Marketing Your Pet Business at Local Pet Events

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Community pet events are one of the best ways to get your business name in front of local pet owners.  You have your target audience gathered in one place ready to talk about their pets! Some examples of pet events that you can look for are pet parades, dog parks events, annual rescue fundraising events, and local festivals that have fun dog races (our Octoberfest has dachund races). 

 Dani and TannerLast Saturday I was invited to be a vendor at an event called “Dog Splash Day” at a small local water park organized by the city of Bedford, Texas.  Here I am with my dog Tanner - he enjoyed the day out, got plenty of attention and met lots of doggie pals. It was a blast - about 80 dogs - most off leash - all splashing around with their owners in the pools and fountains around the park.  The city opens the water park on the last day of the season for this event and has animal control monitor that all dogs are current on their rabies vaccinations.  Owners pay just $5 per dog entrance fee and they have competitions and events for the dogs and door prize give aways throughout the afternoon.

Initially I planned to get tennis balls or frisbees imprinted with my business logo as giveaways but I left organizing them until the last minute and found that the expedited shipping fees were way out of my budget!

So at the last minute I was scrambling for ideas that I could use for my table. On the Friday I was able to get 2 t-shirts made at an embroidery booth at the local mall with my pet sitting business name “Claws Paws & Jaws Pet Sitters” (only $20 each including the shirts). You can see from the photo that I wore one and Tanner wore the other - they worked out great - Tanner advertised for me everywhere he roamed and I was always able to pick him out and keep track of him easily.  Amazingly it didn’t seem to bother him wearing it either.

Banner AdvertisingMy second dilemma was to find some signage so that people would see me from a distance and be able to see that I run a pet sitting business.  I knew getting one from a signage store would be expensive so I looked around at the local craft store to see if I could get creative and put one together myself. I found an excellent and easy way to create a banner using “Foamies” products.  You can see my finished product here on the left. I used a black “Foamies” banner and then a couple of boxes of “Foamies” stick on letters to create the banner in about 1/2 hour.  The soft foam was very durable and waterproof and I didn’t need to have much artistic flair to get the lettering stuck onto the mat.  Each letter had a peel off backing so I could layout the words and then peel each letter and stick down. If you are looking for a banner in a hurry this is a super option to look for at the craft store - it cost around $25 for the banner and letters.

I also put together a doggie gift basket with a dog bowl, 2-3 toys, tennis balls, and some assorted treats - all of which I picked up at Petco.  I held a free raffle for the basket and had around 25 people enter for the drawing which was announced at the end of the event. The winner of the basket was thrilled and she picked up fliers and sent me a thankyou email too! The raffle is an effective way to draw people to your table and collect names and phone numbers. 

On the table I put out some flyers about my pet sitting services that I copied and had folded at my local Kinkos, and also some informational sheets with pre-travel checklists for pet owners.  I put out a bowl of dog bones that owners could collect and a water bowl for the pooches.  Finally, I also donated a gift certificate for 3 pet sitting visits to the organizers as a door prize.

Throughout the day I had many pet owners stop by the table and pick up treats for their dogs and my busines flyers.  I asked them about their dogs and they usually stopped to pet my dog Tanner.  Everyone had a fun day and hopefully they will remember me next time they are travelling and need someone to sit for their pets.

Look in community guides or city websites to check for upcoming pet events in your community.  Keep track of annual events on a calendar so that you can check back with the organizers and make sure that you secure a table or booth for the next year.  Many events will charge you for a table or booth but you may be lucky and find that rescues and city organized events will give away tables for free.  Promoting your business at events doesn’t have to be expensive and is is a super way to have fun with your pets and meet local pet owners.

Here is a photo of the dogs at play…

Dog Splash Day

National Pet Memorial Day and The Pet Cemetery - An Unusual Pet Business

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Pet Memorial DayToday, Sunday September 9th, is National Pet Memorial Day.  A day to remember pets and honor the memory of pets that are no longer with us.  The day was established by the International Association of Pet Cemeteries in 1972 and is celebrated by most pet cemeteries across the US on the second Sunday of September each year. 

One way to remember your pets is to create an online memorial for them at I Loved My Pet.  At this site you can create a page that contains photos, audio, videos, and thoughts and memories about your pets. 

