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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
How to Build and Scale a Thriving Dog Training Business
Can your dog training business thrive without you? In this episode of the Everyday Trainer podcast, we unpack the essential strategies for running a sustainable dog training business. We kick off by detailing the structure of our virtual shadow program, where you’ll find video courses, training guides, and live feedback sessions designed to elevate your skills.
Next, we explore the shifting trends towards in-home dog training and small business setups. Join me as I recount my journey from a dog walker to a successful dog trainer, sharing key lessons learned and the importance of recognizing your strengths to avoid burnout. Discover the benefits of a business model that isn’t overly reliant on one individual, ensuring your business can thrive even when you're not around. We also emphasize the importance of setting clear goals and building a personalized, flexible approach to dog training.
We wrap up with a deep dive into the logistics of scaling your business effectively. Hear firsthand how hiring administrative help can streamline your operations, allowing you to focus on what you do best. Whether you're curious about establishing an LLC for legal protection or looking for inspiration from our future plans, including exciting seminars and retreats, this episode offers a wealth of tips to help you grow your dog training venture sustainably. Grab yourself a tasty drink and enjoy.
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Hello and welcome back to the Everyday Trainer podcast. My name is Meg and I am a dog trainer. On today's episode, we're going to talk all about the business of dog training. So you guys know I just launched our next round of the virtual shadow program and that is all around empowering you, as a dog trainer, to run your own training business. So we're going to get into all of the nitty gritty of that. You know the drill grab yourself a tasty drink and I'll meet you back here. Hello, y'all, and welcome back. Tasty drink of choice is coffee. Once again, I've gotten into the habit of recording these in the morning and I really like that because I think I told you last time I was like staying up until 3 am recording these at night and I'm just not a night person. But now I've been waking up early, getting my coffee and sitting in my bed in my room while Toma takes out all of the dogs throughout the house, and this is just kind of like my time to do the podcast. So welcome back. I'm happy you're here.
Speaker 1:Today. I wanted to talk about the business of dog training. So you guys know that we recently started our virtual shadow program. So how we kind of do this is. We do it in rounds because I try to be super involved in the program as possible, so it is a video course. We also have training guides and resources and stuff like that. That's all available in the course up front, but it's my role in it to give people feedback. I do live training sessions. We do live groups. So how it works is trainers join the program. The first week we cover everything dog training so right now we're working on marker words and it's really cool because dog training is one of those things that there's a million different ways to train a dog, like there's no right or wrong way. So I really like to see how everybody is training and it's interesting too because everybody's doing the same thing. And I remember when I was a personal trainer and we would get audited by our boss, so essentially we would have to run our boss through a like sample session and we would get audited by our boss. So essentially we would have to run our boss through a sample session and he would always say you guys are all training the exact same way and I don't know who you're learning this from, because it necessarily wasn't the best way and that's kind of what I feel like I'm seeing amongst the virtual shadow program students right now. So just to kind of give you like a little example of this, because you're like, what does that even mean?
Speaker 1:Right now we're focusing on marker words, and essentially how I break down my training is I break it down into like communication systems. So we have marker words, we have leash pressure, we have body language, we have food rewards and we have e-collar and we can put all of these things together to paint a really clear picture of what we want our dogs to do. So a majority of the time when people are struggling with their dogs, it's because they don't have clear communication systems, right? They can't tell the dog what they want them to do. They can't tell the dog what they don't want them to do, so they're getting frustrated with behaviors and they just they can't set a clear picture for the dog of you know what's expected. So we're going over marker words. That's kind of like the first homework assignment in the course, and I have my students submit videos of themselves explaining things and then demonstrating, which is very similar to what we would do in a session with a client, right? So I'm having them walk through everything and everybody does things the same way. It's very interesting. So I don't want to say everybody, but a lot of people and this is something that I saw in the previous rounds of students as well with marker words. They explain the marker words very well.
Speaker 1:So just to kind of give you a brief explanation, marker words are the words that we can use to take a picture of a moment in time. So yes for us equals yes, that was perfect. Come back to me and get your reward. Good means that's good. I want you to keep doing it. It's also an implied stay. Yes is our terminal marker. No means no, don't do that, a correction is coming. Uh-uh means hey, that's not what I asked. Try again, but there's no correction. So those are kind of like the four basic marker words that we use and everybody was explaining their marker words in a very similar way.
Speaker 1:But I found, when we're differentiating between yes and good, for me, when I use yes, I reward off of command. Good is an implied stay, so we always reward in position. So if we're teaching marker words with you know the place command, which is where I really like to practice that we tell our dogs to go to place Once all four paws are on place. We can either mark that with a yes or a good to tell the dog what we want them to do Either stay there or come to me and get your reward and people were explaining it the same way. But they're rewarding in position, no matter if it's yes or good. And then if they mark with yes, they're allowing the dog to kind of wander off of place and they won't like correct the dog for getting off of place, whereas if they mark it with a good, they're still rewarding on place but the dog's not allowed to get up. So it's creating a little bit of confusion and I'm just very curious like where people are learning that.
