Bella In Your Business: Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Podcast

Ever wondered if a customer complaint could actually be the key to unlocking untapped potential in your pet business? The truth is that behind every complaint lies a valuable opportunity waiting to be discovered. This week, as we explore strategies to not only manage complaints but to leverage them as stepping stones toward service excellence.

We'll explore real-life examples and practical strategies to handle complaints effectively, but also leverage them as catalysts for growth. From turning dissatisfied clients into loyal advocates to refining your service offerings based on customer feedback, you'll gain insights that can revolutionize the way you approach customer relations.

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a newcomer to the pet industry, understanding how to navigate and capitalize on customer complaints is essential for building a resilient and successful business.

If you've ever felt at a loss for words when dealing with an upset customer, or if timely responses have been your Achilles' heel, this is the episode for you.

Topics & Key Points:

Effective communication strategies for handling customer complaints

Effective communication in complaint management.

Customer complaint resolution strategies

Handling customer complaints effectively

Timestamps:

[3:48] Effective communication in complaint management

[9:20]Customer complaint resolution strategies

[13:33] Handling customer complaints effectively

Notable Quotes:

"So the moment that complaint is voiced the clock starts ticking your response time and more importantly, the quality of that response sets the stage for the entire interaction."

"It's not just about responding, but doing so in a way that shows that you care, you understand, and you're ready to make things right."

"I want you to think about like when the policies are clear, it's easy for your team to manage the complaints consistently and effectively ensure that the policies are easily accessible for your clients to ideally post on your website to include your service agreement."

Resources:

The Joy of Failure

Mastermind

JazzHR

Did you love this episode?

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. And we're gonna continue on the bad customer complaint train today. First, I love how many of you guys went out and did get the joy of failure, talks about it in the last episode by Julia McCoy, and Chris Evans, it is a really good quick read, and it will impact your soul. I can't stress it enough. If you can't be in the room, technically, with amazing people, that is the next best thing. In the last episode, we talked about, you know how customer complaints can shake us to the core, it can unearth a lot of trauma, it could unearth a lot of reactions that we're not quite sure of. It could paralyze us, it could freeze us it could do all of these things, and kind of how to overcome them. And I think that it's you know, you have to think about the psychology of it first before we just get into the robotic how tos, which we're going to kind of move into a little bit today. Today, we're going to talk about the effective communication strategies how to respond, how to actively listen, and how your language matters a lot. And we're going to talk about how to, you know, kind of move through that. And I'm going to give you different steps and definitely, like practical steps to resolve the complaint where you definitely can make a good SOP and then you know, adapt it to however you want today. But first first, before we get into that I do want to do a big shout out to JazzHr, who helps support our industry in ways that I've never seen a company do so consistently and for so long. So take these words from our sponsor.

Already I'm we're back. And today I wanted to also give you another book recommendation. This is a book that I have read that a lot of my clients have read that we've had the author, teach, not once but twice in the mastermind, there's actually the teaching the recordings are in there right now, if you're in the mastermind, if you're not, you want to check it out, go ahead and sign up, it's only month to month. And it's jumped consulting dotnet forward slash mastermind, but it's called Never lose a customer again, turn any sales into a lifelong loyalty in 100 days. It's by the most amazing, charismatic, exciting, interesting person, Joey Coleman. And it's a really awesome book, how you can kind of build out your own procedures. And in towards the end of the series that we're doing on customer complaints turned into a series that was going to be just an episode. But I think we're going to actually be doing a third episode after this one. You might want to grab that. And that's also on Audible, in Kindle and hardcover. And it's been very amazing for a lot of people, it's it's really helped build out this kind of customer loyalty program in terms of how to reach out and touch them and make sure that, you know, they feel like really excited to be part of your company beyond the whole Oh, thank you for your booking. You're a new client, now you're part of the family.

All right, I'm always looking to inspire and motivate you guys towards success, because I know that entrepreneurship can be pretty, pretty lonely. Okay, so let's get into today's episode, let's talk about effective communication strategies. Now, there were that were equipped with the understanding of why complaints can actually be big gateways to improvement. Let's shift our focus to how we can actually master communication in these sensitive situations. So the first response is, is key. It's paramount, like, think about the last time that you had to, you know, make a complaint to accompany you, aren't you like kind of lay it on the floor on the feet, whether it's you know, online, whether it's an email, whether it's a phone call, whatever it might be you muster up all this time and energy to actually even tell them that something is wrong, because most people won't, right? And you're anticipating their response, and their response is everything. So the moment that complaint is voiced the clock starts ticking your response time and more importantly, the quality of that response sets the stage for the entire interaction. It's crucial to acknowledge the complaint quickly. And not just to show that your prompt but you can demonstrate care and concern. And immediate acknowledgement can be something as simple as I understand you're upset. And that's not the experience we want you to have. Here timing is everything. A quick response shows that you're attentive and committed to resolving issues swiftly. But remember, a fast response that lacks empathy can do more harm than good. It's about finding that balance, being quick, but also being meaningful in your communication. The other thing I want you to think about is listen actively. Now, I always make a joke about this because I'm from Boston, and I'm Italian. And so my listening, especially being in Arizona, which is more like West Coast, I always like giggle about this. Because in my family, it's like the person that can talk the loudest and talk over people. It's like, hey, oh, hey, you know, like, and you're like, hey, yeah, I totally know what you're saying. Like you're talking over each other and fast, it means that you're actively listening, right? But generally speaking, and especially in business, it's something I always have to watch. I can't interrupt people, I try not to interrupt people. No matter how excited I am, I need to let people finish their thoughts. So when you're listening, genuine, active listening, when a client comes to you with a complaint, they're often frustrated, maybe upset, and they want to feel heard. So it's your opportunity to listen, which is with two ears and speak with one mouth, right? But to understand active listening involves giving your full attention nodding, maintaining eye contact, if you're in person, not interrupting.

Follow their complaint with a summary of what they said. So show them that you literally hear what they're saying, you're not just waiting to say what you want to say. So okay, let me make sure I've got this right, and then repeating back their key points, it'll show that you're engaged, and clarify any potential misunderstandings immediately. And this method doesn't just apply to face to face it equally, it's equally effective on calls or email. And it's about making the customer feel valued and respected. Through your attention to detail. Now, I've seen this go so wrong in those call centers, right? They just start regurgitating what you're saying. I'm like, Oh, my God, just stop talking. Right? Because there's like, an empathetic way to do this. You really do care. Like, okay, let me make sure I understand what you're saying. So you're saying that this, this, and this happened? Right? Right. And that's, that's a really good way to do it. But when it's not like, Okay, ma'am, I understand that you're trying to, you know, do this, and I'm gonna help you and everything that you can possibly do. And, and it's, it's not, it's like, they're trying to repeat this back to you. But they're not even asking if they got it clearly. Right. And so it can actually do more harm than justice if you're not authentic about it. And now, the language also matters too, I'm gonna give you four different types of languages that you can or words, phrases that you can use. Choosing the right words can either escalate or defuse a situation. Words are powerful. And in a complaint management, the right words can turn the tide in your favor. Use phrases that convey empathy and understanding such as I can see why that would be upsetting. Or, you're absolutely right to bring this to our attention....

Have you ever faced a day that spiraled out of control despite your best efforts? Maybe it was due to a misunderstanding with a client about their pet's needs or an unexpected hiccup in your scheduling. We know it happens to the best of us, and that's exactly why this episode is crucial. We're going to show you exactly how to turn the tide, enabling these road bumps to set you apart in this competitive market.

But first, we are going to address the feeling we all have when our unhealed trauma comes up from "being in trouble." Handling customer complaints in the pet-sitting business isn't just about damage control—It's a skill that has the potential to reshape your professional trajectory and solidify your standing as a respected leader in your field. It is acknowledging the personal growth journey that it gives us the opportunity to go down.

Today, we’re breaking down those barriers and turning customer complaints into stepping stones toward unparalleled success.

Topics & Key Points:

How to handle failure and find success with inspiring entrepreneur Julia McCoy

Managing client complaints with grace and effectiveness

Managing emotions when dealing with business complaints

Handling customer complaints with emotional intelligence

Timestamps:

[3:41] Handling failure and finding success

[10:14] Managing client complaints

[13:03] Managing emotions when dealing with business complaints

[15:43] Handling customer complaints with emotional intelligence

Notable Quotes:

"These are normal responses, but understanding where they come from can help you handle them even better"

"Now recognizing these feelings, and the Origins is the first step to managing them. And so here's how you can regulate these emotions. And approach each complaint from a position of calm and professionalism"

" Handling your emotional response allows you to approach each complaint as not a challenge. But an opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to your client and enhance your services"

Resources:

The Joy of Failure

Magai

JazzHR

Did you love this episode?

