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What if the best time to hire is before you desperately need the help? Rachelle Steele of Loving Arms Pet Services returns to share how she went from firmly believing she would remain solo to intentionally building a team around her values, boundaries, and long-term goals. She explains how detailed hiring steps, clear deadlines, thoughtful training, and strong client communication helped her develop trust without sacrificing the peace she worked so hard to create. We also explore the unexpected operational challenges of employing pet sitters across both Missouri and Kansas and why compliance, payroll, and capacity planning need attention long before the first employee starts. Rachelle’s journey is a reminder that sustainable growth rarely happens overnight—it comes from looking ahead, preparing for problems while they are still small, and building the business you want before you desperately need it.
Main topics:
Hiring Before Reaching Capacity
Screening Employees for Reliability
Building Trust Through Training
Managing Multi-State Pet Sitters
Preparing Clients for Teams
Main takeaway: “Hire sooner than you think you need to, because it will save you a lot.”
Hiring out of desperation and hiring for capacity are two very different experiences.
Rachelle Steele spent months preparing her business before she actually needed her team at full capacity. She cleaned up client notes, created SOPs, established expectations, trained employees during a slower season, and prepared clients for what team-based care would look like.
That preparation meant that when demand increased, she wasn’t scrambling to find someone simply because she was exhausted. She already had trained people she trusted and could confidently say yes to more clients.
Growth does not have to begin with chaos. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your future business is start building the capacity before you need it.
About our guest: Rachelle Steele is the owner and founder of Loving Arms Pet Services in the Kansas City area, serving clients on both the Missouri and Kansas sides of the state line. After years of believing she would remain a solo pet sitter, she began intentionally building a team to create additional capacity while maintaining the standards and boundaries that matter most to her. Rachelle brings decades of retail management experience along with extensive animal rescue experience, including work with animals requiring specialized care. She is especially passionate about intentional business planning, clear communication, client education, and creating systems that allow a pet care company to grow without sacrificing quality of life.
Links:
Website: lapskc.com
Email: lovingarmspetserviceskc@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lapsforpets
Episode 419: Selling the Gap with Rachelle Steele
Episode 615: Boundaries, Budgets, and Burnout with Rachelle Steele
Pumble — Team communication platform Rachelle uses.
Gusto — Payroll platform discussed in connection with multistate employment.
Google Forms — Used for hiring applications and employee check-ins.
Pet Sitters International — Online Courses — Professional training resources.
The AI-Driven Leader by Geoff Woods — Discussed after the formal interview sign-off; include if that conversation is retained in the final edit.
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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
Collin 0:02
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 Critter. The journey from growing our business, doing everything ourselves, to hiring is a story that many of us have found ourselves in, and are finding ourselves in as we grow and expand, and think about what's actually possible. And so, how do we understand doing that well, still running the business that we want to, while understanding our own limitations and getting out of the business what we actually want, serving our clients well. To talk about this journey and this topic, I am so excited to have Rochelle Steele back on the show, owner of Loving Arms Pet Services. She's been on the show several times, and so I will have those links in the show notes so you can go and listen to those. Do not miss those episodes; they are absolutely fantastic and some of my favorites. So, Rochelle, I'm I'm really excited to have you back on the podcast to be talking about kind of the things that you're working on and this topic. For those who haven't listened to the previous two episodes, shame on them. No, no, no, shame here. Please, please tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do.
Rachelle S. 1:15
Thank you so much for having me back. It's been a pleasure and an honor, and I've made some great connections because of being on the podcast. So thank you to you and Megan for all you guys do. It's been so helpful. So my name is Rochelle Steele, and I am the owner and founder of Loving Arms Pet Services in Kansas City. And I'm on Kansas City, Missouri side, but we work both sides of the state line, which has its own unique challenges, as I found. I just celebrated five years of the business in July, so yes, exciting. And when I pulled the numbers through the reports of how many visits that was and how many photos I've sent and everything, those numbers were just astounding, so that was a fun celebration. And you know, I always thought I was going to be solo. I totally our first episode. I said I will never hire. I've seen you all go through this, and nope, not for me. 25 years in retail was enough of managing people and dealing with all that, I'm just going to do my own thing over here in the corner. And then when I was on last time, we talked about boundaries and keeping my peace. That peace was my most important thing. And if a client wants to mess with my peace, then they just won't be a client because I'm not going to do it. And I was thinking, you know, everything was really calm and my business was stable and everything was predictable, kind of. I mainly do vacation care, and so started opening up my mind because we talked in April of 25, start opening up my mind to other things. Was I going to try and acquire another business, maybe in a different field of the pet world, like a grooming or something, or was I going to hire and expand my services? What was I going to do? And so throughout the year, as I asked for chaos, I found it, and it found me. You know, they say what you're looking for and what you're watching for, you attract. So I did, and started working on SOPs and what I what I envisioned my perfect business with employees to look like. And I worked on that through a lot of the year, and finished it up in December and january 1. Sent out my first newsletter of the year, letting clients know I was hiring. And if they knew anybody, you know, I offered a referral bonus if they referred somebody that got hired and stayed on for at least 90 days, and did some, you know, things to let them know and get them prepared, knowing it may be months before I find somebody. But I didn't want to be surprised. Here's an employee, so I wanted to ease them into it and put out job postings and worked on, you know, my application. And I use ChatGPT. I only use ChatGPT because I don't want to learn another AI, even though they could probably help me with different things. I'm I'm doing good with with Chad as my AI assistant now. And you know, I took Doug's hiring course and learned a lot from that, and that was helpful. And made an application and went through the PDF, making an editable PDF and all the things and was getting a lot of clicks on the website for the application, but not a lot of people applying. So I reached out to Doug and I'm like, "What's up with this?" And he's like, "Yeah.". Probably PDF. People are thinking this is a pet sitter job. PDF might be a little bit much for that, so we switched to a Google form, and that really helped. So that was kind of my first learning: is make the application a lot easier because people don't think pet sitting is a career; they think it's a fun side hustle and playing with kitties and puppies.
