624: When the Pivot Hurts
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What happens when your business no longer fits the market—or the law? In this episode, we explore the challenges of pivoting, from labor law changes to zoning regulations to personal burnout. We share stories of sitters who had to shift away from overnights, navigate the shift from independent contractors to W2 employees, or give up in-home boarding due to city requirements. While pivots can feel like rejection of our original vision, they also open doors to resilience, creativity, and new opportunities. Ultimately, give yourself grace, communicate with clients, and stay grounded in your mission of serving people and pets.
Main Topics
Forced pivots from labor laws
Market misfit and niching down
Personal capacity and burnout
Overnights, IC vs W2 challenges
Zoning, licensing, and compliance
Main takeaway: “Pivots are not a failure. They’re a way for your business to keep going and keep growing and serve more people.”
It’s easy to feel like you’ve failed when your business vision doesn’t match reality. Maybe new labor laws mean you can’t keep using ICs. Maybe your market doesn’t want the service you love most. Or maybe your own energy and capacity have changed. But pivoting isn’t quitting—it’s adapting. Each pivot is a chance to realign with your mission, meet your clients’ needs, and keep moving forward. The heart of your business isn’t a single service—it’s the relationships and trust you’ve built.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitter confessional, pivoting, business challenges, labor laws, economic shifts, market misfit, niching down, personal capacity, financial stress, independent contractors, W2 employment, zoning regulations, client communication, business insurance, entrepreneurial resilience
SPEAKERS
Collin, Meghan
Meghan 00:00
Collin, Hi, I'm Megan. I'm Collin. We are the host of pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you for joining us today and for taking your time and listening. We would also like to thank our sponsor, pet sitters associates and our executive producers on Patreon. They are people who find value in the show and want to give back. We thank you so much for your support. If you are listening and love the podcast as well. Want to keep it going, you could go to pet sitter, confessional.com/support, to see the ways that you could help out. If covid taught our pets and businesses anything, it was to pivot. And while we're not talking about covid Today, we are talking about pivoting. Sometimes the pivots are exciting, whether it's new services or new markets, but other times they are forced by laws, by market, by personal limits, by worldwide pandemics. And sometimes those pivots hurt because we weren't expecting them, or they're forcing us into a box that we don't want to be in for our businesses.
Collin 00:54
And it makes it really emotional for us, because they start touching on our hopes, our dreams. It becomes like a personal attack against us of what we had wanted or how we wanted to see ourselves. It's not just about feeling like we failed the logistics or the operations or the marketing. It feels like an affront to what we had hoped for. And so these can really, really hurt but they come from a lot of different
Meghan 01:17
places. Yeah, like I mentioned, they could be from external forces. Maybe it's labor law changes, where you need to move your ICS now to W twos, or there's new overtime rules or minimum wage laws. There can also be economic shifts, recessions, inflation, discretionary spending habits. Clients don't have as much to spend on your services, your luxury services anymore like they used to. Well, I know
Collin 01:39
in the US 2024 into 2025 saw a lot of discussion around independent contractors, labor laws, classifications, and it led a lot of people to just look at how they were operating and how they had operated for years, and suddenly go, oh, I need to do something different. And minimum wage is also a big factor. A lot of states increase minimum wage, or you have local laws, you have all these things that go into now, all of a sudden we go, Well, I wanted to operate my business a certain way, and I'm not able to do that because I'm not I am out of compliance legally. You could
Meghan 02:14
also be pivoting your business because there's a market misfit. If you dream of being a dog walking only company or a cat only company, but you're in a city where 95% of the people want only vacation care, or only want care for their exotic animals, like rabbits. Well then you probably aren't going to be able to fit in there, and you're going to need to pivot, or maybe you're trying to offer enrichment walks when clients only ask for daycare facilities,
Collin 02:40
there's a lot of power in niching down. It allows you to have focus in your business, in your operations and your marketing and your messaging, allows you to connect with clients who immediately get you and understand you. But one of the dangers is if you niche down into a market where there is no market and there's no demand for what you are trying to do, and suddenly you are left with a business that is designed for one thing and a market that is asking other things of you.
