Transcript
The Jobs Podcast: Hey folks, thanks for joining me on the jobs podcast. I am your host, Tim Hendricks. And if you love pets, if you love animals, this is the podcast for you. Today we have Colin with us and he is one of the co -owners of the Funky Bunch Pet Care. ah His wife, Megan, I believe is the one that's also the other owner. So welcome, Colin. Thanks for joining me today.
Collin Funkhouser: Hey, super excited to be here, talk all things pets and pet sitting with you and kind of how we got started. So it's um really, really my pleasure.
The Jobs Podcast: Good deal. Well, let's start off, give us a little bit of backstory about where you were born, your childhood, kind of your education, how you met your wife, and and we'll we'll kind of progress into the creation of your career, and we'll just dive into all of it. so
Collin Funkhouser: Okay, so that yeah, no, um how much time do we have again? What was the limit? No, I'm kidding.
The Jobs Podcast: There's no limit. Talk as much as you want.
Collin Funkhouser: Right. Well, so I was actually born and raised ah near Springfield, Missouri, um actually grew up in the town of Rogersville, just a little bit ah east of town there, and um really grew up playing out in the country, riding dirt bikes, um we had horses and chickens.
Collin Funkhouser: all that kind of stuff and I always had a love for biology. um had Had two brothers in the middle of three brothers so we were always um getting into trouble, I'll say, but also and exploring and and doing lots of adventures.
The Jobs Podcast: a Yeah. Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: I was a member of Boy Scouts. All that stuff really loved being active and I actually went to Missouri State University for my undergraduate degree in wildlife biology and made a minor in marine science and that's where I met my wife Megan. um She and I were she was actually employed.
Collin Funkhouser: As a lab technician for this ah professor there and I came in as a volunteer and we were to be sorting river detritus under a microscope and that's how actually I met her and just kind of kept hanging around and took some marine biology classes with her.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: um Then we got married, moved to Lubbock, Texas, so we could actually go to Texas Tech University to get some master's degrees. um Megan's is in environmental toxicology. ah Mine is in natural resource management.
Collin Funkhouser: It was actually out in Lubbock where we started to pet sit and do dog walking. um As a graduate student, you don't make a whole lot of money and we needed something that was really flexible.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: That was really um something that we could make work with our research and travel schedule. And we just found Petzing. It was Megan's idea, actually. um We had taken a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class, and you know he's all about paying off debt and making more money.
Collin Funkhouser: And it was like, well, we we obviously need to make more money because we're not making very much right now at all.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And she came up to the idea of doing dog sitting. um I actually had wanted to do an aquarium business because in between graduating um from my my undergraduate degree and going into the master's, I was actually an aquarist with the um with ah Bass Pro Shop there in Springfield as a guy getting to dive the tanks, feed all the animals, and it was a lot of fun.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, cool.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh neat.
Collin Funkhouser: ah one of my One of my favorite jobs I've ever had.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: um Well, her job her her idea took off a lot faster than mine. So um we we don't run an aquarium business these days. We run a ah dog walking and pet sitting business. So the the business was her idea and we just never stopped. um We moved to the DFW area so that actually I could go get another degree in quantitative biology.
Collin Funkhouser: And we kept pet sitting. um We had our two kids in the in DFW area, and then we moved back to Missouri to be closer to family. And I actually took a job with the Missouri Department of Conservation as a watershed and streams biologist up in Sedalia, Missouri.
Collin Funkhouser: and loved the job got to go out talk to landowners help them problem solve understand what's going on with erosion and and help them with grants and funding to do stream bank restoration projects and just really loved getting out being able to do that.
The Jobs Podcast: Is that is that where you were hoping your education was going to lead before the pets sending stuff kind of kind of came in to be?
Collin Funkhouser: Well then
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, so the original intent of going to get a master's and a PhD and going that goal is we were actually wanting to go do like research at a university was our original goal written in design.
The Jobs Podcast: Oh, okay. Okay.
Collin Funkhouser: We wanted to be, um you know, doing research, teaching, all that fun stuff. um Through my PhD program, I started to be more interested in more applied um and more conservation kind of things.
Collin Funkhouser: And so when the job with the Missouri Department of Conservation popped up, you know It's a stellar um organization um and they do a lot of great work. I've always been in love with them and couldn't couldn't pass that up.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: I was kind of like, okay, well, this is it. We found this ah and going to do this for the rest of our lives, um which didn't happen.
Collin Funkhouser: ah But ah COVID actually, ah when when COVID hit, they sent everybody home.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, because we weren't, you know, in order to do fieldwork, you know, we couldn't be talking to people, we weren't allowed to go, you know, we couldn't travel in the same car, they had all these regulations and stuff around us and just trying to keep everybody safe. And so I started working from home. And I realized that that moment that I cannot sit in the same place for very long. I'm i I have to be a very active person.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And there were days where, you know, I'm just plugging away the computer and I'm sitting in my chair just kind of spinning it literally spinning in a circle like I, um my brain is eating itself, I've got to be doing something else.
Collin Funkhouser: And we had been pet sitting a little bit, even up in Sedalia. And I was talking with Megan and she said, you know, I really love having you home. I'm really glad that we can be here together as a family. um but I want more of this. And so we thought about it and went, well, you know, we're kind of doing this pet sitting thing already. What if we just did more of that, right? Like, what if I stopped my 40 hour ah a week job and dedicated those 40 hours to trying to grow our business?
Collin Funkhouser: and And that really was the starting point of ah Funky Bunch was Megan and I coming together and going, let's do something different for our family ah so that we can try and just you know see see what happens with this, right? Might as well try it.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm hmm. The I guess the the initial launch of pet sitting, I can see how you would just have one or two dogs. There's got to there's got to come a point when I don't know. Do you need more property? You need crates? You need a garage? like I don't understand the logistics of how many animals do you have at once or are you going to the homes of the people and getting their dogs or what are the logistics of that?
Collin Funkhouser: Now this is a fantastic question and and i actually I'm really glad that you you touched on this point of words matter. um what What we use to describe things are is important and this is where there's a ton of confusion even within the pet care industry.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: the words don't get used in the same way, even more so from a client perspective. So I've been saying these words, pet sitting and dog walking. And what a lot of your listeners may immediately think of is a kennel or a boarding facility. Still others may think, oh, I want somebody to come and stay in my house for hours and hours or sleep in my house.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: Still others may think, oh, I want somebody to come over a couple times a day. And so when we started, we started with out call only services because, and this is this is really important, um the the dog walking and pet sitting industry is unregulated in the extent that you don't have to take a test. You don't have to be certified in something. You don't have these things, but boarding and daycare facilities have to be have to have a license um and be inspected by the state.
Collin Funkhouser: if you If you have somebody who's keeping pets in their home overnight, that's a boarding, especially for pay, right? Because that's what this is about. That's a boarding facility. A lot of counties and cities have very specific regulations about what they do and do not allow for within their within their areas and zoning.
Collin Funkhouser: And so many people start boarding in their home and then they get a ah a notice from the city saying, we need to see your kennel license. And then they don't have one. They can't qualify one because they won't pass inspection and they have to shut down.
Collin Funkhouser: And so that was something that we were hyper aware of, of we, we were not interested in really keeping pets in our home um because we wanted some separation.
Collin Funkhouser: We wanted to be able to go to bed at night and not have dogs barking.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: Also, you know the the the paperwork, the inspections, all that stuff was just something that we, and then the risk of not getting that, of, okay, well, if the city says no, well that means I've got to move.
Collin Funkhouser: That means I've got to move out to places that don't have those regulations.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: I didn't feel like moving house. So so what what we provide specifically are and ah are in -home visits where we come over multiple times a day to take care of people's pets.
