Do you have the bounce?

So if you're a petpreneur or you're thinking of launching a business designed around your passion of animals or your pet, there are some traits that you may or may not be aware that you need.

One trait that I've personally learned along my entrepreneurial journey is the ability to bounce. There have been days, spats, weeks where I look at my journey and wonder what in sam's garden am I doing here? Where am I going and on what train will I get there?

But then I remember that I have goals, dreams and people looking up to me (read my two boys:) and I was meant to do this and do it well. So I take the situation with a grain of salt, sometimes a minor tantrum and I Bounce back!

Because while you're launching, starting and running any business you're gonna find that some days everything will not go as planned, and unexpected 'uh oh's' are gonna happen.

The question is do you have the Bounce to get back to business the next day, or next week? Will you be able to bounce back when it feels like your business is taking over your life?

Will you have the bounce to keep going when you don't have enough customers yet?

Well if you're gonna run a business, or start a business you better make sure you have the bounce! Because it's a bumpy ride my friends...but so very worth it! :)

Spreading Your Word...

You know that getting the word out about you, your business or service is really important right? But what if you could take a unique approach to doing so while getting an organic endorsement at the same time? What am I talking about you ask?

Well an easy way to put it Swap Marketing. You may have done it already or are doing it and may not even know it.

The idea is pretty simple and doesn't cost you much at all but the benies can be huge.

**First: Go Searching for complimentary business models. -->Example: if you're a dog walker maybe a pet sitter is a good compliment. Or if you offer pet massage than a good compliment would be aromatherapy specialist.

**Second: Ask if you can swap marketing materials like postcards or brochures and distribute them to each others customers and clients.

If you ship goodies to your customers you can then throw in some of your Swap Marketers postcards, and organically promote your new co-op partner. Your customers get introduced to new goodies and you're spreading the love. At the same time your postcards are being shipped, displayed and put into potential new customers and clients! yay!

It's a win-win for all involved. Just think if you did this for 4 or 5 complimenting companies your customer base could grow and so could your co-op'ing friends!

You can get started on this right away and be seeing results asap!

Got questions...ask it's why I'm here and it's what I do!

Goodies for your Sweetie!

Ever so often I like to take the time and showcase some good finds that I come across during my daily web travels. I know as pet parents we're always looking for that little something special to show our furry lovelies that we love and care about them and what better way than with some extra special goodies.

I love love love finding goodness to share with my readers and visitors, it's like I get to go virtual window shopping and scavenger hunting except the goodies are fabulous. (don't forget if you have a unique, fabulous, organic or just plain kool-aid goody you want to share with our readers shoot me an email barkbusiness at yahoo dot com, I'd love to feature you!)

-->Skeledog Tee's
I love it when a tee can express a love for your pup without being obnoxious. Enter Skeledog tees. They've got lots of breeds to choose from and they're so totally original. All the pet parents will be oogling your Skeledog Tee.

$25

















-->Botique of Paws

I love it when I find something that is handmade and just pretty! Enter Boutique of Paws completely handmade sweaters for your little cupcake.

$45

















-->Wrigley's Rewards

Have you been hunting down some certified organic doggie treats to try? Why not give Wrigley's Rewards a try. Full of healthy beneficial goodness Wrigley's take great measures to make sure their treats are good for your dog, which everyone feel just that much better

$5.99















-->Perfectly Pampered Pets

And finally, what if you could build your own perfect gift basket? Cool right? Bring in Perfectly Pampered Pets. They have some of the cutest basket ideas here. You can pick and choose what your lovely will like.

$ depends on your selection.

Sell, Sell, Sell, Free!

So you have a website you're all ready to go and now you need to be able to have a true 24/7 shop?You need a shopping cart, and you need it to be easy to use and you would like it to be free or nearly free.

In addition to using PayPal, which does charge a fee when you sell your items I've found a new code-based tool called Fat Free Cart. It's a great way to get get your site up and running with an e-commerce feature.

If you're familiar with html this is helpful, but not necessary. They do have a code generator feature that I'm personally a fan of since all you have to do is insert your information and then click a button and a code is generated for you. Not to mention if you're unsure of how it will work, you can view it after the code is generated and see. Niice!

If you have a website, utilizing the 24/7 open feature is a must. There's nothing more frustrating than finding a cool website where you're all ready to order only to find out you have to call to place an order or have to worse yet snail mail a check or money order to....uuugh! Don't lose valuable customers this way, have a shopping cart and watch how many customers you'll Gain!

Need some assistance? We're here to help...and it's what I do.

Can your customers find you?

It probably sounds like a trick questions huh? Well if you have a website then you know if they are or not? And if you thrive on your local pet parents business then you can answer this question pretty easily.

But what if you do have a website and when you 'test' it on search engines to see where you show up you're on page 4 or worse? Here's a test, at the bare minimum you should be able to type in your business name or website name and show up in first place. This is a must! If your site isn't showing up on that first page at all, then my friend we have some issues to tend to.

How about this test, when you put in common keywords that should point to you and your website do you show up on the first page before the 'fold' (you know before you have to scroll down)? Yes...Fantastic! No? Well then we have got to remedy that.

As a business owner or budding one you know that without people finding you, you may have the next greatest thing. But if no one knows does it really matter? Not really.

I've had many friends and clients ask me, "ok so what do we do about it"? Well if you have a website that's great, because you need that! But what if you could take it a step further, without a full fledged website, or all the time and money associated with it?

My team and I are working on what I like to call Mini-Site Hot Spots. What they'll do for you is provide a search engine magnet for you, all tightly put together in a simple 1-3 page site. Full of rich keywords, content, images and information about you, your business and products, only smaller. They can be made quickly, and for a lot less than a typical website. We've even seen some use this instead of their big bulky websites. But we only recommend that if you have only a few products or a service or two to offer.

The idea is to have a page or two full of good changing content, keywords and systems working for you. Bringing you traffic, and ultimately business!

There's also other ways you can accomplish this, you can blog frequently with content rich posts. You can also hire an SEO firm to help you (usually very pricey), you can also post videos regularly ( which I'm a fan of because video's are a great way to engage your audience).

So: --> Great content = Traffic and Sales

The idea with mini-sties is that in addition to your website you also have another tool out there working for you all the time and pointing back to your main site, or supplying your customers with vital information and pulling rank on those search engines!

Now go and claim your Traffic!

Want us to get to work on your mini-site for you?

Email us at info at barkbusiness dot com