OverDog: Dog Daycare & Boarding Business Tips

Building and running a pet business involves managing many different aspects to ensure success. One area that I often see neglected is the legal considerations that need attention to set up your business for smooth operation and to avoid future issues.

Today, I’m joined by Peter Tanella, an attorney specializing in the pet care industry, who will shed light on key legal matters and offer guidance on handling common situations to prevent problems and unnecessary stress.

There are a few key positions in your pet business that are critical to the amount of revenue you bring in. Not having the right people in these positions and neglecting to properly equip them to do their jobs can result in significant financial losses.

Lori Davis from Paramount Success Group joins us today to explain the importance of a good reservation specialist, how they should be trained, and how you can find the right person to fill this crucial role.

How would you like it if your summer daycare numbers didn’t decrease, but actually increased? And what if that increase caused a ripple effect, leading to additional service purchases and a flood of social media exposure, making your next summer your best ever?

That’s exactly what happened at Perfect Pooch. On today’s show, Kelli Dodds, the general manager, shares how their new summer camp program greatly exceeded all expectations and significantly boosted their summer revenue.

When times get tough and money gets tight, you still need to bring in new customers and try to increase your revenue. To accomplish that and get yourself in better shape, you’re going to need to do some marketing. Even when you’re on a tight budget, you still need to get out there and continue to generate business.

On today’s show, we’ll discuss some ways you can market your business for free or with minimal investment. By implementing these marketing strategies, you’ll be able to improve your situation and set your business up for greater prosperity.

One thing is certain: nothing stays the same—in life or in business. When the economy takes a dip, business owners may panic and overreact, leading to long-term negative effects on the business. However, there are ways to navigate these challenges with grace and take actions that will help your business emerge more successful.

In today’s episode, Fern explains how you can take specific actions to strengthen your brand image in the public eye, improve your business operations, and create a foundation for explosive future growth.

If you really want your pet business to show up in online searches, you need to focus on search engine optimization (SEO). What stops most people from tackling this important business task is that it can be incredibly complex. We want to help you with bite-sized SEO tasks that can positively impact your business’s visibility in online searches.

In today’s episode, Fern explains exactly how to create location pages for your website that will help you rank in search results for your specific service area. He’ll cover how to set things up so that Google can easily find your page, as well as how to optimize your page to provide a great experience for visitors.

Too many pet businesses are only focusing on one or two marketing angles as they are promoting their business. This limited approach will only give you very short lived results. However, if you have a comprehensive marketing strategy that hits all levels of customer awareness and helps people know, like and trust your business, you will enjoy much greater and long lasting success. 

In this episode Fern goes over the top five marketing goals you need to be utilizing in your organic and paid marketing channels. You’ll also learn how you can implement campaigns other hit each one and how they work together to really maximize your efforts. 

One of the ways to create a positive relationship with your clients is using gift giving in your marketing plan. Surprising your clients with something special from time to time will increase their loyalty, encourage them to talk about your business and make them smile. 

Today we’ll go over some ways that you can give gifts to super charge your relationship with your customers. We’ll talk about when you should give gifts, how to do it and give you a lot of great ideas to get your gift-giving juices flowing. 

To build a business and brand that your staff, your customers, and everyone who comes in contact with your business understands and can get excited about, you need to start by creating your core values. Think of your core values as the DNA of your business. They will guide all your decisions and attract the people who are the perfect fit for you.

We’ll go over how you can create your core values and show you how they should be injected into your daily business operations to be effective. Once you understand how to put them into play, they can help every area of your business.

Whether you’re just beginning your journey on building your pet business or have an existing facility that you’re looking to expand upon, you’re going to need some money. For most, that will mean getting financing from a bank. To make that a pain-free and successful process you need to understand how it all works and what you need to do. 

To help with all that, I invited Claire and Jacqueline from Live Oak Bank back on the show to give you the honest truth on the options available to you and how to make your lending experience as smooth as can be.