when she was a puppy with pictures. So okay, these dogs don't like the phones because they know it's for selfies. Sure. Got Maybe like two or three over the last couple years because they were really hard to get when she was a puppy, no big deal. So I have like a layout picture of the two of us. And I would say that's probably the most, like impacted one because I'm holding her in my hands. And then she's like this giant dog. Huge. So I would definitely say chaplain because I had him since he was, you know, and I think it was maybe 10 weeks old. I don't even think he was quite three months, four months, and can be my third client and still still using me, you know, I even helped out with her mom with her cat because her mom lived down the road from here. So, you know, they they achieve and said to me recently, she's like, Oh, I feel like you're just part of the family now. And I was like, Yes, I totally AM. They got a second dog. We've been working really hard with that. So, you know, it's Yeah, yeah. So once you know and they feel comfortable, and it's such a sigh of relief for them that I'm there. You know, they they do have 16 year old that's on that goes to high school that you know does come home and help out with the dogs when needed. But she knows when I stopped by that, you know, the dogs are happy. They're at least getting out for a good walk. You know the high schooler doesn't have to rush home to then deal with the dogs. Sure. You know, it's just it's a good peace of mind. Really? Yeah.

Collin 46:19

Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure that helps you out a lot. Yeah, yes. So for your business, and you've chosen to go with an LLC filing. Why did you why in particular, did you decide to go with that over another kind of classification?

Heather 46:35

So I know LLC has a lot of good tax advantages. That's def that was a big because you can pretty much write everything off with s corpse and some of the other ones they're little more not tax sensitive that you just can't really get away with a lot. And I think it was just one of the cheaper ones to kind of set up s corpse and I think there's the corpse. are a little more complicated to set up. And I did wait a little bit to get an LLC because it was a lot of money. You know, actually, and I think it's more now but Legal Zoom, five years ago was like, almost $1,000.

47:14

Yeah. Wow.

Heather 47:17

So I was like, I need to work for this and save up for it and then buy it. Yeah. So I did that within probably a few months and probably like, two, three months because I knew how hard it was to get an LLC started. You know, if something happens in your care with these animals, and they need to sue you because it happens and we're very Sue happy country. They're going to sue your company. Yes. Different with suing if they sue you personally, they can take everything. Yeah. If they sue your company, they can just take what the company's worth. Sure. So I knew that I needed to at least get something like ASAP. So I did save I want to say for like a couple months and then I actually found a company called biz filings calm. That was half the price. So I was like, oh, doing that. So this filings and I think I had a registered agent for a little bit, which really didn't mean much. And then I became my own Registered Agent. And it's just all really add besides the tax advantages, and not you know, getting sued and whatnot and all that.

Collin 48:18

Yeah, but it is just part of again, like protecting yourself and part of that is

Heather 48:22

really just owning, you know, like, that's the start of actually owning a business. Yeah, because if you don't have an LLC or anything behind you, you know it yes, you can still own a business, but it's more of a side hustle. It's not a business.

Collin 48:34

Yeah, it's one of those steps that

Heather 48:35

makes sense. Yeah,

Collin 48:36

absolutely. Yeah. It's one of those steps of LLC and then you look you know, you start looking into insurance and being bonded and all that stuff, right. is is this is you're really stepping into that running and operating your bit as a tabulates. Yeah, speaking of business, what are some little things that you do in overtime, talking these big, you know, LLC and taxes and some other stuff, but

Heather 49:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all it's all the reasons why people don't own a business.