Speaker 1:I know I learned my like marker word foundations from Michael Ellis. I know a lot of other dog trainers can relate. He's very good at explaining marker words. He makes it very, very simple and he has like a similar system. So instead what we want to do with the yes and the good is yes, we mark the dog being on place and then they shoot off of place, come to us and get the food, and so this allows us to create a lot of speed and drive in our training.
Speaker 1:Now, I don't always do this with every dog because not every dog needs that. So with a lot of pet dogs, a lot of behavioral mod dogs, I pretty much don't use yes. I might use it a little bit in the beginning just to teach the dog to go to place, but most of the time I'm using good because I don't like to create too much anticipation coming out of command, whereas with sport dogs or like with my Malinois, minka or Tomas dogs, we're using a lot of yes and chip. So we have two different marker words. So yes is come to me and get food. You can have.
Speaker 1:Like people have so many different marker words to distinguish. Like you know bite the decoy or you know bite the tug, get the food, go behind me, go in front of me, like people get real crazy with that. I'm not quite there yet, but it was just really interesting to see in the virtual shadow program that people are all kind of doing the same thing and I don't want to necessarily say that they're doing it wrong, because there's nothing wrong with rewarding in position with yes. But I don't know, it's just. It's just one of those funny things that you don't really know until you have a group of trainers in front of you and you're like why are we all doing this? Where did you all learn this from? So that's what we're working on in this first week. We're covering our communication systems. This weekend I'm going to have everybody go over our e-caller course. If you want to learn about e-caller, you can also access our e-caller course in our community. So if you want to learn about eCaller, you can also access our eCaller course in our community. So if you want to learn about all of this and you're like, oh, this sounds very interesting, I would like to learn, you can join our membership. So I switched up our membership a little bit. I used to have paid courses within our membership, but I went ahead and opened everything up. So if you want to join our community, you can get access to everything aside from the virtual shadow program. So that's still a private group, but we've got you know, communication systems. We've got puppy training, we've got reactivity training in there. We've got you know teaching, marker words, leash pressure, conditioning, the e-caller Everything that you need to train your dog is in the community.
Speaker 1:And the nice thing about the community is that it's more than just videos of me Like it really is a community. We've got over 700 people in there right now and, um, you know that will probably change a little bit here soon as we kind of switch things up. But you can talk to all of the people in the community. You can post your questions in the group. It's very similar to like a private Facebook group, so it's very interactive and I host lives in there, like there's a lot that we can do in the community. That's a little bit different from just paying for, like, let's say, a paid course or something like that, where you just get the videos and then that's kind of it. You really have the opportunity to, you know, ask questions and get feedback in real time while you're working through all of these things with your own personal dog. So that's my little plug for my community there.
Speaker 1:But I want to get back into the virtual shadow program. So week one is all about teaching the basics, just kind of getting everybody on the same page of how I teach things with my owners. Week two we dive into, you know, establishing your values as a trainer. I talked about this in a previous episode. I think getting clear on your values is one of the most important things and it's really going to be your guiding light as you navigate your dog training journey, whether you're an owner or you're looking to, you know, dive into running a dog training business.
Speaker 1:I really do believe that the dog training industry is going more towards in-home lessons and, you know, small businesses. I think people are less likely to drop their dogs off at big facilities and franchises. Now there are a lot of really awesome, you know kind of solopreneurs out there that are running really good businesses, even if they don't have like a huge operation. I personally like if I'm going to send my dog to somebody, I'm going to send my dog to somebody that you know has my dog in their home, that they're not taking on a million dogs at a time. Something small, where I know my dog is getting looked after, I know my dog is getting taken care of. Or, if I take the lesson route, I want to go with somebody that is flexible with me and that it feels like we're just kind of hanging out. I don't want to feel like just another number to somebody, and that's why I'm so big on helping dog trainers start their own businesses, because I think it's such a great opportunity, not only for the trainers but for owners as well. I would love to see a shift in the industry go away from these big franchises and more towards smaller you know smaller businesses supporting the you know entrepreneur in your area. So that's the whole point of this virtual shadow program and in week three is where we really kind of get into the nitty gritty of the business stuff, which is going to what I'm going to touch with you guys today.
Speaker 1:And if you know me, if you listen to the podcast, if you follow me on social media, you know that this is my bread and butter. This is the part of the business that I love. I love training dogs, but I think training dogs has given me the opportunity to run my own business and this is what I'm really passionate about. I am truly blessed in that, like both of my worlds collided into dog training, I've always known that I wanted to run a business. Even in high school I was in like a future business leaders of America and people would ask me what I wanted to do and I'm like you know, I don't really know, but I know I'm going to run a business and I grew up with my mom who's an entrepreneur. So she started a photography company. She got a photography studio. Now she runs marketing. She still does photography Like she really kind of paved the way for me and taught me a lot of the basics as far as running a business goes, and so I really want to pass that along to people.
