One key thing to a successful dynamic in a dog daycare is consistent verbiage among the staff. This means that everyone uses the same words and commands. In addition to keeping it simple for your team members, it also helps the dogs understand what’s expected of them within your daycare environment—even if they only come to the daycare occasionally.

If one person uses “off,” another person uses “down,” another uses “no” and another uses “ahn-ahn,” eventually the dog will probably figure out what everyone means, but that takes too long. And in the process, your team members have likely gotten a bruise or a scratch from the dog jumping up on them. Instead, if we’re consistent with our verbiage, the dog learns much faster.

It may help to think of your dog training vocabulary like learning a foreign language—is it easy to learn that “no,” “stop,” “off” and “down” all mean the same thing? Or are you better off to have all your team members use “ahn-ahn” to tell the dog that means they need to stop what they’re doing regardless of the behavior? The more consistent that you and your team can be, the easier it is for the dogs to understand what you’re saying and create that memory loop.

An abundance of reviews also determines how high you rank in the Google searches that prospective customers use to find you. More reviews help you stand out among your competitors, especially since people are more likely to choose a business that has plenty of them.

Here are five ways to secure more reviews to boost your business’s reputation and gain more customers and their pets over time:

Far from merry and bright, the holiday season often has many owners stressed, exhausted and run ragged—even more than usual. But imagine being able to enjoy the holidays to the fullest, spending time with family and enjoying relaxing downtime with peace of mind that your business is operating wonderfully in your absence. The good news is, this reality is within every owner’s grasp, and it can be achieved with effective development of your management team.

In a previous article, we outlined five powerful strategies to help accomplish this, which were:

1) Create and share advancement opportunities.
2) Utilize accurate and clear job descriptions.
3) Provide fair compensation and pay ranges.
4) Implement an effective onboarding process.
5) Provide a comprehensive operations manual.

In this article, we’ll go over six more impactful ways to foster a business that performs as well in the owner’s absence as it does in their presence.

Scheduling is often an area of what we call “key person dependence;” that is, only one or two people know how to create the schedule, making your business completely reliant on them for this important task. Frequently, scheduling falls on the owner or manager. It’s a time-consuming process with many moving parts, but there are ways to simplify schedule creation.

Scheduling software can help tremendously. The next step is to create clear rules and guidelines for the schedulers to follow. Ultimately, a simple and clear scheduling process means more employees can handle the task, taking another responsibility off the owner’s or manager’s shoulders.

Mistakes are a learning opportunity, and how you respond to infractions plays a significant role in employee performance and company culture. Ensuring the owner, managers and supervisors are positive with employees is key. This is tough to do when you’re running around like a chicken with your head cut off. Regardless, mistakes will happen. Having a well-defined disciplinary process ensures appropriate responses with consistent treatment. This is another key to setting your employees up for continued improvement and success.

Hiring can consume a lot of time, especially if the responsibility falls on the owner. Often the owner doesn’t have enough time or energy to do this well, which means you remain understaffed for longer, causing more stress on the owner and the staff. Establishing a robust recruiting process is an essential skillset for any business. Ultimately, managers, when properly trained, should be able to make most (if not all) hiring decisions, freeing up the owner for other tasks.

Many owners are thrilled to realize that their managers can often facilitate most building maintenance. A great first step is to have ongoing and active discussions about the state of the building and possible repairs. This allows you to more easily anticipate maintenance before it impacts business. Facility maintenance checklists can help when used by staff on a weekly or monthly basis.

Next, develop (or update) your approved vendor list to help keep everyone on the same page. For any large renovations or significant upgrades, the owner will still likely be closely involved, but most day-to-day maintenance and purchasing needs can be handled by managers.

Each of these strategies helps establish a capable management team to make the business more independent of its owner. While the owner will always play an important role, they can be freed from the daily minutiae, thus reducing stress and allowing more time to focus on bigger picture goals, like growing your business to its full potential!

