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Bob

Good Policies Save Money

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Running a business without effective policies is like driving a car without oil. The car—or your business—runs less and less effectively until, finally, it breaks down. To avoid spending time on the side of the road, here are some tips to tune up your policies.

Scheduling Policy
Set your schedule up for success. “What time is good for you?” is a question to avoid at all costs. Though your intent may be to be accommodating and customer-centric, inviting clients to dictate your schedule leads to an inefficient, unpredictable calendar. Appointments often end up scattered throughout the day, with small batches of time in-between that are difficult to use productively. Instead, cluster your appointments to leave larger blocks of time open for business development and marketing—for working on the business—and for your own personal use.

Asking clients what time is good for them also implies that your schedule is wide open, carrying the subtle implication that your business is slow. Consciously or subconsciously most consumers are drawn to businesses that are already successful—don’t inadvertently signal that yours is otherwise.

Finally, one key to successful training is building a strong, effective client-trainer relationship in which the client acknowledges the trainer’s expertise and status as a professional. Without this it is difficult to gain client trust and compliance regarding methodology and specific training advice. There are many small moments in which we build or erode this relationship. Scheduling is one of them. Giving clients set appointment times to choose from not only stabilizes your schedule, it conveys the value of your time as a professional service provider.

Lest I be misunderstood, respecting clients and providing excellent, top-notch, sincere customer service is of utmost value to your business and your professionalism. But there are many ways to do this without compromising your ability to run your business while also having time to actively grow it and to attend to your life outside of work. Good client service does not mean being accommodating to the point of inefficiency or inadvertently undermining your professional status.

Payment Policy
Most trainers require payment up front and in general that’s good practice. Taking credit cards, particularly if you offer private training packages, can make your services more easily available to clients when they need them. Payment plans can also help when used carefully. Here are a few rules to offer help without getting burned:

1.    Require a credit card for payment plans.
2.    Work with your client to pre-set the dates and payment amounts, and build an authorization into your contract so that you can automatically make the deductions on the agreed-upon dates. This saves you and your client multiple collections conversations, keeps the focus on the training, and ensures you’re paid on time.
3.    Your contract should stipulate clearly—and be sure to cover this verbally, too—that the client is committing to the entire training plan. This discourages the client, experiencing improvement in their dog’s behavior part way into the training process, from deciding to wrap up early. It’s not only in your business interest to avoid this, but serves the client and dog as well—an uncompleted training plan rarely delivers lasting results.

Cancellation Policy
Trainers often operate with no cancellation policy, or with one that stipulates a certain amount of notice required for calling off an appointment. But when a client’s week starts to feel too busy and they look around for something to jettison from their schedule, it shouldn’t be dog training. Training requires consistency and commitment. Your cancellation policy should not imply that it’s okay to put training off if you just call ahead. If you put a package together for a client, deciding that their goals required 6 sessions, for example, then everyone loses if only 5 sessions occur.

You also need to protect your finances. You have a limited number of paid hours in your schedule—if you take, for example, 10 clients a week, a single cancellation represents 10% of your income.

In order to keep your income intact and to help clients create the consistency they need to achieve their training goals, consider a no cancellation policy in which cancellations are automatically charged (this should be in your contract and explained to clients) and then rescheduled. This way clients get the full complement of sessions, dogs benefit from the completion of a training plan, and you enjoy the satisfaction a job completed, as well as your full income potential.

Policies for Now and Later
A final rule of thumb—create policies you can grow into. If you’re not currently as busy as you intend to be, your policies don’t need to reflect this. Design them to take care of you when you are busy. In the meantime, strong policies will save you money and time. And if you learn to use and enforce them now you’ll be ahead of the game when your schedule is full.

The Case for Day Training

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We trainers often feel frustrated by unfinished cases and low client compliance—endemic issues in our industry—leading us to describe owners as lazy, uncommitted, unskilled, uncaring, cheap. Alternately, we internalize the failure and blame poor results on our own shortcomings. Neither explanation is fair nor helpful. We have learned to stop blaming the dog and just get on with training him. It’s time to leave behind feeling guilty and reproaching clients, pinpoint the true problems, and focus on solutions.

day trainingCoaching is the Culprit
The heart of the trouble is our coaching approach, our religious insistence on training people to train their own dogs. The concept sounds so right—of course owners should train their dogs, they’re the ones who live with them! But let’s step back and consider the practicalities of the idea and re-examine what our clients really need to know to live successfully with their dogs.

