615: Boundaries, Budgets, and Burnout with Rachelle Steele
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Are you treating your pet sitting like a real business? Rachelle Steele of Loving Arms Pet Services returns to share how she transitioned from a hobbyist mindset to confidently leading her company. She dives deep into boundaries with clients, why setting an emergency fund is crucial, and how she prices her services based on value—not competition. Rachelle also opens up about preparing for the future, possible expansion, and navigating the mental shift from animal lover to business leader. Her advice is practical, empowering, and a must-listen for anyone ready to stop winging it and start planning with purpose.
Main Topics
Business mindset development
Setting boundaries with clients
Pricing strategy based on value
Emergency fund and long-term planning
Balancing emotion and professionalism
Main takeaway: “I will defend my peace before I defend my pricing.”
Let that sink in.
As pet professionals, we often feel pressure to justify our rates. But what if we stopped negotiating our worth and instead stood firm on what gives us peace, freedom, and sustainability? That’s exactly what Rachelle Steele of Loving Arms Pet Services is doing. In our newest Pet Sitter Confessional episode, she shares how a business mindset, firm boundaries, and intentional planning have helped her build a fulfilling and resilient career.
Links:
Previously on Episode 419: https://www.petsitterconfessional.com/episodes/419
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Email: lovingarmspetserviceskc@gmail.com
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Business mindset, pet sitting, boundaries, client communication, emergency fund, pricing strategy, business expansion, confidence, sales skills, time management, emotional aspect, professional growth, mentorship, proactive planning, customer service
SPEAKERS
Collin, Rachelle S.
Collin 00:00
Announcer, welcome to pet sitter, confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by our friends at time to pet and pet perennials. One of the biggest struggles in hurdles as somebody new to the business and even some people who've been in the business for a long time, is the kind of mindset we carry with us. Are we really having a business mindset? Are we really thinking about what we do as a business and how we operate and how we run the policies, procedures and everything in between? There really is a shift that we have to make at some point, and we're really excited to be talking about this topic today with a returning guest, Rachelle Steele from loving arms Pet Services, she was previously back on with us an episode 419 so you can pause listening right now and just go back and listen to that episode and then come back to this. But Rochelle, I'm really excited to be speaking with you again and talking about this topic. For those who haven't listened to that episode and aren't familiar with with you, tell us a little bit more about yourself. Yeah,
Rachelle S. 01:04
I'm Rochelle Steele. I'm based out of Kansas City, Missouri. I'm coming up on four years now running my business, and I do, since our last episode, I've been promoted from foster coordinator with my Shiva ENI rescue association to Vice President. So I do that in my quote, unquote, spare time, and supporting our foster teams and all of our volunteers in whatever roles they need. I love that, and I
Collin 01:35
always see you posting photos of Sheba, and you've got one yourself, don't you? I do?
Rachelle S. 01:40
Yes, Hikari is my little judging princess.
Collin 01:46
They give the best side eyes, don't they? You do?
Rachelle S. 01:50
When people are like, is your dog friendly? No, she'll judge you. Just do.
Collin 01:54
We've we recently, we have a new Corgi puppy, and so we are just getting ingratiated to this, this bombastic side eye, this judgmental from around the corner, and I'm like, I never felt so bad. Oh, my goodness.
Rachelle S. 02:10
And she does not like to be pet, and people do not understand why is my dog not like to be petted, and why she must be, you know, skittish or nervous or aggressive or whatever. No, she just like me. Doesn't want strangers running up to her, touching her,
Collin 02:32
shocking, right? It's weird.
Rachelle S. 02:35
She's cute as can be, she's soft as as can be, but she has boundaries, and she is very good at establishing those boundaries and saying, No, thank you.
Collin 02:45
I love that, and that's good, you know. And it's we have to protect that too. And I think that's a reminder of just like, yeah, we get to be the voice, like you have, even with our own pets, like it's so critical to just because people don't understand about why, why that's important too, and not pushing dogs in that area.
Rachelle S. 03:02
We have to advocate for them, because not everyone understands that pets have feelings and emotions too.
Collin 03:09
Yeah, well, you mentioned that you've been in business coming up. You said, four years, is that right? Yeah, you know, in July, four years and, and I was, you know, in kind of thinking about this topic of business mindset, or, you know, you know, hobby mindset kind of stuff. What was that like for you getting into business, and did you think of it as a business right from the get go? Or is that something that had to evolve
Rachelle S. 03:34
with yourself? Good question. I planned in 2019, to my five year plan was to quit my full time high end furniture sales job in 2024 and start a pet sitting. It was actually, in my mind, going to be boarding and daycare out of my home. And that was going to be my quote, unquote, semi retirement job and be able to play with animals all the time and set my own schedule and everything and not work corporate in retail anymore, after many years of retail. And so I had to come up with a plan. How do I do that? And how do I make that a reality? And I needed to pay off debts. I knew I needed to stockpile money. I wanted money in a savings account in case things didn't take off as I had hoped, in case something happened. I mean, who knew 2020, was coming and all that was going to be but it was in my mindset, I want to pay off debts. I wanted to remodel the house, to get it set up for boarding and daycare, and get all that done, and I figured it would take me about five years to do that. The good news is it didn't. It only took me about a year and a half to get where I wanted to be as far as paying off all my debts. Big mindset of just focus and you. And throwing money at the bills and in the credit cards and everything. And then January of 21 I was okay. Now what? I'm really far ahead of plan, and so I stockpiled money. And June 30, I was laying in bed going, what if I got on rover and just kind of tested it out, and I'll do pet sitting in other people's homes and dog walking, and just kind of see what happens. Lo and behold, my background check came back overnight, very surprising to me. I know there's nothing in my background or they're too scholarly background check, but it was my first glimpse into the apps not being as they appeared to be, and so that pushed a little pause in my mind. But I pressed forward and I I got with friends and family and online support, and threw out some possibilities of a name, and got my LLC, and my first client was July 4 weekend, so I just jumped right in and started figuring it out. I did name the business, loving arms Pet Services, knowing that someday it might encompass more than just pet sitting or dog walking. I wanted it to be an umbrella and not have to change my name again. And yeah, it's evolved. I am not doing boarding in my home. I'm not doing daycare. I initially thought I would be doing dog walking. Great way to burn calories. Have fun with dogs. Enjoy the weather, be outside. Then I remembered, I don't like being outside in the humidity, in the pollen, in the ice, so dog walking quickly went to the back burner, and in home, pet sitting became my focus. And also realizing that In Home Pet Sitting I was mainly doing vacation care, because this was summer of 21 after everything started opening up, and people went to call their former pet sitters who were no longer in the business because they didn't survive, they didn't have an emergency fund or a contingency plan. So I got really busy really quickly, and by September of 21 so two months later, I quickly realized I'm going to have to make a choice of either not taking clients for the pet sitting jobs or quit my job and 18 years at my job, but I was going to have to do one or the other, Because I could no longer do both, and I talked to five of my friends and family members that I knew would be honest and not blow smoke, and they could not give me a reason to stay at my full time job. I had everything lined up and ready to go, and so I gave notice October 1 and November 1 went full time solo pet sitting.
