Have You Changed What You Feed Your Pets?

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Talk Back Tuesday Recalls of Chinese manufactured pet foods continue to regularly be in the news. Pet food have been found to be contaminated with melamin and it is now suspected that pet foods in Australia have caused over 12 cats to fall ill in the last week.

In the past year, because of concerns about imported foods and because I am concerned about the additives in store bought foods, I have changed my cat and dog foods over to a product manufactured in the US without preservatives and other chemical additives.

My question for you this week is - Have you changed what you feed your pets because of the pet food scares in the past year? What foods have you switched to?

Marketing Your Pet Sitting Business with Signs

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Marketing Monday Signs can give your business name and brand recognition with the general public. The many different types of signs available for marketing your business ensures that you can find one that suits your advertising budget and the needs of your pet sitting business.

Consider the different types of signs: mounted, freestanding and interior. Depending on whether your pet sitting business is physical (located in its own building) or virtual (mostly run out of a website or your home), some types of signs may be more appropriate than others.

Remember that signs can be as grand as billboards or as simple as those placed in yards. It’s up to you to research and determine what kind of sign would be most effective for your pet sitting business. But always take the signs’ locations into account, as they run the risk of serving no purpose if they exist in places where your target market doesn’t go.

License Plates

Custom license plates and license plate frames are available for those that are truly devoted to getting their business out to the masses.

Vanity or personalized license plates can be used to help promote your business simply by including a message that corresponds to your business. Check with your state’s DMV office for instructions and restrictions on getting a personalized license plate for business purposes.

Consider putting your business’ logo and website URL on a license plate frame. Choose a frame that contrasts with the color of your car and license plate. Order a few license plate frames and think about giving them away to loyal customers who can put them on their own cars. You can bet that you’ll get a lot of mileage out of their free advertisement!

Car Signs

Of course, you can take away the worry about location if you invest in mobile signs. Car signs, for example, allow you to advertise your pet sitting business everywhere you go. Car signs can be particularly effective if you regularly drive in areas where potential clients live or work. If you’re mostly interested in pet sitting animals in your neighborhood, you can have round-the-clock advertisement simply by putting a sign on your car, going to the grocery store, the library or even parking on the street.

Car signs can come in many forms, including removable magnets that can be peeled off, bumper stickers and adhesive identification plates that can go anywhere on your car’s body. Depending on the type of sign that you choose, you may be able to include images, logos, your business’ name and contact information on it. If you’re investing in magnetic car signs, go for a color sign as it can appeal to viewers more than a plain one.

Your local printing store such as Kinko’s is a good provider of magnetic signs or stickers. You can also search for companies that provide personalized marketing products online.

For a really unique car sign you can also invest in a full body wrap – where the entire body of the car is covered with signage or graphics. Search for “car wrap” on the internet to find a local provider of this product. This can be pretty expensive – several thousand dollars – but it will mean that you attract a lot of customer attention!

I have used magnetic car signs but next week I am going to be getting my husbands car fully wrapped - here is a sneak preview- I’ll show you some full photos once it is completed. I won’t be completing pet sitting visits in this car but I’ll drive to my day job, grocery shopping and other errands.

I am changing my business name so that I can secure a trademark from Claws Paws & Jaws to Protecting Max. I have tried a lot of marketing but really want to catch the attention of local pet owners. What do you think? Tell me by leaving a comment after the post.

See my car wrap design click here

Whatever type of sign that you choose make sure that you include your business logo, your website name, and a contact phone number. Ensure that the sign is uncluttered and easy to read and make sure that it is readable from a distance.

Signs can range from less than $100 to several thousand dollars. The great benefit of signs is that once you have them made and displayed you don’t need to dedicate an ongoing amount of time.

Developing a System For Managing Your Pet Sitting Customers Keys

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Systems Saturday As part of your pet sitting business you will need a systemized way to manage your customers keys. You will be in possesion of clients keys during the duration of their visits and some customers may also prefer you to keep a key permanently on file for them so it is immediately available in an emergency, and convenient for them to schedule future pet sitting services.

Some clients may wish to give you a garage door opener or code instead of keys. These work great for easy home access but you will be in trouble if there is a power outage as often garage doors will not open. For this reason I would recommend that you always get at least one copy of their key as a backup.

You will need to make sure that after the client gives you their key at the initial interview that you have:

1) a secure place to store it until their visits commence

2) a safe place to transport it while you are completing their visits

3) and a secure place for permanent key filing.

I recommend that for security reasons that you never label customer keys with either their name or address. If a key is lost you don’t want someone who finds it to be able to look up the address of your clients. I label my client keys with a number only and then use a cross referencing system to match clients identity to the key number.