First, let me be perfectly clear: Anyone who knows my work in public class curriculum development and teacher instruction knows I’m adamant about giving owners the skills and knowledge to succeed at home and out in the world on their own. I am not advocating a return to past ages where we took dogs into kennels for two weeks and returned them ‘trained.’ I am advocating an approach that takes into account the realities of clients’ lives.

Why Coaching Fails Us
Coaching—most often a one-hour session once per week in which the trainer instructs and coaches the client on the training they are to do on their own in the intervening week—places too great a burden on the dog guardian. Yes, they should take responsibility for the animals they have brought into their homes. Yes, it would be ideal if they were to become enthusiastic hobby trainers. But in reality most owners lack the skills needed to do much of what we ask of them in an effective and expedient way. Nor are they interested in acquiring those skills. Clients don’t want to be dog trainers, that’s not why they call you. They’re often asked to form entirely new routines—to add time into an already crowded schedule of obligations, to learn and incorporate very different ways of interacting with their dogs, to do things in ways opposite to their habits. If you’ve ever changed a routine yourself or read data about humans and habits you’re aware of the magnitude of such a request and the low success rate to expect. For the client the efforts often result in embarrassment or feelings of failure. No one wants to tell the trainer they haven’t done their homework. Some clients cancel or postpone appointments to avoid it.

Other guardians turn their frustration on the trainer or the training methodology—it’s not working, ergo the trainer is incompetent or this positive humbug doesn’t work. It certainly can appear so. We’ve all heard the allegation that positive reinforcement is slow. Which is untrue—in skilled hands positive training is elegant, effective, and swift. But our clients’ hands are not skilled. In their hands, with our weekly coaching, progress must feel slow indeed. And a lack of progress dampens motivation for humans just as it does for dogs. Nobody wants to play a losing game.

Your Livelihood—And Everyone’s Reputation
Coaching in most cases is a lose-lose-lose proposition. It frustrates owners, leaves dogs without the help they need, and negatively affects trainers and the training profession. We argue for professional status while claiming we can teach clients to do the work themselves in 60-minute sessions once a week. If dog training is indeed so easy, why all the money and time spent on dog trainer schools, books, DVDs, mentoring, and certification exams? What other profession surrenders authority in such a way? Imagine a lawyer handing over case notes and encouraging you to argue your own case because, after all, you’re the one going to prison if it doesn’t work. It’s no surprise that we encounter clients who believe they know more than we do or who argue with us over methodology—we do not behave as though we hold the professional knowledge and skill set that we each work so hard to attain.

Coaching is bad business. Money is lost every time a case—obedience or behavior—is left unfinished, and poor word of mouth follows. When training isn’t finished old behaviors eventually resurface and new ones inevitably go on the decline, prompting clients to say “Well, we hired a trainer and it sort of worked for a while, but he’s still jumping all over people,” instead of “We worked with an amazing trainer, it’s completely changed our lives. Let me get you her number!”

Coaching is hard to sell. “We train you to train your dog!” is a terrible marketing message. People don’t want to pay money to be shown all the work they themselves need to do. Other common lines are “We’ll improve your relationship with your dog” and “We’ll teach you to understand your dog so you can give him what he needs.” Terrific marketing if your audience is other positive reinforcement dog trainers. But most owners don’t call a trainer because they’re concerned about their relationship with their dog or because they want to hear that everything going wrong is their fault—if they just understood the dog and provided properly for him everything would be fine. They call trainers because they have one of two problems—either the dog is doing something they don’t like or not doing what they want. And without an effective marketing message centered around solutions we’ll never have the opportunity to help improve those relationships and get dogs some understanding. Compulsion trainers, franchise chains, and TV shows compel so many owners not because guardians want to harm their dogs, but because these training outfits know how to market—they understand the desire for easy, swift resolutions.

