Geezers Out There Hustling for a Buck

This is a new series for geezers who want to keep working presented by a geezer [62 years old and not getting any younger] who hustles for a buck in all sorts of marketing communications as well as executive ghostwriting and speechwriting.

Today's focus in how to make money in the exploding pet industry, either as an employee or by owning our own businesses.

Pets are family.  In fact, on my legal blog I am going to argue that the IRS should give us deductions for medical care for our pet companions.  After all, research shows that having a pet keeps us healthy and living longer.

According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, 71.1 million homes have pets and this year we will probably spend $43.4 billion on them.  The category of expenditure which is growing fast is that of premium products and services.  So, that's where we can make money as well as have a ball earning it.  I have worked in animal care and rescue both for money and as a volunteer.  When I hire pet caretakers for my little ones, they are usually older people in the neighborhood.

How can you break in?  The easiest way is to learn on the company.  That is, go work in a pet store, for a vet, a dog-walking service, doggy daycare, a service that tends to pets during vacations, transportation for pets to the vet, and so on. That will help you figure out fast what aspect of this you want to get into.

Another way in is through learning a new skill such as grooming.  Every community has a school that provides that training or you can apprentice with a groomer.  The money in that is to add convenience to the service in the form of a van that goes to people's homes to groom or a service which provides pick-up and delivery. 

A third way is just to hang up a shingle.  You can get references, say in dog sitting or caring for animals in your home when their owners are vacationing, by volunteering to do this for free.  Whenever I want to enter a new aspect of marketing communications, I knock on doors offering my services for free.  Within weeks, I know what I'm doing, have references, and can figure out what to charge.  How you figure out how you should be pricing your services, call around and ask.  You can do that in the form of approaching them as a potential customer.

The best bet on your own business is to structure it so that you're providing a niche service or product that doesn't have much competition. 

For example, you might consider creating a memorial service for those who lost a pet.  This would be a total package, with music, requesting ahead for people to bear witness to the life of the animal companion, keepsakes, and photos or videos.

Another suggestion is a niche product such as cool clothes, especially holiday attire, for pets and matching somethings for their owners too.  There are also e-greeting cards for pets, their owners and for both to transmit to other pets and owners.  Get the hang of it?  Eventually you might rent space to sell unusual pet gifts for new owners, to give new owners, and help with pet mourning. 

What else do you have to know? 

Well, so much of success in hustling is how we present ourselves.  Here you can download my free book on boosting our emotional intelligence on the job and in our own businesses. Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.pdf

The next imperative is how to put it out there that we want to work.  For jobs, we can answer want-ads, knock on doors, cold call, and start word-of-mouth pitching ourselves.

For launching our own business, we gotta promote that product or service.  The easiest way is word-of-mouth.  Tell the biggest talkers in all our groups, be it church or the condo board, that we are running this business and it's proving to be more successful than our wildest dreams. 

We can launch a blog on typepad.com for five bucks a month dedicated solely to the particular niche in pets that we're selling.  More and more of my business is coming from the Internet. 

We can also print up flyers on our computer and ask the powers-that-be in pet stores, vets, post offices, and condo complexes if we can tack them up.  We might have a sign about our business painted on our car.   

When the business gets rolling, we can contact local media for them to do a feature on geezers at work.  When we really hit it big, then we can start a new profit center as a motivational speaking to other geezers who want to keep working.

Getting work is part attitude - we gotta communicate we love what we will be doing - and part the law of demand.  We could be selling brilliantly but if what we're pitching has no demand we're not going to earn anything.  Demand is more important than selling skills.  Therefore: Find the right niche and then pull out all stops climbing the ladder in that industry or running our own enterprises in it.