Meghan 03:06
You may also need to pivot because of your personal capacity. If you've had a lot of life changes in your business, whether it's family needs or just your energy level, you don't have the passion or the drive to do 15 walks in a day anymore. It could also be financial stress, where you're really strapped for cash and you're needing to pivot, whether to higher end services that bring in more money, or maybe to a different service entirely that generates more income. It can definitely be hard realizing that a service that you love isn't sustainable in the long term. We love our businesses. We love what we have created. We don't want to see it go. We don't sometimes we aren't adaptable enough to want to pivot or to make that change, but realizing that ultimately, sometimes we need to
Collin 03:47
those life changes are especially difficult because when you have to take care of a parent, or whether you have to take care of a spouse or a kid, or maybe it means that now you are limited by your capacity, your ability to do something where previously you weren't right well, and
Meghan 04:04
again, it can be hard when circumstances put us into a box where we go, Well, I quit my nine to five so that I could be my own boss. I could make my own decisions of what I wanted to do in my own company. But now these, these outside forces, or maybe even internally, I need to make a change in order for my mental health Well,
Collin 04:21
and that's just those energy levels where, many times we start out our business and we're really gung ho, we're really excited, and then as burnout continues to set in, we may try to shift and change and do different things in our business. But sometimes those aren't enough, and the burnout can lead to the point where we are so dissatisfied, we are so upset, we are so resentful of our businesses, that we end up looking around going, if I don't make a change that is immediate, I will lose all of this. And that is a pivot. That is a pivot that we are forced into out of our realization that we cannot continue down that road. And that's especially hard. I get all this is especially hard, but, but it's really difficult when you used to have. A business that you loved, that you enjoyed, that gave you fulfillment. You got fulfillment now that you saw a need, you were filling it, and it was really jiving. And then it grows in complexity, or it goes grows and you're you're very busy, or you get financial stress, or these family needs, or all this stuff kind of come up, and you can't seem to spin your way out of this, or grow your way out of this problem, and suddenly you're left going, I have nothing left in the tank, and I need to do something that. I need to pivot to something different. And that's, that's, that's difficult, because many times we don't know what that is. We don't know what my next step is, because we've only known one thing for so long, and knowing, okay, my energy levels are this low. Now, what are they going to be like when I do something different or move to something else, just because I have to from my own good and my own health.
Meghan 05:45
There are a few different forced pivots that we've seen, and one is going from a solo sitter with overnights trying to hire employees. This can be incredibly difficult, because you often realize that your prices can't actually sustain hiring. You need to significantly increase them. You want a team because you're super busy and you want to offload some of the work, but you can't make overnights profitable, so you're forced to pivot away from offering them, even though clients love it.
