The success of your pet-sitting business is dependent on the best practices of the industry. As a pet-sitter, you need to adhere to certain practices.

Are you booked? Learn to how and when to say “Sorry, I got engagements”

You need to learn to say no when you are booked. As you gain experience in this area, you will realize that you don’t really need to accept every request you get from clients – sometimes you need time to organize yourself as well as serve other clients without feeling overworked. Know your limits and the maximum requests you can take in day without compromising the quality of care you provide as well as your own wellbeing. Have you ever noticed that you are more prone to mistakes, like leaving your keys in the car or forgetting to lock your doors, when you overbooked or short on time? You might also endanger the safety of the dogs you are supposed to walk down the walkway.

You don’t know everything. Know what to accept and what to turn down

There is a list of pet-sitting assignments that you should kindly reject either because you are not sufficiently experienced in them or they are not fitting to you, or both. Honesty is perhaps the most important virtue you should apply in every good practice, including knowing what you can deliver and what you can’t. While it is tempting to try to impress every client by accepting every request they make, some pets and some services can put people or the pet in danger. For example, if you are not experienced with aggressive pets, or you lack training in this area, an overly aggressive dog can be a real danger and you would be better off without going out with such a pet. Imagine the implications of a pet under your custody biting or seriously injuring a person or another pet. The financial, physical, and professional consequences could ruin your business.

Put your wellbeing first

It is easy for you to get immersed in this business and forget everything about your health – this is a bad pet sitting practice. Regardless of how busy you are, remember to set aside some time for yourself, eat healthy, go for yearly checkup, exercise, and have enough sleep. Some pet-sitters would prepare food in advance – a quick and sumptuous balanced meal or a huge tumbler of a nicely prepared smoothie – to avoid skipping meals or dashing into fast food joints while on a tight schedule.

Diet aside, you also need to be mindful of your working hours and weather conditions. Extreme heat or cold is detrimental to your health and that of the pet. Consider scheduling accordingly, either planning alternative activities, like indoor play, or planning for walks when the weather conditions are conducive.

Besides your physical health, be wary of your mental health as well. Compassion fatigue and burnout are some of the top threats to the mental health of workaholic folks and you don’t want to go down that road. If these issues go unaddressed for a long time, they will begin to dent your pet-sitting professional and business. Always try hard to be the best of yourself.

Create a strong and reliable support network

Like any other industry, the pet-sitting industry comes with a bunch of unique challenges. You need to surround yourself with people who are privy of these struggles and the daily joys that come with pet-sitting. Network with pe-sitters locally and far to take advantage of conferences and other useful material. There is nothing you will encounter in your pet sitting professional or business that has never been encountered by other pet-sitters elsewhere.

Summary

For you to deliver best pet-sitting services, you need to adhere to the best practices. Don’t shy away turning down requests that you are unfamiliar with or lack proper training. Know the maximum requests you can take in a day or week. Also, don’t forget about your health. Networking with other professionals will help you gain access to vital information you probably never knew. 

Branding is more than product recognition or a simple logo. It is the overall intellectual and emotional impression people have when they think of your company and its product. It is a strong and consistent message about the value of your business. Branding is a combination of everything your company uses to present itself. It also helps to ensure your customers and potential customers understand why you are different from the competition. You want to establish a superior benefit with you target audience that encourages long-term loyalty.

When I mention UPS or Budweiser or Ipod, you most likely have specific impressions of each business and what they offer. Corporations spend millions each year reinforcing their brand. A memorable and trustworthy brand reinforces customer loyalty. It helps them remember that your business provides the perfect solution to their problems.

Therefore, to succeed in branding you must understand your customers’ needs and issues. Then, create a positioning statement and messages that speak to those needs and issues. Make sure your marketing materials are consistent. They should have the same colors, fonts, and include your logo and contact info. And, your marketing materials should reinforce your company’s image and positioning over and over and over.

Brand building is an ongoing business strategy that has an easy-to-measure cost in time, money, and effort. Its value, on the other hand, is harder to establish because it involves measuring emotional associations that may not immediately translate into revenue. Branding is an essential element of success, however, and it should be reinforced during times when business is booming and when sales are slower.

You want customers and prospects to maintain a positive association with your company and its services. You may also want people to have certain feelings and thoughts that are associated with your brand. It may be that your company is fast, dependable, compassionate, fun, state-of-the-art, or creative. There should be two or three key words that your brand works to reinforce in your marketing efforts.

Remember, a sound marketing strategy means that you control the messages you send out through marketing, advertising, customer service, and your Internet presence. Your customers WILL have a perception of your company, with or without your influence. But if you aren’t managing your marketing, then what is their impression?Branding is not what you say about your company and products; it’s about your customers’ perception of your company and products. To strengthen your brand, make sure you can answer the following questions: What do you do that is different from anyone else? Why do you matter to your customers? If you can’t answer these questions, you don’t have an effective brand.