Speaker 1:So this episode is for you if you are a dog trainer or a dog walker or you're looking into starting your own business. In any sense, it doesn't really matter if it's in the you know realm of the pet industry. I think you know. No matter what business you start, it's valuable to understand the foundations of running a business and what that looks like from somebody who's already done it before. And I like to share my experiences because I started my business over six years ago. I started off as a dog walking business and I quickly transitioned myself over to training, while I hired staff to take over the walking side of the business within the first year.
Speaker 1:So I knew that I wanted to scale my business very early on and I jumped into that essentially immediately. I grew fast and because of that I you know I went through a lot. I went through so so much. I was talking to one of my students here recently. We were doing a private session and you know I was just helping her with e-collar but I was talking to her about what, what job did you have before this? And she was talking to me about how she was a writer and I was like, oh my gosh, I need to write a book because I have been through so much in my business just you know, from crazy clients to things happening to dogs, and it's just one of those things that it's a pure numbers game, like when you are growing this fast, like you're bound to have more experiences, positive and negative. So I have truly made every possible mistake that you can make in running a business, but the thing is you just got to keep moving forward and I'm here to kind of help you not make those same mistakes.
Speaker 1:So one thing that I did early on, which has kind of come to bite me in the ass quite a few times, is I made the business revolve around me, and I don't say that in like a selfish way, but I one of my skills and I think it's very important to get clear on where your strengths are. One of my strengths is I'm very good with people. I'm very good at communicating with people. I'm very good at, you know, showing up professionally, and so because of that I was able to grow my business around me right, but I was the face of my business. I wish, like looking back, I wouldn't have done that as much, because I think that's what led to my burnout so much, and that's why I want my dog trainers and entrepreneurs to get really clear on their values and their goals early, early on, because one of my goals early on was to scale my business. I wanted to be able to have my business run, have a manager in place, you know, kind of helping me run everything, while I was able to just oversee the business and focus on making the business itself better, not necessarily do the day-to-day operations.
Speaker 1:However, because I was the face of my business, I got stuck in that role, you know, on social media too, like, I am the face of my business, I am the client person, I am the phone call person, I am the person who's doing everything. So when I would take off or I would leave, the business does not run. And in my eyes, a successful business is one that not only continues to run while you're not there, but one that improves while you're there, because that means you have the proper systems in place that your business continues to grow and thrive, even when you're on vacation or taking some time off and we all know if you're in the dog training industry or if you're in pet care, it's very emotionally draining and that time off is necessary to be able to show up for yourself and your clients. But I know many of you when you take a day off, you don't get paid. If you get sick, you don't get paid.
Speaker 1:There are no sick days in this industry and that's something that I learned very early on, because I actually got pretty sick in the beginning and I ended up in the hospital for you know, a couple days and it really set me back because I realized, oh shoot, like nothing can happen to me, because if something happens to me, I don't get paid and I can't pay my bills. And you know I don't have a husband who's, you know, I can rely on for, you know, paying rent or you know I don't have, like parents, money or anything else, like if I'm not working and making money, like I don't pay my bills. And I know that a lot of you are in the same position as me and it can really suck at times because I kind of like look around at other dog trainers and they have husbands and you know they have support from family or you know, let's say, they have a house from family that they don't have to worry about paying for. But I don't have that and I don't even have like family in the same state as me that can really like come in and help me if I get sick, and so for a while it's really just been me and my staff and it's been tough.
Speaker 1:So, looking back, if I could kind of do things over again, I think what I would do is, yes, I would like put in the legwork in my business in the beginning, but I think a lot earlier on I would start to find people that could take over the roles that I was doing. So, for example, having like a salesperson, somebody who can sit on the phone and be there ready to answer the phones and, you know, talk to clients I would have. You know, obviously I have Tori. She's my admin person. Like I would hire an admin person a lot sooner. Um, I would focus my social media less around me and more around the business itself so that when I did step back it wouldn't be as noticeable and you know, obviously I'm very grateful for my business and like I love what I've got. I just have shifted it now away from that because I did hit that burnout, because I was the person who was essentially doing everything.
Speaker 1:And I recently did a phone call with somebody. They have a dog training business and they're looking at moving, and this was the same conversation that I had with her and her husband, because she's doing everything right now and she's doing everything to be able to essentially pay for, like yes, their expenses, but like she's not getting paid anything for her time and she, if she's not there, like the business doesn't run and she's like I think she's actually going to have a baby soon and that's why we're having that conversation is she was like, yeah, we're kind of like handing things off to the trainers and blah, blah, blah, but I was like you're the one sending the invoices, you're the one doing the sales calls, like you're the one doing all of the client communication. Like what happens when you're not able to do that? And she is in the process of like training one of the trainers to be able to do that. But that's something that you need to think about in the beginning of starting your business is what do you want your business to look at?
