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Why Did You Really Become A Professional Pet Sitter? (And the PSO Conference Scholarship is Open)

Adorable petsThis post is insanely important for two specific reasons.

1 – It’s the first official announcement that our 2014 Scholarship Program is open for applicants (that’s you).

This simply means we will be awarding one qualified pet care professional a fully paid trip to attend our upcoming pet sitting live event in Las Vegas this October 19 – 22, 2014, including fully paid round trip air fare, 3-night hotel stay at the Tropicana, and a registration ticket to the 3 day event.

2 – The deeper purpose of this blog post is to get you thinking deeper about everything you do day in and day out as a professional pet sitter.

And why is that so important? Keep reading and you’ll quickly learn what I mean.

RESOURCE: Apply now for the 2014 PetSittingOlogy Live Event Scholarship »

Let’s start with that self evaluation, if you will.

I titled this post “Why did you really become a professional pet sitter” with emphasis on the word “really.” If we were talking, and I asked you simply “Why did you become a professional pet sitter” you could easily list a handful of reasons, covering everything from “I was tired of my old career” and “I wanted to work for myself” to “I absolutely love animals and this is the perfect way to spend time with them.”

And each of those replies would be more than relevant, sufficient and accurate.

However, see what happens when we insert the word ‘really’ into the middle of the question:

“Why did you REALLY become a professional pet sitter?”

It forces you into a state of true and personal reflection.

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How The Pet Tech PetSaver Class Will Up Your Game

become a better pet sitter

I’m not one for bold statements just for the sake of it. Yet you’ve heard us talk about how the PetSittingOlogy Live Event in Vegas is *the* pet professional conference to attend.

And that it will bring your business to the next level. And that you will meet people that will inspire, educate, and motivate you. And that you will make lasting friendships that will last through out the year.

And we literally guarantee all of those things to happen for you. How can we guarantee that?

Because we are in the exact same boat. We strive to bring the conference to the next level, to meet and talk to inspiring experts that are already at the next level so we can bring that to you at the conference.

We want to be the best pet sitting and pet business related conference in the country. We’re well on our way to accomplishing that:

We are honored to be able to announce that Thom Somes, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF PET TECH WILL BE AT THE CONFERENCE.

I’ll let that sink in for a minute.

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Are You Fully Trained in Pet First Aid and CPR? Would You Like To Be?

first-aid

Are you trained in pet first aid and CPR?

Have you ever come upon a client’s pet that needed immediate attention?

Or what if you could sleep well at night simply knowing that you have the skills at the ready to handle any emergency situation.

As a professional pet care professional, you have no doubt come across the concept and idea of first aid training.

Perhaps you have also come across the name Pet Tech and Thom Somes aka The Pet Safety Guy.

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3 Topics To Absolutely Help You Manage and Grow Your Business Better [Audio]

inside the mindDo you ever feel like your head is about to explode with all the thoughts, ideas, and conversations going on at once?

Yea, me too!

I happen to use the tool Evernote to document anything and everything I want to remember. This includes blog post topics, ideas, projects, notes, website resources, people I want to reach out to, to-do lists, etc.

What I found happening recently is that I have so many things just sitting in Evernote piling up (and essentially getting lost in the mix).

I figured I would fire up the mic and begin getting some of these topics out for you. Enjoy these 24 minutes during your day.

Full transcript follows, but the topics I discuss are:

-The 3 most useful tools you can use to gather email addresses from your website visitors.
-How beneficial is it to purchase additional domain names for your business?
-What makes Gmail so powerful as an integral part of your day-to-day sanity and success?

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Creating the Most Impressive Conference Ever

Sweet lil Monkey

Have you been to a conference before and been unimpressed?

Maybe it was some industry conference, maybe it was a business class offered by a local college or business professional.

Did you walk into the room and not know anyone? Did you cordially put on your fake smile and say hello, and then sit down and bury your head in your phone until the lecture started?

And is that what it felt like – a lecture?

