731: Why Going Cats-Only Was the Right Business Move with Sarita Eckhoff
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What happens when you build a pet care business around the animals, clients, and work you genuinely love? Sarita Eckhoff shares how she transformed an idea into Exclusively Cats In-Home Cat Sitting while initially maintaining a full-time office job. She explains why professional presentation, continuing education, veterinary relationships, and a clear cats-only niche helped her earn the trust of her earliest clients. Sarita also discusses pricing confidently, communicating concerns promptly, and recognizing the true value pet sitters provide beyond basic feeding and litter box care. Her journey is an encouraging reminder that success does not have to mean building a large team—it can mean creating a focused, fulfilling business that fits the owner’s strengths and desired lifestyle.
Main topics:
Choosing a cats-only niche
Launching with professional systems
Building veterinary referral relationships
Pricing services with confidence
Designing a fulfilling business
Main takeaway: “I’m not curing cancer, I’m not changing the world, but I’m making a difference for somebody and helping somebody in their day-to-day life.”
It can be easy to minimize the work we do as pet sitters. We may think we are “just” feeding a cat, cleaning a litter box, checking the home, or sending an update. But to the client who is traveling, recovering from surgery, or worrying about a beloved pet, those details can make an enormous difference. Professional pet care gives people the freedom to focus on what is happening in their lives without carrying constant worry or guilt. As Sarita reminds us, meaningful work does not always have to change the entire world—it can simply make one person’s world safer, calmer, and a little easier today.
About our guest: Sarita Eckhoff is the owner of Exclusively Cats In-Home Cat Sitting, a professional cats-only pet care business serving her community near Seattle, Washington. After years of working in customer service and office-based positions, she launched her business in 2024 and later transitioned into cat sitting full time. Sarita combines her lifelong love of cats with professional systems, thoughtful communication, and a strong commitment to keeping clients’ pets and homes safe. Her goal is to become the premier cat-sitting provider in her area while building a sustainable solo business that reflects her strengths and values.
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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
Collin 0:02
Welcome to Pet Setter Confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by our friends at Tined Pet and Pet Sitters International. Well, hello everybody, and welcome back. A growing trend
Speaker 1 0:15
in
Collin 0:15
the pet care industry is a continued focus on serving cat clients specifically and only, and how to make sure that the services are customized to their need, connecting with those clients and making sure that they are served well. And so today, to talk about that, I'm so excited to have Serena Ekoff, owner of Exclusively Cats in Home Cat Sitting, on the show to talk about her journey into cat care and how she is serving her clients amazingly as as she does. And so, Sarita, thank you so much for coming on the show today. For those who aren't familiar, please tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do.
Sarita Eckhoff 0:53
Well, thank you so much for having me, Collin. I'm so excited to be here. This has just been a dream career for me. I started this about two years ago. I got my business license in July of 2024. Took me a couple months to get going because you know there's a lot of systems and things that you need to put in place before you just jump right out there and go cat sitting. So I wanted to learn and prepare myself. And listening to podcasts like yours are very helpful. So yeah, that's just that's how I decided to just jump in and start doing it right away. But I did want to get take a few months to get everything up to up to speed, getting a a website, getting a Google Business page, getting my license, getting my business cards. You know, so I looked professional going in, not like I was kind of doing this halfway,
Collin 1:42
why was that important to you?
Sarita Eckhoff 1:45
I think it just kind of sets the tone right from the beginning that you are really a professional. You take this seriously. You're not a hobby sitter, as some people like to call them. I do treat this as a business, even though at the time I was working a full time job. You know, you don't all of a sudden have 100 clients right off the bat. You have to build towards that, and I think starting out, you really want to set the tone with your clients to be professional. I present myself as being professional. I have business cards, I have a business license, so I'm taking responsibility and not just doing this as a hobby. I pay my taxes, and I think my clients really did appreciate knowing that from me from the get go.
Collin 2:27
Now you started two years ago. What was that transition like? Why did you decide, hey, let me go in to try this pet sitting thing?
Sarita Eckhoff 2:36
You know, I had a friend that for about four or five years, every summer he would go back home for a couple of weeks, and he lived about two miles down the road from me. And he said, "Would you mind watching my house for me? Like, yeah, sure, I can watch your house. You want me to spend the night there? He's like, "No, just pop in. You know, change my. He had a air purifier, water purifier that needed to be dumped. So, and check my mail and just make sure there's no packages on the on the porch. Bring those in for me. Sure, I can do that. Did that for four or five years, and I thought, you know, hmm, what if I could actually make money doing this? I let that sit and simmer for a while. And my downstairs neighbor had a little, a cute, adorable little kitty that would sit in the window because her parents would work during the day, and she would sit in the window, and she'd see me coming, and she'd get all excited, and she'd stretch and meow at me. And as I was walking past, I'd chat with her and play with her, and you know, kind of try to pet her through the window. She got so excited and happy, and I'm like, "Oh, poor baby, she's in there all by herself. And I started to think, you know, I wonder if I could do that. What if I could play with kitties as a job, as an actual business, I had had six cats previously. Yeah, I know six cats in 1000 square foot house. It was a zoo. I called it my zoo. But eventually, you know, they got older, and this was probably in the late '90s and early 2000s. They got older, and you know, they passed on. So when I moved into this place, I wasn't allowed to have pets. So I thought, you know, I could maybe mix the two of these: cow sitting, cat sitting, yeah, and get my kitty fix at the same time. So I thought, why not? Let's do a little bit of investigating to see if this is really a thing, because I'd hired a cat sitter previously back, you know, 25 or so years ago. I thought, I wonder if this is still a thing. Cat sitting, yeah. Do a little Google search on the internet. It's a thing. Cat sitting, dog sitting, cat sitting, reptile sitting, bird sitting, rabbit sitting. It's all a thing. I thought, okay, I I can do this. I can do this. So I investigated some more, educated myself some more. Just wanted to really. I'm one of those people. I I I need to have all my ducks in a row before I go out and do something, which probably isn't the greatest thing to have. But that's how I operate. So it took me about six months before I got my first client, which was fine. So yeah, it that's that's kind of what I what I did, and I thought you know. Why not try it? I can do this part time because I can do it in the morning and I can do it in the evening. And dog walking is middays, and cat sitting is usually mornings and evenings, or just evenings. And that worked really well with my work schedule at the time.
