Your Most Expensive Problem: People
Building a team can unlock tremendous growth, freedom, and opportunity in your pet care business. It can also create some of the most expensive and complicated problems you will ever have to solve as an owner.
I am breakinf down the real risk and reward of moving from a solo business to a team-based model. We talk about labor costs, protecting profit, the revenue required to support an owner who is fully out of the field, and why your people systems become increasingly important as you scale.
I also share why, despite the challenges and a few hard-earned war stories, I still deeply believe building and leading a team is worth it.
Key Takeaways
Your people can be both the highest-risk and highest-reward part of your business
Labor will likely be the largest expense in a team-based pet care company
Healthy labor costs often fall around 40–60% of revenue, depending on your model
A fully owner-independent business typically needs significantly more revenue to produce strong take-home pay
Scaling a team means giving up a larger percentage of revenue in exchange for greater capacity
Team growth introduces risk around profit, reputation, and operations
The upside is scalable revenue without permanently tying income to your own time or physical labor
A strong team can create true time and location freedom for the owner
Data and solid training systems help identify and correct expensive problems earlier
Culture, leadership, mentorship, and learning from people further ahead can dramatically reduce the cost of scaling mistakes
Join Me at the DogCo Business Summit
If you're ready to build a stronger team, improve your leadership, and scale your pet care company without becoming the center of everything happening inside it, I'd love to have you join us at the DogCo Business Summit, October 2nd–4th in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In-person and digital tickets available —> dogcosummit.com
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.
