Minding My Business: Handling Demand for Petcha Can!

It's been just under a month since the official soft launch of Petcha Can!, and business is really booming. This segment of the Minding my Business series will cover "how's it's going," as a pet au pair and house sitter for some of the most stylish fur babies north of the city.

I read somewhere that a Founder and a CEO, are two distinct roles, and that few people can do both roles well, if at all. With that in mind, I am checking in with a trusted few people on a regular basis, to make sure that I'm on a track, the right one, that I'm not too close to the business, and that I don't get stuck in the wrong problem(s).

Last week, I had coffee with a friend. She and I are graduates of UPenn, but from different programs. (It keeps our conversations rich.) She's a Communications professional and has experience with contracting out key services. We of course shared our breakfast treats, and discussed the current and future state of the Petcha Can! marketing and social strategy.

We also discussed the terms of my employment, conditions to fire me, and to manage my own and the business performance. In 7 months, after my end of year trip out of the country, we’re going to sit with all my client feedback, my revenue numbers, conversion rates, a proposed strategic plan, and test my thesis for the Petcha Can! go-forward plan. May I never be vain enough to not seek honest feedback. May I never be na?ve enough to believe that all feedback is relevant and truly honest.

My friend and I discussed various social media promo campaigns, and tools. Branded swag was short-listed as an immediate to intermediate need for any member of The Strays, the current and future pet au pairs and house sitters of Petcha Can! Other than that, Petcha Can! is keeping it simple. We're providing a stellar customer experience for both pets and their parents, the latter being consumers willing to pay a premium for top notch services for their beloved fur family and property management oversight. There’s still a few paid ads out there, and there will be ad placements in other local outlets for Petcha Can! My heart leaps a little when I get inquiry emails about services from people who I have never met or seen before. That sounds silly, but it's true. Our book for the summer is filling rapidly, and I've had to turn several prospects away.

Word of mouth has by far been one of the most successful marketing tools for Petcha Can! Segmentation is essential for the business model, and personal recommendations go further than any earned or paid social media strategy with my target market. I learned that after acquiring a new friend, turned client recently. She’s a Berkshire Hathaway realtor, licensed in both Massachusetts in Florida. She flies back and forth, closing deals between the states. When I described Petcha Can! at an evening event where she and I met, she immediately asked if I would consider entering the Florida market. "Eryn, there's huge demand for this service in my neighborhood here in Massachusetts," she confirmed. I'm happy to share your contact information with my neighbors and friends here, because it's incredibly hard to find trusted reliable pet and house-sitting services here," she assured me.

Yes, there are days when clients unexpectedly cancel, or when the rain makes me sincerely question what I’m doing. But that’s negligible compared to what could be happening, so I’m happy with the “headwinds,” that I’m dealing with.

I grapple with key strategic decisions about scaling and quality assurance already. There's pent up demand for the service, but how can I trust that The Strays, my future work force, will deliver the quality of service that clients are contacting Petcha Can! for? Does Petcha Can! remain a one-person operation with premium priced services that require 6-month prebooking? Do I explore the franchise route, and pilot Petcha Can! in other cities? These questions will answer themselves sometime. And whenever a thought crosses my mind about what lies ahead of me, I simply remind myself, “Petcha Can!”

Other Articles in the Series:

Minding My Business: The Start of Petcha Can!