The Business End of the Leash: Marketing Your Dog Training Business
By Robert Forto, PhD

This is the first in a weekly series of what I call: The Business End of the Leash. It has been said that all it takes to become a dog trainer is a business card, a leash and a smile. It takes much more than that. It takes a savvy business owner, a good business plan and a little bit of luck of course. But being in this business for the past 19 years, I have learned a thing or two about owning a dog training business and that is what this series will hopefully teach you.

My first six months of business were very slow, I expected that, but the time I spent marketing my tail off and all of the sudden I was busy! Then within a month I was swamped with clients! I was so busy that I didn’t follow my own rule about marketing every day. Then after a couple months, my clients all seemed to graduate at the same time and it was dreadfully slow again. The problem was that I had stopped all marketing during that time, I paid the price. If you market your business continually, you won’t run into the marketing mad rush syndrome—you will simply, over time, develop a continual flow of business.

The Four P’s of Marketing

No discussion of marketing would be complete without mentioning the famous four P’s. They are important factors for you to consider as you develop any marketing plan. They include:

1. Product—in our case, our product is our service. The service (product) needs to be useful and beneficial to the marketplace.

2. Place—refers to the location of your business. If you have a physical location or are thinking of getting on, it is important to consider this and whether you will be able to physically get people to come to your office. Is your location convenient, high profile, effective signage, etc. For those of us you don’t have an office or training center, our location is the owner’s homes.

3. Price—for most people price is a definite factor in their decision-making. Most of the time, people cannot see immediately how your expertise can help them, or how your qualifications are outstanding—what they CAN see is price. Sometimes if your services are higher priced than your competitions, people will think you are better. However, some people might be scared away (the bargain hunters). When people are making a decision to buy a service, they will base it on how much they like or trust you in addition to price. The most important thing to consider is that people will buy your services if they feel like the benefits will be worth more to them than the cost.

4. Promotion—has to do with all of the marketing methods you use to get business.

I learned in business school that you are never too busy to market your business. While there are many principles out there in order to accomplish your marketing goals, the best and time tested method is to do a little each day. I was told once that you must market three hours for every new client that you want to gain. So, if you are a dog trainer and you want to teach 10 hours a week, you should plan on spending at least 30 hours a week marketing yourself and your business. Nobody ever said that dog training is a 40 hour a week job! If you want to be successful you will probably work 70 hours a week at first and that is what separates the businesses that fail from those that succeed.

If you have any further questions or would like to talk to me about business coaching for your business please give me a call anytime at 303-522-1727.
________________________
Dr. Robert Forto has an MBA and a doctorate in Communication. Dr. Forto is a certified canine behaviorist and teaches people all over the world how to become certified canine obedience instructors and business owners. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com