Transferable skills from supporting development of humans to dogs
Lady T was my inspiration to start running a bespoke pet services and fashion boutique. My amazing greyhound has been in my life for nearly a year. During this time I had a dog walker who supported us during the days.
I now get to spend time with other owners dogs who are very important, Alfie is in the picture who has had a previous life that wasn't so good, and he is now adopted by a lovely family. It is a great honour as part of my job to build confidence with Alfie and other members of the team.
I have gone from busy life of traveling around on the motorway and it was time for me to take a look at the work life balance I had. After a redundancy in November I decided that I needed to start focusing on what I wanted and Reach for the paws is our direction. My company is built on trust to provide the bespoke dog walking, pet visits, home boarding and of course being in Essex it was time to add some bling to my greyhound. That is how the boutique part of the business is now growing.
With any new career move you look at your transferable skills, what is it that I could bring to my own business?
- Leadership
- Motivation - a lot easier now to use a dog treat to help motivation. Humans need a bit more than that!
- Listening and communication skills easily adapted, a high pitched voice to encourage will get dog wagging it's tail. The listening part the dog doesn't judge me just listens away as I natter on my walk
- Prioritisation will always be the customer in what ever you do, I now have customers with paws and if they are happy so are their humans
- Time management people rely on their dog walker and this is so important to be around when they need you
- Being able to multi task this is an area I have expanded, to multi task with a few dogs and their dog leads so it doesn't look like I am about to trip over
Treats on me all the time, similar to when I had office life, I was always feeding the team with haribo!
My office view everyday is walking by the sea and enjoying a new team full of paws and showcasing our journey and sharing with my customers, through pictures and video links to show our journeys we walk and capturing the moments on our walk.