We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Coleman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.
Emily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?
I absolutely take vacations! I work hard so that my children can have the childhood I dreamed about. For years my husband and I were so worried about bills and expenses that we rarely traveled and never more than a weekend at a time. We were watching our children get older and older and wanted to experience the world while they’re young. Last year we bought a camper and make a point to take it out for longer vacations around our birthdays.
We’ve driven the girls to Florida multiple times as well as South Dakota and South Padre. We plan to take a tour of the southwest next spring. We typically plan our travel outside of peak vacation times due to our consistently busy boarding school schedule. It makes for awesome experiences to be able to vacation apart from large crowds and people can count on us to be in town during holidays when they’re out of town.
My husband and I also train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so we use our travel to create opportunities to meet other BJJ practicitioners. I also participate in a lot of dog training workshops and seminars so when we can we incorporate that into our schedule, too. We’re lucky to have a dog that travels well that I can take with me to seminars. Once we started prioritizing our travel schedule it’s easy to grind out the work hours in between. We work hard so we can play hard!
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?
Hi, I’m Emily. I’ve been training dogs professionally since 2008 and launched my business Canine Solutions in 2009. We offer positive reinforcement dog training solutions in the form of private coaching with owners, boarding school, and day training, among others. We’ve worked hard to promote the human-canine bond from our home just south of Kansas City.
Our clients are often struggling with frustration and misunderstand their dog and why they behave the way they do. It’s our privilege to take the mystery out of dog behavior and help owners connect with their pets. By staying up to date on sound scientific study of behavior we make it easier for owners and their pets to coexist with peace and happiness.
Because dog training is an unregulated industry it’s up to individual professionals to ensure they are providing quality service and instruction to their clients. Our trainers do this by achieving certification as dog trainers and accumulating the requisite Continuing education units to maintain our certification.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
When I was close to graduating college I knew I wanted to work professionally with animals and I settled on the field of dog training. Because dog training is a skill that takes time to develop I got a job, first with the training kennel I apprenticed at, and then with a new boarding facility that opened in 2008. From 2008 to 2011 I worked at the kennel full time making barely over minimum wage. During my time at the kennel I’d been fielding training inquiries that came into the kennel but after I left in 2011 this referral source began to dry up.
After a short stint of trying to grow my business on my own I got a job working at a local city shelter while I hunted for a higher paying job. In 2012 I signed on as a veterinary technician at a Veterinary Dermatology clinic. These jobs where all vital for providing me the consistent exposure to animals I needed to hone my craft but only the job at the allergy clinic was enough to pay my bills. Throughout those 7 I worked part time at a retail clothing shop to bring in a little extra cash.
All the while I continued to see clients in my spare time and my training income gave me what I needed to meet my living expenses and I was able to invest a little back into the business for supplies and marketing. When my daughter was born in 2013 I continued to receive consistent inquiries regarding my dog training services so I decided to only go back to work at the allergy clinic part time. In between nap times, feedings, and my day job I was able to eek enough time together to really get a good website together and build my referral partnerships. The money I made from dog training was beginning to equal the money I made from working a job that only paid $14 and hour.
In 2015 I set an ultimatum for myself. I decided that if I had made $15,000 from dog training by the end of March that year I was going to put in my notice and begin working the dog training full time. I loved my job at the allergy clinic so it was bittersweet but both our businesses needed a full-time employee so I wasn’t doing the doctor any favors by staying on part-time. Ultimately I stayed on 2 months longer than intended because another tech quit around that same which gave the doctor time to find a new tech and train them to the job.
Since May of 2015 I have worked my ‘side gig’ full time. In 2018 I had twins and even then continued to grow my business. I currently employ 2 trainers and a trainer’s assistant,
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The biggest thing I’ve had to ‘unlearn’ is how to manage people. Positive reinforcement is all about being proactive and giving people good clear feedback. I learned a lot of bad habits about how to treat employees from how I was treated at my previous jobs. One job left me so mentally beat up it gave me nightmares and put me in therapy for years. I didn’t understand my value at the time and I thought that’s just how jobs were.
I wanted them to work independently and not require constant monitoring but I didn’t know how to teach them that. It bred a lot of resentment between them and me and led to high staff turn over. It’s so frustrating investing so much time and training in people only to have them leave. One of my biggest frustrations has been learning how to build a culture that people want to work for. It’s hard rebuilding the culture but so necessary!
Contact Info:
- Website: olatheksdogtraining.com
- Instagram: /caninesolutionskc
- Facebook: /caninesolutionskc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-coleman-cpdt-ka/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UIoVgrOMogWDzIi3PAiqg
Image Credits
Todd Riggins, Scott Hubler, Kimberly Hill