Rachelle S. 5:24
I'm not pulling out a PDF long application, so I trimmed the application, put in the basics. You know where this is my service area. Can you drive there? Do you understand? There's no guaranteed hours. This is part time. Can you lift at least 40 pounds? Do you have a car? Do you have a driver's license? Do you have valid insurance? Can you pass a background check? Are you over 18? Those were the things that let's get all the logistics out of the way.
Collin 5:53
Yeah.
Rachelle S. 5:54
And then when are you available? And I put you know different shift times and days and what's your experience with pets? Is it professional, like pet sitting and dog walking, or rescue and volunteer with shelters, pet ownership? And then I ask, you know, are you willing and able to clean up bodily fluids like puke, pee, and poo? Let's get that out of the way. You know, can you scoop litter boxes? Can you navigate stairs? A lot of the houses in my service area are two-story houses, so making sure that people could navigate stairs. And then I put, you know, why would you? Why did you apply for Loving Arms Pet Services because I wanted to see did they do any research on a business or just randomly applying for jobs, and you know tell me about a time where you had something pressing to do and then something unexpected came up. How did you handle it? Mainly screening for if they have a visit that they're supposed to be at you know 4o'clock in the afternoon, and then kid gets sick and has to be picked up from school. What are you gonna do? I want to see their thought process, and so I was getting a fair amount of apps from that, and then I would reply with questions of based on their answers. You know, here's some specific questions for you, and then I wouldn't get a reply back, and so I was getting frustrated. And I'm like, why would you apply for a job and then like fall off the face of the earth? And should I reach out to them again, should I text them? And Chad walked me through it, and and we came up with I need to put a deadline on the email to reply by, so that way I'm not wasting my mental energy. And if one of my things to protect my piece of having an employee is not having to micromanage them and chase them down and everything, then let's just start from the beginning. And so I put a 24-hour deadline. If I reply to somebody's email at 5o'clock, I say, you know, can you please reply by 5o'clock tomorrow with the answers to these questions to be continued to be considered. Well, that weeds out about 90% of the applications because they don't reply, or they don't reply by the timeline. But then that saves my mental energy, that I'm not wondering and worrying, and I don't chase them down. I don't follow up. I did change on the website and on the Google form itself to watch for a reply because there will be a 24-hour deadline on that reply, so they should, in theory, see that and be expecting it. And I think I even put to watch your spam folder as well, so there can't be any excuses of I didn't know, I didn't see it in my spam folder, you know, whatever. And so that was one way I protected myself, my mental energy, and my peace from the beginning. And then the apps that I have had come in that I did hire were great. They replied, you know, in a very quickly manner, and their answers were very thoughtful and thought through. And then my next step would be a Zoom interview, and I put a deadline. You know, please reply to me by blank time tomorrow what option, the time frame would be good for you for the Zoom interview. And then if they relate to the Zoom interview, we were done. I did have one that was late, and she replied an hour later to the invite that she was stuck in traffic, so she couldn't make it to the Zoom interview. And I replied, "Thank you so much for letting me know, but this job is all about being responsible, and if you can't be there on time, communicating that. So we're not we are not moving forward with your application.". And I just have very that is like my biggest thing, and so we figured out how to work with that.
Rachelle S. 10:07
Of I do not want to have somebody assigned for a visit at 6o'clock in the morning, and at 550, I'm like, they're they haven't acknowledged their day in the app, and so I don't know if they're going to be there or not. And now, do I need to get up and do I need to? I just didn't want to do all that, so I set everything up in the beginning to make sure that people understood that this is not a side gig. I run a very professional business, so
Collin 10:35
you know, Rochelle, that's a a big step to be tackling now. When just a few years ago you again were saying no, I don't want any part of this. I mean, like fundamentally for you, what what changed to suddenly make this worth it for you at this time?
Rachelle S. 10:53
Yeah, it's a good question. The first thing that changed was I was tired. You know, when we first talked in 23, my business was only two years old. I didn't have as many clients. I was still getting regular days off and not working a lot of weird, crazy afternoon, you know, morning home for an hour or two, afternoon home for an hour or two, evening, you know, and hit the bed exhausted to do it again tomorrow, so I wasn't as tired. And then also in 24, I started noticing new client requests were going up, but I didn't have the capacity to fill them, so I was referring them out. And then in 25, current client requests I was having to say no to because I didn't have the capacity to do them. I also noticed a lot of people are traveling. They're not traveling more last minute. They're making their pet sitter plans more last minute, and so that meant I didn't have the capacity that I used to have. And you know, I was already full, and somebody's reaching out for a week or two away, and I was having to say no, and I I got uncomfortable with having to tell new business no, and especially my existing business no, and so rather than referring people out to somebody else and then hoping that everything went well and feeling guilty if something didn't, I just figured. Well, I could just refer them to my employees. That's going to be a lot easier because then I have control of what happened, and if the visit went to the expectations that I've set for the client and that they've become used to, it
Collin 12:38
becomes that what have I promised my clients? I love that. Of hey, and Megan and I view it the same way. Of when you become a client of ours, I am promising you, I'm going to be there. Our company will be there for you whenever you need it, and that does mean certain things. And I think that that's just all of a sudden it's this okay if that's really what I'm promising if that's really what I want them to experience what do I have to do as a business to make that happen and that's a very different mindset I think Rochelle instead of because you didn't think what do I need to do because you could have just said well I'll just work harder, right? I'll just stretch my days longer. I'll just whatever you said that my business will do this to serve my clients. I think that's a very different way of of really thinking about how we operate.
