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Getting (& Giving) More Referrals

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We’re guessing you’d love more referrals, but worry about pestering fellow professionals? If so, it’s worth keeping in mind that giving referrals benefits the referring party, too. It may fill a need and provide value-added capital with a client, such as when a vet refers a frustrated or frightened dog guardian to a trainer. And giving referrals often just feels good—most of us enjoy helping out by offering an expert suggestion. Still, most referral sources in the dog industry have many dog pros vying for their referrals.

Here are some tips for getting to the top of their lists:

Give More Referralsgiving and getting referrals
One of the easiest ways to get more referrals is to give more of them. Doing so increases your visibility while creating motivation for reciprocity.

Don’t miss an opportunity. Be on the lookout for every chance to tell a client, friend, colleague, family member, or friendly stranger in line at the grocery store about your favorite vet office, dog daycare, dog trainer, pet sitter, pet supply store, groomer, or dog walker. The more you give, the more you get.

Make your referrals stick. Don’t just mention the boarding facility you recommend. If at all possible, hand over a piece of their marketing literature. Or write down the facility’s name and contact information on a postcard branded with your logo and contact information. Then, if it’s someone you know and you already have their email address, send a follow-up message: “It was great talking with you today. I really think you’ll love the one-on-one attention Buddy’s Boarding gives the dogs. Here’s a link to their website for convenience: _______.”

Take credit. It’s nice to give referrals just to help, but better if you also get the business credit. Email dog pro colleagues to let them know you’ve sent someone their way, and that you hope they’ll get a client from your referral. (It’s okay to mention the potential client’s name, but don’t share her contact information unless given permission.)

Get More Referrals
Passing out more referrals will help get more coming your way, but here are additional steps to speed up the process.

Make yourself memorable. People are more likely to refer to you if you’re on their minds, especially if they have a personal relationship to you. So be present to and engage with the businesses you want work from. Offer staff talks for vet offices or volunteer training for the shelters. Show up in logo clothing with a surprise pizza lunch on their busiest day. If it’s particularly hectic that day, stick around for an hour or two to help walk dogs or clean kennels. Feature businesses you’re attempting to cozy up to in your newsletter, and ask them how else you can help.

Make referring to you easy and effective. Provide your referral sources with professionally designed, content-focused marketing materials. Business cards are easily lost and carry little marketing punch. An informative handout about resource guarding will have much more impact when a potential client complains to her vet—and it makes the vet look good, too. Try a How To Choose A Dog Walker flier instead of a plain postcard or brochure. Or a branded tip sheet about how exercise impacts behavior. If your referral sources are open to listing you on their website, in their newsletter, or in an email blast, provide them with the language and images they need to make execution easier and faster.

Make sure they know what you do. If you have a niche—puppy training or small dog-only daycare or pet sitting for elderly or infirm dogs, for example—make it work for you. Mentioning what you do once or twice won’t do the trick. Your marketing materials should scream your niche—a branded handout on housetraining your new puppy or the benefits of exercising your small dog, or a brochure full of pictures of happy and content older or bandaged dogs enjoying cuddles and walks with you. And don’t be shy about working your niche regularly into conversation.

Follow up. Always call anyone referred to you, even if you don’t want the business. Take good care of them, making sure to refer them on if you can’t help. Never let it get back to a referral source that you don’t return calls. And take the time to thank your referral sources. Send a personal thank-you card for best impact, and occasionally make a bigger splash by sending or bringing by a gift basket, staff lunch, or small denomination gift cards to a nearby café.

Building a referral source network is about making and nurturing relationships. Like any good relationship, that means communication, steady attention, and looking for ways to give before you get. But also like any good relationship, a little hard work can go a long way.

Time-Outs for Dog Walkers: Vacations for Longevity

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Have you taken a vacation recently? Do you have one planned? If you answered yes to either question, woo-hoo! (If you answered yes to both, double high five!) If you said no, this article is for you.