49:06

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, but there but there are little things that go into it as well that

Heather 49:12

yeah, that you do a lot of. Totally, totally, because I feel like a lot of the little things is why I've kept a lot of my clients, because they just appreciate the small stuff and you're also in their home every single day. You know, so, being located in Jersey, we've been getting a lot of weird weather lately. It was 60 degrees yesterday and it snowed today. very bizarre. A little weird for us. Yeah, that's a little weird for jersey. We don't, especially in December time you don't ever see 60s like ever. But it didn't quite get 60 account like 58 but let me tell you it felt a lot warmer than 32 today so weird but felt warmer at least. So with that being said, a lot of people are getting packages and these Delivery drivers aren't necessarily putting them underneath a porch that they easily could. So one thing that we do, especially if it's raining or snowing, and it's just not going to stop, we'll bring in packages. Because that's again, otherwise they're just going to sit out all day until they come home. And if we're there in the middle of the day, we can just scoot them inside and bring them inside, you know, that's not going to kill you. So that's a big one. Another big one that I do. And I really feel like people appreciate this a lot. Around daylight savings time, so obviously during the summer, it's you know, by the time people are coming home, it's still light outside. No big deal doesn't get dark until like nine o'clock. Right? Then we get into this time of the year where it's pitch black by 430. And people aren't home until like six o'clock sometimes you know, or like five o'clock at a normal time. And then they come home to a pitch dark house. Yeah. The dogs are are in the dark. You know their house. It's dark and some people just don't think to keep lights on before they leave. Actually, a lot of people turn off everything before they leave because then they're not going to be there for the you know, the rest of the day, which makes sense. Yeah. So I'll turn on a few lights in the house. That's definitely a big one for me. I have to remind, I usually have to remind myself to do it. And then I have to remind myself to do it for summertime. So use it as soon as I walk in I'll turn on the light. Yes, if I don't do it right away, it's just going to slip my mind because I'm used to not doing it from the summertime. So that one summertime comes in like okay don't need to worry about and you'll never make nighttime people you know, I do have some clients I see at night. So yeah, those people find But otherwise, I would say those two things are probably a big reason why I've kept that and the text message update. That's huge. Because people need to know you know, I tell all my clients, you got to give me a two hour window. schedules changes people cancel last minute of your day is changing. You know, let's say something happens to you, you get into a car accident or you get a flat tire, you at least know you have two hours to then see that dog. You know, some clients want to know when we were there because sometimes it is a longer two hour window and let's say, you know, we usually come at noon, every single day and for whatever reason, we decided to come at one, you know, they're going to, they may reach out to me and be like, Hey, what's going on? So, those text messages, you know, like those clients look for that they see it, they may not answer it because they're in the middle of work. Or, you know, I have some people that are answering me like super late, you know, like, once I get home, I just don't even worry about it. You know, like I I know you see it, and I know they just look at it and they're like cool, the dog is taken care of and then they just put their phone down. You know, so that I feel like there's a huge selling piece. I just got a client recently in my hometown, husband and wife, team groomer dog walking duo

Collin 53:00

Awesome.

Heather 53:00

Oh, yes, exactly cuz oh my god all your dog walking clients are going to be your grooming client. Well, I guess not so awesome because their grooming business took off that they had to shut the dog walking business down. Oh, no, in two weeks. Whoa, they gave everybody two weeks notice and that was that. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Which I guess like, I guess that's nice enough because then everybody does have enough time to find somebody but like bad news. So I ended up you know, I got a client from that because she was you know was like oh my God, we need help, like immediately I was like oh yes, I'm on my way. No. I told her I said listen, how did because they had a dog walker for four years. So I said cool. I was how did your guy give you guys updates or whatnot? Yeah. And she was like, Oh, we just had like, you know, a notepad out and we would just like leave each other notes. Okay, I mean it I know some people that have done that in the past and I'm like, All right. Well, this is what I do. I'm going to send you a text message after I leave, you know, and if anything is funky or weird, I'll let you know. But you know, I'll just send you a basic update, you know that Lenin had a good walk and all is good today and I'll see him tomorrow. So she was like, oh, okay, yeah. And then because I'm with him three days a week, and I'm big about also sending a picture because that's huge in this business. I've been sending her pictures for the last four years, she hasn't gotten one during these dog walks, because they just leave each other notes. So that's been, I think, for her, you know, like, I don't she's talking to us. Anybody else. Bye. Yeah, like she loves the picture. She loves the boomerangs I get with him. And you know, like, I know, there's they're super satisfied with using me like, I know, it wasn't. I know, they were really bummed to lose their old dog walker, because with me when you work with somebody for that long, but I also think they're really happy that they have me now. Yeah, you know, it just service just looks so much different than their eyes

