Do You Have A Pet Sitting Business Plan?

Filed Under Pet Sitting Business Tips, Pet Sitting Excellence | February 3, 2010

To create a great pet sitting business you should dedicate time to create a well thought out business plan. The purposes of a business plan are to:

1.Define your vision of what you want your pet sitting business to look like in 5 to 10 years from today

2.Lay out the direction of your business and give you a path to follow.

3.Establish standards that you can use to measure your business success

Your plan should define how you want to operate your pet sitting business and include a description of your support team, your marketing strategy, and the methods that you will use to interact with your customers.

A business plan may be:

1.A formal document that you use to raise capital to finance your company

2.An informal document that is used internally by you and your support staff that helps you to plan out your strategies to make sure that your pet sitting business is successful

You plan should be a work-in-progress and a document that you continually update as you business grows. The strategies within this book will help you to prepare a business plan for your business, or to update your existing business plan.

You can find additional instructions and formal business plan templates at the US Small Business Administration website:

http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessplan/

If you need a simple plan for your internal use my One Page Pet Business Plan Toolkit leads you though the steps to create your plan and provides examples from my own pet sitting business plan. It also includes a one page business plan template. You can get your free copy when you join the Circle of Pet Sitting Excellence for just $9.95 per month (the One Page Pet Business Plan usually sells for $10 by itself on the resources page of Working with Pets - so this is a great deal!). You can cancel your monthly payment subscription at any time with no hassles.

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What You Need to Back-Up on Your Website To Avoid Losing It All

Filed Under Pet Sitting Business Tips | January 29, 2010

Janet Beckers from Wonderful Web Women woke up last month and realized that all her business websites were down. She tried contacting her hosting service but they didn’t answer their phones, or their email – in fact they had totally disappeared. Janet realized that her entire business had disappeared overnight.

Janet had been backing up her sites but realized the processes she had used had not captured all her data. She has spent a huge amount of time and money in the last several weeks re-constructing all of her websites.

Janet is conducting a special free call next Monday February 1^st to tell you what you need to know to make sure the same thing never happens to you.

On This Call You Will Learn:

1. 3 types of Internet businesses and how each one needs different types of protection

2. How much it will cost you if you lose your data

3. The surprising number of services you should be backing up that you probably didn’t think of

4. The big loophole in backing up web sites that even experienced marketers don’t know

5. The steps you need to take, IN WHAT ORDER, to get your business up and running fast

6. How to manage your business closure without losing a single customer

GIFT: Includes Gift Checklist to Audit what you should be backing up and the costs of not doing so.

I really recommend this call even though your pet sitting website is probably not as complex as Janet’s business websites. If your website is your major source of new clients you need to be backing it up regularly so that you are able to get it back on line quickly if there is any problem with your web hosting. Without your website online – you may start losing new clients to your competitors!

You need to register to be part of this call. Just go over to Wonderful Web Women to get all the details. As long as you register, you’ll be able to get a copy of the replay to listen to if you can’t be there live on Monday night.

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Use a Warm Introduction Letter to Generate Pet Sitting Referrals

Filed Under Pet Business Marketing | January 29, 2010

One of the easiest ways to meet new people is to have your current friends, family or colleagues give you a warm introduction by giving you a referral. However, before they can recommend you they have to know that you provide pet sitting services and should be aware of the details and benefits of your service.

A great way to educate them is to send them a warm letter of introduction. Put together a very personal letter to let them know that you have a pet sitting business and tell them what value you provide to your clients. In the letter politely ask them that if they know people who may need your service that they pass on your information to them and also let them know that they can get more information at your website. Make sure you continue to send out this warm letter to new friends as you meet them.

Here is an example of a warm letter of introduction:

Hello <first name>,

I’m writing this quick letter to ask you for a small favor.
You see, I have just started my own pet sitting business.
We offer an in-home pet care service for people when they travel for vacation or business. The pets stay in the comfort of their own home and we can make up to four visits per day to feed, exercise, and play with the pets. We can also administer medications.

Our service is an alternative to boarding that is less stressful for pets, and more convenient for pet owners as they do not have to drop off and pick up pets from a boarding facility. Having someone visiting the home regularly while owners are away offers enhanced security. As part of our service we pick up mail and packages and can rotate lights and window shades to give the home a lived in appearance.

At our free initial interview the person that will be caring for the pets visits the clients home to meet them and their pets, collect pet care, vet, and emergency contact information and collect keys.
We need a small favor, will you help us out? If you have friends with pets that will be travelling and are looking for help with pet care, can you please let them know about our new service?

We really appreciate any help you can give us to spread the word and we know your friends and family and their pets will thank you too!

Thank you for your help!
<your name>
<your phone number>

Try sending these out to everyone you know who doesn’t know what you do in your business. Follow up with a phone call to see if they have any questions.

Anyone tried this method to encourage word of mouth advertising of their pet sitting business?

