Boost Your Pet Business Profits with Virtual Pet Business Toolkit

Filed Under Pet Business Opportunity | 3 Comments

My new product is coming soon! The Virtual Pet Business Toolkit will officially be launched on November 15th.

I have put together this toolkit to show pet professionals how to easily boost their pet business profits by adding affiliate pet products to their existing websites. If you own a pet business your customers and website visitors are pet lovers and will appreciate the convenience of shopping through your site for products they already trust and buy online.

If you are still searching for the right pet business this may be the one for you. Online pet product sales are growing as pet lovers embrace the convenience of online shopping. The toolkit will show you how can set up your own affiliate sales website and start earning commisions on a huge variety of popular brand name pet foods, accessories, clothing, vitamins, pet insurance, and medicines.

The toolkit is a comprehensive guide to pet product affiliate marketing and will show you :

1) How pet affiliate programs work

2) Step by step instructions for adding affiliate links to your site, or set up a new affiliate sales website

3) How to find the best pet affiliate programs

4) Secrets of attracting buyers to your website

5) How to avoid common affiliate marketing mistakes

and how to use email and newsletters to promote affiliate pet products.

Plus to ensure you success I’m giving away two great bonuses with the toolkit:

1) Word to Web software that easily creates a website for you from a Microsoft Word document. This means you don’t need any HTML programming knowledge to set up your business or affiliate website.

2) My exclusive list of 50 pet affiliate products that you can start market immediately on your web sites.

Pet affiliate programs are the best opportunity you have to begin an online business that will grow and evolve to new levels at breakneck speeds. The whole thing is simply a click away, and your entire online business will be up and running in no time at all! And if you already have a pet related website, it’s a matter of filling in the links, and you can start building passive income streams that will bring income into your business for years to come.

To see what else is included in the toolkit jump over to www.virtualpetbusiness.com to check it out for yourself and pick up a FREE 6 part e-course on affiliate marketing.

Tags :Pet Care Business Opportunities

Redeeming Dogs - Dog Training Pet Business Interview

Filed Under Pet Business Interviews | 8 Comments

I’m back with a new interview with successful business owner Tod McVicker who provides training and behavior modification training for dogs. Tod works with dogs in the client’s home and also offers a 2 week board and train program. He specializes in working with puppies, dogs with phobias or obsessions, and works with owners to solve more serious issues such as grown dogs with aggression problems. Tod’s self expressed mission is to help owners and dogs break down the walls and truly communicate.

1. What kind of business do you run? I address dog behavior issues and training, through in home consultations and board and trains.

2. How long have you been in business? My company, Redeeming Dogs, has been in business a bit over a year, but I have shown dogs in AKC conformation on and off since 1988.

3. Why did you choose to start a pet care business? I have a passion for teaching dog owners true leadership, and for improving dog/owner relationships.

4. What advice would you give someone about to launch a new pet care business? Know who you are and what specifically what you can offer - if you try to emulate what’s already out there locally, someone else’s style and approach, you won’t stand out. Also be sure you study with the best professionals you can locate, invest money in traveling to meet and training with the best 5% out there nationwide in your field of interest.

5. What has been the greatest challenge in growing your business? Growing my business while working a regular 40 hour day job takes a lot of sacrifice of evenings, weekends, and family time.

6. What are the pros and cons of your profession? The best feeling is making a difference in a family’s relationship with their dog (or dogs), and seeing dogs keep their homes that might have lost them without help. The worst feeling is sometimes knowing the client is not committed to making the changes they must make to help their dogs.

7. What daily tasks do you enjoy most? I love teaching a dog to walk on a leash correctly that has never known how. It usually takes just a few minutes and makes the owners very happy.

8. If you could have done anything differently what would it have been? I feel the Lord brought me to this at the right time in my life, I’ve made some mistakes but learned valuable lessons through them. So I would not change anything.

9. Did you have a mentor or business coach? If so how did they help you? I joined the International Association of Canine Professionals, the IACP ( www.dogpro.org), soon after starting my business. I have been mentored by several of their most experienced trainers, among them Martin Deeley, past president of the IACP. My contacts in the IACP, and the professional relationships formed there, have made all the difference in the success of my business. The IACP is for trainers, behaviorists, groomers, pet sitters, any type of dog professional.

