Your Dog Training Business Assessment Result: Growth Phase
Discover your next steps to higher profits
You're in the growth phase! Let's dive into what that means and what your pathway to higher profits could look like.
The Growth Phase: What This Means For You
You're ready to expand and attract more clients. This phase is all about scaling your business. Growing your business can be an exhilarating time as you implement strategies to reach a larger audience and increase your revenue!
Want to learn how to make your dog training business more profitable with clients you love? View the free on demand webinar
Common challenges during the growth phase
When your dog training business reaches the growth phase, it can be both exciting and challenging to figure out the best strategies to expand. You likely have a clearer vision of what you want your business to become, and now it's about implementing the right tactics to attract more clients and increase your impact.
You know you want to take your business to the next level, but you're not quite sure what to aim for or what's even possible for you.
You still experience imposter syndrome from time to time - "Are my training skills really good enough to handle a larger client base?"
You need to attract more clients, but your marketing strategy could use some refinement.
As your workload increases, you'll need to maintain a healthy work-life balance, which means learning to say both yes and no at the right times.
You're refining your pricing strategy and sometimes feel pressured to accept every client.
How do you convince more potential clients to choose you and trust your growing business while expanding your testimonials and case studies?
So, what's your best next step?
Let's dive in to what the top priorities are to lay a strong foundation toward the growth of your dog training business. Your top four action steps:
Refine and expand your business goals.
Enhance your growth mindset and regularly assess your progress.
Streamline your administrative processes to handle increased client volume.
Implement a robust marketing strategy to attract more clients and boost revenue.
Let’s dive into more detail about navigating this stage of your business...
Mindset
Getting Clear On Your Goals
As you grow your business, it’s crucial to refine your goals. Having vague goals at this stage is like trying to scale a mountain without a clear path. You need specific, measurable objectives to guide your progress.
No one else can define what you want for your business but you. To propel your growth, you also need to understand WHY you want to reach these goals. Your reason why is the driving force that will keep you motivated, even as you face the challenges of expansion. Need help? Grab the Dog Trainer's Goal Planner HERE
Growing your confidence
You may feel your confidence growing in this stage. But imposter syndrome can still pop up, of course.
It's a form of self doubt where you don’t feel that you are qualified or capable enough to justify the position you hold. For example, you don’t feel skilled enough as a dog trainer to charge premium pricing.
Interestingly, imposter syndrome is most common among high-achieving individuals. If you have a habit of being too hard on yourself, the bar of being, “good enough,” will continually move out of reach.
This self doubt will keep you from growing as it will cause you to do things like undercharge for your services and over-deliver, which isn’t sustainable for the long term.
Busy work vs income producing activities
As your business grows, it’s easy to fall into the trap of staying busy without actually producing income.
Sometimes, you might even use one type of work to procrastinate on another!
For example, you could spend hours perfecting your website and editing images in Canva to get them just right, but never quite get to the tasks that are a bit more uncomfortable, like posting about your business or promoting your services to a wider audience.
Self care - not an afterthought
As your business grows, it can be easy to prioritize it to the point where it consumes your thoughts and dominates every part of your life. But if you’re like me, I’m guessing you started your business so that you could have more time off work, not less!
Self care is often an afterthought that people address when they’re already at the point of burnout and fatigue. As the business demands more, healthy habits start to slip.
Healthy eating and exercise are put aside for later, junk food makes you feel even worse, and hobbies – what’s that?! When self care is neglected, self sabotage often takes its place.
You are the driver of your business and its success, so taking care of yourself needs to be a top priority.
Downtime, hobbies, and time off aren’t something to leave to chance; they must be scheduled in like any other commitment. Why should a commitment to yourself be less important than to everyone else?
Admin
Building Your Procedures
As your business grows, it’s crucial to refine your systems and procedures to ensure everything runs smoothly and efficiently.
Do you have a streamlined process for booking and training clients, or are you starting from scratch each time? Are you winging it?
What about your calendar? Do you decide where and when you see clients and when you work on the business, or are you letting your clients dictate your schedule?
Are you coming home late from training sessions and then having to write training reports from scratch for each individual case?
By refining your procedures, you can save time and reduce stress, allowing you to focus on growing your business and serving more clients effectively. For templates that help with the client experience and their relationship with you, grab the Client Relationship Template Kit.
Do you know where your leads are coming from?
And how many convert into paying customers? Do you have a process to get testimonials and referrals or are you running on hope?
What is measured is improved - regularly check in on the important numbers and identifying what needs adjusting to grow these numbers.
Do you have client agreements, automatic reminders, followup email templates?
Rather than reinventing the wheel every time someone books with you, take advantage of all the great resources available to improve the client experience, and yours.
This is especially important now that leads and clients are coming in with more frequency.
Your Marketing Strategy
Understanding and Optimizing Your Marketing Strategy
At this stage, you've likely tried out some content calendars and maybe you are using social media consistently.
