Hi! I’m Kristin Morrison, Founder of the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy™.
I’m also a business coach for pet sitters and dog walkers as well as the owner of a large pet sitting and dog walking business that is based in California.
I’d like to tell you what inspired me to start the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy™…
Starting my Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Business in 1995
I began my pet sitting business in 1995 with the intention of doing the business part-time while pursing a ’real career’. After a year of part-time pet sitting, my business began to grow and I quit my day job and began to run the business full-time.
When I started my pet sitting business in 1995 I knew nothing about running a business; I just knew I loved animals and the job seemed like a good fit for me.
Like most of the pet sitters that I coach, I made many major mistakes along the way in almost all areas of my business including: (but not limited to!) marketing, business and money management, hiring/firing, pricing, and the art of ’selling’ my clients on our service, just to name a few. Initially these mistakes were buoyed by my enthusiasm for my growing business but after awhile these mistakes began to really impact my business in a negative way as well as affect my quality of life.
Quality of My Life Began to Diminish
After a couple of years of running my business I suddenly noticed I was working 12–14 hours a day, often 7 days a week and somehow not making a profit. Are there any of you pet sitters out there who can relate? It was distressing to say the least!
The hectic work schedule and the responsibilities of owning my own business made me feel that I had a leash around my neck!
Suddenly I noticed I was no longer simply ‘Kristin Morrison’. Instead I was ‘Kristin Morrison, Business Owner’. I was pretty exhausted on a daily basis and mostly consumed by my business. I didn’t have a life. Even though I was working so many hours a day, I wasn’t even making any extra money that I could really spend on myself. I was only making enough to support my business. I couldn’t understand how I was making so little money when I was working so many hours a day. It was ridiculous!
It was when I began to think seriously about selling my pet sitting business that something happened which completely altered the way I ran my business.
The Awakening
I realized that, though I wanted to quit, I now had a taste of being self-employed. I also noticed that the thought of working for someone else seemed impossible! And of course I really loved animals and; though I was working long hours, I enjoyed having a job that actually paid me to work with cats and dogs.
I decided that I wanted to find a way to make my pet sitting business work for me instead of against me.
My Mission: 1) Change the Way I Ran My Business. 2) Increase My Quality of Life. 3) Make A Lot More Money. All In Less Than One Year.
I decided to give myself ONE YEAR to make dramatic changes in the way I ran my business. I wanted to see if I could create a successful business in the ways that mattered to me: having plenty of money and time to do the things I loved.
I decided that, if, in one year, my business began to generate a large profit and if I started to feel more freedom within my business then I would continue to run it. (Because what is the point of lots of money if there is no time to spend it and the quality of one’s life is poor?)
So I committed to a solid year of doing everything I could think of to turn my business around. I decided that if the changes I made in one year’s time didn’t substantially raise my profits in addition to giving me more time to just be ‘me’ then I would sell my business.
The race was on.
Go Get ‘Em, Tiger!
I became fearless and super creative about being open to and experimenting with new ways of running my pet sitting business. I felt like I had nothing to lose since I didn’t want to run my business anymore (at least not the way I had been running it).
In addition to exploring different ways of running my business and managing my staff, I also began to educate myself about the nuts and bolts on how to really manage a solvent and successful business including: spread sheets, business plans for each service we provided, search engine optimization research and education to better market my business, just to name a few.
I also explored the psychology behind what clients wanted and how we could best provide that for them and how to sell them on our great service without being pushy. (Yuck! Who wants pushy? Not me. And certainly not our clients.)
Running My Pet Sitting Business in a Brand-New Way
These unique business practices and my ever-increasing business knowledge began to be reflected in my steadily rising profit margin and more importantly for me, it was reflected in the ease with which I now managed my business.
Through this process of running my business in an entirely different way I began to realize that it wasn’t the business that was creating a negative effect on my life, it was the way I ran my business.
As I made the changes within my business, I began to enjoy my life more. I began to smile more. I felt like I had a life again! And the money that was now coming in an easy and nearly effortless way didn’t hurt either!
Success on All Levels = Making More Money
And Having More Time and Life Energy
After that one year I did the numbers: I’d made more money in that single year than in the last two years combined!
More importantly for me, though, was the ease with which I now managed my business. These changes were also reflected in the fact that, for the first time since starting my business years before, I had time to myself again.
I was now ‘Kristin Morrison’ for more of each week than I was ‘Kristin Morrison, Business Owner’. I began to breathe more deeply. I began to notice I was enjoying life more. The positive changes that I had made in my business in that one year also began to positively affect nearly every single area of my life. I felt renewed and transformed from the transformation in my business.
Helping Pet Sitters Achieve Their Most Incredible Life and Business (Believe Me: If I Can Do It, You Can Too!)
Recognizing a lack of business education for pet sitters and also realizing that a lot of pet sitters were running their non-traditional businesses in traditional ways, I began providing out-of-the-box business coaching for those pet sitters struggling in their businesses. I’ve coached hundreds of people via telephone from all over the United States and Canada (I’ve coached pet sitters from 49 of the 50 US states—I haven’t coached any pet sitters from Alaska yet!)
Through one-on-one telephone coaching, webinars, and workshops targeted for the pet sitting business owner, the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy™ teaches pet sitters the necessary business skills and some unusual ways of managing their own pet sitting businesses that are guaranteed to dramatically raise their profits and give them more space and time to have a business and a life.
I also developed and produced business products and tools specifically formulated for pet sitters to create successful, six-figure earning businesses. Pet sitters from around the country have used my business tools as a foundation for starting and running their own pet sitting business.
My Pet Sitting Business Now Supports Me Living a Life I Love
I continue to run my California-based pet sitting company, which has 30 staff members, 2 managers and over 750 clients.
Even though my pet sitting company continues to grow each year, my work hours have dramatically been reduced since I changed the way I run my business: I now work only 3 days per week in my pet sitting business. And this would have been unheard of for me years ago but now it’s a reality: Each year I travel for months at a time to destinations that excite me while my pet sitting business runs without me at the helm.
Through the programs offered at the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy™, it is my intention to give struggling pet sitters hope and a solid road map to creating their own successful and ease-filled businesses.
Care to join me?
Your business and life transformation starts with an email (click below and let’s get started):
Update from Kristin:
In December 2013, I sold my 18-year old pet sitting and dog walking company to a wonderful new owner so I could focus on my coaching for pet sitters and dog walkers, my webinars and my writing (yes, I have another book on the way — stay tuned!)
It was hard to say a final goodbye to my business (18 years is a long time) and yet it felt great to cultivate a healthy and loving relationship with my business and come to a place where it was —naturally and organically— the perfect time to sell. Through my coaching, webinars and products for pet sitters, I look forward to helping you cultivate Right Relationship with your pet sitting and dog walking business and to assist you in your next stage of growth-whatever that might look like for you: business start up, success and profit-building, hiring, and (down the road) helping you create your own exit strategy when the time is right to say goodbye to your business.