[Jeff Kolanski]

Well, I have been laid off of my carpentry job now for eleven months, time for a career change, and something that I truly love and enjoy doing this time around (unlike carpentry!) I have taken the plunge and am starting a small kennel business; boarding, pet obedience, and my biggest goal, training the hunting retriever! Honestly, I am scared to death but I need to start doing something. I did the website myself even though I have no experience doing this, but I figured that it was a good place to start. I'll probably hire one of our computer guys at Land of Lakes HRC to redo it for me, at the very least, a nice logo, within the next couple of months. Check the site out and give me your advice and honest thoughts, even criticism please. I learn well from criticism. Thanks for everybody's help and advice in advance, I appreciate everyone's time. www.WaterfowlLabs.com

 

[moonstonelabs]

CONGRATULATIONS...It's a great start, Jeff! Time to love and enjoy your work...Moonstone has been a dream come true for me.

Sarita

 

[K.Bolan]

Nice site. Did you do it yourself?

 

[Jeff Kolanski]

Nice site. Did you do it yourself?

Thanks! Yeah, I did do it myself and that is why there are no nice logo's yet because I have no idea how to do them. I did it all on iWeb which is software that came with our Mac. It took me many hours in front of the computer because I had to keep researching how to do even the basic stuff, but I think that it is a good place to start. Now I think I should hire one of our computer guys in the retriever club to at least put a logo on the site, maybe even redo the whole thing to make it look more professional.

 

[Randy Bohn]

Jeff, to start out on your new business are you trying to get boarding business or hunting business? Demographically if your in the right area for a boarding kennel build a nice boarding area for peoples pets and they will come to you. If your bread and butter is the pet industry and hunting to start will be secondary business build a more friendly website so people don't see all the kill photos first. Randy

 

[ErinsEdge]

For your pedigrees I would use a program such as SitStay.com to separate the names and put them in pedigree form. You can do the pedigree and then cut and paste to the website.

 

[Mike Tome]

Jeff, good luck with the new vocation and good start on the website. I'd recommend a couple of things...

The pedigree page is way too confusing. Just looks like a list of dog names.

For around here.. your prices are way cheap!! Have you looked at competitor's prices and set yours accordingly?

You need some pictures of your kennel setup. If I was looking for a kennel just for boarding, that's the first thing I would want to see... not pictures of hunting.

Good luck!!

 

[Vance Ertel]

The site looks really good.

I didn't go through the entire site, but on the boarding page I would switch the layout of the content. I would list the services provided then all the standard kennel restrictions and legal stuff. I would also base the price of the service in the same unit as the product... boarding days, basic in weeks, and started and seasoned in months. The thing about the $30 for travel expense for specific food is a turn off to me (though it may be standard).

 

[Jeff Kolanski]

The site looks really good.

I didn't go through the entire site, but on the boarding page I would switch the layout of the content. I would list the services provided then all the standard kennel restrictions and legal stuff. I would also base the price of the service in the same unit as the product... boarding days, basic in weeks, and started and seasoned in months. The thing about the $30 for travel expense for specific food is a turn off to me (though it may be standard).

I like your suggestion regarding flipping the content around on the services page, thanks for your idea!! I have seen several established pros in the state charge for travel expenses for a "specific food" that a client may want and I think that it makes sense. Round trip to the pet store for me would be approximately a little over an hour. Now this is time that I could be spending training other client dogs. Now, if there was a pet store on my way to and from the training grounds that I use, that would be different and I would definitely reconsider a travel expense, however, there is not and I need to go out of the way for that. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Vance Ertel]

I like your suggestion regarding flipping the content around on the services page, thanks for your idea!! I have seen several established pros in the state charge for travel expenses for a "specific food" that a client may want and I think that it makes sense. Round trip to the pet store for me would be approximately a little over an hour. Now this is time that I could be spending training other client dogs. Now, if there was a pet store on my way to and from the training grounds that I use, that would be different and I would definitely reconsider a travel expense, however, there is not and I need to go out of the way for that. Thanks for your thoughts.

I guess $30 is not enough for an hour trip! I read it thinking an around the corner run to Petco. :razz:

 

[K.Bolan]

Thanks! Yeah, I did do it myself and that is why there are no nice logo's yet because I have no idea how to do them. I did it all on iWeb which is software that came with our Mac. It took me many hours in front of the computer because I had to keep researching how to do even the basic stuff, but I think that it is a good place to start. Now I think I should hire one of our computer guys in the retriever club to at least put a logo on the site, maybe even redo the whole thing to make it look more professional.