When you know what works, you can tap into it any time business needs a boost. The great thing about marketing strategies is that they’re repeatable and what works once will usually work many times.
Marketing in the growth phase is about being highly visible and solidifying your brand presence so people recognize your brand and understand who you are and what you do.
Each time you create visibility through social media content, printed media, email marketing, ads, signage, your website, or blog, you should have a clear intention for that piece of media. To create a stellar marketing plan for your dog business, grab the Marketing Plan Template here.
For more on increasing your profitability while attracting the best dog training clients view the on demand training:
Once a person sees that media, what do you want them to do?
Make it clear and easy for potential clients to take the next step and progress into your sales process.
Having a well-defined marketing plan can help prevent business fluctuations. If they do happen, a solid plan allows you to address issues quickly and effectively.
Ensure you’re tracking your sales and understanding where they come from to optimize your strategies.
At this stage, you likely have an established social media presence and a basic website.
Developing a professional website can open many more opportunities for sales and enhance your brand’s image - but only if the site can be found. Ensure you're optimizing your site for SEO and maintaining it.
For more, see the Dog Trainer's Website Workshop.
Client Retention & Delivery
Evaluating your pricing strategy
How do you feel about your pricing? If you’ve ever felt unsure of what to charge for your dog training services, you’re definitely not alone.
In the growth phase, it's crucial to ensure that your rates are not only competitive but also sustainable for your business.
Your business should provide a way for you to make a living, which means your rates need to be sufficient to pay you a livable wage at the very least.
However, many trainers in this phase are still undercharging, setting up a model where numerous hours of work are required just to make a basic living.
This unsustainable approach can quickly lead to burnout and may even diminish your passion for the dog training you love. Click here to get my free pricing guide and calculator.
Refining your business model
Creating set programs with a clear progression for your clients can enhance the experience and results for all involved, and significantly grow your revenue.
In the growth phase, it's also crucial to decide who you will accept bookings from. That’s right—you don’t need to accept every client. Who do you really want to work with?
The look and feel of your promotional materials and the way you communicate with your audience have a major influence on the type of clients who feel drawn to reach out to you for dog training.
Your brand voice and the way you structure your lessons can be key differentiators that help you stand out from competitors.
People are drawn to those they resonate with, and not everyone will be a fit, which is totally okay.
If you encounter someone you don’t want to work with, you don’t have to accept them as a client.
Determining who you will or won’t work with is an important part of refining your business model as you grow.
Program design
In the growth phase, effective program design goes beyond creating a package deal with a set number of lessons.
Packaging lessons is a great place to start to increase the number of lessons sold to each client.
You definitely don’t need perfect in-depth programs from day one.
When you’re ready to enhance your offerings, a great program will take your client on a clear journey from point A to point B with goals and milestones along the way to track progress.
There are several ways to set up programs. You might organise programs by behaviour, such as offering a reactive dog program or puppy development program.
You might decide to stick to bundled offers with small, medium and large programs that are fully customizable.
You can make these even better by mixing various inclusions such as equipment, class passes or extra learning materials. The options are endless!
The client experience
In the growth phase, with a steady stream of ideal clients, it’s essential to refine your follow-up processes and leverage automation to maximize efficiency and consistency.
Even as your business expands, having established processes, policies, and procedures for managing clients during and after their sign-up ensures a seamless and professional experience.
Implement structured follow-up processes for potential clients who have inquired about your services, maintain regular communication with current clients, and reconnect with past clients to keep them engaged.
Additionally, develop strategies to systematically gather referrals and reviews to boost your business’s credibility and attract more clients.
With clear processes in place, you can automate or delegate many tasks, freeing up your time to focus on scaling your business and delivering exceptional service. This will help your business operate smoothly and effectively, like a well-oiled machine.
Need help?
I got you! Helping dog trainers to grow and improve their businesses is what I do.
To learn more about growing your dog training business and how The Profitable Dog Trainer can help you, view my free on demand webinar about how to grow your profitable dog training business with clients you love.
You’ll also learn all the details of The Profitable Dog Trainer Masterclass, my signature program. Webinar attendees will receive a special offer if they wish to join.
If you have any questions about how I can best help you achieve your business dreams faster, send me an email or DM me on Instagram.
A bit about me...
I'm Tenille! I’ve run my own dog training business since 2011 and when I first started out, I held many limiting beliefs that were repeated by those around me about what is possible with a dog training business and how it should be run.
Thankfully, I didn’t listen, and out of sheer determination I set up my business to suit my lifestyle, not the other way around. I’m kind of stubborn like that.
Now, I have helped dog trainers all around the world who have changed their lives through this program and the supportive group of people within.
From just starting out, to their first $100k years, to expansion beyond what they once thought possible.
Start with the free webinar to learn more about my own dog training business journey, and enter your next phase of growth in your training business.
Your best next step: View my on demand training to learn how to grow the most profitable dog training business with the kind of clients you love to work with -