Collin 5:14
I was going to ask, Sarita, was was the decision to go cat only that practical? Of well, I just can't do the dog walks when needed, or was there something else that you were drawn to cats versus you know adding dogs in?
Sarita Eckhoff 5:26
I've always been known as the cat lady wherever I go, wherever I work. Everybody calls me the crazy cat lady, you know, because when you're single and over a certain age and you have cats, that you're just automatically the crazy cat lady. So, and I really wasn't a dog person. I mean, it really-it just happened to just so happened to work out with my work schedule as well. That that was that worked better. And I'm not really a dog person. I love dogs, of course, but there's so many different breeds and sizes, and I just can't see myself managing 100-pound dog on a dog walk, especially when it sees a squirrel. I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? Yeah, no, that that just wasn't wasn't gonna be my my area of expertise. And I know cats better, and I had them for years and years and years. No,
Collin 6:09
yeah, it
Sarita Eckhoff 6:10
was kind of a kind of a no brainer to do cats only. Sure.
Collin 6:13
Now you were managing the kind of fledging business there while still working full time. When did you decide to go and do this as your thing?
Sarita Eckhoff 6:26
Just a couple of months ago, actually. Work was changing a bit, and I, you know, I don't know that I can do this much longer. And I was just really itching to do the cat sitting thing full time because that just really it was my my area of expertise, and I loved it. And my clients are amazing. And I thought, you know, I can I can do this. Was I scared because I was almost 60 years old, not old enough to collect Medicare, but you know, no other source of income. I'm like, yeah, why not? You know, you only live once, right?
Collin 6:58
That's really bold because I mean, you're living a good-paying job benefits. You're facing, you know, retired coming up, like, and you go, "Well, let's let's do this. Where does that kind of attitude come from, Serena?
Sarita Eckhoff 7:12
You know, I don't know because that is not typically my attitude. I'm usually, "Oh no, I'm too scared. I can't do that. Oh no, that's too scary. I can't do that. I just thought, You know, I believed over the last couple of years, if you do the right thing for the right reason, it's going to happen. It's going to work out for you. So that might seem kind of, I don't know, not not practical. But I've had such good responses with my cat sitting clients, and they're so amazing. I think you know I can. If I could quadruple this, that would be great, and then I could live on this. And are you kidding me? A full-time cat sitting business-that's your job. Yep, that's my job. I love saying that. I love saying that. Now, what do you do for a living? I own a cat sitting company. You do? Yes, I do.
Collin 8:00
Well, it's a different. I don't know. Like, it's is is it the the freedom that it does, or you find this joy that it gives to you, or like you know, why does that make you smile so much?
Sarita Eckhoff 8:09
I think it's both. You know, it's the freedom. I get to be my own boss. You know, I get to make the rules. I get to decide what clients I take. I get to decide what areas I work in. I get to decide what I charge. I don't have, you know, this corporate thing that I have to go through to make all my decisions. I'm the decision maker. I get to decide everything, which is amazing. And I love cats. Oh my gosh, I have the best cat clients too. They're they're so fun. And sometimes I'm like, okay, I got to wrap it up. But I'm having fun playing with them. I'll stay an extra five or 10 minutes. I don't mind. For now, I can do that. But you know, once it gets crazy,
Collin 8:47
yeah.
Sarita Eckhoff 8:48
Well, I may not be able to do that, but yeah, I love spending the extra time with the cats, and they love me too. Most of most of them
Collin 8:54
do. That freedom of being able to go. Hey, it's not just you know, because there is that aspect of okay, my time isn't like fully my own because I still have to do visits and prepare and do this stuff. I'm still serving people. However, there is that. But if I don't want to go out there, I don't have to say yes to that. Like it gives you that autonomy back in your life where you can say, or maybe hey, that doesn't work. Can I do this time or can we do this? And you, I can have that conversation with them
Sarita Eckhoff 9:22
exactly, and most of my clients, like I said, they're so amazing. They are very, they're open. Like, oh, you just come by whenever you want. Like, well, I kind of need to set a little bit more of a specific time, you know, time range anyway. And they're they're great about it. I said, oh, do you want me to be here at five in the morning? Like, oh, you don't have to come that early. Oh, okay. What time do you normally feed them? Feed them around six. I said I can come at six. They think it's amazing that somebody would want to actually get up at that hour of the morning and come visit their cats. I'm used to it. I'm used to getting up that early, so I don't mind. And then I have you know the whole rest of my day. So yeah, I don't. I don't don't mind that at all.
Collin 10:02
When you were doing the initial research there, Srida, you said you took a couple months to kind of hone in, figure everything out. I am really curious because what what convinced you that this could be a business? Like, did you like because you were googling and you saw that there were rabbit sitters and cat sitters and reptile sitters and all this stuff? Like, how did you know that, like, okay, this can be a business and not just like a part-time side thing for me.
Sarita Eckhoff 10:26
But there was there were podcasts. You know, I came across all these podcasts. I mean, they're doing podcasts on pet thing. Wow. Okay, so I listened to a few of them. I'm like, well, this is really a business. This is they can really be a business. If I wanted to scale to that point, or I can keep it, you know, as simple as I want to, or and just do it part time. I I wasn't really sure if I even wanted to go part time, but I kept reading, and and there's Reddit blogs about pet sitters, and there's just so much stuff about cat sitting, you know, and there were cat sitters that were on there, excuse me, that were making a full time job out of this and paying their monthly bills, and I'm like, wow, okay, I can do this. There's courses that you can take online to learn the business aspects of pet sitting and what to do at a meet and greet. Oh yeah, I guess I have to do a meet and greet too. So I mean, there was all these new things that I was learning, and it was exciting because it was it was my thing. It wasn't you know like a regular job. It was just it was fun. It was it was fun to learn, even though I wasn't you know I wasn't being paid for that at the moment. But this is really great. I I could really I could really do this. Really is a thing now because when I went to hire a cat sitter 25 years ago, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a as a pet sitter, a professional pet sitter. I asked my vet. I said, "We're going away for vacation. Who am I going to get to watch my watch my cats? She said, "Oh, there's some brochures and some cards out in our lobby. There's a cat sitter that that I'm like a cat sitter. That's a thing. I was thinking maybe there's somebody at the vet office that would can come by my house. Yeah. Oh, okay. And this was years ago. You know, pre-internet, pre-cell phone. So yeah, yeah, it was it was a lot. It was a lot of fun to research a lot of so many good resources. Thank God for the internet. So many good things to learn on there. I took a course that cost $50, I think it was, and it went through all the steps of how to set up your business, how to do a meet and greet, how to prepare for. It was covered dogs and cats, so how to prepare for a dog walk, you know, how to introduce yourself and be professional to a client. So I learned a ton from those, and that was that was like I I could do this, I could totally do this. There's all these people. Obviously, there's 1000s of people out there doing it, so they can do it. I can do it.
Collin 12:45
Having that excitement of learning something new, I think is is very underappreciated. I think there's kind of I know like I get I get in two ways of either I'm learning a new thing and it's daunting and it's a slog and I'm like ugh, or it's like I'm I'm full energy, full bore into this this new new thing about what I'm doing, and it really is like what finding those things that excite you, and then letting yourself kind of get carried away into that. Go all the way. Go learn. Go follow that thread and pull it as far as you can. Absolutely, because otherwise, if you just stop, you are like, okay, well, I learned one thing, I am done.
Sarita Eckhoff 13:25
Yeah, no,
Collin 13:26
you don't get that that depth and exposure to the possibilities.
Sarita Eckhoff 13:30
Yes, I raced through that course. I was so excited to do that. I spent my weekend. I think I finished it in probably less than a week, and I think it was 60 separate lessons. I mean, I just wanted to do it all the time. And I mean, how many how many jobs do you feel that way about? I just want to go to work. I'm so excited to go to work. Yeah,
Collin 13:45
no.
Sarita Eckhoff 13:46
So yeah, this was it was exciting. It was fun, and it's something that really interested me too. I I I love learning about cat behavior and and you know what foods to feed them. You know, just anything and everything to do with cats. I I'm surrounded by cats. Cat pictures anyway in my house. So yeah, I am. I am definitely the crazy cat lady. But you know, I'm laughing all the way to the bank. Call me crazy cat lady if you want.
Collin 14:12
Have you heard of Time to Pet? Chrisanne from Raining Cats and Dogs has this to say:
Speaker 2 14:18
Becoming a Time to Pet client has been a game changer for us. We can give our pet services clients real-time, cloud-based information they never imagined they'd be interested in. And most importantly, to me personally, I can better manage my company and look forward to more. And not a small thing. Time to pet is responsive to my requests for new features and modifications to existing ones.
Collin 14:42
If you're looking for new pet sitting software, give Time to Pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting timetbet.com/confessional. How did you start getting clients? Because starting and launching a new business and advertising and marketing something that's still relatively. New, like specifically in that niche. I mean, where did you go for that?
Sarita Eckhoff 15:05
I started there. We have probably seven or eight different vet clinics in this area, so I started by going out and I had business cards because I made sure I got those. I made up little flyers and just went and visited vets and said, "Hey, I'm a new cat sitter in the area. Can I put up this flyer and give you some of my business cards for your appliance? There, every one of them was absolutely yeah, yeah. Give me some more cards. I'll take them and keep them behind the desk and hand them out for you. I did that with six or seven vets, and I keep going back there. It can't just be a one-time thing. You have to keep going back, so they know your face there. They know you when you walk in the door. Oh, there's the cat lady. There's the cat sitter, and I bring him treats now because I've gotten so many good referrals from vet offices and also from my Google Business page. That was actually where my very first client came from. I thought, okay, I'm not sure how this is going to work because I don't have any reviews and everybody else has reviews. She called me and I said, "So how did you hear about me? And she said, "I found you on Google. Like really, I said, and when I when I did the meet and greet with her, I said, "So why did you choose me, even though I didn't have any reviews yet? I said, "What made you confident enough to to even give me a call on such a thing? I didn't have any reviews.
