AN ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTION

b u s i n e s s An All-In-One Solution

Chinwe Onyeagoro of PPG corporate partner PocketSuite explains how pet professionals and small business owners can use tech to solve their top seven dog business challenges

The PocketSuite app breaks down seven of the biggest challenges for dog businesses and how they can be solved with technology Are you a petpreneur? Gone are the days of managing a business with just pen and paper. While your innate fondness for writing may remain, organizing all of the many aspects of running a business often requires a digital system. This need became all the more pressing during the pandemic when dog training went virtual. While the worst of the lockdown is behind us, many dog trainers have realized that a digital platform can be a force multiplier in growing revenues. If you’re a pet professional or dog trainer, you may be missing out on what business technology can do to improve your top and bottom line.

PocketSuite is a technological innovation for entrepreneurs, enabling anyone working for themself to make a good living, including the millions of talented people with clients – service professionals, freelancers, independent businesses, contractors, gigsters, parttime, and nontraditional workers. PocketSuite is a mobile first, business management app that helps anyone with talent and time make money.

We break down seven of the biggest challenges for dog businesses and how to solve them with technology. Hint: the challenge starts with the client, not the dog!

#1: Finding New Clients: Need security? Every business needs to be constantly attracting new clients. Retaining clients is proof that you are great at what you do, but finding new clients is how you drive revenue growth. Building a referral network is the secret to attracting new business. Referrals are typically more loyal as clients and they don’t cost nearly as much as it costs to find new clients through Google or Facebook advertising. Take a page from our PocketSuite Pros – dog trainers, pet groomers, dog walkers and pet sitters focused on their given craft and using the PocketSuite app with their clients. Nearly 10% of those clients share their Pro with a friend!

#2. Committing to Packages (and Follow‐Up): Another common

hurdle is getting clients to commit to a package, and then the followthrough and followup. Among dog trainers, it’s a common occurrence for clients to pay for a package of dog training sessions and then feel that they have succeeded in having a welltrained dog. Three months later, they’re discovering that many or all of the good behavior has been forgotten. What if there was the possibility in a package plan to incorporate an automatic followup every two or three months for a refresher session? This would certainly result in an incremental revenue stream. Better yet, it results in a happier client who feels that they got great value because their dog is the besttrained dog in the neighborhood.

Retaining clients is proof that you are great at what you do, but finding new clients is how you drive revenue growth. Building a referral network is the secret to attracting new business. Referrals are typically more loyal as clients and they don’t cost nearly as much as it costs to find new clients through Google or Facebook advertising.

#3. Scheduling Packages: Scheduling can be challenging for any business, but when you introduce packages, you now have a whole new complexity to solve for. Once a client commits to a package, you now need to account for these different packages and schedule clients. For example, say Client 1 has 12 sessions that are 30 minutes each, two times per week. Client 2 has six sessions that are one hour each, one time per week. And Client 3 has a oneandahalf hour consult and four sessions that are 30 minutes each, one time per week. This is enough to induce a migraine, best case, and worst case your schedule breaks down and you start losing revenue! Business scheduling software like PocketSuite is vital to keeping track of the different programs and packages for your clients. The power of smart scheduling software is that you are able to design classes and packages that meet your clients needs while at the same time protecting your most precious commodity: your time.

#4. Proving Effectiveness of Virtual Training: Convincing clients

that virtual training can be just as effective as inperson training has been the struggle of the 2020s. The pandemic has meant that normal activities have been continuously upended. With dog adoptions on the rise over the last year and a half, dog training is now more important than ever. Especially considering that many new dog parents will soon need to return back to work after spending every moment with their beloved pup. Even so, the world has changed and virtual interactions have become much more commonplace. We see some PocketSuite Pros are adopting a hybrid model. Using technology to develop ondemand classes fills a gap that many didn’t previously realize existed. With these prerecorded classes and also a live class schedule, it provides broader coverage to reach more dog owners in a way that fits varying schedules. Better yet, virtual classes further mimic the reallife situation of client and dog in their home environment.

Gone are the days of managing a business with just pen and paper. While your innate fondness for writing may remain, organizing all of the many aspects of running a business often requires a digital system. This need became all the more pressing during the pandemic when dog training went virtual.

#5. Minimizing Free Advice: We often hear from dog trainers that they spend too long on the phone giving clients "free" advice. Time is money, and neither trainers nor other professionals have unlimited availability for nocost communications. Here, technology like PocketSuite can help you manage client relationships, as well as provide additional resources for clients to make the most of their experience as your client. Some dog trainers offer a file download for frequently asked questions behind a lead generation form. This is a winwin – dog owners get resources with the immediate answers they’re looking for, while dog trainers are getting new leads for potential longterm clients.

#6. Filling Group Classes: For some, group classes are a dreaded dilemma. PocketSuite’s open enrollment helps businesses host an event without a firm start and stop date for classes. PocketSuite provides clients flexibility to join your series class at any time. A series class is a recurring class with a set number of sessions. This is typically common in the dog training or fitness training industry. For dog trainers, this feature is particularly useful for programs like puppy socialization. Puppies will not need to wait for a new class to begin and instead can join as quickly as the next session or when it’s convenient for the owner. Each

View Packages Schedule Clients Keep Track of Income

Over the last 18 months, both the speed of digital innovation and broad consumer adoption of technology has dramatically leveled the playing field for micro businesses: PocketSuite, offers pet professionals an allinone solution to integrate technology with their business operations

class session is its own lesson, meaning information from one class is not necessary in order to take the next class. With open enrollment, clients are not required to start exactly on one date and time, allowing clients more flexibility to start at a time that’s convenient for them, while providing you an opportunity to accept new clients.

#7. Client Payments: Payments can be a tricky aspect for any business. Ensuring that you are paid on time and accurately is crucial to the success of your business operations. So how do you ensure that payments come in as planned? Making payment as easy as possible increases the likelihood of timely funds available to grow your business. Use PocketSuite to charge clients for any service or product at any time with a card swipe, or by inserting the chip into a POS card reader. If you don’t want any hardware, you can just scan the client’s credit card or type the card number directly into the PocketSuite app from your phone.

Investment

You just invested in yourself and your business by reading about how seven business challenges for dog trainers and pet professionals can be addressed with technology. Over the last 18 months, both the speed of digital innovation and broad consumer adoption of technology has dramatically leveled the playing field for micro businesses. As an independent business owner, you have at your fingertips technology at a cost of $20 per month that would have cost $2,000 per month 10 years ago. You are your own boss, just like the 5K and growing PocketSuite Pros. With PocketSuite, you can manage and grow with our allinone solution to integrate technology with your business operations. There’s no time like the present! n

See also PocketSuite ad on p.20 for further details.

(Left) A business overview as seen on the PocketSuite app: Convincing clients that virtual training can be just as effective as inperson training has been the struggle of the 2020s and with dog adoptions on the rise over the last year and a half, dog training is now more important than ever

Chinwe Onyeagoro is the CEO of PocketSuite where she is responsible for strategy, customer success and growth. She served as president of Great Places to Work, and previously worked at McKinsey & Company, The Monitor Group and Pritzker Realty Group (under former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker).