Dog training business coaching
Contact us
Expert dog training business coaching
Contact us

Bob

Fire Fast

· ·

If you’ve had any experience as an employer, you know that not every hire turns out to be a gem. Given the time put into the hiring and training process, these mismatches can be very disappointing. But if you’re tempted to hold on to a subpar employee and simply see if things get better, don’t.

The old adage “Hire slow and fire fast” holds some real business wisdom. Yes, it takes time to find and train a new person. Yes, it plays havoc with the schedule to be down a staff member. Sure, the employee in question may have some bright spots and good skill sets. But the longer you labor on with a poor fit, the more time and money you lose—and you risk larger damage to your business, too. No one is irreplaceable, and the sooner you take action the sooner the situation will be behind you.

How to know when it’s time to fire? Here are six telltale signs to move on:

The employee is negatively affecting schedules
Got a staff member who consistently arrives late, frequently calls in sick or asks for shift changes, or even fails to show? You probably find yourself looking for schedule workarounds, worrying about assigning her key spots like opening your daycare facility, or whether she’ll show on time for a pet sit or dog walk. It’s time to move on.

The employee is creating more work for others
Whether it’s due to showing inconsistently or slow, lackadaisical, or inefficient work when he does show, if you know a particular hire is making more work for others—yourself or staff—it’s time to move on. In addition to wasting money, leaving the situation as-is risks larger problems, like a dip in staff morale.

The employee is negatively affecting staff morale
Which brings us to one of the biggest reasons to fire fast. Whether for the reasons above or due to a negative attitude toward the work, work in general, you, or your policies, a bad apple really can spoil the whole bunch. We’ve seen far too many dogbiz clients hold on to a challenging employee to the point of having to not only replace that person, but several other staff members who had previously been great workers. A negative attitude can be contagious—it only takes one strong personality to change the culture of a company for good or worse. Move on fast.

The employee is negatively affecting your work experience
Your morale matters, too. If you find yourself stressed by the frustration of dealing with a difficult employee, about what’s not getting done or not getting done well, about confrontation or the potential for it, it’s time to move on. One of the best parts of owning a business is not having to work with people you don’t want to work with—take full advantage of this.

You’re getting complaints from clients
You are the core of your business, but every experience a client has with your company—especially including interactions with staff—influence how they view your business. Risking your clientele and your reputation to avoid the hassle of firing an employee is not worth it. If you’re receiving complaints, or you see interactions with clients you think are below your standards, move the employee to a non-interaction role if that’s possible, or move on.

You’re even vaguely worried about the well being of dogs
We’ve saved this point for last because it probably goes without saying. If you have an employee who is failing to follow safety protocols, to keep her eyes on the dogs instead of her cell phone, to be slow to step in proactively to help dogs avoid conflict, or who is interacting with dogs inappropriately in any way, it is definitely time to move on.

How fast is fast?
We’re not suggesting you fire a new employee the first time they slip up (with the exception of clearly inappropriate interactions with dogs). But once you’ve identified a negative pattern, communicated the pattern and your positive expectations to the employee (being sure to document this communication in writing and have the employee sign it), and given the staff member an opportunity to rise to the occasion, be ready to take action. Be ready to reinforce improvements—and to move on quickly if the pattern continues.

When it’s time, follow the guidelines provided by any legislation in your state that governs letting employees go to make sure you have the proper documentation in place. If you currently have staff or think you may be headed in that direction, research your state’s rules now if you don’t already know them to avoid any delay when you realize you’ve got a mismatch on your hands.

A Successful Attitude = Success

· ·

Attitude is a key component of success. All the old cliches apply: Whether you approach your business goals with a can-do attitude or Eyore’s certainty of doom matters. Whether you view a class with four students as a glass-half-full victory with room for improvement or a glass-half-empty failure will make a difference in how—or whether—you take action. And business success requires strong, bold, confident action.

Success is a self-fulfilling prophecy—George Washington was fond of pointing this out—and so is failure. To some extent, your belief in your business’ outcomes will direct its reality.

Be confident
Confidence sells. People—and that includes potential clients—are attracted to people and businesses that appear successful. You may not feel the confidence yet; that’s okay. What’s important is to take confident action until you do.

  • Don’t undersell yourself by setting your rates low or offering large or too many discounts.
  • Don’t apologize for your rates or for charging for your invaluable services, and don’t wait to hear what a potential client thinks about your rates, either. Simply tell people what you charge and then keep talking. Tell them how you work, what makes you different, what kinds of outcomes they can look forward to.
  • Give clients a choice of pre-determined appointments. Never ask “When is good for you?” Professionals have set appointment times and stick to them. It’s better for efficiency, and letting others dictate your schedule makes you appear un-busy and too eager for work.
  • Remember to actually sell your service. They contacted you—they’re interested; don’t be shy about moving the conversation to its logical conclusion. Tell a potential client how you can help and then suggest scheduling an appointment. Don’t wait for the client to make the first move.

Don’t fear failure
Failure is a part of business as much as it is a part of life. You can’t avoid it entirely, but you can use disappointments to your advantage if you’re willing to approach them differently. As Samuel Beckett once said, we need to learn to fail better.

When something doesn’t go as we hoped, it’s tempting to throw up our hands, grab at the first available explanation, and submit to defeat. But business success is partly about cultivating failures, using them to find a winning formula. How you tackle problems and disappointments will in large part determine the outcome of your business. There’s a telling gap between deciding that “It’ll never work” and saying to yourself, “Huh, that didn’t work. Okay, then, what’s my plan?”

Look at the big picture
The first step is teaching yourself to see the big picture. Research shows that we humans are inept at big-picture thinking. We tend to be swayed by the current moment’s impressions. We feel business is thriving when we’ve recently added a couple of new clients, and are convinced we’re going to crash and burn when a day or two go by without a call. To avoid this emotional roller coaster, track data so you know what’s really happening. Whether or not you got calls today is less important than whether the number of calls this month indicates growth, particularly from the same month last year. When you’re feeling down, let the data give you a reality check. Are you really failing or just having a slow week?

Be patient
Patience plays an important role in assessing failure and success. In our business consulting work at dog*tec we sometimes see a tendency to give up too soon. But success takes time. When you’re in start-up mode or launching a new service or attempting to grow, you can’t measure results in weeks or even, in most cases, a few months. A new marketing push can easily take six months or more to show results. And a new service takes time to catch on.

If you get edgy too soon, it’s easy to make knee-jerk decisions like lowering rates or ending an “unsuccessful” marketing project—exactly the kinds of decisions that can cause the failure we fear. You want such decisions to be based on the big-picture data instead of immediate, emotion-fueled impressions.

Assess your failures
Before you give up on something, assess your perceived failure and create a plan of action. Ask yourself:

1.     What was my original goal for this service/ marketing project/ business, etc? (If you can’t answer this question, that could be part of the problem. Always plan your endeavors around a set of goals to give you a strong basis for your decision making.)

For example, let’s say a trainer has launched a new class and her goal was to have eight students in the first section. Let’s say for this example that when the day comes, she has four registrations.

2.     What evidence is there of success? Of failure?

In our class example, is the evidence of success the four students she has, or is the four students she doesn’t have evidence of failure? I’d count the four registrations as a success with a call-to-action for improvement.

3.     What have I done so far to promote success for this goal?

She’s posted the class on her website and included it in her last email newsletter to clients.

4.     What are my hypotheses about why it is or isn’t working? And what evidence do I have for these?

Her hypotheses might include:

— Not giving the project enough time. In this case, she only posted the class four weeks ago. That’s not a lot of time for word of a new service
to get around.

— Not enough marketing. The only folks who know about the class are existing clients and anyone who happened upon her site. She’s not done
anything to get the word out more broadly. And she’s not done anything to remind the people she did tell. Typically people need to be
confronted with an opportunity multiple times before they take action.

— No interest in the class. I’d say it’s too early to make that call. Without more marketing and time there’s no way to judge whether there will
be an interest in the class.

— Bad timing. She’s scheduled the new class in her most popular Saturday time slot, so that seems unlikely.

— Class is too expensive. She’s priced it the same as her other offerings, so this probably isn’t the problem.

5.     What are my options for action? How do each of these options support my original goals for this project, and/or my general business goals and how I want to be perceived by potential clients?

Her options include giving up, lowering the cost, or stepping up the marketing for the class.

Take action
Looking at your answers to these questions, decide what you’ll do. Is it time to tweak the original project? Time to increase your marketing efforts? Sit tight and give it a bit more time? Always take these options seriously before considering scrapping an idea. Increasing marketing is the winning answer for our class example, to be sure. There’s no evidence that the class is too expensive, and it’s far too early to give up.

But sometimes it really is time to let a project go; not everything we try will be wildly successful. When that happens, turn your attention immediately to the next idea. What have you learned from this failure to help your next endeavor meet with success?

Failure doesn’t have to carry the negative connotations we associate with it. It should be something to be expected. Not in a fatalistic, “this will never work” way, but just as a natural part of risk taking, of living. Learning to embrace failure as a stepping stone to success not only leads to that success—it also makes getting there a whole lot more comfortable.