Rachelle S. 13:34
For sure, and I didn't, you know, we've talked before about it. That I started this business so I have some control of my schedule in my life, and protecting my peace, and you know, protecting my nap time and everything. And it's like I can't, I I don't want to, and can't work more. I mean, I could, but it's not good for me, and I wouldn't be giving the best service to my clients if I'm tired. So I had to to make the choice of: Am I going to stay where I'm at as far as how many clients I have and not onboard anymore, or do I grow and train people to do the business as I expect it to
Collin 14:20
be done? Have you heard of Time to Pet? Doug from Bad to the Bone Pet Care has this to say:
Doug Keeling 14:25
Time to Pet has made managing my team and clients so much easier. Our clients love the easy-to-use app and scheduling features, and our sitters love being able to have all of their information organized and easily accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging. By keeping conversations on Time to Pet, we are able to monitor our team and ensure nothing ever falls through the cracks.
Collin 14:45
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 timetopet.com/confessional. Well, and there's one thing to protect your piece of your against your clients. I think there's a. Now they're one to protect it against a growing team of people who are asking questions or they need help. You're just taking on it's more responsibility to to now manage those people. So how are you drawing that line still? Of okay, I have my my boundaries and my my peace against my clients, and I also need to have that against my team as well. How are you balancing that?
Rachelle S. 15:27
I think I'm doing a pretty good job, and I I am one that I like to reverse engineer everything. So I go to the end and go, okay, what would cause me to feel that you know I'm not setting good boundaries, or I've lost my peace, or should I have hired at all? You know, whatever. And what what are those things that could happen, and then how do I prevent them from happening?
Collin 15:52
Yeah,
Rachelle S. 15:52
and putting that in place. So you know, I I worked on my SOPs and my handbook a lot of the year last year, so that way it was piecemealed. It wasn't a big, huge because that is a big task. And so working on those throughout the year, and you know, listening to you and Megan talking about write everything down, get it all out of your head. So as clients were booking, I was fixing the notes of oh, I have Oliver eats, you know, a cup of food a day, or I have nothing else because I know where everything in the house is, you know. So having to walk through the visit with fresh eyes and going, okay, here's where Oliver's food is. Here's where his treats are. He's allergic to everything, so he can't have anything that mom didn't provide. You know all the things, and so cleaning up my notes as if it was a new client or a new employee that has never been in this house before. That I wanted the notes to be where any of my employees could walk in blind and handle that client as I expected. I haven't. I've only had one so far go into a house blind, and it was a very easy cat. And mom leaves everything on the counter. And I just wanted to test and see how would she do on a visit blind, and she did great. But the having SOPs and having the employees, all of the checks and screening process going into it for the employees made them really realize this is serious. And my training with them and everything, and so they read the SOPs. They didn't just sign off on them; they read them and signed off. And then the handbook read it and and asked questions. And I did a, you know, I do shadow trainings, and they cannot go out on their own until they've done their pet CPR and first aid certification, which I pay for because it's important for me. So I have I pay for it, and then they do their shadow visits, and I have them run through the app and do a visit report right alongside me, and take my required pictures right alongside me, so I can see how they're doing, and we can coach along the way. So it's about two weeks before they go out on their own, at least, depending on how many shadow visits they do with me, and then I have the approval turned on, so I have to approve their messages before it goes to a client, and I can edit the typos and everything, and make it make sure it's professional before my client sees it. And you know, I told all my clients before I brought an employee in that I'm going to have a shadow employee tomorrow, and so they didn't wonder on the cameras who's that other person in my house or whatever. Even though I gave them four months warning, you know that I was going to have people, and I think that really helped my clients because I wasn't just sending people in blind, and they were getting used to having a team come in and saw that I was taking it, I was training, and I was taking it seriously, and everything. And then we have Pumble for communications, and I've got different channels set up for. I have the one most frequently used, which I love, is water cooler for them to all just chit chat and share whatever is going on in their life and build a community, but I have different channels set up for different communications and visit notes and if anybody has a question about something and they've been great to utilize that and I have my 30 day 60 day 90 day check insurveys on Google Forms for them to fill out, and then I can talk to them and ask them what's going on. So I've just I feel like I've reverse engineered it and make sure and praise them even for the smallest things at first. Like great job in the litter box, because you got to build up that. Confidence in them, and they're like, it's just a litter box. But she's all excited about the litter box.
Rachelle S. 20:05
But just like dogs, you know, and I employees and humans are not dogs. But you know, we re we repeat what we get rewarded for. And so if we recognize all the big, all the small things, then if there is something big that happens that went sideways, it's okay, and it's easier to communicate that. And we've built that trust, and they're like, "Oh yeah, that was. I'm so sorry," and they'll fix it, and it's not a big deal.
