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

Veronica

Sending Clients on a Successful Journey

· ·

Think about the client journey as a marketing roadmap to your training services and classes. Another way to put it: A client journey is the complete experience a dog lover has with your business, from start to finish.

Toy van sitting on a map. Everyone who comes into contact with your business takes a journey with you. Careful cultivation of that journey, of the pathways people have available to them, means more potential clients becoming actual ones, and more of those becoming repeat clients and raving fans who send others your way.

Every journey has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The client journey is no exception. (Though when crafted well clients tend to cycle back through rather than saying good-bye!)

Here are the 4 parts every client journey should include, and some tips for mastering them:

1. Entry Points
Each client’s journey, each client’s experience of your company, begins at an entry point. You likely have more than one, and hopefully many.

Entry points include professional referrals, such as recommendations from a vet clinic, pet supply shop, or rescue organization.

Other dog lovers may find their way to you via a personal referral from a friend, family member, or work colleague who has enjoyed your services or perhaps come into contact with your marketing materials.

Speaking of which, your marketing materials are also potential on-ramps to a client journey with your business. A dog guardian may begin their journey by picking up your print newsletter at their local pet shop or reading a good training tip sheet while waiting at their vet clinic, for example.

If your website is performing well a Google search can be another common entry point, making investing in good search engine optimization, or SEO, worthwhile.

Entry Point Pointer: The more opportunities dog lovers have to come into first contact with your business, the better. Take a moment to count and assess your current entry points. Where can you make it easier for people to find you?

2. Marketing Rest Stops
If you’re old enough to remember life before smart phones, you’ll recall when highway rest stops weren’t just places to go for a restroom and leg stretch. They were also where you stopped for maps and travel brochures to get information on where you were going and what you might find when you get there.

Similarly, you can think of each instance of your marketing as rest stops or information kiosks for your potential clients. Think of your marketing projects as opportunities to move potential clients along the path toward a purchase with you.

Your most important marketing rest stop is your website. Some dog lovers will land here first via an online search. Most, regardless of their first contact point (whether a referral or a piece of marketing material), will make a stop here for more information before deciding to reach out or purchase.

Marketing Rest Stop Pointer: To do the job well, your marketing must provide good information and clear directions. Your marketing pieces should be designed primarily to direct people to your website. Your website should be designed primarily to answer important questions (like how your service works and what it costs) and to encourage people to take action. That action might be to make a purchase (for example, register for a class) or take the first step toward becoming a client (such as reaching out to schedule a dog training consult or dog walking meet-and-greet).

3. Purchase Points
Your purchase points are the spot on the journey at which potential clients become actual ones.

Purchase points might include online sign-ups such as registering for a group puppy training class or on-demand tricks training course.

Other purchase points may be more interactive, such as a phone screening conversation in which a dog guardian schedules a walking meet-and-greet, an initial consult training appointment, or the decision at the end of an initial consult to purchase and commit to a training package.

Purchase Points Pointer: Keep your purchase points simple. Make it as easy as possible for potential clients to become actual ones by cutting any steps that aren’t absolutely necessary. Don’t risk losing people just as they’re jumping in!

4. Client Experience Points
A dog lover’s journey with you doesn’t end once they purchase. In many ways it’s only just begun as your clients move on to experience your services.

The center of that experience is the service they’ve purchased—such as you walking their dog, or their time with you in basic manners class or one-on-one training—but there are many more potential client experience points.

Every interaction, both remote and direct, is an experience point. The notes or texts you send after a dog walk, for example—and how clean or dirty you leave the dog. The appointment reminders you send, training homework handouts or videos you provide, Zoom drop-in Q&A sessions you make available between training sessions, etc.—all of these are part of your client’s experience with you.

Client Experience Points Pointer: Add points to enrich your clients’ experience with you. Is there opportunity to add more support spots to their journey—perhaps online office hours or emailed homework reminders for training clients, for example, or leaving their dog with a stuffed Kong post-walk?

Keep the Journey Going
Ideally your client journey includes opportunities to re-engage in additional services if appropriate. For example, moving on to the next training class in your program or choosing a post-training support package. Keeping clients longer reduces your marketing and sales and admin pressure while serving them more fully.

Also build in steps for gathering feedback, including reviews or testimonials for use in your marketing. You get the information you need to make your services stronger while helping bring the next wave of potential clients to your door to begin their own journeys with you.

 

Want help building successful journeys for your clients? Grab your spot on the THRIVE! waitlist to be first in line next time we open enrollment.