Collin Funkhouser: This is different than something like house sitting or overnight care. um Many people may want to hire somebody to come and sleep in their home overnight. um This isn't something that we provide. um we We come over multiple times throughout the day. um we'll We'll come over as early as 6 a .m. and as late as 10 p .m. at night, and we offer seven days a week, 365 days a year, rain or shine.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: ah So, you know, we we have had to, originally it was just me doing all of that.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: um And that's one of the things that in the industry, there's always somebody who wants to travel. A client will always want to take a day trip to Kansas City or to Eureka Springs or, you know, something like that.
Collin Funkhouser: It never stops. You you never turn off the tap. And I actually got sick with COVID while um over Christmas several years, a couple of years ago. And there was, I didn't have a team. We didn't have employees. It was just me and Megan was at home taking care of the kids. And we still had to do, I had to do 20 visits that day because it was Christmas.
Collin Funkhouser: And I was sick with COVID and could barely function.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: And that's where it hit me that I can't do this by myself anymore. We've got to bring on employees. And so we hire employees.
Collin Funkhouser: We train them in Pet First Aid and CPR. We um you know go bond have bonding. We have specific pet sitting and dog walking liability insurance.
Collin Funkhouser: We do background checks. They go through 20 hours of training before they ever get out there and do anything by themselves. And now we work together and and as as a collaborative effort to make sure that everything's taken care of.
The Jobs Podcast: When you go to someone's home, I'm assuming they have maybe a a keypad that allows you to get into the house or to the garage or whatever. The benefit the way you do it is the homeowner is going to provide the food and the caller and really all you have to do is show up with a leash.
The Jobs Podcast: Is that is that correct?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, there is there's a lot of benefit to this.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And you mentioned the keypad. Yeah, we we will use door codes, garage codes, and keys. If they want to use a key, we use a lockbox.
The Jobs Podcast: Mm hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: So that way, we don't have to hold on to keys because I don't want to have to pay $1 ,000 to have somebody's house rekeyed if we lose it.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: ah right that's so Or I should say, our insurance pay for that.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: um So when when when pets get to stay in their own home, you get a lot of benefits.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: First and foremost is way less stress.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Collin Funkhouser: um Pets are most comfortable in their own home, in their own environment. They get to be around their own pillows. They get to hear all the same familiar sounds. They get to walk the familiar paths.
Collin Funkhouser: um They get to have their bowls and they get to have their lights and they get to play in their backyard. It's a much more peaceful transition or time with the pet than trying to take them to a new place and get them adjusted.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Secondarily, there's way less risk of exposure to diseases or fights and altercations. Obviously, there's a risk in everything. But when you have an immunocompromised dog or you have a dog who's elderly or really young or maybe they just their immune system is kind of fussy, you can keep them at home and keep them away from all of those things because they're not going to be interacting with, you know, 80 other dogs.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: um And and it does make the the pet owner's life a lot easier as well. So you can wake up in the morning. Our clients get to wake up in the morning.
Collin Funkhouser: Have a Backpack! leave to wherever they need to go, and then come back to their home. And their mail has been taken care of, their trash has been brought out and brought in, um their dog is home or their cat is home all happy and ready for them. And it's clean because we do light house cleaning while we're there to make sure we're picking up after ourselves. And so the owner doesn't have to change a single thing about their day or their routine. And neither does the dog. And that really helps make sure that the stress is low. And when stress is low, it sets everybody else up for success.
The Jobs Podcast: I really that's that's smart everything you're saying it's just like I never really thought of that stuff but it makes total sense and I I had one question pop into my head is there an initial meet and greet with the dog or is the first time you're taking a dog and and it's just I'm gonna use a dog as an example cats don't normally go for a walk, they do whatever they want. But um do you show up and initially meet the dogs so you're familiar to them at least once or is the first time you take them for a walk the first time you're actually meeting them?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, so this is another kind of thing. Again, we talk about how the industry isn't isn't regulated. So we talk about best practices. For us and our perspective, um we believe that there should be an extensive ah vetting process for both parties. The pet owner should get to experience the person that they're going to be talking to and get to see and make sure that they're comfortable with who is going to be taking care of their pet.
Collin Funkhouser: Likewise, the pet sitter, the dog walker should fully vet the client and their dog or their cat or their guinea pig or their whatever it is to make sure that they are fully comfortable for caring for that. So all of our clients.
Collin Funkhouser: go through an extensive onboarding process where they have to fill out about 50 questions per animal about what they like, what they don't like, feeding, medication, behavior. We ask about where their cleaning products are. We ask about you know how they want their lights left overnight or how they want their you know shades drawn so that we fully know what's going on. Then we review all of that for additional questions.
Collin Funkhouser: If we have none, we move forward and we we get to meet the owner, go into their home, talk with them, do a behavior assessment of the pet that we're going to be caring for so that we're all on the same page and fully comfortable with this before we move forward.
Collin Funkhouser: Because the last thing that we want is for our client to be in Belize or to be in Spain and us calling them going, well, your dog isn't actually okay and we can't take care of them.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: You need to do something else by. like That's terrible.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah, right.
Collin Funkhouser: And so we we we just want, when we vet, we we really are making sure that the client and the pet, both of them are a good fit for how we operate and our clients understand.
Collin Funkhouser: We've we've heard horror stories from other people who, the they didn't ask enough questions. And what turned out was the client actually expected the pet sitter to stay there 24 seven and to never leave.
Collin Funkhouser: But they had a life, they had a job, they had other things, they had other dogs they needed to get walked, and nobody ended up being happy and actually kind of spiraled out and got really nasty.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: So we want to make sure everything's out in the open before we start actually booking services.
The Jobs Podcast: Are there any types when you initially, a customer calls you and they say, hey, my name is so -and -so, this is the type of animal that I have. Are there certain breeds that you typically will stay away from or are there certain types of animals that you don't deal with?
The Jobs Podcast: You know, there's some unusual exotic pets like a sugar glider or some kind of fish or whatever that people may have. Do you do all animals or are there, so do you have a, what's your window of,
The Jobs Podcast: We'll deal with this versus not.
Collin Funkhouser: Sure. So with a couple different passes at that, we don't have any breed restrictions.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. OK.
Collin Funkhouser: um You know, we we believe that with the with the right care training oversight, um there's no reason for us to have any breed restrictions in that.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Because again, we're not trying to mesh certain dogs with other dogs and have play groups and have all of this stuff. ah we We are really screening for Will this pet be okay with a stranger in their home multiple times? will Is there some stress there? Do they have a history of that? So we ask all sorts of questions to try and get at that. you know When you have friends over for game night, what happens? What what does the dog do? what What does the cat do when you take them to the vet? How are they with the groomer? Trying to get an idea of the life of this pet and the stress that they have around them.
Collin Funkhouser: then you know above and beyond that, we will say, as long as the pet is legal to own and we feel comfortable caring for it, we're gonna take it on.
Collin Funkhouser: Now, why is that legal to own really important? Well, it turns out a lot of cities and states have restrictions on what is a legal animal, what licensing and licensure is required to have that pet.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: And if it is illegal to own, our insurance will not pay for veterinary expenses or damages to us if we take that on because our our insurance um is and that's an aspect that a lot of people don't consider is the liability of of what's happening here.
Collin Funkhouser: What is actually going on? and We see a lot of people who will say, oh, I i want my you know my my my tree trimmer to be insured or my fence builder to be insured or my plumber to be insured, but my pet sitter, oh, no, it's fine.
Collin Funkhouser: Anybody can come into my house.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: our Insurance should really cover three things, damages to pet property and third party. And so a good insurance policy will cover all of that. And this isn't just a general liability insurance. This is pet specific. Care, custody, and control is a big one in the pet sitting world. Will it pay for being rekeyed? Will it pay if the neighbor gets bit by the dog or the dog gets hit by a car because something wasn't secured on the leash?
