479: Empowering Pets and People with Mary Reid
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What does it take to navigate the path from personal adversity to entrepreneurial success? Mary Reid, owner of North Dallas Pet Care, dives into her journey from being a homeschooling mother to spearheading a thriving pet care business. Following a significant health scare that altered her mobility, Mary reveals how she leveraged her passion for pets into a successful enterprise. She reflects on the critical role of work-life balance, the strategic shift from working solo to managing a team, and the integration of technology to enhance her business.
Main topics:
Laying the ground work
Managing growth
Not taking on too much
Meeting client needs
Main takeaway: Running a business is about more than just caring for pets; it was about creating a community where pets and their owners feel understood, supported, and valued.
About our guest:
A couple of events happened in my life that led me to a career in pet care. The first was that both of my kids graduated from high school and had moved on, but as a full-time mom of over 20 years, it was hard to just turn off that caretaking instinct. I still needed to be needed.
The second and more tangible reason that I got into pet sitting is that I had just recovered from a very painful episode with CRPS in my foot. I wasn’t able to walk without a knee scooter for about three months. Once I did start walking again, I knew I had to keep walking or I would end up in a power chair and weigh 500 pounds. Unfortunately my Dobermans were not suitable for the level of walking I was able to do at the beginning, so I needed to “rent” other peoples’ dogs in order to stay mobile and healthy. And of course this filled my emotional need to be needed.
Like everyone else in the business, I have always loved dogs and anything else furry that I could get my hands on. In about 2009 my little family got our first Doberman from a show dog breeder who we met through the Doberman Pinscher Club of Dallas. We were homeschooling at the time so the dog became the lesson! We learned about training, we learned about the breed, we learned about taking care of the coat, what supplements to feed him, and, of course, all things Doberman.
Through that experience, I started volunteering with Doberman rescue as well. Dog #2 came from Lone Star Doberman Rescue. Between our own dogs and our rescue experience, we learned quite a lot about dogs, so I put that to good use in my business. I became fascinated with studying about canine behavior, and training techniques.
Rover isn’t all bad.
When I was recovering and found myself in need of a good walking partner, I did the only thing I knew how to do, which was sign up for Rover. It started out very slowly and grew over the years to where it was more than I could personally manage. Then of course like all good sitters, I burned out. I knew I needed to multiply my efforts and share my workload with a team of sitters, so I found Colleen Sedwick’s Pet Nanny business coaching online, and I signed up for help in launching my business.
I created North Dallas Pet Care two years ago and we’re humming along just fine. I currently have four sitters who I really love who help me with my client list, though one sitter is also a geologist and she’s out on a dig that might keep her away for a while. Since the Covid shutdown I’ve seen a rise in our daily dog walks & midday drop ins. I’m excited about building the business and finding more pet owners who need a hand. This has been an unexpected chapter in my life. I’m enjoying all of the good and the bad and the fur and the mess of it!
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/north_dallas_pet_care/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100081859539854
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, clients, business, pet owners, dog, people, pet sitter, care, day, work, hired, sitter, love, mary, independent contractors, employees, started, nice, walk, visit
SPEAKERS
Collin F., Mary R.
Collin Funkhouser 00:03
Welcome to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and the peaceful pet music, calm music for pets YouTube channel. Today, we are super excited to have Mary Reed owner of North Dallas pet care on the show to talk about her journey into business, how she stays focused and present in the moment and what's been like growing her team and some changes that she's had and seen through the through that time of growing that. Mary, I'm so thankful for your time today and really appreciate you being here. Could you please tell us a little bit more about about who you are and all that you do?
Mary R. 00:37
Oh, that's a big order. Thank you, Colin, appreciate being here today. And I'm really honored to be here on your show. I'm just a little prairie dog who is trying to make it go with things here in North Dallas and petsitting started in 2009. Well, the end of 2018, like January 2019, I guess we could say and and the actual that was so I went solo for about four years. And the last two years have been I've been running north Dallas pet care, really.
Collin Funkhouser 01:14
And you said you started that after you were a homeschool mom for 11 years? What was the what was the impetus of after you were done homeschooling you said you're looking for something else? How did you land on on pet care?
Mary R. 01:28
Yeah, homeschool for 11 years, loved it, love my kids, and you do all this stuff so that they can survive on their own and darn it, then they leave, you know, and and so I was I was just left looking for something to do. And the emphasis was really, I had a really bad cry chronic thing that happened with my foot, I have two perfectly good feet, and my foot just suddenly kind of went berserk. And I literally couldn't put any weight on it for about three months, walking around with a knee, Scooter, that sort of thing. Lots of doctors. And anyway, when I finally came out of that, and it's something I still deal with, at a lower, much lower level, but I realized that what helped it was to continue walking. And I thought that well, if I don't keep walking and moving, I'm gonna end up in a power chair, I'm going to weigh 500 pounds. And so at the time we had, we still do had Dobermans, and they, they're not really the best dogs to walk. Especially, you know, with a very tender foot, I wanted something about this bit, you know, really tiny little five pound dog to go walk. And just something to motivate me. And because I knew that if I was left to my own device devices, I would not go out and walk on my own. And so I decided to, you know, basically rent other people's dogs. And by going out and hiring out as a as a dog walker and pet sitter and the only thing I knew of at that time, the only way I knew to do that was to use rover. And I know rover gets a really bad rap. And certainly, rover sitters really cover the entire spectrum, you know, and I was aiming for the high end, you know, and that's how I got my start. And it took a while for the business to build up from there, just working solo and developing a few private clients and once I got quite busy and it became more than I wanted to do every day, I could physically do it but you realize, you know what you're sacrificing to accommodate all of your clients and the work life balance was not good. And I love the flexibility of pet care. I love the flexibility of this industry where you get to choose you know when you go for the most part you have some you can you can arrive within an hour's timeframe and you're still we're still fulfilling that responsibility. And I like that kind of that little bit of flexibility we have there but it's still you're locked in you know, you can't you can't travel