Collin 20:35
You said that word trust, and I hope what as I'm listening to this, Rochelle. All I'm hearing is building trust, building trust, building trust. It's you are building trust with the new employee. Of I need to trust you with these, and here's how I learn to trust you. I have steps. You follow steps. I trust you follow steps. I have thing. You do thing. I trust you do thing. Right. It's this constant process of putting more in front of people, letting them work through it, and then we move on. We put more in front, and that at the fundamentally, when you say like again, like, and I have I've loved this ever since we talked last. Of I will defend my peace before I defend my price. Like I, this is what that's about. How do I have peace as a business owner with employees? I trust them. How do I trust them? I have good processes for them to follow, and then I watch them follow it, and I hold them to that. That's it. Like that fun. And at some point, I do have to let go because it's it's going to be easy for me to just leave them on trainee and always approve their visits for the next seven years or whatever that they're with me. Like I I could do, I could do that. So there is some a little there's some with me, but it's that trust, and then you're also building the trust that the that the team member has with you, and their confidence. I love that that you brought that up. Of this person coming in, they've never done it. They may say, "Oh, I've owned cats before," and you're like, "Yeah, yeah, you've never have cared for a cat the way we care for cats." And I need you to trust me that this way is best. And that little bit of a hey, great job, Rachelle. That took me so long to remember to do when we were training people. I would go quiet because I would notice hey, they're doing okay, and I'd be like, I don't need to say anything. But then I realized they have no idea they're doing okay. They they're just trying stuff, and until because what I found was is I was only giving that kind of feedback when they did something wrong. Collin only popped in when you did something wrong. Instead, it was no on the front end. Hey, it's great job holding the leash right there. Oh man, when that dog looked left, I love how you followed their eyesight and you looked over there. Oh, you paused and you waited for that dog. Oh, you you know you introduced your cat by going slow, like all that stuff. You're right, Rochelle. Like they they don't know, and they're they are looking to us to give that kind of feedback to build that confidence. The more confident they are, the more they are trusting us. The more they trust us, the more they're going to follow our procedures. The more they follow the procedures, the more I trust them. The more peace of mind I have. Like it's just like ah, there's so much, and that's why I get so frustrated when people just say, "Oh, quote unquote, just hire." Like it's easy. It's not. Like it's it's a lot of work. It
Rachelle S. 23:37
isn't. You know, I mean, just getting applications can be a challenge, and then getting good applications is a challenge, and then getting good applications that follow through is a challenge, and then you get them in the door, and they are like, "Oh, I didn't realize that it was gonna be like this much." Yeah, you know, because I did have an employee. My first hire, I was all excited and everything was great. And she'd done pet sitting for friends and family, like on the side, you know, whatever. Um, and yeah, she didn't last a week before she called and left me a voicemail that this wasn't working. Um, and she said she had a change in schedule availability, which could be. I think it was a little bit more than that, but it is what it is. And so I learned from Nat of how to set better expectations in the beginning. And in I do a Zoom interview, get a good feel for them, ask some questions. Then we do an in person because Zoom is great, but in person I can get an energy feel, and it's more okay. We've kind of answered all the big questions, so then I show them this is the app, this is how I use it, this is what I expect in my updates, and I'm going to give you a scenario. And I want you to write the update of what happened. And so I tell him, you know, we came in and Gabby met us at the front door, and we fed her. We gave her water. She went outside. She did a pee, and she did a poop, and she went back in her kennel. Do not give me that update. That is what happened. But don't write it that way. I want you to write it storytelling and include the animal's personality, and it puts them on the spot. And they're like, and I want to see because that's how my updates are. That's how my clients are used to updates in it. I assign personalities to the dog, you know, and like I use Gabby as an example, but Gabby loves to sunbathe. She does not want to go potty, and so you know, in my updates, I'll be like, Gabby and I went outside, and she found her spot, and she wanted to sunbathe, and I asked her she wanted to go potty, and she said, nope, legs are broke, don't work, and so I picked her up and carried her out and put her in a yard, and suddenly the legs work because she ran back to her sunspot, and so I picked her up and took her back up. You know, make it a story. Don't. This is what we did because we have visit checklists to say we did all these things. But I need a story. I need, you know, for the the client if they're at work, they need to laugh in the middle of the day, and they need cute pictures, but they also need the required pictures of yes, we did these things. The pictures are the proof. You don't need to go into a lot of detail if you have great pictures. And if they're a vacation client, then we need to make sure that the client knows that they're eating. So pictures of them eating is important. If we put the food down and they're like, "Yeah, I'll get with that later," then show the pictures of the food. It seems so small, but we want to make sure that they know that we did what we said we did, and here's the proof that we did. But then I've also told my employees if you don't put it in a visit update, either in words, in pictures, or you forget to do the checklist, and the client reaches out and asks, "I can't tell. I can't stand up for you. I can't defend you. I can't answer the client, and that means I may be messaging you at 8o'clock at night, going, 'Did you do this?' And you're like, 'That was 10 hours ago. I like to say that I did, but I don't know, and that's going to be a problem. So here's why this is all important.
Rachelle S. 27:25
And you know, if you don't want me to be questioning you, or you don't want the client to be questioning you, because that's never comfortable. This is how you avoid it. So making sure that my employees understand the why is really important, and they understand that if, especially if it's a vacation client, I want pictures. I want a face pic of every animal. I want to see the eyes because the eyes can tell us if there's health issues going on. And you know, if they've got goopy eyes, then they didn't have goopy eyes in the pictures three days ago. That's a problem. You know, whatever. I want a full body shot. I want pictures of them eating. If they aren't eating, I want pictures of their food, and that they had access to it. And then we know on the next visit if the same amount of food is there. Okay, that's something to keep an eye on, you know. So telling them the whys has really helped them to understand. And then I feel very lucky that the team that I have, they aren't doing this for the money. They're kind of doing it for the money, obviously, because we don't do things for free. But they don't need it to pay their bills, so they're not expecting any certain amount of hours. But two of my team members are involved in rescue and shelter work, so that was huge for me because they're used to handling animals that they've never met before. They don't know how they're going to react. You know, one of them has done fostering for dogs, and she's had like 70 dogs through her house, so she can read language really quickly and adapt really quickly. And how do we make this change? And then my other one works with the spicy cats at the shelter, and so she's been doing that for 11 years. She can walk in and immediately look at the cat and go, "Yeah, no, we're not, we're not going to pet you," or "Oh my gosh, you want to be pet? Okay, cool," and adjust and adapt accordingly. So I think that was a huge benefit for me, and maybe it's because I do rescue work that I attracted rescue, you know, people. But they also understand the importance of updates because they have to write it for the shelter or for the rescue anyway. So that helped as well.