Collin Funkhouser: All of these aspects are stuff that ah we have to always check. And one of those first things is, is this pet legal? i like So what was it? Two years ago, we had a client reach out and they wanted us to take care of um ah but of an animal that we had had never taken care of before. And I actually had to call the city to make sure that um this animal was legal to own, that it was OK um to to to have. and And I'll never forget the the animal control officer talking to me and going, huh, I need to talk with our lawyers because I'm not sure. And the the crazy part about that, and so they had to call their lawyers, get in touch with each other, then call me and say, yeah, this animal is OK.
Collin Funkhouser: And the animal that I'm talking about is a prairie dog.
The Jobs Podcast: Huh.
Collin Funkhouser: There was confusion. I had the animal code pulled up and I was looking at it and talking to people. And it, man, it was hard to know if this was actually legal to own and without a lot of licensing and inspections and stuff.
Collin Funkhouser: And it turns out they were like, yeah, no, OK, no, we we think given how this is currently written, it is legal to own a prairie dog. And so we were able to move forward with that. But that's got the kind of thing that we've always got to check.
The Jobs Podcast: just call it a squirrel and move on. Maybe that you could do glue a tail on it or something like that.
Collin Funkhouser: Right.
The Jobs Podcast: um So this kind of thing, if someone is going to and I don't want to jump too far ahead, but you you franchise or do you hire people to work for you in different cities?
Collin Funkhouser: Sure. So we we um have chosen to hire people to work for us and and and across two different cities.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Collin Funkhouser: So we do service Springfield, Missouri and Sedalia, Missouri. And the reason we have chosen to do that is so that we can have
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Collin Funkhouser: control and consistency ah and predictability in our care. um At the end of the day, pet sitting, dog walking is a personal thing, right? it's it's a It's a very individualized kind of care. And what we want to try and do is reduce as much variation in the quality of care as possible.
Collin Funkhouser: And so by hiring people, having them go through our extensive training and vetting process, um that is our way of ensuring that when we say Funky Bunch has, you know, XYZ, or we do that, we always do this, we that's how we are able to ensure that is is through that kind of oversight.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, that consistency to pull an an example out of left field, if you look at Starbucks coffee, I can go to a Starbucks in California and Kansas City and New York City. And if I order the same thing, it's going to taste the same no matter where I'm at because they have an established consistency across the board. So I can see that in your line of work. If you're hiring people to work for you, you know that they're going to do the same thing, whether they're in Sedalia or Springfield or Branson or wherever you may grow to be.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: So the the pet the specific type of pet thing have you ever had a pet that I would I would assume it would be a dog but I don't know if you do reptiles or whatever. Have you ever had an yourself or your wife or somebody become injured by a pet? how How would that scenario play out if a dog were to bite you?
Collin Funkhouser: right So we have not had a bite incident.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay,
Collin Funkhouser: yeah and And we go through a lot of, again, we do a lot of, it's it's what is more than just showing up and slapping the leash on and getting out the door.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: right We want to know behaviors of pets. And so we do extensive body language you know training for us and our staff with ongoing education. that we do, we do weekly team meetings to talk about things and problem solve. And we do, you know, go to seminars and go to conferences and things like that. So a lot of this is just education and always pulling back, never pushing. So we're we're a fear free company. We're certified fear free. It's a special training that we've gone through. And part of that is working with animals and not forcing them into situations.
Collin Funkhouser: Obviously, if I'm standing in the middle of the road and the dog has stopped walking and a Mack truck is barreling towards us, I'm going to force that dog off the road, right?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah, sure.
Collin Funkhouser: I'm not just going to say, oh, no, it's fine. He doesn't want to move. It's okay. So we we do have those. But um we will always say it's better to pick up a poop or a pee mess than it is to bandage a wound.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: If we feel as though we are putting ourselves in a situation where that dog has no other you know, recourse, but to react, we will always back off and stop the visit.
Collin Funkhouser: And so we do have have protocols in that. If there were to be a bite, right, this is something that comes up sometimes with clients, especially if they've never left their dog in the care of somebody else before.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: we We do talk about how first and foremost, everybody's safety is is our priority. And so if there is a bite, we were we are going to need to remove ourselves from the situation to make sure that we are safe first. At that point, we are going to stop care and we are going to contact our client's emergency contact person who is needs to be local and has met the pet before to come in and kind of have a cover over for the time while we rework the plan.
Collin Funkhouser: In the event of that, the other thing that we provide as a business is all of our employees are covered under workers' compensation. um Again, something that hardly anybody thinks about.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: Why would I need to hire somebody who has a workers' comp on their employees or themselves? Well, it's because if we didn't have that, um um we would have to have the client's homeowner's insurance policy pay for medical expenses.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And that's not something we feel is fair to put on the homeowner. So workers compensation would kick in at that point, pay for those expenses, um and we would we would move on and we'd have to then reassess whether we could re -engage with that dog or that cat in those situations, probably working in tandem with what some trainers that we that we have partnerships with.
The Jobs Podcast: So you you mentioned something a minute ago about the training that your folks go through when they come on board. What, let's say I came to you and I said, I'd like to work for you. What's the what's the process like when you, aside from filling out an application and getting all the the information about what it pays and all that stuff, what kind of training and how long does it typically take for someone when they start with you to be out in the field doing the job that they were hired to do?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah. and And this is, I will say that this is something that we recommend whether you are going to be hiring people or whether you're going to be a a solo operator to get some sort of training and education before you start offering services. It it will help you immensely in and ah knowing what risks you want to or don't want to take on.
Collin Funkhouser: So after we have an employee who has successfully gone through, we've got three, four stages of our hiring process. but After they get the clear background check, they come in and we immediately start working with them on pet care basics. So they go through dog and cat body language, dog and cat.
Collin Funkhouser: fear responses, how we respond to those. We go into training things like things that a lot of people go take for granted, right? Like what's the right way to hold a leash?
Collin Funkhouser: How do we hold a leash?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: How do we do leash corrections and maybe some leash training? What does it mean to have a successfully scooped cat litter box? Something that you might think, oh, well, that's pretty easy. There's no poop or pee left.
Collin Funkhouser: But we go ahead and train on that again to have consistency in what we do. everything then from checklists that we have to, um you know, how how to medicate in different ways of medicating a dog or cat with a pill and methods that we can use in case the first five don't work.
Collin Funkhouser: We have to get into that.
The Jobs Podcast: right
Collin Funkhouser: um Then we also do, like I said, the that the behavior, the body language. Then and we do a lot of online courses. We do about six hours of online courses that are a combination of training procedures that Megan and I have put together and in combination with some other industry videos. And at that point, we show up and we do in -person training. And this is where there are Pardon me. This is where they are shadowing me or another senior team member on particular visits to get them in the routine of what we do, how we do it. How do we write reports? What does it mean to take an amazing photo? does ah Do we understand all of the functions of our camera on our smartphone and are we using them correctly in the dead of night, in the middle of the day, in action shots? So we have little mini training sessions on how to take photos and really making sure that everybody's up to speed.
Collin Funkhouser: After about 20 hours, then our employees can start doing solo visits. But even then, when we get a new client or a weird client, like we're taking care of a, oh, it's a mini pot belly pig today. Well, they haven't experienced that before. So I'm going to step back in and train them on that particular client, make sure they have the resources for understanding you know the the health and care and wellbeing of that particular animal. And then we'll keep moving forward.
The Jobs Podcast: What does, if someone wants to apply for you, what would be an earnings expectation that they should have when they come in? it's I'm assuming it's an hourly rate or is it poor per job or how does that typically play out?
