We are so happy to have Pet Sitters Associates as a Platinum Sponsor for our 2018 Prosperous Pet Business Online Conference and I wanted to interview them so you could find out what they do!

Don’t know who Pet Sitters Associates is and what they do?

This information below will help you get to know this GREAT company:

Q What is Pet Sitters Associates?

A. We started Pet Sitters Associates in 1998. Our philosophy has always been to help individuals throughout the United States start up their pet care businesses at the most affordable rates possible. Pet Sitters Associates proudly offers membership benefits that include pet business insurance administered by RPS Scobie Group and underwritten by an AM Best rated: A (Excellent) Insurance Company.

Q. What is the cost of the basic membership, which includes liability insurance?

A. The cost is $190 for membership and insurance through Pet Sitters Associates. The membership and insurance is good for one full year from the time of joining and can be effective immediately at www.petsitllc.com.

Q. What are the member benefits?

A. You will gain access to a library of resources including our customer checklist and archived newsletters, quarterly newsletters, and the option to be listed on one of the largest online pet business directories and pet business liability insurance.

Q. What is the cost if we have additional partners/spouse/employees?

A. The cost is $90 for each additional person on your policy.

Q. What type of pet care business does the basic liability cover?

A. It covers pet sitting in the pet owner’s home, pet transportation, pet walking, and pooper scooper services.

Q. What if I bring animals into my home?

A. Members need to purchase the optional pet daycare coverage to extend the liability insurance to cover incidents at their home or pet daycare operation. The cost for this additional coverage is $155 and can be added for up to 3 employees/ICs.

Q. Do you offer a bond?

A Our Broadened Property Damage/Bond coverage costs an additional $100. This coverage provides $10,000 per occurrence or $25,000 of insurance coverage annually for the theft, breakage, and mysterious disappearance of the personal property of the pet owner while under the care of you, your employees, your independent contractors, or your incidental helpers. Please note if you do not purchase this additional coverage, there is no coverage under your basic membership policy for loss, damage, or theft of the owner’s personal property.

Q. What if I do any housesitting without animals?

A. You would then need to add the house sitting coverage for an additional $100. House sitting without pets present cannot exceed 45% of the total pet care business revenue.

Q. What about grooming?

A. Pet grooming coverage for an additional $50 would need to be added. This coverage provides basic insurance for individuals who cut hair or nails while pet sitting. If you are only bathing and brushing pets, there is no need for you to purchase this.

Q. Do you have any type of coverage for Obedience Training?

A. Yes, our dog obedience training coverage costs an additional $155. If you are only offering basic dog obedience training (sit, stay, come) when provided in direct conjunction with your pet sitting work, you are already covered under your basic membership insurance. This coverage is for those who offer training outside of their pet sitting work. This policy does not provide coverage for protection, guard, fighting, attack, or police dog training.

To find out more and sign up for membership today visit Pet Sitters Associates online: www.PetSitLLC.com

Are you signed up yet for the 2018 Prosperous Pet Business Online Conference?

This is a free online event that you can attend from wherever you are in the world. All are welcome!

Transform your pet business by attending this year’s free online pet business conference. You’ll gain access to expert tools and techniques and learn from industry experts. This year’s conference contains 25 top experts who provide their insider knowledge in these strategy-packed conference segments.

This is an event that brings together pet sitters, dog walkers, dog trainers, pet groomers, dog daycare owners and many other pet-service providers from all over the world to receive fresh inspiration to grow their pet businesses in an all-new way – and those just thinking about starting a pet business will find helpful guidance, too!

This year’s conference is different from all the rest because we’ve curated the top selection of speakers from the past four years — including more speakers than we’ve ever offered before at prior conferences.

These 25 experts who received the most rave reviews in years past will bring their wisdom and their “hot topic” pet business segments for this year’s event.

The focus of the conference is business success – and it doesn’t stop there!

We’ll also be providing tips and tools for your body, mind, and spirit so you can completely transform your business and your life at the same time. Prepare to be amazed.

Need more information and want to sign up now? Click here to find out more and to sign up now for the 2018 Prosperous Pet Business Online Conference.

FAQ:

Date: September 12 – September 25, 2018

Where is the conference located? It’s a virtual event so it’s located in your home, car or office – wherever you want to view the conference speakers!

How long has this pet business conference been happening? This will be our fifth consecutive year of offering this free online pet business conference!