Speaker 1:Look like I think a lot of the trainers that I'm working with in the virtual shadow program aren't even thinking about that yet. Right, like, pretty much the only thing they're thinking about is, one, making sure that they have the skills to be able to, you know, be a dog trainer and run a successful dog training business and, two, getting clients. That's pretty much the focus of new trainers, which I think is good. That's just kind of where you're at, but it is very helpful to take a seat with yourself and really sit down and think where do I see myself in the next two to three years and how can I start working at getting there now? How can I set myself up for success here? And one of my friends he actually scaled a dog training business very fast and very, very large. He doesn't have that business anymore. But this is one of the things that I actually learned from him, because he is the type of person where, like, yes, he does some of the things in the business himself, but when he's looking at businesses like how to run and scale his business like he is not putting himself in the operations position and I think that's really big.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of dog trainers are missing that because they think, oh, I just got to hustle, I just got to take dogs, I got to do phone calls, I got to send invoices Like I got to do all of these things, whereas I think we should be looking at it like where am I most valuable and how can I outsource all of the things that I essentially don't want to do? So if your strength is dog training and you know client communications, showing up to the people's houses, talking to them, sending updates, all of that stuff, that's what you need to do and you need to find somebody to do all of the other parts of your business. So in the first, you know, let's say, your first hire your first hire is going to be a very general person, so they're not going to be super specific on their roles. It's going to be somebody like I have, like Tori, right? So Tori is my admin girl, but essentially she does everything for me. So she sits at a computer from nine to five and I'm on the phone with her all day long. So I get off a call with somebody I said, hey, this person wants to book training, go ahead and send them all of the info for a three-week board and train. She sends them the info for the three-week board and train. She gets them in the calendar, sends them an invoice, shares the calendar invite with them, sends them all the info on drop-off, all the information that they need. She is in communication with the clients outside of all of the dog training things.
Speaker 1:So I logged on to. We use HoneyBook for our CRM. So I logged on to our HoneyBook this morning and you know I just am like overseeing things, especially because she's out of town this week. She's in Singapore, which is so cool, I'm so happy for her. Like she got out of Florida for a little bit, so she's been in Singapore. So I've been kind of like overseeing our HoneyBook account and I'm not as booked with dogs now, so I'm able to do that a little bit more before I'm like hell, no, I'm not checking that. Like I don't have time for that. The stress of me checking her email is just like the absolute worst. So, anyways, so I was on there and I'm like going through all of the communications that she's had with our clients and I love to see that nobody reaches out to me about scheduling things anymore. Pretty much everybody reaches out to Tori and is like hey, tori, you know where do I pay this invoice? Or just wanted to get you in the calendar for drop off, or you know whatever it is like. Everybody knows to reach out to Tori for that sort of stuff and that's really what I want for you guys. Like, if you're in the process of starting and growing your dog training business, find somebody to fill those roles early on.
Speaker 1:And right now Tori is on salary, but she wasn't always um. You know, I paid her a very low amount in the beginning to just help me out for, let's say, I think it was like two hours a day to check the emails in the morning and at night, because she's grown with me and my company, whereas before, you know, I didn't really need, I couldn't afford somebody to be working nine to five, monday through Friday. So you know I paid her, I think, like to be super transparent. I think when I first hired her, I paid her $1,800 a month and she was still a college student at the time, like she didn't really need a full-time job. So it worked out, and one of the one of the discussions that we had was whenever she graduated from school, she was like all right, I have to start paying my bills, so I need to either have a full-time job with you or I'm going to have to start looking for other jobs. So that was when we sat down and I said okay, how much do you need to make for me to be able to pay you full-. We came up to a number and that's what I, you know, pay her now and I would tell you because I love to be transparent with that sort of stuff, but it's not my business. You know what I'm saying. Like, I don't want to air out Tori's paycheck to everybody, so maybe someday I'll ask for her permission and we can share those numbers.
Speaker 1:So, essentially, how my business is set up is I have an LLC. So my LLC is my dog training business, and this is something that I have all of my trainers do. I want you to go and start your LLC. Make sure that you have that. With dog training, it's more important to have your LLC, I would say, because an LLC is a limited liability company. So that essentially means if anything happens and somebody sues you, they're not coming after you personally, they're coming after your LLC. So, for example, and I'm just speaking on what I know, so if you're more experienced and you're listening and you're like I'm just speaking on what I know, so if you're more experienced and you're listening and you're like I don't really know about that, like I'm just I'm just speaking what I, what I think I know, so pretty sure this is right. But anyways, if you have an LLC, you.