Collin Funkhouser: Right, so this is another another difference. um and And there's a lot of discussion in the industry around this of do we pay per piece or do we pay hourly? um We do hire employees, so we pay an hourly rate.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Collin Funkhouser: And you know this this covers a lot of different things because again, we're not just going to one location and then staying there.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: um We also need to make sure that we are compensating for drive time. So how long does it take me to go from visit to visit? Additionally, we also pay a mileage reimbursement rate of 60 cents a mile or 20 cents a mile or we have different tiers for how long people have been with us to make sure that that is compensated. So what we do is we start everybody coming in at at minimum wage.
Collin Funkhouser: ah for their training period. And then after a successful completion of the training period, we do pay increases every quarter up to an hour up to a year, and then we do hourly or sorry annual increases after that. So some of our employees, um when you take into account the hourly, the drive time with the mileage, and with the tips that we share, it usually averages out $18 to $20 an hour, um with depending with seniority.
The Jobs Podcast: I hadn't thought about the tips. That's probably something that most folks would leave if you're taking care of their pets. Is that correct?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah. And so because we also offer, we we but do an online, our software allows our clients to book and pay online. That also increases the kind of tips that they're able to leave.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
Collin Funkhouser: And so what we do is, um and again, everybody's going to do this differently, but um we we take all the tips and let's say a client travels for five visits.
Collin Funkhouser: And one of our employees does three of those visits. And the person left $15. Well, because they left $15, that means each visit is worth a value of $3. And if the one person does three visits, well, they just get a $9 tip added to them. And so we we the the intent of the client was to tip their sitter. So we make sure and tip according to the amount of work that each person did for that person.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm. Your, your business, you're in Sedalia and you're in Springfield, Missouri. Those two towns, Sedalia is what, 22, 23 ,000 people. I forget.
The Jobs Podcast: um
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, it's 21, 22, actually.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah, and Springfield. I mean, it depends on the day, I guess, but 165 or so 160 something like that thousand as far as population.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Are you are you planning to grow your business and and move to Branson? Or are you planning to go to St. Louis? Or how how's your growth plan kind of playing out if as far as you looking forward?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, so this is this is something that Megan and I talk about quite a lot is when when to grow and how to grow. And I think one of the things that we are focusing on right now is really nailing down our target client.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: right? Who's a really good fit for us before we make that expansion. So one thing that we are looking into doing is actually, um you know, Sedalia, it's we've pretty much got that in it's it's a it's a six mile service radius.
Collin Funkhouser: So that's the other thing to consider if you are interested in getting into this is how long how far are you going to drive?
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: ah Let me tell you a 10 mile radius doesn't sound like a whole lot. But when you're driving 20 miles, and you're spending 40 minutes in the car in between visits, it eats into your profits real fast.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: And if you're paying somebody to do that, it is even more egregious and you really have to watch that. So we've got a six mile radius, so 12 miles around Sedalia. And this pretty much captures everything that we can capture there. So really the growth is going to come from just increasing awareness that our service is there.
Collin Funkhouser: In Springfield, the opportunity to grow is really into the the cities that surround it. So think Republic, Willard, Nixa, Ozark, Battlefield, you know, even out in Rogersville, you know, Rogersville is the fastest growing ah city in the state by percent increase, or you know, or whatever it is.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure.
Collin Funkhouser: um so So what it would be, it would actually be subdividing the service radius into each one of those and having localized employees in those areas to even further decrease the amount of drive time um and increase you know our ability to to serve people with excellence.
The Jobs Podcast: Okay.
The Jobs Podcast: Are most of your clients and I don't know if you have any rough percentages as far as the breakdown but I would assume that the majority of your clients are with a dog and then you have some that are cats or maybe some other exotic more exotic pets. Is that is that 75 % of your business dogs or
Collin Funkhouser: I'd say about 70, we'll say 70 % of our business is dogs, 28 % of our business is cats, and 2 % is something else. i with that cap with With this, when Megan and I first started pet sitting, so that was coming up on 13 years ago,
Collin Funkhouser: people would never hire us to take care of their cat. It would always be, I have a dog in my house, there's a cat somewhere, don't worry about them, right?
The Jobs Podcast: right yeah
Collin Funkhouser: it's it's there Another thing lives in this house, but it's okay.
The Jobs Podcast: right
Collin Funkhouser: Now we have, um cat owners are increasingly wanting personalized and specialized care for their cats.
Collin Funkhouser: Um, gone are the days of, and it's very interesting to think about pre, you know, 15 years ago, people would leave the house, they'd throw a bunch of food in a dish and have a big water jug for the cat.
The Jobs Podcast: Right, yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And they would put down like two or three extra litter boxes and they'd come back like a week and a half later, right? they That's all, that's all people did.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Now, we've got automatic feeders, fountains that auto recycle recycle and um super filter the water. And we've got litter boxes that clean and can tell you measurements of how much they pooped and send it to your phone.
Collin Funkhouser: And cat owners want us to spend an hour or two with their cats every day.
The Jobs Podcast: Man. Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: And it's just automatically assumed, Oh, I just want somebody to come in here and play with my cat for an hour. Can you play cat TV with them? Um, can you, you know, make sure you cuddle with them and use this brush and we're doing this thing. And they're they're really wanting that. So actually the past, I think two years client base wise, you know, we've, we've grown our overall client base, but of that we've grown more cat sitting specific clients that just have a cat than dog only clients.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm. The, the pet business, I forget what the, the amount was that I read, but pet care and and pet services and toys and things like that, just a few years ago was turning into a two or $3 billion dollars a year industry. So I can see it's just going to keep growing and you you should be able to expand, but at what pace you find comfortable is probably the question that you and your wife ponder.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, when you're expected to reach what I think it is supposed to be like $500 billion dollars industry in the next seven years or something like that.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah yeah yeah
Collin Funkhouser: um You know, it it really is about understanding who you want to serve and how you serve them. One of the most frustrating parts about being in business for anything is, well, I offer the thing that you asked for.
Collin Funkhouser: I offered the the finishing or offered the the installation or I offered the plumbing or I offered the whatever. But the person might not like your policies or your cancellations or your things like that.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah, yeah,
Collin Funkhouser: And so it really is about going, I want the people who need dog walking or need cat sitting or need their parakeet, you know, let out to fly around and and fed and in enrichment toys and whatever.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: But connecting with the people who see that value. And it's not just a, oh, I guess I have to do this, right? It's more of a, I i want this. And that's really the shift that we're seeing in pet owners. um You know, the the saying used to be 70 % of pet owners would forgo medical intervention in their life.
Collin Funkhouser: if it meant they could provide medical intervention in the life of their pet. But obviously, that means that pets are very important to people. And it's only gotten more intense, where now pet owners genuinely want humanistic experiences and spending levels on their pets. They want customization to the nth degree. They want experiences over products. So they actually just want their puppy, they want their cat to have fun and to to experience new things instead of just buying it another toy or another thing. And that's really what's shaping a lot of the the growth in the industry. um A really great example for you of this.
Collin Funkhouser: There's a company called farmer's dog. They make a wet food, a raw food that gets shipped to you every month, right? And you, you portion it out to your dog. Well, one thing that they started to do really early on, and it's got us thinking a lot about like, how do we tap into this level for what we do? But when you get that packet of dog food, it says, it doesn't just say dog food on it. It says Baxter's dog food. They customize the label to the name of your dog.
Collin Funkhouser: And that's really what our clients are looking for. Is the service that you're offering customizable to me? And how do then we express that to them so that they know the value that they're getting?
