695: Building a Cat-Only Business That Scales with Grace Taylor
Brought to you by:
Time to Pet. Go totimetopet.com/confessional for 50% off your first 3 months.
Use Code PREPARE for 5% at petfirstaid4u.com to celebrate PetFirst Aid Month!
What happens when you stop trying to serve everyone and build a business specifically for cats? In this episode, we talk with Grace Taylor of Furever Friends Cat Sitting about what it really looks like to niche—intentionally and unapologetically. Grace shares how defining success for both clients and sitters transformed her onboarding, pricing, and team culture. We dig into medical cat care, client education, and why more time—not less—is often the answer for cats. This conversation is packed with practical insight for anyone wondering whether specialization limits growth or unlocks it.
Main topics:
Cat-only business niching
Defining client success
Training and team trust
High-touch pricing strategy
Community-driven marketing
Main takeaway: “Someone else can give amazing care—but it isn’t your care unless you teach it.”
That single idea reshapes how you hire, train, and lead a team. In this episode, Grace Taylor explains why great onboarding isn’t about skills—it’s about expectations, communication, and defining success from day one. When clients feel consistency and sitters know exactly what great care looks like, trust follows. If you’ve ever struggled to duplicate your level of care as you grow, this conversation is for you.
About our guest: Grace Taylor is the owner of Furever Friends Cat Sitting, a cat-only pet care company based in Baltimore City. With a background in education and over 200 foster cats behind her, Grace has built a team specializing in medical, behavioral, and high-touch feline care. Her business is known for strong client education, community involvement, and creative service offerings like staycations. Grace is also co-founding an initiative to elevate professional feline care standards industry-wide.
Links:
Built for Cats Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/843523431827984/
Furever Friends on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fureverfriendscatsitting/
Furever Friends on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fureverfriendscatsitting/
Their website: https://fureverfriendscatsitting.com
Give us a call!(636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Pet Sitter Confessional, its hosts, or sponsors. We interview individuals based on their experience and expertise within the pet care industry. Any statements made outside of this platform, or unrelated to the topic discussed, are solely the responsibility of the guest.
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Pet sitting, cat sitting, niching, marketing, client expectations, team management, onboarding, communication, pricing strategy, client education, business growth, cat behavior, enrichment activities, community involvement, networking.
SPEAKERS
Grace Taylor, Collin Funkhouser, Michelle K.
Collin Funkhouser 00:00
Grace, welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today we're brought to you by our friends at time to pet and dog co launch, we are really excited to have grace Taylor, owner of forever friends cat sitting on the show, to talk about niching into cat sitting marketing and reaching those clients and how she provides excellent service to her clients. Grace. I am so ecstatic to have you on the show and talk to you today. For those who haven't had the pleasure of meeting you or know about your business, would you please tell us a bit more about who you are and what you do?
Grace Taylor 00:35
Yeah, absolutely. I am very excited. I know that we met at dog co so to be able to be on the podcast is an honor. I am in Baltimore City, and I have a team of 20 right now. I just, I just left an interview for a 21st person, finger crossed, fingers crossed. And we have been in business about three years. We celebrate it in December. So it's, it's been, you know, we're still young, but we're moving fast.
Collin Funkhouser 01:01
I'm going to three, three years and 20 team members. That's pretty explosive. Gross, there growth, growth there grace. What's that been like for you?
Grace Taylor 01:10
It's been learning. It's been a huge learning curve. One of the reasons I'm in dog CO, how we, you know, I think we got connected, is because I was so focused, and still am so focused on just making sure the sitters are well trained. Because I think anyone who started as a solo, even if they started as a solo, like I did, knowing that a team was needed, like as soon as I realized this was a profession and not just a way to fund my foster habit, which is how it started. I've had I fostered over 210 so that's expensive, as my mom likes the site. But as soon as I've realized that the numbers weren't math in without more people, then I really focused on, how can I duplicate the care that I give? And that doesn't always mean that the operations are matching behind the scenes, especially if you're transitioning from, I'm sure a lot of us started, like, where I was working full time as a nanny and growing the business. So you end up with those 90 100 hour weeks, and you're like, the bills just got to get paid. And so it grew very rapidly. The need is there, and I think we'll end up talking about that, because sometimes you worry about being so niched that the need isn't there. And I have found the opposite. I'd love 40 sitters.
Collin Funkhouser 02:30
Well, you said that phrase there of, how do I duplicate the care I give? I know that's something that we spend a lot of time thinking about, especially when you go from solo to team, because we think, Well, how do I get people to do what I do? And I mean that that's a that's pretty intensive process. What's that like for you to bring somebody in and go, you are now like, forever friends, cat sitting?
Grace Taylor 02:53
Amazing. Yeah. Absolutely. I think one of the things I learned very quickly, you cannot expect someone to think the way you think, and and that was very difficult, because they can be amazing. And I'm going to bring Laura up, because I asked her, and I told her, she said, I could tell the story you had Laura Cassidy, who is just anyone who needs a cat behavior list or needs someone who can get a plan for a cat that's struggling. Please reach out to her positive vibes. She's amazing, but she was one of the first people that came on, even before I officially had a team to help me through a holiday season, and I was not communicating to her in an effective way, the process and the protocols, and so she was coming in with her own level of priorities, which are amazing, but it's not going to duplicate the care that I'm giving. So therefore, the care that the clients were receiving were slightly different. It felt different even though they were both excellent care. So I think that's another reason. Thing to realize is someone else can give amazing, excellent care, but it isn't your care.
