7 steps of PPS plan

Melinda Walker shares her experience of starting a profitable pet sitting business. She encourages people with a passion for pets to consider turning it into a side hustle or career. Melinda emphasizes the importance of picking pet sitting as a career choice and highlights the benefits of financial and time freedom. She also discusses the importance of loving animals, being a pet leader, and providing excellent service to pet parents. Melinda advises researching the local market and getting to know others in the industry. She also discusses the process of naming your business and deciding on the services to offer. Melinda shares her own experience of starting with pet sitting and gradually expanding her services. She concludes by urging aspiring pet sitters to say yes to opportunities and build their business through excellent service. The dog ate my desk job and I ended up with a million-dollar pet business. Hey there, I'm Melinda Walker and this is the seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet sitting business brought to you by ProfitablePetSitter.com There are thousands of passionate pet people that could add a side hustle or pivot their career into getting paid to spend time with pets But they don't know they can do it Do you have a passion for pets and pet parents? The desire to spend your day with pets and would love to get paid to provide peace of mind to pet parents Well, if you're ready to add a side hustle or pivot your career if you are leashed to a J-O-B Tired of working with people you don't like quit wasting your life being bored and underappreciated If you want to get paid to spend time with pets continue with me I am revealing how you can become the next profitable pet sitter So pop in your earbuds leash up your pup and learn how you can become the next Profitable pet sitter in less time than it takes to walk your dog It's all based on my book Profitable Pet Sitter seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet sitting business Available on amazon or get your signed copy directly from me at ProfitablePetSitter.com We are on step one pick All you have to do in this first step is pick if pet sitting is right for you If you really want to be the next profitable pet sitter I picked pet sitting almost 20 years ago, and it's been a huge blessing for my family of four I never dreamed that by picking pet sitting we would create a community of pet parents that appreciate tip review and refer us That we would create financial freedom even paying off our mortgage in half the typical time That we would create time freedom having lots of time for family and travel I loved being home when my daughters got off the school bus I started this business for my family and now it has become truly a family business My husband handles the logistics of getting all 16 000 visits covered by our team of pet pros I handle communications to keep all 600 active clients engaged and bring in new clients My oldest daughter visits pets when she is on break from college and my youngest daughter even contributes With her own marketing efforts via canva design newsletters and social media posts The business didn't start out this way and it won't become this for you overnight But it can be a profitable way to spend your day In step one, I share a day in my life as a full-time profitable pet sitter If this sounds like how you want to spend your day, then you've picked pet sitting Picking pet sitting making that decision that this is how you want to spend your time Picking pet sitting making the decision That this is what you want to spend your time doing is the very first and most important step I really want you to think about why you want to pet sit Will you enjoy the variety in your day? When I first picked pet sitting I loved that I was no longer leashed to a job That doesn't mean I didn't have to work though. I definitely had to work. I was in the community sharing about my service Meeting pet parents and spending time with pets, but I love the variety in my day Do you love starting and ending your day around animals? Will that love combined with the profit? I will teach you to create from providing the service propel you to get out of bed early And will you feel like it was a day well spent if putting a dog to bed after a potty break is the last thing you do At night, do you like to be outside walking dogs? Do you enjoy the exercise? Do you mind the weather because puppy's got a potty rain snow heat sleep or shine? I live in the south. So it's mostly heat for me Do you have a special bond with animals? Do you know how to approach a new animal read body language? Can you be a pet leader? Not just a pet lover Do you like helping pet parents pet parents pay you you may be spending most of your time with the pets But you are keeping the pet parents happy they provide that profit that keeps you in business Do you want to listen to pet parents talk about their pets? Will you be known as the pet person? People will be coming to you for advice coming to you with stories and coming to you for your help Are you willing to follow the instructions the pet parents provide for their pets? Even when it's not exactly how you would handle things If these things are so are you willing to learn new business skills Are you coachable are you willing to get to know others that work in your industry? Other people that groom train provide medical care for animals even other pet sitters That last one's a good one because that is the next part of picking pet sitting You get to know others in your community that have also picked pet sitting in the book profitable pet sitter Seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet sitting business I walk you through an exercise that shows you who else picked pet sitting in your community and how to learn from