OverDog: Dog Daycare & Boarding Business Tips

Too many pet businesses are only focusing on one or two marketing angles as they are promoting their business. This limited approach will only give you very short lived results. However, if you have a comprehensive marketing strategy that hits all levels of customer awareness and helps people know, like and trust your business, you will enjoy much greater and long lasting success.  In this episode...

One of the ways to create a positive relationship with your clients is using gift giving in your marketing plan. Surprising your clients with something special from time to time will increase their loyalty, encourage them to talk about your business and make them smile.  Today we’ll go over some ways that you can give gifts to super charge your relationship with your customers. We’ll talk about wh...

To build a business and brand that your staff, your customers, and everyone who comes in contact with your business understands and can get excited about, you need to start by creating your core values. Think of your core values as the DNA of your business. They will guide all your decisions and attract the people who are the perfect fit for you. We’ll go over how you can create your core values a...

Whether you’re just beginning your journey on building your pet business or have an existing facility that you’re looking to expand upon, you’re going to need some money. For most, that will mean getting financing from a bank. To make that a pain-free and successful process you need to understand how it all works and what you need to do.  To help with all that, I invited Claire and Jacqueline from...

Running a pet business can be very overwhelming at times. With all the different things you need to do in your business and competition always on the rise, you can often feel like the odds are stacked against you - like you’re the underdog. The good news is that there’s never been more information and resources available to you.  On today’s podcast episode Fern will go over 10 things you can focus...

If you want to keep your staff on the same page and get them working as a cohesive team, you’ll need to have some meetings. The problem is that if you’re not intentional about them, meetings can become inefficient wastes of time. However, if done right, your meetings can energize your staff and improve your overall business operations.  This week, I invited on a few people to the podcast to share...

If you want to create a pet business that excites, not only your dog customers, but the human clients that bring them, you need to focus on constantly improving your customer experience. Unfortunately the current pet business model doesn’t provide a lot of opportunities to engage people or allow them to have a much of an experience with your business at all.   Allison Strauel of Skydance Pet Lodge...

Finding and keeping good staff is something that comes up again and again in this industry. The main reason that you’re not finding the fright people is that you’re not asking the right questions when you interview.  In this episode you’ll learn how Natalie Kramer from Albany Pet Hotel switched to behavior based interview and how it totally changed the quality of of the people she hired and improv...

If you’ve ever dreamed about growing your pet business to multiple locations and creating a recognizable brand that customers love, this is the episode for you. On today’s show, we’re joined by Dan Rubenstein of Pups Pet Club, who shares his journey, including various obstacles and detours. Dan reveals the important steps you can take to grow from one location to two, and eventually to multiple lo...

Building and growing a pet business is not only challenging but also lonely. Your friends and family members don’t really understand what you’re going through, and it can feel like you’re all alone, struggling to succeed. Well, it turns out you’re not alone—there’s actually a whole community of people doing exactly what you’re doing. These are people who can help you overcome challenges, avoid mis...

When you do anything for your business, the words you use are super important to help you convey the proper message, attract the right people and to convert them into paying customers who want to use your services again and again. The copy on your website, in your emails and in all of your advertising and promotional materials can greatly impact the overall success of your pet business.  In this e...

It’s so important to have a plan for your marketing. Before you work on any kind of creatives or develop any campaigns, you first need to understand the different segments of the audience and then tailor your content for each. The same marketing will not work for all types of people and if you don’t take this into account in the beginning, your efforts will fall flat.  Today we’ll go over the 5 le...

Being a pet business owner certainly has its ups and downs. The key to having a successful business long term is to recognize and amplify the good parts, while learning how to minimize and improve the challenges.  In this episode we’ll explore some of the top pros and cons of working in a pet business and how you can take those and then make the good even better and the bad much less stressful. 

They say people don't do business with businesses, they do business with people. Nowhere is that more important then in the pet industry - you're taking care of their furry family members. That's why it's critical to create a personal connection between you and your customers.  In this episode we'll explore a number of ways you can inject some of your personality into your...

In April of 2024 we held the first annual Overdog Business Retreat designed to help dog daycare and boarding business owners learn some important business strategies, improve their mindset, make some new friends and relax a bit. And it was AWESOME! In this episode Fern sits down with Allison Jacobs and Kristen Perrus (from Scouts Honor) at the end of the event to reflect on some of the big take-aw...

If you have dreams of building your pet business into something amazing - maybe growing it to multiple locations and/or expanding your service offerings- you need to set the stage for all that to happen. If you do, your success is inevitable. If you don’t, you  end up spinning your wheels and going no where.  Today Fern gives you 7 things you can do today to prepare you business for the future. Th...

Training continues to be a great service and revenue stream for dog daycare businesses but many struggle with how to structure the training programs to be both valuable to customers and good revenue sources for the business.  Fern brings on Max Belenitsky of LECA Academy to share how they created their training program, which has a learning curriculum that sets the dogs up for success, while also...

There is a bunch of recurring topics in the pet industry that there's always a lot of debate on. Some of these are long standing myths that keep circulating with a lot of confusion on that actual facts of the issues.  In this episode, Fern tackles seven of the most common myths about the dog daycare and boarding industry and gives you his take on them so you can better understand how to best...

Starting a pet business from nothing and growing into multi-locations isn’t easy. However if you have the vision, are willing to do what it takes and stay open opportunities it can happen.  In this episode, learn how Amy Hillis started Social Pet Hotel in North Carolina and has grown it into a thriving 3 location business that is setting high standards for pet care. Learn how she got over the earl...

Did you know there is a way to make more money without bringing in more customers? Well, there is, and not only that, with the help of technology much of it can be done behind the scenes with only a little bit of effort.  Today you're going to learn the magic of revenue management from Chris Tilson, from the Kennel at Arbor Lane and Goose software. He shows us how to maximize the value of you...

Adding training to your list of services just makes sense. Dog training is always a customers need, enabling you to better server people, it helps the dogs improve their behavior and brings in some extra revenue. As the dog daycare industry continues to evolve, it's important to pivot accordingly and training looks to be an important component for the future of this industry.  In this episode...

Let's be honest here, you've been putting off a bunch of things in your business because you just don't like doing them. Maybe it's because they are boring or perhaps it's because you're not really good at them or don't know how to get them done. Whatever the reason, they might be very important to the success of your business and you need to get moving on them. ...

Your Google Business Profile is one of the resources online that can get your business seen by more people by helping your business show up in search results. To make sure that happens and to rank higher than your competitors, you need to set it up and optimized correctly. In this episode, you'll learn some simple ways you can improve your Google business visibility and greatly increase your...

It doesn't matter how many people you get to discover, inquire and come in to your business if you're not taking the proper steps to turn them into paying customers that stick around. To do that, you need to learn how to take control of the sales process, give each person the attention they require and make it easy for them to do business with you.  In this episode we'll talk about...

Starting and growing your very own pet business can be very rewarding and profitable. However, many owners find themselves overwhelmed with the gazillion things you need to do on a daily basis, much of which are not very enjoyable to you. This causes many people to become so frustrated and exhausted that they wonder if it's worth the trouble.  If you've ever felt that way and dream about...