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Bob

Set Your Rates Right

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Most of us are dog lovers first, trainers second, and business men and women dead last. A number of challenges arise from this reality, including a pervasive sense of guilt about charging money for what we do. This guilt is then alleviated with chronic undercharging, the result of which is an income level that keeps many trainers in perpetual hobby or part-time status, drives others back to “real jobs,” or creates long-term financial strain for those managing to train full time.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Charging what you’re worth—and you are worth it—is a win for you and for the dogs.

Getting Over the Guilt
Trainers hold an invaluable and specialized skill and knowledge set. If you’re reading this you most likely have spent time and money attending a school for dog trainers and have used innumerable hours practicing your craft on your own and with the guidance of mentors and colleagues. You’ve probably attended a long list of seminars, conferences, and workshops, and have read and watched every book and DVD you could get your hands on. Many of you have studied for and taken certification exams as well. Because although you may love your work well enough to enjoy it whether or not it’s paid, it’s still work—highly skilled work that requires a good deal of study and practice.

Training is also work that helps people and their dogs. You have the capacity to change the lives of the clients and canines you work with. Surely this is worth paying for. And though everyone loves to get something for free, we don’t generally expect free professional services. If training is to become a full-fledged profession we need to keep this in mind. Also important to remember is that people value what they pay for, and generally in our culture we value more that which costs more. During my time as Director of Behavior & Training at the San Francisco SPCA we raised our adoption rates, to the dismay of many who predicted adoption rates would fall. They didn’t. What did drop off was returns. Many trainers experience a similar phenomenon when they raise their rates—not only does business not go down, it often goes up (because committed owners want the best) and so does client compliance. Clients who have paid more for a service are more likely to try to get the most from it.

There’s another reason to leave the guilt behind. Financial stress and underpayment are major components of trainer burn-out and business failure. And every talented, skilled, compassionate trainer who quits due to exhaustion or the need to take a job with a paycheck means owners and dogs who will never experience the benefit of her services. The longer you stay in the game the more dogs and people you can help. To stay in the game you need a successful business. And to have a successful business you need to charge what you’re worth.

Setting Your Rates
Trainers often look at what others charge when setting their own rates. While it’s important to know what the trends in your area are, you shouldn’t feel compelled to do exactly what everyone else does. Here are several additional considerations:

Take into account your services—how is what you are doing different, what sort of niche are you filling, what do you offer that others don’t? What are the demographics in your area—the socioeconomic levels, average incomes, kinds of work most commonly done? Factor in also your needs, both financial and psychological. What do you need to earn for your business to provide a solid, safe living? What hourly rate makes you feel professional, makes you feel you’re being truly compensated for your skills?

As a final and central factor, recognize that your rates are part of your marketing plan and that rates carry subtle messages about you and your business. If, for example, part of your image is that you are the local go-to expert (whether you already are or would like to be!) having lower rates than your local colleagues will undermine that message. Again, Americans tend to equate cost with value. Pricing yourself low sends a message of not being as good as others whose rates are higher. There’s often a belief that lower prices will lead to higher volume. For plastic goods this may be so, but in professional fields this approach can backfire. First of all, you’ll see more bargain hunting clients rather than those looking for the best possible service for their dog, and if you’ve been training for any length of time, you know the difference this can mean in terms of owner compliance and commitment. Secondly, training is not a volume field. You can only train so many hours per week, you can only accommodate a finite number of clients at a time. Given this, volume is not the key to success. Instead, you want to get the most revenue possible from your billable hours.

If you offer packages (which I do hope you do—see “Win With Packages,” another article in this category), you probably offer discounted rates for larger numbers of sessions. Keep two things in mind when structuring your pricing. One, the savings don’t have to be large to be effective. Five to ten dollars per hour is plenty to help clients feel like they’re getting a good break. And second, be sure to price yourself so that your lowest rate is what you actually want to be paid per hour. For example, if you want to make $100 per training hour, you might set your rate at $110 and offer discounted packages based on $105 and $100. If you want to make $100 but offer discounts at $95 and $90, you’ll be making less than you wanted.