Collin 06:09
Yeah? So you may be slammed with overnights every single month, and you're charging 60 bucks a night, and you go, man, I would really like to be home a couple times, or I'd really like to go on this vacation. Let me hire somebody. Tell me out because I'm supposed to hire that's what I need to do. And then you hire somebody, and then you look at the hourly wage in your split where you live, and you go, Oh, well, if I pay somebody the minimum wage in where I'm living, that's gonna cost me $180 well, then I where does that money come from? Well, I can't charge the client $180 because they're not going to pay for that. And if I raise my prices enough to do this, then I'm not gonna have any clients. I'm not gonna have a business anymore, and you're left going, I obviously need to do something, but the thing that I thought I wanted to do isn't actually a solution for me, and I need to figure something else
Meghan 06:56
out. And that's why a lot of people go with independent contractors. They think, oh, well, this is the easier way. I don't have to pay out as much. I could just give them a percentage, and then we'll be kosher. There are several problems with that, but the main one is that you are not aware of what's going on during their time. They are their own business, operating their own way, and you can't tell them how to do the overnight sit well. And
Collin 07:15
the other problem there are the labor laws that make it more and more difficult to use independent contractors in our kind of business when these laws change, when it be when they may put restrictions on how an independent contractor is classified versus a w2 and there's, we've got several podcasts about this that will be linked in the show notes. But basically, if you are training, guiding, implementing shadowing, shadowing, dictating pay, dictating all this stuff like that's, that's a w2 employee, and now, well, I can't do an independent contractor model. That's what I can't do, because I need to stay legally compliant. So I don't have fees, and I don't have, you know, you know, I don't get investigated by the IRS and back taxes for this. This isn't about preference, then it's about compliance with the law. And so even that one step of, okay, I wanted to do overnight. I want to hire somebody. So I'm going to, you know, I'm going to contract with an independent contractor, pay them piecemeal, pay them, you know, 40% or whatever. But, oh yeah, that's not legally allowed anymore. And so now we've got two pivots. We've got the I'm trying to over hire with overnights, and I'm needing to shift from an independent contractor model to a w2 model. Again, not out of preference. Many people get into this and go, I don't want to manage people. I don't want all the overhead. I don't want all the costs associated with this. I don't want these things. I'll just go and have an IC, an independent contractor, and then they go, Oh, well, actually, I cannot legally do them. So now I'm forced to change how I operate my business, and that changes everything, how pay structure is done, how marketing's done, how I what I charge my clients, all of that needs to come into alignment to make the w2 model work. And that's a change that a lot of people look at and go, I don't want to do that, but I feel like I'm forced to.
Meghan 08:57
If you are solo and you are thinking, I love my clients so much I don't know if I could trust anybody else to care for them. That alone, right there, means you need an employee, because you can tell them exactly what to do. An independent contractor with that mentality of I love my clients too much is not going to work.
Collin 09:14
Okay, off our employee, independent contractor soapbox. Another. Another pivot that people feel like they are forced into is when they have to balance dog walking versus pet sitting. Maybe you are trying to push. Become a dog walking only company, and you're really marketing. You're marketing, you're pushing, you're pushing, you're pushing, you're turning away pet sitting clients to make room for this dog walking, because that's what you see. You like the idea of the limited hours, the more focused structure, the limited drive time, the compactness of everything. But then you realize that you're trying to do this in a market that only wants pet sitting or is heavily focused on daycare and boarding, and now we have to pivot back and retreat what feels like retreating away from a vision that we had for the company and. Go back to something that we were trying to get away from.
Meghan 10:02
The last common one we see is in home boarding and daycare zoning. So if you're operating in in home boarding and daycare and your city reaches out and they say you're not zoned, you need this specific license, you need USDA certification, you need a kennel license, and you don't have any of that currently, it's a big hurdle to go to that next step, it could be too expensive to remodel or just simply not possible with where you live, and so you're forced to shut down that service and pivot to out call only. But you love that, that intimate aspect of bringing dogs into your home, and it being on a smaller scale and having that more one on one, connection with clients and
Collin 10:38
this particularly can hurt, because clients really love this model. Clients really love their pet to be in home, in somebody's home, in these small settings. But again, when we look at what's legally allowed, and so I encourage you greatly, contact your city, contact your county, look at what's actually required to keep dogs for pay overnight in your home,
