Congrats on completing the quiz! According to your results, you are in the incredibly exciting early phases of your pet business. You might be the most passionate pet lover in the world, but learning HOW to Entrepreneur is the exciting challenge you face – but, no worries, we are here to help!

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

Three easy tips to make your startup a smash hit success...

1. Content is key

Can you think of a successful business that doesn’t have an Instagram profile, Facebook page, or blog? Probably not.

Why, you might ask. Well, creating engaging, highly-shareable content is key to getting your brand out there. You have to be SEEN to be known! On top of that, it helps establish you as an expert in your field, so potential customers or clients feel that they can trust your products or services!

• set up Facebook and possibly Instagram for your business

• Get a Google business account. Like STAT!

• make plans to get a website presence as soon as possible if you don't have one. Reserve your url NOW at a place like GoDaddy or Register.com. Having a website = legitimacy in today's business environment.

2. Get to work networking

This tip is an oldie but a goodie... Success isn’t about what you do as much as who you know. When you invest time not only in meeting entrepreneurs from your industry, but also going above and beyond to help them, you’re building a support system. While competition certainly has its place, "coopetition" can go even further in ensuring your business stays afloat. Look for a local network of pet business professionals.

Visit Chamber of Commerce. See if you have BNI chapters in your area or other business networking groups to visit and refine your networking skills.

Read 7 Levels of Communication for some real insight into creating a high-touch experience for your clients and creating a business by referral.

3. Set your boundaries

I know...this doesn't seem like a super tangible "thing" to do.

But wow is it important at the early stages of your business.

It is so easy to start out with the excitement of wanting to help everyone with everything. Your M.O. ends up being "sure I can do that" because you want to get clients as quickly as possible.

STOP. Think about the things that will support your goals. Define who you are and who you serve. Develop clear "out of bound" lines so you can more easily say "NO" when someone wants to take you into that zone. Do you want to carry every product line that a customer asks for? Do you WANT to do every other day cats? Do you WANT to do 6am visits? Are you trying to compete with big box or are you going to specialize? Do you WANT to stay overnight? Do you want to staff for daycare pickup late? Do you WANT to have clients calling and texting at 10pm? Make those decisions now.

Congrats on completing the quiz! According to your results, you are out there kicking butt in your business! You are probably entertaining a pretty full schedule...maybe a bit too full for your sanity at times. You might see the need to hire soon or maybe you have already dipped your toe into that fun adventure!

You might be the most passionate pet lover in the world, but learning HOW to get a foundation under your growing business is the exciting challenge you face – but, no worries, I'm here to help!

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

Three easy tips to make this phase a smash hit success...

1. WRITE it down!

Whether you already have employees or you are considering it when you have a smidge of time you aren't running around, having written policies and procedures is the bomb! Like, actually in a document. Words. On. The. Page.

This is the point that you want to have the details in place. How can you expect someone to do things THE WAY WE DO IT HERE if you don't have it clear and understandable?

Process mapping is a great thing. Start at high level. Let's say your new client onboarding process and you have pet care software: 1) send them activation 2) send welcome email 3) put schedule in system 4) send confirmation (ya-di-yah). You can even make a visual flowchart in a software like LucidChart (free for the first three flowcharts). Then put the deets after your flow chart so anyone can pick up the procedures and follow them!

2. Keep networking

This tip is an oldie but a goodie... Success isn’t about what you do as much as who you know. When you invest time not only in meeting entrepreneurs from your industry, but also going above and beyond to help them, you’re building a support system. While competition certainly has its place, "coopetition" can go even further in ensuring your business stays afloat. Look for a local network of pet business professionals.

Visit Chamber of Commerce. See if you have BNI chapters in your area or other business networking groups to visit and refine your networking skills.

Read 7 Levels of Communication for some real insight into creating a high-touch experience for your clients and creating a business by referral.

3. Get your finances straight BEFORE you hire

Believe me, you don't want to be scrambling to make payday. There is nothing more disempowering than feeling like your employees are making more than you do with all the work you are doing.

Get your personal and biz finances in order. Start a BUDGET with both if you don't have one. My rec is reading Profit First. Revolutionized my business finances over 5 years ago.

Evaluate your pricing. Make sure that you will be PROFITABLE after your COS (cost of service which is payroll "all in" or including payroll taxes, workers compensation insurance, mileage reimbursement, etc). You want to make sure you pay your people well but keep that "all in" percent under 55% for in-home services, 43-45% for daycare/boarding, and under 20% for retail (of course none of this includes your compensation).

Congrats on completing the quiz! According to your results, you are one of the top businesses in the pet care industry.

