Dog Sitting Business

The Most Unusual Six-Figure Pet Sitting Book Review I’ve Received…

I recently got an email with an dog video attachment from Karen Levy, owner of Laughing Pets Pet Sitting and Dog Walking in Atlanta, Georgia.

But here’s the thing: I see so many dog videos that I thought, “Ah, here’s yet another dog video, maybe I’ll watch this one later.”

But I clicked on it anyway and I’ve NEVER seen a dog video like this. It’s 32 seconds of Diesel the Dog….well, you’ll see…

 

 

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The Magic of Commitment in Business

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This morning I’m reflecting on the power of commitment as it relates to business. And the ‘magic’ that gets created as a result of my coaching clients’ setting crystal clear intentions for what they want to create in their business and their life.

I often have the pleasure of witnessing ‘manifesting magic’ happen easily and effortlessly in my coaching clients’ lives and I know that it has everything to do with their commitment level. Commitment combined with their heartfelt desire to create the most fulfilling, enjoyable, and profitable business and life.

Here are just a few of the ‘manifesting magic’ moments I’ve witnessed lately in my coaching sessions with pet sitters:

-I gave an action step to the coaching client who wanted to start a doggie day care. The action step was to look for a possible location for the doggie day care. She hadn’t yet looked at locations but was having lunch with a friend two days after our session and mentioned her desire to start a doggie day care when that friend said, “I know just the place! It’s not on the market yet but the man who is selling it said -out of the blue- that it would be perfect for a doggie day care.” They looked at the property after lunch and my coaching client is now exploring the possibility of buying that property.

-A pet sitter I was working with stated to me, clearly and with much heartfelt emotion, her desire to work part-time while growing her new pet sitting business. She had a full-time job that she greatly disliked and was beginning (literally and figuratively) to feel her soul being sucked out her by this job that she’d been in for years. She was afraid to let go of her full-time job due to the income and benefits (I’ve worked with this a lot: pet sitters that are straddling corporate America and pet sitting and who are wanting to make the leap to full time pet sitting yet are terrified to let go of the job security for full-time self employment). Out of the blue (though I like to think of it more like ‘out of the commitment’) she was chatting with a woman who mentioned that there was a job opening in her company. Within a little over a week, my coaching client had a job offer from this company! She’s still working out the details but thinks it will be a much better fit (less soul-sucking for sure) as she makes the transition to eventual full-time pet sitting).

-A pet sitter I’ve worked with on and off through the years contacted me to help her get clarity about how best to create an orderly and accurate financial system for her income and expenses. We discussed different financial accounting systems and one in particular that I thought she’d find easy to use in her business. Still, she expressed fear around not knowing how to work with this particular system and we both felt she needed hands-on help. She placed an ad on Craigslist (commitment in action) and though that didn’t result in the right person, within a couple of days after our session, she, (out of the blue!) was talking to a pet sitting client who mentioned that she worked with the same financial software system that we’d discussed in our coaching session. This woman said she could teach my client how to use this system in order to get her ready for tax time. My pet sitting coaching client feels extremely comfortable with this person and it feels like the perfect fit for her!

Commitment creates success on purpose. It creates ‘out of the blue’ events and experiences. It creates magic.

And that magic starts with the simple words, “I want…”

“I want” is the rudder that faces your boat in the right direction to achieve what it is that you want.

And then intention, commitment, and action lead to the results you most want in your business and your life.

Allow yourself to dream this week of what you want to create in your life and in your work. And if you are crystal clear about what that is, notice your commitment level and take actions that support being fully committed to what it is you most want to create in your life and your pet sitting and dog walking business.

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Getting to Yes: Secrets to Selling Yourself to Pet Sitting Clients!

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Want to learn to sell yourself/your service to your clients without sounding the like a pushy car sales(wom)an?

Because who wants pushy?

Certainly not your clients…

Yuck!

On Tuesday’s teleclass you will learn how to turn 90-100% of those new client calls into ACTUAL clients.
Which will more than make up for the cost of Tuesday’s call.

🙂

Here’s more info:

Getting to Yes: Sales Success Tips for Pet Sitters Teleclass

Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST

How does class take place? Via a conference call line. Call-in instructions will be given upon signup.

How long is this teleclass? 60-75 minutes (30 minutes will be for Q & A from the audience)

How much: $20 (register by Feb 18) $30 (register on Feb 19 or later)

Class description: It can often be challenging to ‘sell’ our pet sitting service to our clients.

Many pet sitters provide a great service but when they try to talk about why a client should use their company they often get tongue-tied. Or they don’t talk about the value of their pet sitting company with a potential client at all. Instead they simply quote rates and attempt to set up a client interview. These actions may land you the job. Maybe.