them We are learning from them not stealing from them My husband and I ran My husband and I run our profitable pet sitting business together and service a community of under 150 000 people a fairly small town and unfortunately, I have a story I share in the book About another couple in our community that ripped off our name In the end we won as they no longer exist and we're celebrating our 126th year. Well, at least in dog years Now, I don't want you to worry about seeing that others are doing this, too When I show you in step one how to research your service area Please know that we had just under 200 clients when we made our first hundred thousand dollars There are a lot more than 200 pet parents in your community. So there's plenty for all of us You can find all the details of step one in my book profitable pet sitter Seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet sitting business available on amazon or get your signed copy directly from me at profitablepetsitter.com We are on step two present Step two is to present what you have to offer to your community In this step you're going to name your business and decide what services you're going to provide for your clients The first thing your potential client will see is your business name and slogan which should represent your service as well I almost royally messed this step up myself. My first attempt in business was an errand service Yep, I thought it would be fun to spend other people's money running errands for them I wanted to name it asked and answered concierge Do you know how to spell concierge because I didn't Know what I learned don't use a word in your business name that people can't spell I quickly realized that the most popular service of my concierge business was my pet sitting services Then I wanted to name my business asked and answered pet sitting and concierge. Does that even fit on a business card? Luckily at the time I had a client who was an online entrepreneur This was seriously good luck because how many online entrepreneurs were there in 2007? She was helping me get my name as a website, but she fought back when she heard this business name as a url www.askedandansweredpetsittingandconcierge.com Is not a good url My husband daniel that would soon become my business partner had suggested we change the name to athens pet sitter Boring I thought luckily the online entrepreneur client agreed with daniel And that is what our business name became and remains today almost 20 profitable years later Since your business name is the first impression your potential clients will have of you and your service It is very important to get this right That is why in step two we brainstorm names to set up your business for success If you can't get the ideal name because it is taken then your slogan becomes even more important Your slogan will clarify exactly what you do to help pet parents This is why in this step. We both name your business write your slogan and determine the services that you will start with The services you pick to start is not a forever decision This is just the starting point. You can pivot or add services as you gain more skills confidence and availability I share the three most popular services and some pros and cons to each of those services Plus a list of other services pet parents buy in my community that helps make us profitable pet sitters For those of you that picked pet sitting as a side hustle and aren't pivoting your whole career Please present services to your community that don't interfere with your other responsibilities Please only present services that you can do exceedingly well and leave the other services that don't fit into your schedule for others to perform If you do plan to pivot your career You also don't have to start with every service imaginable start with what you are most comfortable serving say no when you can't do a five star google rating review worthy job Now I don't advocate saying no often if I don't have to I say yes many many times Many many years ago when I was starting out just like you I got a call from an elderly couple that was going to be Gone for the whole summer. I was so excited about the opportunity. I didn't ask enough questions I just set up a meet and greet when I arrived. I found that the couple didn't have pets They had a rose garden and a postage stamp sized yard that needed cutting Not sure why they called me but anyway I said yes I said yes mostly because it was an elderly couple that asked me and who can say no to a cute little old couple that I hope daniel and I are one day I said yes, because I had the time and ability. I said yes because saying yes to clients is how you build a business When you can become successful at what you say yes to I've had thousands of clients and yet I remember this one from so many years ago because it was unusual Wasn't getting away from my boring days at a desk job part of the reason I started a business of my own Say no when you must and say yes when you can If you do have to say no try to have an alternative solution Go back to that exercise in step one and identify a service that does offer what that client needs If you can't be the one to provide that service You can find all the details of presenting your name slogan and services in step two of my book Profitable Pet Sitter seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet sitting business We are on step three position in this step We are going to position your pet business as the top dog Those services that you decided on in step two are going to be pretty similar to all the other pet businesses out there So what's going to make you stand out your position? I'm going to give you many ways to showcase that your pet business And the solutions you bring to pet parents at the price you set are the best choice for the pet parents