Okay, so I realize I can watch it from my home or office but how do I actually attend the conference? And will I be able to access the speakers from wherever I am in the world? Yes, because it’s a virtual, online conference, so you can attend from wherever you are in the world. When you sign up for the conference, you’ll receive daily conference videos via email from us between the two-week conference period (September 12 – 25, 2018). Each daily conference email from us contains 1-3 conference speakers. There are 25 conference speakers and a total of 28 videos that you’ll receive over a period of two weeks.

What if I can’t make some (or all) of the conference dates? You’ll have access to each day’s video selection for a total of 24 hours to watch the daily videos that you receive from us. If you need or want unlimited, lifetime access to the videos, you can purchase the conference video package for a low price.

How much is the conference? It’s free for 24-hour viewing to each daily speaker selection. But if you want unlimited, lifetime viewing so you can watch whenever you want in the future, you can purchase the speaker package for a low price.

Sounds great! How do I sign up? Signing up is easy! Just click this link to sign up now.

Before I had an established morning routine practice, I used to fly out of bed in the morning, grab my tea or coffee and get to work! But… then I realized that I needed to be deliberate and intentional when I started my day in order to set myself up for success. Taking specific actions in the morning has helped me so much personally and professionally, so I wanted to share more about my morning routine with you today.

(You can also read more in-depth about my morning routine and now to create one for yourself in Chapter 11 of my newest book: 30 Days to Start and Grow Your Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Business, as well as my book for dog trainers, pet groomers and dog daycare owners called Six-Figure Pet Business.

Three Basics to Know Before Deciding What Your Morning Routine Will Be:

1) Start the Night Before. Set aside a few minutes at the end of each workday to look at the following day: what you most want and need to get done. This will help you hit the ground running in your business after your morning routine.

2) Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day. I realize this may not always be feasible for everyone, especially if you have kids or pets who may not adhere to a time schedule! But, if you can do your best to to create a schedule for yourself as consistency in both what you do for your morning routine, and when you do it, will set you up for success.

3) Get Moving. Putting regular exercise in your schedule can both help you sleep better and be more focused when you’re working. Both of these benefits can really pave the way to help you establish a good morning routine!

It’s important that your morning routine is able to shift and change as you and your pet business shift, change and grow.

When I was single and living alone my morning routine was very different than it is now! I’m married now, and though I still have an established morning routine to set up myself and my business for success, part of my morning routine also includes spending some quality time with my husband.

My Morning Routine

Besides spending a few minutes of quality time with my husband in the morning, here is my morning routine on most mornings:

-Wake up and make tea
-Go to a quiet part of the house and write my Morning Pages which also becomes my To-Do list (more on this in a bit)
-Write my To-Do list (usually no more than 5 “must do” items)
-Look at my To-Do list and text that day’s action steps to my “action buddy” (more on this in a bit too)
-Meditate with my husband for 5 or more minutes
-Eat a healthy breakfast
-Check email and phone messages and respond to those most urgent
-Work out at the gym for one hour (3-4 times a week, yoga 1-2x a week on the days I’m not working out)
-Shower
-Work

From the time I wake up until the time I check email and phone messages, my morning routine takes about 60-75 minutes. I wouldn’t give that up for the world and when you establish a regular morning routine, after awhile you won’t want to give it up either!

Now, here’s the thing: each person’s morning routine can and should be a little different. What works great for me may not work great for you. You will have to find your ‘sweet spot’ morning routine and that includes how long and what’s involved.

Morning Pages are one part of the morning routine that I would really encourage you to try for at least three weeks, even if it’s not something you really want to do. They’ve had a profound impact with many of my coaching clients (including those who were resistant to doing them) and definitely have had a big positive effect in my own life.

Ever since I first read about Morning Pages in the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I have been writing them and it’s now been over twenty years. I feel that some of my business success is in part due to the fact that I do this ‘brain dump’ every morning and come away with clear actionable steps that set me on the path for success each and every day.

What are Morning Pages?

The instructions for Morning Pages are simple: write three pages in your journal; preferably by hand on paper. Don’t edit, spell-check or critique yourself while writing. Simply write! If you can’t think of anything to write, then write: I can’t think of anything to write. Keep writing until you’ve reached three pages. You may get flashes of insight, clarity about a problem you’ve been struggling with or clear To-Do list items for that day. You may simply feel lighter and freer as you start your day because you’ve released gunk that’s been in your brain for awhile. Regardless of what you walk away with, it will most likely be GOOD. But it sometimes takes a few days or weeks to really see the profound results from Morning Pages so that’s why I always recommend that it’s done every day for at least three weeks, including weekends.