outside the area and you know outside of you can't go too far away and so, I I was doing too much I was doing overnights and I was doing drop ins during the day for other other clients and then doing essentially drop ins back on my overnight to make sure that that those pets are taken care of and then back out to see other clients and like that, you know sort of I was working a regular day of droppings and dog walks and also staying, you know, doing overnight work for You know, for other pet owners, and I just burned right out. And I realized that this wasn't, I wasn't happy working at that level. And I really liked the idea of bringing on additional help. And I did, I started with Kellyanne Sedwick, who has a business called pet nanny. And she offers coaching and that sort of thing. And she has a launch and grow program that works really well for me in helping me to build a foundation. Just you know, how to get a business license, how to, you know, what, what the website should look like, even down to, you know, how you should choose a name. And I have to say, I'm still jealous of the really cute pet care business names that are out there. I mean, I chose my name to be to hit well, on search results. Sure. And north north Dallas, pet care, you know, that's, I hope to land at the top of your search result. But if you're looking for pet care in this area, and you know, it's not very inspired, but there it is, and we're sticking with it. It's one of those, that right now, it's one of those first
Collin Funkhouser 06:17
early decisions and bit going going full time or making this a business that all of a sudden, it's like, it's at first really serious decision. I feel like, yeah, how do I want to represent myself or who we are, to the outside world and, and man, as much as a name kind of doesn't matter. In some instances, it matters a whole heck of a lot for what you're communicating with people. And, with that takes time to have to, and sometimes to be okay with it, too. Like you're saying, I'm going to all these cute names, look at all this stuff over here, but like, I made these decisions for my reasons, and then I'm okay with that. But it's just, it's just different
Mary R. 06:55
for everybody. Yeah, it's not cute. And, you know, and, you know, they get locked in with a logo and everything and, and which are breathtaking, as well. But anyway, I'm, I'm happy, it's great, you know, but, um, yeah, so that got me started. Colleen and her and Jessica Abernathy, who's who was my coach, she's awesome. And they helped help me to lay the groundwork and ask answer a lot of those early questions when you're first starting out. And, and that got me going. And I started, I signed on with time to pet just to keep track of all of the craziness of scheduling. And, you know, because I, I knew how tricky it can be for myself, just running myself off of, you know, off the calendar along with other personal appointments. But having but and then you're chasing down invoices, and you know, well, you'd never actually do invoices, but you're chasing down payments, and keeping track of all that. You know, it is manageable on as a solo, pet sitter, I think, at a certain level. But once you get, you know, much busier, it just, it starts to, it's so easy to lose track of things, and you get a few clients who don't pay right away. And then you got money coming in from this end of that end, and everybody might want to pay a different in a different way. And time to pet is great. And that and this is not a commercial, but it's just great in that it just combines all that, you know, it helps me helps me keep track of who's going where, who's doing what all my client info, and, and all the invoicing, I can just pull up my invoices and see who hasn't paid yet. I don't have to, I don't have to go through my bank account and see, you know, did I get that? Did I get that $120 or whatever it is, whatever the amount is, you know, I have to know the amount to find the know of that person paid. And if there's too at that same amount I'm I'm hosed.
Collin Funkhouser 09:06
It is that it is another mental burden that we carry with us, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, you know, it's like, oh, well, I thought I would just be worried about the pet care and making sure that I have the information necessary. And, man, that's, that's whole one thing of like, I have a whole other business that's just administration that I have to get done in order to actually do the pet care. And they're equally important as one doesn't exist without the other and how So finding those tools like you did me are going How do I want to be organized, what do I want to have taken off of my plate so I don't have to worry about that. So that I can be present and I can be fully aware of what's going on when I'm in the actual visit.
Mary R. 09:46
Right and it's you know, when you have that tool that you can trust and you can rely on you know, all the all the things you need are there and when you I used to keep it all in my head, and I don't know I don't I don't have that I mean, I can, it's there at my fingertips anytime. But yeah, I was talking with one of my senators just yesterday, and he's awesome. And, you know, he was saying how he just, he really loves the work. It's, it's good for a lot of different ways, and how, you know, he doesn't have any desire to really do what I'm doing, you know, my end of it, you know, but that, you know, and I thought about that, too. And I thought, wow, what would that be like, to just receive assignments and go visit pets? You know? I've never been that person, you know, I've either been the, you know, the rover person who's going out to a meet and greets, and, and do I want to take this client? Do I not want to take this client, you know, but you know, to receive pre screened clients, and you just go do the work? I mean, that's a beautiful thing. That's almost meditative.
Collin Funkhouser 11:02
Because I will say that one big barrier for people bringing on employees and bringing building that team is that they worry of what want, they just want to go do this on their own. Right. But it's so easy what they were just, yeah, and honestly, the answer is no, right? A lot of people, I can't tell you the number of applications we get from people who went, I tried to do this, but I didn't like the overhead the administration part, I just want to do pet care. And so you're right. It's a, it's a very different mindset to go if I'm bringing on people, am I am I am I filtering them? Am I Am I screening them to be people who just want to take on those visits and are going to also that means that they're gonna have to trust you in your processes, that you are doing a good job that you are doing your due diligence, and sometimes you have to walk them through what that process is to build
Mary R. 11:52
a little bit of that, yes. Yeah, I love my team, I really do. And I, I depend on them. And I trust them. And there's, it's a really high bar they have to reach in order to get on my team to begin with. I mean, I started with family and very close family friends. And, and branched out from there for referrals from others. And so far, I've hired one person from indeed. And although I've had literally hundreds of applications, and I do, I do require that my senators come from within my service area, we're very, very, very close to it. Otherwise, it just doesn't pan out. Because they're, they're going to have to do, there's going to be timeshare, they're doing just a half hour visit here. So they're driving, you know, I don't want to drive 115 minutes to get to their client is the bottom line. Because, you know, it doesn't pan out, you know, that's not for daily walks, and that kind of thing.