in your area How do you position yourself as top dog two ways? You are going to pick a competitive edge. You are going to price wisely in the book We review lots of options you can choose from to be your competitive edge If you aren't familiar with the term competitive edge Let me define it for you in the way I think of it a competitive edge is typically an advantage a business has over another For example walmart buys so much product it can buy at a lower price and therefore sell at a lower price Walmart's lower price is its competitive advantage I like to add that sometimes a competitive advantage is the strength that you talk about Even though others offer that same service our main competitive edge is our communication Do you think we're the only pet sitters that communicate with clients? Of course not, but we are known for communication because we talk about how good Communicators we are and we followed that up with actually being strong communicators We remind clients that they will get a confirmation email communicated to them as soon as their scheduled visits are confirmed We remind clients and potential clients that we will communicate with them at each and every visit via a photo and message email to them We remind potential clients and clients that we have an app so they can communicate with a manager Owner and sitter all with one message via our app We remind clients that they can communicate changes to their pets routine 24-7 via our online system. We send a weekly email to all 1600 plus potential clients and clients that get signed up for our email list when potential clients call We don't answer the phone But they get an automatic response telling them when we will respond and then we actually respond at that time Nothing here is crazy all common sense Say what you are going to do then do what you say Now guess what clients write when they review? Most of them say how good of communicators we are you might be tempted to think that since you're brand new You don't have any advantages Let's bust that myth In step three of profitable pet sitter I offer you many examples of competitive edges that you can offer right now as a brand new business It's all in how you communicate You are going to communicate to your potential clients only in positive ways that show the benefit you provide to them You aren't going to talk about you. You are going to talk about how you solve the ideal client's problem How you solve problems will be your competitive edge And very often how you solve problems be very similar to how others in the industry solve those same problems Here is what will make you different You are going to communicate this problem solving just like we communicate You are going to point out whatever you choose to be your competitive edge as often as you possibly can If you can fit it on your slogan add it to your email signature make it part of your vocabulary You will be the next profitable pet sitter Since I have shared what a brilliant communicator I am through my business. I thought i'd end with a time when there was No communication at all A brand new overnight client returned from a trip I called to follow up as usual only this time. I didn't get the happy dare. I say thrilled Compliments of a new adoring fan what I hear was I am not speaking to you. You'll need to cooperate with the police What the police called immediately asking me to provide my exact times of arrival and departure And anyone I had had with me for the time the family my new clients had been away I complied but I had no idea what this was all about The police wouldn't say what had gone wrong that had caused them to get involved And since I hadn't done anything illegal, I didn't have a clue I waited and called the client again with no answer. I called my husband to discuss this crazy situation I hadn't met the clients myself. Daniel had done the meet and greet I asked if there was anything unusual about the people that they would call the police on me I had left the pets and home in what I considered perfect order only hours before they returned home I'd even vacuumed the whole house, even though the cleaning lady had been there a time at this point We had hundreds of happy clients. I just couldn't imagine what was going on That's when he recalled that the cleaning lady was also there during the meet and greet It was particularly odd So it stuck in his memory that while he was getting instructions from the wife The husband was speaking with the maid about her car trouble and maybe needing a new car Daniel would never share a financial need with the client. So it really stood out to him to overhear this Days later after no news I finally got a call the client called to say that a significant amount of money and jewelry had been stolen from her home while They were away, but the police had confirmed that it was the cleaner Daniel felt like I should be furious for being accused of theft But I really felt for that client. She had never met me. She had a relationship with the cleaner She had been betrayed and it would have been easier If the person that would have done that would have been me a stranger that could have turned into a nightmare I could have been upset to be accused but instead I communicated my sympathy for the situation She booked another trip She became a top 10 client and remained a top 10 client Every single year since choose your competitive edge from the many I share in step three of profitable pet sitter And then communicate your competitive edge. We are on step four provide Yes, it's time to provide services to clients. I know I hear you You don't have any clients to provide services for Of course, you don't you are just getting started. I didn't have any clients when I started either Ask almost every business owner Everywhere where they got their first client