Collin Funkhouser 03:57
Yeah, that's and that's a fine distinction, isn't it? And yes, and you pointed out, the clients can feel that, I know sometimes we don't think they can, because it's like, well, it's just a message and some photos. What's the big deal? But if a client is used to getting a certain quality of photos or a certain content and update or certain little tasks done, and all of a sudden it changes like that doesn't mean trust or anything is immediately broken, but it's a different experience for that person, absolutely.
Grace Taylor 04:28
And I think the other thing I realized as going into that manager position, and more and like becoming the manager and the caretaker of people, not just the the humans of the animal, of the animal, of your animals in your care, but the humans that are you know your responsibility, your team, your staff, to pay is also giving them, setting them up for success, which means giving them clear communication. One of the questions I ask when I'm hiring someone all the time is, what type of relationship do. They want from a boss what is most important for them in that relationship. And I was shocked that continuously I was set. I hear clear communication, clear expectations. I want to do a good job. I want feedback. I cannot do that if I don't know what the expectations are and
Collin Funkhouser 05:19
that, I think that pushes against some of our initial gut reactions with hires of they don't want to work, they don't want they don't care as much as I do, and baseline, like the person is applying to work, they want to do a good job. And if we that's that's a shift in how we perceive that interaction, because one of those is very antagonistic, isn't it? Of they're just here, and they hate being here, and I just have to hold on to them as long as possible. Versus, can I set this up person up for success, because they want that. And so, I mean, you, you've made that shift into now being a caretaker of people, which is, like, that's a different mode to operate in. So you go from doing cats and, you know, working with clients, now you're adding the people. Portion of this was that, did that come easy to you in the beginning?
Grace Taylor 06:10
I don't know. It didn't. It wasn't until I was able to put my my finger on it and figure out what it is. I come right my background, I guess I'll give you a little bit of that is, it's a weird, winding road. Yeah, I worked on the Hill, doing education policy for the National Governors Association, and I was very good at that. And a lot of that has to do with psychology and, like, you know, that type of stuff. But I didn't like who I was becoming, because, you know, do you see whether it's a hot mess there in terms of, like, people, relationships, politicking, and if someone asked my name, who I worked for one more time before they asked my name, it wasn't going to go well. So I handed in my resignation, and I went to nannying infants for over a decade. So I was a nanny starting, and I my, my whole focus was, like, newborns and up to toddlers, and you have kids, yeah, you know, if you want to, like, I don't want to say, train up nice, like humans, but like, that's a big growth experience where you have to put aside, like, you know, expecting obedience to, you know, figuring out, like, teaching like you're you're teaching a little human and helping them form them to become into their own so they can succeed. And so I think in having that background and the education and the teaching and you know, that and patience really has helped. And just being able to be like, No, I think they are coming from a good place, and because, you know, so it went from taking care of infants and like human babies to taking care of feline like family members, like Furry Babies, to taking care of, I wouldn't call them babies, but like humans that you're taking care of. Still, if that makes sense,
Collin Funkhouser 08:05
no, it does, because you're viewing, I think what the through line there is this holistic approach to it. I know for Megan and I, when with our kids, it's very much a I am raising an adult like the goal is to have, there's a fully functioning adult on their own who is independent and and, and that, that you more long term thinking, more in depth thinking and and processing and tools and equip. How we do that with our team too? And it sounds like you know what you're doing here is you're going, Okay, I have somebody coming in. They don't have my experience, the background, the knowledge, the systems, the processes. Don't have any of this. However, I going to trust that they're eager, and now I need to help them become a fully developed professional cat sitter, with our ethos and how they fit into the into the business.
Grace Taylor 08:52
Exactly. I ask more thought process questions more than like, can you give a sub queue? What are you looking for with a diabetic cat? Because we can teach that if you have enough ability, like one of my favorite questions, and not to go hiring podcasts on you, that's more of like a Doug podcast, but it's fine. Yeah, one of my favorite questions I live in a city is, you know, we all I use time to Pat, okay, so you have time to pat. And, yeah, all your information how to get in the house is there you have a key. Now we're taking the trash out because it smells you go take the trash out the back. The back door locks on you, your phone, your key are in there. What are you going to do? And that tells me so much about somebody, about problem solving, and whether or not I can, you know, help shape that and give, you know, long term and you know, the easiest answer is, like, you go to a local, you know, bar or whatever, borrow someone's phone, call us. You don't even need to know a number because of Google. But, yeah, this is real stories that happen, but that tells me so. Much about
Collin Funkhouser 10:00
somebody I know. In the beginning, when we were hiring, we had all those questions of, how do you manage a wound, how do you deal with this? What's this with a cat? You know, does this has this kind of body language? It's like, oh no, no, no. That's actually a complete waste of time. We need to figure out, does this person have problem solving skills? Are they teachable? Because if they don't have those two things, it doesn't matter how good my onboarding and training process is, if they aren't teachable or receptive to feedback, if they can't adapt and can't problem solve on their own, this isn't going to work, right? And that's so shifting hard into those what does it mean to be involved with this? Because what we find a lot of with people that come in, they go, Well, if I don't know something, I'll just ask my coworker. And you go, cool, cool. You're in a house by yourself, and you don't have your phone. Who you Who are you asking? Who are you directing the question to? And they go, oh, right, because this is a weird job. Yes, this is a weird job. And that's part of that process too. It sounds like of kind of educating people about the kind of work