Collin 08:02
When did it start feeling like a business to you? Though, when
Rachelle S. 08:07
I quit my job, I had no safety net at that point, you know, I mean, I had my emergency fund at that point, I think I had a nine month emergency fund so I could pay my bills for nine months if I had $0 coming in, and I think that was an important thing, that a lot of people in the groups I see don't have that, and they they don't have money stockpiled for what if, but if this takes longer than expected, what if something happens and we have Another pandemic, or I have an injury or illness, or they don't, and then I think also that's, that's where I see people struggle, is they take clients or jobs and things that they shouldn't because they have to pay their bills. And that's I get it. We have to be able to pay our bills. We have to have a living but then you have to fire those clients. Later, and that's even more difficult than just saying no in the beginning for most people. So having that money stockpiled gives you a lot of freedom, and you can be really picky on who you bring into the business,
Collin 09:18
yeah, well, because when we first start out there is that I have to take on everybody all the time. And I don't care if they're 45 minutes away or an hour away, I've got to do them because I've got to bring in some money and when we can slow down. And that's what that emergency fund does. You know, whether it's nine months, six months, or three months or one month, some something to allow you to have some breathing room where you go. It's okay if I say no, because that's where we really do struggle. We say if I say no, I'm not just saying No, sure. I'm saying no for my mental health, but I'm also saying no to being able to put food on my table, and that seems kind of counterintuitive, and so to be able to slow that down and really make sure you're nurturing good. Healthy growth in the beginning. So you don't I do think many people think I've got to go through this flash in the pan burnout phase, ramp up really fast, and then I'll notch it back down later. That's what I'll do. I'll notch it back down later. Well, I can tell you that five years, 10 years, 15 years later, very rarely does it come back down
Rachelle S. 10:21
exactly. So you've got to set those know what you want and what you don't want, what you're going to accept or not going to accept from the beginning, yeah, and then hold true to it. And having that emergency finally gave me the ability to go, yeah. This doesn't feel good, so I'm going to say no and having that boundary. So from the very beginning, I think it of me quitting my job and doing this full time. It felt like a business. And there were times that I was like, oh, i i So could take this client, but something in me says I shouldn't, and to just listen to my gut, and then, yes, when you tell a client, no one and they berate you, you're like, oh, there it is. That's That's why I had that gut feeling, and I'm glad I stuck to it, because it gets harder down the road to let them go. And I also look at my clients as you know they are my bosses, essentially. So is this a boss that I want to work for? Is this the boss that's communicating with me well, is this a boss that I can be open with when I go, you know, fluffy doesn't seem like he's acting normal today. Are they going to accept that reasonably, or are they going to think I'd be an accusatory or calling to make neglectful? And it's like, no, you see fluffy every day. I haven't seen fluffy in three months. This is not normal. It is, you know, something that maybe snuck up. But I tell my clients in a meet and greet, I'm going to have difficult conversations with you. I'll tell you that right now, and I hope that you can understand if I'm having a difficult conversation with you, it's because I respect you and I love your bet, and I need you to hear me. And you know, I will do that over phone call. I'm not going to do it over text, unless it's an emergency. I'm not going to put it in an update. I'll just when they get home, we'll say, Hey, can we have a chat? And sometimes I need to go over in person and have that conversation with them, but I want to have all of those thoughts and conversations in the beginning and setting those expectations up with my quote, unquote, new boss in the beginning. So that way, should that time come we have that open dialog and and availability of communication to have that conversation
Collin 12:45
that's really important, because a lot of like, just think about our clients who come to us. They've never had that kind of relationship with a professional before. They use friends, families, neighbors, acquaintances. They've used hobbyists, they've used facilities. Who don't have that kind of conversation, don't have a kind of conversations, they don't have that kind of in depth experience and knowledge to talk to them about. And there are times where I'll put it this way, sometimes I've come to make it and go, Are we too honest? Like, are we too is this? Is that what the problem is like? Because if people don't expect you to give them that kind of information. It can come across as being confrontational. It can come across as accusatory and reminding them, hey, you hired a professional. Here's what I bring to the table. I am going to tell you hard things because that's what that's what I view my duty as, and I want to work with you to overcome those setting those kind of expectations for how communication is going to take place. I think oftentimes we think of, oh, just tell them you communicate over text, or you communicate over your app or your email or phone calls. No, you need to tell them how, like, what kind of communication they're going to get. It's way more than just the dog pooped and peed and I got the mail. It's a like, and maybe we'll don't expect to get that. So sometimes they don't know how to even juggle that or what to do with that information.