Meghan 10:59
because it's not just a business license with your city. It could mean a specific kennel license required by your state. So don't just look at your city. Look at your your city, your county and your state laws, because oftentimes just having a business license to operate a business is often not enough to operate the kind of businesses that we do
Collin 11:20
that is so good, because this part of running a business is really confusing, and this is probably another soapbox moment about this. But having a business license just means that the city that you're operating in, or wherever this is, recognizes that you can do business. You have a business in this area, and they know that you're doing this. That is one thing, having something like an LLC, right? Or another, that is, that is a tax entity that sits above you and dictates how you file your taxes. And then, you know, S corp, wherever that's all in the United States, I know around the world, these words don't mean a whole lot, but you have the similar structure of you have a solo operator, and then you can go up one level and have something else above you for how you file taxes, and then there are legal entities that go above and beyond that. When we talk about licensing in the world of pet care that is unregulated, it is really tricky. We already talked about business license. But then if you are wanting to check where you are operating, because they may actually have a dog walking license or a license to walk your dogs in specific areas that you have to register for so that they know that you are there, especially if you go in off leash areas or more in public areas, they may require you to have either a permit or a license to do that, then check to see if I'm keeping pets in my home. What's legally required for me to be a boarding facility, because that is how you would be classified as a legally right from the state level, from the county level, are you keeping pets in your home for pay? That is a kennel, and so many times you have to have a kennel license in order to keep pets in your home for pay. And then above and beyond that, sometimes there in the United States, at least there is the USDA kennel, what certification program where they come and actually inspect you to make sure that you are in compliance with their level of care. And so we've got these three tiers. My business license states that I can earn money and I can do commerce where I live. Then I have a kennel license that says I am legally able to keep pets in my home for pay because I meet all these requirements. And then there's inspections and things above and beyond that as well. So all of these things really shape how we are able to run a business.
Meghan 13:27
And truthfully, just like the ICW two conversation, it doesn't matter what you prefer to do, it's what's the law. So make sure you're in compliance.
Collin 13:36
You do not want to find yourself in this scenario of having a business. It's earning a living. Maybe you're making 6070, 80, $100,000 a year doing boarding and daycare out of your home. One noise complaint, one inquiry from the city or county, can really come in and crush all of that and bring that all coming down, and you're left going, what do I do now? How do I actually make this in compliance? Is it worth moving to do this? I know several sitters who have had to move outside of their city in order to be in a proper zoning area to continue to offer this service. But that's a forced pivot on a business that we didn't that people don't see coming. You want to know something that you should never pivot away from having the proper business insurance. All professionals should have specific pet business insurance. And as a pet sitter, you know how much trust goes into caring for someone's furry family member, but who's got your back for over 25 years, pet sitters Associates has been helping pet care pros like you with affordable, flexible insurance coverage, whether you're walking dogs, pet sitting or just starting out. They make it easy to protect your business. Get a free quote today at Pet sit llc.com and as a listener of our podcast, you get $10 off your membership when you use the code confessional at checkout. That's pet sit llc.com because your peace of mind is part of great
Meghan 14:55
pet care. When we pivot, it can definitely hurt, because sometimes we have an identity class. Gosh, if we see ourselves as a dog walker or whatever, but the market demands pet sitters or doggy daycare attendants, we sometimes feel like we've lost ourselves, or we've lost our original vision for our company. It doesn't really feel good. We have this loss of control in ourselves. It feels like someone else is steering our business, the government is steering our business, or other sitters around us are are steering our business, because they're all doing this one thing. And I tried to do this, and it didn't actually work out. So now I've got to pivot back to what everybody else is doing, even though I don't want to,
Collin 15:30