Collin Funkhouser 12:57
Or in that because then again, this is things that they're not considering have, we've had to explain the same thing to have, okay, I see that you have applied, you live an hour away? Can you talk and you know, and they'll say, Oh, well, I come to town all the time, or I come. Okay, but Right. But there are times where we will have strings of visits for you to do, there may just be that 30 minute visit here. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with making that 30 minute visit, in the rain, in the snow in the ice, you know, at all hours of the day, and not to try like just just explaining to them of what we do. Because like you said, while we do have this flexibility, something that we continue to run into just reminding ourselves reminding staff of, we have to, like their care has to happen, right at some point that we can't not be there. We can be a little late, but we have to be there. And so there's no option to just call it off for a day. And that we've we've got to figure that out internally with how we're going to make those adjustments. Have you heard of time to pet Susan the Petco has this to say, time
Susan 14:03
to pet has helped us grow exponentially. We believe the platform's features make us by far more professional than other companies who use conventional dashboards. They are the software gurus constantly developing and improving the platform based on user feedback. This decision was a good one.
Collin Funkhouser 14:20
If you're looking for new pet saying software, give time to pet a try. Let's try one of our shows and say 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional. Talk about building a team? Did you start off with employees or kind of what was your decision and how has that process been for you?
Mary R. 14:38
I started with independent contractors and my instruction through pet nanny and all that. And that was a question that we we we talked back and forth and at the time. You know there's some gray area you could go with independent contractors and you know when you've got so many new things there Writing out as a new business, you're learning new software and learning time to pet. You know, that's, that's a big one. And you're, you're learning, you're trying to probably do some marketing, you're probably making, you're making a new business, you know, Facebook page you're doing, you know, your Instagram you're doing, you're doing all the different things, you know, you're hiring, and all the things that have to happen, and even just hiring independent contractors is a complicated process, you know, so that, so then how do you pay the Well, time to cut doesn't do that, you know, they'll give you the invoices, but they don't, there's not a way to facilitate slip Lee through that. And so how do you do that? Well, okay, now you're learning gussto. And, and so, so you're doing all of these things, and I think I would have just been a crumpled heap if I'd taken on employees, early on, I mean, you know, employee status people. And so independent contractors have helped me. I am, I'm still in the process of switching over to employees, or we're still using independent contractors currently? And to answer your question, and, and that has worked well for me. And I, I signed on with JD Botanics pet, this MBA, which is awesome. But I've been, but I did it right before she came out with the bridge of the GAP program that she offered, which is a transition program to take you from independent contractor to employee. And you can't, I couldn't, I don't have the brain space to do both to save time. And so I She launched that right before the holidays this year, and I just got maxed out and had to take a step back. So I'm restarting that, and I'm about halfway through right now and hoping to make that March 11. Deadline, where the new rules take effect on employee versus independent contractor like, they've they've re, is it the Department of Labor? Or is it the IRS I forget, came out with a new ruling of what they're calling what they allow for independent contractor. Yeah. And so that's I know, all I know, is March 11. You know, it's like, burned into the sky into my mind. And I, you know, and this is, and I think I, you know, being if I was just quiet little business, I think I would probably do okay with independent contractors, but I like a lot of the, like a lot of the perks of having employees, I really like to take care of my people. And I do and I like the idea of being able to offer additional additional things to the end, I like being able to supply them with the T shirts with supplies that they'll need in their work. I, you know, I hate bringing somebody on, it's, it's, I don't like bringing somebody on who then I have to say, well, here are some things you might want to keep with you on the job, you know, here's a list of things you might want to have in your truck, you know, an extra Leishan an extra, you know, maybe they don't, for me, it was not a big deal. I had most of these things laying around when I first started and you build it up over time. But for them, they may have to go out and buy you know, go to Petco or something and buy them all this spare leash and Anna, you know, the various things you might want to have some extra dog treats and, and all that so. So as you know, with with contractors, you can't, you can't get that for them, they have to supply everything themselves down to poo bags, everything. With employees, you can supply all that. And I just I like the idea of being able to control the training, more be more hands on with the training. I love some of the different options out there now that I haven't haven't really deep dived into yet but it looks like there's some very nice options out there for employee training programs where you can I guess a subscription based options out there for that kind of training or, or just create my own on some of the really cool platforms that are out there. And I like that idea because I'd like to, I'd like to build hotels pet care to be to be larger, and I'd like to grow the business so I can't it's not a solid foundation to have independent contractors and grow I can't. I'm really lucky and having found wonderful people to work with right now. I trust and I care about. I think, you know, as that grows, too, I have, I have four sitters on my team, and one of which is geologists, she's out on a dig so cool. So she's gone for a while, it's like, come on, I need you. Anyway. Um, so, you know, as that team grows, if I've got 10 people, if I've got 20 people that it's gonna be, it's just less intimate, it's less, you know, unless involved with each one. And if I have the, if I have the amount of business to support that amount of visitors, you know, I can't be as hands on as I am now. And, and, you know, I'm so yeah, I like the idea of having employees so I can grow the business. And I am that and the idea of doing an audit and being slapped with fines, which kind of terrifies me, we don't need the extra stress, we just don't, we don't need another thing to occupy our little brains. So
Collin Funkhouser 21:08
well. And that's what you started off that discussion about was was there was all there was so much going on that and we all rush that, that that point of whether we're starting, whether we're making a shift, or sometimes just in our, in our daily lives, there's there's so much going on in our head that the decisions that we make, are, are a result of that of look, this is what I have the bandwidth to comprehend, to move forward with to get to where I need to right now. And so that's what I have to, and then we can come back and reassess or have different opinions or different options. But we all have those moments where it's an I encountered them a lot, where I'll say I just don't have the bandwidth to make a more complicated decision right now. So what's the what's the one that gets me forward and in this moment, and that's what we move forward with. And that's just part of managing our brain space. And while while not because what the other alternative is, sometimes, well, then I just need to stop worry, I'm going to stop my Ford momentum, I need to not do this for a while, I just need to sit here until I figure this out. And sometimes that's not an option either, because we've got a thing right, don't stop.