and they will likely answer just like I answer that question My very first client was my mother-in-law's best friend That's right Your first client Like most every other business person will likely be someone you already know or a friend neighbor co-worker of someone you already know My first client had a few outdoor cats He actually lived a little further than I would eventually decide to service but it was my first client So I was so very excited to get started and say yes, even though it wasn't the ideal location for me And he was probably just doing me a favor because his outdoor cats would have been just fine without my visits for his short time away In step four, we walk through the journey of a potential client becoming a happy paying reviewing referring Long-time client we start with how a potential client may find you this will be the marketing you do We create evidence. You are top dog. That is your position And this is how that potential client decides you are right for them Once the client reaches out to you that is when sales begins Don't worry if the word sales scares you I promise it's not sales in a slimy way We do sales in a way that works for my extroverted And introverted profitable pet sitters after you perform the pet services in a five-star way and take lots of photos of you performing this service I show you how to ask for reviews and referrals This repeatable process is how you grow a profitable pet sitting business. Did I mention in the system? I teach you get paid before you perform services so you don't waste time chasing down payments I understand that you dream of spending your day with pets But you have to know right now that you have to work with people too The pet parents pay the invoice the more pet parents you impress by having a journey to take them through The more pets you get to spend your days with last year alone. We served about 600 clients My husband and business partner daniel and I have this running joke When we walk into any local and crowded place one of us asks the other How many people in this room do you think we have access to their home with a hundred or more new clients every year? We have a lot of keys in our world We used to keep a copy of each client's key at our home as a backup Now with elocks and auto entry, we don't have to do this as much. I believe we're down to like four filing cabinet drawers It's a lot of keys. We have a lot of clients We only meet our clients in person once at the meet and greet and that is only in cases where the manager can't do the meet And greet now. I personally am terrible with names and faces. Seriously, if I could create a new social norm It would be name tags. I keep trying to get this enacted at church, but it's not working We do our best to include our names and faces in the weekly emails We send to our clients along with encouraging sitters to include pics of their own faces with the pets that they're visiting But that doesn't remind us of our clients names and faces One time in target I accosted this couple because they were buying a large quantity of cat supplies with my business card extended I said I see you have pets. Maybe I can be of service The couple did not take my card but quickly replied. No, thanks. We already have a pet sitter We love I wanted to say they would love me more But then they added have you heard of and named my very own business? Luckily, I was listening instead of planning my retort and was able to smile and say thanks so much for being great clients to my business This same couple would be the pet parents of the very first pet that died on our watch By the way, it's only been five pets in 17 years and every one of those pet parents remain a client When Daniel called to tell him of this situation the client apologized saying he didn't realize the diagnosis They had received just before departure would be so quick acting. They sent a tip for handling the situation. So delicately People pets profit that is the order people They are your gateway to pets when you are providing your services Don't forget that you're providing care for the pets. But most importantly you're providing peace of mind to the pet parents You can read all about the journey you can set up for your clients and step four of profitable pet sitter Available at profitablepetsitter.com step five is promote. I want to take you back to 2015 At this point we have been around as a family business for almost a decade We had a few sitters on our team We had hit a level of financial success that we didn't think was possible with a pet sitting business Especially a pet sitting business serving a community of less than 150 000 people. I'm not saying it was a ton of money I'm just saying it was more than I thought possible from pet sitting I have to stop my own story here to go off on a tangent real quick stick with me This limited mindset of not knowing the financial value the scalability the time freedom That could be created with a pet sitting business or really any service business That is what I truly wish to impart on you my listener if you take just one thing away from this information It's the knowledge that a service business can be very financially valuable And even more valuable are the relationships I have created due to this business that have been Invaluable if you missed that how-to of exactly how I did it you'll figure it out What I really need you to know is just how profitable pet sitting and service-based business in general can be profitable monetarily Relationally the community impact we are able to make because we have time to volunteer And the money to support worthy causes my oldest daughter is in college as an accounting major because of the variety of options She'll have in business offering her accounting services My youngest is homeschooled with a curriculum of