Alternatives to Coaching
Can we offer clients an ‘easy’ button? Of course not. But we can do better than offering to teach them to do all the work themselves. We’re professional dog trainers, after all—it’s high time we started training some dogs.

One way is day training. The trainer trains the dog in the owner’s home then teaches the client the necessary skills to maintain the training for the long haul. A typical day-training program consists of an initial consult and then a number of weeks (determined by the trainer based on the needs and goals of the case) in which the trainer sees the dog several times, wrapping up each week with a transition session to show the client what Fido has learned and to ‘proof’ or transfer the training to the owners, including teaching them how to ask for and reinforce new behaviors, and what to do if they don’t get a requested behavior or if they experience an unwanted one popping back up. After the designated number of weeks, the package will also include some number (usually 1 to 3) follow-up sessions scheduled as needed to ensure long-term success.

On a side note: Don’t rule out board & train. Board & train has had a bad reputation among many positive reinforcement trainers for historical and philosophical reasons, but with skillful transitions and follow-ups built into board & train packages this can be an effective and lucrative approach as well. And though I share some trainers’ affront that owners would, as one trainer recently put it to me, “shove their dog off to a stranger as if it were a car that needed repair,” some owners really do find themselves at wits end and unable to cope. If you can train someone’s dogs and then show her how to protect that training, the relationship between dog and owner, and the way the owner feels about her dog, is likely to greatly improve. The dog can only benefit from that.

Day Training: A Triple Win
Day training sets up owners, dogs, and trainers to win. Cases are seen through to full conclusion—owners reach their goals, trainers experience the satisfaction of a completed case, and dogs get the help they need. The results owners witness in the transition session at the end of the first week translate into high levels of compliance. Why? Learning maintenance skills is far easier than training from the ground up because the dog already knows his part and the clients are strongly motivated to protect the progress they’re so delighted to see. Such achievements make buy-in for methodology easier to get. Many clients also love the convenience of having the training done during the day while they’re at work.

Day training is easier to market. You’re now able to offer convenience, expediency, and customized solutions for busy lives, all hot selling points in today’s marketplace. As one dogbiz client recently said to me, “It’s a lot easier to ask for money—and clients are much happier to give it—when I can offer to do the training for them!” Another advantage is that you need far fewer clients when you day train. Because each owner means an average of four sessions per week, day training earns you the same amount of money with roughly one quarter of the clients.

Coaching still has its place, primarily for issues demanding high levels of management such as housetraining, destruction, counter surfing, and the like. Coaching may also be necessary in cases where a dog is too fearful to work for you, at least until enough of a relationship can be built with the dog to allow a switch to day training.

Personal Trainer vs. Dog Trainer
R+ trainers need to move away from being personal trainers shouting words of encouragement while clients struggle under the weight of training their own dogs. It’s time to be dog trainers, doing the work that trainers are called for, hired to do, and for which they have the professional knowledge and skills. To do so is kind to owners, good for dogs, and a huge relief and opportunity for dog trainers. Strong teaching and people skills remain critical to success, yes, but what a joy to get to train dogs, see owners meet their goals, and know that you’re improving the quality of dogs’ lives, all while expanding your own income potential.

 

If you’d like to learn how to add day training services to your biz, check out dogbiz University’s Mastering Your Day Training course.

Dog Walking For a Living

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Man walking a golden retriever dog on leash. Gazing outside from behind the dreary landscape of our desks, few are the people who can say they’ve never given a thought to a career change that involved working outside–river guide, perhaps, or a rancher or deckhand on a luxury liner. For many dog lovers, those rosy-tinged, outdoorsy dreams concern dog walking. A life of easy days, surrounded by nature and happy pooches—but in reality, there’s much more to the job.

dogbiz runs a certification program for dog walkers, called the Dog Walking Academy, and over the years we have seen people from every thinkable vocation—lawyers and computer programmers, sales reps and accountants, nurses and writers, ex-military personnel and classical musicians—give up their previous, often very successful, careers to walk other people’s dogs. And yes, if you love dogs and worship the outdoors, if you yearn to be your own boss and don’t mind being your own office manager, marketing exec, and customer service representative to boot, dog walking just might be for you. That said, if it seems as easy as slapping a leash on a few dogs and going for a stroll you’ll likely be surprised.

