On this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business podcast, I answer a listener’s questions about the issues she is having with acquiring clients for her business. She is 3 months into entrepreneurship and the dead ends she is running into are making her consider going back to the big box pet store where she previously worked. Hopefully, you will find my recommendations and advice to her applicable to your own situation, and remember that you can do what it takes to stand out in the industry and be successful!
Based on Maslow’ Hierarchy of Needs, safety and security are the most foundational, and in the business world, that means finances. The first few years of business, you are in survival mode.
My thoughts:
Website
Most likely, the problem with your website is the copy and content – that is what will bring you the right clients
Facebook/Instagram
Make sure you have a strategy and that you are just “being active” to say you’re being active
Business cards
It is better to build reciprocal relationships where you provide value to each other. These referrals are much stronger than just dropping your business card off
Courses and Community Groups
Be cautious. Consider your strategic purpose and how these things help you get there. There are likely better uses of your time
Google and Yelp ads
Words matter, so make sure you have clear campaign objectives and a sales process to handle leads
Time Stamps:
1:40 – Go back and listen to the last listener questions episode where I talked about Facebook ads.
2:18 – What the first few years of business look like.
4:54 – The listener spells out their situation and asks for Kristen’s help.
7:38 – My overview response.
11:34 – Website-specific recommendations.
15:33 – Facebook strategy.
16:43 – How do go about logo design and business cards differently.
21:39 – My opinion of generic courses and community groups.
25:13 – Yelp and Google ads key considerations.
26:58 – Concluding thoughts.
Connect with us:
On this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business podcast, I answer a listener’s questions about the issues she is having with acquiring clients for her business. She is 3 months into entrepreneurship and the dead ends she is running into are making her consider going back to the big box pet store where she previously worked. Hopefully, you will find my recommendations and advice to her applicable to your own situation, and remember that you can do what it takes to stand out in the industry and be successful!
Based on Maslow’ Hierarchy of Needs, safety and security are the most foundational, and in the business world, that means finances. The first few years of business, you are in survival mode.
My thoughts:
Website
Most likely, the problem with your website is the copy and content – that is what will bring you the right clients
Facebook/Instagram
Make sure you have a strategy and that you are just “being active” to say you’re being active
Business cards
It is better to build reciprocal relationships where you provide value to each other. These referrals are much stronger than just dropping your business card off
Courses and Community Groups
Be cautious. Consider your strategic purpose and how these things help you get there. There are likely better uses of your time
Google and Yelp ads
Words matter, so make sure you have clear campaign objectives and a sales process to handle leads
Time Stamps:
1:40 – Go back and listen to the last listener questions episode where I talked about Facebook ads.
2:18 – What the first few years of business look like.
4:54 – The listener spells out their situation and asks for Kristen’s help.
7:38 – My overview response.
11:34 – Website-specific recommendations.
15:33 – Facebook strategy.
16:43 – How do go about logo design and business cards differently.
21:39 – My opinion of generic courses and community groups.
25:13 – Yelp and Google ads key considerations.
26:58 – Concluding thoughts.
Connect with us:
You're listening to the my drone dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business strategic Kristen leave guys yet ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales, creating a standout kick ass dog business brand along with mastering your mindset that's going to smash all this glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog was us 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 sliced the pet industry you find yourself in, but as that Bad-ass Entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm. Cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and power the incredible women of the dog was 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.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:hey guys and welcome to another listener question episode of the mind, your own dog business podcast hosted by your favorite rebel agent of disruptive change for all dog industry pros, a Kristen late guys, this is going to be a really good one. This is a listener question episode. I love doing these because y'all have had so many good responses to the last one about Facebook ads. It's are a waste of money because some of you guys have been burned and I didn't realize how many of you guys had been burned about Facebook ads, so if you didn't listen to that episode, go back, give it a listen and share it, screenshot it and let everybody else know and the dog industry, entrepreneurialship world what the real deal and the real truth about Facebook ads are and how you can actually make them work for you. All right. I'm going to hop right into this because this is a really common question that I get and I have a sneaking, sneaking, sneaking suspicion that a lot of struggling dog trainers have dealt with this or are dealing with this, especially in their first couple of years of business because what happens when you start a business, any type of business, whether it's