Rachelle S. 14:11
Yes, I am a very end result. I go like, jump to the end and then work backwards, type of a person, and so I would rather have the conversation now with them and their three month old puppy in the planning of witnessed August 12. And you know, I've known it its whole life. If I have to have a difficult conversation with you, we're going to have that conversation. So I'd rather set that up in the beginning, and then they know. And I tell people, you know, if, if I'm seeing your cat, and I tell you, in a visit, report that the cat puked. I'm not complaining. I'm going to clean it up. I'm just noting it for the file, just in case. If you're like, fluffy never pukes, then that's a concern. And if. I noticed, you know, that fluffy has been puking every day, and you're like, he doesn't do that, then we're having that open conversation. And I can take fluffy to the vet, or we can do whatever we need to do, but just telling them worst case scenario, you know, this is, this is how we're going to have the communications. And if they don't want that, I had to let a client go who did not respond to updates for her whole trip, you know, seven to 10 days when I asked if the dog had diarrhea when they left, because my first visit, he had diarrhea, didn't have a change of food. Do you want me to do, pumpkin, do you want me to, you know, do anything? Is this normal? And no response? When she got home, I had to let her go because that was disrespectful to me and to her pet. You
Collin 15:53
we have to have that kind of teamwork, because that's what we're doing, right? Yes, they are a boss, but there's someone we're going to work with, and we do expect things from them, and that really is a different kind of relationship, a different kind of communication style. How else do you think your approach in coming in with this business mindset? How else do you think that that influenced how you operate your business, from services to pricing and everything in between? Yeah,
Rachelle S. 16:18
for prices, it made a big difference, because I knew what I needed to make to pay my bills and have not drained my emergency fund have money to do the things that I want to do, and so my pricing looked a lot different. I did not like many people do. I did not go on line and look at other pet sitters in my area and figure out what their prices were. It didn't matter what their prices were if their prices wouldn't pay my bills. So I had to come up with, this is what I'm going to charge. And then I looked at everybody else's prices and went, this might be a little difficult, because my prices are more than what the sitter's on rover were, and I got off rover pretty quickly, just because I wasn't. I didn't like giving them 20% of my money, first of all, but the I didn't like what they stood for, and I didn't think that they were the professionalism that I wanted. So I don't knock anybody for getting on there, because it's a great way to test out. You know, is this for me before I quit my job or not? But the my prices were substantially more than and are still more than what a lot of even other professionals in my area will charge, and I'm okay with that, because I offer more than that, and I'm worth more than that, and I also like having time off. I don't like working 10 hour days. You know, the other day, I had to work five hours in a row, and it was like, Oh my gosh. You know, spring break about killed because that's not what I normally do, because I do value my time off, and this is my quote, unquote, semi retirement. So I want to be able to go sit in a park with my dog and watch the world go by, and I want to be able to do the things that I want to be able to do. And if I only want to work X amount of hours a week, I had to figure out, what do I need to charge to be able to do that.
Collin 18:25
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Speaker 1 18:29
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Collin 18:49
If you're looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional. I need to make that phrase a t shirt. It doesn't matter what their prices were if they don't pay my bills, because that is such a wonderful way of putting just the hard reality of what the process of. Okay, we'll go look at other people, and then, based off of that, you know, do the market, what that's doing is you're allowing other people to dictate your earning potential and your lifestyle. Instead of going, No, do the math, do figure this out, and then your job, then is beholding on you, is to then market message and work your business in such a way to make people see the value that they get. That's it, yep, okay, it's, it's, it's, I don't think, if you think of it from like, a, oh, this is a high end, you know, sports car, like, they don't sit down, you know, we think of this, oh, Porsche doesn't sit down and go, What are Toyota Corolla is selling for these days? What are those? Exactly? Nope, they make the car, and then they market it. To the people that can afford it, right? That's and then, yeah,
Rachelle S. 20:03
and, you know, I was thinking about that this morning. I can't think of the last Maserati commercial I've seen, you know, or Aston Martin Bentley. They're still around. They're making money. They're selling their cars. They don't defend their pricing. They're like, here it is, you know, and to a point, yes, I will try to sell a client, you know, if they're talking about a $5 difference. But, you know, I had a lady reach out the other day. I was three times what she was used to spending. Okay, you know, not a problem. I would definitely reach back to that other sitter. I'm not going to defend my pricing or try to sell her on why, you know, if she was happy with that person, then go back to them, you know, or whatever you got to do. But I'm not going to defend my my pricing, because I will defend my piece and I will defend my personal choices and my lifestyle before I'll defend my pricing
Collin 21:11
that. Man, yeah, I'll defend my piece before I defend my pricing. Man, Rachel, I'm running out of room to write stuff down already, and I'm not that long as but it really is you. I have those moments where I still do get anxious on the phone when someone because they'll call and they just, they're like, Hi. Are you who tell me about your company? And then the second, either the first or second question is, how much does this cost? Right? It's like you feel the tightening. You feel your heart racing like, just for those listeners, just think about this. I called you, and I say, How much do you charge? What's your response going to be to that? Is it boldly saying, Well, yeah, I charge $30 a visit for my 30 minute visits, or whatever you charge. And here's what you get, and here's who I am, right? Like, that's sometimes you have to just, we've decided we have to just say plainly what we do and what and what comes with it. And then it's the client's decision to to figure out if that's what's going to work for them and how they work. Because you're right at the end of the day, if they go, man, I was really hoping to pay 20. What do you okay? Go find somebody for 20. I can't do that. It's not, not what we do. And so there really becomes like, at what point do you find that how what suggestions Rachel, would you give to somebody who's they got into this for the love of animals, and you know, because they were passionate about animals, and they love animals, animals, animals. What advice would you give to somebody who's struggling with this switch into the business owner mindset of running a business aspect?
Rachelle S. 22:40
I would suggest that if they didn't have previous business experience, as far as running a business as if it were your own, even though it wasn't, then to, you know, reach out to your local like, ask your chamber, your local chamber at see if you have score. They're a great mentoring, small business, mentoring, leadership. There are resources in your area, and we have online i don't know if mastermind has classes, but I'm sure they do on how to start a small business and start it running effectively and efficiently, and how to do the bookkeeping and how to come up with pricing and all of that. If you have always been a behind the scenes employee or an employee at a job that you weren't making decisions, you weren't having conversations, hard conversations, with clients or with other employees, you do need to find the resources to teach you how to do that and reading listening to podcasts. I just checked my podcast history the other day, or listening history, my audible history the other day, and in the last two years, I think it was, I've listened over 200 hours. That's a lot of books and a lot of podcasts and and everything, but we spend a lot of time in the car. May as well make it useful. And it's not just getting the knowledge, but then applying the knowledge in knowledge is not powerful. Knowledge is noise, but applied knowledge is powerful. So how can we apply it? And we have a lot of great business coaches for pet sitting, but maybe you've got to find one that's not a pet sitting. You know, pet sitting is its own unique thing in the service that we provide, but not in its own business, the behind the scenes, admin stuff. It's universal. So get the education. YouTube videos, I'm sure are out there, but educate yourself, because confidence is also key. If you're confident that you're a business owner, you're going to put off that confidence, then you're going to be able to be more confident in your pricing, in your execution. And telling clients No. But if you are nervous, if you don't like telling clients No, if you're very much a people pleaser, which I think a lot of us pet care providers have that tendency, which is why we also have compassion fatigue. Because we don't set boundaries, we've got to learn how to set boundaries and listen to some some podcasts, maybe get a therapist, whatever you've got to do to be able to stand up for yourself, first, then the business and then the pets.
