Your Dog Training Business Assessment Result: Initial Phase
Discover your next steps to higher profits
You're in the initial phase! Let's dive into what that means and what your pathway to higher profits could look like.
The Initial Phase: What This Means For You
You're in the early stages of business. This phase is all about laying a strong foundation. Building this foundation can be an exciting time as you take steps to make your dream vision come to life!
Ready for more? View the free on demand webinar to learn how to grow your profits with clients you love
Common challenges during the initial phase
When you first start your dog training business it can be overwhelming to figure out your best path forward to get where you want to go. You might not even be sure exactly what you want your business to become, you just know you want to train dogs.
You know you want to build something great, but you're not quite sure what to aim for, or what's even possible for you
You regularly feel imposter syndrome popping up - "are my training skills really good enough to charge for?"
You need to get clients, but you are winging it with your marketing strategy
As your workload grows, you’ll need to create your own work-life balance and this means learning to say both yes and no at the right times.
You're kind of winging it with your pricing strategy and you feel like you need to say yes to every potential client
How do you convince potential clients to choose you and trust a new business with limited 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:
Get super clear on your goals
Cultivate a growth mindset and check in with your mindset daily
Ensure the most crucial admin is place, like insurance and training agreements
Book in clients and start generating revenue.
Let’s dive into more detail about navigating this stage of your business...
Mindset
Getting Clear On Your Goals
Before you can embark on a journey, you need to know exactly where you’re going. Having vague goals is like opening up Google Maps and saying, “take me to where I want to go,” but never entering an address.
If there’s one thing that no one else can help you with, it’s knowing what you want. To drive yourself toward what you want, you also need to know WHY you want it. Your reason why is the fuel that will keep you going even on the toughest days in business.
Growing your confidence
One of the most common topics I am asked about by dog trainers in business is imposter syndrome.
This is 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 any money for training.
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
When there’s so many parts of your business to work on, it can be easy to fall into the trap of keeping busy without producing income.
Sometimes, you might even use one type of work to procrastinate on another!
For example, you could spend hours tweaking your website and editing images in Canva so that they’re just right, but never quite get to the tasks that are a bit more uncomfortable like posting about your business or promoting your business in public.
Self care - not an afterthought
It can be easy to prioritise your business to the point 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. Because the business is consuming so much, healthy habits start to slip.
Healthy eating and exercise are put aside for later, junk food makes you feel even worse, hobbies - what’s that?!
When self care is put aside, self sabotage often takes its place.
You are the driver of your business and its results so taking care of yourself needs to be a top priority.
Downtime, hobbies and time off aren’t something to leave to chance but must be scheduled in like any other commitment. Why should a commitment to yourself be less important than to everyone else?
Admin
Creating Your Procedures
The first thing to do once you’ve set up your new business is to have all the legal stuff sorted and insurance in place (particularly public liability and professional indemnity - these are essential).
The second thing is to start taking clients and getting paid. Then, you can reinvest both time and money into the business and refine your systems and procedures so that the business can run as smoothly as possible.
Do you start from scratch each time you go through booking and training with a client? 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 and then having to write training reports from scratch for each individual case? 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 - are you regularly checking 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.
Your Marketing Strategy
Are you unsure of where your leads are coming from and how to get more?
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 is all about being visible and growing a brand presence so people recognise your brand and know who you are and what you do.
Each time you create visibility in the form of social media content, printed media, email marketing, ads, signage, your website, blog, you should know exactly what the intention is for that piece of media.
To create a stellar marketing plan for your dog business, grab the Marketing Plan Template here.
For more on growing a more profitable business with dog training clients you love, view the on demand training:
Once a person sees that media, what do you want them to do?
Make it clear and easy for the person to take that next step and progress into your sales process.
Having a clear marketing plan can help to prevent roller coaster business fluctuations. If they do happen, a solid plan means you can address it straight away and know what works.
Make sure you’re tracking your sales and where they come from.
At this stage, you might not have a website but rely just on a social media page for your online presence.
While this is okay to start with, a professional website will create many more opportunities for sales and enhance your brand’s professional image. For more, see the Dog Trainer's Website Workshop.
Client Retention & Delivery
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.
The role of your business is to provide a way for you to make a living and that means that your rates need to earn enough to pay you a liveable wage at the bare minimum.
Yet, so many trainers are undercharging and setting up a model where many hours of work are needed just to make a basic living.
This unsustainable approach quickly leads to burnout and can even kill your passion for the dog training you love. Click here to get my free pricing guide and calculator.
Your business model
Creating set programs with a clear progression for your clients can improve the experience and results for all involved, and grow your revenue.
You also need 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 speak to your audience has a major influence on the type of person who feels drawn to reach out to you for dog training.
Your brand voice and the way you structure your lessons can form a key way for you to stand out from competitors.
People are drawn to people they resonate with and not everyone is a fit, which is totally ok.
If you do come across someone you don’t want to work with, you don’t have to accept them as a client.
Who you will or won’t work with is an important part of your business model.
Program design
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
Once you’re booking in your dream clients, implement followup processes and use automation to free up your time from manually following up when you remember (if at all).
Even if you’re flying solo in your business, having set processes, policies and procedures for how you will manage your clients during and after their sign up makes a smoother experience for all.
Processes can be set up for following up with people who have enquired about your services, following up with existing clients and following up with past clients you haven’t seen in a while.
You can also set up processes for how you will gain referrals and reviews.
Once you know what your process is, you can automate or outsource many, if not all parts of it. Aaahhh, a business running like a well-oiled machine. Nice!
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 profitability 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:
