Starting a dog training or animal behaviour business? Avoid these common mistakes!
Starting a business as a self-employed dog trainer or animal behaviourist can be a rewarding experience, but it also comes with its own set of challenges.
To help you avoid some of the most common mistakes that people tend to make when launching their new venture, I've outlined three typical pitfalls to watch out for when starting your own business.
Mistake #01: Treating it like a hobby
Because many people in this industry begin offering services to clients as a kind of ‘side project’ or ‘paid hobby’, this can colour their business strategy and actions from the outset. In fact, when you first start out, it can be hard to believe that it’s possible to actually be paid for doing something that you’re so excited and passionate about!
Unfortunately, this can lead to new business owners failing to set things up in a way that encourages success in the longer term. This usually relates to two key areas: profitability and sustainability.
1. Profitability
Before you do all the fun things like creating a website and getting a t-shirt printed with your logo (just me?!), you need to consider the costs of running your business and make sure that you're pricing your services appropriately, to ensure you're actually going to make a reasonable profit (more on this in a minute!).
When you’re self-employed, you’re responsible for every aspect of your business’ finances, from filing your tax returns to budgeting for all of those overheads that you might not have even thought about (supplies, equipment, insurance, venue hire, marketing/ advertising…. the list goes on!).
It’s important to have a firm grasp of the numbers (and to keep reviewing them) if you want to make sure that your dog training or animal behaviour business can become more than just a poorly paid hobby. To help you with this, I’ve created a free hourly base rate calculator, which you can find here.
2. Sustainability
When you first set up your business, it’s easy enough to say yes to everything and do things in an inefficient way because you’re not too busy. The problem comes when your business grows and you realise that you haven’t set up your systems and boundaries in a way that helps keep you organised and that feels manageable in the longer term.
So, to save you from the crushing realisation that those processes which kind-of-evolved-over-time (and your lack of boundaries between your work and non-work lives) are actually holding you back, it’s good to take steps now that ‘future you’ will thank you for later!
Being efficient doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to spend lots of money on fancy things but spending a bit of time intentionally working out your systems and processes from the start will make life easier for everyone (you and your clients) in the long run.
Let’s take your booking process, for instance. Sure, you could invest in clever software that takes care of your scheduling, payment, intake forms and T+Cs for you but, if you don’t have the budget for that, consider how you can bolt some things together to make it as efficient and smooth as possible, without breaking the bank.
For example, you can find free (or very inexpensive) online scheduling tools that integrate with your calendar (check out Calendly or TidyCal*) and create intake and referral forms using free online software such as Jotform. And, as for setting boundaries, well, you can read more about that in this article.
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Mistake #02: Undervaluing Your Expertise
There are often two issues here.
Firstly, many people setting up for the first time as a dog trainer or animal behaviourist may doubt their skills and abilities and, as a result, undercharge for their services. They worry that they won’t be able to work miracles on each client’s animal (spoiler alert – nobody can and nobody expects you to!) and so set their prices in a way that they think will manage their client’s expectations (sorry to break it to you but, in general, the person who is willing to pay you £30 has the same expectations as the one who would pay you £100). It just doesn’t work like that so you’re not doing yourself (or your clients) any favours by ‘lowballing’ your service prices.
Of course, you would expect that professionals with more experience and expertise would charge a higher premium (although this is by no means always the case) but that doesn’t mean that people who are new to business should undervalue what they offer.
Some people might not start their business until they’ve already achieved a specific qualification or met the standard for a particular accreditation. Some might have years of experience in rescue centres or as an employee of another trainer. Just because you’re starting your business from scratch doesn’t mean that your knowledge and skills are starting at zero too.
Secondly, it can be tempting to try to attract as many clients as possible by offering low rates initially. However, competing on price is not a very sustainable business strategy. Not only that but you may end up feeling ‘stuck’ at the lower end of the market because you have a reputation for being the ‘value’ option and tend to attract those buying on price alone. This is not a situation you want to end up in!
Instead, focus on providing high-quality services and building a strong reputation for excellence (both in your work and your customer service). By doing so, you'll be able to charge appropriately and maintain profitability in the long-term.
Mistake #03: Believing that ‘if you build it, they will come’
When the dog training and animal behaviour industry was much smaller and there was less competition, it wasn’t too difficult to attract clients who were looking for help.
Now, however, it’s a different story. Simply printing off a few business cards or putting up a scrappy website just won’t cut it. And, before you ask, neither will spending hours posting on your social media pages (unless you happen to create something that goes viral… and even then, how sustainable is that as a strategy?!).
So, whilst those people who are already well known locally might not need to worry too much about marketing their business (because they benefit from regular vet referrals and word of mouth advertising), as a new business owner, you’ll need to be more proactive.
Building relationships with other professionals (including other dog trainers and behaviourists) in your area, ensuring that your website does you justice and setting up a Google My Business profile are all simple steps that you can take to get started.
My advice for new business owners is to be prepared to engage in an ongoing marketing strategy while you build your local reputation and grow a client base who can’t wait to shout about how brilliant you are from the rooftops.
By being aware of these common mistakes, you can increase your chances of success as a self-employed dog trainer or animal behaviourist.
If you're looking for more support and guidance as you start your self-employed dog training or animal behaviour business, be sure to take a look at my online course, ‘First Steps to Success’.
This comprehensive course is designed specifically for new business owners in the ethical animal training and behaviour industry. It takes a supportive, step-by-step approach to launching your own business, by leading you through the whole process.
It covers everything from your brand identity to legal considerations, booking systems to service suites, insurance to websites and profitability to marketing… and more!
It also includes a ridiculously generous selection of tools and resources to make your life easier, including swipe files for emails and intake forms, page by page prompts for your website copy, tools to increase efficiency, calculators to ensure profitability, spreadsheets to keep you organised and guides to show you how to set things up step-by-step.
Basically, it’s what I wish had existed when I started out in business - it would have saved me an awful lot of time, stress and money!
With detailed lessons and expert advice, ‘First Steps to Success’ is the perfect resource for anyone looking to build a successful and sustainable ethical dog training or animal behaviour business.
So why wait? Check out ‘First Steps to Success’ today and take the first step towards achieving your business goals!
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