Collin 16:17
That's such a bold question, sir. I'm feeling uncomfortable hearing you talk about this, like oh my gosh, oh no,
Sarita Eckhoff 16:23
I I have no problem asking asking bold questions. I said I want to know. She said you are you know all the other cat sitters in the area where their profiles were all all they had was pictures of dogs. They're very dog centric. Like oh that's a and I didn't even think of that. I'm like yeah yeah that's a good point. She said and you were cats only, and I went on your website and I read your bio and I read your story and why you want to do this. Was and that really resonated with me, so I called you. I said, and I'm so glad you did. Like that's so, that was so great. And I only had I didn't have any clients, so I didn't have any pictures to put up on my on my website either until or excuse me on my Google webpage, so I just used cat pictures of my own that I had, and I only had two. Like I don't know how good this is going to work. I don't have any reviews. I'm like everybody starts somewhere. You know you got to start. Everybody has a first client in any business. So she was my first client. She's still my client. She loves me. Her cat doesn't love me that much, but she loves me. That's okay. She's she always tells me how grateful she is for me. She goes, "I know that you know my cat doesn't love you that much, but you're taking care of his needs, and that's what we appreciate. So thank you. Yeah, it's wonderful. It's it, and you know I get those thank yous all the time, and and it's just great because you don't get that at a full time job very often.
Collin 17:47
Yeah, so I
Sarita Eckhoff 17:48
get the kudos from my clients all the time. When I think, okay, just you know, I just went and changed the change the litter, you know, cleaned the litter box, changed the water, fed them, played with them for a few minutes. I'm good. They are so grateful, so grateful to me for doing that because they're capturing their babies.
Collin 18:02
We just finished caring for a client, and the whole purpose was to scoop litter boxes once a day while they recovered from surgery. And that we knew there was a start and end date for them. And he later called after it was done, and I mean the conversation was probably five or six minutes, and he just kept saying, "You have no idea how much this helped me. Yeah, or the I was able to focus on the things I needed to focus on, and I didn't have this guilt, and my cats were taken care of, and they like, and here I am, like it just took. It was just like 10 minutes. Like, what are you talking? Like it's not that big of a like. So often we can get caught up in the it's not that big of a deal, right? But to the clients, it really
Sarita Eckhoff 18:49
is. It is, yeah, yeah, it is, and it's so exciting to hear that from them, and it makes you feel good. It's like, yeah, I really am doing this for a good reason. You know, I'm not, I'm not curing cancer, I'm not changing the world, but I'm making a difference for somebody and helping somebody in their day-to-day life and making a difference for them. You know, they can relax when they go on vacation. They know I'm there every day. They get the messages from me every day. They see their their cats playing and having fun, and that just helps them relax and enjoy their vacation or their business trip or whatever they're they're doing, knowing that you know, and I I heard you, I heard you say using that that slogan "peace of mind" is is so overrated, but that is actually my tagline on my on my business is peace of mind while you're away. Yeah,
Collin 19:32
well, but it has to mean something, right? And I think I think that that is the the part that we often miss. Of it's one thing for me to say peace of mind, but what I love about even that interaction with your very first client, Sarita, of peace of mind. How did she get peace of mind? She connected. It resonated with her, and she felt seen because she went. This person's for me. How do I know that? I I see it in this and. That kind of peace of mind, like that, doesn't come from well-written ad copy. Like that comes from the exactly the whole thing.
Sarita Eckhoff 20:07
Yes, yes, and meeting me in person, and you know, I probably spent longer than I should have on that first meet and greet. But you know, I was still learning, and we chatted about all kinds of things, and so I mean, we really got to know each other. And so I think at the end of that meet and greet, she really felt comfortable with me and felt that I had her cat's best interest at heart. And you know, I was going to take care of her home and make sure that it was safe and secure. And her cat was going to be taken care of, and I was going to show up every single day. She didn't know that, of course, but I did show up every single day. And she got video or she got text messages from me through Time to Pat, and and pictures, and she's like, "I'm so grateful for you. I'm like, "Wow, they're just they're just praising me, like like like I'm the best thing since sliced bread, and that that's great. I love that.
Collin 20:56
And you can't you can't that doesn't come from somebody. And the other, the other thing here is is the this is a business transaction. Yes, money is being exchanged, and and this is one of the purest forms of of beneficial transactions that you can see in the world. This person is not; these clients aren't like begrudgingly, angrily, forcibly having money extracted from them, right? Exactly. And this is something that Megan and I think about all the time. of Of how do I make sure that when they see my name on a bank statement, they get excited or they're happy. They they they look at that and they go, "That's money well spent.
Sarita Eckhoff 21:39
Yes, yes. I've never even thought of it that way, but that's yeah. You're so right with that. It's not just oh, it's the electric bill and the the cell phone bill and the the cable bill, you know, all that stuff. It's like oh, that's my pet sitter, you know. And I hope I hope it makes them smile when they see that. Yeah,
Collin 21:56
I mean, so your your clients. I am curious. You're growing your you're going growing your client base, getting into cat setting. Did you have anything that your some clients taught you that maybe you weren't expecting about running a business or interacting with cats?
