In this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business podcast, Kristen Lee talks about the signs that it's time to fire that toxic dog owner client. Yep. Even if you've been putting it off.
For a moment, dog peeps, it would be an ideal world that every dog-owning client that comes to your dog training and pet business is the motherfucking ideal, perfect, dream client.
Oh, the dog trainer business land of perfect clients that do everything you prescribe them in your dog training program, that commits 100% to training their dogs with your guidance, who respect all your boundaries as a dog trainer, don't blow up your email, text, after that bottle of wine on a Sunday evening projecting their bullshit through their dog that rolls down to you.
But here we are.
What to do? Recognize the signs of a bad dog owner client in your pet dog business, objectively and non-emotionally decide if you want to continue working with them, and then yeet them the fuck out of your dog business if needed.
Episode Links:
In this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business podcast, Kristen Lee talks about the signs that it's time to fire that toxic dog owner client. Yep. Even if you've been putting it off.
For a moment, dog peeps, it would be an ideal world that every dog-owning client that comes to your dog training and pet business is the motherfucking ideal, perfect, dream client.
Oh, the dog trainer business land of perfect clients that do everything you prescribe them in your dog training program, that commits 100% to training their dogs with your guidance, who respect all your boundaries as a dog trainer, don't blow up your email, text, after that bottle of wine on a Sunday evening projecting their bullshit through their dog that rolls down to you.
But here we are.
What to do? Recognize the signs of a bad dog owner client in your pet dog business, objectively and non-emotionally decide if you want to continue working with them, and then yeet them the fuck out of your dog business if needed.
Episode Links:
You're listening to the mind, your own dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business. Strategic Kristen Lee guys. Get ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales, creating a standout kick ass dog business grant. Along with mastering your mindset. That's going to smash all of this glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog business to the next level. With actionable steps you can take right away. We're going to empower you. We're going to grow you as you step into your authentic self. Not only as a dog trainer, dog Walker, or what ever slice the pet industry, you find yourself in. But as the bad-ass entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm, cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and empower the incredible women of the dog business industry to step into the spotlight, reclaim control and transform not only their businesses, but their lives. It's real. It's raw. It's uncensored. And it's what this dog business industry needs. Let's do this guys. What is up, everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the mind, your own dog biz podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Lee and today's episode is going to be a good one. And my goal and objective towards today. Episode is for you to feel empowered and not feel that you have to deal with the toxic clients in your dog training business, your dog, walking business, your pet sitting business, or whatever else, type of dog business that you have specifically again, usually geared towards dog trainers, but. I'm going to level with you on this conversation. No amount of money is ever worth dealing with shitty clients. All right, I'm going to repeat that. Cause that's really fucking important. I don't care how much somebody is paying you for the care, the training and the guidance when it comes to their dog. For them to be a disrespectful and shitty client and human being that doesn't respect your boundaries, that doesn't pay you on time. That is just overall garbage trash. You do not need to make space for them in your business. Get, I don't care how much they're fucking paying you. You could not pay me a million fucking dollars to take on a toxic client ever. And at the end of the day, I understand if you are in a place of financial insecurity that you might have to put some things like this on the back burner overlook some of these flags, but I can promise you with all of my heart, that when you remove a source of toxicity as a client in your business, energetically, something happens. I don't know if it's like some woo universal thing. Opens up and allow space for the good peeps to come in. Okay. It's the good place. Not the bad place, not the Biddle place by the way. Great chef just got into watching them. Okay. So I want to make sure, by the end of this episode, you are feeling empowered about yielding. Yes. Yielding the toxic client. Out of your business life. The good news about this is it's usually only about one to 5% of these people are going to make up your dog training or your dog business roster. So it's not fairly uncommon, but it is uncommon and let's be honest for a hot second dog peeps. It would be an ideal perfect world that every single dog owning client that comes to you. Is going to be the perfect, the ideal that unicorn. You know, the dog trainer business, land of the perfect clients that do everything as you prescribed them in your dog training program that commit 100% to train their dogs with your guidance and they respect your word, everything they say they don't go looking for outside influences that respect all your boundaries as a dog trainer, dog Walker, that don't blow up your phone in the middle of the night, or like to wine bottles. People that on blow up your text messages after whatever's happening with their dog, projecting their own bullshit to their dog. That rolls down to you. But here we are, we're in the business of dog. And there wouldn't be a business of dogs that there wasn't humans and they're humans have emotions and sometimes emotional damage comes with the job. And it's always funny because I put up a meme a couple of times where it's like, you know, as a doctrine or sometimes you're a fucking therapist for some people, like they project their own emotions out on the dog and the dog's just the conduit of their own emotions. And sometimes you have to work them through their fucking therapy or. Anyway. So if you're sweating and stress and over firing somebody, and you're not quite sure if there's some red flags you're missing, I got you. I got you. I'm going to teach you what this episode. Some of the red flags that are non-negotiables to our students, to our business, dog, to school that are red