Why and How to Get an “Action Buddy”
An Action Buddy is someone with whom you connect with on a daily or weekly basis and share your action steps with or your To-Do list, or anything else that you need support and accountability assistance.

Connecting with my Action Buddy Sharon is a big part of my Morning Routine and I always text with her immediately after I’ve written my daily To-Do list with that list (and again, that list of actionable steps usually comes from the clarity I’ve received from my Morning Page writing). She texts me her To-Do list and sometimes we both “bookend” (check in) at the end of the day to say what we’ve accomplished and what we haven’t. Even if we don’t check in at that day’s end, there’s something incredibly powerful for both of us in having sent our To-Do lists to each other in the morning. I am more likely to get all of my items done because someone else knows what I have on my plate that day and I feel accountable to that person (and she to me).

If you want to get an action buddy, there are a number of ways to find that person. Ideally, it’s a good idea to get a fellow pet professional as your action buddy, someone who really ‘gets it’. Part of the Catapult Pet Business Program that I offer involves the action step of getting an action buddy and when you sign up for the program, you’ll have that opportunity too. There’s a supportive and private Catapult Facebook group that you’ll receive access to when you sign up for the Catapult Program, where you can request an action buddy.

If you can’t find a pet professional to action buddy with, I recommend reaching out to local business owners you may know, especially service-based business owners. Running a business can be isolating and having a supportive business buddy can make all the difference in the world!

Regardless of what your Morning Routine might look like, I encourage you to start one tomorrow – or even today if you are reading this in the morning. It’s never too late to set yourself up for success!

1. Show Your Phone Who Is Smarter: This is one of the most important places to start when you are stressed because for most business owners (especially pet business owners), life revolves around the phone. Let’s stop that dance and get control over this inanimate object that is relentless in its need for your attention. Turn off your phone at night -and during the day when you need some peace and quiet- no more rings and text dings to take you away from what you need and want to focus on.

Move those notification reminders to somewhere other than your main phone screen so you don’t get sucked in. Commit to getting off your phone at a certain time every night – no matter what. (Two hours before you go to bed is ideal.) Warning: gaining control over your phone may not be easy initially. For a lot of humans, the phone is a drug with seductive superpowers. Take your life back by setting some boundaries with this puppy that up until now has probably been peeing and pooping all over the floor of your life. And one more thing: don’t bring your phone to the bedroom – commit to using it outside of where you sleep and rest.

2. Hot Water Healing: Put lavender or eucalyptus-scented essential oil epsom salts in a hot bath. Highly recommended an hour before sleep or during the day when your stress has reached a level that is making you feel batty. You’ll find inexpensive essential oil epsom salts at Whole Foods (365 brand). Give yourself the gift of 20 minutes of soaking. Just you, the water and the salts. Light a candle. Turn on some soothing music. Make it a ritual to connect with yourself and let the water take your stress. The water can handle your stress. You can’t. Let the water take it away.

3. Get CALM: Calm is a magnesium drink that can be found at Whole Foods or on Amazon. Taking a bit before bed can be a soothing nighttime ritual to relax your nerves and pluck the stress from your body – from the inside out.

4. Meditation, Baby. Get Mindful: Just 5-10 minutes a day can work wonders for a frazzled soul. Get the Insight Timer (free app) or simply sit and breathe. Inhale and exhale. In and out. There you go. It’s simple though not always easy. The hardest part is often just getting your butt in the chair or on the meditation cushion. But once you do? Ahhhh…

5. Morning Practice: Cultivate a gentle morning practice that focuses on you first; you with you – before giving yourself to the kids, your partner, your work, your pets. Ideally 30 minutes but if that time amount feels challenging, start with 10 minutes. Use the morning practice time to do whatever feels like the most self love for you: Morning Pages (journal writing), meditation, writing or visualizing how you want to your day to go and what you want to FEEL that day – and let yourself feel those yummy feelings. When you feel the feelings of how you want to feel that day, really feel it, you can already begin to embody and entrain yourself to set the energy and the stage to experience that feeling now and then it will be more easily accessible during your day and when business or life gets challenging.