Laura Laaman is president of Outstanding Pet Care. Outstanding Pet Care’s Management Development Program provides the tools you need to implement these strategies successfully. If you’re interested in a healthier and more rewarding business, schedule a consultation by calling 1-888-836-8740 or visiting www.outstandingpetcare.com/contact

It’s interesting that although Disney films are aimed at little children, they sure are packed with horror, evil, treachery, betrayal and even death! But there’s a very good reason these gruesome guys and gals are pure devils…

In any kind of storytelling, the villain is just as important as the good guy. In fact, in many ways the villain is more important. Think about it: Would you have cared as much for Luke Skywalker if Darth Vader wasn’t his dad? Even in professional wrestling, every major superstar good guy needs a similarly major badass enemy, or “heel,” as it’s known in the trade.

The same applies when you are marketing your pet services. You need a “villain” of the piece. You need to identify some terrible outcome that dog owners in your town are suffering from that only your service can thwart. And in your marketing, you need to highlight this huge agony-inflicting ache that keeps your prospects awake at night, and then position your superpower service as the solution.

Sound familiar?

Now, if you were running a pet business 30 or 40 years ago when there wasn’t a lot of competition around, then that kind of advertising might be OK. Or, if someone needs a doggy daycare and you are the only choice in your town, then it’s fine to have an advertisement that says, “We are a doggy daycare.”

One way to protect your pet business, or supercharge the growth of a new business, is to master how to market your services by using compelling copy that converts. Don’t market your business by only talking about the positive or obvious aspects of your service. You need to put your prospects’ pain points (or the “villain” of the piece) front and center with your marketing. Your marketing simply won’t work as well without a villain, just like Disney movies wouldn’t work without a villain…

Without a villain, the story of Beauty and the Beast would read: Avid reader from French village meets grumpy outcast and falls in love. Or, without a villain, The Jungle Book would read: Lost boy lives happily ever after in jungle with animal friends. Which would be incredibly boring, right? And, that’s what your advertisements look like without a villain.

Dog owners who have jobs feel guilty about leaving their dogs home alone. They leave the television on, spend any amount of money on fluffy toys for the dogs to play with and then can’t concentrate when they are at work because they are worried about the dog. Or, leading up to a vacation, dog owners stress themselves out about leaving their dog with a boarding establishment they can trust. So, speaking to them about their fears and concerns in your marketing will position you as a business who cares and understands.

Don’t think of it as seedy or immoral to talk about prospects’ pain points. If you truly care about helping people with your services, then you should do your utmost to connect with them, which means addressing the issues they care most deeply about.

Part of it comes down to a lack of awareness that your service exists, and the other part is a lack of trust in your ability to help them.

Starting with the pain points has three BIG advantages:

Draws attention. Just like when training a dog, the first thing you need is your prospect’s attention, and using pain points gets attention. Problems have always been a big deal for us humans because we notice them. Just like the caveman used to be wary when he heard a rustling in the bushes, because that could have represented a life-threatening problem such as a sabre-toothed tiger who wanted to eat him, dog owners in your town have problems too. And you’ll get their attention by talking about them in your marketing.

Builds trust. The second advantage to leading with pain points in your advertising is that it builds an immediate level of trust between you and the prospect. It doesn’t mean they will necessarily buy your service straight away, but they will be more inclined to read the rest of the ad and copy, down your contact details, because you demonstrate you understand the problems they are suffering from. This is very different from the kind of ads your competitors are doing. Consequently, it’ll make yours stand out.

Creates urgency. With any kind of ad we put out there, we want the reader to take some kind of action. Either to move towards investing in our services or, if not, then to certainly move closer towards buying. Well, when we use pain points, we remind the dog owner of the problem that is causing them a lot of stress, anxiety and worry. Then, if you can position your service as the antidote to the poison, you’ll cause the prospect to take action faster.

Framing your prospects’ big problems as the villain and your amazing service as the hero will transform how effective your pet business marketing is. Start by sending out a simple survey asking your clients what their biggest worry, struggle or challenge was before they started using your services. That will give you the material you need to write copy for your new, attention-grabbing, pain-point-focused advertising!

