We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tasha Erickson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tasha below.
Tasha, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
In 2013, I was living in Fresno, California and feeling my soul wither as I ran my first business, wedding and portrait photography. While it wasn’t failing, it also wasn’t getting beyond break-even, and I found it increasingly difficult to handle other people’s insecurities when they saw photos of themselves. Not turning a profit was not only disappointing, but hurting my family’s finances, too. We were in a period of really trying to pay off debt by bringing in extra money, and I had been listening to several financial podcasts that would share ideas of side hustles. The idea of dog walking and pet sitting really stuck with me as something I could easily do, while still running my photography business, so I threw an ad on Craigslist. Within a week I had my first client, then a couple more within a month.
What I didn’t expect was how much I would discover that I no longer enjoyed photography, even for myself as a hobby, and the bigger enjoyment for me was from walking those dogs. And yet, that wasn’t enough for my stubborn self to realize what I needed to do.
The realization came one day when I was driving from one dog client to the next, on a busy overpass, and saw a thin German Shepherd standing on the sidewalk, alone, and also not trying to get anywhere fast. I still don’t know why THIS dog at THIS time, but I said to myself, “I am not driving past this time without helping,” and I quickly turned around and found a place to park. I had a leash in my car, treats, and water, and spent 20 minutes slowly approaching. She didn’t run away. She didn’t show any fear or aggression, and when I finally reached her, she leaned in on me almost with relief, as I stroked her head. I welled up, and felt an instant connection. At this point, two other vehicles had stopped, and the three of us figured out what shelter we could take her to. She walked right by my side to one of the vehicles, loaded up, gave some kisses to the driver, and off she went to a better future.
(I kept track of her for weeks. She had an injury from being hit by a car, and after it was healed, was adopted.)
I am embarrassed to say that I was always one who felt AWFUL seeing stray dogs, and never stopped to help. I always let my responsibilities to other people and things dictate my actions, but then I would think about those dogs for days. Guilt and regret would build up. This was the first dog I had helped, and like a ton of bricks, what I had to do hit me:
Why wouldn’t I do something that I cared so much about?
My “can’t” turned into “why not?” It was that night I expressed to my husband that I wanted to close my photography business and start a dog walking and pet sitting business instead. I cared about pets’ well being too much to not do this. He was instantly supportive, because he’s amazing like that.
Once the decision was made, I decided I needed to be the best. There was actually a hole in the local market where there wasn’t a competitor for the one dog walking and pet sitting business that had been in town a couple of decades. It didn’t take long to have work 5 days a week, realize that there was certifications and knowledge out there (and get those certifications), as well as entire communities dedicated to this industry and I was all in. Even when we made the move from Fresno to Nashville, Tennessee in 2017, I was 100% confident that I could not only restart my business, but make it better than it was before.
I learned a lot from my first two businesses. All those lessons gave me the foundation and confidence to build the business I wanted: the clients I wanted to have, the services I wanted to provide, and the way in which I wanted to provide them. I niched things down, and stressed the importance of positive reinforcement and fear free methods when interacting with animals, in a city that had long established dog trainers who promoted aversive methods and tools like prong and shock collars. Because of this, I found my perfect clients. They were drawn to my company culture, and soon the community of positive reinforcement dog trainers found me and sent their clients my way. After my first year of solid work, I was ready to expand and hire my first employee. I am now at six employees and a three figure business that is one of the leaders in the community; instilling change for the good of those who can’t advocate for themselves is what excites me and makes me proud of what I have built.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Pawsitive Adventure Crew has a mission to help dogs (and their humans!) destress through the power of nature adventures where we ask nothing of them except, “Be a dog.” Besides Neighborhood Walks, we use our amazing city and state parks to offer Group Adventures and Woodland Walks. These are extended walks out in nature, either with other dogs in small packs or a single household on their own. We don’t ask anything of the dog unless it relates to safety. For example, if a dog wants to dig, stare at squirrels, lay in a puddle, sniff the same three feet for 20 minutes, we let them as long as it is safe for them to do so. The relief of having some autonomy that is separate from a world where we ask them to fit into our expectations helps lower cortisol, stimulates their mind, and fills their needs, whatever they may be. This has helped reactive, high energy and mischievous dogs calm down, and kept dogs in homes where the owners were so at their wits end they thought rehoming was going to be their only option.
Our Neighborhood Walks are pretty great too, though. We use these walks as opportunities to get to know a dog’s personality and quirks before graduating them to Group Adventures, and reinforce good leash behaviors. Typical results include the owners having a much easier time walking their dogs who used to pull or were reactive. While not all of us are dog trainers, and we certainly aren’t training dogs, we know how to reward a dog when we see something we want that dog to repeat. We also know how to redirect a dog’s attention and focus to keep the dog, us, and the community safe so we can all have easier and more pleasant walks.