Mary R. 22:22
Well, luckily, my business is humming along in a very comfortable rate, I've got all my regular weekly, and my dailies and that's all happening in the few vacation care clients that that keep coming back around. And that's lovely. And, and that it's all at a nice, nice steady pace. So this is a good spot for me to just dig in and get this taken care of that. And I'm, I'm much more motivated, but there's a hard deadline. I'm one of those, back to your, your podcast about procrastination, you know, the cure all you will die if you don't do it by this date, you know, so. So, so for those of you listening out there, don't be hard on me, because I've been a pet of contractors, I love them, I treat them like my own children. And they're wonderful people and, and I am getting to employ you as soon as I can. Right? That's, that's a very complicated process. And, um, one last thing about this and we can move on is that, you know, part of the bottleneck for me has been pricing. So, you know, there's the, there's the compensation for what will then be employees, there's, of course, all the taxes and things. There's the there's the pricing, and then there's, you know, whatever, whatever my percentage might be, or the businesses percentage, and that the profit margin, and we don't have that big of a profit margin in this business. It's kind of a, it's a numbers game. I know, we're charging good money to the clients. But it all gets kind of shaved off, you know, there's no, there's really insurance and, and, and various software's to manage the business side of things. And I add some marketing and there's just a few nickels come rolling up, out the door toward towards you. That's it. So, you know, we're doing okay, but so that's kind of the bottleneck for me, that causes stress for me to, to look at that. What right now seems like a hairball of you know, how do I untangle this compensation versus, you know, taxes versus, you know, appropriate client fees, versus something, you know, the profit margin that will support my business and give me something to live off of, you know, this is, this is also a retirement plan for me. So, Hey, nothing, you know, suddenly gets very real. Well,
Collin Funkhouser 25:07
and that's it does it gets it gets very real when we start putting some pen to paper or pencil to paper or Google spreadsheets or whatever, when we start understanding what actually is my my take home here. And I think that's a very, very important step in understanding where a business is, is knowing what what actually is the outcome of this. Sure, I may feel good that I'm producing that I'm that I'm serving clients, I may be happy, right? I may be living a life that I'm enjoying. But is it actually making a living for me, because that's still important, it's not bad to make a living doing this, it actually enables us to continue to do the thing that we love, if we're making a living from it, and to not be afraid to sit down and look at those and have some hard conversations with with ourselves and where our limits are, too. Because that's, that's where we run into issues. When we go, oh, I want to do all this XYZ, I want to get my car wrapped. I want to pay for the billboard, I want to do this thing. I want to get all the nice stuff. And I want to go oh, wait, where's the where's that coming from? Right? Can I actually make that happen? And that's just that's part of us understanding more about our business, right? And how its functioning.
Mary R. 26:19
Yeah, I don't want to take a loan in order to get my car wrapped. You know, I think that'd be a really cool look. But there's a reason why you don't have you don't have pet care companies doing that very often. Unless they're really large. Yeah, that's so expensive. You know, it's a neat, it's a neat idea. But yeah.
Collin Funkhouser 26:38
And you said your business has been growing at a comfortable rate? How have you been connecting with your potential clients and growing that way?
Mary R. 26:47
I'm an introvert, as many of us in this industry are, you know, I can talk all day about dogs, somewhat cats, I can talk about pets. But, you know, I'm not, I'm not person to go out there and seek friends. But I care about my clients and I care about their cats. And I do, I do touch base with them from time to time about this or that if there's a if I know there's an issue going on with the pet, I'll touch base and see if I can help them in some way. I love making referrals for people. I don't personally, I'm not I'm not a dog trainer, I know a lot, I know a lot about it. I'm not a dog trainer, I don't want to be a dog trainer, too old to be a dog trainer. If I was in my 20s, I'd be all over it. But, um, you know, I'm not there. And you know, I'll refer them out to trainers to behaviorist and the, that's, I even if they move out of my service area, I will refer them to one of the other wonderful tech care companies in my surrounding area. And I've tried very hard to connect with others in my area, so that I have a feel for who they are and the type of service they provide, you know, scour in many cases, on some cases, I should say, I don't know them personally. In other cases, I do but you know, I look at the website, make sure they've got all the you know, all the all the right bells and whistles, you know, they've got their, their members of psi or naps or something. And they're, you know, that that everything lines up, and it's all looks very legit, and read reviews. And I do this so I can refer people out to the outlying areas because I I'm in the Dallas metroplex, and we're just, it's massive. It's what I where I grew up in Wisconsin, and there you have, like, you'll have like a big city, like, say, Milwaukee and then as you leave the city, there's this country and farmland, and then and then they'll crop up another small city, and then more farmland or, or open space, and then etc. Like this, you know, here in the Metroplex, it's just one massive sprawl kind of like you see in the San Francisco Bay area where it just you know that you can only tell you're in a different city because he saw the sign if you're not from there. Then there's, there's no gap. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And, and so I'm in the I'm smack dab in the middle of that. So yeah, it's really it's one of the first things I asked people is, you know, give me an idea where you live. Yeah, give me a cross. Yeah, you know, nearby intersections so that I can see if you're in our service area, and if they're not, I will recommend one or two companies that they can go with that service that area and at least gives them something to go on. doesn't give me any doesn't bring me any additional business but i i hope that it helps to promote goodwill and indicate Pet owners within a network of dependable and vetted pet sitters, so that they're not just going out there, and so they're not turning to the rovers. So they're not turning to wag and, and just finding that random person and, and having come from there, I, you know, I know there's really good sitters on rover, I don't know about wag have not done it. But, um, but I know, there's really awful ones as well and clueless, and, but that's, you know, you get any large group of people, you're going to have a large spectrum. So that's, that's just fine. But I want to, I want to, that's my way of helping to take care of, you know, clients that are potential clients that, that I can't write handled personally. Yeah, hopefully, it creates goodwill, within the pet care industry to, um, I forget was it is a genie, somebody who's posted recently, who likes to say that, you know, and I'm gonna botch this, but cooperation happens at the top and competition happens at the bottom, basically. So it's a higher life form to cooperate with one another. And I'm not, I'm not trying to take any, any pet clients from 30 minutes away, I'm not going to come in and impinge on your and you know, and this area is so dense with, with paths, and, you know, honors, that it gets a target rich environment. But it was only like a big magnet I could put out there. I wouldn't ever have to go more than 10 blocks. But because they're, they're out there, it's just reaching them. And And to your point where we got here saying how you connected with your clients, I'm generally not I do find that when I do any kind of communication with them, whether it's whether it's an email communication about an updated an upcoming change, or whether or our it fits, I did a mailer, about a year into the business, because I'm slow like that. Just saying, hey, this, you know, I just want you to know, officially that I've started in North Dallas, pet care, etc, etc, and sent them a fridge magnet and updated business card and everything. And and every time I do that, which is very seldom, but every time I do that, I get I get an uptick in business. And so when I read your question, my first thought was, well, darn it, I need to do that newsletter. Because I think, I think just take staying top of mind, helps quite a lot. And of course hear this all the time in marketing. And so yeah, I need to get that newsletter out. And even if it's just monthly, but having that touch point with clients on a regular basis helps to increase the the bookings that I have with clients who are already on the books, and it's way easier and way cheaper than finding new clients out there. But, you know, I'd like to do both. Yeah, it
Collin Funkhouser 33:28
just helps you keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening by being connected to both clients. You know, I'm sure staff to write, you know, what's going on there. And then other businesses, right, it allows you to just have a little bit better understanding of what exactly is going on? How is my local market changing, adapting? What are people saying? Or how are we feeling about prices? Do I know who I could refer to what are they doing? It just allows us to have a more 30,000 foot view of what we're working with, to understand because we are it's such a solitary kind of business. And it's hard to get connected with people who do similar stuff. So to be able to get out of ourselves and understand Oh, right, this is this is what's going on and I'm not alone in this and let's let's kind of work together in some aspects to
Mary R. 34:24
it. You know, I I've had a couple people refer clients towards me, which is also nice. But in a perfect world, we'd just be swapping clients back and forth, I'll even send if I get a really juicy applicant that comes across from indeed, I will send them on to the appropriate pet care company in their area. If they're, you know, if they're a really good applicant, and everything looks great on paper, but I can't use them because they're an hour away or they're or they're half hour most most often. It's a half hour away. And that's, you know, that's a that's a reasonable commute for most jobs, but not your job last 30 minutes?
Collin Funkhouser 35:06
No.
Mary R. 35:09
Right. And so I will refer them to, I'll send them off to, you know, hey, go check out, you know, go check out this other business and see if they're hiring, I don't know, but give them a call and, and I'll ping the business and say, Hey, I'm sending, I'm sending Jessica over there to apply for work. I don't know if you're hiring, but she looks very good on paper. And, yeah, so in that way, you know, just this little, as little staff and some, I don't always have the time to do that. But, you know, I try to take time when I can.
Collin Funkhouser 35:43
How do you make those initial contacts with those other businesses? What's it like when you reach out to them and start fostering that relationship?
Mary R. 35:51
Everybody's so busy, I don't always get to talk with them directly. Um, I, my, my husband does a lot of networking for his or his work. He has his own little his own company going. And he benefits greatly from networking from attending networking groups in in our Metroplex. And see, it's not unusual for him to run across a large, you know, pet care provider out there. And so he'll link them up with me. And he sort of feeds them to me. And so and so I'll reach out, and we'll we'll usually just text back and forth. I've met. I've met a couple I'm looking forward to the Texas pet sitters Conference, which is coming up here next weekend, next week. Yeah, yeah. And that's going to be a great opportunity to meet some of these people face to face. So some of the people already have relationship with my husband, and they know who he is. And that helps you know, this. I'm Mary, I'm, I'm Neil's wife. And as you know, he spoke very highly of you tell me about your business, or I'll look at their website and say and ask a question. And yeah, but it's hard to get a face to face with other other people who are running take care companies, because how often do you go to lunch with friends? Right?
Collin Funkhouser 37:28
Almost never. Right? Yeah, but just those little interactions of direct message on social media or, or an anchor or an email through their website, just doing an introduction that way I we've had, we've had businesses who have written letters to us, which I was like, okay, like, this is, I was not expecting a letter right now. But it's, you know, that's nice, right? When they write letter to our, to our Home Office or Office, and it's like, okay, like a paper letter, like a bit like a paper letter, yes, with a status stamp on it. Like, okay, but I, what the what that was, in the letter was their flyer, a business card, like I was like, a packet of information. And I was like, okay, that's actually really nice now, because now I have stuff, it's not just a, you know, it's I have something physical for them. So I can a remember who they are, and be hand that to somebody who may, who may need it. But it was kind of like a getting to know us packet from from some people on it. I was like, Oh, that's okay. I know, these people. And I reached out to them separately, and thank them for that. But it was just a nice way to have that kind of introduction to that company. So it's it is finding those ways that that work for us. Yeah,
Mary R. 38:50
so I usually try to touch base in some way. If only if only just a simple text message. It's gonna get lost in the ether, but just say, you know, here's me, here's who I am. Here's my company. You know, we we don't share clients, you know, we're me, we don't, we don't cross boundaries. And, you know, I'm here to help.
