I was counting on a rosary order (yes, I'm still doing those), and the lady who is as flitty as a butterfly has once again flitted in with an order request and flitted out without paying. She checks in with me on her order about once every two months. That's right. Once every two months. This is one of the big reasons why I got away from rosary orders. People like this--non-serious buyers--exhaust a person's patience, and it's difficult to budget anything with customers like that.
(And no, I haven't bothered with making her order.)
I sent her an invoice but of course, I haven't heard from her and not sure that I will. My student loan payment is pretty much past due and I have no way to pay it. My rosary order was supposed to take care of that. So I'm at a loss of what to do.
As for dog training....I'm trying to figure out a plan. Trying to figure out where and how to start. Do I just jump in and hope for the best, or do I try to get some experience first? In the meantime, I'm still without money, so jumping in is very tempting. (Although, I almost always regret it when I jump into anything.)
What I've done so far "business-wise":
Created a business logo and brand. Do you like it?? Come to think of it, I think I've already shown this.
Created business cards. All ready to go! Just don't have customers to give them to yet.
Working on a website.
Ordered a t-shirt with business name. I know I didn't really have to do this but I feel more comfortable wearing a business logo t-shirt rather than try to dress nice all the time. Besides, I think it looks more professional.
And that's about it!
What I still have to do before I'm ready to go:
Launch my website.
Make flyers. This seems so useless to me, such a waste of money. Mainly because I don't really pay attention flyers, I guess. But everywhere I go, flyers are the way to go for local businesses, I'm told. So I guess I will make them.
Buy the dog trainers business kit. I'm really excited about this. This will have all contracts, legal stuff and handouts ready to go. You can change the wording according to what you need and add your own logo and stuff. I would never know how to do it otherwise!
Become an APDT member. Again, I'm told that this is a "must" in order to be successful in dog training (or at least, it's very helpful. I guess nothing can guarantee you success!) This is for networking with other trainers, job finding, continued education and webinars.
And that's about it. There's still stuff to do but it doesn't have to be done right away.
And THEN, there is the marketing stuff. This is what I hate but the more I learn about marketing, the more I see that if I want this to work, I HAVE to market myself.
Do Meet-ups. This terrifies me, I'm not at all outgoing. I don't like chit-chatting with people, especially strangers. And yes, I do love dogs but I love training even more. I can't find any meet-ups with dog trainers though, only dog lovers! But this is where you can find clients and give business cards.
Create a Facebook Business Page. Again, not looking forward to this. I'm terrible with Facebook networking.
Hang out at Dog Parks. Now this is my own suggestion for myself. I know it's sort of like a meet-up but it doesn't feel as staged to me. And it's pretty much the same thing.
Donating dog training services at dog rescues. This one is something I'm currently working on. This is mainly for practice. So far, no takers. But I will keep working. Someone's gotta want a trainer! (Especially for free!)
Find a dog training partner. The more I think about it, the more I would love to have a partner in this. Trouble is, I don't know anybody and I live in the boonies. But this is where being a member of APDT comes in handy; you can find people to work with and trainers to collaborate this. But have I mentioned it comes with a $100 price tag? I'm told it's worth it, but that is why it's still on the "to do" list.
For now, that's it. There are more suggestions, more things I can do, but these are the only ones I can do right now. If I try to do too many things, I will have half-finished projects that I never finish, just like the half-finished projects with the house.
Speaking of half-finished projects, Max's room is still in the works. There hasn't been enough progress to show pictures, but I think soon I will have enough done that I can do an update.
But there's the garage.
Recently, Dennis spray painted the garage, and I have to say, it looks real good! I wish I had taken some more pictures of it.
Today he did the floor. Or I should say, he is planning to redo it. It definitely needs it. Every time it rains, the bunker floods because of the huge cracks in the garage floor.
So Dennis rented a sander and sanded the floor for about an hour. He plans to recoat it with some sort of sealer or something...or re-cement it again or something...or something.(I wasn't really listening, my bad...)
So I have no job and the job I do have, I'm not making any money, but at least we will have a nice new garage floor.
Priorities, people.
Next post, I hope to tell you about my full calendar of client appointments and Max's newly painted room.
No comments:
Post a Comment