The Jobs Podcast: think you're the first guest that I've had that works with their spouse to run a business. And there's gotta be some challenges there. I mean, I get along with my wife very well, and we don't really fight hardly ever. So, but running a business is a whole different ball of wax. So to anybody listening that is thinking about wanting to start any kind of a business, I mean, you are an entrepreneur and in the entire sense, but what's it like to have the
The Jobs Podcast: the person that you live with and that you're married to also be your partner in a business? What kind of challenges and obstacles do you run into? And how do you separate work from your personal life?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, that's the that's the million dollar question, isn't it? um i think I think what, and and that is just first off the biggest challenge is is separation, is turning it off, is sitting down at dinner with the kids and not saying, well anyway, what's the social media post that we're gonna do tomorrow and did you see that the client said this thing?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Man, we gotta get this thing booked and I gotta get the email newsletter ready and blah, blah, blah, blah, and the insurance is renewing it. that is the single hardest part is carving out those times. And so what we've had to do and work on, and and we fail at this all the time, we have to go, what hat am I wearing right now?
Collin Funkhouser: Am I wearing husband hat? Am I wearing, you know, father hat?
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: Am I wearing business owner hat?
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: and knowing that there are times specifically for those. And we've even had to come through some busy periods where we just have to on our calendar at, you know, after the kids are in bed, I've got in there and we just call it office hours. And that's the time that we dedicate to talking about things business because the rest of the day is hectic. We can catch little snippets here and there, but I've got to just dedicate some time.
Collin Funkhouser: And that helps us prevent, it prevents us a little bit from eating into the dinner times, the lunch times, the times where we just want to go to the grocery store or go for a family walk or trip or things like that without eating into that.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah, if you have the if you have the dedicated time, then it's go, I can wait.
Collin Funkhouser: So having that dedicated. talk about
The Jobs Podcast: This question can wait until a few hours when we have that dedicated time to talk about it.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, absolutely. You go, well, this is important.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And and so I would ah initially want to talk about it immediately. I don't have that luxury. I wanna enjoy this picnic that we're having at the park as a family, or I wanna enjoy the time at the zoo or whatever.
Collin Funkhouser: Tonight at nine o 'clock, we're gonna talk about it. And it's sure, is it late? Am I gonna be tired? Yeah, but I've just got to add it to the to -do list then. and So we'll go into the calendar and we'll add it into the notes part of that.
Collin Funkhouser: that The great thing about working together is that we are complete polar opposites in so many different aspects, including what we're good at.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: And I have really grown to appreciate that of going, there's so many things to get done in a particular day. If I was in charge in all of them, none of them would get done.
Collin Funkhouser: And so it's not just distributing the work, but it's also going, Megan, you are amazing at crafting a social media post.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: You are amazing at route planning and knowing which clients we need to hit and in what order. I'm really bad at that. So I'm going to focus on writing the training manuals and I'm going to focus on doing the the new client intake forms. And I'm going to focus on those things. And so we can really both help each other operate in their, um you know, where where they need to be operating and kind of let the rest go and know that, no, they've got it. And so it does take that level of trust to know that I have to not futz with this and but because they're going to be taking care of it and they're going to do a lot better job than I am.
The Jobs Podcast: That's something that I think some people struggle with when they're teaming up with either a friend or a family member. That can get tricky when you're working together. It can either work. magnificently or it can just blow up in your face. But leaning into your strengths and recognizing your weaknesses and having somebody else go, you know, you are better at that than I am. Please do that. I'll focus on this. If you can have that maturity and that that insight into your business relationship, you can really take things um you can go a lot further a lot faster when you lean into that way.
Collin Funkhouser: you really can because it's not all relying on you.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: And then the person who actually A is really good at it and B probably likes doing it is actually doing the work.
The Jobs Podcast: Yes, right, right.
Collin Funkhouser: So I'm not over here dragging my feet going, Oh gosh, I guess I have to do that slapping something together and moving it on. But it does take that trust. It takes being humble and admitting that I am not really good at all this stuff and I need help and I have a helper.
Collin Funkhouser: And I have somebody who I can trust to do this.
The Jobs Podcast: you you are entrepreneurs and there are a lot of aspects the word entrepreneur is always kind of fun and like I'm in charge and I'm doing my own thing and I'm going to make a ton of money and I think a lot of people gloss over or just completely ah miss that There's a lot of grinding and a lot of boring work that needs to happen. I got to sit down and pay our insurance. We need to change our coverage. We've got to pay these bills. We have to do this, you know, social media stuff. There's a lot of things that people forget is part of the day to day operations to keep something like your business going. it Is there something that you have any advice for folks listening about about what it's like to be an entrepreneur and and stuff you really need to focus on?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, well it's it's the non -sexy stuff, right?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: It's not the, oh, I'm right. I'm not i am not making another sale or I'm not upgrading this thing or getting a new whatever. I'm not just spending money. I actually have to like work on a budget and I have to sit down and like plan and stuff.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: You know, we have a saying, um we do hard things. um And sometimes things are hard because they're really difficult and I don't understand what I'm doing. Sometimes they're hard because I don't want to do this with every fiber of my being. But I know I do them. I do them because they need to get done and they're beneficial. And so one thing that we've had to work on is linking the the monotonous stuff, the boring stuff, to the outcome. And yeah I'll just do, for us, you know route planning is a great example. Route planning is a super non -interesting, it's grueling to sit down and go, okay, I've got 15 clients that I need to see today.
Collin Funkhouser: what are their addresses and what's the most efficient route in between them taking into account age, client specifications and medication requirements and ranking all of that stuff together. Hopefully one day AI will help with this. It is not there at all. This is something we have messed with and worked on for a while and it's it's not there. So we have to sit down and actually get this done and it's one of the least I can't tell you how much I don't like this, i really but I know that like when Megan's working on it or I'm helping her with it, we get to do amazing things when the route is well planned because the the team members aren't having to drive all over creation, so they're actually getting to do more of what they want to be doing and spending instead of spending time in traffic.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: clients are getting their needs met, and we are able to perform well when we show up for that client. And so really linking a lot of these boring, monotonous things to a vision or to your mission as a company or as a person, it it helps you go, okay, I see the value in this, I might not want to do it. And that's actually a question that we ask new and ah people who apply, tell me about a time where you didn't want to do something, but you did it anyway.
Collin Funkhouser: And the best answers are when they say things like, well, you know, I'm a, I'm a, I was, ah I wasn't what someone recently said. I was an overnight ah janitor for a hospital and I hated cleaning the toilets.
Collin Funkhouser: But I knew that if they weren't clean, people, it wasn't sanitary for people who were actually sick. And it wasn't a pleasant experience for when people had to be there for bad things anyway.
Collin Funkhouser: You don't want to be there talking to a spouse or a relative who's dying and then have a disgusting toilet.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: It was their little way of helping in that situation. And it was like, man, you get it. You understand that these little things matter.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And it's not just about these big flashy things. Everything matters top to bottom. And and we do have to care as much of ah for everything that we do.
The Jobs Podcast: You have ive picked up on the fact that you really dislike the routing. You've mentioned that a couple of times, so I know that's obviously not your your favorite thing to do, but what what would be the one or two top things that you love about this career that you and your wife have have developed and grown? what's What's your most favorite thing?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, this is something that I, um it takes it took us a little bit to see exactly what we were doing. um Fundamentally, what we do, what pet care is, it's a people business. And this is really counterintuitive to a lot of people. They say, oh, what do you mean? Aren't you taking care of dogs and cats and walking and bunnies and it's puppy cuddles and kitty kisses, right? Isn't that all it is? Well, no, but I have never been called by a dog for a walk.
Collin Funkhouser: and A cat has never reached into their pocket to pay me for scooping their litter. It's always a person at the other end of that line who has a problem, who has concerns and worries and biases, who has a past and a history that they're bringing into this. They have needs.