Collin Funkhouser 39:14
Lot of pet owners don't know how to react when their beloved pet is facing a bout of anxiety, noise sensitivity or depression. However, various studies have shown that animals react very positively when calming music is played for them. As a trusted Pet Sitter have your clients check out the peaceful pet music calm music for pets on YouTube, where they can give their pet the best chance at relaxing while they're away. From peaceful melodies to soothing nature sounds this YouTube channel is the go to spot when your client's pet is anxious and you don't know where to turn. Complete with beautiful and vibrant animations. Their videos will become your home for the tools needed to keep the client's pet in a state Eat of peacefulness. Be sure to subscribe to the peaceful pet music, calm music for pets YouTube channel, and remember to hit the bell, so you never miss a moment of calm? Well, and you mentioned the whole the brand aspect, I think it is important to know like, what our purpose is for getting connected with people in the business is going is am I trying to build a friendship with this person? Or am I trying to build a referral network? Or am I trying to do both with this? Because some people, right don't have time, they might not be interested in being our best buddies. We might not jive when we're in the same room, but operationally they run a business that we would support. Right? So going, okay, I can refer out to them. I might not be best friends with the person. But look, I there they do all the same things I do. And we're in line that way. So that's a referral versus Oh, yeah, I go out to lunch with them, or I grab a cup of coffee with them once a once a week to catch up on everything and just knowing what what we are looking for, when we're when we're reaching out to people to?
Mary R. 41:11
Yeah, well, I'm not trying to be best buddies. And you know, just reach out from as a business to a business. And I try to reach out directly to the owner, if that's if that's a searchable thing to find, right? If I can contact directly with the owner, sometimes you can, if it's a bigger cup, there's a there's there's one very large company and more in the Heart of Dallas, that's a little harder to navigate. So the owner, just but anyway, you know, I try to reach out directly and just, you know, just make that introduction. And hopefully, like I said, I'm looking forward to the conference where I'll be able to meet many of these people face to face. And with any luck, you know, who knows, maybe people, I'll find some friendships or find people I connect with. On another level, too. Yeah, that's really
Collin Funkhouser 42:02
good. And I know you have all this, that you're working on in your business serves a bunch of different purposes, right. And I know, you know, as a company, I found that I found this on your, on your website, and I thought was really fascinating. Mary, when you said, Let's facilitate a world where both pets and pet owners can have their individual needs met, or the human pet bond can be strengthened, or pets can live their best life within the means system environment
42:28
available.
Collin Funkhouser 42:28
I love that sentence so much. It really thank you, especially to the last part where it says can live their best life within the mean system and environment available. And I I love that because it's a recognition that it's not the perfect situation all the time. But we can't have everything accessible to us. And so I was curious how you how this kind of works out in your business. And when you're working with
Mary R. 42:55
clients? Good question. This was the statement as part of sort of a brainstorming exercise that Jessica Abernathy set us on back in the launch and grow with pet nanny. And I liked it. And when I was making my was making my website, I kind of got into a panic of oh my gosh, I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know what to put on there. It's like, I'm just gonna grab this pole and just stick it right on. Yeah, and so there it is, you know, I don't know that I would have put that out front. But here it is. I feel really strong, like what I see when I go into client homes, is sometimes, and I probably do it to maybe you do with your critters, but you know, you kind of develop a blind spot about certain behavioral issues, or, or, or health or be in either behavioral, or health or something observable from an outsider standpoint, that you've just, you know, we all have those things about ourselves that goodness. But, you know, you go into so you go into a client's home and you get to understand the the, the pad and you and you see how things are are working, and I tried to find a workable solution for the client, and that's where the you know, means system and environment come into play, you know, it's not everybody's going to spend a couple $1,000 on on training or, you know, put a huge investment into a behavioral list that might not be an option for them. Or they're not going to have the you know, they're not going to be able to buy the most expensive equipment or what have you. And that's fine, you know, I'm I'll meet them on their level. There's always a workaround. And I just try to make that much How to Make I try to make the life though, you know, we're going in and we're taking care of, okay, I'm kind of taking five different approaches, here we go and we try to make life better for the pet, right, we're adding some enrichment to their lives, the pet would normally be laying around sleeping or getting into trouble while their owner is at work or on vacation, or what have you. True story. And so we come in and we bring a little bright spot where they are, we're happy to see them, they're happy to see us. You know, we play with them, I like to bring puzzles, I like to bring you know, have get them out for a walk, if I can, or sniff or play, you know, something, you know, we all I tried to do something that's going to make their life better while I'm there. And which creates, you know, of course, that makes their life better. But it also frees up the owner. Short story, I hired one of my dog walker to walk my dog once a week, because I found I wasn't getting him out often enough. And I wanted to supplement that and my dog is wonderful. I have a beautiful rescue doberman. And he's great and well trained. But he's still a buffalo on a leash, you know, he's just pulls like crazy hard for me to walk. So I take him out on long lead. Thus, you have the the blog post that you mentioned about, about using a long lead because it'll take you right out if you're not careful. But but he works really well on a long lead because it gives them the opportunity to go sniff around and all that anyway. So I hired by my sitter to come and, and walk Cooper once a week, and I noticed that I really benefited from that, in that I just purchased my relationship with my dog, I knew he was going to get this happy little happy little, I don't know, little bouquet of joy that he gets to go against the sniff he gets to explore, he gets to do stuff. And he gets to go places, I wouldn't normally take them because my guy was taking them out walking on the street on a regular leash, and I don't do that, because I'm not strong enough to manage that. And then you take them out. And so you got to explore some things he doesn't normally get to see. And I felt, you know, I just felt better, I felt more more happiness, knowing that my pet was his life was improved. You know, we all have that guilt in the back of our minds that, you know, and we see the dog that we love so much the pet that we love so much. And we know, we've been staring at computer screens all day, or, or coming home covered in somebody else's pet hair. And you know, we just we sometimes don't have that extra bit to give to our own animals. And, and I'm in that category. And you know, so we do what we can and and having that was really nice, and I'm not alone in that. And our business isn't unique in that way and that everybody's busy, everybody's distracted. And to know that, you know, for you know, for 30 bucks or 40 bucks or whatever, for a fairly small amount of money. They can they can have the peace of mind knowing that