How to Build a Better Pet Business That Builds a Better Life For You
This week, I've been to the gym three times, visited my mam and dad, and went to the pictures with my youngest, Toby, to see The Odyssey (more on that in a moment). Last weekend, I went for a few beers and a curry with my best bud from school.
Oh, and I've also delivered two live trainings, and I've added 117 new leads to the business via some ads I've got running that are driving prospects to register for a webinar.
I also wrote an article, sent two emails, recorded three podcasts, and created five new social reels.
All in all, a pretty great week.
Now, it's not necessarily the volume of activities that I'm proud of, but the variety.
See, I could have done way more business stuff. But then, we can always do more business stuff, right?
What I did very well is take care of the Big Five priorities: Family, Fitness, Fun, Focus, and Finance.
See, there's a question almost every business owner asks themselves at some point (and I know because I've asked it myself a number of times too).
Usually when they're sat in the office at 8 PM, answering emails they should have dealt with hours ago.
Or lying in bed wondering why they're working harder than ever but still don't feel in control.
The question is...
When does this get easier?
And the truth is... in many ways, it doesn't.
Running a business is hard. Certainly, it's never supposed to be effortless.
But running a business can become easier when you are more organized, more focused, and more disciplined about where you put your energy.
Energy Management vs. Time Management
See, where you put your energy matters, because you only have so much of it, and like a well, it actually runs out.
This is why smart people like Verne Harnish and Tony Schwartz talk about energy management instead of time management.
You can find time. Everyone can find time. You can cut Netflix, get up an hour earlier, stop scrolling, or skip the gym.
But time you've dragged out of yourself running on empty is low-quality time.
Which usually leads to you snapping at staff, or your head hurting with a fogged-up brain, staring at a screen for 20 minutes trying to write one basic email. I know, I've done it...
What separates the owners who are still fired up in year ten from the ones who quietly burn out in year three is whether they're managing their energy.
Elite athletes figured this out decades ago. They don't train flat out, every day, forever. They train hard, then they deliberately recover.
Rest and recovery is essential. We talked about this in Top Dog, Top Dollar Dispatch #11: The Power of a Pet Business Pause.
Most business owners do the opposite. We treat rest like a reward we haven't earned yet, and family time like something we'll get to once things calm down.
Except things never calm down, not for us business owners.
There's always going to be another dog to care for, another client to onboard, another staff member to train (or hire), another rota to fix, or another email to answer.
So, here's what I've learned works best instead.
Those gym sessions aren't stolen time away from the business. It's what makes me sharp enough to spot the $8k hiding in my pricing later that same day.
The curry with my mate isn't me avoiding work. It's a much-needed chance for me to blow off steam, which stops the small stuff piling up into resentment that comes out as me being unpleasant to my team on Monday morning.
Taking Toby to the pictures isn't me clocking off. It's the reminder of why I'm building this thing in the first place.
You must make time to do the things that fire you up, because the quality time you give to the business comes from a full tank instead of an empty one.
That's the real answer to "when will it get easier?"
It doesn't get easier by doing more.
It gets easier when you stop treating Family, Fitness, and Fun as the stuff you'll get to later, and start treating them as fuel for Focus and Finance.
There's a phrase I share with my clients: There's no happy ending to an unhappy journey.
If you spend the next ten years stressed, exhausted, missing family events, neglecting your health, and telling yourself "it'll all be worth it one day," don't be surprised if you arrive at your destination wondering what happened to the rest of your life.
Lessons from The Odyssey
That film Toby and I went to see, The Odyssey, was awesome, by the way. Highly recommended.
The Odyssey is basically the original unhappy journey story. Odysseus spends ten years fighting to get home. He battles storms, monsters, and the temptation to stay somewhere easier and never finish the journey at all.
Sound familiar, fellow business owner?
The whole point of the story is what he's fighting for.
He's not trying to conquer more islands or win more glory. He's trying to get home to his wife, his son, and his life.
That's the bit most business books about the entrepreneurial journey leave out.
They bang on about the 'epic struggle' of the business owner, but they talk a lot less about why you're struggling or what you're actually trying to get back to.
Are you ten years into your own business journey, but you've forgotten why you started?
Maybe you are ten (or twenty) years into your own odyssey, but the journey is killing you.
Maybe success feels further away now than it did when you opened your doors, or maybe you've achieved everything you thought you wanted, but you're too exhausted to enjoy it.
If so, maybe it's time to reset the destination as much as the route.
The Power of 90-Day Planning
Which brings me to how I and my clients handle this. Tomorrow is one of my favorite days of the quarter.
I'm back stateside, and on Monday we're kicking off the next Dog Daycare Success Academy Immersion event. We have a packed two days with two brilliant guest speakers.
My members will take part in hot seats, solve problems that have been holding them back for months, celebrate wins, challenge each other's thinking, and leave with pages of new ideas.
However, we'll also discuss wins from the last 90 days, and each and every member will leave with a locked-in plan for the next 90 days—a plan for their business and the life they're trying to build alongside it.
See, I don't want my members to be in a business that is all-consuming, and I say this as someone who LOVES business.
I want them to build a business that gives them more freedom to spend more time with their families, travel more, take proper holidays, pursue hobbies, buy more dogs, or whatever else rewards their success.
Why 12-Week Chunks Work
The awesome thing is, when you break your yearly goals down into focused 12-week chunks and give equal attention to your business goals and your personal goals, something really interesting happens:
You gain more energy.
You stay more focused.
You get more done.
You stop feeling overwhelmed.
You enjoy the journey a whole lot more.
Because ultimately, what's the point of building a business that gives you the freedom to live your dream life if you never actually stop to live it?
Key Takeaways for Pet Business Owners
If any of this hits home, that's exactly the work we do inside the Dog Daycare Success Academy (DDSA).
Yes, we cover pricing, promotions, productivity, marketing, and systems to help you scale faster. But we also work on building a business that actually fits around the life you're trying to live, not the other way around.
You'll be just as likely to walk away from an event having made a promise to increase prices as you are to walk away having made a promise to start fishing, yoga, or whatever fires you up.
Every 90 days, our members walk out with a locked-in plan split evenly between business goals and life goals, because we don't believe you should have to sacrifice one for the other.
If you're tired of asking "when will this get easier?" and ready to actually find out, come and see what the DDSA is about.
Join the DDSA Waitlist Here
Join the Top Dog Top Dollar Dispatch: My Weekly Sunday Briefing to Help You Command Premium Rates and Dominate Your Local Pet Market.
Every Sunday, I deliver the unfiltered marketing and operational blueprints I've used to help 2,500+ frustrated dog daycare owners, to stop running a low-margin facility and start building the most expensive (and most wanted) pet destination in town.
Author: Dom Hodgson
Dom Hodgson is known as 'The Pet Biz Wiz', and is widely regarded as the world's leading pet business coach and marketing strategist.
Author of 9 books, Dom is a much in demand speaker at pet business events all over the world. His mission is to help struggling pet business owners to unleash their potential, so they can create a super profitable, impactful, and industry enhancing business.
