Pet Franchise

Counterfeiters: No Bark and All Bite

Owning a shop is a blessing. As a leader in the community, you get the chance to help serve your customers and their dogs in a loving way as part of the local marketplace.

However, as shop owners know, it is all not all a day at the dog park. A few days ago, counterfeiting was brought to the attention of the Corporate Office by one our shop locations.

 

Fake currency being exchanged into the retail shops is a continuing crime and with software and tech developments it is getting increasingly harder to catch. Around $261 million is estimated to be in circulation in the U.S. meaning $3 fakes for every ten thousand real ones.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique is awarded for our exemplary service and the prestige extends from our amazing shop owners. So many of you are wondering, how do I protect myself and my staff from counterfeiters without making my customers uncomfortable?

 

Follow these three steps to help ensure all your cash flow bills are authentic.

 

  1. Use a Counterfeit Detector Pen

 

It used to be that counterfeit bills were made of expensive inks and papers to try and exactly duplicate real federal notes. Now, because currency has become so much harder to copy, most counterfeiters are trying to create a passable reproduction of a bill, not an exact copy.

Counterfeit detector pens have an iodine solution that will smear a fake bill. The solution reacts with the starch in a wood-based paper that fraudulent bills are printed on. Real federal reserve notes are printed on fiber-based paper and will have no discoloration when swiped.

 

These pens are available at Wal-Mart, Office Depot, and online and usually less than $10.

 

  1. Get a System and Stick to it

 

Depending on the how much cash flow your shop receives, you will want to formulate a system based on this.

Corporate suggests using the pen on all $50 & $100 bills, and if you or staff feel an unusual texture in any smaller bill, go ahead and swipe it just to play it safe.

 

  1. Train Your Staff

 

Show all staff that handles currency exchange how, and when, to use the pen. Not only should staff be trained on how to use the pen, but also how to exercise discretion.

It is not rude to check for counterfeiters. But when cashiers at the grocery store hold 20 dollar bills up to the light, checking for authenticity, it can turn some people off. Understandable.

When checking for counterfeits show staff how to do quickly and politely without disrupting the flow of a transaction.

 

If you or staff have any questions please do not hesitate to contact corporate for assistance.

How LinkedIn Can Help Your Business

Splash and Dash’s Story of Opening and the Ways We Use and Will Continue to Use LinkedIn to Better our Business

Company Values and Culture

Dan J. Barton is the founder of Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique–a pet franchise with big-box store capabilities like recurring revenue streams, innovating terminal software, but will always keep the mom and pop feeling by treating customers and their pets with dignity, love, and respect.

Our motto is, “Play Dirty. Live Clean.” We do this by providing monthly memberships for our customers. Our members can bring in their dog whenever they’re dirty for a pampering splash with our bathers and groomers, then can dash out happy and smelling great. We love it. Animals love it. Members love it.

LinkedIn

Objectives

  • Maintain a social media presence that operates on professionalism.
  • Find metrics of target audience to find mutually suitable candidates as shop owners.
  • Partner and foster business relationships with others in the pet industry.

Solutions

  • Develop LinkedIn network and share content.
  • Use Sales Navigator to focus efforts.

The Value of LinkedIn

  • Yielded more favorable marketing results.
  • Sales Navigator expedites sale targets.
  • Cost effective and takes minimal training.

Our Founding Story

Dan worked for 7 years with a gym franchise, and did so well, they asked him to come on as a CFO. The now, pet coach, ended up owning five different gym locations. Things were great.

Then, something changed.

Dan met a Yorkshire Terrier that would change his life, a Yorkie named Mercedes. The two grew inseparable and Dan found a new passion in his life–pampering and spoiling his dog. When Dan took Mercedes to big-name pet groomers, it just felt too industrial. It’s hard to drop the dog you love off with a stranger with a bad attitude and charges a bundle.

A vision formed in the pet parent’s mind. What if he could make his own company that brought the love, compassion, and pampering he gave his own dog, and turn this into a business?

Splash and Dash was born.

The business model provides a place where pet parents who want to treat their pets in a lap of luxury over the indifferent groomers at big-box locations can bring their pets, where they know trustworthy and loving people will be attending to their dog.

Dan implemented the business ideas learned in the gym franchise realm, and designed an innovative groomerie that is loving to animals, creates jobs, and helps inform customers on conscious healthy decisions for their pets.

“I look at their dogs as their children, their babies. I will give them the same type of care that I give my baby,” says shop owner Beverly-Jones Murphy in McKinney, Texas.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique expanded quickly and opened numerous locations across the states, and even a location in Australia. The company made the INC. 500 list three years in a row, and everyone is loving the unique services and products that Splash and Dash provides

At the corporate offices, every day was spent maintaining a quickly expanding pet franchise.  Since many of the shop owners were new to owning their own small business, training became the top priority.

The company is devoted to ensuring franchise owners’ success.

The Value of LinkedIn and the Sales Navigator

This is when LinkedIn became a crucial part of the company’s business plan. The company needed a social media platform where shared content was viewed under a more professional lens than other social media sites. LinkedIn was the answer.

Splash and Dash began sharing blog articles on just about every topic a pet owner, or shop owner could ever want to know about. They loved the results they were getting from LinkedIn so much, they decided to invest in LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator package.

“The Sales Navigator helps us build professional relationships with those who might be interested in us,” Dan says. “I can share valuable information, and receive awesome insights every day. But I think most importantly it helps us, and others in the pet industry, be representatives of our passion.”

The company is planning on some major overhauls that include LinkedIn Sales Navigator as the forefront marketing tool in the New Year.

“LinkedIn is like the gift that keeps on giving. An initial investment goes a long way. You end up having this snowball effect for your business. The longer you work with it, the bigger it gets,” says Dan.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique applauds innovation and ways for small philanthropist business owners to get an edge over big-box stores, just like Splash and Dash did.

“We recommend it to our shop owners and anyone really who wants to capitalize on the brave new world of technology and social selling,” says Dan.