“Wantrepreneur” vs Entrepreneur: Do you have what it takes to own your own dog training business?
An entrepreneur is an individual who takes the risk to start their own business based on an idea they have or a product they have created while assuming most of the risks and reaping most of the rewards of the business. (Investopedia.com)
A wantreprenuer is someone who would like to start a business and thinks and talks about doing so, but never gets started. Typically, these types of people are following a trend and following someone else’s passion simply because it’s already been proven successful. (LinkedIn.com)
Wantrepreneurs have this idealistic vision of what it is like to be an entrepreneur. They might see it as the quickest way to get rich or the ability to set their own hours and be their own boss and not have to answer to anyone. Sounds amazing, right!!?
But not answering to anyone means you will need to be extremely disciplined and harder on yourself than any boss you’ve ever had in the past. Setting your own hours only means you’ll be pouring in more in the beginning, because you’ll be overflowing with ideas, tasks and projects that need to get done in order to create a successful business.
What does it take to be a successful dog training business owner?
Do you think it’s for you or are you content working for someone else instead?
1. Passion isn’t enough.
You must have the drive, determination, and dedication to push through when the passion part gets hard. There is no one to save you and passion wears out quickly, especially if you don’t take charge of your schedule and plan for time off. We made a video on exactly this, coupled with a YouTube Live on this topic.
2. It’s not all glory.
There will be long days and weeks, and lots of dog shit to clean up. It may be a year or longer that you have to run a business after you work your full time job.
3. You must wear all the hats.
You are the CEO, the CFO, the operations manager, the customer service rep, the dog trainer, client coach, phone operator, sales person, administrative assistant, kennel tech, dog walker, HR director, media relations, client therapist…the list goes on! Are you comfortable wearing all the hats? There’s no one else to pass the torch to. You must be all of these, or start outsourcing or hiring staff - which also comes with its own set of headaches and responsibilities! How do you find all the time in a day to make this happen? Our video explains the basics of how we manage it all and we talked in depth about how we take charge of our daily schedule on this YouTube Live.
4. You can’t just LOVE DOGS. You must love and understand people, too. Let’s be honest here; training the dog is the easiest part of owning a fog training business! There, we said it.
Working with emotional dog owners and navigating tough conversations takes far more skill and finesse in our opinion. If you don’t like people or aren’t comfortable with these hard conversations, this isn’t the industry for you! You’re better off as a kennel tech at an animal shelter or vet’s office… or maybe working behind the scenes for another dog trainer. Better yet! Keep your day job and volunteer as a dog walker at your local animal shelter!
5. You must be okay with failure. Learn from your mistakes and just keep going. A Wantreprenuer would be discouraged and just give up all together.
6. Hold yourself accountable. You no longer have someone else (your boss) and their expectations of you to hold you accountable. As an entrepreneur, you must be able to hold yourself to your own expectations. For many people, this can be extremely difficult. If you find it hard to stay motivated to stick to your own workout or eating plan, without a coach or someone checking in with you, you might also find it difficult to stay on task to move forward with your own business goals.
Is owning a dog training business right for you? are you more than happy to be an employee?
What else do you think is necessary to own a successful dog training business? We’d love to hear what you think in the comments below!