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. Oh boy. Before we get into today's topic, which is what to do when you have an angry customer, I want to pass on something that I discovered last week about a fabulous woman named Julie and McCoy who moved here to Arizona, from Texas. And she's quite a remarkable woman. After escaping a cult at 21. And starting her own writing company, and then selling it for millions of dollars. She has now taken that writing company and merged it with content at scale. And she's going to be our guest speaker in the Mastermind next month. And excited. I've just started a friendship with this amazing woman, she has a nine-year-old daughter as well as I do, and they just hit it right off. She's also got a beautiful two-year-old as well. And she's just a really solid person. So when she handed me her memoir, I read it in five days, five days, and I was I had chills, and I was crying. All within the first chapter, and it did not stop. It was amazing. It could not put it down. And I started, you know, traditionally reading it and then went to Audible. And she also had a book launch last week. And first of all, sorry, the memoir, for those of you wondering, is called A Woman Rising. And it's Julia McCoy. Last week, she also had a book launch for her ninth book called The Joy of Failure, how to Handle Failure, and experienced massive breakthroughs with her co-author, Chris Evans, and Chris flew into town for this book launch. And you could feel the palpable energy in this room, I was so grateful to be there. And I'm kind of basically on the track of anything Julie is doing. And she invites me to, I'm gonna say yes. As an entrepreneur, I believe that it is really important to surround yourself with inspiring, inspiring, and incredible people. And I just wanted to pass that on to you. But I also wanted to encourage you, as I have done so already in my groups like the mastermind, I wanted to encourage you to get the joy of failure. Now, I don't want you to see this as an Akash, I already have so much that I want to do already have so many audible books that I want to listen to, or books that I want to read and I never get around to them. But I just really want to encourage you, you know, if you don't have the people or you don't have the time in your life, to get in the rooms with awesomely inspiring people, if you feel like you're just, you know, overwhelmed, have so much to do this book is great. And there are a couple of reasons. Honestly, on Audible at normal speed, it only takes like three and a half hours to listen to. Now I say normal speed because I don't know if you are like me, where I like to listen to things at one and a half to two times the speed. After all, my brain stays involved. You might even listen to this podcast on that. Sometimes I do listen to my podcast, and I listen to it on double speed. Because it goes so fast that my mind doesn't wander. And so anyways, at normal speed, it's three and a half minutes long. Also, something else that is very interesting. I am a big audible person, if you know me. This is the first book I've ever listened to that was a virtual voice. It sounds exactly like a human, which also led me to lead me down a rabbit hole. I saw something from Jeff and, and. And Julia. There's this app that I trained to learn my voice in literally less than three minutes. I can type anything into this app and it produces an audio file that sounds exactly like me. It's but I mean, one day I could literally write out the podcast and not even have to sit here and worry about my ohms and ahhs and all that other jazz but that's neither here nor there. So go get the joy of failure. If you can't be in the room with awesomely inspiring people. I highly recommend the book in paperback. It's also not like a huge book that makes it feel like it's gonna take forever to get through the lessons and it is amazing. If I can just read you a short amount then I promise I'll get into today's topic. They write the mask of success is the image we present to the world that makes zero Role logical sense, but people believe in it anyway with Wild Hope. They want to desperately believe that some people don't struggle success can be easy. This mask looks like your face but blots out all of your failures, doubts, anxieties, losses, and fears. Wearing it means pretending you rose to meet your wins smoothly with nothing but fanfare fist fist-pumping smiles and excitement. It wipes away the tears, the frustration, the setbacks, and the low points as if they never happened. The messy failure-filled middle. The one we all know and experience when we strive to meet a goal doesn't exist. When you don't have on the mask. I wore the mask of success to protect myself. Yes, in the worldly sense, I was successful, but often, I felt insecure and like an imposter. With the mask. I had it all together, I was killing the game of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, I had the answers. I didn't struggle as people struggled through the mask, if I presented a curated image of myself, I could control the image others had of me. However, there's a big problem with wearing a mask. It's not true. It's posturing, it's inauthentic. It's exhausting, and not sustainable. Guys, I could keep going on with this book, reading it to you and my best mom, good night story voice. But I implore you to go get it, you will not regret it. It is so inspiring. And so antidotal. And the chapters are broken up into really awesome nuggets that you could even skip around if you wanted to. So go grab the joy of failure by Chris Evans, and Julia McCoy.

All right, today, we're gonna get into our topic, I just felt the need to just really share stuff that is impacting my life, because if it's impacting my life, then I'm sure it will impact your life. But I kind of wanted to talk about like, you know, when things go wrong in customer service this month, in the mastermind, we are focusing all on customer service. As you know, every single month, we have a different topic, and we dissect it and go through it. And this podcast might be a little bit more of a training session for you than then not, I can't help myself, like, I literally can't help myself, I want to over-deliver value. So this might be a podcast that you might want to bring your staff in on or think about, like out your notepad on your phone, or pen and paper depending on where you're listening to it. And maybe take notes for an actual standard operating procedure sop on how to deal with things. I even thought about sharing this crazy audio that I still have from when I used to have my pet-sitting company of this lady who just went off on me. On my voicemail. I'm pretty sure she was drunk. But the way that I reacted to it, so I'm not sure if I'm going to share it on the podcast or only in the mastermind. Nonetheless, in our line of work where our emotions run high, our clients, and beloved companions are involved, right? And so managing their complaints with grace and effectiveness is nothing short of critical. It's these moments that can either make or break our reputation. And today we're all about making it by breaking down the barriers that complaints may seem to impose.

Have you ever had a day when despite your best efforts, things just spiraled right out of control? Maybe it's today? Maybe it's a misunderstanding with the client over specific pet needs or an unexpected hiccup with your scheduling. Maybe someone called out, it happens to the best of us. But here's where we turn the tide. Here's how we handle those bumps in the road that can significantly distinguish our business in this competitive market....

?

Ever thought you could have a team that actually outperforms you? YES, it’s possible, and I’m going to show you how! Dive into this explosive episode of "Bella in Your Business," where I reveal FIVE cutting-edge strategies to boost your hiring process like never before. Ready to make some monumental shifts in your business? Let’s get started!

As pet business owners who are hiring, we're not just filling roles; we're crafting a powerhouse team that mirrors your core values of precision, empathy, and proactive communication.

In this episode, discover the transformative impact of automation tools that minimize errors and streamline operations. Embrace a data-orientated approach that optimizes ad performances and pinpoints top-tier talent with astounding accuracy. Plus, I’ll highlight the strategic advantage of keeping a robust talent pool, ready to spring into action when you need it most.

As I mentioned in the episode, my collaboration with Jazz HR is more than just support—it's a strategic advantage designed to elevate your recruitment process. With incredibly exclusive offers and powerful tools only accessible through Jazz HR, your hiring process is about to become your biggest asset.

Topics & Key Points:

Streamlining the hiring process for businesses

Automating the hiring process to speed it up and improve quality.

Improving the hiring process with JazzHR software

Timestamps:

Speedy Process [3:34]

Aligning your team on interview priorities [6:08]

Using the data [7:09]

Maintaining a talent pool of previous candidates [10:14]

Utilizing social media [11:46]

Notable Quotes:

"The hiring process also shapes the candidates initial perception of your company. And a negative one could make them kind of come in with a disdain on your company"

"But you need to use the data, you need to figure out where things are being bottlenecked, where you're not getting the right responses. And then"

"And this is really important and think something that a lot of people forget about. But if you you need a system in which you can"

Resources:

Sign up for a 20 min call 

Better Marketing with Bella

JazzHR

Go to the free workshops and training JazzHR has

Episode 348: 10 Steps To Hiring The Right Pet Sitting or Dog Walking Employee that Most Forget About

JazzHR Onboarding

Did you love this episode?

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. And today, I'm excited to kind of bring this to a very high level for you. We have five high-level tactics to increase your hiring speed, because let's face it, I want you to picture a world in which you always had the most amazing staff. I'm not talking just that you could always take on as many clients as you possibly could. But you also had a team that represented you, you were so excited for them to wear your T-shirt with your logo, your blood, sweat, and tears, that company that you have built from the ground up, people that you just know, you could hand off clients to and they would do a better job than you Yes, a better job than you. Because you as a business owner have to wear so many hats, and they get to go out there and care for the pets. And just only focus on that one job. Maybe your company culture is something about attention to detail, empathy, great communication, and positivity, and you know that they possess all of these qualities all of the time, a lot of us are running around with chickens with our heads cut off, quiet honestly, going off of our gut, gut response, trying to think that, okay, this person showed up for the interview. And they seem okay, I hope they work out. If you are running interviews and running your company like that, you are living on a prayer, and there is a way better way to do it. And it is exactly how my jumpers who have been able to scale and grow their companies and have that time and financial freedom have been able, to achieve this. And today, I want to break down five high-level concepts for you. In the past, we've done so many other episodes about the how-to the nitty gritty, and technical stuff, but I want to inspire you with these ideas today that you can achieve. People are achieving them out there. So why not you? Let's get into it. I want to also just mention before we start that this is sponsored by Jazz HR, they have been a huge supporter of the pet industry. And by that let me break that down. When I had my jump into paradise retreats here in Arizona before COVID. They were one of the first to say, hey, Bella, how can we help sponsor you? How can we help support you and the pet sitters? They've done that during COVID. And when we had those COVID groups, I want you to think about the people you're hanging out with and how we got you to work. And for two solid weeks, we had all kinds of experts come in, they helped us with that as well. They've always been here to help us and not just help support the different things that I do for you guys and help make that possible by monetarily supporting us. But also by doing things like giving us amazing discounts for our industry by giving us 50% off our middle plan when you sign up through me as a jumper at jumped consulting dotnet forward slash jazz HR. They also give us amazing discounts on the add-ons that help automate things. So nowhere else in the industry, will you see that we've been working with them since 2018. And myself, it's kind of like the Rogaine commercials, if you remember that I'm not just a client. I am a user myself. I've used HR for hiring people in my team, as well as even things in my personal life like a nanny. So jazz HR is pretty, pretty incredible, and helps you find people. But let's get into the podcast today. The very first thing I want to remind you about is that you need a speedy process for a couple of different reasons.

