449: Letting the Client Be Heard with Natalie Spedden

What are the unique challenges your business faces? Our business is shaped by our own values and how we want things done. It's also molded by the community we service. Everything from how we hire, the services we can offer, and the kind of marketing we do is influenced by where we are. Natalie Spedden, owner of Aggieland Pet Sitting, walks through how she runs and hires in a town heavily influenced by a large university. Natalie shares how to take off our rose colored glasses to make hard decisions. She also talks about how she is building a professional team focused on the client's needs.

Main topics

• Taking off rose colored glasses
• Challenges of a college town
• Community outreach
• Building a professional team

Main takeaway: People expect our reliability. Peace of mind is central to what we do.

About our guest:

Introducing Natalie, the founder and CEO of Aggieland Pet Sitting in Bryan-College Station, TX! Her professional career in pet care officially began in 2021, although she had previously been a hobby pet sitter since 2016. Natalie began caring for pets on the side while working as a Vet Tech part-time and studying Animal Science at Texas A&M University. Once she graduated in 2020, she took her business to the next level by turning her passion into a full-time career.Originally, Natalie's dream career was to become a Veterinarian, and took the path all through high school and college to reach her goal of being admitted into Texas A&M's School of Veterinary Medicine. However, once she had worked in a clinical setting for many years, along with the knowledge and reflection that comes along with growing and changing, she had a shocking realization that it was no longer her dream career. She decided to put all her eggs in one basket, and start her pet sitting career full-time, establishing Aggieland Pet Sitting in 2021.Starting out as a solo business owner for her first year, Natalie focused on providing peace of mind for her clients by displaying professionalism, reliability, and attention to detail when it came to their pets' individual needs. As a people person, she absolutely loves cultivating a bond not only with her furry clients, but their owners as well. One of her great joys is knowing that her clients had a worry-free time away from home!Once business was successfully growing and she realized she was saying "No" all the time and turning away clients, Natalie made the decision to hire her first employees in 2022. Natalie now has a team of fantastic, professional, award-winning pet sitters and dog walkers that has completely changed her life when it comes to running and operating her pet care business! Aggieland Pet Sitting won Best Pet Sitting Service in their local city's magazine for both 2022 and 2023.Natalie and her husband are the proud pet parents of a 5 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Renly, and a 2 year old Golden Retriever named Arya. They also have a ball python named Ellie and a freshwater aquarium. In their free time, they enjoy traveling, racing cars and motorcycles, and spending time with family and friends.

Links:

https://www.instagram.com/AggielandPetsitting

https://www.facebook.com/AggielandPetsitting

aggielandpetsitting@gmail.com

www.AggielandPetSitting.com

https://petcareteamtraining.com

https://fetchfind.com

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Full show notes and transcript

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