Pet Sitters Sharing Excellence Project

I saw so many people sharing a theme or quote for what they want to experience in 2010 on Facebook that I wanted to come up with my own. I decided that I want to 2010 to be a year filled with sharing. Sharing of ideas, tips, and know-how between pet sitters. So I thought about fun ways that I could make that happen - then a new idea came to me for a collaborative e-book written by pet sitters and for pet sitters. This e-book will be written by pet sitters (you!) emailing your tips to me over the next 2 months. I will then put all the tips together into an e-book and make this electronic book available to download for free at my website. The tips could be anything that you would share over coffee with another sitter to help them with their pet sitting business. Here are a few topics that I brainstormed (but don’t think you are limited to these!): Marketing Customer Service On the Job Tips - like “don’t forget to take the clients keys outside when you let the dogs out to play - they may have a door that will lock behind you” (nearly got caught by this myself this Xmas but luckily had the keys) Hiring Pet Care Tips Pet First Aid Tips Emergency Tips Business Tips - ie Taxes, Systems, Contracts etc You can think up any other topics you want of course but keep them related to pet sitting in some way. My goal is to collect 1000 tips by February 28th 2010. You will get due credit for your tips - I can put your name and website or social media Facebook or Twitter site under your tip. This way pet sitters can network and get to know more other pet sitters that they can turn to for help in the future. You can also ask me not to print your name in the e-book if you don’t want it published. Please email me your tips to this address that I just set up especially for the project : sitterssharing@gmail.com. Feel free to send in more than one tip - but please send each tip on a separate email so that I can keep a running count. When you email them please write your topic (or other if you can’t think which topic it fits with) in the subject line. The e-book will be available to download on March 1st at this site: http://www.petsitterssharingexcellence.com. Please share this around with other pet sitters you know! I’ll be posting updates on how may tips I have received. Just think of having 1000 new ideas and tips for your business :) Please help me reach this goal so that we can kick off the new year in the spirit of sharing!

Owning a pet business does not guarantee you success, but it is generally not difficult to set up your own pet business adn many who own pet businesses love the hard working lifestyle and the closeness to pets. You will have to compete with those who may be better trained, may have lower cost structures and those who “pretend” to have your skills and experience when they do not. (eg not all those who advertise themselves as groomers are actually Groomers).

There are also key skills that all dog industry professionals should possess. Here are some of the most critical skills and abilities for those hoping to work with dogs professionally: Basic Dog Handling and Training Skills, ability to recognize behavioral signals.

Animals can be somewhat unpredictable when they are under stress or in an unfamiliar environment, like when they visit the veterinary office or the grooming salon, so it is important to be attentive and stay aware of the animal you are handling at all times.