We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lisa Klauka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lisa below.

Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

So many pet sitters (and business owners in general) think they need to do it all. They think that if they let someone else represent their company to provide services (specifically pet sitting services, in my industry), the person won’t do as good of a job, and will tarnish their company name. They think they need to help every single client themselves, and they run themselves ragged doing so. I see posts about this all the time in the professional pet sitters groups of which I am a part. I hear the fear of letting go of that control, and I totally get it, as I used to be the same way! I know how much I care about my business, and about my clients, and I wondered if I would ever find someone else who would take such great care as I did. For this reason, the first Sitter I brought on was my mother (who still does pet sitting for me, about 17 years later). I knew she would provide the same level of service as I did to my clients. As the years have gone by, I have established a system for finding quality people to help my clients (and properly vetting them). As with anything, it has become easier releasing that control, as I’ve seen the risks pay off tremendously in being able to grow the business. I now have around 25 pet sitters who provide services for my clients! That’s not to say everything has always gone perfect, and there have been mistakes made along the way (from which I have learned lessons). My advice is start small, releasing control bit by bit. And find good people, in whom you can place your trust, to represent your company well. The rewards will surely outweigh the risks!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I was 20 years old, I was working in commercial real estate, and even though I was doing well in it, I didn’t feel like it was my calling or what I wanted to do with my life. One day my mentor said she read an article about someone who was doing pet sitting, and my mentor said she thought I might be good at that. I have always loved animals (I’m the girl who stops to pet every dog I see), so I started thinking more about it. The following weekend, the sermon at church was about “stepping out of the boat“ and doing that thing that requires tremendous faith. I felt like the pastor was talking directly to my situation, so I decided to take the leap of faith.
In January 2005, at 20 years old, I quit my corporate job and started my company, not totally knowing what that entailed. I did lots of research on starting a business, and took the steps I felt would help me succeed. I got a business license, and a bond and insurance policy; I joined a national professional pet sitters organization and became accredited through them; I built a website; and then I started posting on Craigslist about my services. As fate would have it, someone from the Arizona Republic stumbled upon my Craigslist ad and contacted me to do a story on me. The weekend that story ran in the newspaper, I was inundated with calls from new clients! From there, it was simply providing exceptional pet sitting services for client after client, and my business grew rapidly! The live-in service (where I would stay overnight as well as most of the day in a client’s home) was a popular one, and I quickly realized I would need to duplicate myself in order to cover all of the live-in requests, since I could only be at one house at a time! This is where the need to find other sitters started, and this ended up growing my business over time to what it has become today.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There was this thing that happened a few years ago where the world shut down. No one needed a pet sitter because no one was leaving their home; one by one, every booking was canceled. No more bookings came in. No income was coming in to Pick of the Litter (aside from a few clients who graciously continued paying their usual pet sitting amount even though they didn’t need any actual pet sitting). I thought I’d have to close down my business; instead, I filed for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, and though it was hardly enough to live off of, I made it work. For approximately six months, I had no business at all! Then, slowly, business started coming back in, as people starting being able to travel again. More and more business came in, as people who had been confined to their homes and unable to travel were itching to get out (many of whom had gotten pets during that time)! About a year later, my business was busier than it had ever been!
So many businesses had to close permanently during the pandemic- it was heartbreaking. I’m so thankful to have gotten through such uncertain times and didn’t have to shut down!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Yelp is the biggest thing that has helped me build my reputation in my industry! Having an up to date profile on Yelp, and having so many amazing clients who have reviewed my company on there, is priceless. I know as a consumer, I use Yelp for most all services I’m looking to hire, so I imagine many others are also using Yelp to find pet sitting companies like mine! I have maintained nearly a perfect five star rating on Yelp, which instills confidence in potential clients.

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