The Dog Walker's

Business Growth Formula:
  
The Framework

 

 Theory & Background Part II - The Framework

You will probably find this framework both intuitively obvious and at the same time, remarkably powerful.

The truth is, it works. 

Its power lies in enabling you to focus on which part of your business to work on and improve, and then to follow the tactics for that specific part of the Framework.

So, here is the Framework...

There are only 3 ways to grow your Dog Walker business...

1. Increase the Number of Clients

2. Increase the Average Transaction Value

3. Increase the Frequency of Repurchase

Because of the power of exponentials, a 33% increase in each will not mean a 33% growth in your business; it would mean a 235% increase in your business (for example if profit was £100; 100 x 1.33 x 1.33 x 1.33 = £235).  

Let’s put this in a real-world example;

For ease of numbers, lets say you have 100 Dog Walking customers who each pay £10 per walk, and they have their dog walked with you on average every 10 days.

You income per day, works out at 100 x £10 / 10 days = £100 per day.

Now imagine you worked hard to improve each of those 3 elements of the Framework by 30%…

You have 130 customers,
Who now pay £13 each time,
And they have their dog walked with you on average every 7 days.

Now your income per day works out at 130 x £13 / 7 days = £241.43 per day.

Look at those numbers again…

You’ve gone from £100 per day to £241 per day.

By improving 3 things.

So it is worth considering each and all of them.  Similarly, it is worth returning to this Dog Walkers' Business Growth Formula again in the future, to optimise the other elements within your business.

In this Business Growth Formula, we will look at each in turn.  First, the brief overview;

Increasing the Number of Clients.  Note that this element of 'client base increase' includes...

 

  • lead generation,
  • conversion from enquiry to sale, and
  • retention (keeping them as a paying client).  

In this Business Growth Formula you will find many strategies outlined to help you find more potential clients ('leads', or 'prospects').  These are what might commonly be called 'marketing strategies', from advertising, to using a referral system.  You will also find conversion strategies as well as retention strategies.  See the Index tables in each section for a quick overview.

 

Increasing the Average Transaction Value.  This means raising the amount of money taken per payment.  You might increase your prices, up-sell and cross-sell other items, package complementary services together, offer greater units of purchase (ie sell more in one package eg a longer walk with extras, a dog-wash afterwards, when they're muddy from the walk etc), and change the profile of your service to be more 'up market'.  Could you improve your skills and qualifications?

 

Increasing the Frequency of Repurchase.    How soon could you have your customers buy again from you, repeatedly?  You might incentivise repeat, regular purchase.  

For instance, there are a few payment and admin services (more on this later) that will enable you to facilitate this more easily (regular, automated, repeat payments based on calendar-scheduled appointments). You might run extra 'club' sessions, for existing customers only. You might develop 'back-end' sales to your services.

You may want to follow all the 'Retention' strategies, to maintain your relationship with your clients. With a solid relationship, you may be able to up-sell to a more frequent dog walking schedule plus add-on services.

  

This Dog Walkers' Business Growth Formula (BGF) is structured using this same framework.  The BGF's sections are;

  1. Increasing clients, by increasing traffic, conversion and retention;
     - Online methods,
     - Offline methods,
     - Retention methods (over-arching both online and offline)
  2. Increasing average transaction value
  3. Increasing the repurchase frequency

 

Now let's take a deeper dive and a look closer at the details of each element to grow your Dog Walker business.

 

Increase The Number Of Clients

The following formula will help you to identify how to increase the number of clients within your Dog Walker business;

Traffic + Conversion + Retention = Client Growth

 

Some quick definitions for clarity;

"Traffic":  Visitors, potential customers, leads, who first see your offering, whether that is talking to you, seeing your website or whatever marketing you have in place. A bit like a person walking through a shop door for the first time.

"Conversion": The process by which you take these fresh 'visitors' and turn them into paying customers - into paying clients.

"Retention": The processes you apply to help keep them as paying customers for as long as possible. 

 

So in order to increase your client numbers, you need to;

  1. Get more people to come to you,
  2. Convince them to become a paying customer, and
  3. Keep them happy and keep them paying.

These 3 steps may seem obvious, but when you break it down into these parts, each has specific methods and tactics, so you can work on specific actions to improve targeted aspects of your business.

So you can break down the work you need to do to get more paying clients into...

  1. Methods to attract new people,
  2. Methods to help them decide to sign up with you, and
  3. Methods to keep them signed up with you.

Exactly how to do each of these 3 steps, with exact tactics and products and services to use is outlined in detail within the Dog Walker’s Business Growth Formula.

 

Increase the Average Transaction Value

This is fully covered later in detail within the full Dog Walker’s BGF

 

Increase the Frequency of Repurchase

We will cover this more in detail later also, but here is one key point for now...

Every time you have to ask your client to pay, to make a bank transfer or to get our their credit card, is what’s called ‘friction’ in Marketing-speak.  It is grit in the wheels.  It is not smooth.  It slows down the sale or the re-buy.

Every time your client has to give their credit card details to pay, to some extent, they are internally thinking and questioning the value of what they are buying – and would they buy again?