It seems strange that I saw an article about this day of celebration this week as one of my pet sitting clients was just telling me about our local pet cemetery last weekend.  I have never heard of pet cemeterys except the one in Stephen Kings famous book but when I did an online search I found that they are very common.  When our Lab Mackie passed away 2 years ago we were able to have her cremated at the hospital where she was receiving treatment and we keep her ashes in an urn on our mantle.

Pet cemeteries give owners a final resting place for their pets or their ashes and allow owners to visit to pay their respects and visit the grave as often as they want.  I can see how this type of facility can help owners ease the emotional pain of pet loss.

Many pet owners are also investing in elaborate headstones, caskets, or urns if they opt for pet cremation. There are many online vendors for pet urns and other memorial items.

The cost of burying a pet in a cemetary or cremation of a pet is often quite high. In a recent article about the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park a park spokesman said that

the cost to bury a pet starts at $549 and is based on plot size and type of casket. The price includes everything–casket, plot and maintenance, and can go as high as $1,205. Cremation costs are based on weight–$85 for a pet under 10 pounds; $245 for an animal weighing 151 to 175 pounds.

 

The need for pet cemeteries and crematoriums is growing as pet ownership grows and  states start to impose stricter regulations against backyard pet burials.  Many veterinary offices work directly with pet crematories for their clients pet burial needs.

If you have experience with cremation or cemetary management and want to work with pets you may consider opening a pet cemetary in your area to serve local pet owners.

To find out more information visit the website of the International Assocation of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories. 

Alternatively there are many opportunities to create unique pet urns, caskets, or memorials and market to pet owners.  You can browse one of the search engines to find out what types of products are being offerred to pet owners.

BlogCarnival Sunday September 9th

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This Sunday I only have one article submission to publish from Surfer Sam. The pet food recalls have been a great concern for all pet owners and Sam gives some good information about pet food ingredients and possible alternatives to commercial pet foods.  Read his article at:

In a World of Recalls, What Is The Best Food for My Pet? Raising Happy, Healthy Cats and Dogs by Surfer Sam

Please let us know about your pet news or knowledge by submitting an article for next weeks edition to daniellechonody@gmail.com or at www.blogcarnival.com

How to Start an Online Pet Information Product Business

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Creating and selling informational ebooks about pets and pet related businesses is one of my goals - so when I found an ebook today called “Pet Report Profits” by Doug Bertram I was interested to see what he had to say about selling pet related reports online. 

Pet Report ProfitsI purchased his ebook for $7 and was able to read the 40 pages in about an hour.  I found that his ebook gave some good advice about choosing a pet topic for a report, writing the report, and marketing the report using online and offline methods.  If you have not previously done much research on how to produce and market informational products this is a excellent report for you as it keeps the concepts simple and gives you a straightforward step by step plan to follow to get started with your first report.

The section of the ebook that I enjoyed most is Dougs 4 step process for getting your ideas about a pet topic in which you already have enough knowledge to write a 20-30 page report onto paper.  He outlines how he brainstorms ideas, organizes these into sections, expands on each topic, and puts the final touches on his reports. 

I did find the report was a little weak on the details of how to research whether the demand for a certain pet topic is enough to ensure that your report will be profitable.  Doug does suggest several ways to identify topics that are “hot” or in demand but before you choose a topic to write about you really should also know how to determine the number of who people are currently searching for the information online in the search engines.

If you are seriously considering a businsess making money with informational pet reports I would highly recommend visiting Lynn Terry’s blog Clicknewz as she is an expert at finding in demand niche topics for online products.  Last week Lynn promoted an ebook called Niche Blueprint and is giving away with each sale a subscription to her Easy Niche Research coaching emails.  Lynns first email covered the subject of the number of searches on your topic keywords in the major search engines (Yahoo or Google) you should look for before writing a informational product - just the information that would make a great compliment to round out Doug’s ebook.

As pet care professionals, whether we realize it or not,  we all have a great deal of specialized knowledge about pets and writing informational reports on these topics is a great way to add to your income from your current pet business.  “Pet Report Profits” gives you a great plan to get the knowledge out of your head, onto paper, and make it start working for you.  So what are we waiting for?  What will be the topic for your first money making report?

Are Employees or Independent Contractors the Right Fit for your Pet Business?

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Every time I visit a forum where pet sitting business owners are chatting online one of the most common topics is about the relative merit of hiring employees versus using independent contractors. I know this must also be a concern in other pet businesses. In this post I want to discuss the major differences in these worker classifications and the legal concerns about using contractors.