So first of all, hiring speed matters for businesses, when you have to stay on top of hiring, to compete with other companies. But also the longer it takes to fill a role, the more stress and strain it puts on you and your team, you know, they're working overtime, because you can't get someone to help them out. The hiring process also shapes the candidate's initial perception of your company. And a negative one could make them kind of come in with a disdain on your company, or they're just, you know, some stressed out business owner. And that's kind of what I could expect working for them. Alternatively, wow, they've got their act together. And I can't believe how professional they are. I thought they were just a dog-walking and pet-sitting company. How many times have you felt like that before? And so, if you can't hire fast enough, it is going to lead to burnout for you or your staff members. And when you can communicate quickly and effectively and impressively with the candidates in a timely and respectful manner. It's going to make them feel valued and have a very high respect for your company. All right, so just think about that you need a speedy process for your existing staff for you and the candidate. The other thing is, that you want to always be improving the quality automation tools can help you standardize the process, which we've talked about in many other podcasts before. But it also provides consistency and reduces the likelihood of manual errors. How many times have you been maybe sitting in the school pickup line, and oh, my gosh, you got a really good applicant? And it came in through your email, and you want to respond to them quickly, to let them know that you're excited about them. And, and not to give up hope and, and oh, my gosh, like, let's, let's get this process going. Right? And so you squirrely with your thumbs on your phone. And thank you, candidate, I was excited to get your application. Could you Oh, shoot, what's the next part in my hiring process, and you're going through another email you're trying to cut, copy-paste something else? And it's just a big mess when you can automate, automate it, and you already have your next step ready to go and with a click of a button, you can just forward them to the next phase, which is going to help you tremendously. But it's also going to help with that speedy process, which we just talked about.

Another really big part about automation that's going to help is that when you're aligning your team on the interview priorities, and the questions, it can streamline the decision-making process, therefore, resulting in faster, better-informed hires. So like, those those companies that I've mentioned before, some of the business owners are not even in the hiring process, because they've done these steps. And they figured out what questions and what phases. And they've tested all of these processes, a systematic process, essentially, that they don't even interview people anymore, they've been able to hand it off to different parts of their office staff, or people that are on their team. And so, we've talked about how we've made it a system on other podcast episodes, Episode 348 comes to mind. But paying attention to these details and getting them automated, helps streamline the process and make it a lot faster. Now, part of when you have it automated.

My third tip is to use the data, right? So when you have things like jazz HR, you can find out what hiring ads are performing better than others who are seeing it and applying, you can also see, when you have your phases broken up that oh, people might fall off at a certain phase, I have an interesting story for you. I've got one client who has a video, you know, send us back a video in part of it. And I've got another client who copied her. At first didn't understand why she was copying her and got a little discouraged because a lot of people would drop off at that. That video phase....

Are you building castles in the sand when it comes to your business finances? ? In this episode of "Bella In Your Business," we're diving deep into the world of financial management for pet business owners.

Join me as I unravel the mysteries behind bookkeepers, CPAs, and CFOs, shedding light on their vital roles in steering your business toward financial success.

Ever wondered how bookkeepers conjure order out of financial chaos? Or how CPAs work their magic to save you from tax nightmares? We're uncovering the secrets behind these financial wizards, empowering you to harness their expertise for your business's benefit.

From the ancient days of manual bookkeeping to modern strategies for financial mastery, we explore the evolution of small business finance and unveil the game-changing insights that can revolutionize your approach.

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just dipping your toes into the world of business ownership, this episode is your passport to financial enlightenment. Get ready to transform your business from a sandcastle into a fortress of financial prosperity!

This episode is brought to you by JazzHr!

Topics & Key Points:

The importance of bookkeepers, CPAs, and CFOs for small businesses

Financial management for small businesses

Importance of understanding business numbers

Timestamps:

[4:54]Bookkeepers, CPAs, and CFOs for small businesses.

[10:23] Financial management for small businesses.

[13:59] Importance of understanding business numbers.

Notable Quotes:

[3:08] "But unfortunately, without a bookkeeper, many of us end up with that sand castle, that's just you know, a box with a stick sticking out of it."

[6:33] " And then given your personal situation, whether you're married or single, you have dependents, you have other properties or assets or investments or insert here, the multitude of things, right. That's where a CPA comes in"

[10:12] "Or you really want to get aggressive with your retirement and savings accounts or you want to get aggressive with saving, because maybe you want to do investment properties, who knows. But whatever it is, you know, you want to have a real intrinsic strategy with your money. And that would be a CFO."

Resources:

Podcast: Bella in Your Business: Pet Industry Business Podcast

Join Mastermind

Sign up for a 20 mins call 

Better Marketing with Bella

JazzHR

Episode 215: Getting In Control of the Financial Numbers in Your Business with Jamie Trull

Episode 90: Questions To Ask Your CPA & Tracking Expenses for Tax Time

Episode 230: 10 Ways to Save Money on Your Taxes

Episode 138: Profit First With Mike Michalowicz

Did you love this episode?

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business. Remember when life gets down, Always Keep Jumping.

Transcript:

Welcome, everybody to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today we're going to talk all about what I feel like we need to have more of a conversation about. I have talked about taxes, CPAs, bookkeepers, and things and other episodes. And I'll I'll, I'll respond to them, or give you those episodes as we kind of go when they come up. But I kind of want to talk about this on a high level. It's currently April 2024. And a lot of people are posting and talking and chatting, and there's a lot of chatter, about people being upset because they have to do extensions, or their CPAs just not getting back to them or giving them the time of day. Or they're just really trying to figure out how they should file and they're upset because they have not been advised. And I just want to give you a little bit of oversight over the years and years and years that I have been an entrepreneur for 22. And you know, I've 22 years of experience doing this. And I think that sometimes we're like, plug and play like, oh yeah, I have a CPA, I gave him my stuff. We filed my taxes, and I'm fine. But I think there are a lot of things to know as an entrepreneur as a business owner as someone filing as an LLC and S Corp. or however else you might file as, and we don't know what we don't know. And so I just kind of want to plant some seeds in your head. That's my intention for this podcast episode. But before I get started, I would like to thank our sponsor.

Before we get into it, I also want to do a personal invite if any of you listening own a franchise, I have opened up a community just for franchise owners that helps kind of create support, and advice around the unique position that you have of being a franchisee so if that's you shoot me a DM or email, [email protected]  and I will get you an invite into that special group. All right, well, let's get started.

So I want to kind of talk about first bookkeepers, CPAs, and CFOs. And I invite you to listen with an open ear to think about whether is there anything that I'm about to kind of entice you that you haven't thought about or you don't know. So first of all bookkeepers the way I've always described bookkeepers are, they're literally, they're the people that help give you all of the toys to build a sandcastle. So let's pretend for a moment that we are on a beach. And we want to build one of those beautiful sand castles that have all the nooks and crannies and moats and layers and stories to them. Maybe they have multiple different structures, and they're all connected, you know, this big, beautiful thing. And they have beautiful architecture to them. You know, it's not just a box. And that's it was like a stick sticking up out of the top of it. But unfortunately, without a bookkeeper, many of us end up with that sand castle, that's just you know, a box with a stick sticking out of it. And what I mean by that is a bookkeeper that reconciles your books, which means that all of your credit cards, your bank statements, all go into let's say QuickBooks, or whatever it is that you choose to use, and they reconcile it every single month. So every single penny that has been spent or accumulated, they account for, and working with the bookkeeper would look like, every month or every quarter, depending on your volume and how you work with them. They're gonna send you a list and they're gonna say, hey, please tell me where to apply this expense to. This can help with sometimes you might use your business or personal on accident, or, like you're like me this weekend, and I took the wrong American Express cards, I took my business instead of my personal. So I'll get a nice little note about that from Christine, my bookkeeper. And she'll be like, I'm Bella. I'll be like, oh, yeah, we need to reimburse, you know, for that. It doesn't happen often anymore. It happened a lot when I first started, but pretty good about that now, but that is where you're going to keep control of that stuff. In the past. When I first started, maybe my first five years, I used to just be like, Oh, no problem. I'll just print out all my bank accounts. And I'll open up a bottle of wine. Many of you guys have heard this story before. And I'll sit there and I'll just go through it all and I'll enter it all. Oh my god, you guys, that is not a good way to do it. Not to mention that even if you could enter it all the hours that it takes away from you working on your business or let's be honest, taking a nap or just sleeping is ridiculous. The next thing that is also kind of mucky about that is you know just simple things like meals and entertainment. You know, were you entertaining a client were you at a networking meeting? Are you ordering lunch in the middle of the workday at your home office, or your office that you're out, maybe you have an office, you know, there's like lots of different subcategories of meals or food. And that's where a bookkeeper is going to be able to do that. The other cool thing too, about a bookkeeper and like what we do, and you might have different levels or circumstances in your company, where maybe you have in-home boarding, but then you also have pet sitting, right? And maybe in-home boarding is one revenue source. If you want to keep track of all your cleaning supplies, and everything that goes into that, and that might have more expenses, then you can track the profit of that one service. That's what we do with better marketing with Bella with the mastermind with the podcast, we kind of break them up into revenue streams, so that we know which one is the most profitable, given how much expenses we have. And a good bookkeeper will do this for you. And they also will most likely pay or if you have them do this, you know, just automatically pay your monthly or quarterly taxes.