Collin 29:37
Yeah, yeah. Trying to like, I always view it as the updates are the way we are. We could be like updates allow us allow our work to be audited by both the client and internally as well. And the more opaque I am, the less auditable I am. The more of a black box are the what we do is, and the more questions. Come up and trying to get people to understand. Like, I never want the client to ask, "What if?" or "What happened?" or "Did you really?" Like, that's a really dangerous question for us to spiral down. I mean, Rochelle, when you are screening for people, I am curious. Like, what are you screening for the prior experience? Are you screening for a level of professionalism? Like, what would you say you're trying to screen for as you're getting applicants through the door?
Rachelle S. 30:33
My things that, for me personally, to not have an employee caused me stress, and then we broke that down to, okay, what would that cause? You know, what would cause you stress? Attendance, tardiness, poor communication, and you know, even everything I send out now has a deadline on it. So even like the job offer letter, please reply by 5 p.m. if you accept the position. They accept the position. Great. I'm going to get you signed up in Gusto by noon tomorrow. I need you to have this done. You know, so setting expectations and deadlines right away, and in the interview process, asking if you were to get a deadline, let's say a week from now, you know next Tuesday at noon. How do you work with that? Do you work ahead of time to get that done by tomorrow at noon, so it's off your plate because things could happen? Or at 1150, do you go, oh, oh, wow, that's due in 10 minutes, and you went through it. How do you handle deadlines? And if you can't make the deadline, what's what do you do? If you don't, if somebody doesn't give you a deadline, what do you do? Do you make up a deadline in your head? Do you ask if there's a deadline? Whatever. So I I make it very clear that everything is time sensitive, and then that communication has to be has to be a big thing. That can they communicate, and I can teach a lot of things with the animals and you know with clients, but customer service is is a big part. And if they can't communicate well, and they can't follow instructions, and so that's part of my screening, you know, with the deadlines as well of following instructions. And after my in-person interview, I tell them, okay, I'm going to send you the copy of the job description. This is, of course, if I want to move forward with them, I'll send you a copy of the job description, and I need you to review it and let me know if you have any questions. I'm going to send you another visit now that we've kind of went through this and how your update went. I'm going to send you another scenario, and I need you to write me out an update and send it back with your five favorite pictures of your pets, your friends' pets, pets at the park, whatever that match the guidelines of what I told you I expect in a visit update, and you know give them a deadline and see can they do it? If they didn't send me the pictures that I told them earlier in the interview that I didn't actually write down for them, did they remember? If they didn't remember, did they ask?
Collin 33:34
Yeah.
Rachelle S. 33:35
If they, you know, whatever. And if they don't have pets for some reason, then go grab your friends' pets, or go to the park, or you know whatever. And did they adapt the the update according to how we went through the update that we did in the interview? That way, I can see how are they for feedback, and I ask them, how do you like feedback? You know, and how do you learn? Do you learn visually, verbally, or by doing, and kind of go through that and see did they do those things and did they retain and if they didn't understand the assignment did they ask so that's a big thing they think too.
Collin 34:18
There's so much that goes into that screening process that that kind of shows us okay these are the kind of people I want in my business and here's how I'm going to get them. Another aspect of hiring is operationally as a business how do I need to structure? You started off by talking about how you are in a very we'll say interesting scenario where you are operating in two different states simultaneously, Rochelle. This is how does this work? I'm just I'm really like how did you even go start start going about the what's required of me as a business, and how do I stay compliant working in two different states?
Rachelle S. 35:00
Great question. So my LLC is Missouri because that's where I live, and then I used Chad for a lot of what do I need to do to hire employees and work in Kansas, and Chad, any of your Chat GPT, your Chat, any of your AI, just in case anybody isn't aware, they do hallucinate, and that is the technical term. When they make stuff up, they pull stuff randomly out of the air. I don't know what they do, but like one time I asked Chad, "Do I need to set up a foreign entity in Kansas if I have employees working in Kansas and Missouri, and he said no, and I pulled up the Kansas, you know, Department of Labor, whatever I don't remember which website it was, and I pasted it in there, and I said really because the Kansas website says I do, and he's like, oh yeah, you absolutely do. So I had to set up right, so I learned very quickly. Show your sources. You know, whenever I asked Chad something that had really big implications, like setting up stuff for hiring and employees, to show me your source. Whenever you answer a question and say I do or do not, give me the website that I can go double check the work, and so just like the employees give any expectation of this is what I need when you when you give me work. So yeah, I had to set up the foreign entity in Kansas, and then working through both sides of the state for setting up for taxes, your payroll taxes, your state taxes, your unemployment, and Kansas recognizes that I'm mainly in Missouri. Okay,
Rachelle S. 36:49
I have very I have some business in Kansas, and so I talked to the unemployment office there, Department of Labor. I don't know what which office it is because I have so many offices in my head, but got confirmation that I do not need to do unemployment tax in Kansas because Missouri is doing unemployment tax. But I do need, you know, Kansas tax and and different things, just not the unemployment tax for Kansas. And I had already, when I first set up the business, had a federal ID number, so I was good there and had my business checking account and everything. So setting up with Gusto for payroll because they are good for small businesses. That was about a month long argument with them of yes we can run payroll for two states at this you know no big deal, and that is true. They can run payroll for different states, but what they are not able to do, we found out after a month of working back and forth in emails and phone calls, is they cannot run payroll for one employee working two states in the same pay period. So sometimes some of my clients live across the street from each other. One's in Kansas, one's in Missouri. So I had to make the choice of: Do I set up where I have an employee that only works the Kansas side for this week, and I have another employee that only works the Missouri side for this week, and I handle the weird routes that it only makes sense for somebody who can work both sides, and that didn't last long because that was annoying. So, I, I, I was like, that doesn't even make sense for me to have employees if I can't have them do what needs to be done.
Speaker 2 38:37
Yeah.