In today’s densely populated, greatly regulated, and litigious world, in which people’s pets are integral to the family like never before, good, safe dog walking demands technical skill, physical stamina, and in-depth knowledge of everything from dog behavior and pack management to canine first aid and trail etiquette.

There are advantages, of course. The freedom, for one thing—a dog walker starts her day at whatever time suits her and doesn’t have to dress up for work. For another, there’s the daily shower of love. In each house on his route, a dog walker is greeted by his charges with an enthusiasm quite unequaled by anything known in the corporate world. And for the type of person best suited for dog walking, the time on the sidewalk or trail—or at the beach or dog park—is what makes it all worthwhile. Aside from the obvious physical and mental health benefits of fresh air, exercise, and being in a tranquil natural setting for hours every day, some walkers talk of the sheer pleasure of watching dogs sniff and romp. For anyone with an interest in dog behavior, dog walking is fertile study ground, whether it’s a single leashed dog navigating a busy street or unconstrained play and group interaction on a trail far from the city center.

That, however, bring us to what dog walkers often rank as the worst part of the job: the driving. The grind of going from house to house to collect dogs is fine at the outset, but it wears you down over time—how many happy taxi drivers have you met in your life? Most dog walkers keep the driving to a minimum by choosing clients within a limited geographical area and timing their driving cycles to avoid heavy traffic. Still, if you’re considering dog walking as a career, expect to spend at least as much time in the car as on the sidewalk or trail.

If traffic is impossible to control, so is the weather, and as with any outdoor work, bad weather brings its own set of trials for dog walkers. Soaked, muddy dogs have to be cleaned up before they can be let back into their homes, so count toweling off and possibly hosing down each dog plus washing loads of dirty towels as part of the job, too. And finally there’s the loneliness inherent in a job that comprises minimal human contact.

These are the pros and cons most people juggle when they consider dog walking. Freedom, exercise, and doggie love are the major pluses, and too much driving, occasional bad weather, and scant human contact are the minuses. That, however, is not all there is to dog walking. First of all, it is a business like any other and as such it involves paperwork, customer service, marketing, accounting, and so on, all of which the walker has to find time for outside of the hours he or she spends walking and driving. Secondly, it is a common misconception that dog walking is easy. It might be, if you are walking two arthritic dachshunds that you know well, but that won’t pay the rent. Or even buy the movie tickets.

No doubt this fallacy stems from the humble beginnings of dog walking. Once upon the 1950s and 60s we simply paid the kid down the street a dollar to get Fido out for us. As we have packed into tighter urban spaces, the risks involved in little Jimmy walking Fido no longer allow for that solution, but pet owners have even less time to walk Fido, who needs regular, vigorous exercise over and above what he can get in our smaller and smaller backyards. Hence the birth of professional dog walking. And a professional is what it takes to safely navigate dogs through densely populated areas and heavily used natural spaces.

As Mik Moeller, a Dog Walking Academy founder and instructor, puts it, “To manage and train a group of dogs–or even a single one– is much more difficult than people realize. Nobody is surprised that training a sled dog pack requires expert knowledge and skill. I don’t know why anyone thinks dog walking is different.”

Many walkers start out with just their outdoor dreams, a love of dogs, and the experience of walking their own pets, and soon realize the job is also about dog training and being responsible for the safety of someone else’s beloved companion. It’s about interacting with other sidewalk and trail users (some of whom are not dog lovers) in a responsible fashion and having the appropriate licenses and insurance, knowing when and how to say no to a client whose dog would fit badly into your particular group or service, knowing what to do if a fight breaks out on the trail or an unleashed dog rushes you on the street, structuring your route to cut down on driving time and gasoline consumption, and so on.

Despite the challenges, most dog walkers think they have the best job in the world. As one Dog Walking Academy graduate said, “My worst day on the trail is better than the best day in my old job.”

