thejakegardner

[thejakegardner]

My Progress- Week # 11

what is working?

Everything is set up and ready to go

what is not working?

Time. I was recently at a week-long conference with work. There was very little time to work on the business.

how do you feel the project is coming?

I feel that the project is coming along a little rocky. I was initially extremely excited to get this going. Now I am stressed with everything snowballing together all at once.

what are you learning about running a business?

I learned that I need to be a lot more "selfish" with my time when it comes to running a business. Doing household tasks, working overtime, and hosting family can quickly take up 100% of my waking hours.

what are you learning about yourself?

I'm learning that more coffee is not the answer to every problem (though it does help). I'm learning that I need to be more strict to myself and more accountable to the goals I've set.

[thejakegardner]

My Progress- Week # 8

what is working?

The setup is working. I've been setting up the yard to house dogs that want to escape. I recently found out that my dog has been able to get underneath my deck. I put some paver stones over the holes but I believe smaller dogs can still get under. I need to ensure there isn't any areas in the yard for small dogs to get into.

what is not working?

Time. There just isn't enough! Working full time and doing school full time is taking a tole on myself and this project. I need to be strict in dedicating more time towards this business.

how do you feel the project is coming?

I feel its coming along well. I believe my business intersects my interest and strengths while still being able to be profitable and is a good return for my time invested.

what are you learning about running a business?

I'm learning that it takes a lot of time and that successful entrepreneurs are not only resistant and skillful, but they are masters at allocating time in the correct places.

what are you learning about yourself?

I'm learning that a good attitude can get myself further than I thought was possible.

[thejakegardner]

Where will I get the money?

I will only ever fund my company through myself or through my business partners who also have equity.

I work in customer software sales. A large portion of my clients have been start ups looking to get a mobile app developed. Custom apps aren't cheap, and the large majority of start-ups I've worked with have gotten funding via a business loan or an investor. I've witnessed first hand the stress of these entrepreneurs during the build phase of custom software.

The banks often need a lot of collateral to give a loan. Even with a lot on the line for the entrepreneurs, the banks also have high interest rates for business loans. Many people think a business loan is fool proof because the business is liable upon failure to repay the loan. But, the banks always find a way to get paid.

I've even witnessed a company go into receivership because they were unable to pay off a loan to an investment group.

For these reasons, I will only ever self fund my company. I'll work my full-time job to save up and purchase business assets. When my business starts to make money, I will reinvest that capital back into the business.

I'll also be on the lookout for government grants. There are many grants given away right now in Alberta for companies to start embracing a digital transformation. Lots of these grants do need to be paid back at 0%. There are also grant programs that match your investment up to a certain amount. It is difficult for start ups to get a lot of these grants because of the competition in the grant space.

[thejakegardner]

Business operations plan

Step one of my business operations plan will be building an eye catching profile on Rover.

I will use Rover to source all of my leads for my business. Rover also manages my scheduling and notifies me when leads come in.

When I find customers, I'll need to have them in for preliminary screening visits to ensure their dog is not violent, and will not harm my dog or any other dog that might be in my care. This is a massively important step to ensure all dogs are safe from injury.

When I have the dogs, I'll need to wake up an hour early before work to take the dogs for a walk. I'll need to tire them out before I start my work day so they won't be too rowdy.

During lunch they'll need to be let out.

At 5:00pm they'll need to go on another walk.

7:00pm will be dinner time for the dogs.

10:00pm will be last call to use the bathroom outside.

And the process will repeat itself for the next day.

There are no permits needed for dog sitting in Calgary.

[thejakegardner]

Creative Advertising Exercise

1 sim card remover

2 dirt remover for small areas

3 orange peeler

4 watch building tool

5 poke holes in plastic wrap

6 accupuncture

7 stir stick

8 micro carabiner

9 floor cleaner

10 car dashboard cleaner

11 box opener

12 tooth pick

13 wood working tool

14 keyboard cleaner

15 needle for sewing

16 outdoor multi tool

17 balloon popping tool

18 glass drawing pen

19 tattoo needle

20 center punch

21 scratch off scratcher

22 hair clip

23 jean ripper for fashion

24 tool for aerating lawns

25 photo hangher

26 lipo battery holder

27 for poking holes in water bottle to water flowers

28 key chain

29 ear ring

30 necklace if you have enough of them

The best use is a balloon popping tool

The name will be the pocket popper.

Have you ever been at a birthday party? Have you ever stayed til the party was over? Did the host ask you to stay behind to help pop the balloons...? Its a pain right? Well not anymore! Good thing you remembered to bring your pocket popper! This innovative device was designed to be carried around at all times in case you needed to pop balloons. Other balloon poppers cause a risk of injury while being carried, while ours has a state of the art safety feature. When the pocket popper is stored away, the sharp part is safely tucked away in its safety sleeve. It is easy to take the safety off, and continue popping!

[thejakegardner]

Customer persona

Budget - my ideal customer will have a budget of $70-$100 a night for dog sitting.

Age - my ideal customer will be between 18-75.

Values - my ideal customer will value their dog has a great time while they're away. They will want their dog to stay with young people who don't have any children.

Location - my ideal customer will be located in Calgary.

Type of dog - my ideal customer will have a high energy or large dog. This is because I'm more suitable than my competitors for these types of dogs.

[thejakegardner]

Local Competition

Dawn | Pet sitter in Beltline | Pawshake.ca

This is a local dog sitter. She doesn't do overnight sits with dogs, she just goes to check on them once or twice a day. She charges $54 for 2 visits a day.

Nicole C. | Calgary, AB | Rover.com

This is another local dog sitter. She also works from home and can host dogs overnight. Her pricing is $45 a night.

Dog Boarding Calgary - All-Inclusive Luxury Pet Resort for Dogs (countryclub-petresort.com)

This is a local pet resort. This is a large company, and can take dogs for overnight. They have pricing categorized by size of dog. They start at $40 for small, and go up to $48 per night for large.

[thejakegardner]

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths:

People skills - I think I have great people skills. I have a good ability to develop trust quicker than most people. I'm also able to hold meaningful conversations among many different topics. I work in sales and I work on this skill everyday.

Patience - I'm very patient with people and animals. I don't expect things to happen immediately, and I'm okay with waiting.

Critical thinking - I'm able to use my critical thinking to solve complex problems. In my current sales role, I need to critically think every day to solve my customers issues, and sell them a solution.

Weaknesses:

Mundane work - I struggle doing mundane tasks with little to no pay off. If there is a reason for doing something, I'll do it. If I can not find a good reason, I find it difficult to do the work.

Too lenient - I believe I'm too lenient with people. A lot of times my kindness gets mistaken for weakness and I feel like I can get walked over. I need to work on putting my foot down.

I care too much - I sometimes care too much about what I'm working towards. When I'm working towards a goal it can consume me. It is unhealthy because I disregard mundane work during these times of focus.