Emails & Texts:

Over 350 emails and texts today and the days not over! Moma Mia, I need to swim in a lake and all I have to look at is the Hudson River, ha.

Dream:

I drempt last night I was back in College and for money I was walking teachers dogs. Actually is becoming nice way to make money in college.

I've received interest for my book "The Dog Walker & Pet Sitter Bible." I'm hoping to wrap up a deal in the next few weeks (^_^)

Which of these do you think would make your employees happier? And stay with you longer?

Downtown Pets Image Slideshow:

Check out our running slideshow with images from our daily dog walks: http://ping.fm/uVGKW

Short Notice Cancellations:

Tired of clients leaving short notice without any warning? I am. Some people have a penalty for this. What are your thoughts or ideas?

New Employee Presents:

New policy for my new employees - on their 1st day I give them a piece of equipment or clothing they're lacking for the job as a present.

Daycare & Boarding:

I have mixed feelings about daycare and boarding for dogs. What's your opinion of doggy daycare and boarding vs. dog walking + pet sitting?

Younger Dog Walkers & Pet Sitters:

If you hire younger dog walkers & pet sitters make sure they have a career pursuit. If not their career pursuit could become your business..

BP Burns Turtles Alive:

BP burning turtles alive and blocking their rescue too. Read more >>>>> http://ping.fm/p9oT9

How To Grow Dog Walking Routes:

Growing your pet service can be like growing your real-estate portfolio. What some building owners do is buy a building or two, improve the building, increase the rent roll, make it worth more, etc. and then refinance their mortgage. When they refinance their mortgage they take out money and invest it in a new building. Then they go through the whole process again and over time they own a ton of buildings.

This model has worked for me with my pet service too. You take a full dog walking route you have, especially one busting at the seems with clients and you give 75-80% of the dogs to a new walker. You take that walker who now has only 20% of the route and both you and that person head out to get new dogs for the route. You invest in street marketing and you scour the streets to get new clients. You concentrate on a small areas and make it personal, I'm Lisa and I'd be the one walking your dogs, etc. Give yourself x amount of time to fill the route and x amount of money to spend of promoting the route. If it doesn't work out you can always give that walker back some dogs and or move people around. But if it does work? And both routes get packed with dogs? Then you can go through the process all over again....

Now I'm not trying to make this sound simple because it's not. It will take lots of blood sweat and tears usually to grow new routes but if you plan ahead with a budget and give you and the 2nd walker a timetable it might really help you push yourselves to be successful.

Clients getting on your nerves? Take out your aggression with some physical activity. Smash a tennis ball against a wall or swim some laps.

How important is making money to you when it comes to running your pet service? And if it isn't important to you should it be?

I have a business mentor who is always on me because as he says it, he doesn't think I'm a "capitalist". Of course I think he's saying this as a compliment overall when it comes to my concern for others (^_^) But as a pet service owner can't we get our cake and eat it too? Shouldn't amazing dog walkers and pet sitters charge more over time and charge much more than the lesser competitors out there? To me it seems like those who charge the most in our industry often offer the lesser quality service. Maybe you're like me and don't have money as a priority in running your business but maybe it should be more of a priority. We are offering a professional service that literally takes part of our soul over time. I think it's time that we as an industry started to take ourselves more seriously and think about what we're actually worth to our clients. 30-40 years from now we should all be retired with a nice amount of money (^_^).

Check out the poll below and think about where you're at right now with your business, it might be telling.

Handling All Your Business Requests:

The pet service industry can be frustrating when the issue is not getting enough business but rather being able to handle it...

Top Ten Dog Cities in America:

Top Ten Dog Cities in America as by Bella Dog Magazine >>>>> http://ping.fm/Zom23

The Best Dog Walkers & Pet Sitters:

The best dog walkers and pet sitters don't always stay with you the longest. It's sometimes a choice of quantity vs. quality...

Gulf Oil Spill:

Support groups saving animals effected by the Gulf Oil Spill: http://tiny.cc/8y4rt

With some of these clients we have to wonder if it's actually worth the hassle and stress for such a small reward.

Trending With Clients:

I've noticed an interesting trend with my clients. Those clients who spend the least are often the most high maintenance & expect the most.

Billing & Payroll:

Next on my to do list: cut the time I spend weekly on billing clients and paying employees in half...

Customer Service:

I try and show lots of appreciation when I receive great customer service. It's not so easy to find these days...

Don't Send That Email...

We've all done it before. We've all sent emails written with passion and anger and as much as we try and stop that email from leaving our outbox...there it goes disappearing into the webasphere. I have written and sent a few emails myself that were written at the height of me being angry about something. While I often meant what I had written I never would have worded it the way it was sent, if I'd just stopped to think about it longer.

My advice for you to avoid this? Whenever you are angry about something and start to write an email don't put a to: email address, leave it blank. Write that angry letter, get it all out on paper, curses, gripes, everything and then get up from your computer and clear your mind for a few minutes. Next go back to your computer and look over that email again. Do you really want to send it in it's present form? The answer will probably be no and you can trim the rough stuff, leave the constructive points and then do the same thing as before, get up from your computer for a few minutes. Come back to your computer and look over the email again. Make sure you want to send this email but more importantly, make sure you are sending this email to make yourself feel better. If you will feel better sending this email than go for it. But also make sure that you have interest in hearing the other persons reply...

Technology can also help you with this issue. There is a software I'll try and mention in a post next week that automatically holds your sent emails for 10-15 minutes after you send them. This gives you the opportunity to delete the email if you wrote it in haste.

The most helpful mechanism to calm me down before addressing an annoying situation has been to talk with a friend. If I need to speak with a client who has annoyed me I'll try and call a friend or peer beforehand and joke around about the situation. We'll even role play the situation with one of us playing the client and we really let loose. I have found this to be an extremely therapeutic way to deal with stressful and painful situations.

If any of you have any tips we'd love to hear them, thank you.

Dairy & Meat Free Diet:

UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet. read more...http://tiny.cc/vd7be