dog training business and whether it's dog walking business, whether it's a pet sitting business, we immediately go into a survival mode, right? It's a little bit different when you are responsible for basically the survival of not only yourself and not only your family because finances, money equals survival. What do I mean by that? And we're going to take a little quick page from the higher hierarchy of people needs and safety and survival. At the bottom is number one, food, shelter and warmth and comfort and protection. And what happens is finances, Aka capital, Aka cash. Going into your business is the top concern and top priority. And this is where a lot of dog trainers initially really freak the fuck out because it is a totally different animal. When you start your own dog training business, your dog walking business. So I'm going to read the question and this comes from an amazing, amazing dog trainer down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Actually, she's in Pawleys island and she asked not to share her name, which is totally cool. And that being said, guys, if you do have a question, put it down here please, please, please. And just a really quick side. No, this is my kind of add talking. I'm sitting in my podcasting studio. Okay. And I wasn't planning to say this, but I am looking at the most beautiful, beautiful Golden Eagle that is just chilling out on my neighbor's rooftop. And if you don't know about me, I am a huge totem animal person. Like it's my little spiritual thing. And this guy is just chilling and observing the the neighborhood. It's fucking fantastic. All right, sorry. I just wanted to kind of put that one out there and look up the spiritual meaning of a Golden Eagle or a hawk. I'm a Golden Hawk. It's very fucking powerful, especially in the native world and it's a really good agent of change in disruption itself. So I find that really interesting as I'm doing this podcast. All right. All right, Christian, back to focus. This is me. This is how I work guys. You fully get me. Um, alright. So I'm going to read the question. Kristen. Help just, I don't know, fucked in a better sense of description and I'm reading this word for word. About three months ago I branched off to become a dog trainer. After a few years of working for a corporate store, let's just say I saw the light that wasn't working with training and I was so sick and not helping. Anyways, I left and it was a liberating at first, but now I have to admit I'm feeling tempted to go back or even work in an office again. I don't know what I'm doing right or wrong with my business. I am barely surviving off the thumbtack embark customers and I'm testing out wag and rover just to get in some dogs for walking that I could probably or potentially hope get into a training program. I also had a pet sit over the 4th of July, but that's not my thing. Here's what I've done so far. I spent about five k on a wordpress site and SEO and have somebody who wrote a few blogs out for me that I can post. I started a Facebook page and I post almost daily if not every few hours. I have an Instagram too, but barely have a couple hundred likes girls. Same. I'm just not a big, I had been working on my Instagram and kind of testing the waters out too, but I feel you on that one and Instagram is a whole other strategy. I had my logo design in business cards made. I dropped off my cards everywhere. Plus with a little marketing package I was told to do by other pros, which includes treats and my cart and a refrigerator sticker and a discount card for their first session. I also went through a few online marketing courses for dog trainers and I also had a consult with a bigger agency, but this is where I also got the advice from above. I joined a few community groups as directed by the online marketing course and I post in there almost frequently in daily Aka kind of spamming. I also created my own online local community groups, but there's nothing in there besides people spamming themselves and the Eagle just flew right over, which was awesome. I advertise on Yelp and I've also tried Google ads and spend about$350 with nothing in return. The thing is, Kristen, when I connect with other pros in my area or other entrepreneurs, they tell me this is normal when you first start out and what prompted me to message you is that one podcast you did on quote unquote do a good job and the results will show and how you debunk them. I'm just drained at this point. I'm spinning my wheels and I am super tempted that going back to So-and-so pet store, I'm not gonna name the name. All right guys. Does this story resonate with a new view or sound familiar? Because I gotta tell you guys, this is the fucking story I hear almost on a weekly basis from pros that have been through the grind, through the hustle, and not really had a return on the results, return on their investment of whatever they've been told to do. So I just want to remind you guys as cheesy as this was going to sound all right as cheesy, cheesy, cheesy, but I feel this is important to say over and over again, you guys out there, dog trainers, dog walkers, you are not alone in the struggle. Take it from my girl from South Carolina here. This is the same pattern of bullshit that has been archaic in the dog training industry about growing your business. And I just want to remind this listener and I just want to remind my listeners, guys, this is kind of a mindset thing, but this is an important message. Your value right now isn't defined by what hasn't worked and what has failed, right? Write this down. This is important, especially if you're feeling just empty. If you're feeling like you failed, if you feeling like entrepreneurship is not right for you, your value right now as a person, as a human, as a Senate, being as a person with a soul is not valued by what hasn't worked right now