Collin 54:58

and what I love about those things The lights on in the wintertime, you know, you know, the text messages, those kind of things. Those don't cost you as the sitter anyhow to do

Heather 55:10

nothing, right? You're accountable to Yeah, you know, totally holds me accountable because sometimes I'll be sending a text message and a call will come through. I'm like, Are you kidding me? Yeah. And if I take the call, like, I had to send the text message and then sometimes it slips where I then don't send the text message. And then the client will text me later on at night and be like, oh my god. Yes. I actually happened to me two weeks ago, no. Phone call came through. I don't know why I didn't text her. I just did it in my ear. I just got busy. And in my head. I was like, Yeah, I texted her that update. Yeah. And then she texted me later on that night. I was like, did you see Ruby today? And I was like, Oh my god, I did forget the text. And she would have known because I took my money and I left on a light and whatnot. So In the house, but I get that get didn't get that text message. So you know, she was like, but she probably here today, staff that helps me to know where you're at. Because I'm like, okay, they're done with baby they're going to go to tipper and Christie's house next. So that way I know I'm following them without, like really being big brother worry about it.

Collin 56:21

Sure. Yeah. And what I what I love with the photos is when you sit the same dog or the same pets for a long period of time, and then you see photos that you've taken slowly start to populate the person's house and you're kind of like, Oh, yeah, that's

Heather 56:39

mine for Christmas card.

56:41

Oh, yeah.

Heather 56:45

Yeah, my one client was like, I have a whole album of pictures you sent me? Yes. You do. Because I do this dog. I see twice a day. I'll send them two to three pictures. And this has been for three years straight. Oh, They have hundreds, thousands of pictures. Yeah, they have their own as well. So Oh, I have thousands of pictures of people's pets like really from the beginning because I just felt like that picture was such a good selling piece. You know, then we really weren't getting that I done that really since the beginning. I wasn't big about it. You know, when I first started taking pictures and selfies weren't really a thing again, but like now it kind of is so I'm, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm glued to my phone or glued to the camera. But it just it's that selling like, I know, I'm services being valued tenfold just from that alone. Yeah, yeah, this this picture and they don't feel like yeah, they don't feel like they're wasting their money. You know where it's not because we're luxury service. This is not something that people think of when they get a dog like, Oh my god, I need a dog walker. Yes. You know, when when people lose their jobs, they usually let go of the maid because then they're hauling They can clean, they'll let go of the personal trainers because they can't afford it anymore. And then we're pretty much next.

Collin 58:06

Yeah, yeah. So adding as much value as you can as a center to service is really important. Yeah, everybody's as pet sitters. We experienced some good things or bad things. What's been a not so very good day that you've had recently? What are some lessons that you learned from?