If You Still Feel Guilty…
I may have convinced you it makes sense to charge what you’re worth. Does this mean trainers should avail themselves only to the wealthy? Absolutely not. It does mean you should be able to make a living. Families of average means who take their responsibility to their animals seriously will choose a trainer based on an impression of their effectiveness and professionalism. A large part of this impression will be made by your marketing, and pricing is one part of that.

Still, for many trainers a business plan that prices you higher will exclude populations you wish to serve by putting your services out of their range. If this is the case, there are several ways to make yourself more widely available. You might, for example, offer regular Ask the Trainer volunteer hours to a local shelter. Though you will not be able in most cases to offer a full training plan, this triage focused on management can help to take the edge off many situations. If you prefer a more hands-on approach, try providing a shelter or rescue group pro bono case time. Just be sure to put boundaries around this work, for example specifying the number of clients you can handle at a time. It’s best to do pro bono work through another agency to keep it from impacting your business. A reputation for taking on unpaid cases can make it difficult to get paid ones.

Sales Anxiety?
If you’re one of the rare trainers who feels no guilt charging for your very needed and valuable services, or if I’ve convinced you to give up that bad habit, perhaps you suffer from sales anxiety. You know you’re worth it, but how do you ask for it? How do you communicate your services and their worth to potential clients? And how do you answer that dreaded question: “What do you charge?” Not to worry—read “Making the Sale,” another article in this category.

 

Want some help or guidance setting your rates? Join us for Money Matters 101: Pricing, Policies, & Packages.

Better Case Resolution

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Two hands, one passing a baton to the other.In our one-on-one work with trainers we are often asked to help bring down the number of unsolved behavior cases—by which I mean those clients a trainer sees once or twice, maybe more, without resolution. In such cases clients don’t meet their goals, dogs are not helped, and business suffers. I have said in past columns that you cannot start and build a business on word of mouth alone, and that is true, but having a strong reputation is nonetheless important. Bad word of mouth can really hurt a trainer. Each unfinished case means another dog owner who possibly says, “Well, I tried using a trainer, but it didn’t really work,” instead of “I hired a trainer and the change in my dog’s behavior was amazing. Here’s her number, you have to call her.” Another concern with unfinished cases is the degree to which they contribute to burnout—few things are more discouraging than knowing you could have helped a dog but not having the opportunity to do so.

What, then, can raise a trainer’s volume of unfinished cases? Blame a near-universal discomfort in closing sales for larger packages, or even the outright lack of training packages in place of week-to-week sessions. Also, the scope of the training plan itself can be the problem. Enamored as trainers are (and rightly so) with learning theory and technically correct solutions, they often forget that successful pet dog training rests upon pet dog owner training. Behavior modification plans have to fit into clients’ daily lives in order to be successful—don’t ask or expect the average client to rise to your level of skill or interest in training. Just as with dogs, set your clients up for success by working at their level. A number of guiding principles help in this work.

Don’t Over-Train
Unless safety is at stake, don’t insist that owners do more than they want or need. With his or her extensive knowledge, the trainer always sees the potential in a dog. He knows just what he would do if the dog were his, and this can bring him to push further than a client may be interested in or really need.

Say a retired couple lives in the countryside with their dog, who is fearful of children. If the dog’s only contact with kids is a yearly visit from the grandchild, the couple may feel frustrated with an extended desensitization and counter-conditioning program and eventually let the training fall by the wayside. Instead, a good management plan for that one weekend of the year will serve everyone—the clients, the dog, and the trainer.

Similarly, consider the different needs of two households with food resource guarders—one, a professional couple with no kids, another a busy family. While the latter calls for full treatment along with careful management, the professional couple may be perfectly happy following a work-to-eat regime while they’re at work, and crating Fido when he has chews. Don’t forget obedience issues, too—there are times to teach a nice heel or loose-leash walking and times when an anti-pull harness or head halter more than meets a client’s goals.

While you may not have as many sessions with management clients as you would with full treatment, you will receive the clients’ good will and potential referrals. Also, the success they experience with your instructions means they’re more likely to call you back for other needs now or in the future.

Help Clients Set Realistic Goals
Sometimes clients are the ones who overshoot. When a client comes to you hoping for quixotic results, catering to their fantasy goal, even if you do so with the best of intentions, only sets everyone up for failure. Don’t be afraid to be straight with clients about what is possible and what is not.