entrepreneurship This is because I know how much having this business has positively impacted me and my family and our community All right tangent over back to my original story. I promise i'm going to circle back to promote your action for step five It's 2015 all is well It is here when I meet the person that will cause me to double my business's income Her name is carolyn. Nope. She's not a fairy godmother that sprinkles profit wherever she goes She isn't a genie granting three wishes. She's a website designer At the end of 2015 she built us our first professional website up until this point. I had created a Terribly ugly site that just had a picture of our family and how to contact us Luckily this ugly website was a whole lot more than what most pet sitters had Which is just a phone number that they didn't even have time to answer I only had a website at all because of another relationship that was built because of having a service business I shared about that in step two. The point is this ugly website Had gotten us to beyond my financial goals for the business at the time Enter carolyn with the website she created for us our income doubled It took almost a decade to get to what I considered success Then in one year she made that double I cannot emphasize enough what a good website will do for your business She taught me a ton just by seeing how she worked carolyn can do the same for you Email me at peoplepetsprofit at gmail.com That email address is on profitablepetsitter.com too So if you're driving and you missed it, you can look it up later If you email me at peoplepetsprofit at gmail.com and want carolyn services I'll put you in touch with her since you are just starting out I have distilled in step five the three main actions you must do when creating your site and the three mistakes to avoid Website creation is a lot easier now and more available for you to do it yourself So I hope this step doesn't intimidate you But if you aren't ready to create a site yet You still need to review the steps and mistakes because they translate to your social media channels as well You must be online somewhere. I am sure you already have personal social media You can use that for now Even if a friend recommends you That person that they recommended you to is still likely to look you up online. So you have to be there I bet there isn't a single service that you use that doesn't have an online presence. You must too Getting some real estate online is easier than ever. I promise if you follow the three actions To take and the three mistakes to avoid you will turn visitors to your social media channel Or website or google profile into paying reviewing Referring clients those three actions to take and three mistakes to avoid are all in step five of my book profitable pet sitter available at profitablepetsitter.com Profit step six is titled profit and it's all about systems in profitable Petsitter seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet sitting business I share all the systems I use to run my profitable pet sitting business Let me tell you about my life before I had all the systems in place that I have now You know how normal people have nightmares about being late to a test or getting to school with no clothes on? Well pet sitters have a nightmare that they miss a pet sit. I had this dream Well nightmare so many times over the years I would wake up in the middle of the night and review a conversation with a client Then double check that the calendar actually held the dates that they had told me they needed me in january of 2012 My nightmare came true. I'll get to how I recall that exact month and year that this occurred in just a moment I got a call from a client thanking us for having watched her pets over the holiday and requesting services for a short Upcoming trip out of town. I grabbed some paper and wrote myself a little note to remind me to add this to the calendar Sure, no problem. We will be there. I answered her. I have no idea what happened next Maybe I got another call. Maybe I got caught up in mom life with my six and a half year old Maybe I rolled my nine months pregnant body into some new position praying for comfort Regardless of what the circumstances were I neglected to transfer the details of that trip to our google calendar Which was the system we were using at the time The following week i'm going about my normal routine when I get a call from this same client She began with the fact that the check was still on the kitchen table when she returned home and that the food and water were Incredibly low My mind is racing when she finally asked had we even shown up The blood drained from my face and my heart rate jacked up the beginning signs of embarrassment and panic were rising As I admitted to her honestly We had not The pets were okay. She had a dog door and had been a short trip with a big bowl of food and water My client's peace of mind. It was not okay. It was shattered and I was mortified We've been doing this for six years at this point. How did I let this happen? I wanted to make excuses. Oh the holidays had me exhausted. Did I mention I was about to burst into labor at any moment? I wanted to but I didn't because my job was not to make myself feel better but to make things right with the client I wrote her a handwritten sincere apology letter that included a gift certificate If she would consider giving us another chance, I would call to confirm her future visits the day before departure That baby I was pregnant with is a beautiful smart 12 year old and that client is still a client Plus, we now have a two-way ironclad system in place to make sure no pet is left behind I'm happy to share that system with you Just shoot me an email at peoplepetsprofit at gmail.com For my suggestion on how you can never have to wake up worried Well, at