and that really hurts, because we went into business to do what, have independence and control over what we do and how we do it, and to suddenly be told no or forced to move away from a direction where we wanted to hit that really stings, because it feels like that rejection of of who we are and what we tried to do. We're mostly invested in what we tried to build and how we marketed you. Pour everything into this and to be with a swipe of a pen or whatever that is, to suddenly be told, No, you cannot do that feels like, Okay, I have lost my way here, and I don't know how to move forward, because we do have that, like I said, this emotional investment in our businesses, where there's the branding, the training, all the services, designed, everything put together for one particular model, and it doesn't go anywhere. Or I can't actually do that. I tried so hard. I got all this research, I went to all these conferences, I listened to all these amazing podcasts, and I tried to put something forward and offer it to my community to serve them, because I'm really passionate about this, and suddenly it's just like a dead end, and you slam into a brick wall. That means that we have to take that big step back, right? And that's when we start to have that fear of regret, of well, do I just need to push more. Do I just need to try harder? Am I quitting too soon with this, or maybe, like, am I wasting time forcing this on something that'll never work? Is all of this for a reason? Am I trying to do something that just won't pan out? And we really get stuck in this bog and this mire going, I don't know. I don't know. As soon as that one thing clicks in. Again, you said that, that loss of vision, we get so focused on one direction, and we get really hyper focused on that we're moving, moving, moving. All the train is in alignment. We're just plowing forward, and then suddenly there's no more tracks, and we're left really wondering, What on earth do I do now? And
Meghan 17:21
that's when that burnout creeps in. I don't want to do this anymore. I feel defeated. I don't want to keep going. I don't see a way forward. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. I'm just lost in a dark tunnel. What am I going to do? We have this tension within us. Do we follow the market? Do we stick with our vision? Which one is going to help us see the light and the way forward? If we follow the market, it could mean that it's an easier sell because people already love this service. It could mean more stable revenue. People love it, they're already willing to pay for it, so I don't really have to convince them a whole lot to buy my product or service, because it's already in demand. It's in alignment with what everybody already wants. But if we do follow the market, it can feel like I've compromised, I've sold out. I I failed as a person, as a business owner, I feel less passionate about this new thing that I'm doing because it, well, it wasn't in my original vision, and I guess I just have to do it because it's what everybody else is doing, right?
Collin 18:12
It's less personal to me. All of a sudden, the business that I wanted to run was rejected for whatever reason, again, external or legal or whatever that is, and now I'm going, well, now I just have to run something to just meet demand. Well, that's hard for me to fuel a passion and really get behind, because then you could just say, Okay, I'm going to stick this out. I'm not going to let the market dictate what kind of business I run. I'm going to stick to my original vision. This brings deep alignment to us. This means that we are operating out of our passion, and it really fuels us, but we also have this unique niche that we're trying to do that nobody else is offering, and it has a clear identity, because we know who we are. We're not trying to get stuck out there with everybody else doing the same thing, because it's easy. We're trying to go, Okay, no, I know I have these lines of who I am and who I am not, and so that's I want to stick this out and do what I originally said I was going
Meghan 19:02
to do. Well, you do kind of have to figure out that line or that mark that says, Okay, well, I'm going to try this for another six months, and then I have to come to my own realization finally, that this thing isn't working, or maybe it does work. You have no idea. Maybe month four it is going to work, right?
Collin 19:16
The cons of sticking it out are, you're going to have financial strain. You're not going to have that. You're not going to be able to to charge a lot for the service, because nuts not in demand. People don't want it. It may mean also slower growth, which can inhibit some of your plans. Maybe you had planned to have a business then get some some people in different positions of leadership or different management roles that comes with fast growth, so that you can get people in and replace that revenue that you're spending on that person, with the next dog walker, with the next cat sit, or with the next adventure hike, because you know that's coming in, that slow growth really changes how you adapt and how you operate your business. And then there's just that constant frustration. Do you enjoy hitting your head against a brick wall every single day, doing these things in a market that doesn't want it or. Legally you're not able to do again. You may have that breakthrough moment where you realize that there is a way around it, or that something does change in the market or legally that allows you to then operate your business. We have to decide, is this what I want to do? Is this something that I am willing to take on in order to see my vision and my passion through?
