At The Modern Dog Trainer, we focus on increasing your profitability and creating a sustainable model for your business. It’s challenging to get fully booked, but what’s more challenging is how you manage your clients once you’re all booked out.
It is something that I’ve personally seen with business owners– they set up their business, they get booked out, but they end up being burnt out, and ultimately, close down to keep their sanity intact. Burnout is one of the major reasons why people quit this industry. You may encounter many bottlenecks as a business owner, especially since we’re not only doing the dog training here: we’re also the account managers, the marketing, the admin, and everything else in our business. It doesn’t always have to be stressful. There are a myriad of ways that you could help clients and grow your business without sacrificing your sanity.
Here are some of my tips to help you prevent burnout and find sustainability and enjoyment in your work.
REFRESH YOUR VISION
Amid the busy schedules and unending to-do lists, you might have forgotten the joy and the whys of your business. If you feel like you’re on the brink of burnout, take some time to refresh your vision. Remind yourself why you wanted to have this business, why you started in the first place.
Sometimes, shifting perspective can help ease the stress. Get clear on who you want to serve, why it matters to you, and why it matters to your clients. Having a clear vision will motivate you to keep going and help you decide on your priorities, and even say no to situations that no longer align with your values and mission.
SET BOUNDARIES
If your calendar is all booked out, you may no longer be familiar with your boundaries. You might be too busy taking care of all your responsibilities, keeping up with your clients’ demands, and ensuring that your business is profitable.
Set expectations with your clients early on and reiterate the things that they can expect from you. Don’t be afraid to let them know your hours, and make sure that you also honor your break times. More than anything, respect your boundaries. Give yourself some time off– you deserve it!
FIND WAYS TO AUTOMATE
If you catch yourself repeating and explaining things over and over, chances are, there’s something you can improve in your process. It’s either you’re not optimizing what you have, or there are parts that you can ultimately automate to help things become faster.
Use technology to your advantage and automate whenever you can to make your processes more sustainable, leaving you with more time to focus on what’s important. Instead of crafting the same e-mail for the nth time, or coming up with a response to the same list of questions, prepare an FAQ and save some templates. This helps make work faster and makes your processes more sustainable in the long run.
FIND THE RIGHT TEAM MEMBERS
If you’re fully booked, and you still handle every little thing in your business, then perhaps this is a sign to explore having team members. If you have existing ones, then you might want to reassess what they’re currently doing and how you can better improve your process as a business.
Growing means scaling, and that means adding more people to your team. Just make sure that they’re the right fit for you, too! This is something I help my Chief Executive Trainer program students with! Often, they have team members, but their team is not operating to the maximum potential and creates more work for them.
CONSIDER TIME OFF AS PART OF OPERATIONS
One of the many drawbacks for entrepreneurs is not counting their time-off as part of the operations. Aside from that, many also fail to account for the time that they spend on the backend.
If you’re a dog trainer, you might be juggling many things at once, and if you are charging by the hour, then this work may not be paid at all. When coming up with your pricing and strategies, account for everything you’re doing, not just the time spent directly with clients.. You’re not only training dogs here; you are managing a business.
SELL RESULTS, NOT TIME
Many dog trainers are charging by the hour, but the game-changer for the businesses that I’ve handled is exploring programs charged by the results they provide. Don’t settle for less. You know that your time is precious, but if you work this way, you’ll always find yourself exhausting your hours just to meet your targets. If you charge by program, you can enjoy extra hours as long as you get the job done and deliver on a great customer experience.
ACCEPT THAT IT’S HARD AND THAT’S OKAY
Instead of fighting off the exhaustion, maybe it’s time to acknowledge that what we’re doing here is hard, and that’s normal. There will be days when you won’t perform at your best, but forgive yourself. Don’t be too hard if you fail or if you need breaks– we’re all humans, and we need to recharge whenever needed. Just keep doing your best, be honest with your clients, and be honest with yourself. It’s all going to work out.
I hope you found some helpful takeaways for you and your business. If you have any other tips, feel free to reach out to us.
