Why You Should Expand Your Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Business

If you ever needed a sign to expand your business, you're welcome.

We get it - it's nerve racking knowing when to expand your Pet Sitting and/or Dog Walking business but trust us, it's worth it for more reasons than you know. We'll go through when you know it's time to start expanding, reasons why it's good, when not to hire and when to hire. A little background on us before we begin, Floofs and Friends is a Pet Sitting and Solo Dog Walking service in Norfolk and Sheffield. Due to life changes and moving city, we had to start recruiting 6 months into the business to keep the services going in Norwich and started afresh in Sheffield, and honestly, it was the best decision ever. Yes, it sped up the business by tenfolds but we would of ended up there anyways so no harm was lost. We imagine if you are reading this, you already have an incline that you would like to expand and start growing the team on a self employment front. If you need the sign, I guess it's this but another quantative sign is if you are repeatedly turning down clients due to limited availability. If you can't accept new clients or can't offer what the clients are looking, you need to hire. If you are desperate for a break but can't factor one in as there's no cover, you need to hire. If you are feeling burnout quickly, you need to hire. A business is a lowkey burden but the benefits should be outweighing all the nastiness - if it's not, you need to hire. Now we've gone through that and you want to hire, we need to cover what you need to do before we diving straight into the benefits. You need to iron out all your creases; if you've got efficiency problems - sort them. If you struggle with client's payments on a timely manner - sort them. If you struggle with keeping up with admin - sort it. If you struggle with perfectionist or control, do not hire until you have sorted that out (we will not encourage micro managers!!!). All of the issues you face will be greatly increased, you are essentially doubling your workload so you need to iron out all creases. Sit down and review everything, think about how you want something to work and why you want it to work this way before hiring as it will be the most amount of free time you will have before the new starter hits the ground running.

Nevertheless, the benefits outweigh all this extra added work! We've wrote a list as we are extremely passionate about the benefits. - It's forced you to sit down and work on all the areas that has been forgotten. You are already making the business better than you had a month ago. - You've got options for your clients; they can pick who they'd like to work with, it's increased your availability and boosted you professionally. You are no longer a one man band!

-Contingency, Contingency, Contingency!!! Life happens and things change. You need a contingency plan for back ups, your new starter becomes that back up. If you are off sick, your clients are not left in the dark. If you are off sick, you still earn something. If your client needs an emergency booking, your odds of availability are higher. Honestly, this - above all - is my favourite benefit.

-The business becomes more stable, if you are working or away, you are still getting some form of earnings. You are doubling your client base and all that comes after it. You can spend less time on marketing as word of mouth spreads like wild fire.

-Again, you are no longer a one man band. Although you have hired them, it's someone else you can sound board ideas off. You can troubleshoot together as you will both have the same level interest in the business. Everything is still on your shoulders, the intensity has softened.

Ok, so you've gone through the benefits and took the time to think about what needs to improve and how your business will evolve to accept new starters, it's time to start hiring. Here's what you need to do next: - Sort out your payment fee; will it be hourly or commission based?

-Sort out your expectation and job description -You need to sort out a job listing and start interviewing.

-When interviewing, you need to brainstorm interview questions beforehand. Grade each person out of ten with ten being fast track to hiring.

-Contact all interviewees to appreciate their time and let them know whether they got the job or not.

-Start the onboarding, however that may look for you :-) Please note, this is always a risk. Accept it as a risk and trust that person. You have hired them for a reason. Make it work for you. Good luck!!!!