Sarita Eckhoff 22:16
I didn't expect. Well, you know, not. It's not. I mean, it isn't. It's harder than it looks. It's like, oh, you just, you know, you just go in and throw some food down for him, play with them for a few minutes and leave. Well, no, I do a little bit more than that, but I make sure that their cats are safe. You know, they're secure. That I'm get eyes on that on that cat, even if it doesn't want to interact with me. I make sure I can see it, hear it, something. You know, it's not stuck somewhere, and I make sure that their home is safe. You know, they see their neighbors are seeing a car coming in and leaving. You know, so they know somebody's there. The garbage cans are taken in and out. So yeah, there's some activity there. It's not being left alone for two weeks. You know, I check the windows in the house, make sure nothing's been broken. I will even go in some rooms sometimes that have closed doors just to make sure that there's not a window broken if it's a lower level bedroom. You know, just that's part of my job. I don't charge extra for doing that. That's I think that's part of your job when you go in and take care of someone's pets. You make sure that their environment is safe and secure as well.
Collin 23:27
Yeah, it's it's that holistic approach of yeah, I'm here for the cats, and and we do the same thing. Things that I notice too. If people have their even having an attached garage, or if they've got a breezeway going, are those windows shut? As I'm walking in, it costs me nothing. It costs exactly. It's just me looking over, and I can tell when that window's split and that's raised up just a little bit, and go, hey, I'll go take two seconds and shut, shut, lock, and lock, and move on my way. But it's that kind of of, it's not a. Oftentimes, I think we we we overly complicate what it means to do amazing work and go above and beyond, and we think that every time I have to save their cat from a house fire, and that's where they're going to love me. It's like, yeah, no, it's it's hey, the bowls were always scrubbed. The yes, yes, absolutely. You know the the the toy was recharged, the litter was scooped, and here's a picture of it. It's that little detail that clients just go crazy for.
Sarita Eckhoff 24:32
Yeah, yeah. I have a new client that I'm going to see in a couple of weeks, and she said you only have you can come twice a day, you know, to feed them, but you only have to scoop the box once a day.
Speaker 2 24:42
Yeah.
Sarita Eckhoff 24:42
You think I'm only going to scoop the box once a day? Absolutely not. I'm gonna scoop it every time I'm there. Every time I'm there. That's just a given. I mean, two cats, two litter boxes. It's still gonna get scooped because that's just part of my routine.
Collin 24:54
Yeah.
Sarita Eckhoff 24:54
That's just what I do. And and it's I'm there. I might as well do it. Right. They're paying me. I might as well.
Collin 25:00
Well, it's that-that's just what I do. That becomes our own internalized standard of our care.
Sarita Eckhoff 25:08
Yeah, that-that is just what I do. I take care of them. They need to be taken care of. You might only do it once a day, but I'll do it twice a day since I'm there twice a day.
Collin 25:18
Right? Did Did you ever struggle with pricing services, and I did
Collin 25:24
okay. How did you walk through that thing? Because I know that is just-it's all-it's an ongoing struggle being. Yeah,
Sarita Eckhoff 25:30
and it's so-it's different in every area. It's different in every state. I'm not in the big city, but we are a suburb of-I'm in a suburb of Seattle, which is a high cost of living area, so I I looked, you know, and again the websites and the blogs and the the podcasts were really helpful in this on pricing. I just went through and scrolled through and found something about pricing on there. Listened to that and like, okay, I can do that. I checked other high cost of living areas and I checked in Seattle. What is it in the suburbs? What is it? I did a I did a ton of research on the pricing, so that really helped me. I didn't want to be the highest. I didn't want to be the lowest. I wanted to be somewhere in between, even though I was just getting started. And I have actually raised one of my rates one time.
Collin 26:16
Ah, okay,
Sarita Eckhoff 26:17
and it went it went amazingly well. They're like, "Oh yeah, no problem, not a problem. How? What was? How much anxiety
Collin 26:27
did you carry with you before you raised that, though?
Sarita Eckhoff 26:30
You know, I had to sort through it in my head. I'm like, "Okay, how do I do this? How do I? How do I let them know that? Because I was increasing it by $5 a visit, and I was everything I had read said nope. Do it a couple of dollars a visit. I'm like nope. I'm doing it $5 a visit because that's what I deserve. I think your attitude goes a long way, and you know, and nobody said no. I didn't lose any clients over that at all. So I think maybe they thought I was underpriced. It's like oh okay, she's finally getting paid what she deserves.
Collin 27:03
You know, we had a one of our very first clients. It wasn't a cat; it was a dog, and he was an English Mastiff who was on something like 30 pills a day. It was just, it was just, it was yeah. Each pill he was had he took like 10 pills morning, afternoon, and evening. It was just this. It was it was this wreck. And I remember we came in and we were like, I think they wanted to know like how much. We were doing overnights at the time. I was like, oh, it's it's 30 bucks a night, and we were like, Are they going to pay for that? Are they going to pay for that? And are they going to pay $30 a night for this? And I remember they they said okay, and then we came back, and when they paid us, they paid us $90 a night. Yeah, and they said you you're worth this. Do you know that? Yeah. And I was that that first lesson to us of my perception of my value is not the same as my client's perception of my value. Yes, and that when I start to, because even now I feel like, oh, should we? Oh, could we raise $1? But again, I think this is old hat. I think all I'm doing is scooping litter because yes, if you paid me for quote unquote just scooping litter, yeah, then it's not worth what we're we're charging, but what we're actually doing, we're solving a very specific pain point for that. Exactly.
