We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tiffany Saul a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tiffany, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?
This has been the hardest part of my business journey. I was foolish to think of hiring people, at the time I thought they were friends and “managed” at a previous job. The first 5-6 employees were just that and had no interview, job description, or job contract. I thought that being friends would make working together not only fun, but easy. It was the worst decision I have ever made. I respected them, and was grateful for them as friends and employees. I soon found out that respect and gratefulness was reciprocated. Long story short they all decided to walk out on me, and I had to learn how to hire employees. I did not have a clue how to interview anyone or teach new hires from scratch how I wanted things in my company. My company grew so fast, and I was struggling to stay afloat and make sure clients were taken care of according to what my goal/desires as an owner was. I didn’t understand that others/employees didn’t want the same thing. I have learned how to interview potential employees, create contracts, create policies and procedures, employee evaluations, to not hire just because I need someone, to go with my gut, and being ok to let go of the past. I can’t move into the future and progress if I live in the past.
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.
I began in the dog training industry as a client, with my first Doberman whom I had rescued. I took this Doberman, Zoey, in at the age of 10 months old and I can honestly say she changed my life. This dog was a crazy spastic dog that would run and not come back, listening and complying was not a skill she had. I met a dog trainer and his well-behaved demo dog at an RV and Boat show in South Texas. Once our schedules aligned, I signed Zoey and I up immediately. I was so happy and intrigued with Zoey’s results that we never missed a group or extra class available once we completed our program. I took more advanced classes and my trainer asked if I wanted to work for him. I was excited to add to my life’s journey. I started with learning how to train a board and trains while also teaching group classes. I had to learn to speak in public and teach clients what I knew to help with their dogs. Teaching my knowledge and being confident in my knowledge wasn’t easy. I asked my boss if there was a way to get certified, and his answer was yes. I worked with my dog more, yet she was a Therapy Dog, not a demo dog so I adopted a beautiful 1.5-year-old Doberman named Allie. She was a sister to a Doberman I had helped train. I was certified after a month in Las Vegas, Nevada. Allie and Zoey are the reason Dobermans became my breed of choice. My confidence was beginning to grow and truly trusted my knowledge. My life changed when my husband received word that he got the job he wanted in Utah. We had a whirlwind move and were in Utah in less than 6 months. I had planned on doing mostly my personal training, but there was a franchise location. I transferred franchises and began training at the local Utah franchise. Dog training really has become my life, as well as Dobermans. As I worked there, I became a member of the Salt Lake Doberman Pinscher Club as well as the rescue. I began really improving with dogs, and specifically the dogs with behavior issues. My original mentor was amazing at dogs with aggression, reactivity, and resource guarding. My new bosses were not. They barely had enough basic obedience clientele, as they focused more on boarding and daycare instead of training. I set to work at growing their dog training business, sales, social media, website, and marketing. The Utah franchise grew, but that meant I became a cost (my pay was high because it was based on commission) to them and not an asset. My time with a franchise I thought I would never leave was over. I didn’t think I could run my own company and was unsure where to go next. I was hired to build a training program at North Salt Lake, Utah Boarding and Daycare. During this time, I was elected to hold the position of board of director with the Salt Lake Doberman Pinscher Club. Two new jobs and a chance to grow. My name and success traveled, then I got very sick and almost died. Next, my family home along with my dad, my parents Doberman and pit mix, and their cats all perished in a house fire. We lost everything from our childhood, and most of all my dad. I was a Daddy’s girl, and his death shook me to my core. Strike three COVID “hit” 2 months later. My job was gone, my dad was gone, and the country was in a state of chaos. I felt I had no other choice than to jump in and begin my own company. I wanted a company to train dogs, change dogs for the better, and get client’s confidence built in their dogs. Keeping a dog safe and happy in a home was my mission. The Dobermans head outline is the main part of my logo. My love for Dobermans and dog training i wanted a simple and effective logo that led to K9 Fluent Dog Training being born. I am now K9 Fluent Professional Dog Training, LLC
Any advice for managing a team?
My team hasn’t always had high morale. That has been a struggle and set back after setback. I have a passion to help dogs and their owners yet “aspiring dog trainers” do not understand what it takes nor the care I believe clients and their dogs should receive. Most people who apply to be a dog trainer think it’s about “playing with dogs all day, and they love animals”. This is something that I have been told time and time again when I ask why someone applied for a dog trainer position. It is far from it. People are paying you for your knowledge and skill to “fix” their dog. I never realized how much negativity can be in a dog training/competition community. I learned that you must remove the negative from your company or that negativity destroys those that are good. Even when those that are negative leave if they still have attachments to others in your company it still destroys those employees in your company. They will soon have to go as well, because they cannot separate their friendship from doing their job. That has been a hard lesson to learn. I can’t repair or fix all my employee’s problems that are outside of my company. Yet I have learned they bring their problems into the company and use them as excuses. I had to learn how to not micromanage and teach them to swim without me there. If I don’t trust that they can then they won’t reach their full potential. I had to learn to trust and give them a chance and teach them it is ok to fail as when you fail your learning. Teaching them to take accountability for their actions, and not being afraid to say why they chose their decisions. I am still learning how to keep morale high as sometimes all the good we do doesn’t seem to matter. We have to remember we do make a difference and we are important.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I don’t know if it is resilience or stubbornness. There are many times I probably should have thrown in the towel. I have gained more grey hair from owning my business than I wish to admit. It is not about having whatever schedule you want, being able to do as you please, or working whenever you feel like it. It’s the exact opposite. I work long hours, and when it is, most do not even know that I am working. It is not a check in and check out type of business. I had a trainer lose a client’s dog. She didn’t tell me till the dog had been gone for at least an hour. She didn’t have the dog in her sight for at least 30 minutes. To be honest I don’t even know how long before she told me. She acted like she was looking, but she really wasn’t. She took no responsibility for her mistakes. My husband/business partner searched and tracked the dog down for 36 hours. I had paid employees to search, paid others to search, paid the other trainers (including her) that had boarded the dog, paid the $1000 reward to the owner (because he offered it to anyone that found his dog). I also refunded his boarding fee, paid for two vet bills to make sure his dog was ok. Met him after hours with my training manager to get him his dog back. It hurt my company horribly. It didn’t help that another training company with the “K9” in their name had been losing multiple dogs escaping, ending up at the shelter, or never found. Since my company had the same “K9” at the beginning of their company name, as mine does, and my company was blamed for those dogs missing as well. To make matters worse I didn’t want to fire the trainer because at the time I thought she was worth helping. I was told by everyone to fire her, I just couldn’t. My training manager, Facility manager, and I decided to have her come up with a PIP (performance improvement plan). She was to do so while she was on unpaid leave. Two days later I received a resignation letter calling me malicious and that I should have fired her or only punished her for losing the dog. There were other things that led to this neglect. That hurt, she never paid me back for what I spent to find the dog, and avenues I spent to defend, and clean up the destruction she did to my business. I consulted my mentor and he said sometimes you must “Embrace the Suck”, own up to the “Company’s” mistakes and move forward. So hard to do when you feel you and your business didn’t deserve such turmoil. That was almost a year ago, and it seems so far away. Progress and healing is finally returning.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.K9Fluent.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/K9Fluent
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/K9Fluent
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/K9Fluent
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/K9Fluent
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/k9fluentdogtraining107
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/k9-fluent-dog-training-sunset
- Other: www.tiktok.com/K9Fluent
Image Credits
April with Heart Dog Images April with Critter’s Photography