In the world of network marketing, it is
incredibly valuable to stay current with the best practices.  This will provide a pathway to the kind of
growth you’re looking for.  Take a look
at six best practices used by several MLM leaders.

#1.  Stay connected with your
team.  It is so important that you
keep in contact with your team on a regular basis.  Make sure the relationship you had before, or at the start of
your business, improves.  It’s likely
that your team members joined your endeavors because they trust you and saw
something in you that they want to be a part of.  You’ll want that contact to continue, especially for those who
have a great interest in team building. 
As soon as your team expands larger and larger, it’s not very feasible
to talk to everyone one-on-one. 
Nonetheless, make sure your top leaders are equipped to work effectively
with their people.  This way your
efforts can be put towards staying close with your top leaders.  This will help develop a close-knit support
system.

#2.  Stick to your budget.  It’s essential that you have an advertising
budget for any type of marketing that you do. 
Advertising is vital for growth as well as the life of your business.  Stick closely to your budget for a year to
get the ball rolling.  When the first
year is up, look at your budget to evaluate your progress as well as make any
needed changes.   

#3.  Write out your plan on a
weekly basis.  It is recommended
that you always have a written plan. 
You’ll also want to include the steps you plan to take to achieve your
goals.  At the end of the week, take
time to reflect on how things went.  If
changes need to be made, make the revisions for the following week.

#4.  Form strong leaders.  Strong leaders are wonderful assets to
building a successful business.  It’s a
great thing to know your leaders want to do whatever it takes.  A good leader will also display signs of
commitment, strong goals, and a vision. 
They will ensure that their distributors order products.  You won’t hear complaints from good leaders
either, whether to their upline or those below.  Another sign of a good leader is that they are capable and
willing to organize meetings while you’re away.  Build leaders with these qualities and help lead them to be
successful.

#5.  Keep your lead
generation constant.  In network
marketing careers, it is essential that the number of interested prospects
remains consistent.  Using a system to
attract prospects that can easily be used by others is also important.  It needs to be so simple that a brand new
team member as well as an experienced distributor can use it with ease.

#6.  Become an expert at the
marketing practice that works for you. 
If you can discover what works best it will make your life a lot easier.  Whether it’s blogging, article writing or
online videos, channel your efforts toward becoming an expert.  If you’re not sure where to start, do some
research to find out what works for others until you know just where you fit.

By implementing these best practices you will most likely see growth,
as well as gain valuable experience that will help you move forward.  If you are able to use these effectively in
a consistent way, you’ll find that your business will not only grow, but will
reach a place of continual advancement.                                

”;

Before you can learn much about how to use personal branding for a competitive edge, it’s important to have an understanding of what personal branding is. Fortunately, it’s possible to take a look at the way many successful people have used personal branding to get a feel for what it is and how it can work for you.Personal branding is something that has been done by a number of well known people. Some of the most well known among them are:* Oprah Winfrey. Think what you will about Oprah’s personality, but from the time that she branded her show with her own name and aired a number of her personal struggles in a public way to the time that she launched her magazine, her book club and the talk show careers of Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray, Oprah has remained true to her personal brand.* Donald Trump. Donald Trump isn’t just a real estate mogul, he’s also a man who worked hard, made his way to the top and then, time and time again, has found ways of staying there. Trump hotels have a certain reputation; so do his investment strategies that are available to almost everyone who watches his infomercials and has an internet connection, and, of course, The Apprentice also has a large audience simply because of all that the man has done to establish his personal brand.In addition to Oprah and “The Donald”, there are a variety of others who have built their identities and empires on a foundation of personal branding. From Madonna to Bill Gates, from Rachael Ray (who established her brand by promising to teach others to prepare meals in 30 minutes and helping everyone to recognize that cooking is something that everyone can do) to Richard Branson, personal branding has proven to be a successful strategy – one that can also help you to get a competitive edge during your job search.The reason that personal branding is so valuable is that it demands self-awareness; in order to have a brand, you need to be sure that you are able to know who you are and what you believe in. Likewise, personal branding means knowing what you value and making a commitment to bring it into everything that you do. Most importantly however, personal branding is about having the courage to be yourself – and to let others know who you are – and the confidence to believe that you can have a positive impact.Personal branding is something that will give you a competitive edge during your job search because it will help you to appear confident and strong; it also is effective because prospective employers will see that you are committed to achieving your best and delivering consistent results. When you take advantage of personal branding and have the strength to market yourself and your values, you will find that you are able to have more than just a job – you’ll find that you are well on your way to creating an exceptional career and reaching your goals.Copyright:  Copyright 2009, Cecile Peterkin. All rights reserved.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cecile Peterkin is a Certified Career Coach, Corporate Mentor, Author and Speaker. In a world where the old definition of job security no longer applies, managing your career, just like managing your life, requires preparation and planning. Cecile’s Elite Career Success Guide gives you tips, advice and strategies to achieve amazing results in your career. Find out more at https://www.SecretstoCareerSuccess.com

If you have a business and do not know it yet, there is this thing called company letterhead that you should be using. Visible in this is your company name, address and contact numbers. The purpose of having one? To project a professional image that is unique from among the others.