It is pointed out too rarely what a great contribution dog walkers make to the quality of life of the dogs they serve. Instead of being home alone all day, these dogs are given crucial exercise and social interactions, which isn’t just healthy, it keeps dogs safe and in permanent homes, too. Studies show that many dogs given up or returned to shelters are there because of normal expressions of boredom or lack of exercise: barking, chewing, excess energy, and so on. Dogs are doing their level best to fit into our twenty-first century lifestyles, the least we can do in return is to take their physical and mental health seriously. That means entrusting your pet to a professional.

If You Want to Walk Dogs

  • Get educated and certified. Learn dog body language, walk management techniques, building a strong recall, fight prevention and protocols, canine first aid, group composition, business practices, etc.
  • Start a legitimate business—get your business license and other necessary paperwork, obtain professional insurance, and research the rules for walking in your area.
  • Talk to other certified professional walkers to learn of their experiences and ask to join them for some hands-on experience.

Learn more about the dogbiz Dog Walking Academy.

Got Vets? Marketing Tips for Dog Pros

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Veterinarians have long been a dog pro’s most coveted referral source. In the early days, bringing by a basket of cookies from time to time and asking to keep some cards or brochures on the counter could assure a steady stream of new client calls. But those days are long gone.

Today’s dog training business requires a much more substantial and creative marketing plan. For one thing, as our industry has grown, dog owners have been flooded with doggie brochures, fliers, and ads. As a result, it’s become hard to get attention with such traditional means.

Vets’ responsiveness has changed, too. Many are more discerning than they used to be, wanting to know about the skills, education, and professionalism of the dog pros they refer to. Others are unwilling to play favorites, allowing anyone to leave materials in an increasing mountain of business cards and competing messages. And some just don’t want to be bothered by yet another dog pro bearing business cards and asking to take up their counter space.

There’s another challenge, too—Most of the dog pros we know would rather walk through a patch of stinging nettles than walk into a vet clinic to sing their own praises and ask for a favor. We don’t blame you; the sting of a nettle seems softer than the sting of rejection.

How, then, do you create lasting, effective referral relationships with veterinary clinics? (And how do you even get your foot in the door?)

Be Useful
The thought of asking a stranger to promote you can deter all but the most gregarious, and granted, that’s an awkward starting point. The trick is the turn the equation on its head: Instead of asking for help, give it. For example, a professional newsletter full of training tips (if you’re a trainer) and dog-related articles will be welcomed into most clinic waiting rooms. It’s a rich resource and reading material for clients asked to wait. No doubt the vet and office manager will be much happier with this than yet another brochure.

Trainers, you can also offer a behavioral wellness folder (these can be used at shelters and other places of adoption as well). This is a branded folder full of useful information for getting off on the right paw with a new puppy or dog. There might be advice for successfully surviving the first couple of weeks and setting routines for the future, some simple training tips, and of course information about your services. (Don’t forget house training and socialization tips for puppies!) Providing a sharp-looking folder with real information to local vet offices gives them a value-added product to offer each new client, as well as existing clients struggling with training or behavior issues.

Both of these marketing projects have a powerful edge over the old standbys. Because the newsletter changes seasonally, owners have a reason to pick it up each time they visit the office. It’s not just the same old brochure they’ve already read. And the folders are a serious endorsement—not just a card on the counter, these have been handed to the owner as part of their starter package, or in response to a behavior complaint. And because both the newsletter and folder have so much good information, neither are likely to be tossed out or misplaced, as happens with most cards and brochures. When a frustrated dog guardian decides six months down the road that she needs assistance, she’ll go to go looking for that packet or newsletter, not online or anywhere else.

The rich content and aesthetic delivery of these projects showcase your expertise and professionalism to veterinarians. The more they trust and respect you, the more often you will be actively referred to. No business card can convey such insight. In other words, offering such rich materials shows veterinarians who you are and what you’re made of so you don’t have to sing your own praises.

