What Kind of Leader are You? Thermometer or Thermostat?

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There are visible patterns that emerge in leadership. Within the pet franchise and beyond there seems to be an observable dichotomy forming between thermostat leaders and thermometer leaders. Which one are you?

 

This question has been relevant since it was first posed to me by a business colleague. Let’s break down the metaphor.

 

A thermometer reflects the temperature of the environment. The instruments simple job is to tell what is happening around you. If the temperature if hot, this is it’s report. If the temperature is cold the same information is presented. In a new era of IoT (Internet of Things) technology becoming more prevalent, a thermometer is a seemingly dumb instrument. The thermometer doesn’t contain intelligent and multi-functional uses; it only serves one purpose.

 

On the other side of the spectrum, there is the thermostat. This instrument regulates the temperature and adjusts accordingly. The desired temperature is set, and a thermostat will monitor the ambient air temperature and make adjustments with the desired range. The instrument calls on other instruments—the air conditioner—to heat and cool as needed. The thermostat is intelligent and it’s role is to correct situations as needed.

How Can One Apply this to leadership in the Pet Franchise?

 

Assuming the role of leadership in a pet franchise is a calling: to be a leader in the community, to educate your customers, to oversee the health of hundreds of animals, and to coach a team that is conducive to all of this.

 

A thermometer leader will buckle under the pressure. When tensions are high, the stress of owning a small business in the pet franchise takes its inevitable toll, a thermometer leader will lash out. They will mirror their environment—loose their cool. They will shout, curse, become demanding, critical, and overly harsh without providing the right coaching to rectify the situation.

 

Thermometer leadership does not establish the trust and credibility needed to build a lasting business relationship—it makes it caustic.

 

A suitable owner of a pet franchise should fall much more toward the thermostat leadership style.

 

A thermostat leader has a constant gauge of the morale, productivity, stress level, and environmental conditions of their pet franchise shop. When morale lowers, a thermostat leader listens. What are the concerns? The scarcity of resources? Deadlines? Workload? They discern the problems, set goals, and work with their staff to systematize a way for things to become more productive, manage workloads, and manage realistic goals for deadlines.

 

The first step is having active conversations. Listening to the concerns of your employees and streamlining this into practical steps for the pet franchise to improve. Regulating the environment through support and by providing some jovial fun during the opportune times when pressure surmounts.

Why is Thermostat Leadership so Important to Owners in the Pet Franchise?

 

The pet franchise takes a huge amount of diligence. Pet franchise owners are not only responsible for maintaining retail sales numbers, but they are also the face of their shop. The responsibility for hundreds of their loyal customer’s animals rests on them. There is a constant state of adjustment.

 

The calming influence of a thermostat leader is the drive of the shop.

 

When things slow down, thermostat leaders refocus their teams on the vision, purpose, and goals. Regulating the environment requires vigilance over passive reflection like a thermometer leadership style. Active monitoring leaders know when to challenge their employees, how to motivate them constructively. We could all use a friendly kick in the butt and a thermometer leader knows how to administer this in a calm effective way.

 

A pet franchise should run with a sense or urgency, priorities recognized, and current initiatives are completed swiftly. Sternness alone cannot get this done, especially in a pet franchise where employees are dealing with animals and need to have a loving focus. When things slow down, adjustments are made. When things pick up, thermostat leaders give the guidances, support, and resources to support the workload. Balance.

 

Trust is Key

 

Thermostat leadership supervises on a basis of trust and builds their staff up. This is key for a pet franchise where the ultimate goal is self-sufficiency. When the heat is on a thermostat leader comes in a cools everything down with calming leadership that is determined and positively motivates. No one wants a boss to come in when the shop is busy and immediately start yelling and pointing fingers of blame.

 

Thermostat leadership calmly makes adjustments and instills confidence in their staff.

 

Empathy.

 

Thermostat leaders are attuned to their environment to the point where they can truly empathize with their employees. They know the stress, challenges, and hardships their staff has on their shoulders and can take the time to alleviate these difficulties into a constructive business model.

 

When employees trust you, this makes the job incredibly easier. Store morale will be higher. Productivity will be less strained. Work ethic becomes not a burden but a welcomed responsibility.

 

The pet franchise thrives on thermostat leaders. Now, ask yourself which one are you? A thermostat or a thermometer?  

 

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Retail Slow Season Provides 5 Ways to Grow Business

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One reason investors choose to go with a pet retail franchise is because shops are not limited to seasonality. Meaning that yes, there is a spike in retail sales during the holiday season, but sales remain constant for pet retailers throughout the year. Christmas might be over, but Fido still needs his haircut and kibbles.

Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique shops also offer the convenient unlimited monthly membership which is beneficial for customers and creates recurring revenue for shop owners.

Although pet retail franchises are not reliant on seasons, there can still be a lag in sales figures during January and February. This is inevitable for retails across sectors. The key is to use the post-holiday slowness to your advantage.

This article outlines 5 ways to bolster your shops aggregate gain when customer traffic is not high in your shop.

Plan for the Summer

Align your marketing efforts with summer trends for pet owners. Your inventory should reflect your marketing efforts and now is a good time to make some preemptive adjustments. Summer traveling products for pet parents, and summer coat styling, are examples of trends affecting the pet retail franchise.

What products will sell best in the next following months as temperatures rise?

This is also a good time to think about re-merchandising your store. Holiday merchandising is devoted to Christmas and creating a warming ambiance; in contrast, your store merchandising should be “cooling” during the summer.

E.g artwork showcasing dogs playing in water.

Focus on Expansion

Complacency on slow sales figures and clientele rates will only draw out shop slow periods. Each Splash and Dash shop business model is designed to offset gaps in shop income, but shop owners can profit during these times through expansion.

Don’t use recurring revenue as a crutch; use it as a catalyst.

Promote your business with data collected during the holidays. Target new and prospect customers collected from holiday marketing. Use this as a source to grow your customer base.

Liquidate any surplus inventory. This frees up precious retail space for back-to-school and summer oriented products. The pet retail franchise can grow in both services and product sales simultaneously.

Refine Your Social Media

Social content marketing requires fluidity.

Constantly re-evaluating your approaches and strategies by using social media for advertisement is key. The busyness of the holidays most likely developed your Yelp reviews and drove more customers to “friend” your shop’s Facebook page. Take the time to evaluate these.

What needs to be improved? What is working?

Even if there is less traffic within a shop, this doesn’t mean that internet traffic has died down. By maintaining your social media platform you can ensure that your shop is always an overtone with your customer base.

Host Events or a Pop-Up Sale

Rescue events or other charitable events hosted by your shop are a win-win. Animals win by getting a chance for a loving home, and you win by promoting your business with a philanthropist agenda.

Pop-up sales are also a good way to get more customers into the shop. “Random” sales concentrate customer attention. Customers begin to continually check in to ensure they don’t miss out on a sale. It gives the sale a sense of urgency.

If you decide to host an event or pop-up sales make an event on your Facebook page and Yelp.

Follow up on Referral Programs

Your current customer base is one of the best sources to garner new clientele.

Built-in holiday referral programs are often forgotten by customers. Remind them. Sometimes a customer could have promotional coupons and points and not even remember to use them. This will encourage sales while promoting your shop.

Referral programs gain new clients and reward your current customers for their loyalty.

Slow the Roll

There is a natural slow period that takes place after the holidays affecting every sector. This is the ebb and flow of the marketplace but can be alarming for first-time small business owners.

Pet retail franchise shops will veer from the holiday madness back to a steady drift of customers before picking back up again in the summer.

The trick is to use this slowness as an advantageous time, not one of discouragement.

 

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