Grace Taylor 11:05
that you're doing. Yeah, if we kind of want to take that a little step further, and how I deal with onboarding clients, I start educating clients from the beginning about expectations in our ethos so that they're also a good fit. And I think that was one of the things I took notes on that I'd wanted to talk about, especially after listening to some of the other podcasts, and with some of the there's a lot of discussions going on right now in the groups about cat businesses, and how do you get people to have the same expectations that you have? And it starts from the very first conversation. I think we're also training clients. Okay? Good example is someone. I'll talk to somebody, and, you know, I'll kind of like, explain, oh, our little background. And then I say, you know, and our definition of a successful cat visit is, and I flat out say that, yeah, and for us, it's the cat is, you know, understands we're respecting. Their boundaries, and ideally, you know, eventually they're out and about. But if they want to be out and about on a bed and tell us, don't come within 10 feet, that is fine, and that is a success, because they're not hiding in their own place. And once you reframe what is a success for people that that really does change how they relate and what their expectations are
Collin Funkhouser 12:24
of you, I love that so much grace, because oftentimes we have clients who the visits were fantastic. They were phenomenal. We did everything exactly perfect. There were no issues. Nothing was broken. The cat's perfectly fine and healthy. And we get back and they go, Well, they didn't. They didn't play with my cat. It's like, oh, oh yeah, that's what, oh no, no, no. See, your cat was underneath, your cat was underneath the bed, and would not come out. And we don't, we don't pull and so doing that on the back end always feels like a defense. Always feels like kind of like an excuse to the client of why it was quote, unquote, sub par in their mind, and instead front loading that and saying, This is what our optimal, like best case scenario outcome is here at line item, that way they know going into this, oh, okay, no, that was a successful Visit. You're giving them those words and expectations, as opposed to defending why something didn't happen on the back end?
Grace Taylor 13:26
Yeah, I think if you set the expectations you define success, make sure they're bought into that before you even bring them on, so that you can meet that. Because it's not fair to you or them if you can't meet their level, their definition of success, like it's just not a good fit, which is a hard thing when you're starting to be like, I want every client that will hire me and give me money, yeah,
Collin Funkhouser 13:50
well, I mean, so you're, I mean, year one, what was that like for you? Because, I mean, you're three years into this now, but we're experiencing a lot of growth every year, but that first year. I mean, were you turning away people because they weren't a good fit for what you expected?
Grace Taylor 14:06
Not normally? No, I would say we took almost everyone i i had. I was running everything on spreadsheets. I there was no time to pet at the very beginning. And they I took pretty much anyone I just, I don't, I don't like the phrase, maybe toxic, toxic empathy, to the point like in the sense that I was accepting things because I felt bad and wanted to help, but I was actually making the situation worse because I couldn't give that cat the time they need it, or I was making it worse for our team when I did bring people on, because they were walking into a situation where it was literally above and beyond and we or we weren't charging enough for the carrier given because we are not only niche into cats, but a large portion of what we do is. Niched into medical cap.
Collin Funkhouser 15:02
Have you heard of time to pet? Susan the pet gal, has this to say, time
Michelle K. 15:07
to pet has helped us grow exponentially. We believe the platform's features make us by far more professional than other companies who use conventional dashboards. They are the software gurus constantly developing and improving the platform based on user feedback. This decision was a good one. If you're looking for new
Collin Funkhouser 15:24
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 like that perception as well, or that understanding of there's not setting up for success. There's so many facets to that, and we have certainly done that too, where I'll look at a visit and gone, oh, this is perfect. We can do this. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we say yes, and we're gonna we're getting scheduled. And all of a sudden, Megan and I start talking, and we go, oh, wait, do they have the they don't have the Oh, no, wait a minute, our team doesn't. They don't. Okay, wait a minute. We got to back up here. Like, okay, we got to really redefine we got to work this again and do some more, whatever that is. And and that really means that that care at the end day isn't appropriate. And, like, how you said, like, it kind of makes everything worse when we do that, we're not honest with them or ourselves.
16:18
Yeah, you want to know my weakness, my weakness.
Collin Funkhouser 16:21
I'm taking notes
Grace Taylor 16:23
saddled ladies that remind me of my grandmother. Oh, talking about to the ones where they're like, fluffy. It just needs, like, I need to go visit my granddaughter who's being born. And like, their house is a hoarder home, or they've got like, eight cats, and you know, half of Yeah, you know who I'm talking about, but they have been my weakness for years, until, like, last year I finally got it together, and I was like, Oh
Collin Funkhouser 16:50
yeah, the ones, the ones where the cat is, you know, they'll say this is the only thing that my cat was, the only one that got me through the death of my husband, and I need to go see my sister because she's in the hospital. And you're like, oh, okay, whatever, whatever, tomorrow. Yes, exactly, yep, yep, and, but you know that that kind of thing, like, it seems unkind in the moment to say no. And I think that's what I what what I know I struggle with. It sounds like you did too, of like this is why I should be kind and take this on. But reality is, by taking this on, I actually am unkind, because I'm not able to do what they're needing and what's best for everybody exactly.