What To Say & How To Say It

· ·

A client calls to cancel a training appointment or dog walk, knowing it’s against your policy. You show up for a training session to find the client’s not done their homework again. You decide a student and her dog would be much better off in private training. You realize it’s time to let a client go. All of these situations require a difficult conversation. Putting such conversations off only makes them harder. Rushing in too fast can make the situation worse. So what do you say? And how do you say it?Two dogs looking at each other, both with their tongues out.

Here’s the 3-part dogbiz formula for finding the right words for any situation:

Set your conversation up for success with the 3 Ps
Humans are complex. We have ability to engage in complex language. We have complex emotions. We each carry a lifetime of complex experiences that influence how we interpret the world around us. Put all that together and it’s no wonder we often find it difficult to get along, to hear each other properly, to respond to situations as calmly and rationally as we might.

Challenging conversations are more likely to go smoothly when we take the time to think them through, from both our perspective and the clients’. The 3 Ps—Prepare, Pause, and Plan—can help us do that.

P #1: Prepare
Before heading into any conversation, get clear with yourself about your conversation goal. Setting parameters ahead will help you craft your approach and stand firm during the conversation, avoiding temptation to agree to an outcome you regret afterward. What do you want to happen as a result of the interaction? What will success look like? Are there any alternative outcomes you’re willing to entertain?

Answering these questions is much easier when you have clarity about your services, who they’re ideally meant for, and how they’re meant to be used. If you find it difficult to set a conversation goal it may be helpful to spend some time clarifying your service details, policies, and the ideal clients you’d like to attract.

P #2: Pause for perspective
In step two we take time to consider the situation from the client’s perspective. We often enter these conversations focused on our own needs and emotions, compounded by our concern for the dog. With all of that swirling in our minds, it’s easy to overlook the person we’re talking to. But to reach that person, to connect with them and communicate effectively we’ve got to be able to step into their shoes.

Take a few minutes to consider these questions. Writing your answers down will help when it comes time to craft the language for your conversation.

  • Why might the client/student be doing (or not doing) something?
  • What needs might they have?
  • What might their priorities be in the moment?
  • What emotions may be involved for them?
  • How might they be experiencing the situation?
  • What’s in it for them? How will your outcome goal benefit them?

P #3: Plan
Now it’s time to plan what we’ll say and how we’ll say it. As you craft your first draft, keep your goal forefront of mind to ensure clear communication of your intended outcome. Also keep an eye on your answers to the perspective questions. This will help you communicate with empathy, increasing the client’s receptivity what you have to say. Be particularly sure to include your why—your answer to what’s in it for the client. How will they benefit from what you’re communicating?

Step away from your draft for a bit. Now try reading it from the client or student’s perspective. Are you saying what you mean to? How else might your words be heard?

Once you’ve got a solid version, practice your delivery to tighten up your words and build your confidence. (It’s absolutely okay to communicate in writing if you feel you’ll be more successful or more easily received that way.)

The 3 Ps in Action
Let’s look at an example of putting the 3 Ps to work. Say a client calls to tell you her week has gotten away from her and she needs to cancel her day training transfer appointment, even though your cancellation policy is clearly stated in your contract and you’d explained it up front during your initial consult. You’d also explained the importance of the transfer sessions and the client’s role in attending them.

Step 1: Prepare
What is your goal for the conversation? In this case, it’s simple: To convince the client to keep the appointment. You want to protect your schedule and revenue. You also want to protect training progress for the client and the dog.

Step 2: Pause for perspective
It’s very frustrating that the client wants to cancel, even after the care you’d taken to explain the critical role these sessions play in the training plan and its success. But let’s take a deep breath. The client obviously cares about her dog, or she wouldn’t have invested in a training package. And she clearly want results or, again, she wouldn’t have invested in a training package—especially a more expensive one in which the trainer does the training. This isn’t a lack of care.

And though it can be easy to focus on personal feelings, such as frustration or feeling disrespected by the client’s request, the more likely culprit is simply overwhelm. The client has put too much on her calendar and is feeling stressed. She’s looking for a release valve, something to remove from her schedule to take some pressure off.

Step 3: Plan
The job, then, is to convince the client that she stands to lose more by missing the appointment than she stands to gain. We know she cares about the dog. We know she cares about the training results. We know she’s invested a lot of money to get those results. Protecting that investment and those results, helping her achieve her goals, gain relief from stressful walks, and enjoy her dog—this is our why, what’s in it for her to keep the appointment.

