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Pet Sitter Spotlight: Tomika Bruen, Out For A Walk Pet Sitting and Dog Walking

Tomika Bruen and Dog photo

The day-to-day life of a professional pet sitter is often misunderstood.

So much goes on ‘behind the scenes’, both in the office and in the field, in order to give the impression of an effortless and successful job.

This series will spotlight 15 Professional Pet Sitters and Their Stories in an effort to pull the curtain back on extraordinary jobs well done.

Today, we say hello to Tomika Bruen of Out For A Walk Pet Sitting and Dog Walking in Los Angeles, California.

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15 Professional Pet Sitters Share their Favorite ‘Tales’ from the Past Year

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Pet care professionals are an extraordinary bunch of individuals.

Aside from the obvious love for all living creatures we share, the professional pet sitter must work all major holidays in order to give their appreciative clients the time away to spend with their own friends and families.

Also, the professional pet care provider must create a strong, well balanced business to support the service they provide. In other words, the pet sitter must create, run and manage the day to day operations the very same way as all other local small business providers.

This is sometimes missed or overlooked by the pet parent, especially when the sitter simply wants to perfectly serve the client in any way possible.

Just like an amazing magician or performer, all the behind-the-scenes work and effort is protected from the audience, giving the illusion of an effortless show.

Truth be told, the pet sitting business owner must serve their local community in a way that is financially profitable.

Without a profit (or without otherwise earning the means to survive another day) the professional pet sitter could not be there at a moments notice for the client.

The truly successful professional pet sitter earns respect and admiration from their ideal client (and industry colleagues) by maintaining a set of procedures and policies, remaining available and transparent, keeping the lines of communication open, engaging in ongoing industry training, education and support, and by living their best life possible.

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How to Add In-Home Boarding to Your Menu of Service Options [Audio]

dog plush toy image

One of the brilliant parts of running, owning and managing your own pet sitting business is that you can structure it any way you wish.

You can set your own policies, you can care for the pets that fit perfectly with your lifestyle, and you can offer a variety of services that are in line with your overall goals.

In home boarding, or caring for pets in your home, can be a lucrative part of your business services.

Allowing your client to drop off their pet to run free in an area of your home can be an attractive service, but like anything else, you must approach this with proper care and consideration.

Your area may have specific laws and permits you’ll need to obtain, and you’ll want to make sure your home is set up in the ideal way to host pets to begin with.

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Relive All The Best Moments from Our 2014 Vegas Conference and Become Part of 2015 Today

Pet Care Conference in Las Vegas 2014

You know that feeling when you come back from an incredible vacation or getaway and it’s all you can think about?

Or when you return and lay in bed at night amazed at the profound impact it had on your life and business?

Yep, it’s that feeling with an overall sense of pride and humility (Primility) that I carry with me since our return from the 3rd Annual Pet Care Conference in Las Vegas.

While we are in the early stages of planning our 4th annual event (set for October 2015), 32 of our colleagues have already put up a deposit to be part of the experience next fall.

So many amazingly good things came out of this event, not only for me personally, but from the results I see everyday online from those that attended.

Allow me to share with you just some of the highlights from the 2014 3rd Annual Pet Care Professionals Conference.

If you appreciate what being part of this event, experience, and journey might do for you and your business, consider joining us for our 4th Annual Conference.  (Exact details below on how you can become part of our movement!)

I assure you, with pride and humility, it will remain with you in ways you can’t imagine.

Click on each picture to view the full image.

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Google Analytics for Pet Sitters Explained: The 5 Sections You Need To Watch

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If you do not know Google Analytics, you do not know SEO.

When people talk about SEO (search engine optimization) rarely, if ever, are they talking about Google Analytics. Why is that?

It’s extremely important to begin the discussion with this fact:

SEO is not about keywords. SEO is not about meta tags.

SEO is about creating a wonderful user experience for every visitor who lands on your website.

Yes, you need to consider keywords. Yes, you need to implement proper meta tags.

But those are simply the means to the end. And that’s only a small fraction of the whole.

The bigger picture you’ll need to consider is HOW each visitor interacts with your pages and WHAT each is doing throughout your site.

You can determine that complete picture by understanding your Google Analytics reports.

RELATED: Click Here to register for your free training session!

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The Missing Piece To A Successful Pet Business (Become Part of Something Bigger Than Yourself)

PSO Vegas Group Conference Shot

Whether you believe in God, a Higher Power, or something else, our time here on Earth is miraculous. Many believe that each of us is “hardwired” for glory.

To appreciate that fully, it’s important to understand the full definition of GLORY in this regard, and how it can be directly applied to your life and the success of your pet care business.

The dictionary defines glory as “high renown or honor won by notable achievements.”

Aren’t you (consciously or subconsciously) working your hardest to achieve ‘high renown’?

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How This One Book Can Change The Course Of Your Pet Business

Marcus Sheridan signing copies of Youtility
Marcus Sheridan signs copies of Youtility for attendees at the 2013 PetSittingOlogy Conference!

About this time last year, a book came across my radar that has literally changed the way I run my business.

It had such a powerful and profound impact on me that I purchased 40 copies of the book to give away to our 2013 conference attendees.

The book is called Youtility, and it continues to be the guiding way I choose to operate.

Why?

First, look at the book’s tagline: “Why smart marketing is about help not hype”

Did you catch that? Help. Not hype.

Sadly, much of what we do as business owners tends to fall into the hype category more often than not.

Want an example of HYPE?

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How To Determine Your Most Popular Blog Post, Why It’s Important, and What to Do With This Insight

determine your most popular blog posts via Google Analytics

In life, when we do something that works, we tend to do more of that.

Your business actions should be no different. It’s vital to understand what actions you take in your business that work, and determine why they work.

Armed with that knowledge and insight, you will be ready to replicate it and do more of what works.

This article will focus on determining your most read blog articles so you can get more traffic to more of your posts.

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How To Effectively And Efficiently Network Your Pet Sitting Business – And Have Fun Doing It!

Network for your pet business

A Note from Joshua Cary: Here is another solid article written by our friend, Laura Capra (of Keep Me Company Pet Sitting). It’s on the topic of networking, and it’s a continued conversation from our recent video training session with Derek Coburn.

Make sure to also watch that session on Youtube here.

With that, take some time to really understand and implement this new way of approaching your networking efforts. We look forward to keeping the dialogue going in the comments.

You know that psychology word game where a person says a particular word and you have to say whatever first comes to your mind after you hear it?  What word do you think of when you hear “networking”?

  • Fear
  • Intimidating
  • Pointless
  • Boring
  • Strangers
  • Group

That’s what a lot of people say.  Derek Coburn even wrote a book entitled “Networking Is Not Working” because in the old school sense, it’s not.

For most people it is a waste of time, it’s cold calling, you might as well put 50+ of your business cards in the trash because you are going to get the same amount of business if you were to pass 50 cards out at a networking event.

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How To Keep Your Website Visitors Interested and Coming Back For More

Engage your audience

You know those certain people in your life that you can talk to forever?

Anytime you find yourself in dialogue with that person, you never run out of things to talk about, there are no awkward moments, and you feel connected, excited and rejuvenated.

That is the exact feeling you want each of your website visitors to experience.

But how do you make that happen when your job is to simply publish content on your site and hope for the best?

One way is to offer your users a variety of visual elements throughout your site pages for maximum connection.

Allow me to explain further.

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