So that again, when you kind of come up to CPA time or you know tax season, April time, you're not hit with a major bill because you've already been paying into it right or saving for it, it kind of varies depending on where you're at. Now a bookkeeper can only go so much because they also don't know tax law, or not necessarily law, but you know, all those different tax things that happen every single year. There's so much that changes with that. And then given your situation, whether you're married or single, you have dependents, you have other properties or assets or investments, or insert here, the multitude of things, right? That's where a CPA comes in. And you guys a CPA, as we know, are completely slammed during April, it actually kind of always amazes me that, you know, yeah, it's their busy season, but they can plan for it. So that's a whole nother tangent, I'm not gonna go down. But what I'm trying to express to you is that having a good CPA on your team is vital. And what I mean by that is that you meet with them a couple of times a year, that they might like, look at your projections, or look at where your current revenue is, and they're like, Yep, you're on track with last year....

Have you ever felt like the weight of your business is resting solely on your shoulders? Do you find yourself wondering why some ventures soar while others struggle to take off? Join me for this week's episode of Bella in Your Business!  We will uncover the secret to scaling your pet business: surrounding yourself with the right people.

In the ever-changing landscape of entrepreneurship, let's the critical role that your team plays in shaping the destiny of your business. From spotting common pitfalls in scaling to navigating the intricate world of social media marketing. I share personal advice and invaluable insights.

What solutions can you take to move your business in the direction you want to go? From mastering DIY social media content creation to deciphering the mysteries of inconsistent branding, this episode is jam-packed with actionable advice.

Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to business coaching, marketing, and branding? I emphasize the transformative power of surrounding yourself with the right people. Plus, I share insights on attracting clients and staff through strategic marketing.

So, whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just dipping your toes into the pet business world, this episode serves as your roadmap to success.

Thank you to our wonderful sponsor JazzHr!

Topics & Key Points:

Social media marketing challenges and solutions

Business coaching, marketing, and branding

Surrounding oneself with supportive people

Timestamps:

[3:29] Social media marketing challenges and solutions for small business owners

[10:47] Business coaching, marketing, and branding

[14:41] Supportive people for business success

Notable Quotes:

[1:37] "keeping the wrong people in your life could truly hurt your business. And I don't think that you understand how much of an effect this can happen have. "

[4:58] "as a coach as someone who sees 30,000 foot view, I see exactly what you gotta do. But sometimes you gotta get out of your throat out of your own way. So I want you to think about like"

[12:25] "you need a strategy, you need direction, you need a compass, you need like, check ins, like we can do this. But as, as a coach, I also need to wonder, like, do you want to do this?"

Resources:

Sign up for a 20 mins call 

Better Marketing with Bella

Did you love this episode?

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today we're gonna do a Bella Butt Kick. Yep, I've warned you. So if you're not ready for it, or if you want a teaching episode, this is not going to be the episode for you. But oh my gosh, I who there's always something with spring where I do a lot of 20-minute coaching calls. And so I get to talk to a lot of you. And while a lot of people are now starting to ramp up and gear up in their business, they're starting to hire more. They're starting to scale and expand. There are some problems that I see happening, that I wanted to talk about today. You may or may not know, every single week This podcast is something that I literally kind of sit and get quiet and think, what do I want to talk about what is weighing on my heart? What do my jumpers need to know, this podcast every single week is literally like a love letter from me to you. And there's a lot of you that download it every single month. And although or every single week. And although I might not be able to hear back from every one of you, despite my begging of you to email me,[email protected] I just kind of try to keep my pulse on what is going on. And today, I wanted to talk to a talk about a really serious issue that I see. And it's it's it's keeping the wrong people in your life that could truly hurt your business. And I don't think that you understand how much of an effect this can have. And at the same time, keeping the right people in your business can drastically help your business. But I'm going to talk about the right at the end. And I'm gonna give you some examples of the wrong right now because I've had some conversations that have just hurt my heart. If these people had other better people surrounding them, or if they were jumpers, right, a lot of this could have been avoided. And as a coach as a mama bear as someone who wants to go to battle for you, who wants to stand next to you in the trenches, and fight the big bad wolf or, you know, give you that the five fingers up and over to help you up and over your challenges. It just breaks my heart, it breaks my heart. So I take a drink of water.

Um, there is one business owner, I'm going to give you a couple of examples that I know of. And she is I think the thing is a Jill of all trades jack of none, or Master of None, which means she was trying to do a little bit of everything. And, she, along with some other people that I've experienced, whether it's been online or on these calls, or just reading stuff from other people have used COVID as an example, or as an excuse. And like I said, this might piss some of you off. And I'm sorry, not sorry, I'm here to give you the honest to God's truth. COVID was in 2020 building back was 2021 be 2022. It is now 2024. And so if we haven't recovered from that, then we're doing it wrong. And so one of her things was you know, COVID took her business. But her prices, stink, she has no logo, and she DIY her website. And her messaging is all over the place. And it's like, there's all of these, these other problems that that need to be fixed. And there's no one in her life telling her that her website looks like it's, it's, you know, not up to date or that her prices are not even livable wage. They're not even what I was charging when I sold my company in 2016. Okay. And that was eight years ago. Oh my gosh, that feels like so long ago. So again, it's like what problem are you struggling with? Have you just tried to put out fires because the fires are going to keep popping up? Or we're going to systematically solve these right? And it just again, it breaks my heart, you know, they got another job, and they don't want to do the other job. They want to make their business work, which I'm all for, like, let's make your business work, but like they're just stuck in such a conundrum right now that there's no plan to get out of it. And, yeah, like as a coach as someone who sees a 30,000-foot view, I see exactly what you gotta do. But sometimes you gotta get out of your throat out of your way. So I want you to think about like, what's the real problem that you're struggling with? What's the real challenge and take inventory of who feeds you? Who are you learning from? Who are you surrounding yourself with? Have you surrounded yourself by a bunch of people that are talking about? Oh, yeah, COVID took my business or something, you know, like victim mentality? Or are you surrounded yourself by people who are trying to figure it out, and they are pushing forward? Because that makes a big difference.

I talk to another business owner, who's trying to piece social together or hire out of the country. But she doesn't know the first thing about it. And she's like, Hey, Bella, should I hire someone overseas? And I was like, Well, I don't know, you know, and it was sprouted from our last week's podcast. And the question is, I don't know, I can't tell you if you should, or shouldn't hire someone just because of where they're located. But I can tell you a couple of things. One, do you know what the scope is that you're hiring for? Ergo, last week's episode? What are the KPIs, the key performance indicators? How do you know if they're doing a good job or a bad job? Do you even know what you need to do on your social media? If the answer is no, and you have no idea, then you have no business hiring someone to do it. How do you know if they do a good job or not? I mean, it's literally like, the math ain't math in. And so I told her, I was like, Well if you hire overseas, you know, you are gonna have timezone issues. What's the scope? Are they just posting what you give them? Or are they creating the stuff? Because that's gonna like, really vary the hours. There's so much that goes into that, right? But I think the real question, the real challenge, and this gets to the root of the problem, and this is what my point is today what is the real problem? The problem isn't, should I hire someone overseas? The real question is, do I know enough to hire someone to do a good job overseas? You know what I mean? And so we had a long conversation about that. And it was, it was, you know, hopefully, I helped change the trajectory of what she was thinking. Because, quite honestly, if you don't know social and you're hiring someone to do your social, and they're not taking you along the journey, then you're not learning anything. And you're just like, Okay, well, at least it's posted on social again, listen to last week's episode.

Now, I have one more example that I want to talk about. And then I want to kind of give you a way to kind of get out of this. That same business owner also was thinking about trying to piece because she didn't know it was either hire overseas, or, Oh, I have one girl who loves Tik Tok. So she can make tic-tock videos. Okay, what are the TIC tock videos? Like? How long are they going to be? What is the call to action? What is the vernacular? Does she know your fonts logos and colors? How often is she going to be posting? Are we going to download it or get it out like natively? So that doesn't have the TIC tock logo, and we're going to also repurpose it for Facebook reels and Instagram reels, you know, we, it was like, you know, all these questions. And then she had someone else on her team who liked to just like, you know, post things as she's inspired. So she had this other person,...

Are you struggling to navigate the world of social media for your pet business? Wondering if hiring a social media manager is the right move for you? Join us in this episode of Bella in Your Business as we delve into the nuances of social media management and how it can propel your pet business to new heights.

From understanding the unique qualities of a social media manager to creating engaging content that resonates with your audience, we explore the ins and outs of effective social media strategies tailored specifically for pet-sitting and dog-walking businesses.