Stay Useful
Once you’ve gotten a toe in the door, don’t let the vets and their staff forget about you. Stop by on a regular basis to drop off additional newsletters and/or folders, or whatever other creative ideas you’ve pursued. Try to time your visits with the least busy time of day for each office, to increase the chance of saying hello.

Trainers, you can build on your budding relationship by offering to give short training presentations during staff meetings on topics of interest and usefulness to vet techs and office personnel, like reading canine body language or understanding aggression. This allows everyone to become more closely acquainted with you and to experience your expertise in action. Building this personal connection and experience makes staff more likely to remember to hand out your folders and actively refer people your way.

Reinforce Referrals
As mom always said, be sure to say ‘thank you.’ Skinner taught us that the more you thank people, the more there will be to be thankful for. And from Pavlov we know that the more we give, the happier people will be to see us.

But how to thank effectively? The oldest trick in the book is to bring along some goodies when you stop in to refresh your materials. This may be an old trick, but classical conditioning never goes out of style. As staff come to realize you always have goodies on hand, their conditioned emotional response to you will grow. IE, they’ll always be super glad to see you—which makes this marketing task easier and easier.

In our digital age, a hand-written thank you goes a long way. In the beginning, send cards thanking the office for each referral. Keep branded, stamped postcards on hand so you can practice good timing. As the referrals grow in number, send a monthly card to say how much you appreciate their ongoing support. Occasionally (2-4 times per year) spice things up by sending a food basket or pizza luncheon or something fun and dog-related. Another idea is small denomination gift cards to a café within walking distance of the clinic—one for each staff member. Changing what you send from time to time will keep the gesture from seeming routine or insincere.

Deepen the Relationship
As you receive more referrals from a particular office and the respect and trust grows, expand your relationship. One simple way to do this is to offer an additional marketing project. If you began with folders, add a newsletter. If you started with a newsletter, what other complimentary project might you pursue? With each product you put yourself in front of potential clients more frequently and give them additional opportunities to see how your services might benefit them. (And any new marketing project can be used in other venues, too.)

If you are ready to move to a new level, you might suggest a joint project. For example, if they have the space perhaps a vet’s office would be open to hosting a talk or even a series of community lectures. You gain additional marketing exposure and they get new potential clients coming in to their space. This is a great project for trainers, but other dog pros with speaking skills can take advantage, too. Dog walkers or daycare operators might offer a clever multi-media presentation on what they’ve learned hanging out with dogs all day, for example.

Trainers, if you want to go bigger, we’ve helped a number of dogbiz clients build in-office consultation services with local vet practices, where the trainer or behaviorist holds specific office hours in the clinic. This allows vets to go a step beyond referrals by actually scheduling an appointment with the trainer to take place right in their office. An owner might come in complaining about some disturbing growling, for example. After ruling out medical causes, the vet can recommend training, suggesting the owner make an appointment on the way out to see the resident trainer. You can’t get a better endorsement than that and, of course, the client is more likely to make the appointment in that moment than if they leave the office with a brochure or business card to think it over.

Getting Started
The question I am most often asked in regard to setting up referral relationships with vets is “How do I get started, who do I talk to?” First, choose and produce your marketing literature so you have something in hand. Go the extra mile to make sure everything is polished and professional. Hire a designer and writer. These costs will pay off.

Next, find out who in the office to talk to. Though it may be the veterinarian him or herself, or a lead vet tech, in most cases, it’s the office (or sometimes practice) manager who makes decisions about what to display in the waiting room and who gets to talk to the doctor. Call or email the office to set up an appointment with the office manager so you know you’ll be talking to him or her when they have time to focus. You might grease the wheels by sending samples of your material ahead of your meeting. Remember—you aren’t asking for anything; you have something of value to offer. You needn’t even use the word “referral”—those will come naturally from whatever literature you leave behind.

Sometimes you can go right to the vet. For example, if you have reason to take one of your animals in, bring samples of your materials along. Offer to leave them for her and ask to set up an appointment to talk about them. Or just make (and pay) for a clinic appointment, explaining when the vet comes in that you wanted a few moments to introduce yourself and chat with her, without eating into her valuable time.