Speaker 1:So Megan Doherty owns the everyday trainer. Okay, if somebody were to sue the everyday trainer, they would, you know, be putting my business assets at risk. So let's say, my business didn't own anything. Megan Doherty owned my house and my van and you know all of my things. So if somebody sues my business and let's say, like something horrible happens, they can't come after my personal assets because that's separated, whereas if you are an independent contractor or a sole proprietor, then let's say, something happens Somebody sues you, dog bites somebody, they sue you, they can, like sue you for your personal assets. So all the things that you own, like it's putting you, your person, at risk. So the whole point of having an LLC is that you're separating those two entities, your personal self, from your business. And this is extremely important, especially in dog training because it is such a risky business.
Speaker 1:So how my business is structured is I have my LLC and I file as an S-corp or a small corporation, so that S-corp actually pays myself a salary and it pays Tori a salary. So so all of the business expenses get taken out, things like my van payment, dog food, utility expenses, any expenses that come with the business leashes merch Trying to think what else If I hire like a videographer, that comes out of the money that the business has coming in. What also comes out of that is our salaries. So at the end of the year what I'm paying taxes on is the leftover after all of our expenses, whereas if you are a sole proprietor, when you file your taxes at the end of the year, your business's like income, like all of the money that you're making. You are paying taxes on that full chunk of money.
Speaker 1:Now in the US, the like tax bracket system, the the more you make, the higher your tax rate is. So the goal with paying taxes is that we keep it small and it looks like on paper your business isn't making any money, so you don't have to pay as much in taxes at the end of the year. Okay, so this is why I have all of my people in my virtual shadow program get their LLC so that they can pay themselves, as you know, an employee of the business. Another added bonus of this is you can pay yourself a W-2. When you are a business owner, you don't typically pay yourself a W-2. And so it can be really difficult to get approved for, let's say, a car loan or to buy a house if you don't have record of income. So the sooner that you can, I recommend people get an accountant that can help you set all of these things up.
Speaker 1:Try to find a small business accountant, because they'll know how to like, set all of this up for you and structure your business in the way that makes the most sense. So one thing that I went to my accountant her name is Pauline. I went to Pauline and I hired Pauline within the first year of my business, or I'll say, second year of my business. So I filed my taxes one time by myself and I was like, oh shit, I'm not doing this. So I searched you know small business accountant near me on Google, found her on Google, set up an appointment, paid for a consultation. I was like you know, this is my business. This is what I want to do with it. I want to have employees and I eventually want to be able to buy like a house and a car. How can I set myself up now to be able to do that in the future? So she was the one who explained all of this to me and set me up as an S-corp so that I could pay myself a W-2 and have proof of income on paper. So down the line, I could, you know, have you know W-2s if I wanted to buy a house or a car, and that's why I was able to, you know, get my van in my name. So that's something that I suggest most you know business owners look into. You are not an accountant. You need to find somebody who does that full time, just like you train dogs, you do it full time, you are way better at it. Find an accountant who does that full time because they'll be able to help you with those sort of things. So that's kind of like the money side of things of running a business.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about the operations now, and this is just my operations. This is how a lot of other business owners that I know operate. So let's see, how did I kind of get into this world? This was about two years ago. I was running my own business on my own and I had known all of this and I was running pretty good operations on my own. But I wanted to learn more and I wanted to know what other dog trainers were doing. So that was.
Speaker 1:I joined I think it was like a live session with Vinny from Say it Once and Will from Hayden. He used to own Ridgeside. I joined a live session with them and it was just to like touch on like business stuff, because at the time Will was in the process of growing Hayden. So I joined that live and they were talking about like their operations and you know, their CRM, all of that sort of stuff. And I was like, okay, like these are the people that I want to learn from. So I ended up reaching out to Will and he was the one who kind of taught me all of this stuff. He taught me kind of like the operations of his business.
Speaker 1:He scaled his dog training business very, very large and that's not necessarily my goal, but at the time it was. I wanted to be able to get a facility. I wanted to have a large team of trainers. Like I wanted to grow big and it was really nice to get a like behind the scenes view of somebody who was running a very large dog training business that was very successful.
Speaker 1:So essentially, how his operations were set up is he had everything running in his CRM. So his CRM is the Hayden CRM is the Hayden CRM and he would run paid ads paid social ads and paid Google ads, run paid ads to his CRM. He had a team of salespeople. So those salespeople were not dog trainers at all, they were just there to sit on the phone call and essentially nurture the leads. So the leads are the people who come from the paid ads. So nurturing the leads and then from then they would get booked with a trainer. The trainer would call that person, say, hey, just so you know I'm your trainer, excited to meet you. Here's kind of what's going to happen. You drop your dog off with me, do all of that stuff. From that point forward it's up to the trainer to be in communication with that client. Once the client finishes training then they send them stuff to you know, like leave a Google review, you know all the like after training information that clients would get.
