Critters Choice Pet Sitting Success

In setting the prices for your pet sitting business there are many factors that you should use in calculating fees for your pet sitting services including: what the market will bear, what you want in order to make a modest profit, what you need to make to and sustain basic operations, and what customers will consider a fair price that will keep them coming back to your pet sitting business startup. So, as you organize your startup pet sitting e business, you need to look at how your pet sitting services should be priced. Ask yourself, how much should my basic pet sitting services cost? How much additional should I charge for multi-pet households? What should I expect to be paid for extra services such as plant care or mail retrieval? Are there simple services I can throw in to my pet sitting business at no charge that will help keep customers? (Be careful here – every service no matter how small takes time away from potential money making services).

What does it cost you to do business? First, look at your fixed expenses – this is your pet sitting business start up bottom-line requirement. Calculate your costs for telephone, advertising, printing, insurance, supplies, and vehicle operations. As your pet sitting home business grows, you will also include labor costs into fixed costs. The total of fixed expenses is a place holder number in your calculations that will help you identify how many clients, paying how much, your pet sitting startup needs to survive.

The next two cost items are variable. How much do you need to make for your labor? If your pet sitting home business is your only source of income, figure out what you need to be making. If you plan on beginning your pet care business as a sideline to another job, calibrate what you want to make in the fewer hours you will have available to work. Finally, in developing your pet sitting business plan, include a reasonable profit, usually somewhere value between 15% and 35%. Add the fixed and variable costs – this is your goal.

Bringing money in – your pet sitting business startup’s fee structure. Of course you have to work to reach your goal. You need to get clients and charge reasonable fees for your pet sitting services. But, how do you determine what to charge? I recommend that you begin by investigating your competition and potential referral sources to find out what are acceptable or expected charges for pet sitting home business services in your market place. Contact local veterinarians, kennels, and other pet sitting businesses to establish what is being charged. Have a checklist of questions about fees in order to develop an accurate comparison picture of the local pet sitting business market. When I began collecting market information, I learned that not everyone was willing to share fee information upfront with me. However, by asking only one fee-related question per call to another pet sitting business, I was able to build a good picture.

In your eagerness to get your pet sitting home business going, remember that no service is really free – everything takes time and time is potentially money. It is very difficult and unpleasant to later begin charging a client for a service you have been giving for free – so I recommend not offering free services. If a client failed to mention their bird, or their gerbil, or their fish tank – offer to take care of those animals for a modest additional cost to their current contract for services.

Now that you have the basis of a fee structure, you can calculate the client numbers required by type of service offered that your pet sitting business startup needs in order to reach your goal.

A final word of advice: I do not believe in offering coupons or discounts – although you may decide differently when starting your pet sitting business. I believe that you should consider your service valuable and you will expect to be working hard to provide a quality service. You should NEVER feel uncomfortable about expecting to be paid fairly for your pet sitting services.

John A. Corey created his own highly successful pet-sitting business, Critters Choice and is the author of Pet Sitting Success: The Critters Choice Way. His goal is to share the hands-on knowledge he has gained over the last 19 years, which makes it possible for others to avoid many of the common pitfalls all pet sitting startups experience and quickly move on to achieving success.

You always need to be thinking about growing your pet sitting home business. The need to constantly get new clients is not because you are trying to take over the entire world with your pet sitting business startup, but because your current client base can change quickly - people move, their life circumstances change, or their pets no longer require pet sitting. I have found than there are several key tasks you can perform everyday that will ensure steady growth in your pet sitting business client base using local referrals.

Telephone work: The majority of your new customers will first interact with your pet sitting home business over the phone. Here are some simple guidelines for working your startup pet sitting business phones:

Have a short, simple description of your pet sitting business mission and services

I have found that it is helpful to spend the time required to write a concise description of my pet sitting business that I can place on flyers and that provides a script for introducing my business to potential customers. Your description should be no more than one paragraph with about four sentences. Your script should:

Once you have a short, informative script that provides the key information about your pet sitting home business, you can use that script on your flyers, for training new employees, and by placing the script near your pet sitting home business phone so that anyone answering the phone will be reminded of everything they need to say to introduce your pet sitting startup business.

In addition to introducing your pet sitting home business to local veterinarians, pet organizations, and pet supply stores, do not miss the opportunity to ask your satisfied customers for referrals. There is no better endorsement for your pet sitting home business than a customer who tells their friends about their great experience with your services. Remember: You need to be diplomatic and even subtle in requesting referrals. Ask only once perhaps after the client has made a positive comment about your services, “Thank you Mrs. Smith, I am glad that you found our services helpful while you were away. As you know, this is a startup pet sitting business; we would be honored if you recommended us to your friends.”