With all of this in mind, our script might go something like this:

I’m so sorry this week’s feeling so stressful. We can reschedule our Friday appt., but before we do I just want to make sure it’s really the best option for you. Remember, as I explained at our consult and in our contract, I’ll have to charge you for the appointment, and we’ll be slowing down progress toward being able to enjoy your walks with Charlie. He and I are making some great strides and I hate for you to lose the opportunity to take advantage of that, given all the money you’re investing in his training. Before I take our appointment off the calendar, are you sure we can’t make Friday work?

This script makes the goal clear: We want to keep this appointment. It also leaves no room for alternate outcomes. But it’s delivered with empathy and caring, both for the stressful week the client is having and for the frustrating walks that brought her to us in the first place. We are standing firm about our intended outcome because we care about the client’s success.

When we go into difficult conversations with the 3 Ps we’re much more likely to come out pleased with the results. If thinking on your feet in such moments is not your strong suit, make a list of the client conversations you most dread. Take some time to use the 3 Ps to set yourself up for success ahead of time. Prepare for each with a clear goal. Arm yourself with a caring perspective from the client’s point of view. Then plan what you’ll say to communicate your goal from that place of empathy. Add a 4th P—practice—and you’ll be ready for any conversation that comes your way!

Mastering the 3 S’s in Your R+ Dog Business

· ·

As a R+ dog pro, you know all about working the 3 D’s with dogs—that’d be distance, duration, and distraction, of course. But what about the 3 S’s in your business?

We want to see you running a dog business that is financially Successful, without those stomach-dropping slow months. We want to see you doing that while enjoying plenty of downtime for yourself and your own dogs (including regular weekends and even vacations!), because only then is your success truly Sustainable. And we want to see you standing at the helm of a business that is Stress-free because you feel confident in all aspects of your work—even the marketing and pricing and sales bits.

If this sounds like something you want, too, here are four guiding principles that will help you master the 3 S’s!

Principle #1: Less Is MORE
Less is more can be a challenging concept to embrace, but it is both freeing and critical to success for you, your business, and the clients and dogs you serve. Less is more is ultimately about setting everyone up for success. Once you give in to this concept you’ll see endless opportunities to apply it but to get you started, here are a few:

Stop trying to serve everyone. Instead, focus on serving the exact right clients for you. Imagine working only with clients you love, never again losing sleep or energy or peace of mind to those who wear you down, bring you down, or who just don’t fit. Identifying your ideal client avatar and then building your marketing, services, and onboarding processes to attract them will increase the success of your business as well as your long-term enjoyment of it.

Stop trying to do everything. Our attempts to serve everyone often lead to trying to do too much. Our service offerings become overly complex and the number of choices on offer become overwhelming enough to actually lose business. If this is you, look at simplifying your services based on the needs of your ideal clients and your professional understanding of what is best for the dogs—and also what works for you. Confidently standing behind services you’ve crafted based on these parameters will mean better results for you and the dogs.

Here’s one exception to the less is more rule: Trainers, when it comes to training packages, bigger is almost always better. Dogs and their people will always benefit from more time with you, and your business and your personal sense of satisfaction will benefit, too. Selling less training than is necessary to create the best chance of helping clients reach their training goals is a disservice to the client and the dog, not to mention your business and peace of mind.

That said, when you get to work inside those larger packages, less is more still applies—it’s always better to train fewer things to greater proficiency!

Principle #2: You Cannot Do ALL THE THINGS
If you often feel like the proverbial hamster on the wheel, or like you’re stuck in an ongoing juggling act, or perhaps like you’re drinking from a firehose, then this principle is for you. When running a business alongside everyday life it’s easy to end up with a schedule that is literally impossible to keep. We never feel on top of things because there are simply too many things.

Creating a truly sustainable success—one that includes comfortable work / life balance—requires turning in our busy badges for a focus on top goals and priorities. When we don’t prioritize what’s most important to us, both in our businesses and our personal lives, it’s often those things that matter most that get the short shrift. We work hard only to feel like we haven’t gotten anything done. Those important work projects (like marketing, for example!) get endlessly pushed off. Time for the things we love most (like family or our own dogs) gets lost. We tell ourselves stories like it’s not possible to take a vacation, and these stories become embedded in our industry belief system.

But when we give ourselves permission to stop trying to do all the things in favor of focusing on the things that matter most, we find there really is enough time. Using tools that protect our goals and priorities, like a master schedule, the 3 D’s (do it, delegate it, or drop it!), and the word “No” help build a truly sustainable success.