Meghan 20:18
And that's the tension that we have. There's no real right answer. You have to evaluate it on a case by case basis, no matter which one you go with, though you have to handle it with grace. You have to handle yourself with grace. Everybody is always learning new things. We're trying new things. We're adapting. We're potentially pivoting. There are times when we have to acknowledge the loss, grieve the dream that you had, know that you did your best, you tried your hardest, and it just didn't work out. And it is okay. It's normal to feel disappointment, to feel defeated. Of I worked so hard, I spent so many years and expertise and hours and money on this thing, and it just didn't work out. It can also help when we practice forgiveness. Forgive the circumstances that are outside of your control. We can all play the what if game in our heads of, well, what if this did work at month four, or what if I had tried this marketing, or what if I had just done this one thing that would have clicked on the light and it all would have worked. We can get stuck in this spinning drain just going down further and further until we just can't really think straight anymore. But when we recognize that we did all that we could, that we tried our best, it makes it easier to let that go and move on, go forward, redefine that success. What that looks like for you in this new era of your life. Success may not look like your first vision,
Collin 21:36
and this may mean you have to shift your metrics. Maybe instead of you want X walks per week. You have to focus on impact to clients some more intangibles to how they're able to live their lives. Maybe it's more revenue stability of well, you are actually consistently hitting an X number of dollars each month. That helps you, or it's a lifestyle fit. You're redefining your business instead of some certain metrics. You're saying it allows me to have weekends off, or it allows me to take some time with my family, or do the things that I want, instead of focusing back on the business. What does the business actually give you in return? But through
Meghan 22:12
it all, it's important to keep loving your business. That can be hard when it's not something that you originally planned for, but reconnect with your Why? Why did I choose this pivot? Why am I doing this? Is there a greater mission in front of me that I can work towards, celebrate the services that are working. Maybe because you bring on employees, you don't offer overnights anymore, but your dog walking is expanding, or people love your employees because they provide awesome cat sitting services.
Collin 22:40
I think that's that's really difficult whenever you are faced with a failure or it's something that's just not working out, is to be grateful for the business. I know that's something that Megan and I are reminded of ourselves almost we try, on a daily basis, remind ourselves to be grateful for the business that we do have. Is it perfect? No. Is it what we want to be running? Also, no. But is it what we have, and does it provide for our family and us? And are we able to still serve people and pets? Yes, when we are able to stay in that mission is that what we're purposed is to help people and pets. Sure I can help them, even if it's not in the way that I first imagined. Am I going to be so precious about the dog walks versus pet sits versus midday, potty breaks versus adventure hikes versus pet taxi versus whatever. If my focus is to help people live their best life with their pets, what way can I do that that my market wants, and how can I stay grateful for what is given to me at each stage?
Meghan 23:38
So here are some practical strategies. Evaluate your pivot versus your passion. Ask yourself, is this permanent, or is it temporary? Do I need to do this for the next 10 years, or is this kind of a stop gap that I can do for a little bit until I get to my next thing? Maybe
Collin 23:52
you're really wanting to offer those midday dog walks, and it's just not panning out for you. Well, then you may need to continue to offer your pet sitting services and pivot over to them while you work on your branding, your marketing and your messaging for the dog walks, if you have bills to pay, we can't just stop all of a sudden and just throw in the towel. Okay, what business can I run in the meantime to give me time, finances and resources to then launch something else over here and put that game plan together for how you want to
Meghan 24:20
move forward, or could you reintroduce your preferred service later? If you love doing adventure hikes and that is what you want to build your services to, but the market doesn't yet have enough education as to why these are important, then that may take a little bit to come around.
Collin 24:34
Throughout all this, make sure that you are communicating with your clients about how your business is changing and the reasons why transparency builds trust. The more we communicate to our clients and about our reasons, the more likely it is to help them see to hang on with us, to come with us along through that journey. Frame your pivots as adapting to serve you better. I used to do this, but now in order to best serve you and your needs in these specific ways, the. This is what I'm wanting to do, and how I can do that. If you have questions, let me know. Bring your clients into that journey and help them see how it's going to help them in the end. And again, I think that's what's so important here, is to make sure that we stay client focused through everything that we do. When we stay focused on serving our clients well and with excellence, it really helps each time that we have to or we want to pivot.
