OverDog: Dog Daycare & Boarding Business Tips

There's a trend in every industry that's become one of the most popular and successful business models available. Very few pet businesses, however, are taking advantage of it and I think that needs to change.  We're talking about membership programs. Offering your services for a regular fee that is automatically charged to the customer every month. There's just so many advantag...

One of the first questions I ask new clients is "what makes your business different and better than the competition." It's a question you need to have a very clear answer for because it will dictate all of your marketing and is usually the reason why someone will do business with you instead of everyone else out there.  In this episode we'll go over what a USP is, how to discov...

Everyone is alway so focused on getting new people interested in your business that sometimes we forget to take care of our existing customers. Yes, bringing in new leads is important, however if you do an amazing job with the customers you already have, they will stay with your for longer - making your more money in the end.  Today we'll talk about some strategies to help your customers stay...

One of the hardest part of running a dog daycare business is dealing with the many facets of having employees. It's difficult to get good people, train them properly, create an environment that they will enjoy and to help them work together as a team. By far, staffing issues are the number one pain point in this industry year after year.  Today you're going to get some great insight on h...

One of the most in demand services in pet businesses right now is training. And one of the biggest opportunities for revenue growth for pet businesses is with day training and board & train programs. These are not only be a great value add for your clients, but they can be a big profit center for your business.  The problem is how can you effectively structure those programs so that they are u...

Your website is one of the most important business assets you have. It can either draw people in and help them to become customers or it can turn people away, never to return. Think of your website as your digital storefront - it's the first impression people get of your business online so you want it to be good.  In order to take really good care of people and move them toward a buying decis...

A lot has happened in the dog industry over the past 12 months. There were ups and downs, and sometimes all you could do as owners is hold on tight. With the new year upon us, it's a great time to look back at what happened in 2022 and then prepare to move forward.  Today we'll discuss the current state of things and I'll make some prediction for 2023, as well as give you some tips...

Online video consumption has been going up every year and even though it's such a powerful tool to grow your dog business, few companies are taking advantage of it.  Today we'll talk about why you should be utilizing video in your marketing, what kinds of videos you should be making, where to put them and how to get it all done. 

You've heard it before: "failing to plan is planning to fail." That's true for much about your business but especially when it comes to your marketing. In order to set yourself up for success you need to have a vision of what you want to accomplish, as well as a specific timeline of implementation.  In this episode we'll discuss how to create a marketing calendar for the n...

If you're looking to really supercharge your marketing efforts, paid advertising can help you reach more people and get more customers. Hands down, the best bang for your buck is using digital ads on the two big platforms: Google and Facebook. They are both powerful but very different, so which one is better?  Today we'll discuss the pros and cons of both so you can better understand how...

What do you do when you haven't seen a regular customer in a while? Do we just assume that they no longer need you or that they founds someplace else to go?  No way. They might not be lost forever - they just might need a little help finding their way back. And that's where your lost customer marketing campaign will help you bring those people back into your business. 

In every market there are low end service offering and their are high end businesses. There is an audience for every kind of business so it's up to you to decide what kind you want to create, the kind of service you want to provide and how you want to serve.  In this episode I discuss why you should provide a high quality of service that will bring you better customers and less headaches. 

Staffing continues to be one the biggest issue in the dog daycare industry. Everyone seems to be focused on where to find good people, how to interview and the quality of the candidate pool. All that's important but also meaningless if you're not taking good care of people and have the right environment for them once they are hired.  We just completed the first of a series of Staffing Ma...

Wouldn’t it be great if you only had customers you loved? People who appreciated what you do, were amazingly loyal and made your job easy. Discover how you can create a business that attracts great clients and a system for attracting the best people, while repelling those that will only make your life difficult. 

You can learn so much about how to improve your own business by studying and following what other successful businesses do. One the biggest and most impressive businesses out there is Disney. I think we can all agree that no one quite does it like Disney.  Today we'll look at what makes Disney so special and how you can model some of what they have done to create some magic in your own busine...

If you want to sustain your business over the long term you need continually bring in new customers, however it's even more important to make sure those customers stay with your for as long as possible.  In this episode we'll discuss some ways you can increase the time that you hold on to customers, keeping them happy, loyal and spending money with you. 

I firmly believe that the dog daycare business model is changing. It's changing because we're learning more about how to take better care of dogs and the consumer is starting to want more for their dogs than just being loosely watched as they run around aimlessly all day long.  Now we're seeing a new and improved breed of daycare emerge that structures the dog's day, provides t...

As entrepreneurs we're built to put our heads down, working to move our businesses forward. Although I do believe that if you are smart and are willing to put in the work, you can accomplish anything, it doesn't have to be that hard and we don't have to go it alone.  By leveraging the knowledge and resources of others we can greatly speed up our success and avoid many of the obstacl...

The way to create a loyal, engaged mass of customers is to make sure they are excited about bringing their dog to daycare on a regular basis. One way to do that is to do different things to keep people coming back and give the dogs more fun while they’re with you.  In today’s episode, you’ll learn how one dog daycare has been creating quite the local buzz by holding different themed events for the...

A lack of communication is probably one of the major caused for stress and problems in any dog daycare business. Good communication across your entire business, however, will help the dogs behave better, keep customers happy and greatly improve your staff morale and loyalty.  In this episode we'll discuss some key areas that you can focus on improving your communication and I'll give you...

There has never been more competition in the dog daycare industry. More and more places are opening up all the time and you have new companies like Rover.com entering the marketplace, giving people a lot of different choices for their dog's care.  If you want to separate yourself from all these other businesses and make you the obvious choice in a sea of similar services, you NEED to do a few...

Many of the problems that dog daycares have with the play groups is caused by having dogs there that are not a good fit for the environment. These dogs are labeled "problem dogs" and cause stress for you, your staff and the other dogs in the groups.  To create a happy pack that's easy to manage, you need to better assess dogs as they come into your facility for the first time. In th...

Often the biggest issues in dog daycare facilities come from the dogs in the play groups. Managing a pack of dogs is not an easy thing to do and and requires some specific knowledge and skills to make sure that both dogs and staff are safe and enjoying their time there.  In this episode, I'll teach you how to handle the play groups better so that you have less problems and stress, while creat...

As entrepreneurs we tend to think that we can do it all on our own. We can figure everything, overcome every challenge and don't need any helping hands along the way. Often it's true, we can do it all on our own, however we could move much faster and go to higher levels if we just had some guidance along the way.  In this episode, I'll discuss why I think every business owner needs...

Are you running around all day crazy busy but still feel like you can't get to everything you need to do? And after a long day of work, feel like you didn't get much accomplished? Running a dog daycare business comes with a lot of work that needs to be done on a daily basis and often it can feel like there's just not enough time in the day to get to it all. However, if you learn to...