I’m concerned about the number of dog walkers I work with, teach, and talk to who don’t take regular vacations. Some don’t even take regular weekend days because they’re also pet sitting or boarding dogs in their homes. This worries me because I know that dog pros who don’t take down time don’t stay dog pros for as long as those who do. And I want you to enjoy what you do for a long time to come, serving as many dogs as possible over your career.

Dog walkers like to tell me all the reasons they’re unable to take vacations—that they can’t afford to, that they don’t want to let their clients and the dogs they walk down, that they fear losing clients. If you share any of these concerns, let me share how to get around these roadblocks so you can get some downtime.

Vacation Objection #1: I can’t afford to take a vacation
First, are you sure you can afford not to? Burnout is a real phenomenon in our industry. A lack of down time is a major contributor in the burnout we see in our consulting clients. So is financial stress. The good news is there are simple solutions that can solve both.

I’ve written and spoken often about the need to charge professional rates and protect revenue with professional policies that limit the losses that plague dog walkers from cancellations and inconsistent use of services. When you’re making more, and when your income is consistent instead of fluctuating widely from month to month, you can budget for time off.

Vacation Objection #2: My clients and the dogs need me
Yes, they do. That’s why you need to take a vacation. They don’t just need you today and tomorrow. They need you for the long haul. To be there for them not just now but down the line you must take care of yourself.

Dog walking is a physically demanding job. In addition to the need for downtime that anyone has in any profession, it’s important to factor in the wear and tear on your body of walking for hours every day, especially if you do so on concrete. Taking time off will keep your body in the game longer, too.

And don’t worry—your clients and the dogs will be fine without you for a week or two. It’s not having you at all that would be a problem. Think of it this way: Given that working people with school-aged children figure out ways to handle holidays, spring and summer breaks, and teacher in-service days, your working clients can absolutely manage without you while you recharge.

Vacation Objection #3: I’ll lose my clients
No, you won’t. We’ve been coaching dog walkers since 2003. Though most worried about this, I have yet to see a dog walker lose a client because she took a vacation. (And really, if a client did quit for that reason I don’t think that’s a client you really want.) The best part? How many of our dog walker clients have been pleasantly surprised, even blown away, by their clients’ support when they announce an upcoming vacation. They receive all sorts of lovely messages about how much they deserve it and how it’s about time. One of our client’s clients even gifted her their vacation cabin after learning the walker was planning a staycation to save money.

The point is, if you’re doing a good job taking care of your clients they’ll be happy to see you take care of yourself. And they’ll be there when you return, even more appreciative of what you do for them and their dogs.

How to take a vacation as a dog walker
Now that we’ve established that you really can take a vacation, let’s talk about how to make it happen. Here are your 5 steps:

  1. Raise your rates and fix your policies if needed so you can take time off without financial stress.
  2. Choose your dates and plan your down time. Just open your calendar and find a week far enough out that it isn’t already scheduled with appointments or sitting commitments or anything else. Block it out and promise yourself you won’t schedule anything into that space. Decide how you want to use that time. Will you stay home and relax? Visit a friend? Book a flight somewhere?
  3. Tell your clients. Let your clients know you’re taking a vacation, and give them your dates. Tell them you wanted to give them advanced notice so they have plenty of time to make arrangements. Do this in writing—it’s easiest, most efficient, and provides written details your clients can refer back to. If you have a safe way to offer alternate arrangements for them, that’s fine. But please don’t feel you have to do so. (Remember, if people can find care for their kids over spring break they can figure out what to do with their dog for a week, too.) I generally recommend not doing so unless you have a standing arrangement with another walker who knows your dogs, as it can be risky to send dogs out with someone who doesn’t know them well.
  4. Remind your clients. Schedule two or three notes into your calendar to remind yourself to remind your clients (again, in writing) about your upcoming vacation. One month, two week, and one week reminders work well.
  5. Go on vacation! That’s it. You’ve done your due diligence and now you get to go play and relax. Give yourself permission to enjoy your down time guilt-free, knowing you’ll be back in your best form, ready to give your best energy to your human and canine clients.

Finding the Courage to Succeed

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Running a small business is scary. It’s a lot of great things, too—freedom and control over your schedule, who you work with, and how you work, just to name a few. But it’s also scary. There’s a lot of uncertainty and a lot of responsibility. For most dog pros, owning a business also requires stepping outside your comfort zone. Repeatedly.

