375: Fail, Learn, Improve, & Grow with Wayne Hartley Jr.

375: Fail, Learn, Improve, & Grow with Wayne Hartley Jr.

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How do you know when it’s time to walk away from a dream? As a business owner and entrepreneur, we are driven by our passions to our goals we set for ourselves. However, sometimes we have to quit and start over. Pivoting (quit by a different name) means course correcting due to either external, or internal factors. Wayne Hartley Jr., owner and founder of Happy Hearts Pet Care ATL, joins the show to share how he quit his dream of mobile grooming to start a brick and mortar business. Wayne sacrificed a lot to make it happen, but it was all because he recognized he needed the change to better connect with his mission. He gives advice on how to keep moving forward, even when you’re exhausted, and how to innovate well in your business.

374: Lockboxes 101

374: Lockboxes 101

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Have you thought of using lockboxes? We discuss the benefits and implementation of lockboxes for managing client keys. We break down the reasons for adopting lockboxes, communicating the change to clients, and tailoring the approach for new and existing clients. We walk through our process of implementing them and how to address potential issues.

373: Embracing Change and Growth with Gricel Arroyo

373: Embracing Change and Growth with Gricel Arroyo

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How do you handle transformation and change? Gricel Arroyo, owner of Arroyo Pets, shares her journey of transforming her business over the past year. Starting with a focus on nail trims, she gradually expanded her services, with grooming now accounting for half of her business. She emphasizes the importance of up-selling services as a solution for clients. She highlights the need of being open-minded and learning from one another's experiences within the team. Becoming an employer has been a learning experience for Gricel, as she considers herself more of a team leader and mentor than a boss. Her primary goal is to create a better workplace where people feel heard and can grow within the team. She also delves into how she has changed as a person, learning to cope when things don't go as planned and understanding that she cannot control everything.

372: Improving Your Local Digital Marketing

372: Improving Your Local Digital Marketing

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Are you using Digital Marketing to its fullest? In our busy lives as business owners, it can be hard to know where to invest our time, attention, and financial resources. Thankfully, there are a lot of free options! We break down the four we love and how to get the most out of them. We also discuss how to know which to start in and the importance of balance so you don’t feel like you have to do everything. 

371: Stepping Away with Claire Aither

371: Stepping Away with Claire Aither

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Claire Aither, owner and creator of Pet Sitting MKE, hiked the entire Appalachian Trail and kept her business running. Claire joins the show to share what preparing to leave was like and how she (and her team) worked through the hurdles that came. Claire explains her process of re-entering her business with fresh eyes and how she brought back a better version of herself.

370: Experimenting Well as a Business Owner

370: Experimenting Well as a Business Owner

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Do you experiment in your business? Being a business owner means making changes, both big and small, so your company adapts to the constantly changing environment. But how do you do that well? By experimenting! On this episode, we share ways to approach making changes in your business so you get the most out of them. From setting time frames to recording data and results for later review, there are best practices you can do to optimize the results.

369: Leading a Quality Life with Taylor Leedahl

369: Leading a Quality Life with Taylor Leedahl

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How do you get better over time? Taylor Leedahl, owner and founder of Tiny Horse, joins the show to describe how to approach process improvement and how we can develop a healthier relationship with our businesses. Taylor shares how she got started in the business and the challenges she has faced along the way. We cover the development of new products, the importance of understanding customer needs, and how to keep mission creep from taking over a business.

368: Conferences and Professional Pet Sitters Week

368: Conferences and Professional Pet Sitters Week

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March started with a bang! Spring conference season just wrapped up and Professional Pet Sitters week concluded as well. We share our experiences attending the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters conference. We talk through what to consider when determining if you should go to a conference or not. We also give an overview of Professional Pet Sitters week, and why customer service is central to what we do.

367: Getting the Most out of Your Insurance with Colleen Giles-Harris

367: Getting the Most out of Your Insurance with Colleen Giles-Harris

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You pay for insurance, but is it protecting you? Running a business means we have to understand the risk we take on with the services we offer. As your business changes, so too do your insurance needs. Colleen Giles-Harris, Underwriter with Pet Sitters Associates, joins the show to walk us through the questions we need to ask about our businesses to make sure we are covered. She explains where the homeowners insurance comes into play during a claims process and why it matters the kind of pets you’re caring for. Colleen also shares how to properly document for a claims process and how to approach minimum-level of care concerns.

366: Best Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Tips from Listeners

366: Best Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Tips from Listeners

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What’s your best pet sitting or dog walking tip? We asked, and you answered! Everything from how to deal with nervous cats, to when should you get a poop bag ready, you sent in your best tips. On today’s episode, we share the results and share some tips of our own. Thank you to all who submitted feedback!

