Bella In Your Business: Pet Industry Business Podcast

Beth Green from Paws Pet Care in Louisville KY shares with us her lawyers interpretation of her pet sitting business with Independent Contractors. Listen in as she shares with Bella about the flow of the money, the suggested guidelines, the question about which is the right way to go.

This episode is great for those pet sitters who have Independent Contractors. Beth is an incredible role model who demonstrates all the proper care and thought that it takes to run the business the correct way. I applaud her self reflection to constantly be checking if her business lines up to her personal needs and desires. I admire the way Beth doesn’t just follow the masses and really investigates the law, the risk, and the control in which she desires in her business.
Listen in to these bullet points:
In June, the Feds came out that they are putting more money in the budget to audits. Beth wanted to get confirmation from her lawyer that she was still doing everything right. What I loved about what she did was that she sent her lawyer EVERYTHING she had. She paid a retainer. Beth’s lawyer took 4 weeks to review Beth’s info and research the industry!
This is such a huge point because she didn’t run in for a “free consultation” and tried to jam everything into 30 or 60 minutes.
Link to the audits. https://jumpconsulting.net/2014/05/12/recap-learned-pet-sitting-audit-case-studies/
Your decision to have IC’s will depend on your comfort level of risk. How much risk do you want to take? Beth’s lawyer wrote this in her three page recap she got in return of her research. 
We talk about operations. How the assignments are accepted flows. Contractors decide when they work.
A very good point here is showing that those who like to TELL people when to work, shouldn’t have ICs. 
Beth talks about the GPS feature and if she uses it or not.  
We discussed what supplies supplies she could supply.
We talked about how she uses her CMS, Leashtime, to assists in ICs 

“Do not buy your contracts online” -Beth

We talk about one thing that businesses shouldn’t have on their ICs contracts
There is just so much great information in this podcast and well worth your listen.
If you listen to this and decide that it is time to switch from ICs to Employees, check out the industries largest resource on employees. Learn about the pricing structure, employee manuals, interviewing, hiring, and becoming a manger. 
Employee’s are the easier way to go. -Beth
The very last major point that we talked about was workmans compensation. Her lawyer says workmans compensation would be great to have for her ICs. It was because of our industry and bites happen. So then she went to her insurance broker and he told her NO. He suggested she goes to the State and check with the NCCI to get the document for them to exempt themselves. It can’t be copied, etc. It was a really important point. Here is the answer that I mentioned that my insurance broker wrote about businesses having workmans compensation on independent contractors.
All in all, I think they biggest take away from this interview is that a business owner MUST do their homework. They MUST have a team of professionals around them that they can have open and honest discussions.