Humorous Blog

An email blog/newsletter article with a more playful voice than the usual corporate boilerplate, written for a small marketing agency for dog trainers, walkers and groomers.

Beating the Box Stores: Six Tips for Dog Pros

When you run a small business, there are days when it feels like the world’s got you beat. Days lost juggling start-up costs, phone calls, piles of paperwork, excessively complicated tax forms, and the steady accumulation of dog hair on everything you own.

And still there aren’t enough clients.

Then a national pet supply chain opens up in your neighborhood, and with growing alarm you watch owners drop their poodles and pit bulls off for box-store grooming and training. Who could compete with that budget? That five-acre parking lot? That a-la-carte biscuit bar?

Pick Your Fans

You’re not crazy—the game’s stacked against you. The cold truth is that you can’t compete with the box store. Not with its budget. And not by its rules.

The big-budget chain stores exert a gravitational pull that many dog owners will never even think to fight. They’re the lost clients—the ones you’ll never reach. They’ll settle for the box, unaware of other options, and their four-legged friends will never benefit from your superior skills and attention.

Cut your losses and quit that game. We know a better one to play.

Your true client—and her adorable Yorkie mix with the matted coat and the debilitating fear of skateboards—is out there, looking for you.

She may not know yet where to find you, but chances are she won’t step through the box store doors. She may be immune to the charms of chain store convenience. She may have been alarmed at the chop job her friend’s Maltese got from the adolescent box store groomer.

She may have heard something about positive reinforcement, or socialization, or clickers. She may be, like you, a small business owner, looking for something the box stores don’t sell.

Be A Good Sport

You can find her by a different set of rules. You’re not a chain stretched across an entire country. You’re an individual, in a community. Start with the people around you.

Introduce yourself to other local dog pros. It’s tempting to view them as competition, but we’ve seen dog pros reap better rewards from collaboration. Get to know your colleague’s strengths, the sep anx cases he has a knack for treating, or the groomer’s favorite breed.

He will get to know yours as well, and the day will come when his caseload is full, and someone comes to him with a hand-shy cattle dog, and he’ll know the pro to call.

But engagement goes beyond end-game motives. Two or more dog pros banding together can do more than just refer each other new clients. They can vent, talk shop, and learn from each other’s work. Running a small business is hard. You don’t need to do it alone. 

If you’re the sole R+ pro in a town full of choke chains and alpha rollers, you’ll need to look to surrounding communities. No matter where you live, schedule time every year for conferences, workshops, and seminars. Join online discussion groups. FaceTime a friend from the academy. Collaborate, sharpen your skills, and polish those credentials that prospective clients value.

Build Your Team

The box stores spend more time and money on advertising than on building relationships with the community, which is good news for you. Word-of-mouth will be your hat trick, more powerful than a 30-second ad.

Reach out to locals who see a steady stream of dog owners in their daily work.

Offer free training to vet, shelter, and rescue staff. Create marketing materials with free articles full of solid advice: pre-adoption folders, articles on “How to Choose a Dog Walker,” or branded housetraining handouts for new puppy owners. For the frazzled owner of a counter-surfing Labrador, a trainer referral by her vet is a trustworthy guarantee of relief.

Narrow Your Playing Field

All dog pro have their favorites. The breeds or behavior cases they love to treat. It may seem, with a box store down the street, that you should offer more, of every service, to every dog and every client, just to play it safe. But the all-things-to-all dogs strategy won’t work for you.

Stand out through specialization. Figure out what you love to do, the thing only you can offer, then adjust your marketing. The client searching for a small-dog nosework class will thank you.

Take to the Net

With most consumers now starting their buying decisions online, you won’t last many rounds in the new-client-battle while unplugged. Get yourself on the radar. Learn basic principles of search engine optimization (or hire an expert), so that your blog posts full of free advice push your brand to the top of Google’s “Tallahassee Groomer” search results.

Knock ‘Em Out

Every community has at least one—the small business with the fiercely loyal clientele. The sandwich shop with the around-the-block line at noon. The wine shop owner who didn’t smirk when you asked what was in a Zinfandel. The hardware store clerks who know your name, or at least the name of your bulldog. 

They all have one thing in common: they do more than what’s necessary. The cumbersome box stores, heavy with bulk goods and bound by red tape, can only offer the average.

You’re not a sullen, minimum-wage sales clerk making his rote pitch for the box store’s frequent buyer card. You’re a bright and devoted dog pro, who left a cubicle or a corner office for a life with Kongs and Keeshond saliva.

You can inspire a loyal following—dogs and their owners alike—by giving them an experience they can’t get from a box. Your testimonial page—and your bank account—will thank you.