Focus on your own business
It’s a fatal error to spend more time worrying about what the competition is doing than worrying about what you’re doing yourself. You really can’t do much about others anyway. So put your energy toward being the best at what you do. Innovate. Add new services or find ways to improve the ones you offer. Take time to get better at sales. Recommit to actively marketing your business. In other words, focus on your own success. Dog pros who fret over the competition generally fall behind it. Dog pros who cultivate collegial relationships with others, acting from a place of confidence and sincerity, tend to be more successful.

Make lemonade
An article about success and failure wouldn’t be complete without the old lemonade cliché. Business success requires know-how and skill, but these things can be learned. We’ve seen that repeatedly over the years working with dogbiz clients. But you can’t leave attitude out of the equation. A belief in yourself and your ability to succeed is a key component, too. An ability to face disappointments head-on as learning opportunities is vital. In short, if you can train yourself to see lemonade instead of lemons you’re already halfway there.

Better Marketing Together

· ·

Dog businesses do better when they band together. Our most successful dog pro clients tend to view their competition as colleagues and allies rather than enemies. Their greater success is due partly to finding ways to support each others’ businesses. This approach also means less time wasted worrying about what others are doing, leaving more energy for one’s own business.stronger together

There are many ways to band with other dog pros, from loose relationships to formal ones. Here are just a few ideas.

Marketing partnerships
Marketing partnerships allow two or more businesses serving the same general area to pool money, time, and talent to make a bigger marketing splash.

Most dog business owners face a number of marketing challenges. Where will the time come from? What should I do to market my business? What if I don’t have all the skill sets I need? Most dog pros feel uncertain and anxious about marketing. And when it comes to money-based marketing like advertising, most don’t have budgets big enough to make their efforts worthwhile. Banding with colleagues can take a lot of pressure off. Why should several businesses struggle with these things on their own? Why not share resources and get more from the process?

Members of a marketing partnership might represent a selection of different service businesses—say a trainer, a pet sitter, a dog walker, a daycare, for example, who market their businesses together around a shared concept of excellent customer service or elevated expertise. Or they can be a collection of businesses all offering the same service. For example, a group of positive reinforcement-based trainers banding together to market that concept and, in the process, themselves. The businesses may all serve the same area or they might be spread out a bit, serving a collection of contiguous counties or towns.

The term ‘partnership’ is used loosely here—it’s not a legal entity relationship. Each member is a separate business owner; they don’t own a business together. But a marketing partnership should operate under a contract that governs what each member is obligated to contribute, be that funds or time or particular tasks, and at what amount and frequency. There should also be a clear process for making joint decisions about marketing directions, projects, and the use of any funds.

Referral networks
This is marketing partnership lite. Rather than marketing together, members of a referral network pledge to send each other business.

A network might have exclusive rules, similar to the Business Network International (BNI) model wherein only one company from each service category is allowed to join. For example, one trainer, one boarding facility, one dog walker, one groomer, etc. Or it may be all-inclusive, with as many pet sitters and trainers as care to join. A network may also apply certain rules, such as a positive reinforcement-only policy, good standing with the local Chamber of Commerce, or a requirement for active participation in the network.

Once the network is in place, members meet on a regular basis (usually monthly) to get to know each other, learn about each members’ services, exchange marketing materials to share with clients, and share ideas about how to give effective referrals.

Local associations
We’re all aware of the large national associations, such as APDT, IAABC, NAPPS, PCSA, APSE, just to name a very few. But I’m often surprised by how many dog pros don’t know about local associations operating in their own area. I’ve come across many a local trainers’ group, pet sitters’ group, dog walkers’ group. These small collections of dog pros support each other in many ways.

Some associations actively market themselves, thereby helping to elevate the marketing of each member business. Some provide opportunities to share service, marketing, and dog care advice. Some associations use dues to bring in continuing education or professional development speakers. And some members simply find support in being able to get together monthly with colleagues to trade stories and talk with people who understand what it’s like to be a trainer or a dog walker or to run a dog daycare.

Online groups
Joining the larger national conversation is well worthwhile, too. Many of the national associations have Facebook groups and other online forums to join. And there are an endless variety of Facebook groups to choose from. You can also respond to blog posts on sites like DogStarDaily.com, join forums on sites like Dogwise.com, or dog-related groups on sites like LinkedIn.

There are limitless ways to get yourself in touch with other dog professionals for support, ideas, and networking opportunities.

When others won’t play nice
If there aren’t already local partnerships, networks, or associations in your area, it may be up to you to start them. In some locations that will be relatively easy. But we know from our business consulting work around the country that there are areas in which the prevailing business culture is to regard other dog pros as competition to be warily avoided. If you’re hoping to band with others in your area but find yourself getting the cold shoulder, don’t give up.