During my 19 years of managing a pet sitting business, I have learned many ways to serve my clients needs and ensure that there are no problems. Believe me when I say that there are many things that can go wrong in the hectic pace of running a pet sitting business. One thing I learned is that you can protect your pet sitting business and your clients by the way you organize your operating procedures and the organization of your day to day tasks. I cannot cover everything I have learned in this short article, so I hope you will take an opportunity to read this entire section of my book, Pet Sitting Success.

When you are in your pet sitting business office, answer the phone promptly. If you use paper-based systems to track your clients and their needs, be sure you always have a tablet handy to make notes during the call and then file that information in their binder. If you use a computer system to manage your client’s information, then bring up the file in the beginning of your call so you are prepared to take notes.

Having voice mail is essential when no one is available to answer the phone. Be sure that your voice mail message identifies your pet sitting business by name and solicits the minimum information necessary to respond to your client or potential client’s needs. Other advice about communication with your pet sitting business clients:

Visiting your pet sitting business clients is your business. That is where you provide your services. I have found that it works best to schedule visits in periods of the day rather than exact times – so I schedule morning, mid-day, and afternoon appointment in basically three to four hour blocks of time. I have also learned from experience that appointments should be scheduled by date, not day of the week which can sometimes be confusing. Tracking your scheduled appointments is essential to meeting the expectations of your pet sitting business clients. I use a three ring binder for each client that includes a copy of the service agreement, release forms, and scheduled visits within the next few days. For new clients, I contact them two days ahead of a scheduled appointment to confirm our arrangements.

As your pet sitting business grows and you hire additional pet sitters, I recommend keeping a master schedule that is updated and posted every morning.

Keeping your pet sitting business organized is worth the effort. Your clients will appreciate how you stay on top of things, they will trust you, and you will benefit from their continued patronage and their referrals.

There are so many services that your pet sitting home based business can provide, that in the beginning you should select a few needed services to help you polish your procedures and get into the rhythm of how you will execute the tasks you sign up to provide. Remember, you can always expand beyond your initial service offerings. There are two main drivers in making your decision about what pet sitting home business services to offer potential clients: what is needed and what you can accomplish. Your options include:

You also need to decide what species you want to work with and are qualified to care for in your pet sitting startup: dogs, cats, fish, birds, reptiles, and other furry little critters. Wow! Lots of choices. As discussed in my book, Pet Sitting Success, some services require significantly more time and effort on your part, so you will need to price them accordingly.

For example, if your pet sitting startup business offers house sitting when owners are away, you will likely be expected to pickup mail, newspapers and any packages left at the residence. This helps the home owner by not advertising their absence. If the owner’s absence is extended, you may also be asked to do some clean up of pet related materials such as emptying cat litter or taking out trash with empty pet food cans or cleaning pet bedding materials.

Although the most common animals your pet sitting business will be asked to care for are dogs and cat, you may be asked to attend to fish, small rodents like mice and gerbils, or outdoor fish ponds with Koi. Fish ponds services can also include cleaning and maintenance. I have found that the time required for outdoor ponds varies widely depending on the size and shape of the pond. So, do your homework. You will want to vary your prices for pet sitting business services based on the labor required to complete the expected tasks.

Owners may also want your pet sitting business to take their pets to visit a groomer or to the vet. I gladly offer this service, for a fee, to my customers. For pet transport, I charge by the quarter hour. When your startup pet care business practices are being solidified, this is the time to collect information on the cost to you in terms of time to meet the potential needs of your clients. When you sit down for your initial client meeting, this is the time to discuss options, your fee structure and the rationale for different fees matched to task type.

“A brand is a product or service made distinctive by its positioning relative to the competition and by its personality in the context of the target market”[1] Wow! That’s a lot of big concepts to say that your startup pet care business’s brand is what helps potential customers know immediately what you do and how you approach doing it. Your brand may be a bit of text or a logo or both that you place on your stationary, your advertising flyers, and pet sitting home business cards. Branding successes that may come to mind are Coca Cola’s red background with stylized white letters, the Mercedes Benz hood ornament, the Lexus canted “L”, and the blue circle surrounding the words, “Intel inside”.

Your pet sitting business brand aligns customer expectations about the quality or characteristics that make your business special or unique. Here you are really fortunate in your choice of a pet sitting business because “pet” is the key word and pet pictures are eye catching and easily interpreted. When your business has a picture or a drawing of an appealing pet, potential customers immediately know that you do something good with animals. If the simple phrase that follows tells them that you provide pet sitting services, or that you are starting a pet care business, there is your brand.