Meghan 25:23
You can also experiment in small ways, by testing the service that you love, whether that's adventure hikes or enrichment visits on the side to build up that if your city or state is saying, hey, you need a kennel license, maybe experiment with out call services to see if there is a demand for that, or do some market research. If you're currently
Collin 25:41
offering overnights, and that is the bulk of your business, consider testing almost overnights with brand new clients to see what the appetite is there. Where you go, Hey, I'm not going to stay overnight the entire night, but what I can do is I can do two hours at night and then come back over first thing in the morning, because that is something that you can actually scale with employees versus the overnight model, and you can test little by little to see where's the appetite. How can I market this? It tests your messaging so that you're doing all of this before you're forced to and gives you some runway to actually make a change
Meghan 26:13
whatever pivot you are making, you have to stay flexible. And obviously this is with anything in your business, be adaptable. But adaptability really is that resilience that resilience that you are building into your business, because businesses are not linear. Entrepreneurship is not linear. You don't just go up on the mountain, you go up and then down into a valley, and then up again and down into a valley. It is truly unpredictable, and that's why it is so important to be flexible and then seek support, whether it's through a coach or a mentor or another pet sitter in your city, or a pet sitter across half the world, that can help you see the pivots as you grow, and not as a failure. Pivots are not a failure. They're a way for your business to keep going and keep growing and serve more people.
Collin 26:54
And seeking support is also not a failure. That is not you saying that you can't do it or that you're not worth it. It's you going, I love this so much I want to help people so much that I need some help right now, to have some better ideas, to have some better thought process around this, and to see what other people are doing, to see how I can implement that in my business.
Meghan 27:12
Pivots in our businesses can happen for so many reasons, external, internal government comes down. Whatever it is, it can hurt because it clashes with our identity and our dreams, but it is important give ourselves grace, forgiveness, flexibility. It's going to help us keep that love for our business alive, unless that means that the pivot you need to make is closing down your business and being okay and open to that as well. The heart of your business is not one service. It's the trust, the care, the relationships that you have with your clients, the service that you are providing, the people you are helping, that is what keeps your business going.
Collin 27:49
It's also not the operations of your business. It's not how you schedule, it's not your intake process, it's not how you send updates. It's not any of that that is not define your business. Megan, as you just said, it's in how you are helping and serving people. It's in making sure that they have what they need. And that can be done in an infinite number of ways. There is no one size fits all best way to run a business or model to run a business, because it takes our personal wants and needs and desires and our personal passions and matching that up with the market and going, Okay, this is the vision that I see. Is this what the market wants? And if the market says, No, we have those two choices. Do I continue forward, or do I pivot and change and do something different? That is the life of an entrepreneur. Is going, do you want to be served this way? Okay, no. Is this how you want to be served? No, okay. Is this how you want to be served? Okay? No, and that's where your secret sauce comes in only you have that knowledge and that expertise to know what to offer. People take that time to understand who your market is, what they want, and then understand that they may want something different than what you'd like to offer. I see this a lot. We have a friend, or really an acquaintance, who has opened multiple different restaurants in our town, and it's one totally different restaurant after another totally different restaurant. As he was trying to see figure out, what does this area want or need, and how does that match up with my niche and my passion. And it's been interesting to see that evolution of what he's finally landed on is this kind of high end Italian restaurant downtown. To know that, oh, he started off by doing an ice cream shop, and now he's landed over here, but he was able to pick and find his way through in this path to go. This is the niche that is open in my market. I thought it was one thing. It's something completely different. And I'm still passionate about this, because I get to serve people excellent food. Same thing with our businesses. What does the market want? And how do I do that to still find my passion of helping people and their pets.
Meghan 29:43
We would love to know how you have pivoted in your business. You can email us at Pet Sitter confessional@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook and Instagram. At Pet Sitter confessional, we would like to thank you for listening today, and we'd also like to thank pet sitters associates for sponsoring today's episode. We will talk with you next
Collin 29:58
time bye. You. You.
