Welcome to Wear Wag Repeat Episode 42: Building a Pet Sitter Community with Ramsey Timmons of PetPawneur. On this episode, I’m talking to a woman who’s made caring for geriatric and special needs pets her business. As you listen you’ll hear how important it is to be passionate about what you do if you want to work with pets. She also talks about various dog sitting apps and the virtual community of pet sitters that she’s building so everyone can connect with likeminded pet industry entrepreneurs.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Ramsey Timmons is a Geriatric and Pet Care Provider. Long before that job title this former cowgirl studied pre veterinary medicine. After College she worked at the best Animal hospital in Austin and specialized in anesthesia administration as a surgical veterinary technician for two years. This cowgirl turned city girl now resides in Dallas, Texas and has 40 families that she provides pet care to regularly. After being in business for three years, Ramsey felt she was still missing a community of fellow pet sitter entrepreneurs. She searched for a community that touched base on environmental, behavioral and medical techniques and when she couldn’t find that, she created Petpawneur. With her extensive medical experience Ramsey shares techniques and educational resources to help fellow pet sitters stay on top of their pet sitting game. It’s one thing to know how to run a business and another to provide proper pet care. With the Petpawneur community, Ramsey manages to do both!

(00:00) Intro
(00:29) Introducing Ramsey Timmons of PetPawneur
(03:21) Ramsey shares what her full time work is
(11:25) The real reason why Ramsey started PetPawneur
(14:45) Advice for start out as a petsitter
(22:41) How Ramsey markets her services
(29:50) The subscription tool Ramsey recommends for petsitters

TORI: What is your full time job?

Ramsey: So my full-time job that I do 24/365 is be a geriatric and special needs pet care provider here in Dallas, Texas. I service families with animals who are elderly medically and need special medical attention during the day. Basically, if your animal is able to not be seen by a normal dog walker or someone who you’re not sure if they have the proper training to give them medicine properly, that’s where I came in. I created this special technique to have professional care ensuring to the owner that their dog’s not going to do great in a normal boarding facility or with a normal dog walker. But you can hire me to come in and do special things for them.

TORI: What inspired you to create the Petpawneur community?

Ramsey: You know, it started after telling people what I did and getting a response that I wasn’t used to. I was expecting an eye roll or a “oh that’s cool.” But I was getting, oh my gosh, that’s so interesting. So how did you get into that? Do you offer this kind of service? People were almost dumbfounded and I’m like, “Do I need to be sharing this information? Do I need to be sharing my expertise is with people?” And so I did!

TORI: What makes Petpawneur different from other pet sitter communities?

Ramsey: I share techniques and educational resources to help fellow pet sitters stay on top of their pet sitting game. It’s one thing to know how to run a business and another to provide proper pet care within the Petpawneur community.

TORI: What is important for a pet sitter just starting out to do?

Ramsey: Just to remember that you’re someone’s lifeline. Basically you’re giving those owners peace of mind. That’s my advice for people who are wanting to do this is just expect to take it as seriously as your full time job. Because this is my 100 percent bread and butter and that’s what makes me so good at it. And that’s what makes me so passionate. So I think as long as you’re passionate, you’re going to do okay and just start somewhere, like I said, Care.com and Rover because people can leave real reviews about you.

TORI: Are there any tool you swear by to run your business?

Ramsey: So I am actually old school and kudos to people who do the online scheduling. I have heard of Pet Time, which is a subscription that you can get a pet sitter. If you’re a pet sitter, it allows you to turn on the camera on their phone and the pet parents are able to see the interaction, which I thought is really cool.

FIND PAWPRENEUR:

PetPawneur Website Coming Soon   
PetPawneur Instagram
App for Pet Sitters: Time to Pet

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