Here are some tips for creating a brand for your startup pet sitting business:

1) Pick a short name that conveys what you do. I recommend that you think hard about this decision because it has long term consequences. You may want to carry a pad of paper and a pen around with you to jot down ideas about the name of your business. Once you have settled on a name that works for your pet sitting startup business, you must do a bit of research to be certain that your great idea for the name of your pet sitting home business has not already been chosen by another company. You can check with your county clerk to see if anyone in your area has filed a DBA (doing-business-as) for that name. You can also check to see if the name has been trademarked by visiting: http://www.uspto.gov (this is the patent office) where trademarks are registered. Do not skip this step – I did when I first started my pet care business and I was sorry.

If you can afford it, I recommend that you have your logo professionally designed. Your logo will appear on everything from your pet sitting business cards and stationery to invoices, brochures, and advertising. Getting professional help from a graphics artist or marketing professional adds polish to your branding efforts.

3) You should also work with the graphic artist to develop brand guidelines such as: what color your logo should be, what fonts should be used on documents and brochures, what size your logo should be with respect to its page, and what tagline should appear with your logo. The goal is to create consistent look for all the times a customer or vendor will see your brand.

4) Once you have your logo and text tag, get your paper items professionally printed. I found that in the long run, it was no more expensive to have a local printer make my pet sitting business cards, brochures, and flyers, than to take the time and materials to print them myself. AND, the look from a professional printer was significantly more professional.

5) Try to register a website domain name that includes the text tag (brand) of your pet sitting home business e.g. Best.Pet.Sitters.of.Phoenix.com.

Following these five steps will get your pet sitting startup on the way to establishing a successful brand, will help gain referrals, and build your pet sitting home business.

What are the real costs of starting a pet sitting business?

Now that you have decided to free yourself from working for someone else and be able to select your hours and work schedule by starting your own pet sitting business, you need to get down to some serious thinking about your business costs. Costs are the money that goes out your door and you want to ensure that you spend that money wisely. Your costs will also be a significant driver in determining your fees. So, let’s look at both these factors – money coming in and money going out.

I think the best place to begin your analysis of cost for your pet sitting business is by looking in detail at startup costs and monthly costs to run your business. The bottom line of this analysis will give you one of the two key numbers you need to build your business plan - expenses. Pet sitting start up costs should be considered separately in your calculations from ongoing costs. The pet sitting business startup costs include: establishing your office, purchasing communications and computer equipment, insurance, bonding, professional fees, and doing-business-as registration. Although advertising your pet sitting home business is a constant cost, advertising costs for your pet sitting startup will be higher than your average monthly advertising costs.

Next, you need to consider the monthly costs of your pet sitting business. Because a pet sitting business is a service rather than product oriented, the highest cost item in your budget will be labor. You have control over this because you are the owner, but you need to pay yourself commensurate with your efforts. After all, you decided to open a pet sitting home business not only for the freedom it allows you, but also to make money. When you hire staff to help your growing pet sitting business, labor will become a fixed or more predictable expense.

I found that creating a budget either on paper or using a spreadsheet was very helpful in setting up my pet sitting business budget. A spreadsheet reminds you of expense categories and allows you to forecast expenses of your pet sitting business over time. You need to have line items in your budget for supplies, telephone, transportation, computer services, printing and advertising. Since you are using part of your home for business, you may be able to deduct expenses for mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, and depreciation, so you should document those costs.

When you complete the analysis of expenses for starting and managing your pet sitting business, it is time to look at the other significant number in your business plan: receipts (money coming in). Determining the appropriate fees to charge for your pet sitting home business services requires some investigation. You should spend time contacting local veterinarians, kennels, and other pet sitting business to establish what is being charged in your area. Be sure to capture oranges to oranges fee comparison because some service providers will have low fees and then charge extra for otherwise routine services. When I began collecting market information, I learned that not everyone was willing to share fee information upfront with me. However, by asking only one fee-related question per call to another pet sitting home business, I was able to build a good picture of what the market will bear.

You should price your services in the middle of pack, not at the lower end. I recommend that you differentiate your pet sitting home business from the competition based on quality and trustworthiness, not cost. Your service is valuable and you will work hard to provide a quality service. You should never feel uncomfortable about expecting to be paid fairly for your pet care services.

Here are some tips for creating a brand for your startup pet sitting business:

5) Try to register a website domain name that includes the text tag (brand) of your pet sitting home business e.g. Best.Pet.Sitters.of.Phoenix.com.

Following these five steps will get your pet sitting startup on the way to establishing a successful brand, will help gain referrals, and build your pet sitting home business.

What are the real costs of starting a pet sitting business?