Collin 25:34
That confidence really is what foundationally, what we're talking about here, and above and beyond, like, the business structure. I think when we think a lot about running a business, we go, what's the structure? LLC? How do I do my taxes? Because tax time just happened as of this recording, which is fun, yay. But like, what are quarterly taxes look like? How do I separate my pay these things? Why do I, you know, how do I advertise in marketing and branding? We think about that. But what you're really talking a lot about here is that internal growth, that how do I become a leader, even if I don't ever have employees? I'm leading a company, I'm leading a business. I'm making hard decisions, I'm having difficult conversations with people, I'm networking, I'm building and expanding into my community. I'm putting myself out there. I think that's a big aspect that Megan and I really never fully appreciated about exactly what it meant to run a business, of how outward we personally had to be. We're very private people, and so putting photos and going to places and talking to people like this is very like, Ha, like, it's but that's gotta shake yourself up, shake it out like we do. We who the hoorah on the car, and it's like, I, I take it does take this like this isn't this starts with me building outward. It doesn't matter the structure, my policies, my cancelation. It doesn't matter my SOPs and that that doesn't matter if I'm not in a good position
Rachelle S. 26:59
Exactly. And to be fair, all that other stuff, there's people that can help you with all that other stuff. You have to help yourself first. And that, having that confidence, building the confidence, it is a skill you that we have to learn, and it's a muscle that we have to work. For me, sometimes I have to, I have a spreadsheet that I keep track of leads coming in and potential clients coming in, and I if I start seeing a trend and go, Oh, I'm saying no. An awful lot. Am I being too quick to say no, because no is my go to default, until you convince me yes should be the answer, and that's not the case for a lot of you know our pet care providers, whether they're grooming or pet sitting or dog walking, whatever, because we are tending to be people pleasers, so yes is the default, and we'll deal with the backlash later. So that having that internal growth, like you said, having your personal, personal values in place, and if things don't align, be comfortable saying no and be comfortable hearing No. If a client tells you no, it's nothing personal. They don't know you. It's not a personal attack on you. They're saying no to the price or whatnot. So I guess I would say that would be the other thing is, if you don't have any background in sales, go sell some stuff, you know, even if it's go ask your local Girl Scout troop leader if you can volunteer and go sit with the Girl Scouts selling their cookies. How many times do they hear no, right? They, you know, and people are mean to nine year old little girls, and it's just crazy, but it's that'll teach you resilience and it'll teach you persistence. You know, selling lemonade on the corner with the kids at a lemonade stand. That's sales, but you got to get some sales background too, because we are in sales, whether we like it or not. Yeah, no,
Collin 29:04
it's you mentioned how mean people are to nine year old girls. It's amazing, like, I like, we will buy every now and then, but I feel bad saying no to them. But some people, they have no qualms yelling at them and whatever they're doing. And it is a reminder of that what we are doing. Because I when you take that phone call, when you get that email or that message on social media, however you get people coming into your business, you do have to put on your little sales hat and go, Okay, I'm in sales mode right now. Not that I have to be a hard it's not hard sales. And I'm not trying to twist people or get them in, or, you know, all this stuff, but you are talking about your business and answering questions to people, fundamentally sales. That's all that is people have questions. I'm going to answer them in a way that will hopefully educate them to go with me, or or or not, right if they're asking different questions. But that is, that is a thing where we aren't used to doing that at all, and that really. Really is a skill that takes time to learn. So I love how you're saying, instead of learning with your business, go learn in some low stakes areas. Go learn. Go sit with a friend at a local craft show. Or go sit with a vendor and help them set up a booth at this thing. Or go go volunteer with these areas and just listen and try and try your hand at this. And it really is a great way to learn. Really, I think more so, because we often think of, oh, I have to learn sales. I have to learn what to say, or how to say it. It's really, how do I receive? What I get from, get back from people.
Rachelle S. 30:31
Well, that, and also, when you say something, how is it perceived? Yeah, because perception is reality. You know, it may not be what you intended, but tone can be everything. And one of my growth areas that I've worked on a lot over the years is my face, apparently has subtitles. So the words coming out of my mouth can be one thing, but my face says something totally different. So having a poker face is something that I've had to work on because it it's a whole potty communication thing, and we have to understand how they're perceiving it. We don't know what their day has been like. So when we say something, they may take it more harshly than we meant. And so that can be learning for us, but then when they say something, if we've had a bad day, we can take it so like it's putting on a different hat. I do have a admin assistant. It's me, but when I am not in a mental frame of mind to deal with a phone call or deal with a text or whatever I have copy and paste on my phone that I've got different notes that I've can copy and paste of hey, it's not a good time for me to talk. Here's some bullet points. When's a good time for me to to reach out to you or whatnot, and having the ability to take a pause and get in the mindset of, okay, and so if I'm not in the mindset as Rochelle, then my loving arms Pet Services team will respond, and I will put a reminder that I need to call this client after four or whatnot. So that's me putting on a different hat of yes, the business needs to respond, but Rachel's not in the mindset to respond right now, and it's not going to look pretty if I respond right now, because I just walked into a house and a dog has had accidents everywhere, so it may be a couple hours before I'm in the mindset so I don't want to ignore them, right? I want them to know I got them. You know, we got the message. I will get back to you. It's just not a great time. And that's also setting a boundary that you can't message me and expect me to respond in 30 seconds every time, yeah, and so, you know, kind of setting that communication advice or I saw your message, I heard you. I'll get back to you shortly. Well,
Collin 33:05
speaking of boundaries, I was curious, because this is another big thing that a lot of people struggle with. What what are some boundaries that you've had to set that maybe you didn't think you'd have to set when you first started?