10. What form(s) of marketing have you found the most effective in reaching pet owners? Most of my business comes from dog owners that go to Cesar Millan’s website after they have watched the “Dog Whisperer” program on the National Geographic Channel. His site links folks to the IACP website, and then by doing a local search for help on that site they find local professionals like myself. I also get a fair amount of business from referrals, and some from the advertising on my vehicle. I get customers also by simply taking one of my dogs to Starbucks and hanging around outside, people love my dogs and end up calling me for help with their dogs.

11. Do you offer clients incentives for giving referrals? I will refund a client’s consultation fee fully if they send me 5 clients.

12. At what stage of your business growth did you choose to take on help? My wife does the website construction and maintenance, and the business side - I do the training and advertising. That’s it, no other employees.

13. What have you done to differentiate your business from your local competitors? I put a great deal of thought into why I want to do this, what my company was formed to do, and then I pursued excellence in those areas. I don’t sell clients dog training, I create a relationship with them, help them, and the work flows from there. I don’t try to isolate my personal life, my faith, or my interests from the business, who I am comes through on my website and during my appointments with clients. People come to me because they want to deal with a person, not a chain or a franchise .

If you would like more information about Tod’s business and training methods please visit his site at www.RedeemingDogs.com.

Please leave your comments on this interview and let me know if you have any questions that you would have like to see Tod answer. If you have suggetsions for future interviews please email me at daniellechonody@gmail.com

Tags :Dogs, Pet Business Interviews

Unusual Pet Care Business - Pet Photographer

Filed Under Unusual Pet Careers, Pet Business Interviews | 7 Comments

Today I found a great interview with a pet photographer - Jamie Pfughoeft in the Seattle Times in their nwjobs section where they profile interesting careers. Jamie shares some fantastic information about how she became a pet photographer, the equipment she uses, what at typical workday looks like for a pet photographer, and how much competition there is in the pet photography market. She also shares some tips on getting started as a pet photographer and her favorite resources. You can find the complete interview at Seattle Times nwjbos.

Pet Photography My first pet sitting client was a cat photographer (Helmi Flick) who needed me to look after her cats while she travelled to cat shows around the country to photograph cats for breeders attending the shows. She took some great pictures of my cats that I love and hang proudly in my office. Here is one of both my Burmese kitties - Cozzy and Bouie.

Since taking my photos almost 4 years ago she has been invited to international pet shows and her photos have been featured on the cover of Cat Fancy magazine several times. Her business has grown in leaps and bounds.

Pet Photography is a specialized field as taking photos of pets required patience - pets don’t like to sit still for photos and have to be coaxed into position using toys or other distractions.

Pet photographers don’t only cater to the pet owner and breeder market but are also needed for commerical photographs that are used for pet product advertising online and in magazines, billboards, and on product labels. As the market for pet services and products grows so does the demand for great pet photos.

If you are interested to find out more about pet photography be sure to read the interview with Jamie at Seattle Times nwjbos

Tags :Pet Business Interviews, Unusual Pet Careers

Where to Find the Right Staff for your Pet Business

Filed Under Pet Business Tips | 4 Comments

In the last couple of months I have posted several articles discussing the hiring of staff to help you grow your pet business. We have talked about the right time to find help, defining your ideal staff member, and looked at the differences between using employees or independent contractors. These articles can be found at these links:

When is the right time to hire help?

Defining your ideal employee or independent contractor

Are employees or independent contractors right for your business?

If you have followed through these articles you should now have a good idea of the type of person you are looking for to help with your business. Today I want to discuss the various ways in which you can advertise your new position to attract this ideal candidate.

I have been using independent contractors in my pet sitting business for the last 3 years. Most of these contractors have come to me through through my website and enquired via email if I am hiring new pet sitters. I have found that this is by far the best avenue for finding motivated staff who are interested in pets. These people actually seek me out rather than me advertising to find them. Make sure that on your business website it is easy for people to find your contact details especially your email address.