And if that word “No” gives you the willies, consider this: Every time you say “No” to something you are saying “Yes” to something else. The reverse is also true. Next time you’re considering saying “Yes” ask yourself first: What will I have to say “No” to in order to carry out this “Yes”? Which is most important?

Principle #3: DONE is Better Than Perfect
We are an industry of caregivers. As such, we are easy prey for imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and plain old fear—fear of failure, of criticism and judgement, of rejection. These struggles (along with a lack of clear industry standards for guidance) keep us from moving forward and reaching our full potential. They make it hard to confidently market and sell our services. They keep us from pursuing innovative ideas and launching new services.

This is a shame. There are so many dogs and dog lovers out there who need us—who need our knowledge, skill, compassion, and caring. If you find yourself holding back, waiting until you’ve got something just perfect (your website, your puppy program, your walking service, another five years of experience under your belt), we encourage you to take a deep breath and PUT IT OUT THERE. No matter how much time, energy, or detail you pour into something, there will always be improvements to make. How many dogs are going without your positive impact while you struggle toward perfection?

The point is to serve. If you can make a positive difference now, do it. You can continue to perfect your business and services as you serve.

Principle #4: We Are Better TOGETHER
This is the most important principle of them all because it makes all the rest more doable. For too long we’ve been an industry of reluctant loners, each isolated and struggling alone. What we’ve found among our THRIVE! members and Dog Walking Academy grads is that coming together as colleagues instead of seeing one another as competitors leads to more successful, sustainable, and stress-free businesses for all.

It’s simply easier to apply the principles of less is more, you cannot do all the things, and done is better than perfect when you have a community of like-minded R+ dog pros egging each other on, sharing great ideas, inspiring one another, supporting positive choices, and celebrating each step along the way. Together we are smarter, bolder, more creative, more engaged, and more confident. Together we are quicker to master the 3S’s to enjoy financial success, sustainable work and life balance, and the confidence and skills to run a stress-free business.

 

Could you use support mastering the 3 S’s and putting these four principles into play for yourself? If you’re a R+ trainer we invite you to join our THRIVE! waitlist to be the first in line next time we open to new members. If you’re a dog walker, you’re invited to join our exclusive group of professional dog walkers by enrolling in the Dog Walking Academy.

How to Get Better (& More) Referrals

· ·

Referrals are the gold standard of marketing, and for good reason. One solid referral source can keep a dog trainer or dog walker consistently busy. But whether your dog training or walking business needs more clients or just more of the right clients, the trick isn’t getting referrals, it’s getting great referrals—ones that send your ideal clients to your door ready to sign up.

Here’s how to get better (and more) referrals:

Go after the right referrals
Not all referral sources are created equal. Look for other businesses and organizations serving dog lovers who are a solid match for your services. This includes potential clients who value their dogs and have both the wherewithal and willingness to invest financially in their dogs’ needs. For in-person services, you’re also looking for referral sources serving clients living within your geographic range.

Cultivating referral relationships takes time and attention; make sure you’re putting your focus where it will do you the most good. Keeping track of how clients found you, and whether they then use your services, will help you identify which referral sources to actively court.

Turn your referral sources into raving fans
You want enthusiastic, powerful referrals, not lukewarm ones. The more your referral partners actively sing your praises the more likely the potential student or client is to follow through on their advice. Turn your referral sources into raving fans with these strategies:

Practice great follow through. Always do what you tell your referral partners you’ll do. And always take good care of anyone they send your way, even if you don’t take them on as a client. You don’t want word getting back to a referral source that you’ve got poor customer service or don’t return phone calls.

Let them see you in action. Opportunities to see you do what you do best can transform a blah “Here’s a trainer’s business card…” referral into a raving one: “You have to work with Trainer X. She’s just amazing. She’ll completely change your life!” Trainers, that could mean offering a Lunch & Learn session for vet staff or training for shelter volunteers, for example. Pro dog walkers, you might share your Dog Walking Academy certification with local dog trainers along with an offer to volunteer time as a handler for private training cases or as a class assistant.

Make their jobs easier. Many of the opportunities to see you in action can also be designed to serve your referral partners. That Lunch & Learn session can help clinic staff better recognize early warning signs and reduce bites or teach staff how to recognize signs of separation anxiety and direct clients toward positive training. The training for shelter volunteers can help reduce leash pulling and increase volunteer retention. A competent therapy dog handler can allow a trainer to make much faster progress in their private training work.

