Are you about to get slammed with holiday bookings… and still don’t have enough pet sitters lined up?
If the answer is yes, you’re not alone—and you’re not behind yet, but you’re about to be. In this episode, I’m here to help you get ahead of the madness.
The holidays aren’t just busy—they’re a pressure cooker. Your clients are planning $5,000+ vacations and expecting their pet sitter (you!) to run their home like clockwork. But here’s the truth: you can’t deliver peace of mind if you’re short-staffed, hiring reactively, or skipping the systems.
So in this episode of Bella in Your Business, I’m walking you through exactly how to hire pet sitters for the holidays the smart, legal, and sustainable way.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
-
Why hiring in Q4 is harder—and what to do about it starting today
-
The legal interview questions to ask (and what can get you sued)
-
How to make holiday work appealing so your team doesn’t quit mid-season
-
Why clear onboarding is non-negotiable—and how to set up a 6-step process
-
Genius ways to recruit returning college students, past staff, and local talent
-
How to spot red flag answers that scream “I’m going to bail on you”
Timestamps
04:00 – Why you must start hiring before the holidays hit—and the trends showing it’ll be busier than ever
07:30 – The 6-step hiring process that filters out the flakes and sets you up to scale
11:45 – What’s illegal to ask in interviews—and the exact phrases to say instead
19:30 – How to communicate holiday work expectations without sounding desperate or begging
28:00 – Creative (and proven) ways to find seasonal pet sitters, from college students to vet techs
Notable Quotes
“If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a hell no.”
“You are their insurance policy for their pets and home—and you can’t deliver that without a rock-solid team.”
“Hiring is a leadership play, not a desperate grab.”
Resources & Links:
Watch all our Podcasts on YouTube
Transcript
Welcome to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta and today we’re going to talk all about hiring for the holidays. But before we get started, I wanted to say ? last week we talked all about mindset. I gave you three different episodes to go check out to help with your mindset because especially now coming into fourth quarter, we’re going to need all the mindset and positivity possible because it’s about to get really busy.
? In that light, I would be so honored if you would like and subscribe to this podcast. Believe it or not, a lot of people actually don’t subscribe to it, but they’re listening to it. Our numbers are going up and I absolutely love it. So feel free to share it with anyone you want. As you see, we have ? a lot, hundreds of episodes for you to listen to. So I wanted to thank you for that. I’ve also been having some really amazing discussions with you guys, even out as far as Dubai. I wanna say hi to Sam if you’re listening.
Thank you so much for our conversation last week. I really enjoyed it and that’s super. So if you guys wanna get on my calendar and just have some questions you wanna ask me, feel free to go to jumpconsulting.net forward slash 20. I am truly here to help you. I’m not here to even sell to you, which I know is probably weird to hear, ? but I love working with business owners that are ready.
And ? if there’s other things that you need to do, I’m gonna give you resources or whatever, because at the end of the day, I wanna change your I-cans into I-cans and inspire you to greatness. All right, let’s get into today’s episode. Did you know that according to Yahoo Finance, 2025 is literally predicted to be one of the biggest years for holiday travel? We’re not just talking about people taking quick weekend trips.
we’re seeing multi-generational travel happening because the older generation has this money and they’re funding a lot of the trips. And there’s also this trend of getting off the beaten path and taking unique experiences. So people are really drawn to, instead of the all-inclusive corporate kind of hotels and experiences that you see, people are really getting into the meaningful ? memory creating, right?
This is what people are really starting to value. And I, I know this is as a trend. I see this happening because the more and more things are being automated and AI is coming into everyone’s life. The more people are looking for that human connection and that personal experience. want you to keep that in mind as we talk today. Okay. This isn’t just for clients. This is also going to be for employees, which we’re going to talk about. And so the pet owners, they need their home situation to run like
absolute clockwork. They don’t want to ever wonder, you know, if the power word to go out is the pets that are going to get there. They’re spending thousands of dollars on these trips and you are like their insurance policy for their home and their pets. And so you can only deliver peace of mind if you have a rock solid team in place that is also systematically trained and it doesn’t matter who you send into what house because the client is always going to get
this same experience. cannot stress that enough. All right. So let’s dive in. ? The hiring starts now. Okay. And like you’re hearing this right now, the beginning of October. When I say now, it really would have been better like to start in September, but go ahead and start now. If this is something you’ve been procrastinating, think of this as your, as your sign to get out there and hire. Okay.
And I get it because summer is your busiest season, but traditionally this is when, in the fall, when pet sitting companies really start another hiring blitz. It’s usually in the spring and in the fall, okay? I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I see these trends all the time. Okay, so the holidays feel far away, but the problem is is that by the time you realize you’re gonna need help, it’s gonna be too late to find good help. It’s very difficult to hire fourth quarter, because not a lot of people are looking for jobs.
