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"How To Guide"
for
starting a Pet Trade
Association
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"How To Guide" |
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Benefits to starting an Association or Network a) Get more client referrals, closer - By finding other nearby pet sitting services AND pet related businesses you will find you gain more clients closer to you due to referrals from the rest of the group. b) Time Off - You will find sitters in your area to refer to so you can take time off if you do not have employees. c) Gasoline costs - Keep gasoline charges low by referring clients to closest sitter. d) Networking - Find like minded professionals to network with for business ideas and improving your own business. e) Standards - Set the standards of professionalism for all those in business now and all who will come after you. f) Friendships - Can end up making some life long business friendships!
FIRST - plan on opening
your Association to ALL pet related businesses, not just Pet Sitting
businesses.
START WITH: b) Contact Information - Create contact information for the group such as email, phone, mailing address, contact person. c) Requirements - Make some minimum requirements to keep your group professional and discourage cash under the table businesses. We suggest you have some requirements for membership such as city business license and/or fictitious business name, dishonesty bond and/or liability insurance, business checking account under business name, contracts for service for service businesses, Sales reciepts and refund policies for product businesses etc. d) Membership Contracts - Draw up a simple contract with space for member to fill in their business name and contact information. For pet sitting members you may also wish to include a space for zip codes they cover and services offered. Include what the benefits of membership in the group will be, membership requirements, fee, plus signature and date space, where member will sign. Keep one copy for files and give a copy to member. Click HERE for example of an Pet Trade Association Membership Contract e) Association ByLaws - Create ByLaws for your Pet Trade Association. These will become very helpful when dealing with situations that may come up in the course of running your Association. Click HERE for an example of Pet Trade Association ByLaws. e) Membership Certificates - Provide membership certificates for businesses to put in their portfolios to show to prospective clients & customers f) Fee - Decide on what the yearly fee will be. g) Meetings - will you have any and if so where? Keep it simple - a church, recreation center, Library or restaurant with a private room- TIP (restuarants are too noisy to hold a meeting in so make sure they have a "private room" just foryour group). h) Database - We suggest if you do not already have a program with a database you get one and familiarize yourself with it. Reason is, you will be adding to it frequently as members join and give you zip code coverage areas, their contact information, email, web sites etc. You will also want to keep track of when they joined and when their membership fees are due. You will also print this out for each meeting and mail to each member at least twice a year to keep referrals going. If you do not already have one I suggest getting Microsoft Works for about $50.00 at most office supply stores or at www.microsoft.com because it is really easy to learn. i) Email Forum - This is where members with email sign up for free to post and receive emails about your Association, For things like meetings, local events to attend, membersnames and areas the cover for referrals, questions about the industry etc. We suggest setting one up through Yahoo Groups to start because it is FREE and simple to set up. Click here for info on Yahoo Groups http://groups.yahoo.com/start j) Web Site - If you have a
program and know how to make a web site for your group that is best
because you will need to update it from time to time OR go to www.DomainPup.com and purchase their
easy to use "Create A Web Site" for just $4.95 per month which includes 5
pages, domain name and hosting. (A little computer knowledge is needed
but not much) k) Referring Clients Timely- Use the database you created as your "Membership Roster". Give out to each new member that joins, give out at each meeting, mail out at least twice per year to ALL members. Referring clients timely will be one of the keys to the success for your Pet Trade Association. Getting Pet Related Businesses To Join a) Phone Book - Check all Yellow Pages in your area for all pet related businesses such as Veterninary Hospitals, Groomers, Mobile Groomers, Kennels, Dog Trainers, Pet & Feed Stores etc. Type in all contact information into your database you created. a) Zip codes - Write down all the zip codes
your group will cover- To find Pet Sitters specifically -Go to the
following web sites, put in all the zip codes your area will cover
and put all contact information into your database you
created. e) When All Emails collected - Once you have collected all the emails you can put them into the Yahoo Groups Forum invite section all at once and ask them if they would like to join the group. Make sure to include all your contact information too in case they have trouble signing up. WORDS OF ADVICE for Association Leaders & Officers 1. Unprofessional and rude people - Expect some businesses will be cool or possibly even rude when you first contact them. Unfortunately some people go into pet related businesses because they ONLY like animals and do not like people. Don't take it personally just move on to those who want to network and be professionals. Remember you will NEVER be able to please everyone. 2. Get Help - Ask for help from other
members with tasks for your group but remember most of the duties will
probably still fall back to you. 3. Keep Email Forums Professional - Keep your email forum positive and professional. Many email forums have deteriorated into sessions where criticism, gossip, bullying and even libeling other business seems to rule. This causes many members to drop out or discontinue posting. You also want to keep emails pertinent so stick to business. Many forums deteriorate because they post EVERYTHING on them. Remember, successful pet business owners are busy and what to get information fast, not wade through thousands of emails about cat hairball remedies or gossip. To keep it professional, "edit" each membership to "moderated" on your yahoo groups email forum. This may take a little time to figure out how to do at first but it will be worth it in the long run so you do not end up with folks posting "everything under the sun" on your email forum. TIP- keep posts short, simple, only business related, and what will apply to most members. 4. Charge a fee - This can take quite a bit of time away from your own pet sitting and earning a living. So charge a fee for membership to help compensate yourself for your work. Some the expenses you will incur, besides your time, will be, printing of any hand out materials at meetings, mailers to new members, web site costs, domain name, hosting, any refreshments at meetings, meeting room rental charges, printing quarterly members "Directory" so members can refer each other, , local advertising etc. Unless you know how to set up and run a "non-profit organization" I suggest getting a fictitious business name just like you did for your pet sitting business and get a business checking account. Have members write checks payable to the Association name. 5. Events to attend - If you have
street fairs, animal shelter fundraisers, farmers markets, etc. where you
could have a booth at we suggest posting their, dates, times,
locations and booth costs to your email forums.
Get pet businesses together to split the cost of
the booth and split the time in the booth. 6. Buy a canopy, tables & banner for booth - Get a pop up 10x10 canopy, lightweight tables and a banner for your booth and encourage each of the member businesses to have their own business banner made. Ask them to make their banners 8ft long by 2 ft wide with gromments top and bottom to make it easier to hang 2 or 3 banners in one booth. If possible, you always want to SPLIT a booth between two businesses at an animal event or street fair to not only lower costs, but to give them help or if long event to split time. TIP - Since you will be storing the booth and setting it up and tearing it down at events for your members make sure to add at least $40.00 to $50.00 onto the cost of each booth fee to be paid by the members. This will cover your costs for buying and storing the booth and some of your time for set up and tear down. PLUS you can always advertise your business in the booth too. There are some drawbacks to starting an Association or Network you should be aware of before you start. a) Time - Associations can takes quite a bit of time to do them right so you must charge a fee to cover your expenses and time. b) Opposition - Some pet businesses, want to be the ONLY business and may hamper your efforts to start a group, just ignore them and move on to the professional ones who do. c) Unpleasables - You can never get EVERYONE to agree on meeting places, times, etc. so expect it and set up meeting times and places that work best for YOUR schedule since you will be the one setting them up. However I have found that by in large MOST pet business owners are nice people and they out weigh the 'troublemakers'. It can be a thankless job at times but all in all I have found it to be a rewarding experience, I have met many friendly and talented people from all walks of life and have always enjoyed sharing with others A few parting words.......... "Pet business owners always do better when the work WITH each other rather than AGAINST each other". Article contributed by Pamela Begeal, Executive Director of Pet Services and Products Association since 1995
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