Rachelle S. 38:37
So, I asked and found out, and did a lot of arguing back and forth with Gusto, and found a workaround of I can just keep changing the employee's address. I have a quote-unquote office, which is at a friend's house in Kansas, because I had to for my foreign entity. So I have a business office in Kansas, because that's fun. Pet sitters, we don't have offices, let alone in two states. And so I run payroll for her Missouri hours, and then I switch her work location to the Kansas side, and I run payroll as an off-cycle payroll for her Kansas hours, and I have to tell it do not recalculate the taxes because otherwise it will recalculate all her Missouri over to Kansas or vice versa. So there's a few extra steps in running payroll, but I do try to keep only one employee going back and forth across the state line, and she also works a full-time job on the Kansas side, so she's my main Kansas employee. That way, she already has to file taxes for two states because she works in Kansas but lives in Missouri. So it's not an extra step for her because she's already used to it. And then I also do both sides of the state line, which so I would love to hire a Kansas employee. So I am still hiring. I would love to hire somebody that lives and works in Kansas, but that's yet to be found.
Collin 40:14
It's it's one of those. I know what I how I what I want to do in my business, but now I have to structure it legally so that, and that because that's often the like one constraint we don't think about. Well, I just know what's going to be best, so that's what I'm going to do. Instead of what do I what's what's required of me in order to make this work, and this is where understanding labor laws all of a sudden becomes really important. I know, I know, out in California, it's things like no split shift, so I can't have somebody work morning and afternoon. So that changes my staffing. Or now you're going, do I have a dedicated team in one state and not the other? And I nary the two shall meet. Is is that what I need to do? I mean, how when you're faced with something like that, how do you start working through the options and and resolve to go? Okay, well, this is what I want to do.
Rachelle S. 41:12
Trial and error, and you know, when I said at the business, I said it at. I originally was going to pay every two weeks because that was then that meant that I only had run payroll twice a month, and so that was easy. Quickly realized if I'm going to have to have somebody on just the Kansas side and somebody else on just the Missouri side, then that means that I need to run payroll every week. So that way, if I had somebody work on the Kansas side, but I don't have any Kansas clients next week, and I need them to work on the Missouri side. I'm bringing them over, you know. So running payroll every week instead of every other week was a quick change that I had to make. And then coaching the employees: if you cross the state line, this is how I need you to document it, and the clocking in and out, and make a note when you clock in and out where that, you know, those hours that I just clocked out for were Missouri hours, or those hours I just clocked out for were Kansas hours. So that way I can separate accordingly when I run the payroll. Yeah, just a lot of little things that you figure it out as you go, and then when a question pops up, go find the answer, and then figure out okay, how do I avoid that problem and that hiccup? And that's I have three employees now; they're all part timers, but figuring out yeah what makes sense and when I'm doing a scheduling and a routing, and what what makes the most sense for the state hours, as well as then what makes the most sense for who's worked these clients and knows these clients and these homes and all the little things, but it took about a month, and I got into the groove and figured it out. And okay, this is what we're going to do. It's not the cleanest, but it is compliant. And for right now, that's how we're going to have to do things.
Collin 43:20
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Rachelle S. 44:53
So, in the interview, well, from the very beginning on the application, I I make it clear that you'd be. Needing to be able to work both sides of the state line, and then in a Zoom interview, I ask in the in-person interview, I ask, and I make sure that they understand it means you, if you live on Missouri and you work in Kansas, you have to file for both states. Doesn't mean you owe both states taxes because Kansas will credit you for, you know, they'll that Kansas taxes that you paid will get a credit for, you know, and everything. But it it does make your taxes a little bit more challenging. So making sure from the very beginning, and if they oh, and because it's Kansas City, we cross the state line a lot anyway for everything. I mean, your grocery store could be on the other side of the state line, so it's not as big of a deal because we're used to it. But making sure it's very clear in the beginning, and then as far as the clocking in and out, and just here's how we do it. If you're on the Missouri side, you're fine. You clock in at the beginning of your shift. You clock out at the end of your shift. If you cross to the Kansas side, then you work your Missouri hours. You go over for your Kansas visit, clock out, note Missouri hours, and then clock in for your Kansas hours. And then when you're done with your Kansas visits, if you happen to cross back over, which I try to not do to
Collin 46:21
them.
Rachelle S. 46:21
If you cross back over into Missouri, clock out. No Kansas hours. Clock in. These are Missouri hours. So it is a little bit cumbersome. But when you just explain it, this is how we do it, and this is how it makes sense for them for taxes, so that they don't have a mess of you know filing their taxes and trying to piece out what was Kansas, what was Missouri. Now they owe Kansas money because I didn't take out the taxes, right, or whatever. And it's easier for me as well.
Collin 46:52
How has it been for you flexing the people management muscle with this process?