Heather 58:27

Oh, boy, yes. Well, okay, so I'll tell you the story on why I had to get doggie logs because that app I just got over the summer, like I got it in July. So it wasn't something I've ever needed to use at all in the last five years. But this one particular dog walker mine again, you see, they just they test the system once and then I have to rework it again. Yeah. So with her, I got her. I actually got her pretty busy this one particular day and I was like, You know what, this is going to Be is is going to be a huge sign to see if she can handle this type of work and this type of clientele when Erica leaves because this was the girl that was replacing Erica. So I was like great, this is going to be perfect. She had maybe like six dogs that day, one dog at the time, which his schedule is different now. But at the time. It was two visits a day for 20 minutes each. And he was being created golden retriever puppy. So just wasn't housebroken yet. They had a camera pointing to the crate that everybody knew about. That was they showed us right i mean it was right there that you couldn't not walk in the room and not see it, you know. So, at the end, you know that day everything was going fine. She was sending text messages fine. I really didn't have to worry about her. This dog was actually the last the second visit was her last visit of the day. All was good. And I got a text message from the owner separately. asking me if the visits were 20 minutes long each or 20 minutes for the whole day. No 20 minutes long each, so would be 40 minutes, you know, for for the day. And she was like, okay, she's like, that's what I thought because she was only there for both visits for like 12 minutes. And I was like, seriously? Wow, she sent me a screenshot of the nest camera. And it literally was her taking out the dog at you know, let's say 230. And then literally putting the dog back in 12 minutes later. No way. Oh, both visits. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. So I looked at this for a while and I was like, Oh, okay. And it was also I also had to make a decision as a business owner quick. What the heck I was going to do you know? Like right then and there to make this right because this was a brand new client of mine. I only had at this point I only had her for a couple months. And I was like, Oh my god, I can't lose this client. And she got me from her next door neighbor that like she grew up with. And it was like such a glowing, you know, raving review. I was like, Oh my God, this dog walker is like, this is this is where hiring staff and get really bad. Because once they mess up, it falls on you. Yeah. So I was like, Listen, I said she's never seen the dog again. I was like, I'll get the key back from her. Don't worry about that. She's never seen this dog again. And she was like, okay, she's like, Thank you. I appreciate it. She's like, you know, I really don't feel like I should pay for today. I said, Oh, no, no, you are not like, Oh, no, no, no, no. Sure. So luckily for my dog walker, I still paid her for that day. I just ate it. Because I needed to as a business owner. Yeah, but the first thing I did is I, I took that next screenshot that the owner sent me and I sent it to her. And I said, Listen, before you respond to this, you need to look at this picture and tell me exactly what happened. Yeah. So it took her a while to respond back me. I could tell that she was nervous. Because we didn't end up chatting on the phone about it. It was just all strictly through texting. But she was sending me novels of just pretty much saying the same thing. So she truly fit she truly felt like she was there for 20 minutes. So listen, you're, you're, you're there with him. You're taking pictures of this dog. I literally wrote your schedule out to where you needed to stay at this house from this time to that time. Like you left eight minutes early. Yeah. For but that's a lot of time. It literally got into your car and looked at the time and was like, Oh wow, this is really early. You know, yeah, yo, she really didn't have a good reason or excuse for it. She just truly, she truly felt like she was there for 20 minutes. I really didn't. I didn't even know what to say the owner, I was just like, wow, this is embarrassing.

63:14

Service, you

Heather 63:15

know, and it's not like it's not it's honestly not a good excuse. No, like, come up with something better. You're gonna lie to me about at least come up with something better. or something? Yeah, like, you're on your phone. You know, like, that's the worst. Part Two, it's like set a timer. You're on your phone. And again, this this was before the dog logs app. So it was nothing, you know, I was leaving it really up to them. But again, I did a walk with her first. So it wasn't like she didn't know how long 20 minutes felt and what we did during that visit, you know, she knew what she was doing. But yeah, so I would say that was probably the worst one that I had to deal with. Recently, yeah,

Collin 63:58

well And out of that, you know, you You learned, okay, you know, let's there's a little work on finding a tracking app and you know, having some discussions going in about that. And I

Heather 64:09

do have I do have a bad story too. Okay. Oh, that's just dog walking. Yeah.

64:19

Yeah, we'd love to hear you.

