Tag: Selling

Starting your own pet business.

Another guest post from Penny Martin.

Well I am preparing this post on Saturday, the 14th. The operation for the hernia on the 10th went smoothly enough but I did not reckon on the discomfort that would follow. Indeed, I was talking to a good friend on Thursday and he said that the pain would more or less last for two weeks. My son gave me the good advice to take regular doses of an over-the-shelf painkiller rather than the stronger tablets the hospital gave me because those prohibited driving! I returned to a small amount of driving last Friday.

Now on with the show!

Penny Martin first wrote a guest post for me in February, Fostering or adopting a dog, and I am delighted to present her second post. Over to her!

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Why Now Is a Great Time for a Pet Business and How to Start Your Own

By Penny Martin.

If you are an animal lover who wants to spend your days scrolling through cute dog pictures and surrounded by furry clients, now is a great time to consider starting your own pet business. Here, you can learn more about which relevant business areas experiencing growth and tips to get started on the right foot. 

Reasons Why It’s a Great Time for Pet Businesses

A growing number of families include animals. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association data, more than half of American households have a pet. That number appears to be growing, too, representing an increased need for care services. 

Pets are not just more abundant; they are also becoming full-fledged family members. As a result, spending on them is also increasing. Despite rapid growth in many care service areas, there are not enough providers to meet this increased demand. 

Animal-Related Businesses That Are Thriving

If you are curious about what type of business to start, look no further than pet care providers. There are several types of jobs you can get involved in:

  • Training and behavioral services: Training isn’t just for puppies. Dogs of all ages can benefit from learning household rules and appropriate behaviors when they are out and about. 
  • Dog walking and pet sitting: This is usually based out of the client’s home, where you pick them up for a walk or provide companionship for short periods.
  • Boarding: This is an excellent option for individuals who would rather welcome dogs and cats to their own home or care facility. Many boarding companies also provide daycare services. 
  • Grooming: You will need to learn how to groom different types of pets to master the skills for a successful grooming career. However, if you enjoy helping dogs look their best, this is an excellent high-demand field. 

Business Strategies to Help You Succeed

Economic conditions are excellent for small pet-focused companies to thrive. However, as an entrepreneur, you need to follow some basic business principles to succeed.

Start by choosing an appropriate legal structure. Research the most popular setup for businesses like yours to find one that fits your needs. Then, file with the appropriate offices to make it official. Next, take time to develop a comprehensive business plan. This document will do more than get you up and running; it will also serve as a reference as you continue to grow. Be sure to conduct market research to identify your target customers.  

Implement a structured invoicing process to set clear payment terms for clients and ensure you get paid on time, especially if you send invoices immediately after performing a service. Accepting several forms of payment is also helpful for clients. Use an invoice maker, free online usually, to streamline the process. Simply add your logo and business information, and you are ready to go. 

Use bookkeeping software to track your income and expenses and gain insight into your cash flow. This is a great way to organize and store receipts, ensuring compliance with regulatory agencies. It also makes tax filing easier at the end of the year and helps you find the most deductions.

A growing number of households with pets and increased spending make now a great time to start an animal-related business. Care and service providers are excellent fields to consider, with high demand for groomers, trainers, and dog walkers. However, no matter what type of company you start, sound business strategies can keep it running smoothly.

Image via Pixels

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Excellent!

As an ex-entrepreneur, who fundamentally was a salesman, I can also add the following to that post.

It starts and ends with the customer. A business plan is vital and so too is market research. But unless you have a clear vision of how you are to sell your services and what’s the difference that makes the difference you must not proceed. Selling is all about: Need; Feature; Benefit.

  • Open-ended questions to establish the need. (Those are questions that cannot be answered with a yes or a no.)
  • Keep on asking, and establishing a relationship, until you and the potential customer are clear that there is a need.
  • Then speak about the features of what you are selling that matches the need/s. Do not progress until the prospective customer understands and agrees.
  • For every agreed feature be clear what the benefit is for the customer; of that particular feature.
  • Try closing the deal. If there is hesitation then understand why. Resolve it. Try closing the deal again.

