2021 was an interesting year for everyone in the pet dog training industry. Seriously. The pet dog industry exploded with massive growth and opportunities for those who survived 2020. 2022 is setting up to be, well, extra interesting for sure based on our forecasts and data here in good ol' dog biz school. More to come on that in January. 

2021 was a massive level up for Dog Biz School. Massive. 

Now that we're sitting down as a team reviewing everything in our year-end summary, we're a bit blown away. Not to mention, proud as FUCK as the leading business coaching company for dog trainers and business coaching for pet industry entrepreneurs. 

In complete transparency, we're sharing these accomplishments not as a "flex" but as a dog business coaching company. As many dog business/pet business coaches are popping up almost every day, you, as a dog trainer, pet professional, deserve to view what the inner workings of a long-standing and successful dog business coaching company looks like.

Our Revenue:

We increased our revenue growth by 45%. I'm beyond proud of that increase as a company. During our 2021 planning in December of last year with the Dog Biz School, our goal was a 25% increase in total cash flow/revenue. When CEO & Founder Maggie and I sat reviewed the numbers a few weeks ago, we about fell out of our chair. Beyond proud of our team for this accomplishment.:

Our next goal is to move into the multiple 7-figure mark. When we speak about the revenue goal, we're talking about actual CASH in the bank, not in contracts or total sales because that's what counts -not invisible numbers. 

Our Team:

Our small but mighty team grew from three full-time employees to nine. In late 2019-2020, Maggie and I knew we were working ourselves to legit unwellness (truth is we're both still recovering from this as it takes time). The multiple distractions, the late nights, the weekends had been costing us millions in revenue. I clearly remember having a full-on breakdown that morning in November 2020, and we both made a pact to change this. 

Throughout 2021, we hired:

• Sales Director & Sales Trainer

• Dog Trainer Coach

• Creative Director & Graphic Artist

• Client Success & Operations Manager

• Finance Manager

• Client Support & Concierge Associate

• Copywriter

These team members have been critical to Dog Biz School's success and growth this year. And the thing we love the most - being able to provide jobs and growth. PS: coming soon, we'll be looking for a pet business coach to join our team in Jan 2022. 

We've also added to our network for Dog Professionals, a real estate agent that deals with strictly dog training facilities, a legal team that works with dog business entrepreneurs, a mediator that deals with sales of pet businesses.

Our Programs:

We developed three new courses in Dog Biz School for our Dog Biz School level students. Including website development for dog trainers, an updated relaunch of Dog Business Evolution for the modern dog trainer and pet-industry entrepreneur, and Dog Biz School 2.0 - 2021 edition included advanced level digital marketing for dog trainers and pet industry entrepreneurs. We also brought back VIP Level Coaching with our leadership team.

Along with this, we also added done for you services for Dog Trainers: Complete website design/SEO services, done for you lead generation/digital marketing for pet dog trainers, 365 branding services, content development/creation, in-house facility management services, sales teams, pretty much whatever Jesus-Take-The-Wheel as needed. 

We've also gotten back into the corporate consulting side of the pet industry. We've helped our corporate partners develop their offers for the dog owner market. 

Our Clients:

We served over clients in 2021 through our Dog Biz School Program, our In-Person Dog Business Accelerators, our VIP program, Dog Biz Strategy Sessions, along with special projects including sales of dog businesses and mergers/acquisitions. 

We've managed more than 500k in digital marketing ad portfolio spend for our Dog Trainer clients, resulting in successfully generating 10k + leads for our clients. In real terms, we helped our dog trainer clients get 10k + (dog owners) leads for their dog training businesses. 

Our Dog Biz School students and clients in 2021 have also generated over 15 million dollars back into their dog training businesses by using our systems and processes.  

Five students have transitioned from Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Services into full-time Dog Trainers (ditching the dog walking/petsitting/pack-hiking biz). This is a NO-EASY feat, by the way.

Some of the most notable accomplishments from our students and clients:

Grew her income 1000% - from 25k to 250k:

Grew his income from 85k to 250k while working less:

She left her job in education to become a full-time trainer:

Went from $5,600 in 2020 to $50k plus in 2021:

She grew from 75k to 185k - without employees or a facility:

We've also had most of our clients minimally double or triple their income. 

What We've Learned:

With growth, there will always be learning lessons and growing pains. Over the last year, we had to make more complicated decisions with our team and clients. We learned what makes a solid and robust team for Dog Biz School and what true leadership looks like when managing an organization. We also learned what doesn't work for us, which is never easy.  

We thought boundaries and lessons were a thing of 2020, but 2021 brought similar lessons and patterns. However, this year we had zero tolerance and even more rigid boundaries regarding holding ourselves and the people we work with at a higher standard. We took no bullshit this year from anyone, including people paying us money. We terminated eight clients for inappropriate behavior, made numerous decisions not to work with certain dog trainers in the industry for their actions, de-platformed a few from our content as well. We also pissed plenty of people off over 2021 by calling out bullshit, sexual harassment, unethical behavior, etc. 

We also officially dropped planning anything and learned to go with the flow. We had to pivot every time we tried to organize and plan events, open enrollments, live semesters, travel, or even meetings. Giving up control was a significant theme of 2021. 

Both Maggie and I learned we need to take better care of ourselves. Both of us had several health issues, so the forefront of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being is on the agenda. 

2022 For Dog Biz School:

More systemizing and organizing on how we operate and serve our clients. We also plan on growing our team headcount by at least two more full-time employees. We have other interests and areas in which we, the leadership team, want to invest. We also want to provide more workshops/events to the dog training/pet biz industry in business education, along with a revamped version of the Mind Your Own Dog Biz Podcast. 

Other than that, I can't say much... because, fuck plans. 

Cheers to 2022 bitches! 🥂