Some companies do not take these things into serious consideration. They just type in their info in a paper, photocopy them and call that a letterhead. Even if the process inexpensive and simple, it all boils down to the impression you want your customers to have of you. Do you think you are making a good one by doing it that way? Definitely not.

A professionally done stationery can really make your company stand out from among the many and the usual. If you want your customers to remember you in the years to come, you will give stationeries some serious thought. By having your own business stationery, you do not only give out a professional and polished image, you also make a brand for yourself. Apparently, professionalism is not only seen in how the offers and services are given, but it is also seen in the tiniest and the seemingly insignificant company materials. There are a lot of printing companies who can print out a professional looking letterhead in the stationery of your choice. The price is not anymore an issue. With the modern printing tools and equipments comes the affordable prices that anyone can afford. Even small businesses can afford them now.

Try to add in your very own stationery design in each communication with your customers. Always make sure that your website, business cards, envelopes, newsletters, mailings and invoices all have consistent designs. Try to make use of your unique stationery design in the presentation of your products or services. The secret to better branding is consistency. The consistency in the use of one printed image will help in building a brand for your business and achieve customer respect and confidence. Through the stationeries you are using, make them remember you as the one that gave them only the best and make them come back for more of what you have to offer. For comments and inquiries about the article visit https://www.4colorprintingservices.com

Branding has power. Real power. A power that you can
measure. But for those of us who have the dream of
creating our own Internet Empire from our home cubicle
or kitchen table, the Real Branding Power comes not
from branding your business or product, but from
Branding Yourself! Branding “You” (a phrase borrowed
from Rick Beneteau) is a power that you can’t afford
not to understand and use.

“Branding Yourself” is the application of certain
techniques which will help you gain popularity on the
Internet by making yourself well known, maybe as an
Expert in your field. When people recognize you as an
expert you will gain popularity by means of more free
publicity than you can imagine. Picture seeing an
article written mentioning your name as an authority on
Marketing or mentioning you for nothing more than
quoting something you said. The point I’m trying to
make is that you are seen as an Authority or better
put, a “Personality”. Now, try to fathom thousands or
even hundreds of thousands of people seeing you in the
same light. This is what successful Self-Branding is
all about. You don’t need to necessarily be an expert.
You just need to be seen, heard and talked about.

How do you Brand Yourself? There are many techniques
and methods, but it can be as simple as a hidden
personality trait, a nickname (maybe something like
“Wild Bill”), or helping others by consultation or
assistance. You must look for ways to literally become
a Celebrity in the eyes of the world or at least a
small, select part of it. It could be by getting your
name known as the “guy/gal who had the answer or made
the comment”. Is that all there is to it? Of course
not.

The one thing I am slowly and surely learning about
marketing on the Internet is that you have to build a
name for yourself before people will trust you and
trust your products. Trust is a big issue on the
Internet. Can you blame people? The Internet is overrun
with rip-offs and fast-talking scam artists. Their
whole existence is centered on the sole pursuit of
relieving you of your money for a product with lots of
promise and no result.

I recently purchased a book by Rick Beneteau, called
“Branding You and Breaking the Bank”. Now you might
think that Rick had some kind of big money backing him.
“Sure”, you say, “that’s the only way to get into the
big time”. Well, let me tell you Rick started out a few
years ago from the very bottom. The one thing that he
understood that many of us don’t, is that you must
Brand Yourself, whether it’s as an expert in marketing
or the guy next door who’ll help you out with a
problem. But, one thing is for sure; Rick knows how to
do it. Would you like to learn more about Personal
Branding and how to get your name known and respected?
Learn how to get thousands of dollars worth the free
advertising?

Is this a recommendation for a product? I have to say,
without a doubt “YES”! But I am so thrown back by this
book, that I simply had to write an article around it.
Many of you may have read some of my articles, and I
know that some of you read them religiously (thank you
very much). Those of you that do, know that I do not
write articles supporting products in this manner. I
may have mentioned a product in the process, that’s
part of the Biz. But, I cannot stress enough the
importance of “Personal Branding”. I wholeheartedly
support and recommend Rick’s Book, “Branding You and
Breaking the Bank”.

This Powerful new book puts YOU on the fast track to
becoming an Internet Celebrity. Not only does Rick
teach you step-by-step how he did it; he also asked
many of the top Internet personalities to share their
success secrets with you. If you’re at all serious
about achieving success on the Internet, you need to
start Branding YOU and Breaking the Bank!

Do yourself a favor. Check It Out!

I’ll be e-Seeing you Soon