Grace Taylor 17:37
And I, I guess, to piggyback, because I know a lot of what we're talking about is niching I had I was trying to be too much to in terms of the services I was offering. I didn't have a clear view of what my purview was and the services that we do offer, and I didn't have a clear view of how the hierarchy was, and I guess the only way to explain that is to kind of go into how we do have it organized right now. So we have it organized in two different ways. We have it based on time with a length of duration. So I can upsell, I can I don't even believe it's upselling, because I truly believe more time with cats is better. I think there's this whole view that 15 minute visits that really just get to my soul, and I we don't offer that our lowest visit is 30 minutes. So we do 30 minutes one hour. We just rolled out Bed and Breakfast, which is a half an hour and a two hour. And we can either do the two hour in the morning or the two hour in the evening, depending on when the cat's more active or whatever I want to fill the schedule more and upsell.
Collin Funkhouser 18:47
Gaps in capacity really do impact business operations. I mean, that's where we noticed too, of like, oh my goodness, if I could get one or two more in here, the route efficiency would be better, and things like that. That is just a practicality of running a business. And again, it sounds cold and corporate, but what it is, it's better utilization of your people and the resources that you have. And that's just, that's, that's, that's smart. So I jokingly, I know, but yeah, if you can
Grace Taylor 19:15
keep the and it allows you to be able to keep people who are good, yeah, because you can fill their schedule. So we have, like I said, that half hour, the hour the bed and breakfast, and then we have something called a staycation, which I haven't really seen anywhere else. And this was something I rolled out with a lot of discussion with veterinarians and also with pet behaviorists. It's a it was a five hour. We just lowered it to four hours to make it a profitable service. And what it is is we'll hang out at your house for four hours and we'll do a minimum of one enrichment activity that's unique every hour. We can bring, I tell my sitters, you can knit, you can read a book, read it out loud. You can bring your laptop. Now, if that cat wants to sit on your laptop, though, the cat sitting on your laptop, and we hang out, I was like, I don't care if you take a zoom call there, but if the cat wants to be on your head, that cats on your head. And it's been incredible where we've seen cats. The rollout actually, was in the test, the beta was we had this cat who was under the bed for two years, and we would get, we do one half an hour visit, and she might come out, stick her head out for a churro, that was it, and she wasn't eating all her food. And this cat, you know, it was a single cat, dad, you know, that was cat. This is life. And I said I'd like to roll this out. Will you know me? Trust me here. I will give you know for this week, I'd like to do five staycations, and I will give two of them to you for 50% off. And he said, Yes, God bless them. And by that second one, the cat was out, and we just let the cat walk around, and by the third one, the cat was greeting us at the door, and that was just so eye opening to me that more, really in the right capacity with cats, is the way to go, not less, it breaks my heart with The last I visit.
Collin Funkhouser 21:20
Yeah, well, and you know, that's a little bit mindset shift for us as people who may have more experience with dogs, you know, if a dog comes in usually, you know, sitting down next to them while they're freaking out and super anxious and way on, you know, level four or five, like we're not making it better by staying there, but we can be calm and relaxed and give that time and space. You know? We see it with with cats too. It's just sometimes it's right at the very end of that 30 minute when we've been quiet, they just start, and then we're like, gotta go, and we pack up and leave. And it's like, Ah, man, maybe I should spend more time here and just try it, you know. And you got to look at your numbers and see how you're going to make that work and stuff. But like, trialing is important, especially when you're in a niche where you are. I mean, you've, you've been cat sitting from the very beginning. Was that? How intentional was that whenever you
Grace Taylor 22:09
launched, it was always cat sitting. We have a couple small creatures like, please, please give me more fish. Well, I have to go ahead and sprinkle some stuff. We have hedgehogs, we have turtles, we have some lizards, but we are 99.999% cats, and always have been. That's where my expertise was. You don't want me taking we have so many people that would be like, I just got a golden doodle, or I just got a nine year old Chihuahua who's smaller than my cat. Will you take care of him as well? And I'm like, you don't want me to, because I don't know the signs to look for an emergency like there. The reality of this business is, you we may walk in and your cat may be in cardiac, you know, congestive heart failure, yeah. And I know what to look for. Our teams train. Know what to look for. We have protocols for that. We you don't want a non expert. And so that's how I explain it. You and I said, I have these amazing people that that are the experts, and if that means that they do, they take care of your cat and your dog will be so sad to you know, Miss fluffy, but I want you to have the best care. And people really trust that. I've noticed this is, I think we all know this is a relationship business. And so I guess the answer is, it was always cats. It's always been cats. It's worked out so far. And I'm amazed that the the the trust is really what it is. And one of the other things I wrote down that I wanted to say is, if you're going to niche, you need to position yourself not only as the expert, but as the person who knows the experts. Okay, if that makes sense, I can give you an example. I don't know everything, but I will go find the answers for you and the resources and connect you with them. So if that is fluffy, is having a urination issue, yes, I could probably tell you what you're doing with your wrong with your litter box. You're not going to I will tell you the same thing. You will not listen to it. And she pay Laura Cassidy $285 an hour, and then you'll be like but I can get you to lower Cassidy, or I can tell you, you know, ever heart in Cross Keys is a fear free amazing cat vet, and that's going to change your cat life. And then when it works out, and that resource, resource works out, I am now more of value than just a cat that
Collin Funkhouser 24:34
are really kind of putting yourself at the central of that hub of hey, I'm your first point of contact for not just the immediate conversations and observations, but also I spend all of my days talking to experts, looking up networking, making these connections. All you have to do is send up the cat signal and I'm going to go right. I'm on for you. And. That that is, that is invaluable, because our clients, I don't know about your clients, our clients, are busy. They don't have a whole lot of time. They kind of just want that, like, hey, help me. And I can't put any more effort into this. So go and if we can go on it. Boop, boop, boop, here it is. Here's his phone number, person. They were open on Tuesday, go for it like that. In and of itself, is a service that we can, that we provide to our clients, and is part of what they get for working with us on this.
