Josh Cary

This author has written 284 articles

10 Things Nobody Ever Tells You About Running a Pet Sitting or Dog Walking Business

frog in a tree

Do you love surprise parties?

I know some people who secretly wish that every year someone would throw them a surprise birthday party. And I know others who need to know everything up front and dislike any sort of surprise (including one that results in a party!).

Life is full of surprises. Personally, I enjoy navigating through life with a sense of wonder and enjoyment.

Business, however, is a different story. A successful business person will do a certain amount of research and preparation before investing their time, energy, and finances into any venture.

Starting a pet sitting business is no different.

Whether you are thinking about becoming a working, professional pet sitter, or are a seasoned pro, knowing what the road ahead looks like will keep you sane and successful.

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Hiring Staff for Your Pet Sitting Business? Why Background Checks Are a Must. [Video]

Law Books
If you hire pet sitters for your team, background checks are a must. See why and how it all works.

When you reach a certain point in your pet sitting business, you may find that bringing on pet sitters to join your team is a logical next move.

With that wonderful decision comes plenty of more wonderful responsibilities – all resting on your shoulders as business owner.

The very last thing you need happening is hiring the wrong person.

Aside from wasting your valuable time that you can’t afford to lose in the first place, hiring the wrong pet sitter for your team can get you in all sorts of legal battles.

This is one small reason it’s vital you do your due diligence at the start by legally performing a background check on all of your applicants.

You’ll sleep soundly at night, and your clients (and potential clients) will love you for it.

Thankfully we have Jason Waggoner on our side.

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How to Create the Perfect About Us Page to Gain More Happy Clients [Audio Broadcast]

about us photo
Discover exactly why your About Us page is one of the most important pages on your website.

You already know how important your entire website is in regards to your overall marketing efforts, right?

You also know I spend plenty of time teaching you about blog posts, articles, landing in Google, optimizing your web pages and more.

But how often do we speak about the importance of your About Us page? (Listen to the complete audio broadcast on this page.)

Did you realize that your About Us page is in fact one of the most important pages on your entire website?

Why is that? It’s one of the few places your website users can connect with and learn about YOU!

(You know, the person they will hire.)

This word is worth repeating: Connection. As with most anything we do in life, we are drawn to the people most like ourselves.

Whether it’s in a business partnership, friendship, or romantic relationship, we seek others similar to ourselves.

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Make Your WordPress Website More Secure With This One Easy Change

secure your WordPress website

How much do you rely on your website to keep your business successful?

And what would happen if an evil person hacked into your pet sitting website and made it inaccessible?

You and I both view our websites as vital to the health of our business. Keeping it healthy and online is a requirement, at the bare minimum.

Having a WordPress-powered website is one of the smartest things you can do to help your business grow (for reasons I’ll spell out in another article).

But with any website, security is a daily responsibility. For those using my WordPress-powered SEO Template, you do not need to worry about security or the change spelled out in the video below.

We have several daily actions in place that keep your site, and the server, safe and secure.

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How to Make Certain What’s Obvious to you is also Obvious to your Website Visitors.

silica gel packet says do not eatMy wife brought home from the supermarket one of those raw crunchy kale snacks (I’m starting to love kale).

And surprisingly, inside I saw one of those silica gel packs apparently there to keep it fresh.

You may have typically seen these gel packs in things like beef jerkey, vitamin bottles, and boxes of new shoes.

And no matter where you find them including this kale treat, it has the words printed on the gel pack: Do Not Eat.

Each time I see those words I chuckle as I think who in the world would eat this? Isn’t it obvious…?

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2014 PetSittingOlogy Scholarship Recipient Announced [video]

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You know that one person in your life who just lifts you up no matter what’s going on in that moment?

It’s that one person who, when she walks in the room, everyone is excited to see her and chat with her?

That’s exactly the type of person we were hoping to find when choosing our 2014 PetSittingOlogy Scholarship Award recipient.

Human beings are infectious. Whether the energy we receive from others is positive or negative, happy or frustrated, giving or selfishly taking, we immediately pick up on that energy and it can instantly change our entire mood (for the better or for the worse).

Then, there are the people who sit in a different category. The ‘business partnership’ category.

Some of the best friendships and business relationships I have today overlap between business and friendship.

It’s that overlap I’m proud to say we have found in our scholarship award winner.

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A Look Back: The First 5 Years of PetSittingOlogy – 2009 through 2014

passion and persistence for successThis May (in 2014) marks the 5 year anniversary of PetSittingOlogy’s first published blog post, which led to more professional goodies for the working pet sitter.

I have more zest, excitement and desire to nurture this brand than ever before. And I credit that to one specific attribute:

Passion.

The word passion is defined as an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

I don’t need to tell you that nearly everything we do in life must have a bit of passion behind it, or else it becomes what we call a chore. And the more passion you have for what you do day in and day out in this industry, the more success and longevity you will find.

[Passion + Persistence = The Pet Professional’s Secret Sauce for Success!] (Do you have both?)

As with any reflection of a 5 year chunk of time, a lot has happened. A lot of good, and a lot not so good. It had it’s ups. It had it’s downs. But the internal desire to serve and remain available continues to shine.

My work has also been able to resonate because of a tremendously motivated, kind, and generous industry (that’s you!).

I’m what you might call a social guy. I like talking. I like meeting new people. I like asking questions. And I like learning new things. I’m curious.

But more than anything, I enjoy listening.

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Is Your Pet Sitting Contact Form Doing All It Can For You? [Video]

powerful thinker
If you can think it or dream it, it can be done.

ARTICLE OVERVIEW: Learn how to have your website contact form submissions sent to separate email accounts (to you and your team) based on what the potential client submits.

I’m sure you can relate: Since Day 1 of starting my pet sitting business, my website played an integral part to our overall success.

And more specifically, the fact that we had an embedded contact form in the sidebar across all pages also played a substantial role to our growth.

That become one of several ‘must haves’ I began preaching to pet sitters if they wanted to make small improvements to their current websites.

Naturally, when I began offering pet professionals a fully ‘done for you’ WordPress-powered SEO Template, a powerful embedded contact form was placed in the sidebar across all the pages.

RESOURCE: Read more about what’s included with your own WordPress website for pet sitters.

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Become a Teacher and Watch Your Pet Sitting Business Drastically Improve [TeleSeminar Replay]

Become a PetTech Instructor
As pet care professionals and business owners, every action we take either has a positive impact or a negative one.

Wouldn’t you love to have more of your actions have a positive result on your business that you can see?

In this eye opening, insightful, and light bulb filled dialogue, Thom Somes proclaims that becoming a PetTech Instructor can change your business and your life.

On the surface, you might think he is being a bit dramatic by suggesting this could change your life.

And if I did not participate on this call I would have agreed with you.

Get Ready — You Are About To Be Completely Surprised, Impressed, and Inspired

But here’s what I want you to do…

Take some time and listen to this chat I had with Thom Somes on what the bigger picture of teaching others in your community will do for your business and life.

Going into this call, I had a vague idea of some of the reasons you’ll want to become an instructor.

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