The very best of luck to those that want to run with this.

Bananas and common sense!

This is more than about the problems with Toyota.

The Economist is a newspaper.  It was first published in September 1843 which, of itself, makes it a notable newspaper.  Many years ago, more than I can recall just now, I became a subscriber to the newsprint version of this weekly paper.  It has become such a companion, so to speak, that when I left the UK in September 2008 to come to Mexico I made arrangements to continue receiving The Economist each week.

However, the Mexican postal system, despite being thoroughly reliable, is rather slow and, rather logically if you muse on it, the postman always only delivers when there is more than one item.  Thus the particular copy of The Economist that carried the story about Toyota arrived late and with three other editions!

Let me turn to the point of this article.

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Selling Change – Concluding Part.

Understanding the process of change – key learning points.

  • Good, really good, knowledge of your products and services is essential.
  • People don’t buy anything unless they are dissatisfied with their present circumstances.Questioning
  • Selling change means getting the client to recognise that change brings real benefits.
  • Only good, client-focused questioning will uncover real needs.
  • Only excellent listening skills will allow you to hear what those needs are.
  • Don’t worry about the type of questions – just question, question, question.  Oh, and listen!
  • Understanding the potential customer’s business and where their needs are is fundamental.

Needs questioning is a sales concept.

Continue reading “Selling Change – Concluding Part.” →

Selling change – Part Four

Understanding the process of change – bringing it all together.

Yesterday, we promoted the importance of questioning.  Because it is only through answering questions that we see new perspectives.  In a sales situation, the skill of the salesperson is to have great in-depth knowledge about their products and services, the many ways in which existing customers use your solutions and likely areas of ‘pain’ that your prospective customer may recognise.

That requires a good understanding of the industry/s that your customers work within.  Because without that, you can’t ask the focused questions that will quickly get you an insight into the prospect’s situation.  The other bonus coming from knowing the prospect’s industry is that the sales approach will enable your prospect to feel as though you are there to help him.

Continue reading “Selling change – Part Four” →

Selling change – Part Three

Understanding the process of change – Discovering the needs

In yesterday’s Part Two, we raised the important question of how we change our views.  Of course, in selling the ‘we’ is the person you are selling to.  But to see into their view of the world, it obviously helps to think about ourselves for a while.

The psychology of change is beyond the skill set of this author and is one of many areas left to the psychology professionals.  However, here is a very basic notion that works for the salesperson.

The role of questions is to elicit answers.  (You see, I did say it was basic!.)

But straight away, one particular widely-held idea is going to be destroyed.
Read more of this essay on change

Selling change – Part Two

Understanding the process of change – Upsetting the Homeostasis

In yesterday’s Post on this topic we left the reader with a ‘flow chart’ of the process of change within a business and, slightly tongue-in-cheek, how that compared with change at a personal level.

What is the role of the salesperson in facilitating this process?

Well, firstly the salesperson should have established that the potential client ought to have a need for the solution.  (That, at least, ups the odds of an effective use of sales time.)  Whether that is from knowledge about the company or its business, a referral from somewhere else, or a solid sales reference from another customer, i.e. another of the salesperson’s customers is a good example of using the solution.

Continue reading “Selling change – Part Two” →

Selling change – Part One

Understanding the process of change is vital in selling.

When a potential customer is considering a solution on offer from the sales person, it is almost inconceivable not to think that your contact is going through a change process. In business-to-business selling most new solutions require the acceptance of change.

With that in mind, it would be wise to consider the change process. Now the challenge is that the author may have a few decades experience as a salesman but zilch experience or qualifications as a psychologist.  Thus this Post looks at a salesman’s understanding of what appears to take place.

Change cartton

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Selling – finding customers, Part 1.

Prospecting with pin-point accuracy.

One of the classic ways of catching business students out is with the following:

Question:  If I am conducting a direct mail campaign, what would represent an excellent response?

Typically, students will answer, “2%”, “3%”, etc.  In fact any form of percentage response would miss an important point.

Correct answer: An excellent response, nay magical response, would be if only those that had the money and motivation to buy responded.

Impossible?  Yes!

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