Collin Funkhouser: And what I've been able to latch on to and what Megan and I have have really leaned into that we find so much satisfaction is, it's in helping people. Our mission as a company is to help pet parents live their best life through every stage of life with their pet. When we get to allow people to go to work,
Collin Funkhouser: Take a vacation, seeing a dying family member, stress free, guilt free, worry free. They just leave, right? And they trust their home. They trust their most precious thing in their life in a lot of cases, right? Their dog or their cat.
Collin Funkhouser: They just leave that to us and then they come back home and everything's okay. That amount of trust is what keeps us going, is knowing that our clients just can live their life and not have to think twice about it.
The Jobs Podcast: When you when you hear or you have a customer that comes to you and they say this is what I want to go on vacation.
The Jobs Podcast: Are there key phrases or keywords that someone who works for you can use that kind of convey to the customer, not just what you offer, because you can have that on a menu, either on your website or on a piece of paper that shows these are the services that we offer and whether they're broken down by cost or whatever.
The Jobs Podcast: But what do you find is an effective phrase or two or style of communication to get across to your customers what you just said about, I want you to enjoy your vacation and you don't have to worry that your dog or your cat or your pet is gonna be affected by that and you'll come back and everything will be fine.
Collin Funkhouser: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, I actually had this same question asked to me ah by a marketer um who I was talking with him and I was showing him our website and everything and I was listing out the certifications and the training and the background checks and the this and the professionalism and the, piece you know, and he he said basically like, okay, but what does that get me?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Why do I care? And so we had, we'd spend a lot of time thinking about this because it is hard to connect because it they it's a service that the client, the person never interacts with.
Collin Funkhouser: We're only there when they're not home, right?
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Collin Funkhouser: like So how do I get them to see the value of something that they don't personally directly benefit from? And what we do is we link it back to their love for their pet. um There's two ways, right? So their love for their pet and then the ease on their life. So something that we'll say a lot of is like, yeah, you know, lunchtime is for eating, not worrying about getting back home to see your pet in and spending time in traffic.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: but work Work is for working, not unsure about whether you're not being preoccupied that your pet is having to hold their bladder.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: um Vacations are much better when you sleep well at night. So let us give you a better night's rest. um These kind of imagery are what we found help people connect more to our service above and beyond just the, Oh, you know, I can, again, I can rattle off.
Collin Funkhouser: I already did at the beginning of the episode of like, Oh yeah, we'll go mail and packages and lights and we'll do this and we'll cleaning and medications and blah, blah, blah.
The Jobs Podcast: Well.
Collin Funkhouser: Like that doesn't, that just tells us what we do. It doesn't tell what they get. And so finding this emotional connection and experience of what what they how they can live their life better is how we found the messaging really lands.
The Jobs Podcast: The word you used a minute ago, preoccupied, that's the word that popped out to me because I don't wanna be on vacation or at work or commuting or at a party or whatever and have to be preoccupied with is my dog okay, did they get food, did the water freeze, et cetera.
The Jobs Podcast: And you remove that preoccupied mindset so they can focus and be present in on what they wanna do.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: I'll give you this example. ah Very recently we had a client who um we were kind of going back and forth with about some care and some things that were coming up. Suddenly she booked a very last minute trip um and we didn't hear back from her at all.
Collin Funkhouser: Um, and we sent our updates, our clients get, you know, when we arrive, they get notified, they get photos and a video and a written report and again, all this stuff. And we didn't hear back from her at all. And come to find out, um, she had to leave immediately to go see a very, very, very dear friend in the hospital before they passed away.
Collin Funkhouser: And at first, we were all kind of we didn't find out out till later. And so during the visits, we were sitting here, you know, a little like, oh, why didn't she respond? She usually gives us a thumbs up or says thank you or something. And then when we found this out, we suddenly realized, wow, um you know, she got to say goodbye to a really close friend and she didn't think twice about it.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: She literally booked while she was driving away and knew without a shadow of a doubt that we were gonna be there. And when I think about that word preoccupied, that's that's one of the illustrations that I can give to show that. And that and and I will say that level of trust doesn't come easy. We we work really hard and as a pet sitter, as a dog walker, like trust is your most important and most valuable asset and it can get lost in an instant.
Collin Funkhouser: It's one thing that you should never take for granted because it is here today, gone tomorrow for the slightest thing.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And rightfully so because people value their pets in their home and it's their stuff, right? they they It's okay. like We have to understand that we have to earn that and it's not just given freely.
Collin Funkhouser: And so when that happens, it's one of the most beautiful and overwhelming things that we can experience when somebody goes, I have an emergency. I'm not even going to ask if you got my reservation because I'm already driving down the road at 100 miles an hour.
Collin Funkhouser: I trust you that much.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Like that's just, that's overwhelming and and something that we want to make sure that that we can provide at at at every stage for every person.
The Jobs Podcast: That trust, it doesn't matter what line of work you're in, whether it's sales or whatever, I mean, anybody in any industry, business or whatever, trust, if you have that, that's huge. You can't you can't really buy trust. That's something that has to be earned. So if someone wants to come and work for you,
The Jobs Podcast: What type of personality and soft skills do you look for when you're hiring someone? And are there certain things that are automatic disqualifiers?
The Jobs Podcast: Like I'm allergic to cats. So I would not apply because I don't want to be around cats because it's just a mess.
Collin Funkhouser: Right.
The Jobs Podcast: But, you know, so that seems like a deal breaker that I wouldn't even put you through, you know?
Collin Funkhouser: Well, ah well, I'll say this, ah Megan is allergic to cats and look at the line of work that we're in.
The Jobs Podcast: wow Oh, I know.
Collin Funkhouser: So because we have to remember, we're, we're over in a house ah for maybe 30 minutes or an hour.
The Jobs Podcast: ah Okay.
Collin Funkhouser: So it does depend on the severity, like of the allergy, like if you come over and immediately
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah. Sure.
Collin Funkhouser: you're you're asphyxiating and you can't see and like, yeah, okay, this is not a good fit.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: But we've we've we've trained people who are allergic to cats before. um You know, one of the, I'll start with the deal breakers because ah it's, i I understand the sentiment for why people say this, but it is an immediate turnoff to us.
Collin Funkhouser: um When people say, and this is, it's amazing the amount of times that I see this phrase, I like pets better than people.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And I get it, right? Like they're applying to a pet care company. So they want to say, Oh, I'm all about pets and pets and pets and pets and pets and pets. and pet But I just said, we're not ah all about pets. I'm all about people and serving them with excellence through the high quality care that we provide their pets.
Collin Funkhouser: And so we've got to really invert that and have people who want to put people first, have a team that is people focused. So that right of the way is a huge red flag for what we ask. um And another one is we have a question on our application that says, how do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? This is a ridiculous question. OK, I understand that.
Collin Funkhouser: Two things, one, I only communicate to my clients through writing. So I have to have exceptional writing skills with excellent grammar, punctuation, capitalization, complete sentences, the whole nine yards.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: So if you can't write well, that's ah that's something that we can work on and train if the other skills are there, but it's a big red flag that's gonna pop up. Secondarily, we get a lot of people who respond to this that say, this is a stupid question, I don't understand what that has to do with PEC here.
Collin Funkhouser: um Let me tell you about some of the requests that our client asks of us to do.
The Jobs Podcast: yeah
Collin Funkhouser: I don't have anything to to do with the pet. So are we open? Are we open minded? And can I make it fun? Right? How do they respond? can they Can they give me some level of sequential order of answers?
Collin Funkhouser: Because I also, I have to communicate sometimes problems and concerns that I have with somebody's pet. only over text and it has to make sense. And so we look for those kind of critical thinking skills in there. um A lot of people think that they have to have prior pet care experience in order to work for us. This isn't the case. um We are fully confident in our ability to train just about anybody um who's passionate enough to help people with the skills necessary. You don't have to know how to scoop a litter box in order for me to train you to do that. um I'd rather have you passionate about helping people than the litter box scooping will come next.