their pet is being enriched their pets life is being enriched. Yeah. And so that, you know, the pets like this is cool. Does that involve treats? And well, here he is now. Hi. Oh. And did you hear the word treat is that what a given right on cue? Right. But their life is being enriched and also the you know, the owner has peace of mind knowing that their animals is getting that love and attention. And if they've hired you, I think they they will they expect that, you know, there is going to be that love and attention there is going to be that you know, and I make that part of my push is to communicate that to the client that you know, I care. Yeah, I'm not just I'm not just there to put tab a into slot B. I'm, you know, I'm not just there to refill the water, you know, but I'm going to do those things and I'll take care of the physical needs. I'm going to take care of all that but I'm going to do you know I'm going to help make your life better or, and what else was there about that, um, and the other thing, the other thing I want to bring up, and somebody else mentioned this, I can't take credit for it, which is that it actually empowers the pet owner to do things gives them more freedom. So you want to take it's a long weekend, and you want to get away and go to hill country or you want to get away and just, you know, have some time, in a place where the dog doesn't fit in, or you know, or the, the cats are going to need some care while you're calling. It gives you that freedom to just go. And whereas, you know, normally you'd be stressing about well, what are we going to do with Luffy? Well worked on, you now have a solution. And it's not a solution. You have to spend hours and days finding you have someone and that's us. Yeah. And I when we first we got our first Doberman, we've got a we, we were we renewed to the breed, and cautious we did a lot of research have met, we joined the we got to know people in the door and petricola of Dallas, and approached it that way. And we found a reputable breeder within, within the Doberman Pinscher club of Dallas. And then from there, we bought a little puppy from a show breeder and who was not a, he was not a show dog, our intention was not to show. But we wanted to start with somebody we didn't, we weren't sure we wanted to start with rescue baggage. When we didn't know the breed to start with, it was a first dog for our little family. And so this dog became our center of focus, we were homeschooling. The dog was the lesson. And we each took turns. We learned about training, we all learned about training, my youngest was eight. My next my son was, I think he was my daughter was nine, my son was about 10 or 11. And so they're old enough to do stuff. They're smart. And, and so we each took turns, you know, during potty training, everybody got to shift. So they had to either either crate the dog, or leash the dog to themselves, or, or, you know, eyes on the dog at all times anything that happened with the dog during that three or four hour shift was on them. And we all took turns, you know, including my husband, who was also working from home. And although for him it was usually you know, Okay, it's time to create the dog. But so, anyway, so this dog was a big part of our family, all this to say, we went on our first trip, we had an opportunity to go visit some friends in Florida in a beautiful area. And so we were going to do a driving vacation and tag everybody in the car and go to Florida. Well, the the dog didn't fit into this picture. And we had first dogs in our little family. And we didn't know where to turn. And, and I knew nothing about typesetting at that time, this was years ago. And so our first thought was, well, we had a really excellent babysitter. And from when the kids were younger, and because she was a daughter of a friend of ours from church and she was just awesome. I think she's an attorney. Now she's really brilliant. She was she was the kid who would come with a backpack full of stuff to do babysitting, she would bring you know, videos from home that were different than what my kids had, you know, appropriate, but different games from home that were, you know, appropriate, but different and usually some kind of a snack and like, just like a professional babies. Anyway, so we hired Chris DOE to come and look after our dog and we didn't know what that looked like. Does she stay in the house with him? Does she do drop in visits? I don't, you know, had no idea. And she did some combination of things with him and it worked out okay. But I remember the stress of trying to figure out what that you know, you know, who can possibly fill this need for us? was very difficult and what even that looks like I mean, I don't know if we got any reports from her at all. I think she may have said something or called I don't know, I you know, it was just we're going on faith you know, we hope it works out. And, and we did a few other subsequent trips, you know, at that point having two dogs. Second one we got to rescue the rescue Dobby. And, and so you know who comes to stay with the Dobermans. Well, who do you want your house for? That's the question. At the time, it was like okay, no, we can't leave The dogs alone. I'm one of those pet owners, I'm really super fussy. Can't leave the dogs alone, we need somebody in the house. Well, who do I want in my house? And that's a tough question. Cuz that's a cake get more personal than that your dogs and everything you own. So we were lucky enough to find some young couples over the years, two members of our local church community that were able to come help out. But each time was a different problem. Because this couple had moved out or, you know, Chris had grown up and gone to college or, you know, you lose the center. And the beautiful thing about having you know, working with something like North Dallas pet care, or, or your business or any of the wonderful businesses that listen to your podcast is that, yeah, the permanency, you know, it's like, I need somebody I'll call Mary, I'll call North Dallas back, we'll probably we'll think about it as North Dallas Petcare, I'll call Mary. And, and, you know, they know that, if they know I'll have somebody available, and they've learned to trust that the person I sent to them will be right. And we'll get the job done. And we can be we can be depended upon, to not only, you know, keep your pets alive while you're gone. But to make it a good time for them to make it enjoyable as that's why we can. Yeah, it's
Collin Funkhouser 56:30
a reminder that when in your statement, here, too, you say that the pet owner and the pets can have their individual needs met, there, as in the pet owner has needs, the pet has needs as well. And we cannot lose sight of that. At the end of the day. We're a people business, we're up, we solve problems for people, and we say a lot of things about oh, that's peace of mind. And that's Bah, blah, blah, just what you broke, I say blah, blah, blah, because what you just broke down there, Mary is a very, I mean, it's an excellent example of what 1000s Of pet owners go through to care for their pet. And they don't a know any different or B, they they they don't have any other expectations of well, this is just what it means to get his pet sitter is, I have to call five of my family or friends and I have to see who that is at work. I then they are coordinating the care of, well, Sally can come until Tuesday, but she's got to leave during the day. And I've got to get my neighbor to come over and do. And we forget that in running these businesses, a lot of times we forget those pain points for that person. And when they want to take that weekend to the hill country, or they want to go to the beach or when they want to stay out late at the movies after work. How do we communicate that to them and that's that's where we can come alongside them as a partner with them. Right as NGO. You can live your best life, your pet can live their best life, and we're here to help facilitate that. And the the relief that you see and people in there when they get that when they understand what life can actually be like without that mental burden that they are carrying. It's immense. It's absolutely immense.