Rachelle S. 47:01
I think the managing the people part has been easy because I had 25 years of retail management experience. So managing people, that part came easy. It's managing all of the working parts of this business when you throw people into the mix, and then clients into the mix, and then clients' pets into the mix, and you know everyone has their own opinion of how this is going. You know, so when you show up, yeah, you show up with a new employee to a house that you've cared for the dog for four years, and you show up and you walk in, and the dog's like, "Hey, how are you? Who's that?" You're like, oh yeah, I've told the client, but the dog didn't get the memo that I was bringing somebody new in, and so having to work through that, you know, or even sometimes the cats are are sensitive to somebody coming in. So that was that. That's been more interesting, and so making sure to talk with the team before we walk in and go, okay, here's what I expect to happen. But in case this goes, this is how we need to have it, you know. Because some dogs, I totally expect the dog to be like, hey, this is cool, I got another friend, and that's not what they did. And so it's ooh, okay. So we need to have both plans ready. Sending a lot of training videos. I did the PetSit Pro, I think is what it is through PSI. So sending videos that okay, looking at the schedule, I'm gonna send you all how to work with an aggressive cat this week because next week we have one that could go either way. Depends on the day, so you need to be you need to be prepared for the warning signs. You know, so kind of forecasting ahead of what I see, I want it fresh in their mind. So here's the training to do, and you know, working with the clients, they've been great. I've had a few kind of give me some pushback, and one I just had to tell her in no uncertain terms I need to take tomorrow off. I haven't had a day off in seven weeks. I need to take tomorrow off. I brought this other employee in. I've already showed her the cats. Your shy cat that took years to come out for me actually came out for her, so he even approved. So it's okay. I've got to take tomorrow off, and she's going to do fine. We're going to be fine, and everything did go fine. And the client was like, "Oh my gosh, that's so great!" The shy cat did come out for her too, you know. So that that was helpful, and I was totally prepared in my mind. If you continue to push this, dear client, you will be gone. I will not. You've got to be able to be okay with the team, and it, you know, I she's been a great client for years. But I will not be handcuffed to a client. I had another one that I had to tell her no. I didn't have availability for this time frame that she had asked for. It was before I even had employees, and she was one that was like, "Well, whoever you bring into my house, I want to do a meet and greet with first." I was like, "No problem. I charge for my meet and greets, so you know you'll pay to meet whoever. But that's fine if that's what you want to do. That's okay. Well, when she got, and I don't think I told her that I didn't have availability. I think she saw in the schedule the banner that I had no availability for this certain time frame. So she sent me a note and she said, "I see that you don't have availability for this time frame, just one of your employees, and I was like, oh, suddenly it's okay that somebody you haven't met can come into your house. That's interesting, and so she hasn't met the two that are trained for her house now, and she loves them, and everything's fine, you know. But those were really the two client pushbacks that I had.
Rachelle S. 51:02
I really expected more, and I went into it with the understanding in my head that I've got to be okay to let them go. I cannot be handcuffed with them. And if anybody wants to challenge me, I know you've been with me since day one. This is how it's going to have to be, and what if I I was prepared to have the conversation with the the client? What if I got into a car accident or whatever that I could no longer do this job? You would have to find somebody.
Collin 51:36
Yeah,
Rachelle S. 51:37
wouldn't you rather me have found that person for you and trained that person and taught them, and you can you know meet the person. That's fine. But wouldn't you rather me have done all the work for you, so you just have the seamless care and you don't have to interview 10 people or re-go over all of the things? I'm taking all of that off your plate, but I really didn't even have to have that conversation with people, so that was awesome.
Collin 52:03
Well, that is a sticking point that I know we get in our heads, and truthfully, there, like you encountered, Rochelle, there are going to people be people who who just want the one person, like they really just, and it's their their preference. But I think if we back out and look at the like client stated preference versus revealed preference. Like, what do they actually want? They say they want the person, but really, what they want is the reliability of the visit. They want that guaranteed visit. Just like you, just like you had, you experienced both. You had the same. Well, it was the same person. It was like I want the same person. But also, then they're like, Well, just kidding. I really need the service, so you're going to be here. Like fundamentally, when we get like that, that is a preference, but it's the one that they pick. Of are you available or are you not? Because at the end of the day, that's all they want. They want to know: can you do the visit? Can you not? And and when you can say, yeah, we can do the visit. We'll be there. That's that's really that revealed preference of them saying, okay, I'm glad you can take these over, and we get so scared about the stated preference. And again, I we experience this. There are some clients who it's either they're never going to be okay with it, or it's going to take a while for them to become okay with it. You just have to accept that. Hey, that's going to be okay, but trust that the clients they want the walk done, and by trusting you and trusting your processes and what you've built, they're going to put that trust into that next person. That's that transferable trust that we take that we have to take advantage of to make this work.
Rachelle S. 53:39
Yes, for sure. And you know I had a client I onboarded in November of last year. That when she reached out, she asked, "Is it just you, or would there be multiple people coming in?" And I let her know. Right now, it's just me. January, I'm going to start hiring, so there's going to be multiple people. And she said her cat doesn't do well with strangers, and so she really wanted one person. I said, "Then I'm not the right sitter for you." And then she reached back out about booking a consult, and I'm like, "Okay, here we go." And she is actually, we have her for three weeks in September. We have her for three weeks in October, she has not met my other sitters. I just, you know, oh, I've got this other one coming in, and we're training. And because my sitters followed the protocols that I set, you know, the cat is great. He is, he is not the anxious part of this family. He is great, and he's accepting the new people. And she loves us. And she gave the team a great review. She's referred two clients to me in this last week. She, you know, I really thought she was going to be a stickler on it, and so I told her in the beginning. And she's been one of my biggest cheerleaders for the. Team and she now understands the value of the team because she does travel a lot. And I wasn't prepared for. I'm signing up for two a day visits for three weeks that guaranteed me no time off. Yep. And she's home for a week and she's gone for another three weeks. Wow. So I wouldn't have taken her on if she wasn't going to be okay with the team, yeah. And that would have cost my business a lot of money.
Collin 55:26
Rochelle, thinking back to 2023 and the "I'll never hire" version of you, what what would you want to go back and tell them?
Rachelle S. 55:36
You say that now, but be prepared to hire, and hire sooner than you think you need to, because it will save you a lot. But do do everything the way you do things. Predict the worst, and then prevent it. You know, go what's all the catastrophes that could happen, and then put plans in place for them to not happen, and that all comes down to setting the right expectations with everybody, with the clients, with the the employees, whatever, and hold the line. You know these are your values. Protect those values and don't waver on them. You will find the people, and to do what I did, which is hire for capacity, I hired and trained employees before I needed them. It did cost me some money. Luckily, I had I had reserve for it, you know, because I had planned ahead. I did spend money up front to get them on and get them going, and I had two in April and one in May, and it was not a busy time. But I knew I wanted the slow time for me to get them trained, get them onboarded, get them ready, test, and figure out what all the client hiccups were going to be. So when summer came, we were well oiled machine, and I was ready for whatever happened, and I had I was pulling the numbers, and June was a little bit down from last year, but July I was up. I had a record breaking July. I had a record breaking August and September already. I'm up. I have 141 visits on the books for September compared to last year's 94.