On the other hand…

Automated, regular payments, like a Direct Debit type payment, are hugely powerful.  They build trust over time, and give the business owner some level of income-predictability. 

And they are far easier for the customer.

You can also use them to encourage more frequent repurchasing, by offering a benefit for doing so.

Here is an example;

I used to get our home oven professionally cleaned, probably about once per year, on average.  Sometimes slightly more, sometimes slightly less.  Often I would forget to get it organised, so it might be longer than a year.

Then, the oven cleaner guy started offering a slight discount if I paid a (discounted) small amount monthly.

I will give you the  costings and numbers, so you can see why this is powerful for your business.

Before, it was £50 for an oven clean, if I were to call and arrange and get it done.  I was doing that about once a year, on average.

Then, with his monthly-pay system, it was £7 per month, by bank Standing Order (like a Direct Debit, but easier for a small business to be allowed to do this at their bank).  And every 6 months I am ‘owed’ a clean.

So every 6 months, the cleaner calls me to say “It is time for me to come and clean your oven”.

I get the oven cleaned for £42 per clean, instead of £50.

But here’s the thing…

Before, the business owner, the oven cleaner guy, was getting about £50 per year from me (plus or minus my delays!).

With his monthly-pay system, he is getting a definite, guaranteed £84 per year.

He is happy – he is getting more money.

And I am happy – I am getting my oven regularly cleaned, and without me having to remember to call to arrange to get it done.  And I don’t notice the tiny £7 per month trickling out to pay for this, so it is not ‘painful’ enough for me to ever bother to cancel it.

And to this day, I am still his customer, paying monthly.  For the last 10 years.

So you can see, for everyone, this works.

He has increased his customer repurchase frequency by about 2 times.  And got a loyal, near-permanent customer.

And it is easier for me.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

COSTS & CAPACITY

There are 2 vital elements of your business that do not neatly fit into this Framework, that are essential to master, and change as necessary...

COSTS - Keeping them as low as possible, while purchasing enough essential products and services to support your business.

CAPACITY - Once your work timetable is full, once you're work-week is full and at capacity, your only option is to stay limited to your own time, or increase the capacity of your business - by hiring people. 

COSTS - Reduce Them:

Costs

Revenue is vanity.

Profit is sanity.

The Framework here looks at how you can grow your Dog Walker business ie Revenue.  

It does not focus on profit, which, arguably is more important.

The missing part is COSTS.

Broadly speaking of course, profit is revenue minus costs.

I am not going to dig into costs here much, because you know best what costs you absolutely need to be paying.

I am mentioning it here, simply because it needs stating, and to be aware of.

The only other thing I will say on costs, is that as part of the Dog Walkers' Club, we will be bringing you discounts on costs and services that you need, as we club together to get group discounts off. 

CAPACITY - Increase it?

Can You Grow Your Team?

By bringing on other Dog Walkers into your business offering, you can grow the capacity or even the type of services you offer.

The increased capacity means your business can take on more and more clients, and be charging more per week.  

How you structure the breakdown of your profit between you and your team is very much your own business, whether they are employed, self-employed, part of a collective / cooperative etc.

Taxation needs to be considered with this model, both VAT and income tax.   Subcontracted independent Dog Walkers would be taxed independently.  Consult your Accountant for the latest details and advice.

Obviously, you only want to employ or hire someone when there is enough demand pressing at your door, to cover their costs. 

The benefit of having a team is obviously that you can offer more walks per week, so you have better availability, and the potential to charge more per week.


Now, onwards with revenue growth...

 

 Practical

The remainder of this Dog Walkers' Business Growth Formula is the practical action-steps and is in sections according to the Framework outlined above, for easier reference.

 

SELF-SELECT YOUR MARKETING METHODS

You do not have to use each and every one of the methods and strategies outlined in this BGF.

We would suggest that you skim, scan and scroll down through ALL of this Dog Walkers' BGF now, and make a few quick notes of the ones you want to take action on.

Some will take a few short minutes and then they're done, and don't need to be repeated (like submitting to Dog Walker directories, or setting up your Google My Business account) and some take repeated work ongoing (like SEO and Facebook marketing).

So it is recommended to do 2 things;

  1. Pick the quick easy wins. For the single, non-repeating things, do them, get them done, and move on.
  2. Of the methods that need more repeated, regular attention - Pick one method and get good at it before adding any other method to your work.

You don't have to do them all at once.

 

Feedback & Add-Back

Now that you have read this Framework section, please add a comment below with your feedback to answer these 3 questions...

  1. What was most useful?
  2. What has proved to be the most successful method within your own business? 
  3. What more do you want to know about?

(Scroll below comments for links to the next section)

The rest of this Dog Walkers' Business Growth Formula is as follows;

  1. Increase your client base:  To read the detailed methods for getting new potential clients, converting them to paying customers, and keeping them...
    - Click here to read the Online methods <<  NEXT
    - Click here to read the Offline methods <<
    - Click here to read the pure Retention methods <<
  2. Increase your average transaction value
    - Click here for details <<
  3. Increase the frequency of repeat purchases
    - Click here for details <<
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