Start by getting at the heart of what a client wants, then help them to reset their expectations. What does ‘problem fixed’ really mean to them? For example, a Papillon pup going 8 hours without relieving herself is not an achievable goal. But if you push and find that the central issue isn’t so much that the puppy is peeing (“It’s a puppy, after all,” the owner concedes), but rather the damage to the client’s home, you can put together a plan for housetraining that includes immediate rug protection.

Once you know what the owner wishes for, balance wants with needs. A client who dreams of a flawless recall must devote the resources necessary to meet this goal. Does she have the time, skill, money? It is your job to make sure. If you see a disconnect, help rescale her definition of ‘problem fixed’ to match what she realistically can achieve. Often, this is a good time to think in terms of management. If an owner will have just the one Saturday walk each week to practice recall, a long line would allow for greater freedom to exercise outdoors in the meantime.

The goals of owners are frequently based on what they feel is expected dog behavior. A complaint about an adult female refusing to play with other dogs at the park does not require training but education. Once your client knows the behavior is common, even typical, she no longer feels her dog is acting inappropriately.

Develop a Human Training Plan, Too
A solid behavior modification plan is all well and good, but don’t forget to design a training plan for your human clients. What skill sets and knowledge do they need, and in what order, to successfully train their dog? (Or to maintain training already learnt.) What are your goals for the client, and what will you be reinforcing? What are you willing to overlook? Remember, your client does not have to be a professional trainer—he just has to be able to meet his specific goals. Armed with answers to these questions, write up a series of exercises to set your client up for success.

Treat The Humans as Well as You Treat The Dogs
One great thing about positive reinforcement training is the attitude it engenders toward dogs. When they do something we don’t like (or don’t do what we want them to), we don’t think them bad or stupid or willful. We simply lay the problem out: The dog is doing X; I want him to do Y. What will I do to help him be successful? I love this problem-solving, blameless approach. It is kind and effective.

When it comes to human clients, rather than jumping to value judgments—the owner is ignorant, uncaring of his animal, purposefully wrongheaded—apply the same thought process you would for a dog. The client does X; I want him to do Y. Or: he believes X; I want him to understand Y. What will you do to help him succeed? This is part of your human training plan.

Practice patience, just as you would with dogs. Changing and proofing behavior takes time and this is particularly true of the human species, so build in benchmarks to remind yourself and the client of progress made. Praise anything you like, ignore or redirect what you don’t.

Don’t Under-Train Your Clients
Yes, you want to simplify where possible, but don’t under-train either. After the initial consult, the majority of each session should be practice time for the client so she can benefit from ample feedback and build strong muscle memory. It’s crucial to see fluency at each step before moving on. Skills and knowledge built on shaky ground set clients up to train poorly on their own. If an owner is not mastering a certain skill or exercise, take a page from Bob Bailey and simplify what you are asking for by breaking it down into smaller steps. Always be willing to adjust your human training plan, just as you would with dogs. If even a solid ‘sit’ isn’t happening, reassess, and, depending on the situation, consider working on timing exercises without the dog, simple luring practice, exercises to build dog-client focus, or whatever other baby steps might be helpful.

Use Tracking Tools
Tracking tools, such as progress charts or logs, can be useful in keeping clients focused and may save you a great deal of time. Ask clients to keep track of data you want them to focus on. For a tough house-training case you might have the client write down the number of indoor accidents, rewarded outdoor potties, and unrewarded outdoor potties. This serves as a reminder that she is supposed to reward outdoor eliminations. It also provides you with data that would otherwise have to be collected through careful interviewing. If you see that very few eliminations were rewarded in the yard, you have your likely culprit for slow house training and know where to redouble the client’s focus. If the problem continues, reassess the situation to learn what is making it difficult for the client to take advantage of the outside potties, and find a new solution.