for you. What are your past failures? Because I love when things fail. All right, and I'm talking to my girl out there in South Carolina. I love you. Take this and reframe it. Failures are great. They are great for your business and it w it is what defines an entrepreneur. Fail an entrepreneur is your failures because the struggle within a failure leads to a breakthrough. Guys, I might sound like I have my shit together as a business coach, right? And I do. I do. I'm pretty fucking brilliant. I am like my clients get the fucking results. That's why I have so many clients that are about to hit seven figures. That's why I've hit seven figures. That's why my dog training businesses are just epic. I've always had good things, but I can tell you, I can tell you I've been on my knees in failure before, not on my knees like that sounds really dirty, but whatever it is what it is. But I've experienced failure and what you need to do if something hasn't worked out in your way, redefine it. Take it as a learning strategy. And I'm going to take through you guys and this listeners where each of the things which she just listed out, but realize, use this as a learning tool, right? And what happens with a general census, and I need to do more mindset stuff with you guys, but that's, that's a whole other episode or whatever. But when we, especially overachievers, if you are an entrepreneur, nine times out of 10 you are a fucking overachiever. You are so, and if you ever taken that Ian and Graham Task, God, I'm a type three, failure is legit, just crushing. But when we take and see this beautiful life lesson of what happened, we can take new aligned, inspired action to learn from it. It's beautiful. Anyway, so I'm going to go through each thing. She listed and kind of reframe this and kind of give some strategies around what we could do a little bit differently. So if you've been in this listener shoes, if you are in this listener, shoes pay quick attention. So the first thing about the website,$5,000 on a what? Wordpress site plus SEO and having somebody do on a few blogs for her. Now websites are super important guys. Yes, everybody needs to have a website, everybody needs to have smart SEO. And blogs do help with SEO, especially in a local area. If you provide a local area, blogs can totally help with that. Not saying that. However, what happens, and I see this consistently, we go out, we hire a dog walkers, our trainers hire somebody to do a website and basically it's a template design, right? And it's a theme. It's totally cool and that doesn't matter. Like don't don't break the wheel or recreate the wheel if it works. When it comes to website themes and you know, design. However, where I see the most issues coming up is that actual copy in content of the website, a k a your words, words are important. So what happens is when we just hire somebody who's done pet websites before, and I respect those people, like I actually have a few people on my team that when I do rebranding, I actually refer them to there. But when we relinquish control over the copy of the website, AK words, we don't stand out. So it doesn't matter how much your website is pretty or designed. If you sound like every other fucking dog trainer, Dog Walker out there, you ain't going to sell shit. Or if you do, it's not going to be that high end program that's going to fund you. It's going to give you wealth creation, wealth freedom. So what I find again is when you don't stand out, when you have kind of a website mill going on and you just focus on the SEO part of it, or you just focus on just kind of general messaging so anybody can find you because not everybody is your fucking client guys. Oh my God. Again, it goes back to niche, but when everything is just generic, you are getting generic, mediocre results and when you start to do that, you do not stand out in an oversaturated market. Gosh, you don't stand down and oversaturated market and oversaturated market is perfect. It's a great time to be in an oversaturated market as a dog trainer because you can disrupt the paragraph and have copied that stands out to your most fucking ideal client. But stop relying on somebody else to write the words that mean the most big up girl that in South Carolina. Look at your website copy, look at your website copy, look at your blogs, what's going out there? And if you can start changing that up a tiny bit, a tiny, I can tell you those visitors to your website, there's two thousand three thousand visitors are going to turn into conversions. But it starts with disrupting and not being like everybody else. When you're like everybody else when it comes to your website, when it comes to your fees, but postings you are going to get everybody else's results and that's mediocracy and I'm here to say mediocracy is fucking bullshit and the same thing goes with your Facebook page guys and my girl in South Carolina and I'm here guys, this is a thing. I'm not here to shame you. I'm here to bring disruptive attention to what is working in what is not working. Same thing with your Facebook. You can post as much as you want on your Facebook. That's absolutely fine. Like I use Facebook a little bit. I haven't been using Facebook as much as I used to do, but I've spent a lot of money in Facebook ads and I've grown both businesses, both of all actually all my businesses and Facebook ads. However you need to have a strategy behind it. What are you posting on Facebook? If you are just resharing infographics, if you are just resharing and just stuff that everybody knows and does are ready, you need to look at that and understand and go back to your copy, to your messaging, to your neish and have a strategy behind everything you post. Now if you are rocking and rolling with it and if you want to share some funny memes because that's who you are, fuck yeah. Like fuck yeah, do