Want more money in your bank account? Don’t have time to do a full-scale business change and looking for quick ways you can find more revenue?
We’ve got you covered!
Let’s dig into 10 easy ways you can bring in more money through your pet business.
1. Reach out to past leads
Now’s the time to reach out to people who have inquired about your services before and who were really excited but you never heard back from them. Send an email and perhaps offer an incentive for their first booking with you. Create an email template that you can copy and paste to use for this email, or try BCCing it! (Although, sometimes it’s worth the extra minute to customize the email to that client’s experience/preferences - i.e. “We had so much fun on Bentley’s Meet & Greet!”
These are people who were already interested in your business, so we can consider them warm leads vs. cold leads, and thus make them more likely to book or at least perhaps allows you to find out why they didn’t book in the first place (this can be great information for the future!).
Time saver: Create a recurring task in your online calendar so you’re reminded to do this every quarter. Save the email template for future use, so this becomes an even quicker task down the road!
2. Consider creating partnerships
There’s a lot of talk in the pet industry about finding partnerships in your community. For example, if you’re a dog trainer, you may want to partner with shelters, rescues, veterinarians, dog walkers, etc.
We full-heartedly recommend doing this! And in fact, we even created a free partnership email template for you to help you reach out to potential partners in this way along with tips on how to have great partnerships for your pet business. Here’s the link to download that!
However, we wanted to suggest something even more when it comes to partnerships! And that’s to consider partnering specifically with your competitors. That’s right! You heard me!
I say it in this blog post, and I’ll say it again here, 95% of the time, referrals from your competitors are more effective and more reliable, even if they come less often.
I highly recommend checking out my blog post on the topic of partnering with competitors, as it can be a great way to get more committed referrals and thus, more money in your pocket!
3. Reach out to old clients
Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It says 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your customers. It’s wayyyyyyy cheaper for you to focus on your current customers than it is to try to get new customers. Current customers are typically more loyal, they already know your services work for them, and they’re more likely to spend more and stay around. Not to mention the fact that they’re already in your system, so you don’t need to do another meet & greet or hop on another call to learn more about their dog training needs, or know the energy level of a dog for a photoshoot!
A lot of software out there will allow you to create reports to find clients who haven’t booked services in X amount of time (ahem… Time To Pet does this wonderfully). Once you have the list of people you’re going to email, it’s time to write up an email template and send it to the list!
Time saver: Create a recurring task in your online calendar so you’re reminded to do this every quarter. Save the email template for future use, so this becomes an even quicker task down the road!
4. Find out where your leads are coming from and do more of that
If you aren’t doing this already, now’s the time! Understanding where your leads or new clients are coming from is the best way to know where to spend your time. If you spend 10 hours a week on Instagram and 10 hours a week on Facebook, but when you do look at your forms, you haven’t had one person find your business on Facebook, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate where you’re spending your time. (Note: This isn’t to say there's not another purpose for Facebook other than getting new clients - it can also help with building a community, engagement, personality, trust-building, etc. However, it’s always good to understand where your clients are coming from so you know to focus your efforts there).
The best way to streamline this process is to ask on your contact forms where new leads found your business. You can also compare this information with current clients vs. leads (i.e. maybe you get lots of leads from Instagram, but they are rarely the clients that stick around and spend more compared to the clients that come from Yelp). All of this is great information to bring to the table when it comes to your time and money!
5. Consider affiliate marketing!
Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that diversifying their income is one of the best ways to not only ensure a consistent flow of revenue into the business, but to also allow you to make more money from different avenues as business fluctuates constantly! Even further is affiliate marketing, which allows you to make money more passively. AKA time doesn’t necessarily equal money here.
How this works for pet industry businesses like dog walkers and dog trainers:
As pet industry experts, your clients look to you for information, products to buy, and recommended tools to use. They trust you and your expertise, so you may as well point them in the right direction AND bring in a little money on the side! For example, if you recommend a particular harness or training treat for your clients, why not write a blog post about it, have a page on your website for recommendations, and/or include this information in a welcome packet?? By doing so, you’re not only making your life easier because the client will use a tool that works best when you’re with their dog, but it can also allow you to make a percentage of the sale if they decide to purchase it!
To learn more about how passive income can work for your pet business, check out my reflection blog post from my interview with The Broke Dog on The Power of Passive Income for Pet Businesses.
6. Cut monthly expenses
Two tips for you here!
Go through all of your regular business expenses and see which ones you don’t need anymore. Make sure everything you pay for in business is bringing you an ROI or is worth the money!
This is the gold mine here - MOST monthly recurring subscriptions you pay for will allow you to pay annually instead, which typically means you get a discounted rate. Go through your subscriptions and see which ones you know you’re going to keep around for at least another 12 months and consider yes, paying more upfront, but saving in the long run! I did this with all of my regular subscriptions I could and ended up saving a TON!
7. Re-package your services into products
I’m sure you’ve heard in this digital age that tons of services are going online - virtual dog training, for example. However, have you considered turning your expertise into a digital product that can be sold while you’re away from your desk?
Some examples: puppy training ebook, potty training ebook, how to start your own dog walking business guide, tips for hiring pet sitters, ebook for taking photos of your dog with your iPhone, dog nutrition ebook, etc.
8. Make a time audit
I’ll be honest and tell you that this is not my favorite thing to do. It’s recommended a ton… and for good reason! It’s so hard for us to realistically know where our time is going, and for most of us, it is going to places that aren’t ‘best.’ For example… you may not realize how many hours are dedicated to scrolling Instagram when you could be reaching out to future partners, past clients, etc.
How to do this: For one work week, document how much time you spend on each task. At the end of the week, take note of everything and add up how many hours of every task goes to each one of those tasks. From there, you can evaluate how much time goes to waste, how much more time you’d have by eliminating it, and perhaps how much time you’d save by hiring a VA and focusing on more money-making tasks!
9. Focus on Profit First
If you’ve been following Pet Marketing Unleashed for some time now, you may have heard me talk about the book, Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz. Bear with me here… yes, I’m asking you to read an entire book, BUT once you read it, it is the easiest thing to implement and help you profit in your pet business. EVEN if you’re in debt. This way of handling my finances changed everything for my business and allowed me to save up a profit where I hadn’t done so before. These easy easy changes will allow you to have more money in your profit bank account!
10. Set up your Seamless Onboarding System
Our prized system, the Seamless Onboarding System, is the way to seamlessly onboard your dream clients without adding to your busy schedule. How does this equal more money in your pocket?
Well… by setting up an automated onboarding process, you can:
Inspire your dream clients to take the next steps on your website (i.e. more bookings with the right people who value your services and will therefore spend more and stay with your business longer).
Develop a strategy and system that stops the cycle of overworking yourself on manual tasks and allows you to save time (thus giving you more time to get more clients and focus on other money-producing tasks).
Allow your website to work for you rather than doing it all yourself or hiring someone else to do it for you!
So, how do you implement this? We go into the steps to make this happen inside my FREE masterclass! To register for the class, head here.
There you have it… 10 easy ways to help bring in more money to your pet business. Us entrepreneurs have to think creatively to bring in more money, rather than spinning on the hamster wheel 24/7 trying desperately to find new clients via posting on social media. I hope the above was helpful so you can bring in more money without the headache!
For more tips, content, and community, join our free Facebook Group community, Unleashed Petpreneurs. Would LOVE to see you over there! Here’s the link to join.
