We recently joined Varnit on the Pet Brand Podcast to talk about building Petboost, what we learned from spending time inside real pet businesses, and why small operators in the pet industry have more going for them than they probably realise.
Varnit interviews founders and CEOs building real pet businesses, and his questions cut straight to the strategy, systems, and decisions that actually drive growth. It was a great conversation.
Here are 7 lessons from the episode that every pet business owner should hear.
1. Talk to Your Customers Before You Build Anything
Before Petboost existed as a product, it existed as a question: what do pet businesses actually need?
Back in 2018, we helped start a pet business doing hydrotherapy and dog daycare. We quickly realised there was great software for massive kennel operations and great software for human service businesses like hair salons and personal training. But nothing built specifically for small pet businesses.
So we did what any good design process demands. We went and talked to people.
"We went and spent some time just before COVID lockdowns, going and hanging out in a grooming salon for a day, doing a ride along with a dog walker in their van with all the dogs and just seeing how it all plays out."
We gave them a gift card for their time and just watched. We asked questions. We were flies on the wall.
What we found was consistent. Groomers, walkers, trainers, daycare operators: they were all using Google Calendar, Google Sheets, or human-focused booking tools like Acuity and Setmore. Nobody had a pet-specific system on their phone. Nobody had something designed for the way their day actually worked.
That research shaped everything. If we had skipped it and just built what we assumed people needed, Petboost would not exist today. The lesson is simple: ask before you assume. Whether you are building software or running a grooming salon, your customers will tell you what they need if you ask the right questions.
2. Solve One Problem at a Time
One of the most common questions we get is how Petboost works for groomers, daycares, walkers, trainers, and boarders without becoming bloated and complicated.
The answer is that we never tried to make it work for everyone at once.
"It was picking one problem at a time over a very drawn out period of time. We've just built one piece of our product at a time just for that part of the industry."
Our first customers were dog trainers teaching puppy school. That was the first problem we solved. Group classes versus private appointments. Totally different to grooming. Totally different to daycare.
Then we spoke to groomers and built the grooming experience. Then daycare. Then walking. Then boarding. Each module was designed from scratch for that specific part of the industry, not retrofitted from something else.
The result is that a dog walker using Petboost does not see kennel management features cluttering up their screen. A grooming salon does not get force-fed daycare capacity tools. But a business that does grooming and walking side by side gets both, working together, in the same system.
This is the approach we took on the podcast episode we did with Chenelle from the Pet Industry Mentor podcast too. Every pet business is different. The worst thing you can do is try to fit a square peg in a round hole.
If you run a pet business and you are evaluating software, ask whether it was designed for your specific service type. Or whether it was designed for something else and stretched to sort of fit yours.
3. Grow Slowly on Purpose
This one goes against every startup playbook you have ever read. But it is the truth.
We kept Petboost in closed beta with only about 20 businesses for a long time. We did not advertise. We did not push for growth. We rebuilt the entire product from the ground up about two years ago, and only started marketing seriously in the last six to nine months.
"Growing slowly is in our best interest and in our customers' best interest too."
Why? Because when you grow too quickly, you cannot give every customer the service they deserve. You end up with a two-tier system where the big spenders get attention and everyone else gets left behind.
Right now, every Petboost customer gets a response time of 20 minutes to a few hours. That is only possible because we took the time to get things right before opening the floodgates.
We are also only available in Australia right now. Not because we do not want to help businesses in other countries, but because we want to nail the experience for one market first.
For pet business owners, this lesson applies directly. It is tempting to say yes to every client, take on more dogs than you can handle, or expand into new services before you have the systems to support them. But growing too fast without the right foundations is how you end up burnt out, delivering inconsistent service, and losing the reputation you worked hard to build.
Grow, absolutely. But grow on purpose.
4. Give People Clear Options, Not Too Many
We talked about pricing on the podcast, and the biggest mistake we made was trying to fit everyone into a single plan.
"Our first pricing model was: you sign up, this is the only option, take it or leave it."
That did not work. We discovered a whole category of businesses that just wanted a simple pet-friendly calendar. They did not need online bookings, payments, or SMS reminders. They just wanted to manage their schedule internally.
So we listened and created a plan called Calendar Light at $18 a month. It exists because our customers told us they needed it. Not because we guessed.
On the other side, we have seen competitors in the software industry offer too many add-ons, too many tiers, too many things to choose from. Pet business owners are busy, physical people. They do not want to sit and compare feature matrices. They want relevant options presented simply.
The sweet spot is giving people enough choice to find the right fit, without so many options that they close the tab.
If you run a pet business, the same principle applies to your own pricing. Do your clients know exactly what they are paying for? Are your packages clear and simple? Or do people have to ask you to explain the difference between six confusing options? Simplicity builds trust. Complexity creates doubt.
5. Replace the Boring Stuff That Adds Up
When we talk about saving pet businesses 20+ hours a week, people sometimes think we are exaggerating. We are not.
During our research days, sitting in grooming salons and riding along in dog walking vans, we watched business owners constantly texting. We asked what they were texting about.
"Quite often it was chasing people for payments, it was moving appointments around, it was checking the Google Calendar for overbookings, it was reminding people they had an appointment tomorrow."