Try a Universal Cue
One solidly proofed behavior is worth ten that require a treat in the hand. Consider whether your and your client’s goals could benefit from a universal cue. Trainers are fond of teaching multiple commands—sit, down, stand, leave it, stay, watch, let’s go, come, wait, and so on. But, and perhaps you have come across this phenomenon, private and public class clients often settle on one cue and use it for everything, gravitating toward whichever command their dog does best. The reinforcement provided by the dog’s compliance lead them to use and more heavily rely on that particular behavior— an example of operant conditioning at work. A trainer’s first instinct is often to correct this, to insist on using ‘leave it’ for leaving it and ‘wait’ for wait, ‘stay’ for stay. The thing is, these universal cues actually work well for many people.

Few dog owners hire trainers with anything as grand as ring obedience in mind, or anything else, for that matter, that requires adherence to strict rules. So let’s break them. If a dog has a jumping problem, why teach ‘sit’ and ‘off’? A strong ‘sit’ does the trick, since sitting and jumping at the same time is a physical impossibility. Sitting is also an effective incompatible behavior to lunging and other undesirable activities. ‘Let’s go’ and ‘leave it’ are excellent universal cues—you can use either one for not picking up trash on the ground, not lunging or moving towards another being, breaking attention and redirecting it to yourself, etc. They can be powerful commands in working with everything from dog-dog aggression to poor focus.

A universal cue means that there is only one thing for owners and dogs to learn and practice, resulting in stronger, more reliable behavior from both the client and the dog. And owners are more likely to experience success with training.

The Final Word
Ultimately, it comes down to this: Too many unfinished cases can stymie a business. Which is why devising training plans that takes into account the client’s goals as well as the reality and restrictions of her life is a win-win-win: for the clients, the dogs, and your business.

 

Ask For Help

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ask for helpIf you’re reading this column, chances are you’ve been trained to work with dogs, and well trained. But running a business, any business, calls for a Renaissance skill set and unreasonable amounts of time: in past columns I’ve touched on the stress of adding administrative duties, accounting, bookkeeping, marketing, etc. to your job as dog trainer. New clients often say to me that it feels impossible, and I agree—it is. Which is why one secret to success in business is to do what you do well and get help with the rest.

The majority of dog pros set out in the world of business on a relatively small scale, so your fledgling enterprise may not be ready for employees; you may have decided you never want one. That’s fine. There are many other ways to take some pressure off. For the sake of your business—and your sanity—consider the following.

Contract It Out
If you’re not a business person by trade or instinct, contract out to a skilled professional those absolutely vital tasks that stand in your way. Anything you dread and put off is a candidate for this kind of delegation. Many of my clients confess to being perpetually behind on bookkeeping and feeling very stressed about it. Their relief at being set up with a bookkeeper is almost palpable. If QuickBooks Pro data entry is the last task on Earth you want to do, by all means hand it over to someone who does it for a living.

Other jobs to consider putting in someone else’s lap are those that take up your valuable time and could easily be done by others. For example, if business is booming and you find you can’t make time in your schedule for clients because of all the office work, bring someone in to help. Even a few hours a week can give you the room to take on a couple of extra clients. An office contractor can do the job, or you might have a friend who is happy to help out. Trading help works, too. Perhaps you have an acquaintance who would be happy to do a few hours of office work each week in return for having their dog well trained?

Possibly the most important category of tasks to contract out are those that are uncomfortably out of your skill set or that require professional expertise. For anyone new to owning a business, I’d recommend having a tax accountant prepare the first year’s return to maximize benefits and minimize costly mistakes. Having your logo and materials professionally designed can make a big difference in how potential clients perceive your business. If your chosen business name poses right-to-use issues, a trademark/service mark attorney can lay out your options. And if you’re struggling to market and grow your business, ask a business coach for help.

Handing over tasks you don’t enjoy or don’t feel qualified to handle brings many advantages beyond the obvious of reducing your stress levels. When you delegate you free up time to do what you do best, which allows for expansion and growth, and increased revenue. The money you spend will come back to you multiplied, and you will enjoy your business for the long haul.

Friends and family
When things get too busy it’s time to rely on friends and family. Get them involved in this exciting phase of your business by asking them for help with specific tasks like data entry, envelope stuffing, or manning the phones, or by asking them to take up slack in other areas of your life, giving you more time for the business. Perhaps they can lend support with babysitting or food sharing or errands?