Isn’t There Something Easier I Could Do?
If even these softer approaches make you nervous, here are a few more ideas for getting a foot in the door:

Take the idea of being useful to a new level with your print newsletter. Bring a copy of your newsletter into the clinic. Tell the vet or manager that you produce a free educational newsletter for dog lovers and you’d like to feature the clinic in your next edition. Do they have 10 minutes for a quick interview, or would they like to set up a better time? The likelihood that you’re turned down on this is extremely low!

Put your piece about the clinic on the front page of your next edition, and bring copies in a nice stand, along with some edible goodies. “Hello! Good to see you again! I’ve featured you right on the front page when you get a moment to look. How about here—is this a good spot to set these so everyone sees them?” (Or you can also offer multiple stands, one for each waiting room, if they prefer.) When you come in next quarter with your new edition, bring goodies again. “Just swapping in the new edition for you all, and thought I’d bring along an afternoon power snack!” The point here is to stop asking for favors and permission. You’re doing something for them, so take on that mindset and just cheerfully assume they’ll now be displaying your newsletter.

Here’s another idea for dog trainers: Share your behavior reports with vets. Ask your clients’ permission first, then send a copy of your assessment and recommendations to each client’s veterinarian as a professional courtesy. If they are already referring to you, they have all the more reason to continue. If you don’t yet have a relationship with the vet in question, he or she will gain familiarity with your expertise and professionalism through these reports, making it easier for you to bring your marketing materials in to the office. Many of our dogbiz clients have gotten referrals from doing this before they even took that next step, and some have had clinics contact them for referral materials as a result, too.

One last idea for all dog pros: You probably have loyal clients willing to help. If you have a client who raves about you to friends and family, or frequently tells you how awesome you are, they would probably be delighted to tell their vet about you and take a copy of your materials along on their next appointment. Next time they make you blush, just ask.

Strong veterinary referral relationships are a key ingredient to a successful dog service business, so it follows that building them takes—and is worth—a bit of work. If you’re serious about growing your dog business, make a commitment to start working on your vet referral relationships today.

 

Want some help or guidance building a steady marketing plan for your dog training or dog walking business?

 

The Well-Scheduled Dog Pro

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Structure abounds in our culture and we’re accustomed to its rule. From school and college and into the workplace, the majority of us rely throughout our lives on some form of exterior framework to keep us on track. Little wonder, then, that many small business owners struggle with the sudden lack of direction self-employment presents. At one end of the spectrum, entrepreneurs report feeling adrift. Faced with the myriad tasks that vie for attention every day, they scatter their efforts and accomplish only dribs and drabs, either because nothing actually has to be done right this moment, or because launching any non-routine project seems overwhelming. The well scheduled dog proopposite reaction, one that’s just as common, is workaholism. The trainer works herself into the ground because no one says stop. There’s always one more thing to do; the goal post keeps moving. With an unsustainable workload and a diminished personal life, such a trainer continually teeters on the verge of burnout.

How you tackle such issues depends on your individual situation. You might contract out certain obligations (see previous columns), create new organizational systems and policies, or hire staff. All steps I recommend. But the most effective tool I know of is the master schedule.

What is a Master Schedule?
A fancy computerized calendar or simply a piece of paper divided into the seven days of the week. What’s important is that a master schedule breaks a typical week into chunks of activity—it declares which days and times will be used for which types of tasks. For example, one person’s master schedule might set aside 9am to 1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays for marketing. Another trainer may dedicate all of Wednesdays to marketing. Still another might prefer to relegate the first two hours of work Monday through Thursday to the same important task. Each is likely to get his or her marketing work done because it’s built into the schedule.

What a Master Schedule Does for You
The end result is, as the old adage goes, ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’ By assigning set days and times for all ongoing tasks, you commit to a routine that increases productivity and decreases stress. It’s much easier to address a task when you know for a fact you’re supposed to be focusing on this particular thing and nothing else—no more sitting down at the desk dumbfounded by the choice of where to start. Similarly, when downtime is clearly dictated by the master schedule, your personal life isn’t soured by the constant nagging awareness that work remains to be done. It will be done, and you know when.