Heather 64:21

Okay. Yeah, because this is a crunchy one. This kind of cringes every and it always gives me goosebumps every time I tell it. So I hired this girl last year. She lasted about six months with me, she was actually going to take over my business. This is a very, very serious personal relationship I had with her not really outside of business more inside of the business. I was really getting her around a lot of my clientele that I've kept, you know, all these years and this was just last year. So I still had all these people for, you know, at least two, three years and I was getting her around those people. I was really lessening my book to get her busy. And so I was getting her a lot of consulting job. So she had this one client that she did three jobs in a row for one was in April for week I was actually away as well which I hadn't gone away for like seven years. So it was like huge deal. So she works she pretty much was going to control my business that week of April and then she had a 12 day job in July and then like a six day job in August, people are going away a lot this summer. And yeah, and and really wanted to use Lindsay because they used her in the past for shorter jobs and really liked her so I was like, totally not a problem. So after the 12 day job, because that is very long to stay at somebody's house, dude, that doesn't happen often. But during this 12 day job, and again, I trust you guys as pet sitters. Yes, there is a lot of downtime and a lot of flexibilities which is you know, cool. Fine. That's why I like this job too. Yeah. But I don't always I don't need to check in on you every you know if you're sending your text message update once a day to the owner. Cool. Yeah. But I never really needed to ever stop at a house. I just never felt like I needed to. And I guess I should have during that 12 day trip because it was 12 days, but I really truly trusted her. So I just I didn't feel the need and this owner like loved her. So why would I find what I really do? Yeah, they actually their flight was delayed and then canceled and she had to stay another night at this house because they weren't coming home till the next day. So the owner owed me you know, that night. So I gave it at least a couple days because they were traveling abroad and I think one of them was coming back like sick and, you know, I was like, I'm going to give it a couple they don't need to call me right away. Let it sit for a few days. So I finally reached out to her just kind of regarding the payments for that night. And she texts me back and she said, Can we talk on the phone? unlimited. owner wants to talk on the phone. It is never anything Done. Nope. Never. So I was like, sure. And in the three years or the four years, at this point of me owning this business, I've never had an owner call me. Never. This was the first time that I was dealing with a major issue like this. So the first question, which actually you guys brought this up in a previous podcast, her first question was, are we supposed to buy food for you? Yeah, yeah. And I was like, Well, you know, we're really supposed to and some clients do ask me actually Chaplin's mom every single time she goes away. She's like, please give me a grocery list. Oh, no. I have another client that's local to the same thing. She's like, let me know what you need in the grocery store. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm fine. I bring my own food. Don't worry about it. Like me some fruit, you know, like, I don't need anything crazy. And so once she said that I was like, I'm like all their food. Yeah. So and granted for 12 days, I understand things go bad. And that's really what I tell people. I'm like, Look, I'm gonna throw things away in your fridge that go bad. It's like it's I'm not gonna have vegetables and fruits like rotting in your fridge, you know, like milk being spoiled and whatnot. That's kind of gross to come home to. So people, you know, do know that but she literally drank all their coffee. She left a tablespoon of peanut butter in the jar and left the jar. And she drank all their milk. It she told me it was spoiled and bad. But that was just one thing the owner picks up as well. Yeah. And then I could tell that she was like, like, and then at one point, she goes, wait, let me grab my list. List. That's exactly what I said. I'm like, Oh my God. And then I was like, Listen, can you send me a picture of that list? Yes, I still have it to this day. Because she did. She sent me a picture of the list. So then she just started going down the list of things. So yeah, she goes, um, so weirdly enough, I found that she used seven rolls of toilet paper in 12 days. And like, again, like, you know, a weird I was like seven rows a total coverage. Whoa, I was like, Oh my god, like. Yeah, I was like, Wow, really bizarre. And again, this was a dog walker that was getting really personal with my clients. So this client knew that she had custody of her half siblings and she's in her mid 20s. So nobody wants to deal with, you know, teenagers in their mid 20s. So my client actually thought that like maybe she brought some of this stuff home for them or like had them over? Sure. Because then she also noticed That the couches downstairs were moved. And the only reason why you noticed that is because you put it You didn't do a good job putting it back.

Collin 70:10

Yes. You don't match up where the Yeah. Yeah,

Heather 70:14

come on now. And if you have a couch that's been sitting there for years, you can see it. Yeah. So there was that. And then she left like a dirty bathing suit that was wet. In the bathroom downstairs. There was a dog accident that she never cleaned up in the basement. They rifled through their junk chores and ate chocolate that she was saving for her kids from their junior prom. And the only reason why they knew that was because the garbage was in their laundry room garbage. Like they didn't even do a good job of cleaning that up.