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Pet Sitting Marketing Pie and Members Benefits February 2010

Filed Under Pet Business Success Circle | January 28, 2010

Had a great call last night with my Circle of Pet Sitting Excellence members. We discussed 8 low cost marketing strategies essential to the success of your 2010 marketing plan. I also explained how to take these strategies to set up your personal systems that ensure you market consistently to attract a steady stream of new pet sitting clients. We also covered:

The 3 steps of the sales process
The Pet Sitting Marketing Pie
Why you need a free offer and how to use it to build a list of potential clients that you can follow up with to build a relationship

We also discussed the essential components of your pet sitting website and I did a complete website review of Sleepy Paws Pet sitting website.

Here are some of the comments from my members about the call:

“GREAT call Danielle! Thanks SO much for the information. I’m exciting to start my mktg plan for 2010! I’m thankful that I joined your network!” - Christina Walker

“Thanks again..lots of good info” - Kathleen Francisco Todd

You can get a download of the call by joining the Circle of Pet Sitting Success. The recording is now posted on the member download page - as well as over 12 recordings of our past pet expert calls. Click here to get all the details of the membership

As well as our monthly calls members also receive 3 original articles each month that they can use for marketing their business. Members are free to publish them on their blog, use them as press releases or as articles for their their client newsletters. They can also edit and post on internet article directories to drive more traffic to their website and improve their search engine rankings

January 2010 Member Articles

How to Protect Your Pets Dental Health
Valentines Presents for Pets
How to Avoid Pet Theft

Members also receive special reports on business building topics:

January Special Report

Your Quick and Easy Guide to How To Do Market Research & Niche Your Business will help you get inside the mind of your ideal customer.

You’ll learn…

4 critical questions you must have answered to find your ideal customer

The #1 secret to finding loyal customers who pay

How to develop a successful relationship with your market

A simple technique for doing niche research

The 3 magic ways to find out what your niche wants

How to avoid the biggest niche research mistake that could hold you back from success

An easy 3-step system of tools for finding hot keywords

How to take full advantage of your competitors, ethically and legitimately

There are so many benefits to become a member of the Circle of Pet Sitting Excellence. Here is what one member sent me after joining this week:

“I just wanna say , It is totally worth the money for what you get from your site , Wow . I was so excited I stayed up all night down loaded all the calls to my ipod touch and im gonna listen to it all day , Plus there are so many fact sheets on your site that are so helpful” - Donald Czyzyk

Get all the details about the membership here and join today to get immediate access to all the member benefits - Circle of Excellence Pet Sitter Coaching Group.

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Your Marketing Plan 2010 - The 8 Essential Pieces of Your Marketing Pie

Filed Under Pet Business Success Circle, Pet Sitting Business Tips | January 24, 2010

This months Circle of Pet Sitting Excellence call is next Tuesday 26th January at 7pm CT. Our topic is “Your Marketing plan for 2010 - 8 Essential Pieces of your Marketing Pie”. On the call I will be explaining why you must have 8 low cost marketing strategies in place to enable you to attract a steady stream of new pet sitting clients this year. Learn how to implement these 8 strategies and create your own marketing systems that ensure you are marketing consistently.

I’ll also be doing a website review for Dave Westwood of Sleepy Paws pet services on the call - and may also do a live website review with a random member on the call as I haven’t been able to contact my second winner Loriana Duran (Loriana if you are out there please get in contact!).

At the end of the call we’ll have an open Q&A session where you can ask me any questions that you have about your website or your marketing strategies.

It’s only a $9.95 investment to sign up and join us on the call - or get the call recording and transcript - plus you’ll also get access to over 12 months of recorded calls, special reports, and 19 original pet related articles that you can use in your own newsletters or blog. Sign up now to get immediate access to all past files at Circle of Pet Sitting Excellence Coaching.

Here is an article to introduce you to the marketing pie:

Marketing methods are the ways in which you get the message about your business into the hands of potential clients. There are so many options available today that choosing how to market your business can become very confusing. Traditional marketing methods used by major corporations include television and radio commercials, and advertising in major magazines and newspapers. These methods are typically not affordable or effective in marketing small and local pet sitting businesses. Luckily there are many other methods that are both low cost and more effective to reach your target market of pet owners.

When choosing the strategies and tools that you use to market your business you need to ensure that they lead potential customers through the following 3 sequential steps in the sales process:

· Step 1 – Find potential clients and gather their contact information

· Step 2 - Follow up with these clients by giving them valuable information to build a relationship

· Step 3 - Close the sale

Some potential clients will find your business and immediately be ready to schedule you to care for their pets. Other clients may find you but want to learn more about you and build a relationship with you before they are ready to buy. By including all three steps in your marketing you will insure you meet the needs of both types of clients.

The ideal mix of low cost high impact marketing activities for a pet sitting business is what I call “The Pet Sitting Marketing Pie”. By including marketing actions from each of piece of the pie you will ensure you include all 3 steps of the sales process and can creatively engage your target market.

Join us on the call to learn more - members also receive a copy of The Marketing Pie diagram. Sign up now to learn what the 8 essentials strategies of your marketing pie at Circle of Pet Sitting Excellence Coaching.

I hope you can join me on the call!