Grace Taylor 25:32
And you better price that. And if you are the expert in the niche, which is what I am, in the process of building up my prices, because if that we are very high touch, and therefore your price needs to reflect that. They may not be high touch when they're booking but maybe they're calling you and you're spending 20 minutes on the phone call because fluffy has something going on, and that's okay. I'm willing to do that, because when I tell you I think fluffy needs an hour visit, alternating with a half an hour, you're going to be like, yeah, absolutely.
Collin Funkhouser 26:00
Yeah, yeah, that that pricing, you know, I this is something that Megan and I talk a lot about in our business of of you know, we our premium business, and but what I have found is it has, now, it has not mattered the expectations from the clients. And I'll put this way, when we were charging $20 a day for five for five visits. Like it just, we, just when we first started, 14 years ago, it was 20 bucks a day however many visits you wanted, right? Oh, that didn't last long, but, but the expectations from the clients with that versus, you know, our prices today, it's going the clients still expect a white glove service. Yes, they still expect and so there's like you, I have full faith and confidence to continue to march up the pricing ladder, because I know that. So if they expect a white glove service, I should be charging white glove service prices and and continue to make sure that is high touch right, and they are getting that value. But the expectations of the clients, tend to say. And part of that is just, this is a very premium service to begin with, of of one on one in home care, and all the home care that you do and the enrichment that you do, and all the expertise and the guidance and the resources that you provide, that's and so we should, we should be charging as
Grace Taylor 27:19
such, yeah, absolutely. I have kind of two things that have really informed how I approach pricing now, because I think a lot of it came from a fear base. And I think when you're I was not an entrepreneur to begin with. I mean, I guess I've always had entrepreneurial tendencies, like going out and mowing all the lawns and like that type of stuff, and kind of being a self starter with finding all my jobs when it came to nannying, and then eventually, before covid ruined my business where I had, if, basically, we would go and do temp nannying, and I had a network of people, and I would be the connector, like if you needed a temp nanny kind of deal. But you can't be in so many different homes with covid. But rabbit hole aside, I'm sorry, what were you saying beforehand? I went
Collin Funkhouser 28:06
down, oh, pricing based off of fear versus how you do it now.
Grace Taylor 28:11
So pricing was very much based off of fear, and especially when you have that electric bill that's due, or if you've ever had your electric shut off, you know, good vibes, and you know thank yous, don't pay that electric bill. And so I was so afraid of losing every single client, or that they're not going to pay this, they're not going to value this. And now I am fortunate enough that we have a slight cushion, and I I've had enough experience where I realized, no, they're not going to run. And I know a little bit more about the math. And I will also say that I borrow from, I think, Dan's pet care said on Michelle's podcast that he doesn't see, you know, we can sometimes feel guilty about upselling or feeling like, you know, taking it more from an operational standpoint, when this is such a relationship business, but if you truly believe in your service and that your service is actually making the cat's life better, then you should not feel bad offering those services. And that was such a shift for me, like when he put that into words, I realized that that was had been the shift. Like I I know how to I know cats, and I know that our services improve the lives of cats, and that has been such a shift with being like, no we can charge more, we are actually improving your cat's life. And then secondly, there's, there is something like, I wouldn't say the the the pain in the ass tax, but there is a certain amount of how much to do I have to charge you, so I no longer am annoyed by doing this
Collin Funkhouser 29:50
when I get that phone call at nine in the morning. How much do I have to charge? Not go quickly. You know what I'll pick up. I'll be cheerful on a phone, but there's a price comes with that. Yeah, and I think that's a very real thing that we have to keep in mind, is that our care isn't just our services are not just in that one hour time window when we show up. It's all of that relationship in that everything that's involved, which is hard
Grace Taylor 30:19
to put a number on, when you're pricing and services, sit there and just go, Oh, here's the price of my service, minus the labor and maybe a tiny percent of non billable admin. But are we really understanding what that, you know, marketing anyway? Yeah, exactly. I know a lot of what you want to talk about was leashing and stuff. Did you have any other
Collin Funkhouser 30:39
like, Yeah, well, so I know we're talking about pricing. I know that's usually one thing that people talk about, oh, niche, you can charge more. But from your perspective, like you're sitting here in a pretty niche of niche, like, what are some of the other benefits that you've seen? But also, I did want to know grace, like, some of the cons, or some of the harder parts of niching, maybe that you've experienced,
Grace Taylor 31:00
sure, so let's do a con first, since we've talked about the positives, oh yeah. Well, we'll do that one, and then make sure you bring me back, because it's the other ones. I would say that if you're niching in a way that isn't a traditional thing, like if I tell someone I run a pet sitting business or a dog walking business, people know what that is. People don't know a cat sitting business exists, like, it's been an education, and once they find out it exists, and they're like, holy shit, that's amazing. Yes, Sign me up. Give me more. Like, on board, but they don't know it's something they should be looking for. Yeah, and
Collin Funkhouser 31:38
yeah, that's not popping up in Google, right? Of going Hey, like people just find me if they don't have those words, they're not actively searching for that, maybe natively or instinctively, and so it is harder to surface for that.