365: Serving Your Community with LeAnna Quartuccio and Brandon Elkins

365: Serving Your Community with LeAnna Quartuccio and Brandon Elkins

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How do you serve your community? From offering employment opportunities to serving specific needs, our businesses can be a huge asset to our local communities. LeAnna Quartuccio and Brandon Elkins, owners of Hyde Bark Dog Walking & Pet Care + Hyde Bark Play and Park, join us to discuss why focusing on staying local is so powerful. They work hard to offer appealing benefits to their staff, and walk through how they can make that happen. LeAnna and Brandon made a huge decision to open a doggy daycare to better serve their community. They share their lessons from that process and their training protocol to turn new staff members into professionals.

364: Essential Characteristics of a Thriving Pet Business Owner

364: Essential Characteristics of a Thriving Pet Business Owner

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What mindsets and behaviors help a pet business owner thrive? Like high quality tools, the characteristics we exhibit should help us, instead of being a hindrance to our success. It starts with knowing yourself and the kind of business you want to run. Then, you can implement the best practices. We break down five essential attitudes of a thriving pet business owner and what it looks like to implement them.

363: Proving it to Yourself with Emily Duhancik

363: Proving it to Yourself with Emily Duhancik

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How do you show up for yourself? Hard work and dedication are definitional of what it means to be a pet sitter. The services you offer should be connected to the passions you have in life. Emily Duhancik, owner of Pet Sitting & Care by Emily, joins the show to discuss what it takes to offer farm care to very particular clients. Her motivation comes from a lifelong love of animals, and a desire to be an excellent role model for her daughter. Emily shares how she designs an amazing client experience, where to get more experience with farm animals, and how she honors her feelings and emotions through the services she offers.

362: Marketing a New Service

362: Marketing a New Service

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How do you market a new service? Whether you’ve created a brand new service, or reconfigured an existing one, getting it in front of your clients is the biggest hurdle. Sometimes, the same marketing tactics don’t work for a new service, so as business owners, we have to be aware of what our options are. We walk through why marketing a new service involves a mindset shift and why you should start marketing before you launch your service.

361: Parenting and Pet Care Roundtable

361: Parenting and Pet Care Roundtable

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What’s it like being a parent in pet care? As a business owner, it can be overwhelming to consider adding a child and growing your family while also keeping your business running. There is so much to account for and many different business models you can try. On a very special roundtable Marissa LeJune, owner of Tail Swaggers, Amber Van Denzen Suarez, owner of Atta Boy! Animal Care, and Stephanie Brown, owner of Happy Trail’s Pet Sitting & Dog Walking Services, join the show to share their experience of raising their kids while running their business. If you’re just starting out in your business journey, or are a soon to be new parent this is for you!

360: When You Want to Remove a Service

360: When You Want to Remove a Service

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How do you know it’s time to remove a service you currently offer? Sometimes you find yourself no longer in love with a particular service. It may be massively popular, or just a massive headache, but it’s time for a change. We walk through how, over the course of a year, we planned and removed a major service from our business. We give some of the lessons we learned and some points to help make it as easy as possible.

359: Pet Behavior and Honing Your Pet First Aid Skills with Arden Moore

359: Pet Behavior and Honing Your Pet First Aid Skills with Arden Moore

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What does it mean to understand animal behavior? As pet care professionals, we need to make sure we are communicating well to our clients and are prepared for emergencies. Arden Moore, author and radio host, joins the show to discuss confounding behaviors for both dogs and cats. She also dives into how to make sure we have a great first aid kit and how emergency preparedness is all a mental game. Arden gives her best tips for pilling cats and discusses the importance of being a poop-ologist.

358: Overcoming Your Fears

358: Overcoming Your Fears

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What fears do you have in your business? From financial insecurity to personal freedom, fear is a powerful driving force for many of us. Fear comes from both the unknown and the unplanned for, so taking time to assess what’s impacting you gives clarity for better decisions. We break down common fears of running a business and what we can do about them. We also give simple steps to start overcoming your fears and living a more focused life.

357: Empowering Empathy with Stephanie Castro

357: Empowering Empathy with Stephanie Castro

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What does it mean to be empathetic in our business? Showing empathy allows you to connect with nervous clients. It also helps both clients and staff feel like they are understood and are not alone. Stephanie Castro, owner of Stay Home Pet Sitting, joins the show to share why the words we use help clients see the value in our business. She also explains how she’s growing her company culture, and what it means to make hard decisions.

356: Using A.I. in Your Business

356: Using A.I. in Your Business

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Are you using A.I. in your business? Artificial Intelligence is a growing area of research and development. A.I. can seem overwhelming, but holds many promising tools to give clients more peace of mind. We break down what A.I. is and how it can help your business. We give examples of existing programs and also how we’re currently implementing it in our own business.

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