Interns and assistants
Offering unpaid internships or assistant positions can also relieve pressure on you. People are often happy to trade their time for experience, education, or sometimes even just time with dogs. It is common for group class instructors and daycares to have assistants, for example. Some assistants help out as a hobby and a way to be around dogs, but many give their time because they want to learn dog training or the daycare ropes. Creating a strong, supportive atmosphere may lead some of these people to eventually become Independent Contractors or employees, should you want to take that step. Trainers can also use assistants or interns in their private practices, particularly when working with dog or human aggression issues where an extra set of hands can be invaluable.

Many interns or assistants also provide relief in the form of phone, email, and general office support. Again, the helper gains experience and knowledge from the mentoring trainer. The obvious advantage of this approach is free labor; the disadvantage a high turnover in some cases. Still, it can be a good stop-gap measure and I’ve seen many dog pros find excellent long term support this way. An additional benefit is the opportunity to stay fresh and gain new insights from teaching and mentoring.

Get Started On Getting Help
If you’re feeling harried and find yourself fantasizing about 32 or even 48-hour days, take stock of how you spend your time. Are there tasks that you dread and put off? Low skill jobs that take up inordinate amounts of time? High skill jobs that aren’t getting done or that cause you worry? These are your candidates for delegation, and it’s time to get them off your plate so that you can do what you do best—and bolster your ability to make a living at it.

Making the Sale

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In “Set Your Rates Right” I talked about charging what you’re worth. I attempted to convince you to give up the guilt and understand that being paid well for your work is good for you, your business, your clients, and the dogs. But knowing you’re worth a decent rate is only half the battle and I promised we’d talk this time about making the sale.

It’s Not a Job Interview
The first step toward comfortable and effective sales is a perspective change. Many trainers approach both the phone conversation and the initial consult as though they are interviewing for a position. This triggers all the anxieties associated with job seeking, chiefly performance pressure and the fear of rejection, emotions that make the sales experience nerve-wracking and tempt us to lower our rates, offer larger than required discounts, and otherwise send messages that we’re not worthy.

Instead, recognize that you’re a professional with a valuable skill and knowledge set. Potential clients are coming to you for help. You are using the phone conversation and the initial consult to assess whether theirs is a case you’ll take.

Don’t Be Afraid to Lose the Client
If you determine that you’re willing to help (either moving from the phone screening to an initial consult or from the initial consult to a training program), you’ll offer assistance at the price it’s worth. If it’s not the right match for the client, that’s okay. It has to be—no service is right for everyone.

Again, this is all about perspective. Not being the right match at the right time doesn’t need to be a personal rejection. The client may be saying no for all sorts of legitimate reasons. They may not have understood the level of work and commitment involved and, now that they do, are making a wise decision to wait until they’re ready to do it right. They may truly not have the money needed and so will wait until they can afford it. If this is the case, it is not your responsibility to subsidize their training by lowering your rate—we talked about the pitfalls of that last time. And in both cases, if you handle things well there’s a decent chance you’ll get a call from them in the future.

Be Confident. Take Charge.
It’s also much more likely that potential clients will say yes when you let go of the fear. We want to hire confident service professionals—I want my doctor to know her stuff, for example. I’d be nervous if she appeared to doubt her rates. Just like I’d be leery if my lawyer didn’t step in to take charge of the initial interview or my mechanic asked me what I thought was wrong with my car.

When you talk to a client on the phone, lead the conversation. Start by asking what led them to call a trainer today. Listen, asking any follow-up questions that’ll allow you to determine whether you want to pursue an initial consult. And then empathize, be the expert, and tell them what you can do for them. If the call is about excessive barking, for example, you might say, “I know how frustrating barking can be, and to have neighbors calling on top of it—how stressful. I’m so glad you called and I’m happy to help. Now, there are a number of different reasons dogs bark, and we’ll need to determine what’s happening in Fido’s case. So let me tell you a bit about how we work.”

From here you explain the role of the initial consult and your basic approach. If you do day training you explain how the program works. If coaching, you explain that you’ll be meeting with them once a week, etc. Same with board and train. Be sure to include the benefits of your approach. (For example, with day training you’d emphasize the convenience, speed, and effectiveness of having a trainer do the training for them.)

