To Expand Your Pet Business You Must Outsource

Filed Under Pet Business Tips, My Pet Business |

If your vision for your pet business includes expansion to service larger geographic areas, or providing a larger range of products you must begin to spend more time each day working on business development tasks such as marketing, process improvement, and creation of new services or products. To make time for these business-building activities you will need to be able to separate yourself from the day to day running of your business and gradually have other people take over these activities.

I am currently enjoying the benefits of using contract pet sitters to do the majority of my pet sitting appointments. At first I was very reluctant to give up control of my pet care business to others as I thought that they would not do as good a job of taking care of my customers as I could. To grow my business I had to overcome these fears and I worked with a coach to build my confidence and build systems that now allow me to find great contractors that provide great care for my customer’s pets.

Because I am outsourcing most of my routine pet sitting visits I am now able to expand my business and help other pet business owners by spending time writing my blog, keeping in touch with a weekly e-zine, creating new products and e-books, and learning new skills that will let me run my business more efficiently. Outsourcing also gives me more freedom by allowing you me to spend more time with family and friends instead of working my business 24/7.

Hiring staff and contractors are just one many of the options available today for outsourcing. In the last few years the popularity of using virtual assistants has grown in leaps and bounds. A virtual assistant is someone who works in their own home and takes on jobs for many customers that can be done via phone or the internet.

One great benefit of using a virtual assistant is that they only charge you for the hours that they spend on your projects or tasks. You don’t have to take on the responsibility and cost of hiring a full time assistant. Using virtual assistants you can start off by outsourcing small tasks that take only a few hours per week and gradually increase the work that you give your assistant until you are ready to utilize someone full time. Most VA’s are available for one off jobs at an hourly or quoted project rate.

Some examples of tasks that can be outsourced to a virtual assistant include:

Keeping financial records and book keeping

Administrative duties

Answering calls and emails

Marketing activities such as writing press releases or articles, writing and preparing brochures, and setting up websites and online and offline advertising

Customer follow-up including preparation and mailing of newsletters, mailing of postcards of special offer coupons

I recently used Angela Wills (a virtual assistant) to create the template for this e-zine. Angela has some great articles at her blog www.starva.com including an article which describes how to find the perfect VA - http://starva.com/wordpress/how-to-choose-the-perfect-virtual-assistant/.

Another option is to find contractors that can help you complete one-off jobs using services like Elance (www.elance.com). At Elance you can post a project and have providers bid against each other for the job. You will get a wide spread of quotes and can check out the reviews for each provider and their profile on the site. I have had website graphics and logos completed by Elance contractors and they have done excellent work. Most will provide you with several mock-ups and then you can choose the one you like best and also ask for several changes until you are completely satisfied with their design.

At the moment I am using Elance to find a contractor to complete transcription of 5 audio interviews that I conducted with pet business owners that I plan to turn into a saleable product. I posted my project on Wednesday night and today I have 20 contractors to choose from. When choosing a provider do make sure you check their past reviews, ask for a sample of their previous work, and make sure that you have the ability to ask for changes as part of the price if you are not happy with initial work.

Elance has a list of 100 projects that can be completed by contractors at their site. Browsing through the list is a good way to brainstorm ideas for ways to apply outsourcing in your pet business. Their list is at http://www.elance.com/p/100-project-ideas.html.

Outsourcing is a hot topic today in the business world because people are realizing the power that it has to help them achieve more in less time. Just today I was emailed a information about a free e-book by Jeff Mills called “The Outsourcing Compendium”. He is using this e-book as a give away to promote a larger product package and you can get it free by visiting his site here. His book is targeted at internet marketers but has some valuable tips for outsourcing website and article creation and working with virtual assistants and is worth reading.

If you want to grow your business one of the best steps you can take is to evaluate the tasks that you complete each day. Spend a day or two listing each activity that takes up your time. Once you have your list take a look and mark which tasks you can outsource right now. Make a plan and start delegating!

Use more of your time each day for tasks that build your business and you will see the business growth that you desire.