that shit girl. Make yourself, you know, get out there, you know sh fly like a free QR but be very, very strategic on what you share. Again, words matter, imagery matters. Um, whatever you're sending links to matter. Now, your logo design and your business cards, logo design. I actually love it. Um, I've been really diving deep into branding strategy. However, the thing is a lot of struggling pros shouldn't be hyper-focusing on their logo design, especially when you are struggling for cash. All right? If you are struggling to find work life balance, if you are struggling to find cash inflow, if you are struggling to get your voice known to actually be seen a little bit more as a female entrepreneurial dog trainer leader, your logo design should be on the bottom of your list at this point because what happens is when you're in massive resistance mode to grow, we focus on the little things like logo design and believe me again, I love some epic Lobo logo design. I had been working on one of my high end clients logo design. I actually have, I just went through four different designers. I just hired a custom illustrative artists to create her logo. But we can do that because she has a$2 million business at this point because she is elevating and transcending herself. So and when you drop off your business cards everywhere, guys, this is what happens. So many other pros are doing the same thing and when you go to a vet's office, when you go to a pet store, yeah, basically throw your business card in the toilet, you might as well. I've just printed it on money and throw it away. However, what you need to do, what you need to do when you strategically drop off your business cards, is you need to build relationships, not one sided relationships with, with other dog businesses or other businesses with the vets and groomers and other, you know, organizations because it's not reciprocal. If somebody came to me and was like, Kristen, I want you to be on my podcast. Can you be on my podcast so I can get some exposure? Can I so I can get some growth or whatever? I'm going to most likely say no. Like I just had this happen last week. Like I would like you to be on my podcast because we're a growing podcast for dog industry entrepreneurs and the relationship and I'm not being a bitch about it. The relationship wasn't reciprocal. It wasn't like, Hey, you know, I think it's awesome what you're doing. I've been following you for awhile. I think you are. You know, I don't care if people like me or not. Like that's not the point of what I do and how I do it. But when you're not building a reciprocal relationship with a vet, when you're not building a reciprocal relationship with a groomer, that's where shit goes one sided. And unless you connect with them, unless you start building and seeing what their innate needs are, you can, might as well throw your card away. Just don't do it, don't do it. But when you take the time to research them, when you take the time to see what they're all about. Same thing with apartment buildings, guys, same thing. God, God Almighty. God Almighty. I cannot tell you how many dog walkers I see dropping off cards at apartment buildings because we actually do my husband's dog training business. We used to do a lot of like yappy hour events and we don't do it as much cause he's just so super limited on time. But now that we have a few, um, apprentices starting, we're going to start this back up. And I cannot tell you how many apartment managers are like, you are the guys that we go to because you've actually, you've actually asked what the fuck will you need for as a dog trainer. So it doesn't matter if you put in treat bags and refrigerator magnets and discount cards, it just doesn't work. Guys build a reciprocal relationship. Now, I went through a few marketing courses for dog trainers in a console, but this is where I got the advice from. Yeah, I mean this is a whole other subject guys, but always remember who you're getting your advice from because I can tell you if somebody is doing consulting because they are just burnt out from their dog training business, or if they're a big organization and they're just kind of giving some advice from other, you know, whatever. Just because somebody sits in the seminar or has had a business we don't know, the subjective results doesn't mean they're good for your business. And I'm not throwing shade. I am not throwing shade. Believe me, it, uh, my business coach pushed me four years to do this and be very careful of whose advice you take and who you hire to help you with your business because your business is your livelihood. So that's, I'm going to kind of skip over that one. But be very careful with these generic horses because my girl here in South Carolina got the same fucking advice that that hasn't worked for her. Right. She got sold into doing a, uh, a wordpress kind of dog training mill website. I joined a few community groups and I post in there. The thing with this is when you join a few community groups on Facebook, these are usually the free ones where it's like moms of Pawleys island moms and myrtle beach or whatever. And what these are, are usually groups that are just spamming like for MLM type stuff. Like I've seen those or they are kind of online yard sales. When you get in those as a dog trainer, as a dog Walker, what happens? You just start to spam too. So I'm not saying they don't work, I'm just saying use caution because these are also businesses too. Usually there's an admin that runs it and they actually make money off of it. I'm on the back end of sales and stuff like that, but be very, be very strategic because if somebody is in a free group to buy cheap stuff to buy um, cheap or giveaway, you know, furniture or whatever, what are you going to be? What are you going to be seen as? You're going to be seen as a commodity and you're