Sarita Eckhoff 28:27
Exactly. And that
Collin 28:29
that has a different value than the filling a water dish, doesn't it?
Sarita Eckhoff 28:35
Yeah, I think that's how you have to look at it. Is what what are you helping your client do? What are you? What are you taking? You know, you're taking this load off of them that they've been so worried about. It's like, who's going to take care of my baby? And I need all these things done, and they need medication, and and you know, on and on and on. So we don't. You're right. We don't value it as much as we should, because it is. It is. They're they're they're their babies.
Speaker 3 29:00
Yeah.
Sarita Eckhoff 29:01
You know, child. As expensive as childcare is, you know, maybe we should be charging, you know, $300 a day or whatever it is. I have no idea what it is for childcare. It's
Collin 29:10
a lot.
Sarita Eckhoff 29:11
It's a lot.
Collin 29:13
And now a word from our friends at Pet Sitters International. Hi,
Speaker 4 29:16
this is Beth at Pet Sitters International. The pet sitting industry is growing fast, and so is the need for professional pet care providers like you. Whether you're just starting out or scaling a multi-team company, you don't have to figure out everything alone. Since 1994, PSI has helped 1000s of pet care professionals like you build reputable, profitable, and sustainable businesses. If you're thinking about joining, visit petsit.com/psc to learn more and get a special promo code.
Collin 29:43
So, what was your what was your background coming into this? I went to ask you that earlier.
Sarita Eckhoff 29:49
A lot of different office jobs. I've worked as I've done customer service, you know, which is helpful in this. I worked for a law firm. I worked for a. Company. I've worked for a garbage company. I've worked for a collection agency. I've worked for insurance companies. So a lot of different clerical type of positions, mostly in office. Well, actually, all in office. I worked for restaurants when I was in high school and college. So I did have a great customer service background. So I think that really was helpful in the customer service aspect of this job. You know, meeting with the clients and and you know finding out what what is it that you need from me. What what is going to make your life easier besides you know just the scooping the litter and taking your garbage out and feeding your cats. And so that was that was a good background, I think, for me. And I don't think you necessarily have to have that background, but you know, for me, it was a great help.
Collin 30:46
Absolutely. I mean, just knowing that you're bold enough to ask just point blank, why did you again? Like this, my skin. I'm over here like, oh my gosh, how do you do that, Serena?
Sarita Eckhoff 30:55
I might get myself in trouble one of these days, being a little too bold with asking somebody something. But you know, I think it's it's working for me so far.
Collin 31:02
I I think it's so fantastic, and I know it's one thing that I have been working on so hard is not just not just like why did you choose me? Hey, is there anything I could have done so that you would have chosen me? Is there anything else like what did I miss? What were you looking for? And it's those questions that when we don't ask, we end up with a roster full. Because I I have been in this moment where I'm looking at a schedule, schedule's full, and I for the life of me have no idea why any of them are using me, and and that's not a good feeling, and it robs us a lot of our power and our decision making as a business, and our ability to go find more people like these people.
Sarita Eckhoff 31:46
Yeah, that's so funny that you think because I've never ever thought that. Like they saw that you know now I'm up to you know not a whole lot of Google reviews, but I have they're all five stars and there's six and you know I've got six or seven of them, so I'm getting more referrals from that. And I'm like, "Oh, you must have! Did you read my reviews on Google? Oh, yeah, we loved them. Okay, great.
Collin 32:05
Yeah,
Sarita Eckhoff 32:06
good. That's so funny because I've never thought that way.
Collin 32:11
No, I mean, so where did maybe encourage? How do you know? Or like, where does that come from? To be bold in asking that those questions, Sarita?
Sarita Eckhoff 32:20
No, I was I was shy for my entire all my growing up years. I was very I was a very shy little girl. Would hide behind my mom, you know. Was never very a very very bold person coming when I was younger growing up. I don't I don't know where it comes from. I really don't in the in the past, you know, several years, I think I've just become more bold. I'm I, I talk to people, um, you know, strangers, and you know, in a restaurant, I'll talk to them while we're waiting for our table, or you know, waiting in line somewhere at the bank, or you know, whatever. I'll just start up a conversation with them, and I don't know why that is because I used to be so shy, and now I'm anything but. Sometimes you can't get me to shut up. So, I, I, honestly, I don't know where it comes from.
Collin 33:11
I think it's just something that that you have to practice trial and error, and and knowing that there's a benefit to me. As I've that's that's the one that I've had to focus on of of me doing this will be good for me and my business so I have to that's what my business my business needs me to to be bold right like talk myself into the mirror and then go ask the question why did you use me why like and because I've actually
Sarita Eckhoff 33:40
never asked anybody I'm like why did you pick me? Because I have no really good pictures on my on my site. I have no reviews. Why? Why did you pick me? Like, because you just do cats, and that's all that's on your. You know, there's no dogs on your profile. Like, okay, that's a good reason to me. That works for me. I'll take it.