But taking ‘maybe’ actions isn’t a powerful way to do business. Don’t you want to close the deal most, if not all, of the time?

There are specific steps you can take to becoming a master at selling your service to clients. Believe it or not, selling can be easy, fun and natural when you know how to do it.

This teleclass will show you how to become an empowered seller of your pet sitting business.

Need more information? Click to find out more and to sign up for the Getting to YES: Sales Success Tips for Pet Sitters teleclass.

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Short Video of Kristin Morrison at NAPPS conference

A short snippet of the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters (NAPPS) conference.

What a joy it was to meet (in person!) a few of you dear coaching clients.
🙂

I will be at next year’s conference and hope to see ALL of you there!

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Coach Kristin to Speak at the APSE Conference

Freedom!
Freedom!

Hello pet sitters,

I will be speaking at the Association for Pet Sitter Excellence (APSE) Conference on October 25 at 1pm EST. It’s a virtual conference, accessible by the Internet.
🙂

The topic I will speak on will be about how to “Consciously Create More Freedom in Your Pet Sitting Business”.

It’s a topic I’m passionate about!

Many business owners think freedom and owning a business cannot exist together.

But guess what?

They are wrong!

I’ve created a pet sitting business that also gives me a lot of freedom and I look forward to sharing how you can put freedom in your pet sitting business (and in your life).

“See” you at the conference!

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5 Simple Tips for Pet Sitting & Dog Walking Business Success

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Here are 5 simple steps you can begin TODAY to create more success in your pet sitting and dog walking business:

1) Accumulate business savings no matter how small at first. Even the act of starting with $10/month is progress. Your business savings account will help get you through the lean times, especially when you are first starting out.

2) Create an action plan to ensure that your pet sitting business bookkeeping records are clean, orderly and accurate. Get accounting help if and when you need it. Pay someone to help you learn Quicken or Quickbooks. Knowing how much you make each month will help you set financial goals which will keep you focused and intentional in your business actions.

3) Develop a yearly business plan and create goals and visions for yourself and your business. Review it quarterly and adjust as needed. Having a map will help you get to where you want to go in your business.

4) Budget your time realistically and focus on income-producing activities. Get clear on how many minutes it takes to actually takes to drive to your dog walking/pet sitting jobs. This will help you get clarity about how many clients you can take in a given day and how much time you are spent driving. Setting a timer for those business tasks that are challenging can help keep you on track. Focusing your daily actions on income-producing activities such as marketing and answering the phone directly you will cause you to see your profits to rise.

5) Let go of difficult-to-work-with clients and staff members. Difficult staff and clients can eat up as much as 95% of our energy which leaves only 5% left for the majority of our clients and staff. If you notice your thoughts consumed by a particular client or staff member then it might be time to let them go. Talk it over with someone whose opinion you value and once you get clarity about how challenging they are, be willing to let them go sooner rather than later.

Need more tips? You can find them in in Kristin’s book for pet sitters and dog walkers: Six-Figure Pet Sitting: Catapult Your Pet Sitting Business to Unlimited Success.

Click to get the book IMMEDIATELY: Six-Figure Pet Sitting Ebook version or Click to get the printed version on Amazon: Six-Figure Pet Sitting print edition.

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Hello from Coach Kristin

About 3 years ago a friend invited me to do an exercise which involved imagining that I had six months left to live and what I would do with my life in those last six months.

Before I did the exercise I assumed that if I had six months left to live I would spend my last six months with my loved ones. Duh. It was a no brainer.

But still I did the exercise and was very surprised to see, in my mind’s eye, the image of me wearing a travel backpack and a big smile on my face.

It shocked me.

Is that really how I would spend my last six months on this planet?! Exploring it? What about my loved ones?!

In spite of the inner questioning I let that image sit with me for a few weeks and I could feel that, indeed, travel with a backpack was a heart’s desire of mine. A heart’s desire that was not being fulfilled.

It was hard to imagine leaving my business (and my life) for a few months. However, I knew that was what I had to do otherwise this heart’s desire that was clearly expressing itself to me would act out negatively in my business (and my life).

It’s been my experience that when we know that we have a heart’s desire and we aren’t taking active steps to make that desire happen, the ‘not taking action’ affects every area of our life, including our business.

It’s not pretty when that happens.

So 2 years ago I began to plan a 2.5 month trip for 2010. I had a lot of fear about leaving my pet sitting business even though my managers are so very competent and amazing. I knew my business would be in good hands but still I had the fear.