going to be seen as a cheap service. I've created my own local community group. Cool. What is the purpose of it? What strategic purpose of this? Because here's the thing. I have this thing with free Facebook groups and when they're done right, I actually used to have one and I shut it down because I was just like, guys, all you are doing are perpetuating the, the um, the old shit that doesn't work anymore. And I shut that shit down. Like two years ago. I was like, boom, I closed. I was like, yeah, I'm burning this down. Free Facebook groups, free community, Facebook groups for dog owners of your local area. You have to be the, okay, I'm going to say this with a lot of love because I've seen this happen also with my clients that have paid VIP members of their Facebook group because it does work. It does work, right? It does, it does. And it's actually a really good element of an online fusion program. However, if you are spending so much time in a free group, policing it, promoting your services, even if it's your own group, your time is better spent on marketing strategies like I'm giving you tonight, connecting organic, low cost marketing, reproving your website, actually connecting with people on the phone and you know, redesigning how you, you know, how you talk to your leads on thumbtack and bark and stuff like that and actually thinking about creating a higher end innovative program that you can eventually sell into people as Beta testers. So be very cautious if you're struggling with your time and you're consistently doing stuff and it's like it's not working as an entrepreneur, you should not be doing that. You should not be spending hours doing this type of shit. Delegate that out if you can, but just be very careful, be very careful of where you spend your time. Because if you're going back and forth with somebody on a Facebook group about your services and they're just asking how much, and you really just kind of put it out there, chances are they're not going to buy from you. Chances are if they do buy from you, it's going to be a one off session and it's not gonna have a massive return on your investment. Okay, cool. So the next one I'm going to move on here is I advertised on Yelp. Great. Cool. What was your advertisement? Because again, it goes back to words. It goes back to knowing your niche. It goes back into connection and it goes back into tying their emotional, um, needs with their dog. It ties into the lodge, Colton, the tangible results are going to get, again, marketing is an art form and it is a science. All these things that you're doing, especially a lot of dog trainers doing these are just different channels that are just distributing your marketing messaging and words matter guys. And having a sales process because you can have, you can spend$20 million a month on marketing channels through all these things that this person has tried and has not really seen results on. But if you don't have a sales process to follow up, to connect, to nurture your prospects. I mean you can't see me right now, but I'm like throwing my hand. I'm doing that Emoji with the shrug like the girl hands up. Like you might as well not be doing it because you have to have a sales process. Same thing with Google ads. I mean Google ads are actually pretty kick ass and if Facebook or Instagram ever goes down, I'm in Google. Ads are going to be where it's worth PPCs price per clicks, but again, have to have the messaging tied in. You have to have a clear campaign objective. You have to have them into a sales process and a nurture sequence. All right. Wow. That was a lot for a listener question. I hope you guys all took amazing. And again, guys, it's, this is not to sh I do not shame owners. Like I love business owners. Like that's my jam. And I want to help you out. So I hope you guys took a lot of notes on this episode and I love your fucking feedback on this shit. If this story of this amazing dog trainer in north South Carolina Con thinking north colleagues, that's where I'm at right now. But if this story resonates with you, fucking share it. Share these steps guys, and let's disrupt the Matrix. Oh my God, that sounds so conspiracy theory like matrix, but the typical thought patterns. And the thing is guys, the struggle bus does not need to be real. Y'All. The struggle bus is not needs to be real. There is no right of passage to struggle as an entrepreneur. The first time you're in the dog industry, the first time you are coming out as a dog walker or pet sitter, you all can have businesses that boom. But the thing is, again, your failures, your sidesteps, you know, your stumbles. Do not define you as a fuck up or, or you know somebody who's failed. All right guys, this was a pretty epic episode if I do say so myself. So again, shoot me a message, shoot me your questions. I have a ton piled up, but if this resonated with you, if you have a question often this episode, let me know. I'll talk to you all later. Cheers. Bye.
Speaker 1:Hey there. Thank you for listening to another bad-ass episode of my Jiro Dog Business. If you haven't already subscribed, what are you waiting for? Oh my God, go and subscribe now so you don't miss out on any of our content packed Doug business jam sessions plus special offers that I'm gonna only be sharing with my amazing Doug Business Entrepreneurial podcast listeners. Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a five star kick ass review. So more amazing dog business owners just like yourself can find us and start to transform and disrupt their businesses and their lives unapologetically. And if you feel so inclined, feel free to tag me on Instagram with a screenshot of this episode and Holler at your girl at dog Walker. Coach, you can find me dog walker, coach, and I'll pop up and I'll give you a special shout out. All right guys, till next time. Bye.[inaudible].