Rachelle S. 33:19
I did not realize. And I see a lot of people say this, that I didn't realize how much driving it was going to be. So, you know, I had this to set physical boundaries of how much driving I was going to do, to go to clients, homes where I live, I'm pretty close to a lot of things, because I'm right off a freeway. And so I have a time boundary, as compared to a mileage boundary of how far it takes to get from my house to a client's house. I have some that are pretty far away mileage, but they're right off the freeway too, so it doesn't take me very long to get there, where I have others that are two miles away, but they have like 15 school zones between my house and here, so it can take me 15 minutes to get there if I leave at the wrong time of day. So that was one that I didn't think of. I kind of thought that people were going to run on a like eight to five boundary of reaching out to a business. I didn't realize that people were going to reach out and ask if you're available next weekend at 1am that may be when they're up, but I'm not. So that was a boundary that I had to explain to clients, that from 10pm to 6am I don't I don't get notifications. My phone goes dark and I don't respond to clients that I am not taking care of their pets until I have a break in a schedule, it will be within 24 hours that I won't respond to you, but I'm not going to respond to your vacation request. That's. Six months from now, faster than I'm going to respond to somebody whose cat I'm going to see in 45 minutes, for example. So having to explain to people, don't blow my phone up. I will get to you, I promise. But then that's also where me sending it back. I saw your message. I will get back to you shortly. And that helps too. So that way they don't feel like they've not
Collin 35:23
been heard that didn't just go into a void. Because that does happen. I mean, how frustrating is it whenever I'm trying to contact a company and it's like, I've sent five emails, I don't even get an auto reply. I have no idea. And that's like, that's the other thing too, those little short snippets that you have saved on your phone when you do that, I guarantee you 99% of the time, people think it's just an auto reply, and they're like, Okay, cool. Somebody is on this, even though it's us manually copying and pasting it over, like they don't know and they don't need to know. But it just helps. I'm buying some space. I'm getting this out there. I'm going to come back to this better mindset, to have that expectation of communication, because we get that too. I mean, just today, we had somebody submit stuff at two in the morning, 230 or something like that, and they didn't expect us to hear back from us, but it was a reminder of, yeah, people have their own schedule, and I have mine own, and I don't want to live other people's schedules, because I like my sleep, and I get very little of it as it is. So I need these setting what these are? These are boundaries. These are systems that you set up in place to go, Okay, where can I shuffle this? Where can I put this? So it doesn't get lost, right? It still moves forward in a system. But it's not overwhelming to me, and I'm not feeling like I'm glued to my phone, because what happens is, if we stay up responding to people until 11 o'clock, there's a really good chance that some other person is going to be responding to you, and now you're having a back and forth with more people, because just because you're up and active and you got to cut it off at some point, there will always be more opportunities to talk to clients. They can wait.
Rachelle S. 36:57
I have also become a huge fan of schedule set, because I do not like to respond to a client at nine o'clock at night, but I also don't want to forget in the morning to reply to them, so I will reply to them, and it's so hard. I have such a hard time sometimes remembering what day it is, but then also at nine o'clock at night, when I'm typing Good morning on my message, I'm going to auto send. They really messes with your time sometimes too, but then I know I've checked it off my list. I've responded to them, but I'm not going to end up in a conversation at 930 at night with somebody that I don't want to be in a conversation with at 930 we can put that off till tomorrow. So schedule send has been a beautiful gift. Yeah, you're
Collin 37:45
right, because we can go, Well, let me get off this. Let me get this off my plate really quick. But if they, if you send, well, you've just taught them, well, you're at your phone, and so if they respond, well then okay, well, I have to respond, because I just did. Now I'm going back and forth here. It's like, okay, well, that schedule send, oh my gosh, the number of messages that go out at nine in the morning the next day from us. It's a mince and I love it. Every time
Rachelle S. 38:07
we're really productive at 8am
Collin 38:09
man, we get up knocked out. No, it's just us. But we're so, we're so I'm not letting the clients know, like we're working, like we would do work late sometimes, sometimes we just have to, but I'm not going to break the boundary here, because if I if a message comes through, that client knows, okay, I've got, I can respond, I can do this stuff. They're up anyway, and you really have to guard that
Rachelle S. 38:33
absolutely. And scheduling posts on Facebook has been a beautiful thing that I'll sit down and schedule a month out at a time. It'll take me an hour or two, but I can schedule a month out at a time, and then I'm done with that, I can knock that off my list for a couple weeks. So I love to schedule stuff.
Collin 38:56
How we talked about how, you know, you love pets. Everybody loves pets. Who gets into this? There's this emotional side of the business where we, you know, we we want to care for pets. We were invested in them. We they, they really feed us in many ways, and they make us feel, you know, whole and complete. And it really is nurturing driving to us. But there's this business side that we're talking about. How do you, Rachel, how do you separate out this, this emotional aspect of the business, versus these more business decisions that you just have to make because you're a business owner.
Rachelle S. 39:31
When I'm in the client's home with their pets, I am fully enjoying the pet and loving on them and doing all the things with them, and then when I go out and I lock the door, then it's back to business. You know, I've got to my route, I've got to get back on the to my next client, or I've got whatever on my list to do. I also schedule my time, my Cal. Wonder of when I figured out when I'm most productive to schedule, like my Facebook posts, when is most productive to just schedule whatever newsletters that I might be sending out or whatever. I know what times of day and what times of the month I'm most apt to be productive for those things, and so I schedule them for me as well. But yeah, when I'm with the pets, I'm with the vets, and I'm, you know, letting them appreciate the day or the cuddles or whatever. So that's kind of the reward for me to all the background work and all the admin stuff and the behind the scenes business part. You know, some people, when you go work at another company, and you get a go to the break room and everybody's hanging around water bottle and gossiping or whatever, that's kind of the same thing was, when I'm with the pets, you know, we I get to love on them and have my my downtime, and soak up their loves, and then get to go back to work and go to the admin stuff.