Grace Taylor 31:52
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So making sure what I have found has been helpful is kind of going back to that networking thing. Are you connecting with the people who are already in that realm? Part of that is we have some absolutely amazing Facebook groups in Baltimore, like, cats of Patterson Park, cats of Federal Hill. We're just cat parents. Like, if that isn't just gold to like, I wish this is everywhere for everyone. It's like, please sign up. Like, yeah, absolutely. Or I have those connections with the rescues, and we do another part of what we do for better. Or my accountant has opinions on it is, we give a lot back and we do a lot with rescue. And he did have to sit me down a year ago and go, do you want to be a 501, 3c, or do you want to, like, pay your electric bill? And I was like, You mean I can't pay my electric bill with good vibes? Yeah, right. Apparently not.
Collin Funkhouser 32:55
Good Vibes doesn't make electricity. Oh, darn it.
Grace Taylor 32:59
Maybe Elon Musk can get on that right? Yeah, exactly. So we, we do a lot with giving back. And we become more than just the cat sitter in the niche. We become the person who is, you know, has a broader mission. So you're supporting that mission when you're choosing us
Michelle K. 33:17
to if you're ready to take your pet care business to the next level. Then I want you in the room at the dog co Business Summit, October 2 through the fourth in Winston Salem, North Carolina. We have brought together the very best speakers we could possibly find, and we are getting the best companies in the room to help give you the path to grow and scale your pet care business. Go to dogco summit.com to learn more. Yeah. So they have a deeper
Collin Funkhouser 33:44
connection there, which, which also, I mean, I'm sure is another positive of you find your people pretty quick, though, right?
Grace Taylor 33:52
Yeah, and they're bought in like they're not only like our cats that are, you know, takes our, you know, our trash and does our meal and make sure fluffy is happy, our cat sitters in the shelters, petting cats, you know, doing this, and, you know, at an event with kittens, and, you know, so that then they're, they're really bought it, yeah,
Collin Funkhouser 34:10
because it gets because you're, you're talking their language. I know that's what we talk a lot about, like, marketing of, Oh, who's my client avatar? How do I make sure that I know who they are, where they shop all this stuff, and you're like, I you have like, intense laser focus on exactly that. And while, yes, it does mean that you are not talking to 1000s of other people, it means that the people you are talking to, I would imagine that you need fewer touch points to make them see and get connected with you in that
Grace Taylor 34:41
absolutely, we have an once we get in contact with someone or they reach out, we have an incredible onboarding rate. And we onboard about 94% of everyone that reaches out to us. Wow, wow. And we don't, I don't know if, in preparing for this, you try to look at our website. But it is not really existent for right now. We're working with Erica at barkington.
Collin Funkhouser 35:05
I read the footer. It was a very nice footer. Right now, it's
Grace Taylor 35:09
a it is still getting two to like, sometimes we get two to four inquiries a day. We're averaging like 10 to 12 inquiries a week, and that, and I am working on staffing, I was a little terrified. We could not have, we were turning people away for the holiday season, so we could not have done that with a real website. And so I'm a little terrified what that real website is going to bring in in the best way. And I want, I do wonder. I mean, this is just curiosity spitballing, if a general website, rather than how we're doing such our targeted marketing is going to bring in a broader people that are going to require more filtering. We do filter, but we don't have to filter as much.
Collin Funkhouser 35:54
Yeah? Well, yeah, that comes with that education of what is being picked up in those, especially just kind of like native SEO searches and that that all of a sudden you get this, okay, well, I'm doing a broader push, and anytime we widen that funnel at the top, it means that I'm going to get more edge cases. I'm going to get people who maybe weren't looking for me, didn't have a problem now and aren't sure of what's going on. And so we do have to be ready for that. Oh, this might not be as an easy of a sell now that I'm talking to more people. I mean, we've certainly done that with like, Okay, we're going to throw, we're going to do these little spurts of running a Google ads or whatever, and those reach people who didn't search directly for name of my business, right? So they're, they're really cold, and as far as like leads go, so I know Okay, when they call me, basically, they're like, their first question is, usually, are you real? And it's like, okay, right? Yeah, a lot of different scripts. Okay, yeah, proof, proof of identity. Yeah, cool. That's where we're starting now, but cool, but it does, but also that gives more opportunity to at least educate people on things.
Grace Taylor 37:11
Yes, absolutely, I would agree with all of that. I'm I'm curious not to turn the interview around on you, but because that we don't have the website up as much, we still get a lot of it draws on a lot of the medical people when it comes to the SEOs. Like, people are thrilled that we list diabetes and subcu use subcutaneous fluid on there. And as a side note, I get asked all the time from people who are dog walkers like, Oh, you're 100% vacation based for the most part. But we're working on templated clients, and that's been a big push. In the beginning part of this year we're rolling out we have midday enrichment templated clients. We have people who are on deep litter box templated clients, where we come in every two weeks and we deep clean their litter box. We also have a sub q templated clients are in there three times a week. Yeah? I mean, those are great. And it I can't say every time I assign one of those on I'm like, do it. I understand the dog walking templates.
Collin Funkhouser 38:20
Yeah, well, and again, those aren't part of this is trying to even out that the ups and downs of vacation care, right? We're very heavy pet sitting, so we get that of like, there's these huge swings and then there's these big troughs, and trying to keep staffing consistent, everything through that. So finding ways to go, I can solve more problems for you than just when you're traveling. And, you know, we have one client. I mean, we don't push cat specific too hard, but we have one client who went, they basically raised their hand immediately and was like, I'll take your litter box clean out whenever. Like, please come over now. Like, it was just, oh, okay, well, we'll just always be over on Sunday mornings to do the deep litter box clean out for you, because they have a lot of cats. So it's like, Okay, we'll do that. It's like, Okay, we'll do that. And it was just that, okay, we're it's one of those things of being even in a niche like you can niche into even more, yeah, solutions for people than than just whatever comes to mind.