Young girl and dog both wearing red capes.Here’s the cool thing, though: You’ve already proven your courage. You’ve already proven your ability to face down fear just by opening your dog business. If you’re reading this while still in the contemplation stage, you’re already more courageous than most. The reality is that few people choose to follow their passion even a step or two down the path.

So if you’re reading this you probably already know the value of overriding fear, doubt, and self-doubt. You’ve done it before. With that self-knowledge in mind, are there areas of your business (whether in existence or in process) that could benefit from a little fearlessness right now? Because maximizing your success could be as simple as tapping into the courage you already possess.

Find the courage to offer the best services for dogs.
Dog trainers, don’t let your fear of losing the sale or being told you’re too expensive keep you from packaging and selling the amount of training you know is necessary to meet a training goal. Selling less training than is needed sets you, the client, and the dog up for failure. You undersell to avoid failure, but the reality is that underselling all but ensures it. As a dog training professional, be fearless and bold in your insistence about what you know to be necessary.

Dog walkers and pet sitters, don’t offer walks or visits that you don’t feel ethical about providing. It’s frustrating to wrap up a dog walk after 20 minutes, knowing it wasn’t adequate to exercise a young, active dog. And if you feel guilty leaving a dog whose people are away after a 15-minute visit, drop that sitting service model in favor of one you can feel good about.

Find the courage to create and insist on good policies.
Dog trainers, you know the importance of consistency for training results. Your cancellation policy should reflect that importance. Be bold. Make it difficult for clients to cancel. It’s not only in your financial interest—it’s in their interest as well and, most importantly, better serves the dogs.

Dog walkers and dog daycares, your very livelihood depends on avoiding cancellations and developing strong policies governing how clients must use your services. Allowing drop-ins and cancellations means the stress of running a business with a constantly fluctuating income. It means more stress for the dogs, too, leading to more incidents and behavior issues, which in turn causes stress for your clients. Insisting on good policies draws the best clients and provides you financial stability.

Will there be potential clients who pass your walking or daycare business over because of your policies? Probably a few. But there’s no need to fear this. When you have the right policies, you won’t need those folks. (And you’ll be happier without them, too.)

Find the courage to charge what you’re worth
Having the best rates is another way to draw the best clients. (This doesn’t necessarily mean drawing the wealthiest clients, contrary to popular misconception. It means drawing the most dedicated clients.) Set down your fear of charging more. Someone will always be there to tell you you’re too expensive, no matter whether you charge at the bottom or the top of your local scale. You cannot avoid that.

What you can avoid is being underpaid, living on the financial edge, and feeling undervalued. What you can avoid is drawing the bargain hunters who chose you because you’re cheap, instead of choosing you because they love what you do and how you do it. The latter kind of client is likely to pass you by because you’re cheap—they’ll assume you aren’t good enough for their dog. That’s too bad because those are the loyal clients you really want.

If you’re not charging at the top of your local scale, it’s time to take bold action to raise your rates. Just starting out? Start at the top from the very beginning; no need to make this common mistake.

Find the courage to say no.
As an industry, we’re terrible at this. We’re a profession of helpers, of altruists, of dog lovers. We’re just nice people. Our commitment to positive reinforcement and kindness and service runs so deep that we feel guilty telling anyone no about anything.

Problem is, we don’t have any more hours in the day than anyone else. So we have to get better at identifying when we must say no in order to do our best work. If we don’t learn to say no, we ultimately rob ourselves of the ability to work on our core mission of helping the most dogs possible. If you burn out, you will touch fewer dogs’ lives. Period.

In any decision you make, always ask yourself this question: Does this opportunity allow me to pursue my central work better than whatever will get squeezed out to make room for it? Also, make sure you don’t risk burning out by not leaving enough time for yourself, your family, and your own dogs.

And when it comes to setting down your fear to say no, remember that there’s no point having good policies if you don’t enforce them. Remember that your policies serve a purpose—that purpose will help you stand strong when the answer should be no.