Collin 41:08
Yeah. Well, so those, those time blocks of what I'm doing and why I'm doing it become really important, of of what hat am I wearing and when am I wearing it, of going I can't be admin assistant while I'm also an End scheduler and invoicer and marketer while I'm supposed to be playing with a dog in the backyard or scooping a litter box. You just can't Sure, can you Yes, absolutely can. Is that what's best for the pet? No, right? That's not. It's not. So here we're going right now I am fully invested emotionally and full my in full heart in the pet, because that's why I'm here. I'm in their home for them. I'm not here to do my marketing calendar. That's not fair. That's not fair to them, and not what the client wants. So really, keeping that forefront and everything that we do, I'm here for the pets. So I need to be here for the pets. And then when I'm not. That's whenever I have time, and just finding those ways to block out. And we can feel anxious sometimes when we're in the pet because we know we've got that phone call we've got to return to we just have to go look, I have time after this in my schedule, because I put it there right because I scheduled time for this. That's whenever I'm going to respond to this. But I'm going to focus on this right now, give them the best
Rachelle S. 42:21
care possible, yeah. And I think that also goes back to we have to know, how many visits can we do a day in the best possible manner? If you're the only one doing visits, and you're trying to run a business, and, and, and that's a lot. And so making sure that maybe you only do maybe Wednesdays is a, really the slowest day on your schedule. So Wednesdays is when you do phone calls or meet and greets or whatever, and you know, planning out your downtime so you're not trying to get in a phone call in between visits, and you start to overwhelm yourself. So making sure that you have enough time in the schedule to be able to do the things that you need to do, the things you want to do, and the things that come up that you didn't see coming, you know, an emergency visit, or whatever you've got to have the time where you're not running yourself ragged so you can walk in the door relaxed. The animals feed off of us. You know, we have to walk in and be ready to give them the loves and attention and whatever they need that day. And we can't do that if we're thinking about, Okay, well, in 28 minutes, I've got to call this client. That's not going to work out very well, because the dogs will get anxious, the cat's going to attack you, whatever, because they feed off your energy too.
Collin 43:51
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Rachelle S. 45:30
Yeah, exactly. And if, if you you know, going back to where I say I'm the end result, and then work backwards type person, if at the end of the day, none of the bad stuff that could have happened happened. Woohoo. It's a win if the bad stuff that could have happened did happen. Woohoo. It was a win because I didn't stress, because I had time for it. So either way, I'm not it's not going to be a catastrophic day, because I plan for this stuff to happen. And that, you know, in my pricing too, I see sometimes in groups, people will ask, How do I tell a client I've got to charge more because I had to spend an extra 30 minutes doing cleanup because the dog had diarrhea or whatever, yeah, or whatever the case may Be. And I built that into my pricing. I built it into my scheduling. That you never know what you're going to walk into. And so if you just plan for it and then it doesn't happen, that's bonus time that you have for yourself, to eat, go to the bathroom, sit in the park with your dog, you know, whatever. But if it did happen, you were prepared for it, and so I don't, personally, I won't charge for, you know, the extra time in cleaning, because 99% of the time I don't have to spend time cleaning with all of the clients. So for this one, it's not that big of a deal. And what's really awesome is, when there is a catastrophic mess, a Collin changes their dog's food the day before they go on vacation. Yes, they tip really well, because they appreciate that you spent the extra time, and they know that your time is worth something if you have the ideal clients that understand and value your time and your business, I normally get pretty good tips and everything from them say, oh my gosh, thank you more than I would have gotten for whatever price I would have came up with to charge for. So I would rather let them feel good about oh my gosh. She did all this, and I don't have to come on to this big ol mess or whatever. I need to pay her extra for that. They feel good about it. I feel good because they valued me. It's a win. Win. I'm not feeling bad about having to go, hey so Collin and to spend an extra 20 minutes there, which set my whole day behind. And, you know, blah, blah, blah, you're gonna pay for it. You know the that's that's not a good feeling, so if you just plan for it ahead of time, then when it happens, it happens. Yeah, I know spit happens.
Collin 48:09
It's that margin in our pricing. It's the margin in our time and our schedule too. And both of those go hand in hand, especially in a service based business where it's so unpredictable, you have to have margin in your life to handle those things, and when you don't, you really see those cracks. We often view our our busy times as as a stress test. Period of okay, we just went through spring break. It was insane. Everyone's tired. We stress tested our business. How did we do? What held up? What didn't hold up? Did we we always ask, did we still have our margin to take on people? And the answer is, we're getting better at saying yes, right, we still had extra capacity, and that's that's a sign to us that we are still meeting all of our other goals because of pricing and route planning and all this stuff, and not being so swamped that it's going to break us or break our team, our employees, because we want to make sure that everybody has balance, has good things in their life, and we should have that too when we don't just bad things always happen
Rachelle S. 49:19
exactly. And you know, that's part of I think of I am an employee to my business, and what I want to work for a boss that did, you know, didn't respect me or my time, or always ran me ragged and that kind of a thing. And you know, that goes back to, where do I want to go with the business, and I am looking at expanding, and I don't know yet what the universe has in store for me, but I'm I'm planning for all the possibilities that it could throw next at me, whether that's going to be a board, brick and mortar boarding facility. Whether and do it boarding and daycare. It could be a house that I buy, a house that does the business and does pet sitting, you know, boarding, daycare, that kind of a thing, I will still have the pet sitting in the client's homes. It could be that I acquire a mobile groomer or a grooming business. You know, that's that's why I loved that I did Pet Services as my business name, because it can be anything to do with pets. And so I am stockpiling money again. I'm letting universe know that I'm going to be ready for it. I'm listening to podcasts and reading in forums and seeing all the things that people are how do I tell my clients this? Or how do I keep my clients from doing that and going, Okay, I need to make an SOP for that. So from the get go, when the boarding or the grooming or whatever comes on, we already have a policy and procedure ready for how we're not going to let that happen, because it's we see common threats, and it can be prevented if we're being proactive instead of reactive. Well, is that
Collin 51:10
planning, like, where is that coming from? Is that just this a new desire? Is that something you're looking for, something new in your business, you're seeing a need for your clients, because that is, you know, you're going, Okay, I'm running a business. I'm doing well in this business now, but you might have got some other thoughts coming in. What's what kind of things are you kind of walking through in your thought process? But behind that expansion or newness that you're looking for,
Rachelle S. 51:41
I like challenges. I like having goals. I like achieving goals. My My first thought there was, life is getting too easy, so let's throw some chaos at it. I you know when we talked last time, I said I was never having employees, and I don't know that I said never I said I said never I said I wasn't hiring. I wasn't planning on hiring. I was planning on being solo. And I do feel like I've got this down. And so now, do I want to, you know, in the state of the world that we're in right now, there's a lot of people that are nervous about things, and so is that a time where I'm going to be able to acquire a business and help keep people have jobs, help people keep their jobs, you know, whatever that may be. And some of these hobby or side gig setters, if, if they're not able to do things in what I would consider the professional way of having insurance and all of these things, but they're really good at the pet sitting part, maybe they would be a really good employee. Maybe they're not a good quote, unquote business person, but they're great with the pets, and they're willing to take directions and everything, maybe they would be a good employee, and then I can step back from my visits and focus more on whatever my new adventure is going to be. It hasn't been determined yet, but when the universe drops it in my lap, I want to be ready for it. And I think that's something that, you know, when I made my goal in 2019 it was five years in 21 it happened, you know, I but I was ready for it, and so I think that's where I'm at right now, is, I don't know what I'm going to be ready for yet, but I will be ready.
