How can I serve you?
Staffing is another challenge. Traditional kennels can hire one set of people who interact with the clients and then another set of people who do the care of the pets and the cleaning of the facility. Different skill sets, different personalities, different positions. Daycares have to find all of these qualities in just one person. The daycare attendant must shine at customer service, being able to communicate about a pet's day to a worried owner. They have to be friendly and upbeat, have a knowledge of dog behavior and group play behavior, AND be willing to clean up poop and dog hair from the bottom of the outside fences. That's a tough combination to find. Once you do find that special employee, now you have to keep them around, pay them fairly, actively manage them and most importantly, make sure they have the training they need to be successful playgroup supervisors. With a staff of over 50 employees, I get lots of practice with managing team members.
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Examples of ways I can help
- Give you a realistic picture into what it's like to own a dog daycare (even letting you spend time at our facility to see behind-the-scenes)
- Help give you an idea of the kind of income you can expect to earn in this industry
- Give you direction on calculating your start-up costs
- Serve as your "expert" if needed when approaching banks for start-up loans
- Help you decide whether you should start by renting or buying your facility
- Look at (online) and talk to you about potential rental or purchase properties
- Much more...
- Look at your blueprints or rental space and help you with design and layout
- Give advice on products and companies I've worked what I would recommend
- Tell you the things that are must-have's and what project items can either wait, or would be a waste of money
- Walk you through my facilities showing you layout, products used, and which areas produce the most income
- Evaluate, or help formulate, your logo, "brand", website and all marketing material
- Provide paperwork such as enrollment forms, dog evaluation forms, etc.
- Provide a training plan for new staff
- Much more...
- Evaluate all promotional materials; logos, your "brand", website, social media, etc.
- Evaluate your training material and suggest changes or provide use of our training materials
- Allow you and your employees to have in-facility training at one of our locations focusing on anything from playgroup management to customer service
- Be a "secrect shopper" and help evaluate where you might need additional customer service training
- Be on-call for daily questions and chats as needed (sample calls below)
- Much more...
- "One of my superstar employees doesn't think she should trim pet toenails without being paid more? Should I agree?"
- "I had a dog get injured on a playroom gate, should I pay for the vet expenses to have it looked at?"
- "Should I allow pitbulls in my playgroups?"
- "How can I better prepare my staff for tough client conversations?"
- "At what point do you dismiss a daycare dog?"
- "Help, Department of Agriculture is headed our way for an inspection and I'm nervous."
- "How would you suggest testing a dog for playgroups?"
- "I don't normally allow unneutered males but this one is a show dog and I really like the client, should I bend the rules?"
- "I found a really great groomer, how much should I pay her?"
- "I really think it's time to raise my prices but don't want to make my clients mad. Should I just wait?"
Consulting Packages
Let's Chat
Want to ask me a question? Are you trying to decide which consulting package to buy or whether you'll need one at all? "Let's Chat" offers you a chance to get to know me via phone and ask a few pressing questions that are on your mind. This is also good if you are at the very beginning stages of your business venture and just want someone to run your ideas by but aren't quite ready to dive head first into your project.
Already own a business and have a specific issue you would like to talk through with someone? Call me. Either I've already dealt with the issue myself or I can talk you through finding a workable solution.
Behind-the-Scenes Tour with Q&A
Pawtropolis currently has two locations located within 15 miles of each other in Athens, GA. Pawtropolis "Westside" is 12,000sqft and averages around 75 dogs each day (approximately 125 at max capacity). "Eastside" is 17,000sqft averaging around 115 dogs daily (approximately 175 pets at max capacity). The ability to view an actively working daycare is invaluable. You'll be able to see all the nooks and crannies, helping you gain ideas for your own building layout and potential products to use.
We'll begin the tour at our smaller Westside location then head 17 minutes away to the larger Eastside facility. We'll point out upgrades and changes that were made when we built our second location. After touring both locations, Amanda Crook or Shane Allen will sit down with you for a question and answer session. You can pick their brain on everything you saw in the facilities as well as run some of your ideas by them for feedback.
-We offer these facility tours at the discounted rate of $350 when added onto a Mentor Package.
-We ask that you not take pictures within the facility.
-Though length of time is flexible for the Q & A, we ask that time for that section be limited to no more than 1-hour.
Mentor
The most basic package includes unlimited phone calls and emails for one year.
For New Start-ups, topics include:
- Brainstorming company name and/or tagline and developing a detailed vision of what you want your company to be
- Helping you decide whether to rent, buy or build a facility
- Helping with expense and income projections when preparing a business loan plan
- Looking, and helping with, marketing materials such has logo design, website, social media, etc.
- Deciding what services to offer and developing your pricing plan
- Much more...
For Established Companies, topics include:
- Reviewing staff training and helping to make modifications
- Assessing services offered and evaluating current prices
- Tackling customer service issues or bad publicity
- Helping decide the next steps for the company
- Learning to delegate to staff and transition from a full-time employee to an owner with a flexible schedule
- Much more...
*Expires 12 months after date of purchase.
Mentor Upgrade
This package includes all the bells and whistles of our Mentor Package with the addition of the following:
Behind-the-Scenes Tours at 2 Pawtropolis locations ($450 value)
- Help with facility design and layout. If purchasing/renting an existing building, we can help come up with the best layout for your desired services
- If building from the ground up, we can help with a design (pencil drawing on graph paper) incorporating all the space needed for your desired services
- Training materials in digital Word format. Training timelines for customer service & animal care staff
- Animal Caretaker Training Manual ($600 value)
- Employee Handbook ($400 value)
- Job descriptions for customer service & animal care staff
- Small client pet notices in digital Word format.
- Happy Note
- Health Note
- Watch Card
- Tooth Fairy Card
- Activities Card
- Miscellaneous Documents.
- Manager follow-up form in digital Word format
- A copy of our current Prices and Polices in pdf format
Product Discounts
Coupon code provided to save $10 off any 3-pack purchase of documents. Valid up to 12 months after package purchase for multiple purchases.
*All packages are good for 12 months from the date of purchase.