Consistency Over 1x Effort
When we’re consistent with our business, we compound results for ourselves. Consistency is what drives sustainability. Consistency builds trust, creates momentum, and results in success.
It is so rare - however - that entrepreneurs are actually consistent. So today we’re going to talk about strategies to increase your consistency, rather than 1x pushes for effort.
When we are thinking about creating change in our business, we oftentimes think about one time big changes we need to make to create immediate impact. Maybe a new service line, a new position, or even a whole new business.
And while these big moments can create a decent amount of change in a short window of time, the real magic in your business is when you learn to show up daily with consistency, rather than these big 1x changes or moments.
Prior to owning a business, I thought of myself as a consistent person. I find that really funny now because not only was it wildly untrue, I don’t even know what I thought I was consistently doing. But regardless, I did. I think I had confused consistency with commitment, because I was very committed to things I was doing, but I was not consistent about them.
And then I started a business, which immediately added a lot more accountability around my actions.
I realized I had to actually start showing up consistently on a daily basis for things to change.
When you’re the owner, you have this moment where you realize “oh wow - the buck stops with me” - it creates a very different dynamic.
When we are consistent, we let time leverage for us in our favor. The cumulative gains of our small actions have a lot more impact over time than 1 time big forces of effort, because at some point there is just not enough effort possible within a concentrated amount of time to outpace the impact of consistency.
The real truth: consistency means consistently focusing on the same thing.
We can consistently focus on new things - but that’s not going to drive change for us.
So, here are some ways we can establish consistent practices inside of our business.
Have a consistent way that you start and stop the day to “open” and “close” your pet care business.
For my Mastermind members, I call this our wind up and wind down practices for the day.
Your “wind up” should be the ways that you open the business for the day. I’d recommend the form of a checklist that you can physically check out at the start of every day. It will depend on your specific model what needs to be on the checklist, but usually checking the schedule for the day, processing any last minute requests, checking client communication that came in over night, and checking for employee communication. Your morning checklist can also include things like making a list for the rest of the day.
A wind down list is going to need to include things to close up the business for the day. Usually this includes a quality check from the day, wrapping up all communication, and setting the schedule for the following day.
2. Set consistent targets for work
When I was growing my business, I’d focus on hitting certain quantities of the work consistently, rather than specific outcomes of the work. So what do I mean by that:
I’d focus on getting 90 minutes of marketing in a day, rather than specific marketing activities. The quantity of time compounded on the success, more than any specific activity.
I’d focus on one operational development per day. So 1 process, SOP, policy, or system.
Over time, these two practices led to a significant amount of consistency in the business and consistent growth. The tactics were negotiable - the effort leveraged in on a daily basis was not.
So where to go from here:
You need to have critical self awareness of your lack of consistency. I encourage you to be really honest with yourself. Are you consistent with the key things that you say that you care about?
My challenge to you today: how consistent are you really? Start with an honest look at yourself, and then pick 1-2 things we can start building consistent practices with.
Let time work in your favor.
Michelle Kline is the founder of DogCo Launch, and the host of the DogCo Secrets Podcast. Michelle spends her time helping pet care companies in the industry grow and scale their teams, increase their revenue, and increase personal profits - all while protecting their time. Learn more about Michelle here.
Do you want to scale your pet care business? Consider joining us at the DogCo Business Summit - the first pet care conference focused exclusively on business scaling in this industry - September 26 - 28, 2025.