It’s important to take charge at the initial consult, too. Don’t be content to be left standing in the entryway while the client’s life swirls around you, politely waiting to be acknowledged. You’re a professional there to do professional work. They’re paying for your time and there’s a limited amount of it—it’s important to get right to work and set a tone of productivity. When the door opens, introduce yourself and shake hands while making good, solid eye contact. If the dog is present, compliment her and, if safe and appropriate, pet her. But then straighten back up, smile, and suggest, “Shall we sit at the kitchen table and get started?” Clients will feel more comfortable if you take the lead, and are much more likely to hire you if you seem competent and in control.

When it’s time to decide on the number of subsequent sessions, that decision must be yours. Offering clients a choice of package sizes is a setup for failure. You’re the only one with the knowledge and experience necessary to determine how many hours are needed to reach the client’s goals. Once you’ve moved through the assessment interview to determine what’s happening with the dog, and have come to an understanding of the client’s desired outcomes and what needs to be done to reach them, you need to share that—confidently and sincerely—with the client. You might, for example, say: “I’m so glad you called to get help with this. It sounds like this situation has been difficult for quite a while and I can certainly help to alleviate some of this stress for you.” Next, explain your assessment of the situation and your prognosis. (Remember never to make guarantees—they’re rightfully considered unethical in our profession.) Then continue: “I told you a bit about how we work on the phone. (Repeat the basic info and benefits of your approach.) Given that your goals are [insert client goals here], we will need X weeks to carry out the training plan for Fido.”

The Dreaded Question: How Much Do You Charge?
It’s ironic that a culture so profoundly focused on money has bred us to be so uncomfortable talking about it. But that’s the reality for most of us: Being asked what we charge makes us squirm. Maybe it’s fear of rejection or self-doubt. Maybe just polite squeamishness. Whatever the reasons (we’ll leave them to the sociologists and psychologists), let’s talk solutions.

One way to get around the dreaded question is to answer it preemptively. Don’t wait for the question—just tell them your fees. The smoothest place to insert the information during the phone screening is after the explanation of what you do. You explain how you work and the role of the initial consult, and then tell them what it costs. At the initial consult, cover the fees right after you tell them the length of the training program.

The next key is to move on. So often we quote our rate and then wait for a response. This opens us up to uncomfortable silences, rude whistles of sticker shock, or even ruder commentary on our pricing. Instead, just keep talking and infer in so doing that 1) your rate is perfectly reasonable, 2) it’s not up for discussion or comment. Because it shouldn’t be.

On the phone try, “The initial consult is $XX, which includes a written report (if it does). What I’d like to do with our time together is to determine the root cause of Fido’s barking so that we can put together a training plan specific to his situation and your needs. I have an opening in my schedule next week if you’d like to get started.” Similarly, during the initial consult: “You know my regular rate is $XX. Because we’re looking at an X-week commitment I’ll put your package together at a discounted rate of $YY, which will make the full training program $ZZ. As I explained, the key here will be to teach Fido alternatives to barking so he has a more polite and acceptable way to ask for what he wants. This should give us the time we need to accomplish that so you can enjoy his company more fully and not have to worry about the neighbors. I have some availability next week if you’d like to get started.”

When They Say No
A gracious response is best. When clients say they have to consult their spouses or think about it for a while tell them they should: “Absolutely. This is a big commitment and I encourage you to think it through. If you have additional questions please don’t hesitate to let me know. And if and when the time feels right I’ll be here to help.”

It’s never a good idea to backtrack. Fight the temptation to lower your rate or change your schedule or anything else you think may cause them to reconsider. Doing so sends a message of self-doubt and business desperation that actually makes you less attractive to potential clients. A strong, confident, gracious answer leaves the door open and your professionalism intact.

A quick note: If you’re selling packages (which I hope you are!) look into opening a credit card account. This is very easy to do through your bank (or you can research companies for the lowest rate—the average is around 2%) and allows potential clients who may not have the money easily at hand to still take advantage of your services.