The master schedule also allows what is arguably the best part of being one’s own boss—spontaneously taking time off now and then. Say a friend calls on a sunny morning to tempt you into playing hooky. A quick glance at the master schedule tells you what you need to know: What was supposed to be done today? Is there another time and day that work can sensibly be transferred to? If yes, go play without guilt or anxiety. If moving things means missing a deadline or will create a domino effect you may have to pass this time around. But you do so based on practical realities, instead of wondering if you unnecessarily cheated yourself out of some fun.

How To Make Your Master Schedule
Sit down with a few sheets of paper. On one, list the tasks associated with running your business. The usual suspects for trainers are: Private consults, classes, phone and email, general admin, marketing, and projects (like developing a new class curriculum, re-tooling policies or rates, or writing a job description for an assistant). On another sheet, write all the personal things you want or need time for—family, your own dogs, hobbies, days off, etc.

On a third sheet, write notes regarding your work style. Do you lump tasks or split them? As in the earlier example, eight hours of marketing can be worked into a weekly schedule as a full day, two four-hour chunks, or four blocks of two hours each. In making these decisions, pay attention to your personal bio-rhythm. Do you rise with the sun, fresh and focused? If yes, place desk time such as project work in the morning. Not fully conscious until noon? Maybe mornings are best for walking your dogs or reading a good novel.

Once you have your lists, first write in tasks tied to a specific day or time. If you have a contract to teach public classes on Tuesday nights, that’s a set item. Next, plug in items according to your bio-rhythm preferences. Place service tasks, such as classes and privates, in spots that are likely to be most useful for clients, but that also suit your needs. Keep an eye on efficiency—it’s best to schedule multiple clients back to back rather than sprinkling them throughout your week and be constantly on the way to somewhere.

Once you have your master framework, superimpose it on your actual calendar and start living by it. When tasks and obligations arise, slot them into the pre-assigned days and times.

How To Use Your New Schedule
“Do” dates instead of “Due” dates
Most people keep to-do lists of some kind, whether on scraps of paper, a PDA, or the computer. Our lists, however well or poorly organized, may keep us from forgetting things but don’t always guarantee they get done. This is largely because there is no provision for how the items on the list will be addressed. We try to fix this by giving ourselves due dates, or deadlines, resulting in additional stress when those dates come and go without results.

A master schedule, by contrast, is based on do dates. Let’s say you decide to launch a community lecture series as a marketing project. Rather than wondering when you’ll have a chance to get to this wonderful idea, you open your calendar or turn on your PDA and look for the next chunk of marketing time not yet assigned to a specific task. Say that’s three Thursdays from now—great, you schedule that time slot for brainstorming your lecture series. No doubt that brainstorm will create a list of other things to do, which you will then assign to subsequent marketing days. The result is that this project will get done, because time has been allocated for it. And when you sit down at your desk that Thursday, you’ll know exactly what to dive into—no guesswork, no indecisiveness, no stress.

Scheduling Clients
Counter-intuitive as it may sound, you need to protect your schedule when you deal with clients. Don’t ask which days or times are good for them: Give the appointment times you have available. If they need or prefer a day or time you don’t have, don’t bend. Apologize and repeat what’s available. Nine times out of ten they will be impressed by your professionalism and how busy you must be and match their schedule to yours. The occasional client that gets away is never worth compromising your schedule for. This is not arrogance or lack of caring, but a recognition that scattering appointments across the week greatly decreases time management efficiency, produces stress, and impedes the day-to-day and project work that pushes your business forward. Self-employed people often feel compelled to accommodate any client but the reality is that a professional business makes and adheres to policies, including regular hours and appointment times.

You are the Master
I recommend living strictly by your master schedule for the first few months. Keep track of what works and what feels strained, and readjust the schedule until it’s working smoothly for you. Once you’ve settled into a routine you can bend your schedule as you wish. Get up on Thursday only to realize you don’t feel like working on your marketing and would much rather tackle that new class curriculum? No problem, do your class today and move the marketing to the slot assigned to the curriculum. You’re the boss, after all.

 

Want to read more? Using Your Master Schedule