A broad overview on what you need to do to grow a successful business but no real, pertinent to you, how am I going to implement, nothing pertains to ME and my business.

So you leave and promptly forget everything you “learned” and don’t even remember the name of the person who sat next to you.

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Would You Honor The Same Rate As The Prior Pet Sitter?

tshirt rack

Price shoppers. We all deal with them on a more regular basis than we’d prefer.

They come in all shapes and sizes, and they all approach the subject differently.

Sometimes their price shopping tendencies show up early in the chat (which is great for us so we waste as little time as possible), while other times you’ll spend 30 minutes on the phone detailing every aspect of what you do and how you do it still only to met with resistance to your very reasonable rate.

My pet sitting business received the below service request recently and I think it’s a good one to discuss.

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A Step By Step Checklist On How To Attend The Pet Sitting Conference As A Sole Proprietor Of Your Business

Computer checklist

Don’t think you can go to the conference? Who will take care of your clients? Your animals? You don’t have a staff that can take over for a few days – it’s all on you. You barely ever get a full day off, let alone 4 days in a row, let alone to actually go somewhere!

Take a deep breath – we’re going to give you a step by step checklist to ensure that not only will your clients be prepared for your absence; they will be excited that you are going!

After all, they are going to benefit from everything you learn to make you and your business EVEN BETTER!

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Who Is Winning The Post-Holiday Pet Sitting Blues Fight?

empty office

Do you notice how some months are busier than others, while others seem to come to a grinding halt?

In our pet care industry, most pet sitters experience this sort of ebb and flow, but the trick is what to do when there is little to do?

After the Winter holidays, business can really slow down for a lot of us pet sitting business owners.

Everyone got their traveling done in November and December and now the kids are back in school, vacation days are gone from work and the post-holiday blues are starting to sink in.

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How to Attract New Clients and Fans Directly to Your Pet Sitting Business

broken bridge

Do you know the true definition of the word “fan”?

And more amazingly, did you know that a ‘fan’ is an abbreviation of the word ‘fanatic’?

So, when you are a fan of something, it suggests you are a fanatic of that thing.

As you know, the definition of a fan is: an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer. (Thanks, Dictionary.com!)

Thinking about your own pet sitting business and client base, you probably have some true fans of your business, right?

You know those clients that sing your praises, love everything you do and how you do it, and can not live without you.

How wonderful would it be to have even more fanatics of your service?

It’s possible to follow a proven path to increase the chances of gaining many more fans of your business.

And it’s these fans that will keep you in business, keep you sane, and actually help grow your business with you.

This Video Clip Helps Get The Ball Rolling.

At the 2013 PetSittingOlogy Conference, we were lucky enough to have keynote speaker, Maribeth Kuzmeski kick off the event with her presentation, “And The Clients Went Wild! Strategies from the Playbooks of Successful Companies for Winning New Business.”

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Marcus Sheridan – The #1 Speaker and Speaker #1 To Kick Off The 2014 Pet Sitting Conference

Marcus SheridanWhen Marcus Sheridan of the Sales Lion signed on for the 3rd Annual PetSittingOlogy Conference, I was all excited to share the news.

My plan was to do some research online, put together a great blog about his business story, books that he has been involved with, accolades about his accomplishments and how lucky you’ll be if you sign up for the conference with him on board.

Blah, blah, blah – boring!

(He would have been disappointed.)

You can find out all of that information on his Sales Lion web site. The key to listening to Marcus, is that he is so much more than his story. Marcus can tell you about Marcus, I want to tell you why you want to hear him in person!

SIDE NOTE: Registration now open for the 2014 Conference!

If you’ve been to a Petsittingology conference before, you’ve been motivated, empowered and inspired by Marcus.

Once on the brink of business failure due to the down turn of the economy, he turned it around – and he shares his story with his audience. His is not a Woe-Is-Me-I’m-Going-To-Chuck-It-All-Life-Sucks kind of story.

It’s more of a survival story, of making it happen, of not just talking about implementing ideas – of actually DOING THEM.

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