6. Focus On Your Goals: If you don’t already have written annual goals, choose ten goals (5 for business, 5 for personal) that, if you were to accomplish them, would really make a difference for you. Write them down and (this is important), don’t stick them in a drawer or leave them in your journal. Instead post them where you can see them daily. Read them aloud each day. If stress is a regular challenge for you, have one of your personal goals be to give yourself the gift of one or more de-stressers a day. Use this list or create your own.

7. Love Your Body Through Regular Exercise: Exercise can often be the first to go to the wayside when our work consumes us and yet it will lead us back home to ourselves, to mental sanity and to inner and outer calm. Schedule your exercise ahead of time and schedule everything else around your exercise so it, and your precious body, come first. Your body is the vehicle that helps you do your work and live your life. Are you treating your car better than your body these days? Do you give your car regular oil changes, tune ups, gas? Keep doing that (it’s important!) AND also begin to turn that car love into regular body love. Our body shows up for us every day in magnificent ways. Give back by moving it regularly and getting it stronger. Plus, regular exercise clears out the mental cobwebs. I know you know what I’m talking about.

8. Kindness To Self Through Healthy Diet: When busyness and stress happen, the quality of the food we eat can sink lower than the Titanic. Raise it up with leafy greens, tasty vegetables, proteins that satisfy. Healthy food is fuel. If time is an issue during the week, do some meal prep on the weekends (cut up veggies and lettuce for on-the-go salads, prepare healthy soups or other easy meals ahead of time). When you are prepared, you’ll be able to more easily handle whatever comes your way in the coming week because you’ve got pre-made fuel that will serve you. Weekend meal prep will help you hit the ground running on Monday and help you love yourself through being conscious and thoughtful about what you are putting into your vehicle (your body).

9. Get Connected: Stress thrives in isolation – and pet business owners are often isolated when they are only working with pets and themselves. If that’s you and you feel isolated, schedule a hour or two of quality time with at least one loved one each week. Call a trusted support once or twice a week to stay in touch. Studies have been done that texting does not satisfy our need for connection. If you were to look at a “connection food chain”, you’d find texting or messenging on Facebook is at the bottom of the food chain and least satisfying, phone calls are in the middle (so-so in terms of our need for connection nourishment – it does satisfy but not deeply) and in-person time with loved ones is at the top and will most satisfy that crucial need for regular human interaction, sharing, and connection. Get yourself out of the connection desert and into the oasis. It will make a world of difference.

If you’d like MORE – reach out and book a pet business coaching session.

I’m looking forward to showing up for YOU and helping you manage your pet business, your time, and your life!

There are a ton of tools out there for managing your social media presence. There are some that are great and others that are a total waste of time. I’ve gathered a list of them that I think are great. Here’s the result of my labor! (You’re welcome.) 😉

But, before you begin, take a deep breath. Take it nice and easy. Go through the list below and pick just a couple to start with and focus on mastering those before moving on to the next one.

Ready? Let’s go!

Managing and Scheduling Tools for Social Media
Hootsuite — This is the Mac Daddy of them all. In my experience, Hootsuite can do most of what my pet business coaching clients need when it comes to managing and scheduling their social media.

Buffer — This site will help you gather content that will allow you to post to your social accounts gradually over a period of time.

Edgar — This is a cool one. It’s like the one above but the list of content never runs out. Once Edgar reaches the bottom of your list of content items, it will then post your prior content from the top of the line again.

SocialOomph — This tool is super cool and it will also give you the rotating line of content found in Edgar. It’s affordable, but unless you are super tech savvy, it’s not very user-friendly.

Sendible — This one will only make more sense for very large pet business companies. It has a search feature, trending keywords, curation of content, social media scheduling, and a rotating list for your content.

Post Planner — This one is super easy to use for your Facebook and Twitter accounts, it also has some suggested content and you’ll find inspirational memes you can use on your own social media accounts.

Document Storage and Sharing:
Google Docs — Easy document storage and sharing. Great to use for ease in editing documents from your your blog writer, if you have one.

Finding Content for Blog Posts:
Google Trends — This lists the trending searches across Google and can be helpful for you to write cutting edge blog post articles about pets and pet care.

News360 — Pick your favorite pet or animal care topics, and this website will give you the top-trending articles about that topic.

Feedly — Add your favorite blogs and news sites to Feedly and you’ll get all the headlines in one spot. Ahhh…

Help With Creating Content
Canva — A very simple graphic design tool that can help you create professional-looking images in a flash.

