What Are Your Top 5 Life and Business Values?

Published on : 17 November 20173 min reading time

As you may have read on Facebook, I made a trip to Las Vegas this weekend to attend Ali Brown’s Shine seminar. I came home with tonnes of ideas and a full business plan for 2010 – so I definately got return on my ticket investment! I’m so excited about my new clarity and focus and I’ll be bringing some great new ideas back to you here in the next couple of weeks.

Today I wanted to share with you the very first exercise we did at Shine – defining our core values. This exercise was key in helping me define how I want to move forward with my pet sitting business and Working with Pets.

I discovered that my top 5 values are:

1. Adventure – I love to travel, meet new people, and experience new things. I am never satisfied doing the same job or tasks for too long – I’m always looking for a new challenge.

2. Freedom – One of my goals is to be a full time entrepreneur, and be able to work from anywhere (this is a big enabling force for getting a lot of adventure!)

3. Creativity – I love to create new products, and come up with better ways of doing things!

4. Trust – I have to be able to trust the people I work with – especially my IC sitters and staff. I don’t put up with dishonesty or sidestepping any issues

5. Excellence – I want things to be done right and always strive to improve and satisfy the customer.

Value number 5 became especially important for me and is leading me to rebrand my pet sitting coaching business for 2010.

I really do believe that we should all strive for excellence in serving our clients and their pets. To me this type of excellence means that your pet sitting business has systems for marketing to attract great clients, systems to ensure that you business runs smoothly and leaves nothing to chance, and systems to build a trustworthy and reliable team that supports your business. It also means that anyone working with pets knows pet behaviour and pet first aid so that they can care for the pets in any situation.

I’d love to hear about your 5 key values and what impact they have to your life and your business. Please share with us by leaving a comment.

Here are a few other examples of values to give you some ideas:

Achievement, Ambition, Beauty, Challenge, Charity, Connection, Contribution, Daring, Enjoyment, Expertness, Faith, Friendship, Honesty, Honor, Humility, Independence, Inner Harmony, Integrity, Kindness, Leadership, Love, Loyalty, Magnificence, Nobility, Power, Recognition, Relationships, Respect, Safety, Security, Service, Simplicity, Truth, Wealth, Wholeness

If you haven’t done this exercise before – at first pick 10 from this list (and of course any others you can think of!) and then narrow them down to your top 5.

Can’t wait to learn more about you! I hope you’ll leave a comment for us..

Previous post :
10 Reasons Pet Sitters Must Grow a List

Next post :
Do You Have A Disaster Plan for Your Pets?

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.