Mary R. 58:09
Yeah, I've noticed a change in our business. Thank you for that. That's, that's, that's really nice. I'm glad you like that statement on my website. I've noticed a change in our business since since COVID. i And since I was solo. As a solo sitter, I did not a lot but I did a hefty amount of overnights and a lot of vacation care, heavy on vacation care. And as I've and I don't know if it's a COVID thing or, you know, Martha Hills pet care, you know, birth pangs, I'm not sure what, what the changeover is. And I imagine it's it's hard to do a COVID But you know, people aren't traveling as much now or weren't for a time. And so what I got was what I've got now is mostly midday drop ins, dog walks and sort of regular reoccurring either either they schedule Monday through Friday or two or three days a week repeating or there's the you know, there's there's the nurse who works on shifts and needs coverage here, here and here. And next week, it's here here and here and next week, it's this other you know, and you know, but it reoccurs sometimes different times you know, different days and for various reasons people are you know, I'm in their back pocket, they know that when they have they have coverage on those days that they're going to be away from home longer because of their work and number of people reaching out having getting surgery done they need help walking the dog or getting the dog out of the apartment to do his business. And, you know, and it's it's so nice to I, because I remember where I was on those just vacation decisions. And that was a big, you know, that was a big problem to work through, as you described, you know, calling five of your friends and doing the brainstorm who could possibly do this for me, you know, but to have the comfort of just saying, well, it's as easy as not, I don't even have to call Mary, I don't have to text Mary, I can just, you know, hop on time to pet and make a request. And it's just handled in the background, I get that confirmation email. That's a beautiful thing. The sitter shows up in my pet is cared for and loved, I get photos, I get a report. I know what happened. The house is secured. I trust them, everything's good. And that's Wow, that's I would love to have that back then when those vacation trips. And
Collin Funkhouser 1:01:01
a lot of people again, they don't a lot of clients don't know that that's a mental burden that they can be relieved of, right? Whenever I say things like, especially when we go through our new client meeting and onboarding, and I say, Well, now that we've gone through this in your setup in our system, you can book 24/7, and will always show up the look on their face when they kind of go, oh, oh, wow. Like, I don't have to. I can just I said like, we've taken requests when people have been sitting on planes because they forgot to book us right? Or like we've you can pack in the morning, you can send us a request. And we'll show it like, it's like, we were here for you.
Mary R. 1:01:37
I will never say that. But
Collin Funkhouser 1:01:41
I say that because people kind of want to know, and I'm like, Well, we do our best to accommodate last minutes. So much so that we have a lady who thought her husband had booked the visits, but while they were sitting on the airplane, he realized he didn't. So I got a panicked phone call from the boy. And I said, hey, send it through, we'll get a process to work.
Mary R. 1:02:04
It's it's so easy. When you already have all the information you already have all the household information that you need, you know, or the leashes and the dog food has kept you have access to the home. That's all handled. And, and, you know, the payment process is all handled as well. So there's, it's easy for us as business owners, and it's and it's lovely for the client, you know, because they have that relationship with your company. And and it's as easy as making that phone call from the plane. Yeah, that's, well, we sold ourselves clearly.
Collin Funkhouser 1:02:43
Okay, sounds good. Let's book the trip. I want to book with you. Right? I know, it's like the surface. Well, Mary, I really want to thank you for for your time today and for walking us through that peace of mind and what that means and some tangible reasons and, and purpose that we can put behind our work to get connected with our clients and and walking through those those pain points. And, and making sure that clients understand that right and and then building out your team and working in your local market. I'm so thankful for your time today. Mary, I know there's a whole lot going on. And you're you're very you've got a lot from day to day. How can people best get connected with you and follow along with everything that you've got going on?
Mary R. 1:03:32
Um, well, I do have a website, easy to find north Dallas pet care.com That's the best place to start. Um, you can find me on Facebook by the same name on Instagram. Yeah, all those things you can you can call or text or email fight available. Yeah, this
Collin Funkhouser 1:03:52
is absolute pleasure. I'm so thankful for the time. And thank you so much for coming on the show.
Mary R. 1:03:59
Thank you for having me. I'm so grateful for all that you and Megan do and having this podcast. I can't tell you how often the subject matter of your podcast has just really hit the spot for me. And, and it's just it's just nice having that sanity check out. Because it is such a solitary, this is our candy. And it's nice to know that oh, here's what other people are doing. Here's what other people are experiencing. And thank you for being the voice of reason. Out there in the woods. Appreciate it.
Collin Funkhouser 1:04:31
A question that we often ask ourselves in our own business is the question of to what end? To what end? Are we doing this? Are we are we reaching out in this endeavor? Are we taking on this client? are we offering this new service? Are we going down this path of marketing and advertising? I think one aspect of that that I'm really appreciate that Mary pointed out was how are we working to strengthen the pet human bond with our clients? How As our services, how do our services better equip the pet owner to enhance the relationship with their pet. And likewise, every interaction that we have with the pet influences how that pet is going to interact and perceive their human owner. Everything that we do and teach and pour into the lives of the pet owner will interact and change how they perceive and love on their furry family member. It's a lot that we do. It's a big thing that we take on and it is incredibly wonderful. We want to thank today's sponsors, time to pet and the peaceful pet music, calm music for pets YouTube channel for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you for listening. We genuinely are so happy and thankful that you're here and we hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. We'll be back again soon.
