Be a "Go Giver"

A good read as you find your mission with your pet loss business

"The Go-Giver" is a quick read - but a read with ideas for daily life that will certainly stick with you.  Starting with the first law, the Law of Value - "Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment" - the reader learns that in business, families should always come back to us with the statement that we helped them and created more value for them than the price they paid.  This should be a comment that you ask yourself with every experience that is created for a family and a question that every business owner should challenge their staff in consistently.
There are five laws that Burg and Mann take the reader through - each law building on the previous law - until the end of the book when all of the laws are pulled together to challenge the reader to make some life changes.
A must read for those doing some self-reflection on business and life!

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Grieving as an experience?

How are you helping families to create an experience of grieving and honoring their deceased pet?

Honoring My Precious Mike The Dog

It's been a rough week with the loss of my beautiful Golden Retriever, Mike The Dog.  As a pet care professional, I've companioned literally thousands of families through this very event.  However, now, it was me that needed the companioning as I actively mourned my loss of a very special love.
Human nature many times puts us in a situation where we assume that "if we know it - then everyone else knows it."  Or possibly even as we know everything within our industry so well that we fail to see its importance to those that don't know as much as we know.
Therefore, I actively watched as the pet funeral home we dealt with for Mikey's final arrangements carefully guided my step-daughter through her choices of memorialization items to remember her dog.  Choices that in many funeral homes I see them saying "People don't want those things" or "I don't want to offend a family by educating them on their options."  I was so thankful that the pet funeral home said none of these things and walked her through her choices diligently.  
And, even though I, as her step-Mom, am in the business, there were still many items that she said "Wow - I didn't know that I could do that - I really like that and want it to remember Mikey."
Don't assume you know your families - and don't assume your families know all of the information that you know.  Guide them. Educate them on their choices.  In the end, the family will thank you that you assisted in creating this absolutely beautiful time for them with memorialization items to truly honor and pay tribute to the life that was shared together,...
Rest in peace, Mike The Dog.

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Guiding a family through the loss of their pet

Families "don't know what they don't know" when it comes to their options for memorializing the loss of their pet.

An epitaph that truly sums up a life!

As a pet parent, it's so difficult to instinctively know what the options are to honor a precious little pet when they die.  In our North American culture, it's just not natural for us to say "it's a beautiful day today - let's go get educated on our death care options."  We just don't do that.
So when a family turns to you for guidance during this time, don't assume that they know what they want.  Rest assured, they, more than likely, DO NOT have a clue as to what they want nor what their options are.  
When you are guiding a family, don't hesitate to educate them on all of their options.  If your organization has done it's job of having a variety of memorialization items available for a family to see, then take this opportunity to educate them on these options - as well as other ideas for them to consider.  For example, do you point out cremation jewelry and let them know that these vessels are also a good place to hold a bit of all of the pet parent's fur-kids hair?  Or to consider a keepsake urn for a loving grandparent?  Or maybe a large urn that can be used as a family urn - while all of the pets lived under one roof in life, let them rest under one roof, i.e. in one urn, in death.
How are you guiding your families?  Be a resource.  Help them in an area where they truly "don't know what they don't know."
Because if you are like me, a really bad day for me is when a family says to me "I wish you would've told me about THAT - I would've loved to have done THAT.  But now it's too late."
Be their "companion for their journey."  

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What is your vision for your pet loss program?

Without vision, and without seeing your business with fresh eyes, what are you truly seeing?

"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision."  Author and Educator, Helen Keller.  As always, with Helen Keller, a very profound statement.  As I travel and consult with organizations offering pet loss services, I continue to challenge business owners to really "look" at their program and to make their program be what pet parents truly want.  Keeping in mind that many people, in pet death care as well, "don't know what they don't know."  But foregoing seeing the vision of a truly experiential business that really provides the "services" that pet parents want when their precious pet dies is a clear "miss" of seeing the big picture.
Pet parents WANT service.  Pet parents WANT their pets treated like family members, not put in bags, not stacked on route trucks.  Pet parents WANT their feelings validated with support.  Bottom line, pet parents WANT options,...
Be the one to give them what they want,...  with this, you and your organization will truly have the "vision" of what a pet death care SERVICE operation looks like.

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Work Hard for Your Families

Your families and veterinary partners deserve fabulous service!

While daily business practices will see challenges, these challenges can be met and dealt with successfully by keeping in mind the most infamous radio station, WII - FM.  "What's In It For Me."  
As a business, it's our job to understand what's important to all of those different types of people our organization will touch.  From veterinarians to families experiencing the loss of a pet, successfully overcoming these challenges and barriers by knowing what each type of person needs will bring the business relationship to a place of common ground.  
When we as business proprietors understand what's important to each unique person/other business/other owners - we will then be poised to fill the needs that they will have - thus moving everyone to a point of being satisfied and fulfilled.  From there - we have "opportunities" to serve both of these groups in an even larger fashion.

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Pet Parents Will Want You to Do What You Say

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold -- but so does a hard-boiled egg.
-- Anonymous


Pet Parents deserve service - and that's what they will expect of you in your pet death care business.  If you "intend" for your business to look like a pet funeral home - but you are operating like merely a pet crematory or pet cemetery - remember, there are other services that people will REALLY remember you by when they tell their friends about you and how you helped them through a difficult time.  Live by what you say you are going to do,... At the end of an experience like losing a pet, a family will want to know that it was you who provided the caring services that gave them the strength for their grief journey.  

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