I used iWeb to build our site as well. I love my iMac. I don't want to steal your thread but check it out, just add .com to my screen name.

 

[Jeff Kolanski]

I used iWeb to build our site as well. I love my iMac. I don't want to steal your thread but check it out, just add .com to my screen name.

Very professional looking site, nice job Kris & Dawn!!

PM sent

 

[Jeff Kolanski]

For your pedigrees I would use a program such as SitStay.com to separate the names and put them in pedigree form. You can do the pedigree and then cut and paste to the website.

Thanks for the heads up on SitStay.com, Nancy. The pedigree looks much cleaner. Strange thing, when pasting the HTML into iWeb I can get the pedigree just perfectly set, along with the proper size font. I then published site changes and the fonts are much larger than I wanted. Oh well, what does a person want for free?

 

[reno1910]

I liked the color and the way it navigates, but I think you need to clean up the content.

I'm going from memory, because CSI intervened the other night and wasn't able to complete the post. A few things...

1) Pedigree confusion that others touched on. I liked just the images of your dogs.

2) "About Us page"... much too wordy. You could say alot more with ALOT less.

3) Lack of focus... I'm confused as to what you offer or the focus of your offering. It appears your primary clientele is going to be hunters and training retrievers. Is the average Joe looking for a place to kennel their mutt for a day welcome? If both, do you have time to focus on both training and maintaining a doggie day care? This needs to be clearly stated.

4) Your pricing... is it pay as you go on a daily basis? billed monthly? collected up front? This was not very clear to me. A round number like $600 monthly is easier to manage than 30 X $18.

5) Pictures... Ask yourself this... would you hire a photographer to train your dog? Then why use poor images? Your website is an advertisement, and in many cases the only impression you will make with your prospective client. The images scream amateur.... Point and Shoot camera, cutting corners, with time stamps... ugh! Some are OK for the grip and grins in the field.
You need professional images of your kennel, training facilities, dogs in action. Hire a professional!

6) One other touch... run a short youtube instructional video or two of your facilities, a couple of training tips, etc... This way they meet you and feel more comfortable.

Good luck... hope this helps.

 

[Jeff Kolanski]

I liked the color and the way it navigates, but I think you need to clean up the content.

I'm going from memory, because CSI intervened the other night and wasn't able to complete the post. A few things...

1) Pedigree confusion that others touched on. I liked just the images of your dogs.

2) "About Us page"... much too wordy. You could say alot more with ALOT less.

3) Lack of focus... I'm confused as to what you offer or the focus of your offering. It appears your primary clientele is going to be hunters and training retrievers. Is the average Joe looking for a place to kennel their mutt for a day welcome? If both, do you have time to focus on both training and maintaining a doggie day care? This needs to be clearly stated.

4) Your pricing... is it pay as you go on a daily basis? billed monthly? collected up front? This was not very clear to me. A round number like $600 monthly is easier to manage than 30 X $18.

5) Pictures... Ask yourself this... would you hire a photographer to train your dog? Then why use poor images? Your website is an advertisement, and in many cases the only impression you will make with your prospective client. The images scream amateur.... Point and Shoot camera, cutting corners, with time stamps... ugh! Some are OK for the grip and grins in the field.
You need professional images of your kennel, training facilities, dogs in action. Hire a professional!

6) One other touch... run a short youtube instructional video or two of your facilities, a couple of training tips, etc... This way they meet you and feel more comfortable.

Good luck... hope this helps.

Thanks for your suggestions, reno.

PM sent.

 

[Jeff Kolanski]

I'd like to again thank everybody that took the time and effort who posted and PM'd me. This gave me a different perspective to look at my site as a potential client, not look at it as myself. I gathered everybody's comments and suggestions and put them together and redid quite a bit, thanks to all of you, it has much more usefulness to a potential client.

 

[hdlabs]

Just a few suggestions---I think if you do the pet boarding you will be busy and not much training time unless you have help with the boarding business.....you will also have to always stay home on holidays........I would make note of special hours on holidays and weekends so you can spend time with the family or hunting........also, make sure to buy insurance............I would round your rates up to $500 per month and say first six weeks is basic obedience for $600....just my opinion...also you may want to get the full $600 up front, and then bill each month for training , flyers, vet expenses, etc. make sure you get your money up front or you may be doing a lot of pro bono work..........also, in this economy you may want to concentrate on the boarding and basic obedience lessons more, I think more people are not spending that extra money on retrieving training, etc...........but people still have to kennel their pets to go out of town, etc.......i'm not a trainer or kennel owner but just think this is what i hear from most folks......good looking website.......