Make it easy for them to make you look good
Your raving referral fans will now be happy to tell their clients and customers about you. The next step is making it easy for them to do so, and to increase the “stickiness” of their referrals—the likelihood that the potential client follows through to reach out to you. The trick is providing great materials for your referral sources to share.

Business cards and brochures lack punch. They’re traditional marketing materials and, as such, a bit boring and easily set aside. Instead (or in addition), think about what you could offer that shows off your skills or professionalism, is useful to your referral source, and is also actively helpful to potential clients.

For example, branded handouts are a powerful way to increase referrals and make them sticky. Trainers, you might offer vet clinics and shelters a handout on separation anxiety to share with clients and adopters. Or one with tips for getting the right start with your puppy. Groomers would surely appreciate a tip sheet on preparing your puppy for a lifetime of easy grooming visits. Pet stores would likely be delighted to pass out your Top 10 Must-Have Items for Your New Dog shopping list, or your Primer on Puzzle Toys.

Dog walkers, give your local R+ trainer colleagues something unique to share with clients whose dogs would benefit from regular exercise to help curb unwanted behavior. This could be a handout on How To Choose a Professional Dog Walker, highlighting the importance of certification and training in an unregulated industry. Or perhaps fun custom trading cards featuring the dogs you walk, to show off your above-and-beyond approach to client service and dedication to your work.

Reinforce the behavior
As your efforts come to fruition, don’t forget to put Skinner into action! We know reinforced behavior increases and ignored behavior decreases. Put thought into how you thank your referral sources, remembering that reinforcement is in the eye of the learner. What would be particularly rewarding to your referral source, to keep those referrals coming? A surprise lunch delivery on the vet clinic’s busiest day? Taking up a collection among friends and clients of a rescue group’s most needed items? Coffee cards for the pet store next door to a local café?

Nurture the relationship
Like all relationships, referral relationships require maintenance. In addition to finding ways to offer your sincere thanks for referrals, schedule regular time to be present. Drop by to check on and replace materials. Email to share an industry-related article or news of an upcoming seminar that might be of interest. Send referrals yourself whenever you can, and make sure to let those you refer to know when you do. Every now and then simply ask if there’s anything they need, or that you can do to be of help or service.

Not only do such actions deepen and solidify your referral relationships over time, they keep you front of mind. And that keeps the enthusiastic, sticky referrals coming.

 

Need help building your R+ dog training business? Become a THRIVE! member! Learn more and claim your spot on the THRIVE! wait list.

The Software Your Dog Biz Needs

· ·

The world gets more high tech every day, and we dog pros aren’t always the first in the rush to adopt new technology. Learning curves can be time consuming and tech learning curves are their own brand of pain.

But there’s a lot of software out there ready to make a powerful difference in how you run your business and what you’re able to accomplish for yourself and for dogs. And if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we dog pros can learn new tech to amazing effect. (Zoom, anyone?)

Still, there’s no point adopting new software just to do so. Here’s a rundown of four types of software and what they can do for your dog businesses, and some advice about how to choose what’s right for you…

Video Conferencing Software
We’ll start here, as it’s something most of us have become at least somewhat familiar and reasonably comfortable with. Who among us hasn’t spent time doing things on Zoom we’d never previously imagined? For many of you, that includes training dogs. And for many of you, that’s proven to be far more effective than anticipated. It’s also proven to put quite a few hours back in your day that used to be spent in your car.

Dog trainers have found that video conferencing software allows them to meet with clients (both individually and in groups) more often, providing an unprecedented level of training support. Some trainers use video conferencing to schedule more frequent consults or class sessions. Another approach has been to augment online or in-person consults and classes with package features like drop-in Q&A or office hours.

Increased touch points help to keep dog lovers motivated and on top of their homework, get your learner’s questions answered faster, and allow for quicker training adjustments and less wasted time.

There are also teaching advantages, like removing the trainer from the picture for anxious dogs or those who pick up on the “training picture” too easily, or regular use of strategies like video review sessions.

Options to start your research: Zoom, Google Meet, Facetime, Click Meeting, Zoho

LMS—Learning Management System Software
Learning management system software is the engine behind online courses. If you’ve taken a dogbiz University course you’ve experienced an LMS as a student. It’s essentially an online classroom space.