Collin 57:27
Wow!
Rachelle S. 57:27
I got two new clients onboarded last night and one Friday. I for September that two one was for this weekend for Labor Day weekend. I wouldn't have had the capacity to take them if I didn't have a team,
Collin 57:41
yeah,
Rachelle S. 57:41
and one for next weekend. You know these really short requests, really soon requests, and so I built for the capacity, and then went okay. Now I got to bust and find the clients to fill this gap, but I didn't want to be the other way around. I didn't want to be scrambling, going, oh my gosh, I'm tired, and I've got all these clients, and I need to hire somebody. That would not have worked.
Collin 58:06
You make really short-sighted decisions, and I think that's the biggest lesson that I'm getting from you, Rochelle. Here is when you look even just a little bit ahead, you start making better and more solid decisions and plans. You really do because if you're in the moment, then you're just reacting, constantly reacting. Make pain go away right now. Make pain go away right now. You hire short-sighted. You plan. You don't write the full SOPs. And so this really is the hey, give yourself runway. Give yourself runway. I mean, the fact that you were even going back through, like at the very beginning of, I'm going to just go ahead and start tweaking some SOPs and client notes here. I'm just, you know, hey, it's going to take a couple minutes now, but at least it's there. And then I'm going to start writing. How would I do this? And then I'm going to so that eventually, whether I do or not, like, hey, then I'll know my business a lot better. I'm better prepared. I know what's going on, and then also somebody else needs to step in. It's okay too. And but I think I think many times we do think of that phrase, just hire, and we think I can do this tomorrow, and I get somebody in my business tomorrow. And really recognizing not just that it takes time, but you need to give yourself time to get to that point, and that that's okay. And having that six month, eight month ramp up to get there, that's how you're going to have a lot more rock solid success than if you try and rush through it.
Rachelle S. 59:37
Yes, for sure. That I and and I appreciate you having me on to talk about this because that's I do see so many oh just hire and here's the steps here's the five easy steps too oh man even if I only had one state it's not that easy you know you there are some things that you have to fill out and you have to wait for to get something in the mail. So you get some kind of a number that you go back to the website and put in to finish the process. Yeah, you know, and like with Workman's Comp, I know you know because you're in Missouri. We don't have to have Workman's Comp till we have five employees. I'm like, oh no, I want Workman's Comp from the first minute they clock in. Yeah, because if they trip over, you know, something and injure themselves. I want workmen's comp from the second they they clock in, and in the groups, you know, I learned about the non-owned auto. Got that set up before I had employees. I just had to call my agent. Go, okay, got an employee. You know, here's what we do, and you know, having all of the things in place, so then that way it's like, okay, I did everything. Now I now I have an employee. What do I do? Yeah, we can focus on the employee. You know, getting the clients prepared for it well in advance. That I think is huge as well. And work through any hiccups or questions before it becomes an issue on a holiday weekend when you don't have time for that, and you're tired and everything. And I think the other thing I would say is hire more than what you need. If you think you only need one person because you only have like let's say 10 hours, yeah. What if that person wants to take time off, or what if they get sick, or what if, or what if, or what if? So if you think you need one, hire three, and then you'll always have that coverage. Because, especially if you're in vacation care, you may end up with more morning visits and no evening visits. Well, if you hired somebody who's an evening weekend employee, well, that didn't help you a whole lot. Or you get a whole bunch of evening, or you know whatever. So I I really paying attention to the little things when they are still little things will prevent them from becoming big things.
Collin 1:01:56
Rochelle, I really want to thank you for coming on the podcast and talking us through this to start early to plan and be hyper intentional about each step along the way, so that we are aligned with our business goals and our personal goals. I know that there again, there's a lot here, and for people who want to get connected with you, pick your brain on this stuff or just follow along with all the cool stuff that you do, Rochelle, how best can they do that?
Rachelle S. 1:02:24
Best would probably be if you want to email me, lovingarmspetserviceskc@gmail.com. That's going to probably be the easiest, quickest way. I do have the Facebook page, but I do not have Facebook on my phone, so I see it when I happen to have the laptop out, which is not very often. So that's not the quickest way to get a hold of me. And so, yeah, I would say email, but you can always follow the business page, Loving Arms Pet Services, on Facebook. That's the only social media platform that I have, and love to help answer any questions. But if you haven't figured out already, if you ask me questions, I will ask you questions back. I will give you a deadline if you don't put in the work. I'm not wasting my energy.
Collin 1:03:15
Perfect, Rochelle. Again, thank you so much. I I always enjoy our time getting to talk. So, thank you for coming back on the show today.
Rachelle S. 1:03:25
Thank you for having me.
Collin 1:03:27
I love when Rochelle reminded us to hire sooner than you think you need to because it will save you a lot. Hiring for capacity and hiring out of desperation are two completely different experiences and ways of hiring. Rochelle reminds us to spend the time, take the time to prepare your business and yourself for the step of bringing somebody on as an employee. Do the work beforehand, before you need the hire, before your business is ready, so you can actually bring them into a business that is ready for them, cleaning up the client notes or creating the SOPs or establishing those expectations that they are going to have to follow, or training procedures and policies. All of that needs to be in place so that a we know we're ready to execute and not just winging it, and b it sets our team up for success. When we prepare before the demand increases, we're no longer scrambling. We're no longer frustrated. We're no longer in desperation mode just because we're exhausted. We have a plan, and we can execute. I can hire people. I can then train those people when that plan is in place. Growth in your business, growth in growth in any business, does not have to begin with chaos. Sometimes the best thing that you can do for your future business and your future self. Is just to start building the capacity before you need it. We want to thank today's sponsors, Tined Pet and Critter, 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.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