This post is the third part of my series on hiring help which started with :

1) When is the Right Time to Hire Help?

2) Defining Your Ideal Employee (or Indpendent Contractor)

The major difference between hiring employees and using independent contractors is the amount of control that you will have over the way that their work is performed. 

A general rule for contractors is that you can control or direct only the end result of their work and not the means and methods that are used to accomplish the results. 

A contractor owns and runs their own business and therefore must handle their own taxes, carry their own insurance, and cannot be made to sign a non-compete agreement as they have the right to contract with several businesses at one time. You can also not give an contractor any job training as it is assumed that they already have the skills required to perform that work.

If you hire employees you must withold income taxes from their pay,  and withold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on their behalf.  At the end of the tax year you need to prepare a W2 form for each employee. You do not deduct taxes from the pay of independent contractors and do not prepare W2 forms. However, you may need to complete Form 1099 for each contractor.

It is vitally important that you know the 20 criteria that the Internal Revenue Service uses to classify if a worker can be considered an employee or independent contractor. Wrongly treating a worker as a contractor can leave you liable for payment of employment taxes.

Here is a summary of the 20 factors:

1. Instructions - Workers who must comply with your instructions as to when, where, and how they work are more likely to be employees than independent contractors.

2. Training - The more training your workers receive from you, the more likely it is that they are employees.

3. Integration - The more important that your workers services are to your business’s success or continuation, the more likely it is that they are employees.

4. Services Rendered Personally - Workers who must personally perform the services for which you’re paying are more likely employees. In contrast, contractors usually have the right to substitute other peoples services for their own to fulfill their contracts.

5. Hiring Assistants - Workers who are not in charge of hiring, supervising, and paying their own assistants are more likely employees.

6. Continuing relationships - Workers who perform work for you for significant periods of time or at recurring intervals are more likely employees.

7. Set hours of work - Workers for whom you establish set hours of work are more likely employees.

8. Full time required - Workers whom you require to work or be available full time are likely to be employees.

9. Work done on premises - Workers who work at your premises or at the place you designate are more likely employees.

10. Order or sequence set - Workers for whom you set the order or sequence in which they perform their services are more likely employees.

11. Reports - Workers whom you require to submit regular reports are more likely employees.

12. Payment Method - Workers whom you pay by the hour, week, or month are more likely employees. Contractors are usually paid by the job.

13. Expenses - Workers whose business and travel expenses you pay are more likely employees.

14. Tools and materials - Workers whose tools, materials, and other equipment you furnish are more likely to be employees.

15. Investment - The greater your workers investment in the facilities and equipment that they use in performing their services the more likely they are to be independent contractors.

16. Profit or loss - The greater the risk that your workers can either make a profit or suffer a loss in rendering their services, the more likely it is that they are independent contractors.

17. Works for more than one person at a time - the more businesses for which your workers perform services at the same time, the more likely it is that they are independent contractors.

18. Services available to general public - Workers who hold their services out to the general public are more likely independent contractors.

19. Right to fire - Workers whom you can fire at any time are more likely employees. In contrast, your right to terminate an independent contractor is generally limited by specific contractual terms.

20. Right to quit - Workers who can quit at any time without incurring liability to you are more likely employees.

Through my research into using contractors and discussions with other business owners who use contractors I have found that it is always your safest bet to have a independent contractor agreement in place.  This agreement should spell out very clearly to your workers that they are contractors, and need to file their own taxes, carry their own insurance, and are able to perform work for other businesses.

Nolo has some great ready made contracts for independent contractors that you can find at their website.  Make sure you keep a signed copy of the agreement between yourself and your worker on file.

Some of the other tips for using contractors are:

1. Pay contractors a percentage of the fee paid by the customer for each job

2. Allow contractors to bid for available jobs by posting jobs on a notice board or website. This gives contractors complete control over which jobs they select to perform.

3. Require your contractors to submit a weekly or bi-weekly invoice to you for their services.  You can make this easy for them by supplying a website form that they can fill out and submit via email.

You should consult with your accountant and legal advisors before making the decision to hire employees or contractors as the rules do vary in each state of the United States and in countries other than the US.  Ultimately the decision to use either employees or contractors will depend on how you wish to run and manage your business.  Each type of worker can be used effectively to be of benefit to your company and pet business.

Please leave comments with your tips and experiences with using either employees or contractors.

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