Networking Groups and Pet Sitting Conferences

Filed Under My Pet Business, Pet Sitting Business Tips |

Talk Back TuesdayToday I finally booked my hotel and flights to get to the Pet Sitters International Annual Quest conference which is coming up soon - February 18th - 21st in Orlando Florida.  This will be my second Quest conference. I have skipped the last couple of years  - my last one was the conference in San Antonia at least two years ago. 

Quick Tip:  If you are planning to attend Quest and haven’t got tickets or hotel reservations yet - there are some good specials avaialble and much less expensive hotels in the area than the actually venue where the conference will be held.  I managed to get a flight from DFW for $200 with Travelocity on Air-Tran and a room for $54 per night that is about a mile walk from the conference hotel - at Extended Stay Deluxe.

The only other pet sitting conference that I have attended was the Cybersitters United in Las Vegas at the beginning of 2007. 

I love attending these conferences and it’s one of my goals to get to the more often. The reason I love them is because they are a great place to pick up new ideas and tips to make your marketing and business more efficient and  meet lots of other great people who share my love of pet sitting.

Some locations have local networking groups for pet sitters that meet regularly - once a month - have websites to promote pet sitting in their area and hold annual events.  Unfortunatly I am yet to find one in my area although there are a lot of sitters here in Euless Texas.  I keep wishing someone will start one up!  I know you are thinking - “why don’t you start one Danielle?” - I guess it’s just that I’m so time stretched with my day job, pet sitting, and family.  One day when I’m sitting full time I’ll be able to put the time into this kind of project.

So… for talkback Tuesday - tell me :

1) What pet sitter networking groups are you involved in?

2) Do you attend pet sitting conferences? (Are you going to PSI’s Quest in February?)

3) What do you get out of attending these conferences or networking groups?

Don’t feel like you have to answer all of these - you can just leave a comment and tell us about any one of them!  Leave your comment after this post so we can share info about conferences and groups!



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Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Julie Fredrick on January 7, 2009 3:08 pm

    I am a pet sitter in Boise, ID. My business name is The Pet Sitter LLC. I love pet sitting and have been doing it for 5 years. I will be attending Quest as well…it will be my first time and I’m excited about that! Pet sitting is a great business. In Boise, however, I am finding that people simply do not know that pet sitting exists. They think that their only options are boarding or imposing on neighbors. I would love to hear ideas on how to promote the profession.

  2. Danielle Chonody on January 7, 2009 10:19 pm

    Hi Julie - it would be great to meet you at Quest. I’ll email you with my phone number so we can find each other!

    When I started here in DFW I had the same issue - most people were not aware that pet sitting was an option for them. Here are a few suggestions for spreading the word:

    1) Speak at local groups such as PTA’s, homeowners association meetings and chamber of commerce meetings. You could also organize to do educational seminars at local pet stores or day care facilities
    2) Do a coupon swap with other local pet businesses. You give out discount coupons for their service and they give out discount coupons for your pet sitting service (I am just about to try this out for the first time)
    3) Get local publicity by submitting press releases to local papers or radio stations
    4) Host a fun community pet event. You could partner with other local pet businesses to organize this. PSI has some good suggestions for events in their new Buzz marketing resource.
    5) Leave flyers advertising your business and the benefits of pet sitting in local pet stores, restaurants, and at offices or other service businesses

    The effectiveness of these may depend on these may depend on the size of your community - but they are all worth a try!

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