You might be the most passionate pet lover in the world and been very successful in growing your business to this point, but learning HOW to take that last big step to a self-managing pet business is the exciting challenge you face – but, no worries, I'm here to help!

Many pet businesses stay in this phase for a VERY long time or just get stuck here. You might decide this is a great place to be! You might want to take that next step to FREEDOM. You might love the daily work with pets. Only you can make that decision. There are things you can do in this phase to be a stronger business.

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

Three easy tips to make this phase a smash hit success...

1. Create a Scoreboard

Complete attention on this one! Do you have metrics for your company? Benchmarks that you LIVE by, HIRE by, FIRE by, PROMOTE by, and ACKNOWLEGE by? These are the 5-10 top numbers in your company that you need to look at on a weekly basis (at least!). I recommend reading Traction to develop the structure for a high-level efficient business.

Create a scoreboard for your business. Post it for your employees to see what matters and what are the drivers of your business. Creating employee buy-in of your company and it's goals is a challenge (even more so with an in-home autonomous team) so make that a priority!

2. SOPs

Likely you know the need for a Standard Operating Procedures manual. This is your playbook for running your business. This is essentially packaging up everything you do and how you do it and creating the equivalent of a "franchise model" biz. Most SOPs will have the following top-line sections as a start: general business procedures, office procedures, customer service, HR, financial, etc.

This is a LIVING document. It will ALWAYS need to be updated as you find better, more efficient ways to do things. I can't tell you how many times we have updated our HR section which including our hiring and onboarding processes. Learn better, do better! Have each procedure in an individual section that can be replaced or updated without disturbing the whole.

3. Manager development

Do you have a manager? Do you want a manager?

I'm not talking about someone who does the scheduling for you.

Of course that is a priority.

I am talking about THE PERSON. Your right hand and your left hand. The one who takes ownership in the success of your business and you are confident they can BE you when you can't be there (or CHOOSE not to be!)

Maybe you have someone who is in that position but not developed to their full potential.

Maybe you need to find that person.

You need to spend time "imagineering" (imagine + engineer) that position so you aren't just throwing spit wads hoping something will stick. This takes some intentionality. Pre-define their KRAs and KPIs (KRAs-Key Results Areas KPIs-Key Performance Indicators). These are the things that this position should do to drive the results you are looking for (see Scoreboard above).

Congrats on completing the quiz! According to your results, you are one of the rare few. You have built a successful business and have systems in place to run predictably and efficiently.

But we always have room for improvement, right?

Never be the smartest person in the room.

Always grow. Never settle or get complacent.

Start new s**t and fix what is broken. That is my official job description now. Can you relate?

You face far different challenges than most in the industry but you can feel a sense of pride in how far you have come. There are still things to do and you should always cycle back through the 4 phases to micro-improve your systems and processes – but, no worries, I'm here to help!

"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." ~Walt Disney

Three easy tips to make this phase a smash- hit success...

1. Continually evaluate

There is no place for complacency here! There never is a "perfect" in your pet business. Even after nearly 30 years, I don't have it all right and I learn something new daily (one of my intentional goals of each day!) Markets change, people change, labor changes, and innovation changes. Your role is LEADER. And your sub-role is building other leaders. Own that.

Cycle back through the other three phases of STARTER, GROWER, and EXPANDER. Be energized by the freshness and excitement of the Starter and check your own foundations. Feel the tension of the Grower and make sure you have all those Benchmarks cleanly defined and updated. Join the Expander and focus abouton your customer funnel and make sure you have a clean system for automating your prospect and client nurturing.

Rinse. Repeat.

2. Management layers

Imagine...you are at a place finally where you can nearly let go.

This takes a lot of strategy and planning.

And people.

Have you ever stopped to think about each face that has been there along the way? Their contribution? How many different roles there have been and how many hats you have had to wear in business? How much you have had to learn along the way?

It is time to evaluate each of those hats and make sure there is another head to wear them. Think about that. Make sure you evaluate your team to make sure the RIGHT person is wearing the RIGHT hat. Define roles and responsibilities and make them clear and written.

Are there some things you know you still need to have covered for efficiency? Create those additional management layers needed for your workflow.

Make sure everyone has clearly defined responsibilities and that they are accountable to each other and to the business.

3. Go outside your business

Look for new opportunities to contribute. It might be to your community, to your team, to the industry. Can you get involved with rescue initiatives? Do you have a passion for pet nutrition or therapy? Something new you want to learn?

Do you see potential in one of your team members? Can you elevate their skills to contribute to their career?

Can you start a local network for the pet industry to collaborate? Is there a national initiative you can advocate for? A national or international group you can lend your expertise to? Do you enjoy writing? Perhaps you can be a contributor to industry publications.

Continually refine and use your time and talents to build a legacy.