Grace Taylor 39:19
I imagine it makes, well, our training is very intensive, and we we offer a lot of resources. I imagine it, it makes it a little more focused than if you have to train for every type of animal, and yeah, and outside the home and stuff like that, as opposed to we're in people's homes, and we normally don't have to deal with the public and deal with, you know, we're walking, you know, I don't know Fido. Fido is amazing, but there's a reactive pit bull who's not on a leash across the street. Deal with that.
Collin Funkhouser 39:54
It also part of that issue too. Like it narrows the problem scope. Scope is what you're talking about. There. Of like, of like, of the trillions of things that could go wrong. I'm only going to have a subset of those, or keep it a little bit narrower on our focus, because I'm not trying to involve myself, and I'm limiting the scope of my work, which means that I'm not having to have such a breadth of things, and have a lot of those, huh? Never thought of those situations, which, again, I'm sure still come up, but it's not, you know, the random, you know, really crazy, I don't know.
Grace Taylor 40:31
Yeah. I mean, I think anyone who's been in a pet business has been like, oh, you really need a plan for everything. Yeah, I am. I always joke, always pivoting, always pivoting. But it keeps you on your toes and it keeps it more interesting. I would be I would be so bored in a nine to five office job where I, like, knew what was going on. Like, do I lose sleep? Sometimes many nights because I'm like, How is this protocol going to work? How am I going to do this? Yeah, absolutely. How am I making this transition in the business? Sure, sure, but I wouldn't trade it.
Collin Funkhouser 41:08
There's not a day I would treat it. I mean, you started to take care of cats and then pay for your foster habit. I mean, are you are you happy with the kind of work that you personally do now versus what you did three years ago when you started,
Grace Taylor 41:24
yes, I, I am. I am happier being out of the field. And you didn't think I would say that, and I felt, I feel guilty saying that some days, but I do not enjoy being in the field as much. I like having that macro view and helping to facilitate it. I over Christmas, which is our huge influx of clients, and I worked on Christmas. Day A, never again Collin, never again a 16 hour 16 visit day eight of them were an hour long. Managing while managing everyone who's out in the field on our busiest day ever in the history of our company. And all I can say is never again, and part of that is coming to the realization that two things, one, I can't manage and make and give support to the team if I'm out there. Yeah, and two I, I am very good at what I do, but I in terms of knowing cats. But the sitters are out there all the time. They're not rusty. They know some of the cats better than I do at this point, and because that is their sole focus, not that I can't give great care and excellent care, but they are doing that already.
Collin Funkhouser 42:49
Yeah, yeah. No, I totally feel that too. Anytime I get in the field, I'm like, using WD 40 to get off the rest, and I'm trying it, yeah, right, yeah. And I think that's, I think that's wonderful though. I think that's one of the beautiful aspects of getting to start and run your own business, is that you fall in love with new things, and you find these giftings and these talents and stuff that you maybe didn't have before. And it really kind of makes it all the all the more interesting to say the ways
Grace Taylor 43:21
I could do marketing all day long and have someone else figure out the operations of this business. Man. Would I be a happy camper? Like, sorry, go ahead. No, I was just you
Collin Funkhouser 43:33
say market. I did want to talk to you about marketing because I know that. Like, again, you can talk everything about marketing in days and days and kind of like, how are people finding you? I mean, you talked about that struggle of educating people for cat clients and, like, maybe not the more native stuff. Like, where are, how are you connecting with your with your clients?
Grace Taylor 43:52
Sure, so there's been a huge shift. And I would say over 50% now come from Google, and part of that is a big push. We did. We have 111 reviews as of yesterday? So that comes up pretty heavily, and that's a huge social proof. Now, I guess, wait, is it 2026 Yeah, she's Louise. So I started in the rescue world, and 2021 and I became known as you got a cat you find in the street, I'm your girl, and so I became known as that in the Facebook groups. So it was a pretty easy switch to, oh, she's the one who can take care of your cats, but she has the team. And there are breadcrumbs going back four or five years that I'm not even in there all the time when someone asked for a cat sitter. But if they, if they check cat sitter, we're popping up. And it might be from four years ago, but now they've clicked and they see the Google and bam. We also have an incredible community who are really bought into our mission. And it warms my heart every time when there is that. Post, I'm looking for my cat sitter, and there's 17 responses, and 12 of them are for us, yeah, and I didn't have to put a single thing out there. And then we have, I think, our other major one, followed by like. So it's first Google, then Facebook, then in person events like micro in person events, where, if we can get in front of you and you see that this is a possibility in person, and not just some like a card dropped off, like we have a very good return on our events, whether it be I live in the city, so a lot of the bars, they do block parties, and so we go to those. We have giant festivals here. There's one called the Fells Point fun festival. And I mean, some of it is expensive, but I'll just use that example, because I am a, I am a little shameless when it comes to marketing. We it is a, I think a $1,500 buy in to get a booth there. But if you go in with a nonprofit, is 200 and we do a lot of rescue work, as I told you, so I partnered with the rescue, and I applied with the rescue and and I was denied. It was denied three times, and what I just did is I sent them. I sent curated reels of the the animals we help directly with our donations. And I made our we have a photo booth that's like an actual Polaroid, and we can put your your event name on there, and now you want a photo booth there. I made us a valuable asset to be there, and I will be slightly relentless, and they let us in, and we were one of the most popular booths year because we had kittens. I will also bring kittens. And I know people do not want to stop and talk to me about cat sitting, but I will talk at them while they're and it's highly effective,
