Josh Cary

This author has written 284 articles
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What is the Real Worth of a Professional Pet Sitter?

Sarah Burns shares another story with us “from the trenches.”  She’s been a professional pet sitter since 2010, and recently brought on her husband (gasp!) to join her in this pursuit.

Let’s hear from Sarah how that’s been going…

My husband Dan started working for me, er, I mean, with me 8 weeks ago.

Watching him experience every aspect of this job first-hand has been the most enjoyable part. Over the past 8 years Dan was only hearing my stories from the trenches, including everything from the long days to the difficult clients.

He is now fully starting to realize what pet sitting really is (and what pet sitting really isn’t) and what being a professional pet business owner truly encompasses.

One major benefit from working alongside my husband has been the ability to see my work through fresh eyes again.

As I know you can relate, having been doing this for so long, I find most things very routine and there is not much that surprises me anymore. But hearing Dan recount his experiences allow me to look at things a little bit differently.

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An Intimate Look Into A Professional Pet Sitter’s Holiday Schedule (How Did Yours Compare?)

Sarah Burns is a professional pet sitting business owner serving the Northville, MI area since 2010.  She shares with us some highlights and lessons learned from her recent holiday season.

Her biggest take-away? If you do not make consistent and deliberate time for yourself, you’ll never have what it takes to sustain a schedule of properly serving your clients.

Take it away, Sarah…

It has been a very busy holiday season (as usual). I am excited as I write this because today we will be finishing up the very last sits from the holiday and life can return to “normal!”

It’s been a long couple of weeks filled with plenty of sits and plenty of stressful moments.

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Complaints from Pet Sitting Clients: Finding the Good

As human beings, our gut reaction to a client complaint is usually defense. We initially feel a bruised ego and quickly look to justify it by placing the “real cause of the problem” on the side of the client.

It takes maturity and professionalism to listen and understand with an open mind what caused this complaint in the first place.

Was it a lack of (or mis-) communication? Was there a gap in expectation?

Regardless of the reason, a client complaint can often turn into a massive win for you both.

It’s all about perspective.

Our friend and colleague, Sarah Burns (Menly’s Pet Care in Michigan) shares a wonderful lesson learned in this regard:

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Success and Leadership Lessons from a Chef That Every Pet Professional Should Follow

The Recipe book cover

On this page you’ll find two video interviews that I held recently.  One with an Olympic gold medla winning Chef, and one with the co-author of an absolute favorite book of mine, The Go-Giver.

Chef Charles Carroll and John David Mann are the authors of a brand new book that I had the great fortune to read before its official launch.  The Recipe comes out on October 17 and is available right now on Amazon.

About the Book (with the videos to follow)

“Always be hungry, Owen,” the Chef said softly. “Don’t ever let life just wash over you. Savor it—every smell, every taste, every sound. If you want to be a great chef, it’s not enough just to love the food. You can’t cook great food if you don’t love life. That’s Rule One, Owen: Taste everything.”

Owen Devon used to have a pretty good life. At least until a few months ago, when disaster struck his family. Now his grades are plummeting and he can’t seem to stop getting into fights. To make matters worse, he’s just been tagged for vandalism—and to repay the damage, he’s being put to work for the crusty old owner of the local diner.

But there’s a lot about the old man that Owen doesn’t know—and in this diner’s cramped little kitchen, he’s going to learn a lot more than how to cook an excellent meal. . . .

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Get A Boost In Google Search Results Without Lifting A Finger

So how exactly can you get a boost in your Google rankings without lifting a finger?

Simply by making your website ‘secure’.  Yep, we are talking about SSL Certificates.

Not sure what that is?  Not to worry, we have you covered.  In this article you’ll completely understand WHAT an SSL certificate is, HOW it works, and WHY you absolutely need one going forward.

When it comes to SEO, you already know a variety of things influence your rankings in Google search results, right?

These things include your website content, meta tags, and user experience.

But did you know Google has announced the value of and need for a “secure” website through an SSL Certificate?

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How to Create The Perfect Blog Post in 8 Steps [Checklist]

write pretty blog postsIt’s amazing to see so many pet sitters beginning to understand the value of writing plenty of content on their websites.

If you do not like writing, it may become a necessary evil that you’ll have to come to terms with, as more and more of your potential clients will hop online to search for your service.

A pet owner will pull up Google, type in an appropriate search term, and what websites are going to be shown near the top of that first page?

The websites that Google has discovered to be relevant and informative to the search users query. This no longer happens by simply placing a set of keywords somewhere on the page or in the meta tags.

While you still need to consider those SEO actions, you will be left behind if you do not begin to understand the value of content creation (also known as blogging or writing articles).

Don’t believe me? Then take it from Google themselves:

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The Pursuit of Happy Pets: How Jamie Migdal of FetchFind Keeps Sane in a Stressful Environment

A conversation between Josh Cary and Jamie Migdal

You know those people who you chat with and you feel that conversation just flows? And you both literally speak the same language?

Well, that’s how I feel about our guest today. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Jamie Migdal for quite some time and got to cross paths in person finally in 2016 when we were both speaking at the NAPPS conference.

I’ve compared many notes with Jamie and we excitedly share a similar work ethic and vision for our businesses and the industry at large.

Jamie has bought, sold and acquired more pet businesses than I can count and has successfully fundraised through rounds of funding attracting investors. Something you don’t too often hear about in our industry.

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7 Examples of Pet Sitter Websites That Perfectly Connect With Visitors

connect with your website visitorsIs your pet sitting website your biggest and best marketing tool?

Is it paying off or is it sucking the life out of your business?

Just like with any other marketing tool, you need to see a good return on your investment in order for it to be working.

Put a price tag on the time alone you’ve devoted to your site and decide if it’s working with you or against you.

A pet sitting website that works is one that ranks well in the search engines and, perhaps more importantly, converts your visitors into happy clients.

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How to Become Instantly More Professional Through A Business Email Address

(Video Length: 8 minutes 53 seconds) Hey there, we are live, thanks for tuning in, you got Josh Cary here founder of PetSittingOlogy with another Q&A video for you.

One of our members asked: “How do you create a business email address for your pet business?”

That’s such a good question because you can instantly become that much more professional by using a business email address.

What is a business email address? Let’s say, for example, your website is JoshsPetSitting.com. You can create an email address like hello@joshspetsitting.com or services@, contact@ josh@ … Anything you wish @<your domain name .com>.

Creating an email address is so simple to do. If you are currently already using our PetSittingOlogy Get Found First SEO Platform for your website this is all included. There’s absolutely no additional charge and you can have unlimited business email addresses.

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How To Achieve a Professional Website Look and Feel Using Free Icons

You may have noticed some neat crisp looking icons on our redesigned PetSittingOlogy.com home page. A member asked how we did that and where we got them from. Watch the video to find out exactly where and how you can get any variety of icons to use for free on your own pet website.

Overview of Video (Length: 5 minutes 41 seconds)

Hey there and welcome, thanks for tuning in, you got Josh Cary here founder of PetSittingOlogy with another Q&A video. Today the topic is all about icons and how to get a really crisp professional look on your website with free icons.

As you know, our one mission and goal around here is to help you get found first and one of the best and most direct ways to do that is to provide a professional, robust, valuable, good-looking and informative website. It’s all the things that you place on the page that matter including the icons, the images, the graphics, the way you lay out your content and your paragraphs.

Today I want to talk to you about the icons we used on our home page. One of our members asked where we got them and how he can they get them too. So, I’m going to show you exactly where we get our icons from and you can get them for free.

The icons are from the site Flat Icon (FlatIcon.com) and this has become one of my absolute favorite websites.

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