The last bit of our company culture is more about how we treat our team. Our Team Members are hourly employees, not independent contractors. This allows us quality control, and consistent reliability for our clients. But it’s not just about what the clients need from the employees. We strive to make sure our employees are satisfied working for us. They are paid a living wage, get PTO, have retirement funds, and other perks. We foster open communication between managers and team members, have a path to move up in the company, incentives for completing industry related education courses, and volunteer opportunities to help out local organizations in our community, whether they are dog related or not.
Our actual core values state: “Positive results, through Pawsitive care. Knowledge is a commodity to be shared. Learning shouldn’t hurt.” We proudly apply these values not only to the animals we care for, but to their owners and each other.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
During the first year of business in Nashville, I knew it was going to be important to share my company’s values. The scary part of that was it meant speaking the opposite of what so many trainers were currently saying; “Dogs need consequences!” “We are balanced trainers.” “Prong collars don’t hurt!”
The other scary part was knowing I was the face of Pawsitive Adventure Crew, and potential clients needed to see that. Clients need to see your stuff multiple times before purchasing, or some such. I still don’t know that actual statistic, ha ha! But one day, I took the plunge, and started doing weekly lives on social media of different topics relating to dogs. I joined some local dog groups on Facebook, and local non-dog groups too. You’d be surprised how many pet related questions are asked in very general local groups. With every question I came across, I gave thoughtful answers full of information, and made people feel seen in their struggle, even if it was a “small” problem. My written posts on social media were similar. I never called out or bashed local companies or trainers. Many times, I didn’t even discuss directly aversive methods, but focused on positive reinforcement methods to solve problems.
This was my “in” to the local force free community. I caught the eye of a trainer who saw my answer to a question, and she instantly recognized I had knowledge. We met up not long after a message from her, and she introduced me to others in the community. After a couple of referrals and glowing reviews from their clients about how much they loved what I was doing, I was catapulted to the top of many trainers referral lists. Even other dog walking and pet sitting companies took notice, and referred to me.
Our reputation started as ethical, knowledgeable and force free within the local pet care industry, then grew to include reliable, consistent, qualified, knowledgeable, and ethical amongst clients and the community through our amazing customer service and work ethic. If I hadn’t plunged into spreading my knowledge in a variety of ways, this would have taken much longer to build.
Any advice for managing a team?
I gotta tell you, when I started hiring employees, I thought for sure I only needed one or two. Six employees later, I can’t imagine growing a business without them. But these are not the employees I started with 4 and 5 years ago. I have had long and short term employees, but now I finally have team members who don’t want to leave; they want to work up. They want to stay with the company and be in this industry very long term. And yes, I have advice for people about how to get to that point with your team, because this is an amazing spot to be in and I want it for everyone who wants to have employees.
Let me be honest, managing a team is hard. Time consuming. It can be rough or smooth, depending on so many factors. My first piece of advice is before you even hire someone, think about what kind of team you want to have. List out the qualities you want in an employee and team, and mark which ones are more important than others. I don’t even hire by experience 50% of the time. I can teach someone how to walk a dog properly, but I can’t teach someone how to be punctual, or kind. Make sure that every employee you hire hits at least 90% of the qualities you want, and 100% of the most important qualities. Building your team to be the ideal team will help with managing them.
Here’s the second piece of advice: handle conflicts quickly. When something flares up between team members and it’s beyond them working it out themselves, step in. Resolution doesn’t have to look like “now they’re best friends,” but they should be able to be civil with the ability to work with each other moving forward. When you hire team members based on the qualities you want, these conflicts should actually be rare. If they come up quite often, reevaluate your list of qualities and each member. Did they really fit the mold?
Third, create an open communication policy between yourself and them. A safe space. Then make sure they understand the difference between open communication and appropriate communication. Over sharers can make you, other team members, and even clients, feel manipulated into letting quality of work slide, because you “feel sorry for them.” You don’t need to know their entire life’s story about why they are going to be late. If this is happening more times than you want, focus on whether this person can really do the job you hired them for. Are there reasonable accommodations you can make? Another position that fits them better? Skills they have that you could be using to help them feel valued? Also, by no means should an employee use the umbrella of open communication to disrespect any member of the team. Mature people know how to express their emotions and needs without disrespect.
Fourth, tell them you value them! Encourage team members to express their gratitude to each other, too. I have used weekly win emails, personal texts of gratitude, monthly team meetings and quarterly one-on-one meetings to go over the good work they are doing. Being recognized can mean everything to someone.
Fifth, and the last piece of advice. Treat them like humans. Respect them, give them a living wage, whatever benefits you can afford, and listen to what they have to say about what is and isn’t working in the company. If they see that their ideas and input are making change for the better, they will feel valued. The feeling that they are rockin’ it at their job can’t help but make them feel good, contributing to high morale.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pawsitiveadventurecrewnashville.com
- Instagram: @pawsitiveadventurecrewnashville
- Facebook: @pawsitiveadventurecrewnashville