Collin 53:32
How are you finding I know we just talked about having space and time and margin in our days, but doing that kind of long term planning or dreaming and writing and all stuff. How are you finding time to still do that while also operating your business and not overloading yourself with too much?
Rachelle S. 53:53
I don't know. AI is a beautiful thing. You know, chat, GPT is a beautiful thing. It has helped me a lot this year in streamlining, because I also do dog training, and I specialize more in the pets that maybe they're newly adopted, maybe they've been around for a while, or whatnot, but the pets that there's just some chaos in a home, and we need to make sure that everybody's happily living together, and that comes more from my rescue side of how do I keep dogs and cats out of shelters and out of rescues, and keep them in the homes because the rescues are overwhelmed, and so just kind of teaching the humans how to work with their animals and what their dogs need, and then, you know, teaching the dogs to have some manners and everything. So chat GPT has been very helpful with me in that part of the business, and helping me to figure out, yeah, how do I. Politely say that's not going to work for me. You know, you asked me to do something that's not going to happen, but this is what I can do instead, because I don't like to tell somebody No, flat out, no is a complete sentence, but there's often some piece of knowledge that I have whether I can help them still, but in a different way than what they're asking that maybe they didn't even know existed. Or I can refer them to somebody who can help them. So you know how to kind of course correct. I can't do what you're asking, but I can do this instead in a polite way. I tend to be very blunt and very fact driven, and so chat GPT has helped soften things up. I spit into it. Here's all my here's what I want to say. Can you make this sound professional, please? And it does a great job. So doing, doing that helps, but sometimes just writing stuff down and and physical pen and paper. Writing stuff down, I have my notebook that is all my ideas, and then I go back and look, and I'm like, Whatever happened to that idea? Is that something that's viable right now? And just putting it all on paper and then reviewing it and looking at it, setting my monthly goals of what I want to do, personal business, rescue, whatever. And then I think one thing that at the end of every week, on Fridays, I have a jar that I put a post it note in, and I write what, what good things happened this week that I was a part of, and whether I made them happen, or a client said something that was really impactful to me, or whatever, and then at the end of each year, I dumped the jar. And that's how I spend New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And look at my year in review, and you know, all the highlights, because we tend to forget all the good things we can hold on to grudges for years, you know, or bad things for years, but we tend to forget. So if every week, use you have a have it in your mind to write down the good things that happened in the last seven days, and then put it in a jar, you'd be surprised how far you've come in a year. When you look back and you're like, I didn't even I thought that was like years ago. That was only six months ago, because I do date them. And so anytime I do a change in a business that I'm like, Well, I just got my prices and or I booked these X amount of clients or whatever. Then when I look back, I'm like, gosh, that feels like longer than six months ago. Or, Oh, it's only been six months that I've been doing this, you know? So that's a way to positive, see the impact that you're doing in whatever, whether it's personal or business or whatever, and keep you going. It's a really good thing. If you're having a bad day, it's good to go look in the jar too. And you know, it's a good pump me up, you know, of the good impact, and not focus on the negatives. Whatever we focus on will come true. So if we're like, Why do I keep getting clients that do this? You're going to keep getting clients that do that. So instead, think of, how do I get better clients that do this instead and focus on that, and then those clients will come well, I want to go
Collin 58:26
back to something you mentioned about what you're working on. You're doing a lot of writing. You mentioned how some of that's including SOPs for things that are services and things that you haven't even added to or gone into yet. Why was that important for you to get to that point of writing down policies or procedures and stuff, and how has that helped you, or what has that done? And as far as helping you plan and see your options,
Rachelle S. 58:51
yeah, when, when the opportunity presents itself, whether it's another business owner retiring or moving or whatever that needs to sell their business or whatever, or I just go open up a business because I haven't found one yet that I want to acquire. I want to be ready to hit the ground running and make it smooth and easy. And maybe if I'm taking over a business, then I can look at their SOPs and go, oh yeah, we've got some changes to make. Or, okay, how do we merge these two together? You know, they've got some really good things. I've got some things. How do we merge them together with the least amount of impact on their employees? The last thing I want to do is come in and totally disrupt everything. And we want to be the best that the pets and their parents are looking for. So having it all planned out and having a plan helps me. Having it all written down gives me the ability to look back when I like. I had a really good idea if I don't write it down, it's gonna be gone forever. I. Yeah. So having it all in a notebook, I don't have to remember which spreadsheet or which email or whatever. I've just got this notebook of ideas that I can refer back to and read. And if I wonder, what do I need to work on, then I can go back to the list of business ideas and, well, I can do that right now. I've got the mental capacity and their free time, you know, let's, let's go see what we can do to move that forward,
Collin 1:00:26
right? Well, it helps you see, like there's that progression, and then there's also the I have just found, the more I put things down, pen to paper or typing, the more it becomes concrete, and then I'm better at processing it too, because I have, certainly, I don't know about you, Rochelle, I have written down sentences and gone that sounded a whole lot better in my head. Oh, no, let me put that right back. Nobody reads this, yes, exactly like when my
Rachelle S. 1:00:50
teacher self reads this, they're going to be like, Whoa. Okay,
Collin 1:00:52