Collin 33:58
How has how have you been using technology in your business, and and
Sarita Eckhoff 34:09
you know again, I'll say time depend was made it very easy to learn a new. I'm like, oh my gosh, I have to learn a new program, but it was really, really, really easy, and it's So beneficial that and the the Google what do they call it now the Google web page the Google business what is it called
Collin 34:29
oh the Google business page yeah Google business page
Sarita Eckhoff 34:32
yeah yeah that was a little challenging to set up my website was a little challenging to set up but you know I just kept plugging away at it plugging away at it if it was getting difficult I'd set it down I'd go do something else and I'd come back in an hour or two and go at it again. I don't use it a ton. I mean, my website is fairly easy to. I wasn't really easy to set up. It was. It was challenging for me. Most people probably wouldn't have a difficulty. I had a lot of difficulty with it, but the website and. The Google Business page and sending the links to my clients to leave reviews-that's pretty much what I do technology-wise, and the time to pet, of course. And sometimes it gets a little difficult, and I I mess it up, and I have to go back and redo it. And sometimes I end up spending a little bit more time at the visit than I plan to because I can't seem to get my technology straight, but it's not. It's just me.
Collin 35:25
Yeah. Well, I love that. I love that mentality of hey, it's getting difficult. I'm going to set it down. I'm going to come back to it. Yeah. That. Yeah. Because I'm getting
Sarita Eckhoff 35:33
frustrated. Yeah.
Collin 35:34
What What I tend to do is, I if when when I get that start banging my head against the brick wall, I I'm just gonna beg my head harder. Maybe that will actually help. Instead of instead of hey, let me step back and just walk around to the left of the wall and keep moving.
Sarita Eckhoff 35:50
Yes, yeah. Well, you know, I usually just a good time to go get something to eat or something to drink. You know, like I think I need a snack right now. I'm gonna go do that and come back to it.
Collin 35:59
Yeah. Well, that's that goes across for so many things. Yeah. If if I don't give myself a break, if I don't give myself time to think, then I I don't end up in a good situation.
Sarita Eckhoff 36:12
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's but you know the more you do it, the easier time to pet has become just a breeze for me now. I have no problems with. Well, I do have some some problems with it, but it's it's it's all me. It's not them. But I think that's I love using that. My clients love it. They think it's just great that I send them pictures all the time and you know updates. And it's hard when you're doing cat sitting too, doing those updates, knowing what to. Okay, we played. I fed them. I changed their litter box. What new exciting thing can I say for you know now on day eight, and I've got five more days to go. What new exciting thing can I say about their cats? Because we're doing the same thing every day. Like, oh, I cleaned up some good water spills today. Or you know, I let them know what the litter box looks like. Everything's looking great with the litter box, you know, no, no accidents outside of the box, no, you know, things that don't that look abnormal. Litter box is looking normal, you know, and they they know what that means. That means you know, cats doesn't have an upset tummy, so and they appreciate hearing that too because they probably worry. What's going on with the? You know, are they upset? You know, it's the first time I've left them. You know, so I try to come up with some different things to say in the in the notes, but and it's hard sometimes. But you know, they they love that. They appreciate that. They think it's just the best thing ever. And most of them will reply back the same day. And I I tell them, I'm like, no, you don't have to respond each and every time. It's it's mostly just for your information.
Collin 37:45
Yeah, yeah, and and it's that kind of just open communication. Do you ever struggle? I I doubt you struggle with this, Srida. So I'm, but I'm still going to ask. Do you have do you ever struggle sharing bad news with clients or when things aren't going well?
Sarita Eckhoff 37:58
No, I don't actually. I I need to let them know if you know if the if the cat has just you know some really runny poop and I need to let them know that because three days before they didn't you know for last three days they've been fine and now all of a sudden it's you know what do you know what do you think that could be because they know their cats better than I do do you think are they just upset because you're gone are they upset because there's somebody new in their house? Is it the food? I notice you have new food. Do you think maybe it's that? No, I. They need to know that. I would want to know that. As you know, I always think, what would I want as a cat owner? Would I want to know that? Sure, I'd want to know that. Can I do anything about it? You know, maybe, maybe not.
Collin 38:36
And it's those where if if you can't do anything about it, you can still say like, hey, I'll keep an eye on this and keep you posted. Yeah, you know, and keep updating you on how things are going. You know, example for us is we walked into a house yesterday and it felt like it was really warm and muggy, super super hot. Yeah, we went over to try and adjust the air conditioner. The entire AC system was completely dead.
Speaker 5 39:03
Oh my gosh!
Collin 39:04
I'm not an HVAC repair. I don't know any of your guys. It turns out it's not what we do. But what I can do is alert alert the client immediately. Right? Don't don't wait until the end of the visit to be like, and I'm leaving, and it's really hot in there. Anyway, bye. See you tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. Do
Sarita Eckhoff 39:22
you have any fans you want me to pull out and and get the air circulating in here? You know, just let me know. Let me know what to do.
Collin 39:27
Yeah, absolutely.
Sarita Eckhoff 39:28
Yeah, because oh, poor kitties or puppies or whoever you have there.
Collin 39:32
Yeah, and they were able to because we alerted them. You know, they were able to get the their repair guy out there to get it solved. And by the next time, next visit, it was up and running and super cool and nice and happy. But it was just a yeah. I I can't do anything other than alert you and notify of what's going on, and then we're going to talk about what we need to do moving forward.