For temporary and permanent storage of client keys MMF Duplicate Key System I use a lockable key cabinet manufactured by MMF in the picture on the left. It comes with everything needed to label and store keys and gives me a two key system so that I can keep a master key on file and give the other key to my pet sitter to carry to visits.

I always request that clients give me two copies of their keys at the intial interview. Having a master means that if for any reason a sitter cannot make it to a visit that I can fill in for them at last minute notice, and it also means that I always have a spare key if the sitter misplaces their key.

This system comes with a red permanent tag for the master key and a white tag with same number for the sitter key. It also comes with the blue cross reference book for matching customer identity to their key number. Of course it is good practice to keep this book separately from the key cabinet.

These cabinets come in different key capacities and can be attached to a wall in your home and kept locked. You can purchase them online at office supply stores such as Office Depot and also at the Mr Lock store. It’s probably worth shopping around to find the best price.

Of course if you are just starting out with your pet sitting business you can get away with using a simpler system of just a lock box and some key labels. These are both available from office supply stores.

To transport keys to and from visits I like to have keys stored in my purse in a zippable pocket. This makes sure that they can’t fall out and that I always have them with me (I don’t recommend leaving them in your car unattended).

If you are using sitters, make sure that after they complete the client visits that they return the keys to you for permanent storage. You don’t want to have keys left with sitters as you won’t be sure that they are securely stored, and you don’t want to be in a situation where the client calls and schedules and you can’t get in contact with your sitter or they are on vacation.

Your clients put their trust in you to protect their house and pets. Make sure that you honor this trust by storing their keys and personal information securely and responsibly.

Free E-Myth Membership Trains You to Run Your Pet Sitting Business Like A Franchise

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Freebie Friday One of my favorite business books that I picked up in the first year of my pet sitting business is

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.

This book shows you why if you are a business owner you must make the effort to spend more time working on your business (planning, marketing, customer followup) than you do working in your business (doing the actual caring for the pets). The book illustrates how developing systems in your business, as if you your pet sitting business were a franchise, can give you the freedom to hand some day to day tasks over to others so you can find the time you need for the working on your business activities.

In the past 2 years I have really tried to put some of the lessons that I learned from the book into action in my pet sitting business. I still love to do pet sitting jobs myself but have brought on contract sitters to free up my time so that I can to dedicate more time to dreaming up new ways to find new customers and also to serve my existing customers better.

I recommend that you buy a copy of the book. You can get a taste of what it’s about by reading the first chapter free at their website.

Unfortunately the book is not free - but my tip for Freebie Friday is to sign up to become a free member at the E-myth website. Free members at E-Myth get their tip filled ezine delivered to them by email and are able to download valuable business resources at their resources page such as their “Positioning and Differentiating Your Business” and “Cash Power” worksheets.

Go ahead and check out their blog too - all their past ezine articles are reprinted there. I loved their article this week “10 Ways to Prepare for the New Year”.

How are you preparing for the new year that’s just around the corner? In the spirit of the E-Myth sit down today and map out some ways that you can spend more time working on your business in 2009. Let us know what you come up with by leaving a comment on this post…

Wishbones for Pets - Pet Sitter Annual Community Event

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Quick Tip Thursday Thanksgiving is a time for counting our blesings and enjoying time with family. It is also the time of year when we give to the less fortunate so they may enjoy a good meal.

At this time of year pet sitters also come together for pets in need and collect pet supplies and funds for local pet shelters and pet agencies. The campaign is called Wishbones for Pets and is an annual event that runs each year during the six weeks prior to Thanksgiving. The event was established in 2004 by Janet Depathy of Under My Wings Pet Sitting in Plymouth, MA.

Pet sitters work with local businesses to organize and place donation drop-off stations at their locations and select a local pet shelter or agency to which all items collected will be donated. It is a great marketing opportunity for the pet sitter who can get publicity from the event, and brings additional traffic into the local businesses. It’s a win-win for the shelter, pet sitter, and businesses that host the drop off stations.

Consider donating items for the pets at your local donation station by contacting a Wishbones for Pets pet sitter near you. You can find a list of participating pet sitters at:

http://www.wishbonesforpets.com/petsitter-reps.html

Let your clients know about the event by placing a link on your website, placing a link in your newsletter, or leaving a note for them at your Thanksgiving visits.

Put the event on your calendar for 2009 and get involved by organizing your own local community event. You can find more information and the registration forms at their website. They also have a forum where you can network with other participating pet sitters to get some tips and advice to ensure your event is a big success.

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