Look for ways to keep the dialogue going, even if it’s painfully one-sided at first. Email your competitors and other local dog businesses to share news of a speaker coming to town (and do they want to carpool?), or a cool article you found, or a national conference (anyone want to share a hotel room?), or a funny dog-related You-Tube video. Extend an invitation to lunch, with no agenda attached. Just keep playing nice until, finally, you break down their defenses and competitors become colleagues. You won’t win everyone over. But there are bound to be other dog pros in your community pining for connection, too. And when you find them, you’ll all do better for it.

Handling Seasonal Slowdowns

· ·

Ugh, those seasonal ups and downs! Take the holidays, for example. For some of you—trainers in particular—they usually mean heading into a seasonal slowdown. And for others—pet sitters and boarding facilities come to mind—they mean gearing up for a big ride. Then, after the holidays, trainers get the post-holiday calls as dog guardians decide that jumping on elderly aunts is a no-no and the Christmas puppies start to seem less cute. And sitters and boarding facilities face their own post-holiday slump.

Whenever your slowdown occurs, use the time productively to lessen the impact of the next one.

Market, market, market
The trick is to market consistently year-round. But if that hasn’t happened, use your unwanted free time to jump on it for next year. Choose marketing projects and begin working on them.

When things start to pick up, set aside time each week to continue your progress. It’s a mistake to let your marketing fall off when you’re flush with work—almost a guarantee that there will be a next slowdown.

Some seasonal slumps are predictable. For example, trainers should start marketing holiday-based services in the fall, around October. Offer private holiday prep packages or classes that focus on polite greeting of guests, going to your bed to stay while the ham is cooked and eaten, and counter surfing tips to avoid the turkey going to the dogs. Or perhaps board and train for that new Christmas puppy to get him out from underfoot during the holiday festivities.

Hit the reset button
A slow period is a great time to review and revise. Are your policies and procedures serving you as well as they should? Are your rates just right? And what about your schedule? Are you happy with how your time is being allotted? A periodic review of these things is part of keeping any business healthy.

Catch up
When you own a business there’s no such thing as being caught up; there’s always something to be done. But actually being behind—on paperwork, accounting, client and potential client follow-ups, cleaning and organizing, professional reading—causes stress, inefficiency, and lost revenue and opportunities.

It’s common to wish for time to get caught up when we’re busy. And though it’s far from ideal to get that time because of a slow business period, why not take advantage?

Innovate
While things are quiet do some thinking about what you’re offering. Are there new or additional services, or improvements to existing ones, that might serve your clients better? Are there services that might even reduce the severity of your next slowdown?

For example, dog walkers in cold areas can reduce winter business losses by offering indoor activity services consisting of games and puzzle toys and work-to-eat programs. Pet sitters might add daily dog walking to create a steady, reliable source of income underneath the seasonal nature of sitting. Trainers might add convenient holiday and summer board-and-train or day-training programs.

In short, what can you do for clients to fill a need that’s not currently being met?

Enjoy some downtime
Yep. Take it while it’s there. Use your downtime productively, but give yourself permission to sneak off to the movies, too. You’ll be that much more ready to step into the fray when things get busy again.

The Business of Classes

· ·

Get the keys to a successful dog training class business. Gina Phairas of dog*tec addresses both the curriculum and business sides of a thriving class program. Learn to prepare your clients for real-world success outside the classroom, inspire rampant word of mouth, successfully handle disparate skill and experience levels (human and canine!), create a calm and focused learning environment, and keep students coming back through graduation and into the next class.

May 17 in Accord, NY.

This seminar is hosted by Dogs of Course. Register now.

What will you learn?

Effective curriculum design and good business practices are the one-two punch needed for a successful class business. Gina will cover the core principles of both.

Curriculum

Without curriculum that makes students’ lives with their dogs outside the classroom easier, there is no word of mouth and no repeat business. This presentation will explore what makes great curriculum. We’ll discuss the notions of goal-based curriculum development, backwards planning, and constructivist theory, which provides a way of thinking about teaching humans complex concepts and skills– and a way of translating what happens in the classroom to the real world outside of it. Put an end to hearing, “He only behaves in class!” And put an end to struggling with disparate skill and experience levels– human and canine.

Business Practices

Gina will share successful tips and strategies for:

  • Marketing your classes cheaply and effectively
  • Getting your pricing strategy just right
  • Increasing repeat business

Who’s Teaching?

Gina Phairas, BSc Comms, CTC

Gina is one of the forces behind dog*tec. A former instructor at the San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers, where she helped trainers learn to teach successful classes, Gina develops products that help trainers succeed in their businesses and works one-on-one with dog pros as a business and case coach. She is a dynamic speaker and gifted teacher who has taught workshops across the country. Gina previously ran a successful dog training business of her own and consulted nationally for shelters and rescue groups.

Sign up now.