Collin Funkhouser: But overall character and quality of a person, um we really look for somebody who is competent and comfortable enough ah as themselves, yet humble enough to reach out and ask questions. We don't know everything. We're still learning things 13 years into this, and it's no ever it's only going to continue. And so being part of that.
Collin Funkhouser: I need to reach out for questions and help and not just think I know everything um is a big that that humility aspect is something that we really look for in team members.
The Jobs Podcast: That peanut butter and jelly sandwich question, I've never heard it quite asked like that, and that's I think that's pretty smart. I want to just, if you'll indulge me for just a second, to dig into that. When you see someone answer that question, you can have someone that will say, well, I get two pieces of bread, I put peanut butter and jelly on it, I fold it together, and then you have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Technically, you're correct.
The Jobs Podcast: But then you may have another person that says, well, I get two pieces of fresh sourdough. And then I get my favorite kind of peanut butter. And on the left slice, I put, I cover every inch of the bread. And then the other side, I get my favorite jam, organic, of course, fair trade or whatever. And then I put it on the other side and I want to make sure I get complete coverage. And then I marry the two and then I wrap them up in a paper towel or I put them on a plate.
The Jobs Podcast: You know, if someone is going to go to those links to explain to you the way they make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when they're taking a report or explaining something to you, you're you're not going to be left wondering or you're not going to have questions because they're going to convey what they mean so succinctly. that Is that what you're getting at?
Collin Funkhouser: Yes, I don't ever want to have a report that I send to a client and the client say, wait, what did you mean by this?
The Jobs Podcast: ah
Collin Funkhouser: What you said, you said, you said you gave my cat medications. They only get one medication. What did you, what did you give them?
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: Right? That's a, really that's a great example here.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: um Oh, I gave, I gave meds and I headed out the door meds. What do you mean meds? They get one, they get a Benadryl in the morning. What did what did you give them? um
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: So clarity, we believe to be clear is to be kind in all that we do, including in how we talk to our clients. And so when we can do that in ah in a concise manner, in a straightforward manner, you know in a professional manner, that's wonderful.
Collin Funkhouser: when we can also do that with maybe a little bit of personality, a little bit of um fun, a little bit of, you know, we can start making it our own. And we really encourage that with our employees, you know, one of the best ah examples of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you know, somebody was like, well, first, I'd start as a farmer, and I'd plant my wheat, you know, in the field, it's like, oh, it
The Jobs Podcast: Oh my goodness, we got an origin story for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Collin Funkhouser: And it was funny. The way this person wrote was genuinely funny and engaging and it was like, okay, like I see what you did there and we will we we need to keep talking about this, right?
The Jobs Podcast: Sure.
The Jobs Podcast: Right.
Collin Funkhouser: Like some people are like, well, I'm not, you know, I'm not God, so I don't know how to make you. It's okay. Fine. You're just, you're not happy. I get it. Um, move on. Um, but we really want to make sure that when we're talking to clients, um, there's no confusion and that that's where again, where that comfort and trust comes in is when they know exactly what happened.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure. what types What types of failures do you see your employees encounter early on?
The Jobs Podcast: And what's the best advice that you can give them just for failure in general?
Collin Funkhouser: Mm.
The Jobs Podcast: Because it's not it's not a slam to say that you're going to make a mistake. Because I've made them, you've made them. It's part of being a human being. We sometimes get things wrong. Even if we're trying to do the right thing, sometimes it blows up in our face.
The Jobs Podcast: How you respond to that is a big part of how smoothly things go afterwards. So what's your advice for your employees when they make a mistake?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, I'll say I've been doing this for 13 years. I've made every mistake in the book and I will make more and I've probably made them 10 times worse than you have. So it's okay.
Collin Funkhouser: Gosh, ah some some ones that come to mind, ah big ones are forgetting to like lock a door. um And so, or forgetting that it was a feeding time. um i I forgot that I was supposed to feed at this particular visit.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: um Or for the house, I forgot to turn on turn off the light. And so, you know, part of our quality control is we do periodic drive throughs where I'll come in or another senior team member will come in after somebody has done a series of visits, and just check on all of these things.
Collin Funkhouser: and We also require our employees to report out to the team of kind of what they did kind of charting in a medical sense of I did XYZ XYZ for each client. And that helps us catch a lot of these things as well. When we find things of like, Oh, you forgot to turn off the lights.
Collin Funkhouser: um We'll we'll sit down with them and I can talk about mistakes. um I'll end up to this one. When I was an aquarist at Bass Pro, um I overfilled one of the aquariums ah in the in the showroom, um the ah the big um ah ah water wheel in the entryway.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: um I overfilled that. And there was no reason for me to have done that. I just wasn't paying attention. And I remember sitting down with my boss as after we had mopped up all of the of the camping equipment and off the floor and all the trout were fine and okay.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: You know, he said, where, like, what were you thinking? And not in like an accusatory manner, but in a,
The Jobs Podcast: How did you get here?
Collin Funkhouser: Let's get to the bottom of, right?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: like Like, how, how, like, where was your mind when you were doing this?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Let's walk through your thought processes and and and understand what we can do to change those. And I really appreciate how that was handled because he didn't sit down and go, you idiot, how did you do this?
Collin Funkhouser: This is the most simple thing in the world. You have something around your neck to remind you, how did you get so distracted? It was really helping figure out, how does how does Colin work? what is actually What's the support that Colin needs? So if I sit down and I go, OK, Jack, um what let's figure out what you need to be successful here. You forgot to turn off the lights. OK, well, you know remember, here's here's where that information is in the client profile in our software. um Here's our process for reviewing how ah we've trained to review all of this information prior to you showing up.
Collin Funkhouser: Let's brainstorm some ideas to add in another step or two for you specifically to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm. It can. Yeah, I can see that it can be a way to kind of improve your work processes and your workflow. So um most people will understand what you're saying, but then some folks everybody thinks differently. So some something that makes sense to you may not make sense to somebody else and they'll make a wrong decision thinking they were doing the right thing and then you have a mess.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, I tell all of our employees new and those have been with us for several years, like, sure, we have all of our policies and procedures. I've got 180 page manual and training for all of our operations. I am willing to burn it all down if it's not actually helpful. We will find the places that don't work anymore, that are outdated, that you find frustrating, and let's work together to make this better.
The Jobs Podcast: Are there certain soft skills that you find, um, the people that are applying to work for you? I would assume that because you have a route, things like punctuality and, and, you know, following a checklist and whatnot, attention to detail would be up there at the top of the list. But are there any soft skills or intangibles that you find with your more successful, uh, employees as far as, man, I wish that everybody else would do things kind of like them in this regard.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, you mentioned attention to detail, timeliness, punctuality. Yeah, those those are kind of already baked in.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Those are the like minimum requirements.
The Jobs Podcast: Right. Yeah, right.
Collin Funkhouser: um if If we don't show up whenever we say we're going to show up, what's the point of all of this anyway? Like why why are we even here?
The Jobs Podcast: Sure.
Collin Funkhouser: ah Attention to detail. Yeah, we get a lot of detail. When I do meet and greets, sometimes people just hand me a book, like a literal, like i've had I've been handed a laminated three ring binder before and been like, here's all the care for our pets.
Collin Funkhouser: Great. um I think two things. One is um adaptability. No pet. what's that What's that old philosophy saying? You never step in the same river twice.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah, sure.