If you’re teaching live group dog training classes online, video conferencing software like Zoom is really all you need. But if you’re thinking about creating pre-recorded, on-demand classes that can be downloaded anytime for passive income, an LMS is a necessity. This type of software houses your course—the video lesson recordings, handouts, etc.—and provides students a professional platform through which to experience it. Many options also allow you to build in quizzes and other interactive learning devices, too.

Options to start your research: Ruzuku, Canvas, Thinkific, LearnDash (WordPress plugin)

CRM—Customer Relationship Management Software
Chances are you’re already using some form of CRM. CRM software is essentially a database allowing you to store client information, schedule and track their service use (training appointments, walks, daycare days, boarding stays, etc.), and handle their billing. CRM software can be also be connected to your website to allow for direct scheduling and payment—a particularly useful feature for group class registration, for example.

Think of a CRM as basic business administration software, or a very inexpensive admin assistant. It’s really a must for efficiency’s sake—as well as avoiding mistakes that may cost you income. CRM software can also help you stay organized in other areas, like reminders to follow up with a client or check on their progress.

Options to start your research: Dog Biz Pro (no relation to dogbiz), Pocket Suite, PetSitClick, TimeToPet, Paw Loyalty

Marketing Automation Software
Taking automation beyond basic scheduling and billing and into marketing with marketing automation software can do wondrous things for your business.

If you’re sending out an email newsletter you’re probably already using a simple form of this powerful tool, such as Constant Contact or MailChimp. The next step is using lead magnets to collect email addresses. This could be a housetraining e-book or webinar you give away on your website, for example. To take things further you’d set up an automated marketing funnel—perhaps a series of emails and other educational shares (like articles or blog post links) sent out on a pre-determined schedule to follow the original e-book or webinar, designed ultimately to lead to registration in your puppy class or a spot in your puppy daycare & train program.

The point of marketing automation is staying in touch with potential clients in an active, useful, supportive way until they become actual clients. There’s a bit of work and a learning curve involved up front, but it’s well worth the time saved afterward when the system does it all for you—and well worth the increased conversion rates, too!

Options to start your research: Constant Contact, MailChimp, Click Funnels, Hubspot (Hubspot has a free version plenty robust for most dog businesses)

How to find the right software for your dog business
First, don’t feel compelled to collect fancy software just because it exists. Ask yourself if a particular class of software (video conferencing, CRM, marketing automation, LMS):

  • Will allow you to do things you’re already doing better or more efficiently?
  • Will allow you to do things you aren’t already doing but should be (like regularly scheduled client check-ins, for example)?
  • Will allow you to better reach a goal (such as growing your business)?
  • Will allow you to add a service (such as an online course) that serves your goals and mission and that fuels your passion?

Before you start your search:

Once you’ve decided you need a new class of software, take some time to think through what you want it to be able to do for you. For example, if you’re going to build a class on an LMS, do you want to be able to track student progress through the course? Do you want to be able to send automated tracking reminders or check ins? Do you want students to be able to chat together inside the course? Software programs in every category will vary in the features they offer—knowing what you need will help you choose the option most likely to make you happy.

If you decide to pursue a new class of software, here are 5 steps to help find the right program choice for you:

  1. Ask Google

Do a search like “Best LMS for small businesses” or “Best CRM for dog walking companies.” You’ll likely find both direct product links and multiple articles helping you to compare options.

  1. Ask fellow dog pros

Ask your dog pro friends and colleagues what they use, and what they like and don’t like about it. You can do this one-on-one as well as through any online forums or Facebook groups you belong to. (You might try searching them first—chances are this conversation has already taken place more than once!)

  1. Review on C-NET

cnet.com describes themselves as the “world’s leader in tech product reviews, news, prices, videos, forums, and how-tos.” In short, this website is a gold mine resource for comparing software program options. You can type any program name into the search bar and be rewarded with helpful professional reviews. (Warning: The site can be a bit overwhelming!)

  1. Compare features & pricing

Reduce the list of options you’ve built from the first 3 steps down to a small handful of finalists (2 to 5 at most) by comparing functionality and pricing. Cut any from your list that don’t include your most important features, and any that don’t fit your budget.

  1. Take a test drive

Most software programs offer a free test drive period, and some will even schedule a one-on-one to walk you through the program and answer your specific questions. It’s worth taking the time to get to know any program you’re considering, as it will save time in the long run by avoiding time lost to the wrong choice.

New tech means a learning curve, yes. But the rewards are well worth the effort. And besides, we’re dog pros; we know all about helping dogs and their people to successfully climb learning curves. Just apply that learning theory to yourself and you and your business will be reaping the benefits in no time!