After having success with this method I have recently added a “Join Our Team” page to my website to give people interested in pet sitting for us some more information about the job and to make it easy for them to enquire and send us their details. You can see this page at http://www.clawspawsjaws.com/JoinOurTeam.htm.

Having people enquire about working with you is great - but they may not come looking for you at the time when you are looking to hire staff. If this is the case I have several other ideas for finding staff.

1. Craigs List - The website http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us gives you the opportunity to post a job ad in your local area on their classified boards for free. On this list you have room in your ad to put in information about the job and detailed candidate requirements. Craigs List gets a lot of traffic daily and when I have advertised I received between 4-8 interested candidates. There is no pressure to hire any candidates that you receive via Craigs List. You can contact applicants with more information and then ask them to fill out your interview questions or application.

2. Let your clients know that you are looking for people interested in a position with your company. They may be able to recommend friends or family and will spread the word if they know someone who is a pet lover and looking for work. One way to communicate this regularly to clients is to put a few lines at the bottom of your client newsletter or in a special flyer that you give out to them when they are visiting your business location or that you leave in their home if you are visiting their pets.

3. Place flyers in local vet clinics and pet food and accessory stores. Find pet lovers where they congregate by advertising on a notice board at pet clinics, stores, dog day cares, or grooming spas.

4. Advertise in local job classified magazines that are free to the public and can be picked up at local grocery stores. This is one of the more expensive methods I have used as you will need to pay to place your ad in these publications. However, you reach a large audience and it is targeted to job seekers. I did get a high response rate from these ads but none of my current sitters have come from this type of advertising. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have the budget and need someone right now!

Having a system set up where you constantly gather the contact details of interested candidates through your website, Craigs List, or your clients will enable you to have the contacts when you need them and are ready to hire new staff as your business grows.

In my next article I will discuss screening of applicants and the initial application form that I use to gather information from candidates. If you have any subjects that you would like to see discussed that relates to hiring staff please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to include it in this series …

Tags :Pet Care Business Tips

Using the Holiday Season to Market Your Pet Business

Filed Under Pet Business Tips, Pet Products | 8 Comments

Holiday Gifts Thanksgiving and Xmas are fast approaching - it’s just 2 1/2 weeks until Thanksgiving Thursday! The holidays are a great opportunity to get in touch with your customers to keep your pet business at the top of their minds and remind them that you care about their pets. Get organized now to take advantage of the holiday season to promote your pet business.

I always send out pet themed Christmas greeting cards to all of our customers to thank them for their business during the year. Typically I have purchased cards with cute dog or cat motifs from my local Barnes and Noble or Borders store - they both have a good range of pet cards. I have also sent out specialized pet sitting cards from Pet Sitters International but these tend to be a bit more expensive.

This year a new catalogue has arrived at my door - Sharper for Pet Care Professionals. They produce cards, postcards, calendars, stickers, paper tote bags, and magnets to promote all types of pet businesses. I love their cards am going online today to order. You can order at their website - www.e-sharper.com

I also found calendar magnets in their catalogue. Bright 4″ x 6″ magnets with the full 2008 calendar, a cute pet picture on top, and customized with your pet business name and contact details on the bottom. When I visit customers they often have these magnets displayed on their fridge from realtors but I think that with the cute pet pictures - magnets from their local pet service or retailer would be even more likely to be displayed. This puts your pet business in front of your customers all year round and they will never lose your phone number! I have used smaller yearly planners in the past but I think I’m going to find one of these magnets this year to slip into my Christmas cards.

Another great product to use to promote your service or products are gift certificates. People are searching for customized gifts to give their friends and family and a gift certificate for pet products would be a great gift for any pet lover. Sharper is also able to supply a customized certificate - or you can create your own on your home computer. You could also use a flyer at your office or left at your visits to announce to current customers that gift certificates are available for purchase for the holidays.

Hope I have given you some ideas - don’t leave it too long to get organized as the holidays will be here before we know it! If you have any other good ideas please leave a comment and share them with us…