Pet Sitting Business Success

Do you cringe when you have to go to a networking event and give a 30 second “elevator pitch”?

Do you avoid networking groups all together?

Don’t!  Networking is one of the best ways to build your business and build a relationship with other professionals in your community.

Networking has changed too!  It’s not passing out your business card to 50 strangers and never hearing from them again.  It’s sharing your story and listening to other people’s stories.

First thing you can do is change your perspective.  Instead of walking into the room and thinking

“What do I need to say to get these strangers to refer me business?”

change it to:

“I can’t wait to meet all of these people and learn how they can help me and my clients”.

Networking isn’t about you.

It’s about being helpful to other people.  The most important people that networking can help with is YOUR CURRENT CLIENTS.

Think about it.  If you are pet sitting at someone’s house and a water pipe bursts – wouldn’t it be nice to call on a plumber that you have built a relationship with through networking vs picking one at random through a Google search?  Wouldn’t it be nice to tell your clients “I know Plumber Bob through my networking group, I see him every week, I’ve gotten to know him personally and I trust him”.

That adds VALUE to you because it brings VALUE to your clients.

A lot has happened over the past 12 months both personally and professionally.

Personally, I’m beyond proud to have welcomed my son, Harrison Grant, to the world on May 28.

Professionally, I’m beyond lucky to have found our new PetSittingOlogy Communications Manager, Amy Mattison (click here to Friend her on Facebook and say hello!). https://www.facebook.com/amy.mattison.2

Titles are weird and I don’t think her title does her justice.  Simply put, Amy works 10-feet from me in our office and among many other things she manages our social media accounts, runs our Client Services division, and helps me remain sane, focused, and on track.

Something I’ve quickly learned while in the film industry is that it truly takes an extraordinary team around you to create, produce, and share anything of value.

Aside from Amy, 2015 has also brought me closer to our colleagues Laura Capra, Anthony Mucci, and Cindy Vet.  Much of what is listed below would not have been possible without them. Literally.

Here are our Top 10 Posts from 2015.  Feel free to bookmark this page so you can refer back to it throughout the year.

If you know anything about me, you know I love technology. Even more to the point is that I love what’s utterly POSSIBLE when it comes to the creative use of technology.

In today’s day and age, if you can THINK it, you can MAKE IT HAPPEN. Quite frankly, anything is possible.

Officially Introducing ‘I Heart The Pet Industry with Josh Cary’ Podcast

I knew for quite some time that I’d want to create and produce an official weekly podcast for our industry. Over time, I jotted down thoughts, notes and ideas for the show as they would come to me.

I had the title for the show, the concept and theme for the show, and the cover art for the show.

I knew that I wanted it to feature passionate, hard-working and successful pet professionals. The idea behind the show is to discover how our professional colleagues are achieving success, as they define it.

The goal for each episode is to get an inside look at a pet business owner’s path, journey, and the actions they take so you can implement the same in your own business.

Before you started reading these words, I bet the image above caught your eye. Am I right?

What exactly about it got your attention?

The colors?
The lion?
The giraffe?
The action?

What FEELINGS did the picture invoke in you?

This answer is going to be different for everyone.  Did you focus on the lion or were you more drawn to the plight of the giraffe?  Think about the INTENT for each animal.  It’s completely different!   Eat or be eaten.

WHAT IS THE INTENT OF THE IMAGES IN YOUR CONTENT?  

Danica and I were recently enjoying an episode of Sid the Science Kid together.

A joke was told that can serve as a great lesson to all professional pet care providers.

This is the joke:

What do you give a 900-pound gorilla for his birthday? I don’t know, but you better hope he likes it!

It’s cute for a child and can serve as an important reminder for business owners like us who offer a local service to our community.

This joke makes two assumptions.

1. The gorilla better like the gift you choose to get him for his birthday, or else…

2. The gorilla is grumpy and picky (“he better like it”) and might retaliate if he deems the gift unacceptable.

So what does this very analytical approach to a seemingly innocent joke tell us?

Large dogs, medium, or small?
Cats?
Horses?
Distance you have to drive?
Pay via credit card or check?
Monday-Friday midday visits or vacation overnights?

Are you building your ideal client avatar?  If you’re not, you should be.  It will streamline your marketing efforts, be more cost effective, and it will attract clients that you love working with.

We’ve talked WHAT your ideal client looks like.
We’ve talked about WHY you should keep an ideal client in mind.

Now we are going to talk about HOW to reach them.

It’s easy:

Give them what they want: and they all want INFORMATION about things that are IMPORTANT to them.

Join us this Thursday, November 12, at 2pm eastern, for a great new live webinar discussing WordPress 101 for Pet Professionals: A step-by-step lesson and demonstration on how to best manage your own pet website! This is perfect for you…