flags that you need to get the people out of your business. Fast. Next thing I do want to say too, is if you do recognize the signs. Chances are they're not going to get better. I hate to be an asshole humans. Sometimes don't change and humans will always have behaviors and certain behaviors, especially the signs that I'm going to go through. A list by list are patterns. And you got to get these people out of your business fast because at the end of the day, bad clients. Cost so much in time and money. Just trust me on this. I don't want to speak much on it, but from experience with dog to school, it's never worth it. It's never worth it. And you will feel emotional effects for it for years to come. If you do not remove people that are not in alignment with your values and respect you and look up to you as a business. All right, so let's talk about this. So the signs are going to be different for each person, but again, there's the pattern. Every situation is going to be different, but what's really cool about these signs and these red flags is, again, going back to the pattern, they're going to have the same patterns and same traits in common. Now, if any of these content, any of these remind you of a particular person or people in your business, I'm going to use a quote. I'm going to show my age. Oh God. Um, from scary movie to when, uh, I think it was short, he was like, run bitch, run, run, bitch, run. Get these fuckers out of your business, your dog training business, the first red flag or sign that you need to fire a client is they're energetic. Resource vampires. They take up way too much of your time, like way, way, way too much of your time. Not to just talking about hand-holding they need to be swaddled and on your, we call them, this is going to sound really horrible, but business your businesses. Like, they need to be on you 24 7. They cannot make a decision with their dog or the dog looks at them weird. Oh my God, my dog is going to aggression and it's not worth it. It's not worth it. You are in business for yourself, which time will always equal. Money is what keeps you in business for yourself as a dog trainer? And yes, you're a dog trainer. That's in the business of helping dogs and owners improve their quality of life and relationships together. And some people, some people have different learning styles and they're going to learn totally different, but that doesn't mean 24 7 handholding with a client allowing them to emotionally. Dump on you too, as well. The excuses, why they don't fall through why they can't do this or why that they didn't do this. Now, the dogs acting the fool. Again, this takes up so much mental space and energetic wise. It's going to drain you and guests. If you are drained from these energetic vampire dog, owning clients in your business at the end of the day, are you going to feel like sitting down and actually going, okay, what kind of marketing should I do for my business? What kind of content can I put out? We know you won't, will you feel like sitting down and taking sales calls for your doctor, any business and making more money and getting these people out? No. All you want to be is stoned and zoned out on today. So if you have an energetic and resource vampire in your dog training business, or any other type of business, you have get them the fuck out. Like, bye bitch. Bye. Get out, get out the next massive I'm like clap my hands. Massive red flag and sign that you need to fire this person. Late payments always have payment issues, late payments, bounce payments for getting payments, ghosting your invoices, not answering or replying. When you require about payments due or continuously behind a payment or two, always an excuse. Why they can't pay dog owners. Constantly having payment issues and not paying as contracted outline agreed upon. It's more than just knowing. Okay. It's more than just knowing. Listen, you're an again, you are in business for yourself when somebody doesn't pay you. Yeah. You can have savings. Savings are great. That's we all need them as a business owner, but it interrupts your dog business cashflow, which can cause massive disruptions to you. The business owner. Are all the people trying to getting to our train, our people, trying to get out of paying for their services. No, not all of them, but if you're finding yourself month after month tracking down payments, sending reminders or stressing about your bills because the client didn't pay by get out. Nope. Nope, Nope. Nope. They don't respect you. They don't respect the value of your work. They don't respect. Are they doing that to the grocery store? Like, Hey, I'm going to go buy this food. I'm going to go check out by and not come back. No, they simply have a lack of respect for you, which is another red flag we're going to cover, but no zero tolerance for that shit. The next sign that you need to fire this client or get them the fuck out of your business or red flag, whatever you want to call it is. You dread, you dread when it's time to work with them, but you are like shit. When you see them on your calendar for tomorrow, you're like, God damn it. And listen, not everybody that you work with as a dog trainer are going to be your favorite people, personality wise, or be super outgoing like you, or maybe even be introverted like you, or appreciate your dark humor. And even when a client. Well, it be somebody like you'd go have a drink, whether a cup of coffee with you should at least at minimum, enjoy working with them, the human and not just their dog. Okay. So when it comes time to the reschedule to their routine scheduled, check-in their training session or meeting with them, or just chatting with them, fills you with dread, get out, get out if a schedule reminder triggers. Get out. If a notification from them causes you anxiety, it makes your heart skip a beat, get the fuck out of that relationship with that dog owner, the next red flag that you need to fire somebody is they don't listen to you. The dog trainer, the expert of your crafts of your profession. And there's always going to be dog owners that thinks. That think I'm saying this right now. They think they're smart as fuck when it comes to their doctoring needs, exercise needs diet, enrichment. Maybe they're like, you know what, I'm doing good. I'm going to go to the dog park and you are like strictly no dog park. Guess what para goes to the dog park dog gets fucking depressed in their training program. And you're just there to, you know, kind of guide them, just be there for them. Even though they asked you to an entered in a dog training program. That does this for a living, but they don't listen to you. They don't, they don't take an account. Like they don't listen to your management techniques or your