least about a Miss Petson The problem with the system I was using is that it relied on my memory. The system I use now takes me out of the equation Systems are all about taking you personally out of the equation without removing the personal touch We have a system for everything We have a client journey we take potential clients through That is our system to turn potential clients into paying clients or our sales system We onboard all new clients with the same series of emails That way I don't forget to provide important information and they get the most out of our services This is our client onboarding system. We have a system for collecting payment before services We have a system to keep current clients care instructions We have a system that's performed at each visit even though each home is unique We have a system to collect reviews You won't need every system in place to get started getting started is more important than having everything perfect While you are small and just getting started you can personally interact with each client You can personally meet each new client. You can collect payment. You can write the care instructions You you can provide five star service. You can follow up and you can ask for the reviews as you grow You become more profitable You will need systems because there will just be too many moving parts to remember systems can be personalized So your clients get your personal touch And we remove some human error. We also cover in step six the system we implement to deal with mistakes Yes We have a system for dealing with mistakes because we are people dealing with people and that equals a few rare mistakes Every once in a while find my list of systems in step six a profitable pet sitter Seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet business perform step seven is all about community I want to tell you what i'm most proud of with my pet sitting business It's not the profit that was created from consistently putting clients needs first It's not the recognition of being a 20-year family-run company with more than 100 five-star reviews What I am most proud of is the relationships and community We've been allowed to create the evidence of this community creation came at the worst possible point in our business in march of 2020 We finished spring break on a high completing over 350 visits that week and then as you know, the whole world stopped We went from constant bookings to constant cancellations clients were calling to personally Apologize for having to cancel and assuring us that they would reschedule in three weeks when this whole covid19 thing was over That's how long I was supposed to last right about three weeks as our calendar completely emptied my heart also emptied How could we be so stupid to both derive our incomes from pet sitting? It's like the decade and a half of success was wiped away and totally forgotten in my mindset But then something incredible happened a client called not to cancel but to prepay for future visits She said she wanted to do her part to make sure our service would be available when her cats needed us next time She traveled I was stunned. I was thrilled. My heart was definitely full Then another client called to request dog walks This client wasn't traveling. She wasn't working from home. She had never requested a dog walk before She only used us when she traveled she was just doing us a huge favor She was giving us a way to get paid She was creating a way to pay us then another client called a couple that we had worked with for years They didn't want to prepay for future visits. They just wanted to donate to our family I insisted we apply the amount for a future credit, but it was so large. It took years to pay off that credit Through that season 10 percent of our clients sent money to our family business To ensure our service would be available in the future. That is how important we were to our community That is evidence of the relationship we had built. It gives me chills just to think back on that time How proud I was how proud I am of what we offer to our community. This is what I want for you I want you to have pride in what you offer Of course you must have profit or you won't be able to afford to offer a quality service in your community In step seven the final step of profitable pets that are planned Is all about getting into your community if pet parents don't know you exist. You can't get paid to spend time with pets In step seven we brainstorm where you can go in your community to find clients and how to present yourself and your services Once you get there many of my pet loving future and fellow Pet sitters don't love the idea of putting themselves out there in the community It is necessary and it is rewarding. It is the way to begin relationships The final piece of step seven is goal creation I walk you through creating goals that will get you where you want to be I don't just say tell yourself every day that you're going to make forty thousand dollars pet sitting this year While you do have to believe your goal is possible. You also have to do the actions to get you to your goals I share with you the goals that I use to motivate me to take action. They are called lead goals What is particularly exciting about step seven is that it is both your last step in the profitable pets that are planned And the step you need to repeat again and again until you reach the level of success You want or more likely like me You will reach a level of success beyond your wildest dreams as we wrap up those seventh step In profitable pet sitter seven steps to turn your passion for pets into a profitable pet business I would love to see you at profitable pet sitter dot com pivot your career into pet sitting It could change your life get outside get exercise Get paid to spend your day with pets