Find the courage to market yourself.
You must face down marketing fear. If you’re to help the most number of dogs possible in your career you must summon the courage to put yourself out there. To let people know what you do. To offer your services. To risk rejection. The fear of rejection holds too many dog pros back from the success they could enjoy, and the good they could do.

Remember this: You don’t have to take being told no as a personal rejection.

And this: Always remember you’re doing it for the dogs.

And this: There are many, many ways to market your business. You’re in charge. You can choose the strategies that are comfortable for you and avoid those that make your stomach hurt and your palms sweat. What’s important is to take action of some kind and build from there.

Never fear failure.
For the courageous, failure is only a momentary sting on the path to success. And the best antidote to fear is action. We see it in our THRIVE! program and our business consulting work over and over. At dogbiz we have the tremendous honor of working with dog pros so dedicated to improving the lives of dogs that they’re willing to push through their fears.

It’s not always easy—and sometimes it takes a while to build the momentum to take bold action, whether it’s to finally launch that website and “make it official,” or to take the next step required to push an existing business to the next level. But in the end, these dog pros take a deep breath and take the plunge.

What do they find? That fear is replaced by relief, exhilaration, a sense of accomplishment, and growing confidence. And the end result? Ultimately, greater success—both financially and in serving dogs and their people.

 

Are you an R+ dog trainer tired of pushing through the fear on your own? Join THRIVE! and benefit from a supportive community of R+ trainers who amplify each other’s courage.

Anatomy of a Successful Puppy Training Program

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A lot is said and written about the importance of early puppy socialization and training. Which leads to a lot being said and written about the challenges of client compliance. How do we get people to take their pups out into the world despite their busy schedules?

Australian shepherd puppy looking up.When you want something done right, do it yourself
The answer is to do it yourself. We can spend all manner of time and energy motivating and incentivizing puppy owners to prioritize socialization, but the only sure-fire way to see it gets done is to do it for them.

People are inordinately busy. They’re already juggling jobs and kids and errands and “adulting” in general. Yes, they should prioritize socialization for the few precious weeks and months they have to take advantage of this critical period. But they should also prioritize eating well and exercising and getting out in front of retirement savings.

My point is that “should” won’t get the job done in a culture predisposed to handling problems instead of preventing them. So instead of browbeating clients to spend time socializing their puppies, and then judging them for non compliance, let’s just get their puppies socialized and trained.

Taking on these tasks yourself has many advantages. You’ll save more canine lives by helping dogs avoid relinquishment due to undersocialization-related behavior issues. You’ll make clients far happier by offering them the “easy button” they want. After all, people generally hire professionals to provide a professional service, not to be taught how to do the work themselves. And you’ll increase your business and revenue by offering more attractive services that you can charge well for.

Puppy day training
Taking on the training and socialization yourself is most easily done through day training. Think of day training as board & train without the boarding. You’ll work with the puppy multiple times each week and then transfer your results in weekly sessions with the client.

How many times you see the pup each week is up to you, but the more days the better for all—the puppy, the client, and your business. At dogtec we recommend a minimum package of three sessions per week with the puppy and one weekly transfer session with the client.

Puppy day training can come in many structures, too. Most commonly each puppy is picked up for training sessions. You can work with puppies in their homes on behaviors like “go to your bed,” but the most important ingredient of a successful puppy day training program is field trips that expose puppies to a wide range of situations for socialization and proofing. Take pups to shopping centers, veterinary clinics, parks, busy urban sidewalks, past suburban schools, etc. To add play socialization into the mix, gather pups together once a week for supervised play in a safe location, or require clients to attend a weekly social.

You can also provide puppy day training in a facility setting. This approach allows for easier play socialization, but be sure to provide socialization/ training proofing field trips as above.

What to teach puppies
Socialization is the central key, of course, and thus the emphasis on field trips for exposure to life outside the pup’s home. But don’t overlook the client’s immediate goals, too. They’ll be grateful for help speeding up house training (another reason to include larger packages with more training days per week) and slowing down the puppy biting.

