TLC in NAPPS Network Magazine

This article was first published in Winter 2009 in The NAPPS Network - The Magazine of the National Association of Pet Sitters.

It’s Not Just WHAT You Know . . .

by Steve Milano

Success in the pet sitting business
depends not just on what you
know, but who you know, as well.
At least that’s the philosophy of
Kara Jenkins, owner of TLC House
& Pet Sitting Service in the Phoenix
metro area.
For most of her 10-year-career,
Kara has been building relationships
with other pet sitters, groomers,
veterinarians, kennels, trainers,
pet stores and anyone involved in
the pet care profession. She belongs
to both local and national pet
sitter associations in order to meet
and learn from others. She attends
the NAPPS annual conference not
only to listen to the speakers, but to
meet other pet sitters from across
the country, as well.
Through her careful and continual
cultivation of professional contacts,
Kara has built a business which
today has 10 pet sitters and more
than 500 customers.
Growing up in Bartlett, Illinois; Jenkins had
many pets as a child, including dogs, birds,
fish, gerbils and cats. She rode horses her
family owned, and took up animal photography.
Her mother bred champion Golden Retrievers,
and Kara was a junior show handler from age
nine to eleven, traveling the Midwest showing
dogs.
During her college years, Kara majored in
special education and minored in exercise
sport science at the University of Arizona. It
was during college that Kara was first asked
to pet sit by a classmate, and she began
sitting for fun, making apartment visits and
overnight stays. During her time back home,
she worked at her mother’s boarding and
grooming business.
After college, Kara worked with children who
were disabled. It was during this time misfortune
struck—Kara’s hearing, damaged in a
skiing accident age 16, began to worsen and
left her hearing impaired in her right ear.
She left her job to find work she could do
with her hearing loss, but was unsuccessful
in her search, and eventually enrolled in
vocational rehabilitation. After taking a variety
of tests to determine what type of career
would be best for her, Kara realized the right
path for her was to start her own business.
She began working on creating a pet sitting
business, attending classes, working with
counselors and developing a business plan.
In 2001, after 18 months of working on her
business plan while also working part time,
Kara was ready to launch her pet sitting
service. She began building her business
primarily through word-of-mouth customer
referrals and networking with other pet
professionals in the Phoenix Metro area. She
joined a local pet sitting association which
sponsored monthly meetings with guest
speakers and offered other support. This
allowed her to obtain additional business via
other local pet sitters who had no backup
when they went on vacation. Building trust
through verbal agreements not to “steal” her
competitors’ clients allowed her to build her
network of contacts.
Kara continued to improve her business
skills, turning to her family for more business
It’s Not Just WHAT You Know . . .
By Steve Milano
Napps Network • 11
advice, working with a financial
consultant and building a network
of contacts in the pet care profession.
Like all successful entrepreneurs,
Kara grew by trial and error,
learning from early missteps. One
lesson she learned as she began
to grow her business was not to
service too large an area in order to
chase more dollars.
“I provided service in a very large
area to reach more affluent people,
but it was more travel and work,”
she said. “Now, I keep the business
close to home.”
Today, TLC operates within a 20-30
mile radius of its home base and
her business strategy is growth
by increasing local market share.
The business serves mostly dogs,
cats and small pets. In order to
build its business, TLC has made
contacts in the offices of the many
local apartment complexes in the
area, where office managers and
concierges recommend pet sitting
services to their tenants.
Pet sitting Web sites were not
standard for the pet sitting profession when
Kara formed TLC, so Kara supplemented her
word-of-mouth marketing with flyers (which
helped) and coupons (which didn’t). TLC now
has an expansive Web site (www.tlcpetsitter.
com) and sends an e-newsletter to its clients.
Because TLC is not a full-service pet sitting
business, Kara prices her services in the midmarket
range to attract more business. TLC
provides daily, mid-day and overnight visits,
but does not offer transporting, grooming, or
live-in services. As she started her business,
Kara collected payment at the time of providing
service; today, she collects payment in
advance.
As part of her initial business plan, she had
made plans for when and how to add contractors
as TLC expanded. Within two years,
she began hiring, and retained a consultant
to help her hire her first contractors. She
has received as many as 150 responses to
an ad for help, and has set hiring criteria for
contractors (available for viewing at TLC’s
Web site).
Some criteria include:
• Volunteer and/or other pet care industry
experience with local vet clinics, animal
shelters, groomers, pet stores, etc.
• Experience in the administration of injections
for both cats and dogs
• Pet CPR and First Aid must be completed
within 120 days of hire
• Ability to pass a background check and
have excellent references.
Each potential hire is first screened on
the phone before qualifying for a personal
interview. Contractors are expected to sign a
no-compete clause.
For those interested in getting into pet sitting,
Kara suggests getting some free, hands-on
experience, first.
“Go to work at a kennel or the humane
society,” she recommends. “You get to learn
breeds and behaviors and reactions. You get
to see aggression and fear in the animals. It’s
important to see those,” she said.
To broaden the services you can
offer your clients, she suggests
educating yourself on pet health
and maintenance. “Most clients are
grateful for your advice.”
Not content to coast on her current
success, Kara is continually looking
for ways to build her knowledge
base and network.
“I can’t say enough about how
helpful NAPPS has been,” she said.
“I use all the NAPPS tools, like
the business forms and NAPPS
Chat and teleconferences. I’ve
reviewed my contract because
of what I learned from NAPPS. I
realized I needed business hours
and I needed time for myself, after
talking with Candance (Labane-
Godfrey, NAPPS past president who
conducts the monthly mentoring
teleconferences).”
Kara is participating in this year’s
NAPPS Presents 4 Pets program
and will be going through NAPPS’s
online certification program.
Kara is now at a point in her career
where she wants to give back to
the profession. She has taken on
the vice presidency of the Arizona Professional
Pet Sitters Association and serves on the
Membership Committee of NAPPS, reaching
out to new members.
Whether you are a veteran in the pet sitting
business or just starting out, Kara suggests a
path that has served her well.
“Building relationships is very important,”
she said. “Get to know the local veterinarians
and groomers. Join your local pet sitter association.
I would advise anyone who wants
to be a pet sitter to join NAPPS. NAPPS is
wonderful. It has changed my life,” Kara said,
and she invites any NAPPS members with
any questions she may be able to answer to
contact her via her Web site.
Based on Kara Jenkins’s history of getting
involved with others in her profession, NAPPS
members can expect to see more of this
committed pet sitter involved in NAPPS—
learning, expanding her professional network,
giving back and increasing not only what she