business
Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis Drawing on her experience of working with dog training professionals and small business owners through the current pandemic, Veronica Boutelle of PPG corporate partner dogbiz pens an open love letter to the pet industry
I
have loved and served this industry for 20 years, but I have never been prouder to be part of it than I am in this moment. I’m writing this from my home office in late April while sheltered in place. You’re probably reading it sometime in July. I’ve no way of knowing, as I write now, what things will be looking like when you read my words. I feel fairly certain, though, that whatever the specific circumstances, we’ll still be dealing individually, as a nation, and as a world, with the COVID 19 crisis. We’ll be dealing with it as dog trainers, business owners, and as an industry, too. And so, I thought I might share some thoughts about that. Here at dogbiz, we’re currently halfway through our Survive & Thrive group coaching program. We offered this program free of charge to +R dog trainers with the aim of helping us all make it successfully through this unprecedented time and into a stronger position once we get to the other side of it. Currently just three weeks in, we’ve already learned a lot. We’ve talked about marketing and pricing during a crisis, about creating online training services, about the available technology, and more. But it’s the big picture things we’re learning together that have really captured our attention at dogbiz. Here are our three biggest takeaways from this crazy moment:
1. We Are Stronger Together: I’m sure by July this concept will be sounding stale. (Is there any company that’s not using it in their market ing these days?) But I don’t mean it as a marketing jingle. I mean it as an honest observation. It has been amazing watching industry organizations fly into action to offer free content and support when the virus hit, and how many joined forces to do so. PPG, for example, started a free webinar series and invited people from all over the industry to participate. I wasn’t sur prised by any of this, but it was still lovely to see and be part of. Even more inspiring is watching individual trainers come together in a tighter, more supportive way than I’ve ever seen. This has been one of the most rewarding aspects of our Survive & Thrive program. Trainers are actively sharing their best ideas, their vulnerable moments of fear and doubt and exhaustion, supporting each other through the hard days, and enthusiastically cheerleading each other’s successes. As histo rian Jon Meacham (2018) puts it, we’ve “reached for our better angels,” i.e. our best selves. And already this is working. As a collective brain trust we’re developing better ideas and learning faster what works and doesn’t. Trainers in the group are feeling less isolated and bolder, find
I am hoping we will carry this new way of being together well past this challenging moment. Just imagine what we could accomplish individually and as an industry if this were our everyday way of working.
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BARKS from the Guild/July 2020
© Can Stock Photo / damedeeso
Author Veronica Boutelle has seen the COVID19 crisis bring pet professionals together, giving them the collective power to innovate on a “faster, smarter, grander scale”
ing the courage to try new things with the support of their colleagues behind them, and they’re succeeding. I am hoping we will carry this new way of being together well past this challenging moment. Just imagine what we could accomplish indi vidually and as an industry if this were our everyday way of working.
2. Innovation Is Our New Friend—Let’s Keep Her: Speaking of try ing new things, one of the themes we carried into Survive & Thrive was the need to step outside of the box in these times of social distancing and lockdown, to begin imagining other ways of serving dogs and their people with our professional knowledge and skills. As an industry, I would say we tend to be a bit conservative, getting stuck in business ruts and, when we do adopt new ideas or approaches, we may do so without deliberate strategy and clear goals. It’s under standable in many ways. Change can be uncomfortable and running a small business—especially one you rely on for your food and home—can be stressful and nervewracking enough without throwing curve balls. But wow. It’s been amazing to watch trainers lean into this moment, even in the midst of fear, anxiety, exhaustion, and COVID19 brain fog. The ideas generated and shared and built upon in Survive & Thrive have been inspiring. I’ve never witnessed such an open willingness to think so boldly outside the box in this industry. I predict the ideas we’re creating
