Carrie Wallick is the owner iCare4pets. She has been in business for 4 years and started using employees for almost a year and a half. Carrie was a former teacher for 8 years until she decided she wanted a career change and began brainstorming ways she could use her passion for animals to support her life goals. 2-3 months later, Carrie was using Facebook groups and word of mouth to get pet sitting clients, and her business was born. Learn more about Carrie's business at icare4pets.com

Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss:

When first starting your business, it's really important to determine a set service area. You want to know if your model is going to be expansion vs. saturation. Expansion would mean that you cover many different areas of the city (or even multiple cities). Saturation would imply focusing on one specific city or even area within a city and honing in your marketing efforts to that region. Carrie describes how that after driving for hours on end every day for months, that she quickly decided that saturation and micro-targeting an area was going to be the best fit to support her life goals. Which model do you think would support yours?

Sometime it can pay to be picky! We often think that we have to say yes to every person that calls or emails us - but this is not the case. In fact, a lot of the times you will be spending MORE time and energy on "problem clients" than you're gaining. Be picky not just geographically, but make sure your clients fit your client avatar/buyer persona. Accepting only the clients that fit your business model will end up being MUCH more worth it in the long run.

Show Highlights

Who is Carrie Wallick and how did she start iCare4Pets? [1:00]

What were your initial goals for your business? [3:00]

What was a typical day when you first started your business? [4:00]

How did you decide that covering a huge area wasn't an option for you? [6:00]

What advice would you give to yourself when you were first starting out? [9:00]

How did the stress of starting out affect your home life? [10:00]

Why didn't the IC route work for you? [14:00]

How do you fight and push past your demons? [18:00]

What was it like adopting your new baby? [20:00]

How did your business adjust during Hurricane Irma? [22:00]

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Transcript:

This is episode 115 of Bella in Your Business. The next series is going to be a bunch of interviews with amazing pet sitters that I know that will also motivate and inspire you and your business. From time to time, I interview incredible pet sitters who have been through or faced some really amazing challenges that have inspired me, therefore I know will inspire you. If you know of anyone who has an amazing story to share, who is a pet sitting or dog walking business owner, I'd love to hear from you. Just go ahead and email me at [email protected]. Until then, enjoy this next episode.

Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let's jump.

Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I have Kari Wallach with me. She is a pet sitter in Florida and the owner of I Care for Pets. We’ve known each other for quite a few years now, and Kari’s story has been really interesting and inspiring to me as I’ve seen her grow and change through so many different life changes. I really wanted to bring her on because I know there are many people listening who will connect to her story.

Kari: Thank you. Glad to be a part of the show.

Bella: Why don’t we start from the beginning?