Dom Hodgson is Europe’s leading pet business coach, and is known as the Pet Biz Wiz. His mission is to help pet service providers create superior customer service systems that enable them to build an impactful and profitable pet business. Dom has written over nine books, and is a much in-demand speaker. You can instantly download a free copy of his latest book “How to Disnify Your Doggy Daycare Business” by going to www.petbusinessmarketing.com/daycaremagic

he statistics are staggering. Ten million people experience domestic violence each year in this country, and these are just the documented cases. The actual number is likely much, much higher,” says Orazie Cook, DrPH, MPH, MIAD.

For more than 20 years, Orazie has worked for hotlines and volunteered at domestic violence shelters and humane societies, and she has seen firsthand the obstacles that these survivors face. Time and time again, Orazie found that domestic violence survivors (of which the vast majority are women) found it difficult to leave an unhealthy living situation when the welfare of their pets was involved.

It’s been reported that as many as 48% of survivors delay leaving a dangerous situation out of concern for their pet’s safety. And Orazie has seen some make the heartbreaking decision to relinquish their pets to a local shelter rather than leave them with an abuser, but didn’t have the resources to make a change. However, when Orazie founded Praline’s Backyard Foundation, named after her own dog, Praline Pecan, her unique approach to this problem began changing lives all across our nation.

Praline’s Backyard Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit, was created to provide temporary free boarding or foster care for the pets of domestic violence survivors during times of crisis.

“Our work revolves around breaking the cycle of violence by offering survivors a safe haven for their beloved companions while they seek safety and healing as they transition to safe housing,” says Orazie. “We believe that pets play a crucial role in the healing process for survivors; offering comfort, companionship, and unconditional love during a difficult time.

“We firmly believe that no one should have to choose between their own well-being and that of their pets,” she continues. “I don’t want any survivor to return to an abuser over concern for the safety of their pet.”

The need for temporary pet housing and care is great. Less than 30% of domestic violence shelters are pet friendly. Now, Praline’s Backyard Foundation helps fill that enormous need. When a survivor wants to leave an abuser and they know they have somewhere to place their pet temporarily, it allows them to go forward with that life-changing decision.

Praline’s Backyard Foundation is listed with the National Domestic Violence Hotline and a number of other organizations throughout the country. Every domestic violence shelter in the U.S. has received a letter from Orazie explaining what Praline’s Backyard Foundation does, the services they provide, their contact information and how they support survivors.

“We don’t do this alone,” says Orazie. “Our approach is unique, with far-reaching results. Instead of building a brick-and-mortar facility which could only help people in a limited area, we collaborate with a vast network of existing pet boarding facilities and individual pet fosters across the nation to give immediate support to domestic violence survivors. It’s an ideal partnership because these facilities already exist and care for the animals.

“The housing for pets provided through our foundation is free to the survivor,” she continues. “Our partnering pet boarding facilities often offer us discounted or complimentary services. This generosity enables us to allocate funds to assist survivors in areas where affordable pet boarding isn’t available. By opening their hearts, homes, and businesses to temporarily house pets of domestic violence survivors, our partners become beacons of hope and healing. Together, we ensure that no pet is left behind during the crucial moments of crisis and transition.”

The foundation has recently partnered with Doobert (www.doobert.com) which supports humane societies and other non-profits and groups that provide temporary housing for pets. Doobert also has an extensive network of fosters and pet care facilities which assists Praline’s Backyard Foundation in matching pets in need of shelter.

There is a form on the Praline’s Backyard Foundation website, www.pralinesbackyardfoundation.org, for survivors to fill out if they need help in getting temporary housing for their pet. As soon as they submit it, it goes into the Doobert system and alerts Orazie. It automatically generates a list of facilities and fosters in the survivor’s area that Orazie can contact to see if they have space available to house the pet.

Finding immediate housing and care for these pets is a critical part of helping the survivors and is making a huge difference in the epidemic of domestic violence. The process is becoming more streamlined as the foundation expands their network and partners with other organizations that are supportive of fostering and housing animals of survivors.