Collin Funkhouser 47:02
because call that a captive audience, or a
Grace Taylor 47:04
captive audience, I guess Exactly, exactly, 100% and that is been a huge thing. So like that might be a large event where I we do a giant raffle. So now they're feeling bought into the mission, because they're Yeah, so we do. I think those events, that particular event, cost us well, now that we have, like the tent and everything, I would say it cost us 12 to 1400 but we will get 30 to 40 clients out of it. Wow, wow. And so not being afraid to spend that money. And then there are events where we spend nothing, like we're going to go do a brewery. I cold called this person. There's a brewery with a working cat, and that's a big thing in the city, they have like, cats that like, go get the mice and stuff, and they like, sit on the counter this birthday party, and they didn't reach out to us. I called them, I left a voicemail, I sent two Instagram messages, and then I called twice until someone answered and got me a manager. And I said, we can do this for you. We would love to be part of your cat's birthday party. And they were like, sure, and we're going to be there. And I bet you will, got at least a couple of clients out of there, and it might cost me. With labor, I bet you will get two to four clients based on our previous and I think with labor, it'll cost me 180
Collin Funkhouser 48:27
Yeah, well, and, and it's more long term brand building stuff too, right? It's, it's a yes, and, hey, we get to celebrate a cat's birthday. We're getting goodwill to the community. But also, this is kind of a memorable thing. Hey, remember that company who was at the cat's birthday? And maybe they don't need it, but they're telling their friend, there's this company at this cat's birthday. Like, again, it's so the language is so specific, and so like, narrow, that it helps those things come up and resurface. And I'm sure there's just a lot of fun
Grace Taylor 48:57
to do, to grace, yeah, and keeping really cute, like, branding stuff. Like, you can see my hoodies here, but it's a bright color, yeah. And I think there is something a little more eccentric about cat people, and they like cutesy things that works out. And I guess I'm just never been afraid to throw the spaghetti at the wall. And sometimes there's a like, it's good to take a moment in this business to be like, Wow, you've come a far away. An example since we're talking about marketing, is my very first marketing initiative outside of the Facebook in the real world. I went to the thrift store, I got stamps that had cats on them, and I handmade 800 flyers where I stamped the front of the card, I printed out something on the back with a QR code, and I pasted it, and I made 800 of these, and every time I passed a house with a cat or cat paraphernalia in the window, I am very good at passing they got one. Do you not talk to me about the laws of putting flyers? And I now know but not a legal podcast. Right, very effective. And I, yeah, I think there's just try something. Don't be afraid to try something. What's the worst that happens? You reevaluate, yeah,
Collin Funkhouser 50:11
no, I love that grace. I I love your story, and I love your tenacity in this, and your creativity and the drive to have a strong team to help your community in this and I want to thank you for coming on the show today and reminding us to keep trying and to look at ways that we can niche in our business to better serve our clients. I know this is a lot, and you are doing so much and so many exciting things, so if people want to get connected with you, follow along and maybe pick your brain about some stuff. How best can they do that?
Grace Taylor 50:46
Absolutely. So we're actually starting a very exciting initiative with Shannon Hendon, who is a legend in the in the pet setting world. If anyone's been to a conference, you've probably met her. She has been in the industry 20 years. She has a cat only business as well, and we're starting something called built for cats, the business of feline care, to really help elevate the standards of care for cats, especially for people who are maybe transitioning from dog care or adding more of like a second wing to their business. So you can find us on Facebook. Called built for cats, the business for feeling care. There may be a podcast coming. Just saying, so, yeah, maybe we'll see you on there. Okay, yeah, but so find us on Facebook. Can always find me on Facebook too, and DM me if you have any specific questions. Love it. Well, I'll have
Collin Funkhouser 51:41
the links there so people get connected and start following along. And watch out for all the exciting announcements that you all have coming up. So Grace, this has been an absolute pleasure and the highlight of my week. So thank you so much for coming on the show today.
51:54
All right, thank you so much for having me.
Collin Funkhouser 51:55
My favorite part of my conversation with Grace was when she said that someone else can give amazing care, but it isn't your care unless you teach it. And this touches on so many aspects of my conversation with her. The first one is that in order to scale or do anything beyond what we are currently doing, we have to know what makes us unique. We have to take pride in what we do. We have to have a sense of what that actually is. Then we have to teach it. You have to have standards that you hold people to and hold them accountable for performing, so that they execute it according to your standards. If you did the job amazing. How are you going to guarantee that somebody else can? You teach them? But you don't stop there. You have to hold them accountable. You have to commit to the fact that if I bring somebody on, if I'm growing my team, if this is the direction that I'm going to be going, then I have to commit and understand that I need to hold people accountable for what I ask them to do. And why is that? It's because the client held us accountable. When it was us in the field, we were held accountable by the client. By bringing somebody on into our company, we hold them accountable to our standards that the client holds us to. It keeps the entire circuit wonderful and growing, and is what allows us to expand beyond ourselves, so that the amazing care that you give is something that is taught to somebody else. We want to thank our sponsors today, our friends at tying to pet and dog code launch for making this show possible. We also 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. Foreign,
