Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel Goad. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I love being a business owner — of course there are drawbacks (such as having to provide your own benefits like health insurance and paid time off), but I love having so few obstacles between vision and execution.

What I mean is: if I have an idea for my business, I can implement it straightaway without going through an office hierarchy, funding proposals, or approval delays. I love having a direct relationship with the consequences (good and bad) of my own decisions, and having a direct relationship with clientele.

Not only have I had the privilege of becoming better immersed in my community, but in this line of work, every dog walk is an opportunity to network, an opportunity to self-market, and an opportunity to meet your next client (or even your next business partner or business affiliate). Especially in Annapolis and Eastport, which are not only incredibly pet-friendly places, but communities that fervently and earnestly support small businesses.

Sometimes the long work days can be onerous, but that’s offset by the ability to set your own work pace and hours. For the most part, at least. And in what other job are you greeted with a big, tongue-flopped smile and a rapid-flapping tail?

Rachel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a graduate of St. John’s College (Annapolis Campus, 2019), and I’ve been taking care of fur kin all my life, but I started formally offering services through a third-party pet care app in my junior year of college. Student loan repayments were on the horizon, and I knew I’d need to supplement my income in order to afford the monthly remittance.

Eventually, I’d developed a client base that was both broad and consistent enough for me to consider launching my own pet care business. And in 2021, that’s just what I did: Furkinsense & Purr was born from a love of pets and punnery.!

At present, I offer multiple pet care services, including dog walks (multiple durations) and pet check-ins (for cats and a host of other kinds of critters). My clients range from folks needing mid-day walks while they’re at work, to families who are home but need the extra support to lighten daily workloads, to couples who want to leave their ‘kids’ with someone who will treat them like family while they embark on their next international adventure.

To be very honest, I’m not sure that anything in particular sets me apart from my colleagues, because I’m honored to know many of the other professional petsitters in my community. And I can say that there is no shortage of exceptional pet care in Annapolis; we are lucky to live somewhere with an abundance of caring, industrious, and reputable pet care services. I’m just delighted to be among them and to be able to call them peers (and in a few cases, friends)!

What I’m most proud of are the number of clients who have used my services for several years (and many of them followed me from my third-party platform days). In many cases, I’ve gotten to know these clients and their families quite well, and an ample portion of them have been extremely supportive in some of my ‘extracurricular’ volunteer endeavors (such as fundraising for the Light House or supporting local pantries).

For me, the greatest and most meaningful marker of success will always be the steady base of clients who prefer you, and continue to prefer you, for years to come. What greater compliment is there than “You’re the first person I call when I need this service”?

How did you build your audience on social media?

My social media presence is still quite modest at present, but one lovely thing about my line of work is that the pet photos practically take themselves! Dogs and cats are definitely the darlings of Instagram, so the bulk of the work to attract followers has less to do with the content and more to do with developing a signature brand communication style, as well as fomenting strong interrelationships with other local businesses.

I regularly interact with and feature other local businesses (many of whom reciprocate without me requesting it), which is particularly easy to do in Eastport. Shoutout to Leeward Market, Oscar’s Coffee, and Bread & Butter Kitchen for being so incredibly supportive of not just me, but a whole host of other local businesses, service providers, merchants, and vendors!

I also make sure to have all digital facets of my business link back to one another. My website features a live preview of my Instagram as well as a banner that links to my Facebook page, and both of these link directly back to my website. I also have a fairly distinctive business name, which means that if someone googles me, they’re likely to find me in the top few results (even with a typo or two)!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been slow, intentional, and deliberate community presence. You can channel funding into massive advertising campaigns, which of course has its benefits, but especially in tight-knit communities, nothing beats word-of-mouth and personal recommendations.

Perhaps counterintuitively, another way of growing clientele has been connecting with my rival pet care colleagues. We very often will refer one another in situations where we can’t meet the client’s need for one reason or another, and it’s a wonderful thing to be able to, wholeheartedly and without reservations, recommend someone else in your line of work.

That also means that potentially, you’ll be someone’s back-up option instead of the top preference… but, I find, that is just as good for your business! Especially when you’re a very small business, there’s only so much ‘you’ you can extend. Being in-demand can be wonderful, but it can also be frustrating from a client perspective. You can be held in esteem by clients at many preference distances — don’t take it personal, and be grateful for the folks who book you at any and every frequency.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.furkinsenseandpurr.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/furkinsenseandpurr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/furkinsenseandpurr
• Other: NextDoor: https://api.nextdoor.com/pages/furkinsense-purr-annapolis-md/

Image Credits

Rachel Goad