But it's not just about posting content randomly. It is about having a clear social media strategy aligned with your business goals, coupled with a deep understanding of your target audience's preferences and behaviors.

And let's not forget about the human touch. There needs to be a balance between the professional and personal aspects of your business, and how a skilled social media manager can navigate this delicate terrain with finesse.

But before you rush into hiring just anyone to handle your social media, listen closely. We will unravel the key considerations, including cost, expertise, and the importance of ongoing education and motivation for your social media manager.

So, if you're ready to harness the power of social media to grow your pet business, tune in now and unlock the secrets to effective social media management that will set you apart in the competitive pet industry.

This episode was brought to you by JazzHR

Topics & Key Points:

Hiring a social media manager and its responsibilities

Social media management for pet-sitting and dog-walking businesses

Social media management and its importance

Timestamps:

[2:27] Social media management for pet sitting and dog walking businesses.

[7:01] Hiring a social media manager and their responsibilities.

[11:35] Hiring a social media manager for a pet-sitting business.

[16:11] Importance of Social media management

Notable Quotes:

[3:17] "There are lots of different ways to be successful. But I think what most people don't understand is that when you're talking about social media managers, there are so many different things that you have to think about."

[5:48] " Do you have good KPI goals, key performance indicators? How are we going to determine if this person is doing a good job? Or is it like 75% of the people I see or talk to out there for the first time. It's just Oh, I have someone posting to my social. "

[16:46] " That's it. It's not about spending hours and hours and hours doing this. So listen, if you're out there, and you're wondering, shoot, am I making mistakes? Or am I doing good?"

Resources:

Sign up for a 20 mins call 

Better Marketing with Bella

Did you love this episode?

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today, we're going to talk about something that well, you probably already know, because you've seen the title of this episode, right? But I'm hiring a social media manager. And I'm so grateful to see so many of you start to do this. And because when I started doing better marketing with Bella way back in January 2018 and getting under the hood of a lot of your social media, you know, I was still convincing people to use social media, it's a great way to do things. And now, you know, a lot of you are realizing how much it can help get you clients and staff from a personable standpoint, right, we've talked a lot about how most likely people aren't going to just see your social media or like you don't hire us and then just call you and hand over their keys, and how it kind of works as a bigger ecosystem. But social media is your storefront, it is that place where you get to be seen, and heard. And then evoke that trust and personality. But hiring a social media manager, and hiring someone to be the mouthpiece of your business is a very, very big responsibility. Something that I'm starting to see is a trend that some don't understand, the immense responsibility that comes with it. And so hiring a social media manager, I'm gonna you guys know me if you've worked with me, I love analogies. A social media manager, let's just say it's like hiring a woman. Not every woman is considered the same, right? Not equal, but the same. Different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, likes, dislikes, attitudes, and styles, are all very different. And what I want you to take away this episode, is that hiring a social media manager, you need to know all the differences, the differences, you need to know what you're looking for. And that just because you hire a social media manager does not mean that all your problems are going to be solved.

Now, for those of you who have just maybe started listening to the podcast episode, I have been on social media forever. I was one of the very first to say, Get on video, get a Facebook page, I used to have a national organization for pet sitters, where I was doing training videos on how to start your Facebook page and why you should start your Facebook page when everybody else was saying it was that I have been squawking about video forever. And I have been talking about stories, putting yourself out there, rebuking all of the things that people don't necessarily get excited about on social, which is putting their face on camera. And while it's a good thing to do, you don't have to do it. There are lots of different ways to be successful. But I think what most people don't understand is that when you're talking about social media managers, there are so many different things that you have to think about. There's the design of a graphic, or even the design of the photo, the graphic, is it visually appealing? Or is it just looks like someone threw up all over it, which I hate to say, but I can tell off the bat, how many of you guys are doing it yourself? Or do you have someone hired? And that again, it's the storefront? I mean, do you want your elementary school kid to go make a poster and put it on a storefront? Or do you want to hire a graphic designer to do that? What is going to convey the best level of professionalism? Think about it that way. All right. And then the writing the writing of the caption the hook that gets them in? Is it long and drawn out and all about you? Or is it taking into account the avatar? And what's going to stop the scroll? Is it engaging? And do you know how to create engagement on social media? You guys, that's a huge thing. And it is something that is not just I think we think about social media as inbound, whatever comes into us, we will react to hopefully, hopefully, and even a lot of people aren't reacting to it. But there are a lot of things that you can do outwardly, to create that engagement and get things up is your social media manager going to do that? Because that could make or break it. And what about a posting schedule? What time of day should you post? How many? How, how often should you post a day? And does it vary for each platform? And do you post the same thing or different things? On the different platforms, which platforms do you post on? And which platforms do you not post on? All of these are going to be very, very important, along with things like content, calendar, holidays, or local events, which should be very important for every single pet sitting and dog walking company out there. Because you are a local company serving a local radius. So when you hire someone, I want you to think about what are your starting numbers. Let's start with something How many followers do you have? What is your engagement rate? What do your insights look like? What are your what's your total views of existing versus new followers? All of these things make a difference. Do you have good KPI goals or key performance indicators? How are we going to determine if this person is doing a good job? Or is it like 75% of the people I see or talk to out there for the first time? It's just Oh, I have someone posting to my social. And they feel like they've got a good job because someone out there is posting something and that's better than nothing?

Well, my jumpers, you're going to do better because you're a jumper, you're not going to just throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks. You're going to make all that spaghetti stick if I have anything to say about it. And that's why you're listening today. Do do? Does this new social media person know your brand? Your lingo, how you speak? What words vernacular do you use? Is it pets, animals, pet parents, Pa parents? Maybe it's something else? What emojis do you use? And what emojis do not use? Do they have a list of your partners that are online? Or maybe key people in the community that you'd like to follow? Or support? Did they get a regular list of your new clients and their Facebook or Instagram handles? Are they sharing stories? And using them effectively? Because there is a very specific type of strategy when doing stories that you should be upholding? And if you're hiring someone, likely an expert to do this? How are they doing it? How are they going to be sharing them effectively? Are they using highlights correctly? I see again, a lot of people using highlights but missing out on a lot of the squeeze of the juice on highlights. There's so much that you could do with highlights. And a good social media manager should be able to direct and guide you on that. And what's the call to action? Is it hiring us? Is it a download? Is it a freebie? Is it a join our community? Is it a just tell me your pet's name? What kind of calls to action are you going for? And that goes back to the KPIs and what your goals are right? Have you told them what your overall strategy is? Do you even have one? Or better yet?...

Do your social media posts fall flat? Do potential clients scroll by without a second glance? Video content is today's crucial key for captivating audiences and converting followers into loyal clients.

Join me as I unlock the secrets of social media video magic with two innovative petpreneurs. Discover fresh reel ideas and editing tricks tailored for professional pet sitters and dog walkers like you.

I'm also offering a special free download - "7 Real Video Ideas to Wow Pet Owners" -packed with clever concepts for showcasing your services while engaging fans. But this exclusive freebie vanishes Monday, so be sure to tune in!

Give your pet care brand a video vitamin boost! Learn how to blend personalities and pet appeal into share-worthy reels and posts. Let's make 2023 the year your content leaps off screens and into pet parents' hearts.

This episode was brought to you by JazzHr, the one place where you can get everything you need to find better candidates, get more organized, and make great hires.

Topics & Key Points:

Using video and reels for social media success.

The growing popularity of short-form video content (Reels) on Instagram

Using video content for social media success in pet sitting businesses.

Creating engaging videos for pet-sitting and dog-walking businesses

Using Instagram reels for pet-sitting businesses.

Timestamps:

[ 2:24] Short-form video content (Reels) on Instagram

[6:13] Video content for social media success

[9:32] Creating engaging videos

[13:49] Using Instagram reels

Notable Quotes:

[3:23] "But more and more people all they're doing is just scrolling videos, video, video, video, video video. And because video is a lot more entertaining than just scrolling a feed. So I want you to think about that. And then..."

[8:43] "And it has made results in the way that they literally have people contacting them on social media wanting to work for their company, because they have made it look so appealing on their social media."

[14:14] "you're gonna be able to leverage them in any of your sales, or DMS and when you're trying to, you know, have objection or rebuttals, to people's objections, and you're definitely gonna get a lot more views and eyeballs on your content when you just simply post a real slash video"

Resources:

Sign up for a 20 mins call 

Better Marketing with Bella

Freebie!

Did you love this episode?

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. And today, we are going to be talking about video and reels. Because this is important I think a lot of you guys are missing out on it. And that's why I wanted to dedicate this next episode to it. But first, I want to say thank you so much for all of your listens, you guys have been popping off and responding a lot and giving me so much feedback. And this is one of the things that I've been having a lot of conversations with you, I wanted to discuss a lot about, you know how everyone's looking to get more impressions on social media, right, and not just like come up in the feed, because that's so like elementary, you're not going to ever beat the feed unless you pay for it. But what I want to remind you guys about and I've said this so many times is that social media is a secondary source for people to know, like, and trust you. And if the only thing that you are posting on your social media platforms are just pictures of pets and their faces, you're not doing anything to help your brand.