And don’t forget basic manners foundations. As dog trainers we know this can come later and is secondary in importance to socialization and problem prevention. But we have to speak to clients’ immediate priorities as well, and a responsive puppy with some impulse control goes a long way to creating a lasting bond between canine and owner.

That said, choose what to train wisely. One advantage of day training is the chance to proof behavior to a higher level reliability in the face of distraction. So go for depth, rather than breadth. Choose a small number of behaviors and train them well, rather than installing a wide range of cues you won’t have time to proof.

When picking what to teach, think about clients’ needs—which cues or behaviors will have the largest impact? Being able to send puppy to her bed for some downtime will bring relief to many a harried puppy parent, for example. Teaching pups to walk nicely on lead means they’re more likely to get out for weekend socialization jaunts. And of course a rock solid sit is a great impulse control default switch for any dog. Whatever you choose to teach, keep your choices to a small handful and train the behaviors in the contexts the pup will be asked to perform them.

What to teach puppy owners
All this focus on working the puppies yourself doesn’t mean your clients are entirely off the hook. They live with the pups, after all, and your training won’t do them any good if they don’t know how to take advantage.

Fortunately, because you’ve done all the work to install and proof new behaviors, you can focus your transfer sessions on teaching clients the skills and conceptual understanding they need to be more successful dog guardians. Puppy owners don’t need to be dog trainers, just as parents don’t need to be credentialed classroom teachers. But they do need to know a thing or two about how dogs learn and how to set their pups up for success.

Of critical importance is clients’ understanding of puppy socialization—what it is, why it’s important, and how to do it safely. The hours you have with each puppy will go a long way toward successful socialization, but clients will have many more opportunities to either push your work forward or unintentionally undermine it.

Teaching concepts and skill sets like situational awareness and responding proactively to environmental distractions, working at their pup’s level (aka criteria setting), and problem solving (how to make adjustments when something isn’t working) turn the average dog owner into a superstar guardian. Helping clients to internalize these ideas and modes of being with their dog on the one hand, while installing basic manners for them on the other, is a fool-proof recipe for keeping dogs happily in their homes.

Use your transfer sessions to help pups and their people practice socialization and training guardian skills in real-life situations, both in the home and out in the world together. As you do, be careful not to teach learned helplessness. If your clients are to master these skills, you must fight the temptation to provide constant direction. After initial instruction, prompt only as needed, and try indirect prompting wherever possible. For example, rather than saying, “There are some children coming up ahead. Let’s give Sadie some treats as they pass,” try “Don’t forget to scan the environment” and then, “Great—you’ve seen the children coming. Because you saw them early we have time to plan. How would you like to help Sadie have a positive experience as they pass?”

Retention and maintenance programs for puppies
Most day training programs run between 2 and 4 weeks long. The longer you work with a puppy the better her chances in life, so look for ways to offer clients additional support once their primary package ends. This benefits your business, too, by slowing the rate of new client acquisition necessary to keep yourself full and profitable.

Puppy field trips are a great way to offer training and socialization maintenance. You can take pups out individually or in small, well-matched groups for additional socialization. Grouping pups also allows you to decrease your maintenance rate a bit while not reducing your hourly income.

You can also make field trips a family affair by turning them into a weekend class or membership program where you take pups and their people on guided trips to different locations each week—the pet supply store, the park, window shopping, a cup of coffee at a local café with outdoor seating, etc.

For clients interested in more advance manners and obedience, offer advanced day training programs focused on teaching new cues while maintaining socialization.

You might also look at adding longer-term retention programs for eager clients wanting to continue with you once their pups age out of your puppy programs. Options include guided weekend field trips for adult dogs, hiring dog walkers, or launching an exclusive adult dog daycare catering only to dogs who have gone through your puppy day training or puppy class programs.

Making a difference
We all want to save and improve dogs’ lives. It is deeply, profoundly frustrating and painful to watch a puppy go without the critical socialization you know she needs. So don’t. Get in there and make it happen. You can’t control how your clients prioritize their time, but you can control what your services look like and what you do for pups and their people.

