Where to Find the Right Staff for your Pet Business

Filed Under Pet Business Tips |



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 …



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4 Comments so far

  1. Pet Care » Blog Archive » Where to Find the Right Staff for your Pet… on October 17, 2007 10:57 am

    [...] Working with Pets - Start and Grow a Pet Business wrote an interesting post today on Where to Find the Right Staff for your Pet… Here’s a quick excerpt In the last couple of months I have posted several articles discussing the hiring of staff to help you grow your pet business … 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 Posted in Working with Pets - Start and Grow a Pet Business ( 42 links from 37 sites) by daniellechonody [...]

  2. www.allcosmeticsadvice.info » Where to Find the Right Staff for your Pet Business on October 18, 2007 2:53 am

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  3. craigslist » Where to Find the Right Staff for your Pet Business on October 18, 2007 7:44 am

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