Okay, so you need to show up a lot of different ways you need to show up as a professional who looks like they are investing in their company and you know, a professional brand. But you also need to show your personality. And I know a lot of you guys want to turn off automatically because you don't like putting your faces on there. And while that is the number one way to get out there, it is not the only way. And so today, I want to help inspire you to realize that it's not as hard as you keep thinking it is. So stop stinking thinking. I want to, like encourage you to understand that the power of reels is so important. And when I say reels, I'm also talking videos. I mean, anytime you post a video, Facebook and Instagram, which are the two main platforms we're going to talk about today for just you know, ease of sense because I know that's where most of you guys are at. Is it automatic, you post a video it says turn it into a reel, you post video pictures, it says turn it into a reel. And so for lack of better terms, or whatever, I'm just gonna call everything reels today. But understand that any video is essentially a reel, and they want to make it a reel for you. And so they're growing in popularity. reels are short-form video content, typically lasting from 15 seconds to a minute, sometimes it's even less than 15 seconds. And you can enhance it with music filters, and creative video editing, like in the app, you don't need to go do it someplace else. Captions are a must all the time you guys always put captions on things because everyone is not always listening in a place where they can hear it. They're in meetings, they're in public, they're getting their nails done, they're doing a whole bunch of things that when you can read the captions and listen to things on silent, that's also very important. And so it's, it's something that's really, like really popular some people I want you to think even of your habits and behaviors, you might not like necessarily scroll, a Facebook feed, or scroll and an Instagram feed. But more and more people all they're doing is just scrolling videos, video, video, video, video video. And because the video is a lot more entertaining than just scrolling a feed. So I want you to think about that. And then, you know, there are reasons that it is growing in popularity, things become viral reels have a higher likelihood of going viral compared to a traditional host format. And not even viral because I know that the majority of us are not going to be going necessarily viral. But just in terms of impressions interaction and engagement. The video is so much more interesting. And they're short length, it's like someone can consume it visually and auditorily rather than having to read through something, okay. And then the logarithm that the logarithm favors video, even though Instagram has come out and said that carousels currently right now as of April 2024

Are you know, gaining in popularity and weight video is still going to say it better than anything else. And I always say short-form video no one wants to sit there and listen to you talk on a video truly. And we have pets to you know talk about to showcase and we can make it interesting you know you can be on a walk there are so many different ideas and I'm staying tuned because I'm going to give you eight real topics, you know video topics that you can do. I'm gonna give you a free download at the end of this episode, but it's only good for a couple of days. So anyway, the logarithm reverses it. And then typically younger audiences. And so when I say younger audiences, I mean Gen, Gen Z, and millennials, which let's face it, that's up to like about 50 years old. So unless you guys are targeting the boomers, the people that are 60s and 70s, or whatever, this is going to be a great avenue for you.

The other thing about reels and videos is that visual and auditory will appeal to a wider audience. So it's visually appealing because reels can create a canvas for creativity through dynamic visuals. I mean, if you're scrolling in your feed, and you see a dog pooping, you're gonna get your attention. Or you see something interesting like about what we do, you know, maybe you're wiping out a bowl, and talking about why you're, we're showing the slime on a bowl. It's engaging, and fast edits or eye-catching edits, you know things where you, you just do those quick jump edits, and you make it interesting, it's going to have more of an appeal than just a static post of a dog's face. Also, the auditory appeal, it's very easy to save audio. And the one that I use very easily on here all the time with you guys is I think it was Adriana, who did, it was the first time I saw this one. And it was great. She put a NASCAR sound on a video of a dog doing zoomies in the backyard. And it was like a mirror. And it was just hilarious. And then you pair some, some interesting caption on there, or some interesting words and Bada bing, bada boom, you got it amazing. And so the ways that you can appeal is through education and entertainment. So tutorials are educational content, presented in fun, visual, and stimulating ways. And, and, like behind-the-scenes kind of glimpses that you might get. And so video is going to always be a lot better when it comes to your social media. And you guys I understand you are, you're very limited time, right? And social media probably feels like this annoying task that you're feeling bad about because oh shoot, when when did I post? Oh, I gotta post something on there. Oh, I'm gonna post but no one's gonna care about it. Oh, nobody, you know, interacts or cares, you know, comments or shares or likes anything? Well, yeah, because again, if you're just posting pictures of dogs, the only person that cares is the pet parent for that dog or cat, I'm telling you. So if you're doing it, great job for doing it. But all you're doing is a photo album. And what it reminds me of is the old days when we used to make websites off of Yahoo. And we used to have a page that was a photo album. Nobody cares about the photo album, unless that photo is telling a story, a very engaging story, and has an awesome hook to it. And it's talking all about, you know, this is a client that I saved because of XYZ and blah, blah, blah, it's,...

Inn this week's episode of  Bella in your Business, I’m sharing transformative business strategies with pet industry expert Liz Illig to catalyze scaling. If you lead a 6-7 figure pet company but dread lackluster staff meetings, this discussion will resonate.

Like many founders directing rapid growth, I struggled to make mandatory meetings engaging despite understanding their profit potential. After too many dull sessions met with indifference, I realized I needed a better approach.

In this episode, I will share my methodology to channel spectacular staff engagement into unbreakable client loyalty, outstanding care consistency, and perpetual revenue growth into the mid 6 and 7-figures. Because once your team wholeheartedly embraces the collective vision, that ownership drives accountability and quality that retains clients.

Join me in unlocking this retention model as Liz unveils her secrets to inspiring true staff excitement. Let’s maximize staff meeting ROI together and elevate our women-led companies with vibrant cultures focused on sustainable processes. By prioritizing employee enthusiasm and constructive collaboration, we can realize improved performance that takes our enterprises to unprecedented heights.

I'm confident you'll discover several "aha" ideas to eliminate staff meeting dread and turn obligation into motivation. Your bottom line will capture that compounded enthusiasm. Tune in now to realize seven figures sustainably as an uplifted team propels your women-owned juggernaut.

Make sure you don't miss the freebie we have in this episode just for you!

This episode was brought to you by JazzHr

Topics & Key Points:

Staff meetings and team-building activities

Planning and conducting effective employee meeting

Company culture, employee engagement, and retention

Creating a company culture through training and team building

Timestamps:

[6:46] Planning and conducting employee meetings

[10:29] Company culture, employee engagement, and retention

[13:45] Creating a company culture

Notable Quotes:

[4:26] "So to continue on that so it also will help with employee retention, right? Because they feel connected to your whole company. It also provides an opportunity for them to have some positive interactions"

[10:32] "when you're bringing people together, it's good to have an agenda"

[13:24] "And if they're not having regular meetings, where you guys can all come together, where they can get some face time with you. And it's, it's, it's very easy to be very isolated in this job. It's very easy to just like formulate your own thoughts and opinions. So like, what thoughts and opinions are your employees forming of you other than text message, which can often be misconstrued?"

Resources:

Podcast: Bella in Your Business: Pet Industry Business Podcast

Join Mastermind

Email Bella: [email protected]

Sign up for a 20 mins call 

Better Marketing with Bell

JazzHR

Pet Care Team Training

Liz: [email protected]

Connect with Bella

Website

Facebook

YouTube

Did you love this episode?

This episode was sponsored by JazzHr!

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business. Remember when life gets down, Always Keep Jumping.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. And today I'm joined by Liz Illig. Liz, how are you? I'm good, how

are you?

I'm amazing.

And you know, Liz, we had on our last podcast, we had Maris, Michelle, and Leia all here to talk about how they changed their hiring all around how they went from trying to create their own Google Forms and, and gonna sift through emails and ask friends and family and post on on Facebook endlessly and have no results to Systemizing their hiring process and having weightless now. Excuse me. So I thought it was only fair and awesome to have you on this time to kind of let our listeners hear a cool training that you and I did for pet care team training. Admittedly, you and I are the co-founders of pet care team training. Do you want to just briefly explain to our audience what that is in case they it's their first time listening?

All right, so pet care team training is a simplified training method for your dog walkers and pet sitters. Basically, Bill and I took our expertise over many, many years, and put it together in a training where you can train people in less than two hours keeping your costs down, we thought of everything. And even once we created it, we were like, how can we enhance this and we kept kind of just like adding layers and tears to it. And I couldn't be more proud of the platform and the training and how we can get people certified fast.

Right, so a lot of like Leia, Maris, and Michelle, all have used it too so they get to have certified trainers or certified pet sitters in their area as well, in a combination of using it with JazzHR. So it's pretty cool. Both of those things, you guys can go check out, jump consulting.net/jazzhr, the only place in the industry where you can get 50% off the middle tier and a whole bunch of extra free stuff. It's like the only place you get the hookup that I get for you. And then also Pet Care Team training.com. That's where you can check out the solo or double certification for your staff in under two or four hours. And mad-libs did style to where you can customize it, which is cool. But part of that your team training was and I have made a dedication this month this year to doing four trainings free to the industry because we want so badly to help support you guys, we do not want you to struggle through hiring, there are so many tips and tricks and awesome things that you can do that really can help expand on what you're doing. So today, we wanted to kind of talk about how to have great staff meetings, that your employees will be begging to attend. And we wanted to kind of give you a look-see into this now.