Collin Funkhouser: You never pet the same dog twice. You never, because the dog is constantly changing. Also, our schedule changes. um As we we're recording this, we were just hit with a random you know massive amount of snow. ah And we had to change we had to change our route. We had to delay. We had to drive slower. We had to alter walks. We had to have all of these kind of secondary and tertiary things that came up all of a sudden just today.
Collin Funkhouser: or maybe you should walk into a visit and you were supposed to find one dog and two cats and instead you found two dogs and three cats because oh by the way they adopted some dogs and they forgot to tell you about it and and you're like oh well this is new um so that that ability to be adapting and so how does this person handle change do they ah Do they get shocked by it? Do they get frozen by it? Do they kind of roll with it? Can they take it in stride? Do they need to reach out for help? All of these kind of characteristics for when something change and changes suddenly, how do you respond? And that response too is the other thing of this level of communication. We require a high level of communication with our team.
Collin Funkhouser: Everybody kind of needs to know what's going on because the way we hire and we train at any moment, if you get a flat tire, I've got three other employees who can possibly cover your visits and they can just get swapped in at a moment's notice and that helps for our reliability and um and so.
Collin Funkhouser: How do we communicate with one another? um Am I an open communicator? Do I preemptively come to you with questions, with concerns, and problem solve through this? Or do I keep things really close to the vest?
Collin Funkhouser: You know, we really want to see somebody who is adaptable, who is kind of quick thinking, and who communicates really well and really early.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm. Hmm. I'm curious, you have a career with your wife, you own a business that's in pet care. Do you have dogs yourself or do you come home and go no pets?
Collin Funkhouser: So yeah, we um shortly after Megan and I got married, um we had said, okay, well, we need to wait a little bit to get a dog because we got to figure out who we are first.
Collin Funkhouser: We've got to figure out how we operate.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: Well, two weeks into our marriage, we were sitting on the couch watching a Saturday morning program or whatever, and they had this like most common, most popular pets in the United States program. And at each commercial break, she and I were just like staring at each other like, Oh, no, like I think we're about to get a dog. And and so ah we found in Lubbock, Texas, a place called Dusty Puddles Docks and Rescue. They are no longer in Um, in operation, but this was a gentleman who worked for the railroad and he, um, was going blind and he had diabetes and he had really considered ending his own life. Um, but when he realized that he had Dachshund's in his house that he had had for years, who was going to take care of them? Um, he credited them for saving his life. So he rededicated his life to saving theirs. So he created this dusty puddles Dachshund rescue and we showed up and saw
Collin Funkhouser: Kobe, our dappledoxin, long hair dappledoxin and fell in love with him. And for the longest time, Kobe was our general manager because he um was kind of the reason for our high quality and our high standards in our company of when we left, if we were to need something.
Collin Funkhouser: what would we What would we want?
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: How would we want this handled? What level of detail would we need to feel comfortable and and okay with this?
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: He was really the driving force behind that. And he passed away suddenly about a year ago now. And that was one of the hardest things that I've ever had to go through, especially guiding our kids, our two kids through that that process of talking to them about that and working through that grief.
Collin Funkhouser: And we didn't have a dog for for several for a while, for about, well, nine months. And um we were out for a family walk, and we try and do that every now and then. And we look over, and there's a stray, dirty, little corky puppy running around the streets.
Collin Funkhouser: And we got her, took her to the vet, got the scan, took her to the the animal shelter, posted on Facebook, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody. And eventually after two months, our vet said, ah congratulations on your new dog. oh And so we brought um we brought cinnamon, a little corgi into our lives. And um that's been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. It's been a reminder to us of ah The challenges that pet owners face from the new puppy stages also just breed specific things, i'm getting to learn about those. And it was kind of a a full circle thing for us. ah One thing that we provide and we do for our clients
Collin Funkhouser: and we open up to the community as well as we do um pet loss memorial events where we um once a year gather together and just host a time for people who have lost a pet recently to come and grieve and have community and be together.
The Jobs Podcast: Hmm.
Collin Funkhouser: um There's a bubble release and some music and stuff like that. We try and keep it really simple. Yeah, but we had to go we went through that with through with Kobe last year after he had passed away earlier in the year and it was just another grounding moment of right, like this is another why, right? Help pet parents through every stage of life with their pet and we know eventually there's going to be a stage of life where they don't have their pet. How can we continue to support them? And then having sentiment come into our lives and reminding us of, yeah, and there's always going to be something new. And to to stay open to those opportunities, to those possibilities, to um to continue to to work hard in in helping people.
The Jobs Podcast: Well, speaking of opportunity, where do you see ah the funky bunch going next? What's ah what's on your immediate horizon or your your business goals?
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, well, it's a yeahre recording this kind of at the start of ah and of a new year. And so we're we're really in that mindset of what do we do?
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And, you know, our our business, it's a pet sitting is a very seasonal business. This is something that a lot of new pet sitters, again, I'm specifically thinking of, of, you know, either going to a client's home, not necessarily like boarding or daycare, but like pet sitting is very seasonal.
Collin Funkhouser: We people have travel, they have vacations planned, and there's these highs and lows throughout the year. And this is really hard to plan for. It's hard to manage um just from a business perspective financially, knowing that you can have one month where you you know you get $5 ,000.
Collin Funkhouser: And then the next month you get $30 ,000. It's kind of hard to plan and expect that kind of variation and also too to scale and manage and have balance and then all this stuff.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: So what we are working on um is from a business perspective, finding more predictability in our services. So um really working on finding ways to connect with people for dog walking specifically or midday potty break potty breaks and let outs.
Collin Funkhouser: um One of the services that we really love that we get to do are what we call adventure hikes. This is something that we're trying to grow more of. um Adventure hikes are where we come over, we pick up your dog, we drive them to a nearby trail, and we hike with them for either an hour and a half or three hours, depending on what people want and kind of the condition of their dog, and then bring their dog back and settle them into the home. ah As well, you know, again, when the clients is away at work, not necessarily a vacation kind of thing.
Collin Funkhouser: um But just getting people aware of that and um talking to people about that is kind of what this year really is all about. It's kind of the the walks, the adventure hikes, and then we really do continue to see a big opportunity for cat owners in growing that service for them specifically.
The Jobs Podcast: That adventure hike sounds like a pretty good idea. I mean, if I was looking for a job, that would be something that I mean, you get to go out in nature, go for a hike and take a dog with you. but I mean, what's there's no downside to that at all.
Collin Funkhouser: i I they are by far my favorite thing. ah And if I have opening in my schedule, and we get one, i I mean, it's it's so much fun getting to be out, kind of in the middle of nowhere, you know, we don't go out and hike like in the back country, you know, they're, they're local trails, that kind of stuff, you don't, but you still don't see a whole lot of people.
The Jobs Podcast: Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser: And just to to walk and hike in the springtime, or even in the summer with the dog and play in the springs and walk in a river and go through a field it's like, yeah, this more of this this is a lot of fun.
The Jobs Podcast: Sure. Where if folks want to find you where what's the best way for them to get ahold of you? I assume you have a website.
Collin Funkhouser: Yeah, yeahp our website is funkybunchpetcare .com. You can get started there. ah There's our phone number at the top is 660 -398 -9833. Yes, we answer the phone. um It rings right to my phone, so I'm happy to talk to you. If you have questions, if you're looking to get started in pet care, or if you're looking for pet care, and then we're on social media, very active on Facebook and Instagram, both of which are at Funky Bunch Pet Care.
The Jobs Podcast: Hey, Colin, I really appreciate your time today. you You provided a lot of insight into an industry that I really just didn't know much about and what was there and the pros and cons and everything. So thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.
Collin Funkhouser: This has been a lot of fun. I will happily talk about this topic until I'm blue in the face. So anytime and thank you for the opportunity. It's it's been my pleasure.
The Jobs Podcast: You bet, man.
