Episode 19: A Look Back at How A Pet Sitting Business Started & Grew with Kristie Glazer

In this episode of "Bella In Your Business", Bella talks with Kristie Glazer from Philly Pet Care, a family-owned pet-sitting and dog-walking company in Philadelphia. Kristie talks about how she got started and what changes she made that really helped her business grow. After graduating college, Kristie and her husband moved to Philadelphia which is near where she grew up in South Jersey.  She was a teacher for a little while and then a sales rep for a shipping company. But she wasn’t happy.  She sat down and thought about what would make her happy….the answer….dogs!  She figured she lived in a city now and people probably needed dog walkers. Before her husband got home that day from his job as a chef, she had a full business plan worked out.  She told him she planned to quit her job and start this business. He told her to go ahead and do it! {Don't you just love that?} So Kristie did it. She started a website. She started cold calling and giving people her card.  She would take any job that came along (which she says in retrospect is a mistake many new business owners make). She did start  to grow the business though, which at the time was called “Personal Pet Care by Kristie”, and continued on for four years adding clients as she went.   Bella notes that having that moral support from our loved ones really can help catapult our businesses from the start. Maybe not necessarily our business numbers, but it certainly helps us with our tenacity. Kristie continued by saying that when she first started the business, the ironic thing was that they lived in an apartment where they could not even have pets. So they naturally had to refuse requests for overnights or doggie daycare.  But they eventually moved to a place where they could have pets and started offering both of those services.The business got so busy that they moved to their own home and Dave quit his job as a chef and joined the business! Kristie said they had some major bumps in the road along the way. In fact, she wishes in retrospect that they had had a “team” (lawyers and accountants) early on as it may have helped them avoid some of the roughest bumps. One bump, she points out, was a failure to secure all the licenses needed to board dogs in their home. It led to a neighbor calling Licensing and Inspections on them resulting in them having to cease doing the boarding for two years while they worked out all the necessary issues (including getting their home zoned to be a kennel). Kristie talked about a point in time when they were working constantly in the business. It was just her and Dave and trying to juggle the business and their three year old son got to be too much.  She came across Bella and Jump Consulting and as a result made some changes.  They rebranded to “Philly Pet Care”.  They revamped  their website and added professional photos and higher quality business cards. They raised their rates, which caused many customers to go away, but with the higher rates they still made that money back. They cut out the doggie daycare which Kristie said drove her nuts anyway. They made those changes four years ago and Kristie said doing all that gave them back their sanity and the business has been humming along smoothly every since. Bella says what she is hearing is that they now have a clean system and process and that their business works for them and not them working for the business. Bella paints the analogy of the bow and arrow.  She said that, at that time, Kristie and Dave were like a bow that needs to get pulled back a little bit so that it can get released and send that arrow soaring forward. But notes that it really stinks when you are going through it. Kristie agreed. She says it is difficult and a lot of work but it is so worth it in the end. She notes that you have to grow though, because if you don’t grow your business will fail. Bella then asks Kristie about the future of Philly Pet Care. Kristie says they are still doing the dog walking services in Center City (Philadelphia). They do still do overnights, but only for dogs they have a walking relationship with.  Dave and she hope to remove themselves more and more from the business. Not remove themselves completely because she and Dave like to make sure they personally know each and every client. In fact, she believes that is what really helps set them apart. They have two employees now but hope to have more in the future so they can have more time off. Kristie also said they are starting to plan for retirement. They are at a point with their business where they are making enough money to really start saving for the future. So that, maybe in 10 years or so, they could be in some form of retirement. But she notes that she doesn’t really see herself ever completely letting go or selling the business.  She has even pictured their son ultimately being the owner of Philly Pet Care. Bella compares a successful small business to having built your own beautiful home.  You can live in it until the day you die. You build yourself a quality life with the luxury of having options. Bella wraps the episode by telling  Kristie how proud she is of everything Kristie and Dave have accomplished. You can find out more about Philly Pet Care and Kristie and Dave at http://www.MyPhillyPetCare.com or to hear about the rebranding experience Kristie had with Bella a few years ago, you can watch the video here. Transcript: This is episode 19 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. I am Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, and today I am joined by Christy with Philly Pet Care. Christy, how are you today? Doing great, happy to be here, thanks for having me. Absolutely, Christy, I am so excited to hear you. We were just talking and it got so exciting that I said, wait, wait, let’s record this. So, for those who maybe aren’t familiar with Christy, she runs Philly Pet Care, a family-owned pet sitting and dog walking company located in Philadelphia. It’s run by her and her husband, so they’re a husband-and-wife team. In 2006, they started based off their passion for pets to turn it into a whole business. They started right in the heart of the city. They do a lot of dog walking and they’ve got one dog-loving little one who just started kindergarten. He was just a baby when Christy and I first started talking and working together. But you have been through so much, and I say that in a really great way, in an exciting way. I really wanted to showcase your story to help inspire, motivate, and challenge our listeners. But it hasn’t always been ducky and roses. In 2006, I graduated college in Atlanta, Georgia, but I’m from South Jersey. My husband and I were living down in Atlanta together and decided to move back home closer to family. When we got home, I was teaching at the time and couldn’t really find a job that I was in love with. Substituting wasn’t providing enough funds, so I took a step back. I did a little bit of sales, worked for DHL for a little bit, and learned how to sell. But I was so unhappy and not making any money. I call it an Oprah “aha” moment—I really sat down and thought, what could I do that would make me happy every day? What would make me want to get up? And I just thought, dogs. It just came to me—dogs. I’m living in the city now and I’m sure people need a dog walker, right? I thought, I can do that. My husband came home from work that night—he was a chef at the time—and I said, I’m going to quit my job and start this dog walking business. I had laid out a business plan for him before he got home about how I was going to build a website and make it happen. He said, okay, if you want to do it, we don’t have kids and we’re free, so go ahead. And I did. I started a website from GoDaddy.com, bought a domain with ads on it, and hit the streets. I would cold call and give people my cards that I made off VistaPrint, telling people I was a dog walker and to call me if they needed one. In the beginning, I would take any job. That’s really how I got my start. Back then, it was called Personal Pet Care by Christy, which was a mouthful and hard to remember. My website wasn’t great, my cards weren’t professional, but it got me those first few clients. I always joked that I should write a book because I would take on anything. That was probably one of the biggest mistakes pet sitters make—taking on anybody just to get business. That’s how the company started, and I went on like that for probably four years, building and getting clients. Okay, first of all, I know our listeners are getting excited because I’m getting excited just listening to you. You’re so enthusiastic—it’s so impressive. I love that you created a business plan for your husband and that he was so supportive and believed in you. Having loved ones behind us can really help catapult the beginning of our business or not. Not even necessarily the business numbers, but our tenacity, which is what I hear in your voice, helps us stay excited because they want to see us fulfill our passion. So kudos and high fives to Dave for being such an awesome, supportive partner. He became a partner in the business eventually. When I first started, we lived in a tiny apartment and couldn’t even have pets. People would ask if I could take their dog overnight, and I couldn’t. As the business grew, we decided to move to a bigger apartment where we could have pets. The landlords knew what we did and welcomed us to have a few dogs at a time. Dave was still a chef at the time, but the business grew so fast with overnight and doggy daycare requests that we saw an opportunity. We sat down, crunched some numbers, and thought, what if you quit your job and did this with me full-time?...