Speaker 1:So he was the one who kind of showed me how he did his operations and it was one of those things that was so validating for me because I was doing all the same stuff just on a smaller scale. So I was like, okay, I'm doing the right things. And this is kind of why I'm sharing this with you guys is because I, not very long ago, was in the position where I was like I'm running a business, I'm doing all the things, but I'm not sure if I'm doing what everybody else is doing. I don't know what everybody else is doing. Am I doing the right things? And from the virtual shadow program, I find that a lot of you are in the same position that I was in, you know, three, two or three years ago, whenever that was.
Speaker 1:Now most dog training businesses at that scale are running in a similar way. So you typically have an admin person who oversees the CRM and you don't have to use you to use HoneyBook or Hayden. You can really use whatever CRM you want. I personally use HoneyBook because it works better for the size of my business. I'm not running a huge operation and that's where most of my virtual shadow program people are as well. I find that HoneyBook is more customizable and they also have a really awesome like support team. So they will actually like upload your contracts and help you get your systems set up in their CRM, which is huge. So I used HoneyBook initially and then I switched over to Hayden and then I ended up switching back over to HoneyBook just because I found that it was a little more user-friendly for my people. So that's currently what we use for the scale of my business. However, if I wanted to grow to a national brand and have franchises and have a huge facility, big operations, I would maybe look into something a little bit different than HoneyBook, because it's really designed for the solo entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:So how my business is structured now is each location of my business has their own CRM and essentially that location is responsible for managing that location right. So they are in charge of doing the calls, they are in charge of sending out the invoices, sending out the email templates. I'm just providing people all of the business structures that I've built in my business and if you do our virtual shadow program, I give you all of that. I give you our email templates, our workflows, the software that we use. I give you all of the behind the scenes stuff of how to set that up for yourself in your business. So when we have trainers in other cities, they get their own account. They manage that account. If they want to, let's say, hire a salesperson to just sit on the phone and be able to do phone calls, then they can do that, but that person is going to be for that area only and that is just my choice of my operations. I know that other dog trainers do it differently. I know that there are dog trainers who have locations all over the country and they just have like kind of a sales center. That is the person that answers the calls and does the initial like sales with the client. So that is really just to give you a behind the scenes of how dog training businesses are operating.
Speaker 1:I know when I was like in the beginning, I was like what the fuck? Like what are we doing, you know? But it was extremely validating to see other trainers and to see you know people who have scaled very large businesses of like. You know people who have scaled very large businesses of like. Okay, I'm on the right track. I'm doing the same thing Now. With all of that being said, my goals for my business have changed because I have gotten to see a behind the scenes of these large businesses, which is why I talk with you guys and I'm so passionate about helping you start your own business. You know, because I that's what I want to see more of Like. I want to see these more small, in-home businesses training dogs, because I think it's better for dogs and owners.
Speaker 1:I know what comes with running a big operation. I had, you know, six plus trainers at a time and you know this might be because I wasn't doing it well enough. But when you scale super how do I say this? When you scale to that extent, sometimes you can lose quality. And I know people who have not lost quality, who have scaled larger. But those people, in my eyes, are setting up their business in a way to where it's basically like the trainers run their own location, right, and they're not all at one really big facility. And that's kind of why I push you guys away from these really big facilities is because when there's so many trainers and there's so much staff, like the dogs kind of lose focus because there's so much going on.
Speaker 1:But when you go to a trainer who is running things out of their house or going to you and doing lessons. I find that the focus is more so on the dog, less on operations of the business, if that makes sense. So, for example, vinny from Say it Once, he runs a very good business. I love how his business is structured. He has trainers in different areas that do lessons in people's homes and essentially his trainers are in those areas and those are their people and so they have ownership over their clientele and those people and so they're able to really take care of them. And you know he runs a great business like truly. So if you're one of his trainers, I know that, like a few of his trainers listen to my podcast, like you work for a good company, and that I bring him up only to say that you know he runs a pretty large business. But he did a good job in that he was able to scale his business and not lose the quality.
Speaker 1:My friend Keely, she runs Rough Rules. She has, you know, scaled her business. I would say just over the past year I've watched her hire a lot more trainers. I would say just over the past year I've watched her hire a lot more trainers. She does a really good job of scaling her business because, same thing, she puts the ownership in the hands of her trainers. So her trainers are, you know, very close with the clients. They have ownership I don't want to say ownership, but like you know what I'm saying Ownership over those clients. It's not like they're just showing up to a shift job training the dogs and then that's it, and they just like train the dogs that are in the facility for that day and they don't really get connected to the clients or the owners. Do you kind of see where I'm getting at? So that's really where I want to see these dog training businesses go to.
Speaker 1:I know that some other franchises and I'm not going to say their names. You know I've spoken with other trainers who have worked for them and they're like, like, essentially, you're just you have to follow the protocol and that's it. You don't get to work with the dog in front of you, you don't get to work with the owner in front of you. It's essentially just like you follow this two week program to have, you know, an off leash dog by the end of two weeks and that's it. Or you know, like, every dog gets an e-collar and this is just the protocol that you have to follow, no matter what. I don't love that trainers are trusted in their position to evaluate the dogs, evaluate the clients and provide them with the training that is most valuable and is going to help them reach their goals.