Now, Liz, don't you agree that when someone comes on board, one of the first things that we should do and plan for is that 30-day review right then and there on the spot so that they know it's coming? And it's scheduled, but also, every year plan out our meetings and we suggest quarterly meetings why is that? Can you tell people why we suggest quarterly meetings, quarterly meetings, it's not overkill, and it's not asking too much. But it's a good touch point. And especially in this industry, seasons change.

So it's a good time to kind of put things together and say hey, we're moving into winter season, here's some different protocols, here's some different procedures, here's some things that we need to be looking out for, it's gonna start getting caught here are the things we need to do. And so it fires me up because it is an amazing touch point that we can have with our staff. It's also you know, you can start creating a list in January for your, your March or April meeting of like things that have come up in the business, and like it just is a good touch point for keeping people engaged retaining people, and giving people knowledge and information because that is one thing a lot of companies do not do is give people knowledge and information so that they can be successful at their job.

Absolutely. So to continue on that it also will help with employee retention, right? Because they feel connected to your whole company. It also provides an opportunity for them to have some positive interactions it's not just always you you know Don't you forget or Don't you know you did this wrong or something like that. It provides a moment that you can just really bond with people and you can see the quirks or there you know things maybe someone loves Star Wars you know it. It allows us opportunities to just grow and bond also I think that when you do that, it's really important to have some cool team-building activities. And some things that we like that we always like to, you know, share and things that I did. And I know that Liz has done one thing I learned it was from improv. And we had Chris True on the on the podcast a while ago. And this one was his, it's like, We're going camping, and I'm taking an apple, and it's alphabet game with camping. And so you go around, and so then Liz might go and she goes, I'm going camping, and I'm taking an apple and a banana, you know, and so you just kind of keep going down the line. And it's funny because you have to think on your feet. And you have to, like, you know, just think of something. And sometimes the things that come out are funny. And when we have laughter when we have emotional opportunities, that is bonding, okay, oxytocin happens and, and we bond and that's, that's always a great thing. The other fun things and ways to learn about people are two truths and a lie. And so sometimes, you know, I mean, I always, you know, use the whole, I had a 12-ounce baby and that mix, and people always think like, That is weird. Like, there's no way you could do that. Like, that was the truth. And then what does that do? It sparks conversation. So that's a really interesting and easy thing that you could do with the team, as well as just a cool icebreaker. And then there are so many games that you can come up with online, that you can Google, you can do scavenger hunts even, which are also fun because those are team building. So, um, what?

Let's move into tips for like, where should we have these meetings. Because I know a lot of our listeners, you know, they're either just starting out and like their home is their home office. And it's like, do I have them at my home or not? Or, you know, maybe outside the home? So what are some ideas that you might have for different meeting locations?

Yeah, and I think this is, this is a good thing to note here because you want to pick a good location. After all, you also, we don't necessarily work in offices, we,...

Do you cringe at the thought of hiring new employees? Are you paralyzed by decision fatigue from an overflow of unqualified candidates? Have nightmares of disorganized chaos plagued your restless nights as your business scales?

If left unaddressed, hiring woes can completely derail your business's growth trajectory. But solutions exist! Ones that can launch your business into the realm of automated bliss.

In this power-packed episode, pet-sitting trailblazers Leia, Michelle, and Maris pull back the curtain on the hiring horrors that once left them frozen. You’ll discover how each entrepreneur went from begging any warm body to fill roles to leveraging systems that virtually guarantee 100% qualified applicants with Jazz HR. 

Through first-hand accounts, you’ll witness the exact moment each leader swallowed their fear, committed to a standardized hiring process, and skyrocketed their business as a result. From initial application questions to cognitive skills assessments, these pet-sitting pros cover it all.

Think onboarding new hires has to mean mountains of paperwork and orientations from heck? Think again. Discover how to create seamless experiences that awe promising candidates rather than turn them away.

If you’re ready to step fully into your CEO shoes and remove the hiring roadblocks holding your business back, this episode is an absolute must-listen. Join Bella and her squad of industry standouts as they map the route from hiring headaches to operational bliss. Buckle up and take notes—class is in session!

Topics & Key Points:

Hiring challenges

Using Jazz HR

Cognitive testing for hiring

Leveraging Jaz HR .

Hiring and HR solutions for small businesses

Timestamps:

[7:09] Using Jazz HR for fair and standardized hiring process.

[8:53] Biggest challenge in making the leap.

[12:39] Leveraging Jaz HR for streamlined recruitment processes.

[17:52] Using knockout questions in hiring process.

[22:56] Streamlining hiring process with HR system.

[26:08] Hiring and HR solutions for small businesses.

Notable Quotes:

[7:31] "And so I signed up and I got the free onboarding call. And they helped me create the workflows and questions like the questions were the hardest part for me, I had no standardized questions that I asked everyone. And that's really important when you're evaluating 20 30 people"

[13:28] "I mean, you're literally breaking it down step by step, you can automate it with specific emails like that with each step. And integrating as much as you can into Jaz HR, like I have my payroll system connected to it that way, once I hire someone, all the information gets pushed to it, so I'm not filling it out. "

[14:37] "It takes away the whole Oh, this is just a dog walking job. He's like, Oh, this is a legitimate business. They have processes, they have systems I need to be in it really helps make you look more like more professional and like you know what you're doing, which is always important."

Resources:

Podcast: Bella in Your Business: Pet Industry Business Podcast

Join Mastermind

Email Bella: [email protected]

Sign up for a 20 mins call 

Better Marketing with Bell

Jazz HR

Maris Sonnabend: House of Paws Pet Care LLC

Leia Johnson: Wonder Pups Pet Care

Michelle Sabia: Paws & Claws

Connect with Bella

Website

Facebook

YouTube

Did you love this episode?

This episode was sponsored by Jazz Hr!

Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business. Remember when life gets down, Always Keep Jumping.

Transcript:

Welcome, everybody to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today I have a really special episode we don't often have more than one person that we're interviewing. But today we've got three amazing business owners with us. And the reason why I did this, is they're all mastermind members. And I kind of put it out there, we do a lot of training and talking and strategizing in there. About jump, I'm sorry, about Jaz HR. And I know many of you guys have heard me talk about jazz HR and how it helped change and revolutionize many people's businesses. But I wanted to have an open discussion. And so if you guys have been, you know, struggling with hiring, if you've been trying to, you know, pedal through indeed and go through the mounds of, of, of applications and try to remember, oh, who did I say this to? And what is this person, let me go back to their resume, you get stopped in the middle of the day and an application comes through, you feel like it's a fire drill, because you don't want to lose that person. I think that you're gonna love this episode today, these ladies have lots of experience. And they're going to be sharing what they were doing before. Also, what their biggest challenge was, when it started, I think a lot of you might kind of feel that, and then also what their biggest tips are, and I think you'll be pretty surprised. And so I'm looking forward to sharing this episode with you. But before we get started, if you are looking into jazz HR, all you have to do is go to jump consulting dotnet forward slash jazz HR, you're gonna want to go there because you're gonna get 50% off, you're gonna get a free one-hour help session with them that they don't offer everybody. And then also a couple of other bonuses like knockout questions and a generic hiring ad just for being in the Bella crew and being a jumper. So without further ado, I'd like to welcome Michelle, Leah and Maris to the show. Thank you for being here. Ladies Maris, I'm gonna start with you, and then we'll go to layup, and then Michelle and you guys can all introduce yourself. So Maris welcome.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm there. I own half the Paws Pet Care in St. Louis, Missouri. We've been I went full-time time, April. We'll make it three years. So lots of growth in three years. We've got about 17 employees now and we just keep growing. So that is incredible. 17 employees in three years. You go girl.

Leia, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Yeah, so I'm Leia. I own Wonder Pups, a pet care in Crestview, Florida. Wonder Pups has been in business kind of since 2009. But it's gone over. It's been reborn several times. And so now primary pet sitting dog walking and we have three new employees. fairly exciting. I love it. You started out the door with a bang. You were like, I'm not just gonna hire one. I'm gonna hire a whole bunch. So that was amazing.

I'm Michele, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you. Good to be here. Hello to your listeners. I'm one of your listeners. So fun to be on.

My name is Michelle. I own Paws and Claws, a pet-sitting service in Cave Creek, Arizona. Currently, we have just hired three new employees plus an office manager who we found on Jazz, Jazz HR. And yeah, we just do dog walking drop-in visits mainly here in the Cave Creek Park, North Scottsdale area been in business since 2016.

Fantastic. So we've got some seasoned professionals here with us who have been through the woes of hiring because I don't think anyone says they love hiring out the gate until they figured out how to actually systematize it and then scientists scientifically go through it as well. So, Leigh, I'm gonna start with you. Then I'll go to Maris and then Michelle. Leia, tell me what were some What were you doing before? Jaz HR? What did hiring look like for you?

Well, it was a lot of like, ask a friend. Do you want a job do you want to help out? And then I tried to recreate what jazz does with Google Forms. I think that's what it's called, but tried to create phases where you fill out the survey and it was not concise. And I ended up getting people that were not a great fit. And I learned the hard way I'm the poster child for doing it the hard way first.