I’m so aware that the real goodies in business and life come from feeling the fear and doing it anyway.

Knowing that didn’t ease the fear though!

But still I took the actions to make the trip happen. I went on my trip and I had an incredible time and everything went well in the business. I even extended my time for an extra month.

When I got back last year I knew I wanted to do it again. This time for 5 months.

So here I am!

I’m in Bali writing this to you now. I’ve been traveling for nearly 4 months and have 5 weeks left.

It’s been an incredible journey.

I’ve been doing a little work while I’m traveling: I’m writing my second book for pet sitters and dog walkers. I’m planning on having my second book available in December 2011. More later!

I will be offering coaching sessions again in early August and will be offering a teleclass in August as well.

In future blog posts I will be including some tips to getting to your own heart’s desire and how your business can support.

Wishing you a wonderful month of June. 🙂

Warmly,
Kristin Morrison
Founder, Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy

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Coach Kristin will be leading NAPPS teleconference: Monday, May 17

Hello pet sitters,

I will be leading the next NAPPS teleconference on Monday, May 17 at 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST.

My topic will be “How to Recover from Pet Sitter’s Burnout”. This is a topic I have successfully dealt with in my own pet sitting business. I’ve also coached hundreds of pet sitters from across the country on this very prevalent issue.

It’s a topic that I’m very passionate about and I’m really excited to ‘see’ NAPPS members on the call.

Please note: this teleconference is only open to NAPPS members.

If you are a NAPPS member and need information on how to access the May 17th teleconference please contact NAPPS directly at: (856) 439-0324. They will be happy to give you the conference call number.

I look forward to “seeing” you on the teleconference,
Kristin Morrison
Founder, Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy.com

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Hello from Coach Kristin (still on my travels!)

Hello dear pet sitters,

When I was planning my trip I had anticipated writing many Six-Figure blog posts and keeping all of you in the loop about my traveling adventures.

Once I started my travels I quickly realized that the purpose of this trip, for me, was to not be tapped into work at all except for the brief emails with my managers who are running the pet sitting portion of my business.

I’m definitely looking forward to diving into work when I return to America: taking over the reins of my pet sitting company from my managers who have done such a good job managing in my absence, scheduling one-on-one coaching sessions, facilitating my group teleclasses and working on and completing my book for pet sitters.

But for now…I’m in Bali and really enjoying taking cooking classes, learning Indonesian from a local man, and meeting many other local Balinese and fellow travelers.

Just wanted to check in and let you know that I’m looking forward to working with you again when I return. I’ll post the exact date I’ll be back in action on this blog in a couple of weeks.

Happy pet sitting,
Kristin

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Can Pet Sitting Business Owners Leave their Businesses and Travel for 2 Months?

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Yes. Yes. Yes! If you’ve got a supportive management team and great pet sitters and walkers on staff you can take time off to see the world.

And that’s just what I am going to be doing in January 2010.

When my business was 3-5 years old I traveled each year for 2 months. I would do lots of pet sitting for 10 months and then have my manager oversee everything for the two months that I’d be gone from the business and out of the country.

I went on a lot of great trips. I traveled for two months in Europe. Two months in Bali. Two months in Thailand. (Thai villagers dressed me up in Thai gown and crown and I led a parade of villagers down the street but that’s for another blog post!)

I have been desiring to travel again. What has held me back is that my business is now MUCH larger than it was 10-12 years ago! We have 35 staff members. Our huge client list continues to grow with the new calls we get daily.

I have been mulling over traveling for an extended period of time for awhile now and was noticing that fear was holding me back. I try to live my life in such a way that I normally don’t let fear run my life. I’ve coached many of you business owners on how to make peace with your fears and really live in a way that is fulfilling and meaningful both in business and in life. And yet here I was finding myself wanting to travel and letting the thoughts of fear stop me from committing to something that I really want to do.

My fear thoughts went something like this:  Will everything be okay while I’m gone? What if something happens while I’m away? What if……? (fill in the blank.)

Well, last week I decided to look the fear straight in the eye and smile at it and say, “I’m going.”

So I took the first step and asked my main business manager if she could manage the business while I was away. She said that she would love to.

And now I’m compiling an ultra long list of many tasks that need to be completed before I depart in 5 months. I’m also exploring: where do I want to go? I’m still mulling it over. Bali is definitely calling to me. I might start there and end up some place totally different.

I’ll keep you posted!

In the meantime I’d love to hear about you: what are some unrealized dreams that you have that you are afraid of fulfilling? Is there a way your business could support you in making those visions a reality? Email me privately or post your comment below if you like.

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