“When you partner with Praline’s Backyard Foundation, you’re not just providing shelter and care for a pet in need, you are also helping to support a survivor as they recover and get their life back on track,” Orazie shares.

“We are not just an organization, we are a movement,” she continues. “A movement that envisions a world where survivors are empowered, pets are protected, and no one has to make an impossible choice. Join us on this journey, and together, we’ll create lasting change—one domestic violence survivor and one pet at a time.”

Once you determine the type or types of training you’re going to offer, you should determine the desired class sizes and calculate the room needed. For example, puppy classes will require a small and private space for each pet and the trainer; but with group classes, you need space for a certain number of pets and a trainer, and so on. For daycare, as a general rule of thumb, planning for 75 sq. ft. per attendee sets the team and the group up for success. In a group training environment, however, you should double that, or more.

Generally speaking, those who are in group training sessions don’t have huge behavioral issues with their dogs and are attending class to strengthen their bond with their pet while working on core obedience cues. It’s not the dog at the end of the leash we need to plan for—it is the owner at the controlling end. Pet parents aren’t skilled or trained in body language like your daycare staff members are. They will need to have ample room to make and correct mistakes without stepping on the toes of other participants.

The resort or daycare environment can be the most exciting place for some pets. But for other pets, not so much. The excitement of playing with friends can be stressful, which reduces the dog’s ability to learn and retain information. This is true for their human counterparts as well. That constant high-pitched bark in the background, or even the cute fluff-ball of a puppy in the room, will distract both dog and handler.

So how can you adjust your design to help reduce stress in training environments? By controlling smells, reducing noises, utilizing visual blockers, building in pods or separate sections within the facility and planning transition spaces for milestones are all effective ways.

Noise reduction, visual blockers and built-in pods all reduce stress, thus increasing engagement. Depending on your vision, you may want full isolation areas that completely block off the vision and noise of other dogs in the facility. A reactive dog (or any dog, for that matter) is less likely to bark if they don’t see the distraction. Pony walls, solid enclosure fronts and even curtains reduce visual reactivity.

The first area that a new training client walks through should be quiet and without distractions. If they need to walk through lodging areas, make sure those areas in their path house dogs that are calm, quiet and non-reactive. This will not only help maintain the dog’s attention by not shocking them with loud noises and distractions, but will also set the handler up for success. As the dog and client become more skilled and confident, you can increase distractions by moving sessions further into the facility. Controlled distractions are your friend. We want them to engage and learn.

By outlining your vision, creating barriers and selecting the right finishes for the space, you will increase engagement, strengthen both client and dog retention, and boost satisfaction well before the first nail is hammered on your project.

Al Locker, Jr. is President of Turnkey, Inc., located in Houston, Texas. Turnkey, celebrating its 62nd year of operation, is a commercial design & design/build construction firm specializing in owner-occupied, special-use businesses, such as pet resorts and veterinary clinics. Turnkey’s design work starts with a full understanding of the project and the owner’s business plan needs, and all design work is done in-house. They provide the expertise to advise, design, and build the highest-quality project at the most affordable and feasible prices!

Fern is the founder of Overdog Digital, a digital marketing & consulting agency that helps dog daycare and boarding facilities attract, convert, and keep more customers by creating winning marketing campaigns and providing the business guidance to build momentum and spark long-term growth. Fern also has programs to train daycare staff, is a dog behavior consultant, and has a dog training business in New Jersey. He is the author of eight books and a popular speaker at national conferences and private events. To join The Dog Daycare Business Think Tank or ask a question, go to: www.facebook.com/groupsdogdaycarethinktank

Luckily, there are concrete steps that facilities can take to decrease the likelihood of an outbreak among their pet population. And in the world of infectious diseases, a single ounce of prevention may be worth even more than a pound of cure. Establishing solid intake protocols, strictly adhering to those intake protocols, consistently reinforcing staff training and maintaining effective communication are all key to any pet care facility preserving the health of their clients’ pets.