Speaker 1:So, even if you're just new in your business, it's very important to get clear on where you want to go with it, because the decisions that you make now are going to lead you to your goals. If you don't get clear now, you're just kind of fumbling around and, yes, you will grow, but you might make a lot of mistakes along the way. You might make a lot of mistakes along the way, mistakes that could be avoided if you got clear on your future goals for yourself. And your goals don't have to be like running a big operation. I talked to a lot of people and they're like you know I just want to be able to make enough to pay for myself and buy a house. Eventually. I don't really see myself hiring trainers or a bunch of staff. That's totally fine, but set your business up in a way so that that's sustainable for you. So if you're super busy with dogs, you're not staying up until 11 pm sending invoices out. Maybe you find a part-time employee who can check your emails twice a day and schedule things for you and email your clients and do all of those sort of things for you. So it doesn't matter what you want to do with your business, just get clear on what that is and structure your business in a way that supports that vision for yourself without leading to so much burnout.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of where I've been in my business is. You know, in the beginning I was like, okay, my end goal is I want a facility, I want a big facility, I want a team of trainers, like this is, this is what I want. And then when I started working with people who had that and they were like stressed all the time, I was like, oh, maybe this isn't what I want. So I'll tell you right now my goals have completely shifted and it's kind of funny because how my business is currently set up has really like led me to that. It's kind of like I was going off on a path for a while and I was like, not really the path that I wanted, but how my business is set up was actually leading me to the path that I have gotten to now. So I'll be, you know, speak it into existence right.
Speaker 1:Where I want to be in my business just to be extremely transparent with you guys is I want to one continue to offer programs to help dog trainers start and grow their own dog training businesses, because I wish that I had resources when I was first starting off. So there are people out there that will help you scale your business. Like marketing companies, like dog training marketing companies help you scale your business. But I have found that there's a big gap in starting your business from scratch, right Like they don't really help you start your business. So that's the whole point of my virtual shadow program and why we cover everything from dog training to the business side of things because I want to help you guys structure and start your dog training business. So I'm going to continue doing that.
Speaker 1:My next goal for myself is freedom. One of the things that I talk about all the time is I value my freedom. I love living out of the van with my dogs. That's what I'm going to do. That's what I hope to do. I want to be able to, you know, continue to train trainers and run the everyday trainer, but from a more hands-off approach. So how my business has been is I essentially do everything. I say this I haven't done everything at some points and my businesses have suffered because of that, so that, in my eyes, tells me that I haven't set my business up in a way that's sustainable, right? So when I take off or I leave, I go on vacation and things don't go very well. That means that I haven't set my business up to be able to do that and that's all on me.
Speaker 1:So now my goal is to set my business up in a way where I can do that, where I can be on the road with my dogs and travel and go and explore and be in nature, because those are the things that I really value. However, I also value helping dog trainers start their own businesses, which is why we have the virtual shadow program. I also value making content for you guys, which is why I'm here on the podcast, which is why I continue to make posts on social media. I want to continue to grow that. But also, I love my business and I have worked my ass off to grow my business and I want to continue to bring on trainers to help me grow the everyday trainer across the country. However, I want to do this in a way that's sustainable for myself and my trainers.
Speaker 1:So what I do is I hire trainers in different cities, I help them set up the business, I help them get clients and I really kind of give them reign over the business. Reign over the clients. Hey, you know, these are the programs that we offer. But I don't want you to feel like you have to e-collar train every dog or I don't want you to feel like every dog needs a three-week board and train. You know like I want to give trainers the flexibility in, you know, working with the people and dogs in front of them. And that's how, you know, my business stands out from other people is I'm willing to see the dogs and people as living beings and adjust our programs and our business to really fit the needs of our clientele. So I continue to grow the business in that way and find passionate dog trainers across the country who want to work under the everyday trainer name, and I want to continue to grow and develop those trainers through continued education.
Speaker 1:So my goals for my business went from I want a big facility in Orlando, I want a giant warehouse and I want to have a team of trainers in it, and I want to run things this way too. Well, I don't necessarily want that, because I feel like I'm never going to be able to leave right. I feel like I'm going to be in the same position where you know it's not going to run if I'm not there, if I'm not overseeing everything. So now I'm positioning myself in a place where I want to spend the time doing the things that I'm most passionate about and I'm most valuable in, which is creating content, helping dog trainers start their businesses and training trainers who will, you know, make the everyday trainer proud, essentially. So you guys know, I always try to be as transparent as possible and I'm kind of a speak it into existence.
