Seven Ways to Boost Your Pet Business this Summer: Number 6 – Specialising.
How to nail it with a ‘niche’!
If you’ve ever gone underground into a train station in a big city, you’ll have passed by the row of posters on the wall as you descend on the escalator. Somehow, you manage to ignore and forget almost all of them, except the one that is advertising something that interests you.
It doesn’t matter how busy or distracted you are, your eyes magnetically lock onto that one poster straight away, and you might even turn around and crane your neck to finish reading it before the escalator takes it out of view. And if you didn’t finish reading it, then you’ll be looking out for it on the return leg, and ignoring all the others.
Why do we do this?
Because we are only interested in information that is relevant to us.
We only care about stuff we are interested in.
And when you niche down, you can promote your pet business in a similar way.
All dogs are wonderful, but in the eyes of their owners, certain breeds rank more highly than others.
You and I are no different.
I bet you’ve got a breed, or a type of dog, that you prefer over all others.
For me and my family it’s the Dogue de Bordeaux. We own a DDB, and Derek is our second DDB rescue.
If my Dogue had to have an operation, and I had the choice between someone who is a chihuahua or a mastiff specialist, which one do you think I would choose?
Exactly!
Now, let’s say you were thinking of starting a doggy day-care and when you did the research I suggested earlier, you discovered there were a lot of bulldogs and French bulldogs in your town, so you were leaning towards offering a day-care service that would purely cater for brachycephalic breeds.
You call it the Squashyfaced Academy.
Well, whenever a bulldog, French bulldog or pug owner is looking for a day-care service, their eyes are going to be drawn to your business in a similar way your eyes are drawn to the poster on the escalator wall that is relevant to you. They are going to ignore all the other day-care owners and be grateful they found you.
How to be a big fish!
Being a specialist instead of a generalist means you become a big fish in a small pond, and you position yourself as the natural choice for people who own dogs in that niche.
There will be a higher perception of authority among the dog owners you are targeting, which means you can charge higher prices.
This is why specialist surgeons earn more than doctors who are general practitioners. The surgeons aren’t necessarily smarter or more skilled overall, but they have concentrated their efforts into becoming an expert in a few particular disciplines, or even one. This means they can charge higher prices, which also means they need fewer clients to make a fantastic amount of money.
You can do the same thing when you specialise in your pet business.
In short, if you want to earn more, work less, stand out and make your business easier to find by people who you really want to work with, then you need to niche down.
Niching and being specialised is one the Five Keys to a Successful dog walking business that I talk about in my pet business bible, Walk Yourself Wealthy
To grab a FREE copy of this book click HERE
In 2011 Dom Hodgson revolutionised the pet service industry with his first business Pack Leader Dog Adventures, the UK’s first, award winning ‘dog adventure’ company. Now a respected dog trainer, author, speaker and mentor to pet business owners, Doms calling is to help dog walkers, trainers and groomers to excel with their marketing, so they can help change the lives of more dog owners with their amazing skills.
Take that leap today. You won’t regret it.