Expand Your Revenue & Your Impact

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The usual challenge for dog training businesses is to get up to full speed, to run a full class schedule at maximum capacity, or fill all the appointment spots in your private training calendar. But once you reach these goals, there’s often a new problem to solve—how to create room for additional growth.

Not every trainer wishes to push capacity. But if you find yourself maxed out yet not feeling satisfied with either your income or the number of dogs and dog lovers you’re reaching, here are various ways to expand your offerings.

Hire Additional Trainers
Think long and hard about whether you want to be someone’s boss. It certainly complicates running your business, and the role isn’t for everyone. But if you’re comfortable with the concept, bringing on a fellow trainer to teach additional classes or provide more private training appointments allows you to serve many more dogs.

If you decide to hire, don’t rush in. Take a look at your local training scene. Do you live in an area full of like-minded, skilled trainers who would appreciate the work, or are good trainers hard to come by? Even if your locale has a dog trainer standing on every corner, stop to weigh the pros and cons of hiring an experienced trainer who will be ready to go but bring her own ideas and ways of doing things versus taking the time to train a novice with strong potential to do things your way. There’s no right answer here, just the approach that works best for you, your goals, and your temperament.

Hire Support Staff
If you’re not ready to bring on a new trainer, you might look at hiring support staff—someone to take administrative, janitorial, and other non-training tasks off your to-do list so you have more time to see clients or teach classes.

Add a Service
The obvious choices are adding classes to private training and vice verse if you’re not already doing both, but if you’re serious about adding capacity to your business, think beyond training.

Many trainers find dog walking a natural service to transition private training clients into, especially those with leash-reactive dogs or dogs whose behavior would benefit from increased exercise. If you have a dedicated class facility and aren’t offering daytime classes (another way to expand offerings— daytime classes for seniors or stay-at-home moms), think about using your space for daycare.

You don’t have to provide the walking or daycare yourself, and in most cases it’s better if you don’t—you want to keep time in your schedule to run the business and market your new services. You can start small by bringing on a single walker, for example. Or simply rent your facility to a fellow dog pro to run a daycare, providing passive income from space that would otherwise sit empty.

Open a Facility
If the classes you can teach are limited because you have to rely on the availability of others’ spaces it may be time to find your own. Though you take on a fixed overhead expense, you greatly expand your capacity to offer classes, as well as other services—including a place to hold private consults to cut down on driving time and costs.

Work Out of a Vet Clinic
Another way to reduce drive time and thus make room to see more clients is working out of a veterinary office. Some of our dog*biz consulting clients do this exclusively and others set up shop at a clinic one or two days a week. In addition to cutting down time in your car, having a busy clinic help fill your appointment spots cuts down on your own admin time, too.

The downside is that working with one clinic may make it difficult to maintain marketing relationships with others, so factor that in when weighing this option.

Work Remotely
You can cut driving out of your work life altogether and greatly increase the number of private training clients you serve by working remotely. Today’s technologies offer a myriad of creative ways to actively coach and support clients without being physically present.

The downside is that remote training removes the option of training clients’ dogs for them via models like day training which have shown to carry a powerful marketing message as well as strong case outcomes. But if you live in an area that’s spread out and requires too much driving to offer day training, remote training has its advantages for trainer and client alike.

Decrease Your Service Area
If you’re looking for a simpler way to decrease drive time and increase the number of clients you serve, reduce your service area. You’re doing well enough now to consider ways to expand capacity, so there’s no reason to still be driving 45 minutes to see a client clear across town. Find trainers in outlying areas to refer to or, in the absence of good referral options, offer outlying clients remote training support.

Increase Your Prices
Here’s the simplest solution of all to increase financial capacity: If you’re running at full speed there’s simply no argument to not raise your rates. Raise them every six to twelve months until you hit the perfect balance—keeping all your classes filled and private appointments booked with a modest wait list as an insurance policy.

Run the Numbers First
Do some math before jumping in to any of these expansion endeavors. What are the costs you’ll incur? What is the potential income? Does the income number exceed the cost enough to make the effort worthwhile? If so, make and execute a plan. Then enjoy the extra money in your pocket and the satisfaction of helping more dogs and owners in your community.