Speaker 1:I've been on social media and I've been doing this podcast essentially the whole life of my business, and I think it's really cool because very rarely do you get to go alongside somebody's journey in growing their business right, like we typically just see the end result and then people will say, well, this is how I got here. But you guys, truly like I have podcasts since I think like 2019 or 2020, like since almost like year two or three of my business. I've started, like sharing my journey and being extremely transparent with you guys and you've seen, you know the burnout phases and you've seen you know so many trainers come and go, like it's just all part of it and it's just all kind of part of the life cycle of growing a business and I'm extremely grateful for everybody who has helped me get to where I am today. And I wouldn't be where I am today without anybody, without you know the people that I've learned from the other training businesses, that I've learned from my trainers, that I've hired my clients. Like everybody, the bad lessons, the bad clients, like everything has brought me to where I am now.
Speaker 1:And I'm especially excited because I'm kind of at this like precipice, where you know, something that I'm talking to a lot of my virtual shadow program students about is I'm like, hey, y'all are kind of in the beginning of, you know, taking that jump, taking that leap of faith of, okay, I want to do this full time, I want to be a dog trainer full time, but I'm kind of scared to give up my job, like scared to do all of these things, like you don't have to be scared, just do it. And I found that the things that scare me the most it's usually a good indicator that that's what you should do so. I'm in the exact same position as you all. If you're in that position where you're wanting to, you know, take the leap into, you know starting your own dog training business. I'm switching, I am drastically switching things up. You know I'm hitting the road and hoping for the best.
Speaker 1:I don't want you guys to think that I have like my whole life planned out and trusting myself, like I'm just betting on myself. And I've gotten to the point where I know very, very clearly what I want in my life and in my business. I've experienced it all and I'm ready to take that leap of faith and trust that I will get myself to where I want to go. And it hasn't been without all of you guys and all of your love and support. And you know liking my posts and listening to the podcast and purchasing leashes and you know being a part of the virtual shadow program, being a part of the community, like it doesn't happen without you. So I want to emphasize, like how grateful I am to even have this platform and to even have you guys to be able to share all of this stuff with. And that's why I'm so open about sharing all of this business stuff is I really want to give back. You know, give back to my people. And I know that so many of you are out there and that you want to grow your own dog training business. You want to take that leap, but you feel alone. You're like I don't really know if this is a smart decision. I don't know what I'm doing. You want kind of that behind the scenes of this is what people are doing, this is what's going on. So that's why I kind of wanted to air it all out in this episode, especially since we've started, you know, the virtual shadow program. It's kind of reignited something to where I'm like OK, this is what the people want to hear. You know, this is kind of where a lot of people are at. So I hope you got a lot of value out of this. To wrap it all up, just a reminder, guys.
Speaker 1:So we are in the end of July, which is wild August 15th. I am going to Costa Rica. I'm so excited. I haven't had like a real vacation in a really long time. Even when I did my road trip, I was still working and don't get me wrong, I am a workaholic and I'm going to go and sit on my little lappy top on the beach of Costa Rica and probably work Like that's just who I am. I. I enjoy working Like it gives me purpose. And my poor, like stepsister, she's going with me. She's going to be like you're a crazy person. I'll be like I know. So August 15th I'm going to Costa Rica. I'm so, so excited.
Speaker 1:And then after that, in September, we do the retreat. So, so excited about the retreat. We still have spaces available, you guys. So please, like, come and join us. It's going to be so much fun. Obviously, we're going to talk about dog training, but we're going to talk about this sort of stuff. We're going to talk about, you know, our goals and our values and how we can all support each other in getting there.
Speaker 1:So it's a five day retreat in Joshua Tree. We're staying at a beautiful retreat space, a beautiful home. We're going to wake up. We're going to do hikes in the morning. There's a pool. We're going to hang out at the pool, you know we're going to have Pilates classes. We're going to cover meditation, mindfulness, all of the tools that I have learned in my six and a half years of running my dog training business, that have helped me get to the point where I am. I'm sharing it with you guys, so there's still space available for that. Please come and join us in September. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we are doing our seminar in August, on the 10th and 11th. Come out to that. Would love to see you there. And yeah, after that we're hitting the road and we're going to be exploring the West Coast.
Speaker 1:I've got a few other things in the works that I'm super excited to share with you guys, but exciting things over here for me and the Everyday Trainer. So, as always, guys, thank you, thank you. Thank you so so much for being here, if you want to Also. I forgot to plug this as well. We are doing our next round of the virtual shadow program in October and we're going to start doing interviews for that now. We got slammed with interviews the last round. I keep the groups small. We don't select everybody in the program. So if you want to get into our next round of the virtual shadow program for October, we're going to start doing interviews now.
Speaker 1:I'll include links in the show notes. You can also visit the website or social media for all of this stuff as well, but I hope to see you there. If you're a new dog trainer I got you. Let me help you grow your business. It's honestly a great little community and it's so much fun. So, as always, guys, thank you, thank you. Thank you a million times so much for being here and listening to me ramble every week. I hope you got value out of this episode and I'll see you, guys, next week. Bye.