Animoto — Quick, fun video maker. With video becoming more central in social media, this can be a valuable tool for pet business owners.

Tools to Gain More Followers on Social Media
Crowdfire — This is a good follower management app for Twitter and Instagram. You can also quickly unfollow people who aren’t following you back.

Hashtagify — This tool is great to discover what hashtags people are using in specific niches.

Tweetfull — this tool will help you automatically “favorite” tweets on Twitter based on your top keywords.

Analytics and Measuring Tools for Social Media Success
Google Analytics and Facebook Insights — really good -and free- tools. Also, be sure to check out the “insight” feature on Instagram for your Instagram analytics.

Union Metrics — In addition to the Insights feature on Instagram, this is a good analytics tool for that site too.

TweetReach — This is a no-cost tool for measuring the reach of a hashtag.

Union Metrics — In addition to the Insights feature on Instagram, this is a good analytics tool for that site too.

HubSpot — A comprehensive platform for larger businesses, note that the free account offers good competitive analysis too!

Sidekick by HubSpot — This will allow you email tracking and analytics for your Gmail or Outlook. You can also schedule emails which can save you so much time!

A couple years ago I was (ouch!) paying $95/month to AT & T for my office landline.

I really like having a landline because I’ve found the reception is clearer than a cell phone and I like having a ‘real’ business phone in my office.

But I didn’t like paying $95/month for that real business phone!

I’d been reluctant to switch to another phone carrier thinking it would be a hassle. I told a friend about this and he says, “You have to try Ooma!”

Ooma?

What a strange name. 🙂

But he raved about how easy the Ooma phone system was to set up and how inexpensive it was. So I tried it. It took me only a few minutes to set up (and it was super easy to set up). Within a month I was saving over $70 a month on my phone bill. No joke!

One of the most common challenges that pet business owners face is how to project a polished, professional image. How can Ooma Office help them?

Believe it or not, your phone system can help you put your best foot forward. In today’s world you can utilize the power of the Internet to access business phone features and services that used to be exclusive to big companies. The advantage of switching to a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone solution is its’ low cost and flexibility to adapt to the way you do business.

Of the many VoIP phone solutions available, the best one that I’ve found is Ooma Office. It leads the pack with unlimited calling throughout the U.S. and Canada and offers a range of features including extension dialing, analog and digital faxing and conference calling.

And get this: Ooma Office includes advanced features too, like a virtual receptionist (yes, you read that right!) that automatically directs callers to the right extension, the ability to have multiple phones ring from one extension (powerful feature especially if you are out walking dogs or have managers who are working from their home office!), and forwarding voice mail messages as audio files to your email.

So I decided to have an interview with the folks at Ooma so you could get to know this great phone company (and yes, Ooma Office comes with a virtual receptionist, how’s that for a cool feature?)

Q. How much does Ooma Office cost each month and how much can pet business owners save?

A. Service starts at only $19.95/month and includes a local or toll-free phone number of your choice, a virtual fax extension, and a conference extension. Add additional user(s) for only $19.95/month each.

Q. How can Ooma help pet business owners take their business to the next level?

A. The first and most important way Ooma Office helps your pet business is by saving you time and money, both of which can be diverted into improving your business’ billable hours and financial health. If you use a traditional phone service and depending upon the number of lines and features you could save hundreds of dollars a month. That money could be spent on getting customers.

Q. What are some of the features that might help owners run their pet business?

A. Ooma Office has features to help you stay connected to your business like creating mobile extensions that route calls off-site to mobile phones or home offices, and multi-ring to ring two phones at the same time to ensure your business never misses a call. The virtual receptionist can be enabled to communicate business hours, directions or other frequently provided information freeing up valuable time during your busy day. Conference calling is easy so you can patch in your client and a staff member in the field or a Vet in an emergency. If you have a question, there’s 24/7 assistance if you need it.

Q. How long does Ooma Office take to set up?

A. Ooma Office set-up is so easy you can do it yourself in less than 30 minutes. And you can use your existing regular business phones.

At the end of the day, if you’re looking for a small business phone system with exceptional voice quality, the flexibility to grow with your business over time, the ability to stay in touch while you’re away from the office and ease of set up and use, look no further than Ooma Office. Click to find out more about Ooma Office and start saving money now on your business phone line!