management, um, for their dog. They're not doing the things you asked them to do. And again, naturally, some people are going to be resistant to change, but this is another rag red flag. When they continuously don't follow your processes and dog training guidance, it sets up. Your business and their dog for failure, and it causes more work for you. The dog trainer in liability, when shit goes wrong with their dog, it also, it also makes you expend more of your time and energy and resources to fix a problem that they continuously have when the first place they should have fucking listened to you. Not the fucking YouTube dog training expert or the Tik TOK dog. I'm just saying it so they don't listen to you. Bye bye. The next sign that you need to fire somebody and your dog training business is they're not paying you enough for the talk training and other services. And upset. Maybe you had a sales call with them and you knew what the dog owner needed. You knew they needed a more intensive dog training program. You had the perfect program for them lined out and would meet all their goals and allow them to live the best life ever with their pup while also problem-solving the behaviors. But when it came to put their money to invest or put their money where their mouth is, they only wanted to spend so much. So you put them in another program. You caved, it happens. Don't be yourself self up over don't. It's fine. It's fine. That's why I'm here. I got you now, even though they knew they needed to be in program area, they're in program B, they still think they're entitled to program a benefits. They're consistently blowing up your phone, your emails, your social media messages, ex beckoning, extra help and support. They're wondering why the dog isn't getting all the training that it needs. The dog owners, maybe looking for extra work outside of the scope of your doctoring services. For example, they want to learn off-leash off-leash when their program is literally learning fucking foundational skills of fucking place. Listen, these people, these particular people that want option a, but are only willing to pay for option B, but are still think they're entitled to option a and expect that level of work. They're never going to value you or any professional work, let them go buy, get'em out, get 'em out, get 'em out by. And the most important one is they don't respect you as a dog business owner. Did you not fucking respect you and your business? Meaning last minute, reschedules and cancellations with the expectation of rescheduling to a time that fits them perfectly. They don't respect you. People have reschedules. Listen, we have to do that. A dog to school too. We have some people that have been sick things beyond our means. Sometimes it happens with dog owners, especially today's day and age, but if it's a pattern of somebody blowing you off or rescheduling last minute, that causes a domino effect. So just say you had somebody at six o'clock. And you had something going on at seven 30. Now this disrupts your entire day. Cause then you got to fit them, re back in, get 'em out, get them out. Are they not following directions on how to communicate with you? Maybe they've been rude to you. Maybe they'd been passive aggressive to you, your employees through email for conversation or even other clients in your program. They don't respect. They do not respect you. Sure. Everybody has a bad day, but when it's a repeating pattern, it's not a bad day. It's a bad fucking person or that whole late night bottle of wine, deep in the emotional dump texts or email, we've all had those. The dog does something during the day. Dog owner comes home, tries to blow it off of the bottle of wine and gets a bug in their ass and just fucking emotionally vomits and diarrhea is all over you. And you're just like, wait, what? And again, when somebody doesn't have a fundamental lack of respect and understand, they're not the only dog owner in your dog training program and you don't serve them alone, get them out, get them out. Brunette, passive aggressiveness should never, ever be tolerated. And it's never, ever. Ever appropriate to let a client emotionally dump on you ever fucking emotional dumping trauma dumping. It's not your concern. Okay. So if you ever ever feel lack of respect, that is your sign to sever that dog owner relationship. Okay. Now, any of these signs are grounds for firing a dog owner, client. Any of them, it doesn't need, you don't need to have all six of them checked off. Even if you sniff one and you're like, fuck bye. Get them out. If you have multiple signs happening simultaneously, like at the same time, get out and get out fast. And, and that to. Again, I can tell you from unfortunate firsthand experience, it won't get better. It won't go away. And when it does and it will blow up, you might think you might have a really good relationship with a dog owner that might almost feel like a friendship relationship, but if they're exhibiting any of the signs, Trump being rude to you, passive aggressive as a joke. They're not respecting your boundaries, your time. They're emotionally dumping on you. They're not paying you. They are just overall lack of better words. They're not paying you enough and they're energetic and resource vampires. Get out, get out while you can. As I said before, run bitch. And the end of the day. Remember you are that professional. You do this for a loving, a living for love too, for love too, but command the respect and authority of that bad ass dog business owner that you are, you make the rules and you make the decisions you have control. They are not the only person in your business. They do not have authority over your. Fuck them. They are not worth it. Get them out of your dog training, business and dog training business fast. Now, if you need help structuring and conversation like that, happy to connect with you on that. Go to dogmas school.com forward slash work with us. Fill an application out, explain your situation and we got you covered. All right, everybody hope you feel empowered to make these hard decisions and let me know, have a good. Talk soon. Bye. Hey there, thanks for checking out. Another episode of the mind, your own dog business podcast. Mind your own dog business is hosted by me personally and produced by the unicorns over at the dog, this school team for more information, how to get in touch with me for more information on dog to school, or to learn more on how we can help you with your dog. Feel free to visit our website at dog, this school.com. Now, if you really enjoy this episode, do me a favor and leave a five star reviews on apple. The reason why, because we want to disrupt more dog training businesses on how people do the business of dogs till next time I.