The Benefits of a Professional Stance
In addition to raising your conversion rate (the number of potential clients who turn into real ones) and thus your income, taking a strong professional approach to dealing with sales affords several other benefits. When you carry yourself in the manner described here you’ll likely begin to feel more confident, making the sales process that much easier. I’ve had many business consulting clients report that although they had to “fake it to make it” the first couple of times, as they saw results from these approaches they began to believe in the message. Our clients report a significant increase in comfort and success around issues of money and sales from their changed stance.

You should see differences in client buy-in, too. As you hold yourself more confidently, clients are less apt to question methodologies or compare them unfavorably to those they see on TV. If you act like an expert your clients will see you as one and treat you accordingly.

Expanding Your Services

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Diversify and Conquer

There comes a time in the life of every business, whatever its size, when the question of growth arises and decisions have to be made. Most business owners in this situation think vertically—more clients, higher prices, additional employees—often overlooking lateral opportunities, which, if approached with imagination, can add both revenue and diversity.

A natural way to branch out is to expand your existing repertoire. Public dog training classes is the obvious example, and the most straightforward one if you are already teaching, say, puppy and adult obedience classes. Just bulk up the schedule with more juicy fare, like tricks, sports, Canine Good Citizen, or trail and outdoor manners. The more area-specific you can be the better; it goes without saying that to proffer scent classes to Manhattan’s privileged pooches may be a doomed enterprise. The effort you put into tailoring your classes to your demographic pays dividends in new student enrollment and repeat business. Fun, challenging, seasonal, practically applicable, clever classes provide further learning opportunities to many dog owners whose pets have long since outgrown basic and intermediate manners.

For trainers who currently work one-on-one with clients, group teaching is the customary next step. However, embracing a different training format can be equally revenue enhancing, and certainly just as interesting; the alternatives are limited only by your imagination. Training a dog while the owner is at work (an approach which of course requires a number of handover sessions) is one way to earn money during the daytime, in a world where everybody wants you on evenings and weekends. Another is board & train, living situation allowing. Different training content is always a possibility. As you evolve as a trainer through experience and continued education, taking on cases you wouldn’t previously have felt equipped for can boost your livelihood considerably. Trainers skilled in dealing with tough problems like separation anxiety and aggression are forever in short supply.

Again, it helps to know your target audience. In neighborhoods dominated by cash-rich, time-poor professionals, expensive but convenient services sell like hot cakes. In more populous, middle- or low-income areas, group services like classes and shared private sessions (two, three, or more people sharing the cost—and teacher attention), as well as family-oriented offerings are likely to succeed. Rural communities, on the other hand, where real estate tends to be readily available and often affordable, provide the perfect setting for sports and obstacle classes like agility, flyball, scent, rescue, and so on.

As a means to those coveted daytime earnings, few things beat dog walking. Ranging from quiet leash walks with elderly or infirm dogs to intensive training walks to off-leash romps at the beach (land use laws permitting), dog walking can be lucrative, especially for a trainer whose expertise allows him or her to charge a premium. The same goes for dog or pet sitting, which could be served up to potential customers with or without training extras, often a surefire income generator around holidays when many trainers experience a lull in their regular trade.

To successfully diversify your business requires the same forethought and research as you would put into an investment in commercial property or the hiring of employees. So before you make decisions, carry out your own market analysis: what are your local competitors offering? Also browse through web sites of good trainers or dog training establishments in far-away but similar towns or counties, and don’t be shy about borrowing good ideas and adding your own local spin. A trainer in Albuquerque who specializes in training walks for dogs with behavior issues won’t care that you do the same in Boston. And wherever you are, if you see an opportunity to offer the same service differently or better, by all means do so. Do you see a gap in the local services, are they perhaps too narrow (all manners, all the time) and need widening, or have clients frequently requested informal competitions in obedience or flyball?

Finally, it’s hard to be too well educated and prepared. However brilliant a dog trainer you are, if you haven’t walked dogs before, make a point of revisiting pack behavior and learn canine first aid, trail etiquette, and the appropriate land use laws. Attend the latest seminar on separation anxiety or hire a case coach before you list it on your training menu. Talk to a full-time dog sitter and glean his or her wisdom. Then, once you know what you want to do and who, ideally, would want to pay you for it, run the numbers: calculate the costs involved, including your time, and set your prices accordingly. After that, the proof is in the pudding.