Sarita Eckhoff 39:53
Yeah, yeah, and you don't want them to think that you broke it. You know, if you didn't tell them, and they came home and oh, how long is this? Like this,
Speaker 4 40:01
yeah,
Sarita Eckhoff 40:02
yeah. No, I agree. Yeah, let him know as soon as possible because there may be something they can suggest that you do. I'm like, oh, I didn't think of that, or you know, maybe hold off on giving them the canned food for a day or two and see if it gets better. You know,
Collin 40:15
right?
Sarita Eckhoff 40:15
It's better to let them know and let them decide how they want you to handle it.
Collin 40:21
When you think about your business three five years from now, what is what is not just like where do you want it to be, but what does success look like to you?
Sarita Eckhoff 40:31
Oh my gosh, I would love to have a lot more client referrals, which I'm not sure that that's really a cat specific cat business thing. I haven't really gotten any referrals from other clients, but I would like to be busy all the time. You know, I'd love to work five days a week and have my two days off, but that's probably not practical. Yeah, just being busy and having you know maybe four or five times the clients I have now, so you know, 6070, that I can manage, that I know really well, that that count on me every single time they go out of town. It's cat sitting is mostly vacation sitting. You know, you don't have to go over there and and you know let the cat take the cats for a walk three times a day. So it's mostly vacation, vacation sitting. So, yeah, I want to have you know tons of clients, and and this area is just ripe for it. We have so many new new homes are coming up all the time here, and yeah, I just want to be busy, not have time to breathe, except on my you know my my hypothetical two days off that I may or may not get.
Collin 41:44
Have you ever thought?
Speaker 6 41:46
Yeah, and
Collin 41:47
go ahead.
Sarita Eckhoff 41:49
And I want to be known as the you know the premier cat sitting service in this area, and I want every oh you need to call Sarita. She's got exclusively cats. That's all she does. Well, she does. She does it full time. She only does cats. Oh, great!
Collin 42:02
Do you do you envision yourself ever wanting or needing to hire and expanding a team like that?
Sarita Eckhoff 42:10
You know, I in the beginning I said nope, nope, not going to do it, not ever. But you know, I've learned never say never because you never know what life's going to throw at you. So I won't completely rule it out. I tend to be a bit of a control freak. I'll admit that, and you know, and I don't think anybody can do it as well as I can. So no, I don't really want to have a team, but I may not have a choice, and wouldn't that be a nice problem to have?
Collin 42:42
Yeah, yeah, it'd be kind. Yeah,
Sarita Eckhoff 42:45
I would like to keep going solo and and being able to manage it as well as I can individually, because I just don't think I would be a good boss. I just don't think I would be a good boss, and that's that's being brutally honest. I just want to be able to manage what I can manage on my own.
Collin 43:08
No, I I I love that, and I I love the like just being on. You you have to be honest with yourself about hey, not just what I want, but what is in my wheelhouse. What are my strengths? What do I actually want to be doing and spending my time every day, and and that like when I think of five years from now, is it more cats in my life or more hiring and firing and managing and working with the the people side of things? And that's where like if we don't stop and think about that, we can look up and think, well, I did all the right things, so why am I, why am I miserable right now? It's like, oh, because I'm a
Sarita Eckhoff 43:45
horrible boss, right?
Collin 43:46
Because I'm bad at this. This is not good. But I
Sarita Eckhoff 43:49
don't like managing people. I like managing cats, and and I like the numbers part of it. And you know, and I'm I'm a total spreadsheet geek, and I I love the the office aspects of it. I you know I like doing running the business part of it, managing employees. I just don't think that's my thing. I really don't.
Collin 44:07
Yeah, and and that's like then knowing that you can have such a fulfilling and business wonderful business designed around who you are as a person, and that just makes it all the more special and beautiful.
Sarita Eckhoff 44:21
Yeah, yeah, and I'm really excited to to do that. I'm really looking forward to see where this is going to go in the next year, two years, five years.
Collin 44:30
Serena, I want to thank you for coming on the show today and encouraging us with the enthusiasm to ask some tough questions and to be bold in that. Absolutely, yeah. And and also just hearing your passion for this, and reminding us to serve our clients well, for those who want to get in touch and follow along with all the cool stuff that you're doing, how best can they do that?
Sarita Eckhoff 44:50
My website is exclusively cats. GoDaddySites.com.
Collin 45:03
Awesome. Well, I will have that link in the show notes and on our website, so people can get connected and follow along with all the cool stuff. Sarita, this has been an absolute pleasure. I'm so thankful for your time today. Thank you for coming on the show. Oh,
Sarita Eckhoff 45:16
me too. Thank you for having me. It's been so much fun.
Collin 45:20
I loved when Sarita said that she's not curing cancer, she's not changing the world, but she is making a difference for somebody and helping somebody in their day-to-day life. I think, especially when we're in this industry for any length of time, it becomes really easy to minimize the work that we actually do. Right? We we tend to think, oh, it's just feeding the cat, or it's just cleaning the litter box, or checking the home, or it's just a couple photos in my update. But to the client who's traveling, or recovering from surgery, or the client who's worrying about a sick pet, those details, those things, those efforts make a huge difference. Our job fundamentally gives people the freedom to focus on what's happening in their own lives without carrying the constant worry or guilt with them every day. Meaningful work does not always have to change the entire world, it can simply make one person's world safer, calmer, and just a little bit easier. We want to thank today's sponsors, Timed Pet and Pet Setters International, for making this show possible, and we also really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon.