so it is, I think, and it's also, I think it's good to have that space again in our day, where we can think forward and we can daydream a little bit in Futurecast or whatever, because it helps keeps us creative, and we never know when those ideas can be implemented or not. Sometimes they may just sit on self shelf and collect us, but at least we went through the thought process and put in that energy that's going to help us the next time, or it's going to help us see more opportunities, or know when something isn't going to work out, or we never know what's going to slide across our desk. So do we have some sense of how we would handle certain procedures? You know, it's it's like the what do people say? Like, you better have a plan for if you ever were to win the lottery. Like, just have a plan right now, or what happened? I heard a friend who goes, Yeah, I've got my three wishes for when the genie, when I, you know, when I when a genie pops out. I'm like, What? What? He's like. I look. I don't believe in genies, but if one does pop up, they're not taking advantage of me. It's just being ready for those situations that come up really helps you run a better business, because you're getting you're thinking creatively, and you're better able to take care of opportunities when they come across your plate
Rachelle S. 1:02:06
Exactly. And you know, like I said in the beginning, my business is not at all what I planned out for sure I made my five year plan, it looks nothing like what my plan was going to be. So having the open mindedness to be receptive to whatever is coming my way. And then, yes, I am one that I like to have a plan, and I like to have a step by step. So if I have all that now, even though I don't need it, it'll be easier for me to process through and accept the opportunity when it comes and not possibly miss it, right? Because I already feel like I'm, oh, I've been working on this. Yeah, I can do that
Collin 1:02:48
well. So I know we've been talking about this, this mindset of becoming more business oriented, setting those good boundaries. Let's say somebody is they're listening to this podcast, and they're going, I I've realized I'm not treating my what I'm doing as a business. I'm not have I'm not in this good mindset. I'm not doing these things. What's the first step you'd tell somebody to take if they're if they're
Rachelle S. 1:03:15
there? I mean, if you are running a business, but you didn't realize you just woke up one day and went, Hey, I am apparently a business owner. Great that now you recognize it. You know we and go find a mentor, like I was saying, or their score, or your chamber. Can help but educate yourself. Embrace that you're a business owner. It is a beautiful thing, and it comes with a lot of freedoms, but you have to be educated, and then you can work on being proactive instead of reactive, and you can start working on confidence. I know imposter syndrome seems to be a big thing, and you're already doing the thing. So you shouldn't have imposter syndrome. You're already doing it, and you are really good at it. So embrace that and figure out what your strengths are, and play on your strengths, and then find somebody who can help you with the things that are not your strengths. You know your areas of opportunity, if that's in business, working behind the scenes and in promoting everybody has a different way of doing it. There's no right way. There's really no wrong way. You know, if you just put it out there that you need help, people will come fight you, and they will help you, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. One thing that isn't in all of us as I think, as humans, is the desire and need to help others. So if you put it out there, I need help. People will help you. They will point you in the right direction. If you ask somebody, can I ask you one in one question that is most impactful for your small business and. Those people will give you the time to ask one question. So figure out what those questions are that you need help with, and we can get you answers. You know, people will answer them for you. Don't be afraid to ask questions. We were all beginners at one point. You know, we all had to crawl before we could walk, before we could run. Some of us have decided we don't want to run. You know, there's different everyone's different in different parts of their business. So there's plenty of people to help. It's not bad to ask for help. So I would do that. I would get educated on how to run a business and what things do you need to work on. And that could be that you've got to sit down and take some time and just really internalize that. It could be that you need to write down what are all the things you hate about your business, what you know? What would you get rid of if you could? And then figure out how to action plan it, and you know what's going on if you don't know how somebody else will be able to help you to see, what if you did it this way? What if you did it that way and just trial and error? You know, if you do this and it doesn't work, great, we're one step closer to the thing that does. It's nothing personal, even failure is just another learning step. It's not a big deal, as long as the pets are safe and loved and cared for all the stuff behind the scenes you can learn.
Collin 1:06:25
I love that. Rachelle, I really want to thank you for coming on the show today and encouraging us to set those good boundaries and to put on that business owner mindset and to really step into that and embrace it like you said, because we're already doing it, and we can get that education and network and get that help that we need as well. For those who want to follow along with you and or catch up and see how things are going, how best can people get in touch?
Rachelle S. 1:06:52
So you can follow the business pages, loving arms, Pet Services on Facebook, and that's the only platform I'm on. I don't want to make time for the other stuff. The it's I probably have the time. I just don't want to make it. I have more important things to do. And loving arms pet services@gmail.com I think, actually it's loving arms Pet Services casey@gmail.com because I think I did put the Casey in case I expanded to other markets to differentiate. I had all kinds
Collin 1:07:26
of more more forward thinking. I love it.
Rachelle S. 1:07:29
Never know what tomorrow is going to bring. But yeah, you can email me there and then laps casey.com
Collin 1:07:37
is the website Cool? Well, I'll have all those links in the show notes so people can get connected with you right there. Rachelle, it's been an absolute pleasure getting to reconnect, catch up and have you share this today. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Rachelle S. 1:07:52
Thank you for inviting me again. I will defend
Collin 1:07:56
my piece before I defend my pricing. I'm not joking when I say that. I have that written down in several places. Now, after my conversation with Rochelle, let that sink in. I will defend my peace before I defend my pricing. Oftentimes, we feel pressure to justify our rates, but what if we stopped negotiating our worth and instead stood firm on what gives us peace, freedom and sustainability, whether that is growing a team, whether that is setting boundaries as a solo business owner, this is what Rachelle is talking about here. We have to have and come forward with a business mindset, set firm boundaries and intentional planning to help build a fulfilling and resilient career. We want to thank today's sponsors, our friends at Tyne to pet and pet perennials, for making this show possible. And we really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon.