None of those tasks feel like a lot individually. A quick text here. A two-minute phone call there. But add them up. If you get 10 phone calls a day that go for five minutes each, that is close to an hour gone. Over a week, those little tasks absolutely stack past 20 hours.
And it gets worse. The phone rings in a grooming salon and nobody can answer because they are mid-groom. That is a missed booking. A missed sale. The pet owner calls the next groomer on their list and books with them instead.
This is where self-service booking changes everything. When a pet owner can book, pay, and get confirmed in 30 seconds from their phone, you do not need to answer that call. The booking lands in your calendar while you are focused on the dog in front of you.
It is not about replacing human interaction. It is about replacing the boring, repetitive admin that nobody enjoys. Sitting down on a Sunday night to send out invoices. Chasing people for money. Correcting double bookings. All of it can go away.
So your team can spend time actually caring for animals, talking to clients who need real conversations, and growing the business instead of drowning in admin.
6. Make Payments Invisible
Payments came up naturally in the conversation because they are the lifeblood of every pet business. And yet, so many businesses make the payment experience harder than it needs to be.
"We'll have businesses that come to us who have clients owing them money from months ago and they have invoices that they haven't sent out yet."
Think about what that means. You have already done the work. The dog has been groomed, walked, or cared for. But you have not been paid because sending the invoice felt like too much effort, or chasing the money felt awkward.
With Petboost, those businesses can update the payment and send the customer a text with a pay link. The client taps it, pays, and it is done. No logging into banking apps. No typing in BSB and account numbers. No "I'll pay you next time." The money hits the business account the next day.
This matters for both sides. The business owner does not have to feel weird about chasing money. The pet owner does not have to remember to pay or feel guilty about forgetting. It just happens as part of the booking flow.
For businesses still collecting payments manually, this is one of the simplest changes you can make that has an immediate impact on cash flow. When paying you is effortless, people pay you on time. When it requires effort, they procrastinate. It is human nature.
Automated payments remove the friction entirely. Card on file, pay at booking, or pay via a text link after the service. However your business works, the money should never be something you have to chase.
7. Be Cautious With AI (The Pet Industry Demands Trust)
We talked about where pet service technology is heading, and the honest answer is that AI is coming, but it needs to be handled carefully.
"The pet industry is actually quite complex. Pet owners are very particular about how they want their pets cared for. Small business owners are very protective of their business. The client relationships are the lifeblood of their business."
We have watched businesses pop up trying to build AI voice assistants for pet bookings. Call a phone number, speak to a fake AI person, book in your dog. It sounds clever. But the tech is not there yet for an industry this nuanced. And most of those businesses disappear within weeks.
The reality is that booking a dog groom is not like booking a table at a restaurant. There are breed-specific requirements, temperament notes, medications, allergies, weight limits, grooming styles from last time, and individual rules that every business owner has built up over years of experience. Getting any of that wrong has real consequences for living animals.
What we will probably see first is not voice AI answering phones, but something more like a ChatGPT experience inside the software itself. Instead of clicking through menus to update your pricing, you just type "update my grooming prices" and it happens. That is a more natural entry point for AI in pet software, and it is less risky than handing over client-facing conversations to a machine.
For pet business owners, the takeaway is simple: do not feel pressured to adopt AI tools just because everyone is talking about them. If a tool helps you run your business more efficiently without putting your client relationships at risk, great. But if it introduces friction, makes mistakes with pet details, or feels impersonal to your clients, it is not ready.
Trust is everything in this industry. Protect it.
The Unfair Advantage You Already Have
We closed the podcast with something worth repeating. Small pet businesses have an unfair advantage that big corporations cannot replicate.
The pet services industry, at least in Australia, has not been rolled up by chains the way it has in America. It is dominated by people who own one location or one van. And that is a strength, not a weakness.
You know your clients by name. You know their dogs. You remember that Bella does not like her ears touched and that Max needs his nails done every six weeks. You build relationships that no chain can replicate at scale.
If you pair that personal touch with proper systems, you become unstoppable. A full diary because clients can book themselves. Predictable cash flow because payments are automated. Professional credibility because your clients receive confirmations, reminders, and clean invoices. And your evenings back because the admin is handled.
Here is what that looks like when it all comes together:
- Your diary fills itself. Pet owners book online, 24/7, without needing to call or text you. You wake up to new bookings that landed overnight.
- Your cash flow is predictable. Payments are collected at the time of booking. Prepaid packages mean revenue hits your account before the service even happens. No more chasing. No more awkward reminders.
- Multi-service businesses run from one system. Whether you do grooming, walking, daycare, training, or all of the above, everything lives in one place. Your team sees what they need on their phone. Your clients book any service in one flow.
- The first few weeks are tough, but it gets better fast. Transitioning from pen and paper or another system is a big adjustment. We are honest about that. The first four to six weeks are uncomfortable. But we guide every business through it, and the other side is worth it.
- Your clients' lives are easier. Booking you is a 30-second task from their phone. No phone tag. No texts back and forth. Their chore is done and their pet is sorted.
- Your evenings are yours again. The system handles the housekeeping. You do the work you actually started this business for.
If you want to hear the full conversation, look for the Pet Brand Podcast with Varnit wherever you listen to podcasts.
And if you are ready to explore what a proper system looks like, book a free demo or start with our free checklist and go from there.