I remember that you did that with better marketing so I guess I did. I'm sorry. I love that story. mirrors what were you doing before you implemented Jaz HR into your company?

Oh gosh, a little bit of everything. I started by hiring a good friend of mine and then my sister so people I knew immediately Do you know anyone is posting on Facebook groups? If you're looking for a job working with pets reach out to me and have no formal questions, no formal process, or anything. And as you said, No one enjoys doing it. So I knew it was something I did not want to deal with forever. So again, just posting in every public forum I could think of I wasn't even on Indeed, I think I was just asking friends and the local Facebook group, so it was chaotic. There was no process, and I wasn't getting a ton of leads either, because who's gonna respond to a Facebook post for a hiring ad? So it doesn't exactly give us the most professional-like, stance. Right? Yeah, chaotic. I like that word. That's a good word. I think a lot of people can relate to that. Michelle, what were you doing before you implemented a jazz HR into Paws and Claws?

Yeah, Facebook, asking friends, and even just if I needed the help, just asking other pet sitters in the area, and we would just kind of help each other out, which was great. I had ICs, pre COVID. So it was easier to do it that way. But just not finding people who are serious enough to work for me.

Yeah, I think the one thing you all have in common there is that you're kind of just like, you're being scrappy, which is great. That's what got most of us to start our business in the beginning, right? We're just kind of trying to, you know, shoestring along and figure it out and throw stuff up against the wall. But it comes with a lot of stress. And let's face it, owning our businesses already comes with enough stress. Right. So I'm Maris and then I'll go with Michelle and Leia. What was the biggest challenge when you decided to start with Jaz HR? And I think this part's important because I think when whenever we have to learn something new in ou

Do you see business challenges as crushing obstacles or opportunities for growth and life lessons? As a scaling entrepreneur, how you answer that question determines your future success.

In this week's episode of Bella in Your Business, I vulnerably share my own journey from fighting daily fires to embracing each problem as a privilege. You’ll hear how I turned the “mom guilt” of teaching my daughter to tie her shoes into an analogy for investing in employees during growing pains.

I used to dread the inevitable hires who didn’t work out or the clients complaining over delayed orders. Now I get excited over these chances to improve. As one listener told me, “Bella taught me that struggles mean you actually have a real business!”

Through candid personal lessons, I explain how my childhood traumas shaped an overwhelming fight-or-flight reaction to upset customers. You’ll learn how I navigated my own therapy and self-work so I could lead my team through challenges with empathy.

Beyond mindset, you’ll hear tangible tips for goal-setting, productivity hacks for overwhelmed entrepreneurs, and my favorite modalities for mental health. I explain the brain science behind how building new neural pathways leads to conflict management breakthroughs.

If you ever feel crushed under the weight of hiring, retention, and service issues, this episode provides an uplifting model for personal lessons and company growth. Tune in to begin transforming problems into progress!

Topics & Key Points:

Overcome challenges

Business problems and personal growth

Conflict management

Managing business problems

Timestamps:

[4:17] Employee issues and overcoming challenges

[8:44] Business problems and personal growth

[13:36] Personal growth and conflict management

[17:21] Managing business problems

Notable Quotes:

[3:01] "The person that is working by themselves, overwhelmed wishing and hoping that they had the courage or the know how to go out there and get employees is wishing that they had your problems? Right? "

[9:14] "Stay positive, you get to have these problems. And just because it didn't work that way, doesn't mean that it doesn't work. Okay? Again, going on to all the problems, you get all the problems come to you. "

[15:39] "Conflict Management, we will have it in our business no matter what, whether it's with an employee, it's with a client, it's with a service provider. Conflict Management is something that we all need to do. And I think that a lot of the world you know, it's it's fight or flight, it's, it's we go on attack, or we just avoid it. And long term. It's not good. It's not good"

Resources:

Podcast: Bella in Your Business: Pet Industry Business Podcast

Join Mastermind

Email Bella: [email protected]

Sign up for a 20 mins call 

Better Marketing with Bella

Episode 340: 7 Ways To Coach Your Team To Great Customer Experiences

Episode 356: Website Tips for Pet Business Owners with Bobby Machado

Episode 139: The Scientific Way You Can Increase Your Productivity 39%

Episode 354: Habits and Behaviors Of Successful Pet Business Owners

Signa Marketing

Connect with Bella

Website

Facebook

YouTube

Did you love this episode?

If you liked this episode, please head on over to iTunes and leave a five-star rating and review. Every single review helps get this community bigger, stronger, and better. It gets other jumpers just like you into the community. Always remember when life gets down, Always Keep Jumping.

Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, from Jump Consulting, and I am here today to give you a Bella Butt Kicking, I was kind of thinking about something the other day and one of the best parts of having amazing people in your life is that you can sit there and think about, you know, or have conversations that are just on a different level. Your conversations go from saying things like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this client. And it's so terrible. And, you know, oh, I can't believe this happened. And what were they thinking? And why did they say that? And they said that word and you know all of this. nitpicking, right? Or, you know, when things rub us the wrong way, there's a deeper reason for that. If you go deeper, and you figure that out, so much is unveiled. And as I was chatting with my friend about a topic similar to that, it kind of occurred to me that we get to have these problems. And it's a good thing.

Like, you get to do it, you get to have the employee issues, you get to have the tech problems in your business, you get to have all the problems from everyone come to you. You get to have clients asking you questions, you get to have the challenge of personal growth, to make your business better, you get to do all of these things. It's a blessing. And a lesson for you, if you let it be. And I want to talk about that today. Because I think just a simple perspective switch can help you a lot. It can be the difference between something pushing you down and holding you down. And feeling like the world is just clobbering you to something that is uplifting you or it's letting you grow out of the turmoil that you're in. It's perspective, the only thing that we can change is our thoughts and our perspective. And let me also remind you, if no one's ever told you, our brains, don't know the difference between reality. And what the thoughts are in our head, what we think our brain knows, it doesn't know the difference. So if you're constantly telling yourself, let's say, I'm a banana, I'm a banana, I'm a banana, I'm a banana. I mean, this is like a really silly example, your brain is gonna start thinking that you're a banana. And so when we can be conscious of our thoughts, everything can change. So yes, you get the employee issues. But isn't it a great problem to have? The person that is working by themselves, overwhelmed wishing and hoping that they had the courage or the know-how to go out there and get employees is wishing that they had your problems? Right? I always like to joke about things sometimes. And I always say if like, you're in my inner circle, you'll hear me say, first world problems, you know, oh, the cleaning lady is not showing up on time? Well, I'm not gonna get too bent out of shape about that, because I'm excited that I have a cleaning lady. Okay. Or, you know, I'm really cold, you know? Well, I'm really glad that I have a house to put over my head. And I'm not living in some, you know, desolate area, malnourished, and with no shelter, right? So everything can always kind of come back.

So yeah, you have your employee issues. You can't find employees or you don't like the employees you have, or you're not sure about how to go about, you know, promoting them, or they feel like they're always asking you questions. Well, the one thing that can solve all this stuff is systems, you know, you got to always ask yourself, Am I solving the same problem over and over again? Because then it's on you? Or are we going to try it again, just a different way? Because sometimes things do work. It just doesn't work that way. Right? And I think actually, that right there. And I've made graphics on that before. It's so true in our industry, and it's so true with your mindset because sometimes people get so frustrated by something like, That doesn't work. It's like no, you don't work, or it does work and it works for many other people. It just doesn't work the way that you're doing it. And so if you can step outside of yourself long enough to realize that so many things can change with your employee issues. A lot of people hate having employees well, why is it that many of my clients, and I'm gonna say many I'm not exaggerating, are doing great at it? why? It's because they had the same challenges that the person who has challenges hiring or keeping people, or keeping them motivated or promoting them or getting a good company culture, they've had all those problems. But what they did is they kept telling themselves, it's not working this way, it's not working this way, I got to do it again, I got to do it again. But I'm not going to make the same mistakes mistake I made last time. It's not gonna work perfectly out of the gate,, as I say this, I kind of think of my daughter, we have been trying to teach her to tie her shoes for a year and a half. And she technically knows how to do it. But she gets frustrated, sometimes she gets frustrated, and she was gone, it's not working. And I'm like, it is too hard. I'm gonna go, baby, you can do hard things. But mom, I'm like, I know. I know. Because I feel like that sometimes when it comes to certain things as well, when it comes to the backend of my website, it's hard. I don't want to do it. And, but you know what, I have a website. And it works. Because I have a team around me.

I'm kind of going off-topic here a little bit. But getting back to employee issues, you know, when you can solve your regular problems, like having a hiring system like Jaz HR, where you can get people through a six to eight-point hiring funnel in a couple of days, and then get them onboarded and trained, all within a week. Time is money. And that keeps people you know, from ghosting you that also keeps people excited about your company that also gives people a real clear sense that you know what you're doing, and you're a professional and they can trust you. And they can trust the training and they can trust that they're going to get their pet their paycheck, and they can trust that they're going to have the support of you, and they can trust that they're going to have stability in their new employment with you. Okay, so, yes, you get to have employee issues, because you dare to have employees, and you get to keep having bigger and bigger challenges with employees. Okay, I got a couple of employees, okay, now your biggest challenge is, alright,...