When we go into first quarter, people are definitely, because they’ve got all these like New Year’s resolutions and they want to make more money and they want to have more fun. Like it’s just it’s this is the climate we’re in. So I for the sake of this conversation, I want to all agree about that. So the very first thing that I’m going to need you to do and if you’re writing notes, go for it. If you’re listening to this transcript, then put it into chat. GPT, I know a lot of you guys do that already to kind of create these trainings and SOPs. ?
The first thing I want you to do is get your ads out there. Okay? If you don’t have a smooth hiring process, it can take even longer if you’re trying to do all of this by hand each time. Your hiring process should be at least six steps. Okay? If you’re putting an ad out there and then talking to people on the phone and then wondering why they’re ghosting you or not feeling like you can actually invest time and money into them to train them properly, it’s because it started wrong. Your process started wrong.
Okay, I will die on that hill. Okay? The next thing that you’re gonna wanna do is the interviewing, background checks, making the hiring decisions, and then onboarding and initial training. This is also a very sensitive process. You need to have onboarding in as clear and concise steps as possible. Last week I helped Carla in the mastermind ? on a quick 20 minute call. I helped her with her onboarding process because it was very
confusing and at that point you don’t want to lose people when they’re trying to get onboarded into your organization and then the training Your training cannot consist of just follow me around and watch what I do That’s a great way to lay awake at night and wonder if things are being done properly Okay, you need a systemized training established. So we’re gonna assume that all of this stuff has been done We’ve talked about it many times in the podcast. I have six months worth of this stuff all in the mastermind right now
I’m going to assume that we have all those details because this is about thinking ahead today. Today is about thinking ahead for the holidays. ? And so when you when when you have them in the point where they’re proving it to you, it’s like the 30 day review, right? This person is out there now. It’s really important to have those checks and balances to let them know that in 30 days you’re going to be grading them on this criteria. And here’s the kicker.
that most people forget about, you allow them to also grade you on how was the onboarding process, how was the training process, how do they feel about it. When you let them bring their opinion into you, it builds tremendous respect and opens up the lines of communication. All right, so while we’re interviewing these people, I never want you to ask things like,
Do you celebrate Christmas? What holidays do you celebrate? What’s your religion? Do you have family obligations during the holidays? Are you married? Do you have kids? Where’s your family from? Do you travel home for the holidays? That’s all illegal, okay? All of that is about a protected class, religion, natural origin, family status. Even if you have good intentions and you’re just trying to figure out availability, these questions could be used as evidence against discrimination. So I want you guys to know that. The other thing is is that
You do have a legitimate business need and you need people who can work during the holidays. And it’s called a bonafide occupation qualification. It’s an essential foundation of function of this particular job. So how do you find this out? Okay. You want to be direct about the job requirements. Instead of asking them, you want to say, this position requires working Thanksgiving day, Christmas Eve, Christmas day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s day. The hours on those typical days are about this.
Are you available and willing to work all of these specific dates? That’s how you do it, okay? You’re not asking why, you’re asking if they can. And then you follow up with scheduling expectations. Our busiest season runs from mid-November to early January. During this time, we have all team members to be available for their regular shifts, okay? And does it work for your schedule? Ask about.
past holiday working experience. Have you worked in a service or hospitality role during the holiday season before? If so, can you tell me what that experience was like? Use a calendar-based approach. Let me show you our calendar, and if you’ve worked with me for the hiring process, you are already using that calendar and showing them exactly what the job looks like, okay? Then, you know, on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being absolutely essential, how important is it for you?
to have the major holidays off. Ooh, guys, this is such a good episode right now. I’m so excited for you. ? And then you really wanna put it in your job descriptions too. This position requires availability on major holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, weekend and holiday availability is an essential function of this role. Okay, you really have to come out bold with that, all right?
And then during the interview, I really want to make sure that we’re on the same page, okay? Our clients are traveling during the holidays, which is our busiest time. That means you’ll be working when most people have time off. Is that something you’re comfortable with and excited about? These are all things you literally can take from this episode right now. Consider this a free training because I just want you to succeed, okay? ? Do you have any travel or commitments planned between now and the end of January?
Okay, the bottom line for these legal requirements are can you work these dates? Are you available during this time period? And do you have scheduling conflicts with these shifts? Do not ask why can’t you work ? these dates? What do you do for the holiday? And where will you be during the holidays? Okay? Now, you need to know what you’re hiring for.
Dog walking is typically Monday through Friday, midday walks. Okay, your clients are local, they’re at home at night, they need someone to let the dog out during the work. That usually kind of dies off a little bit because people take vacation, especially the last couple of weeks of the year. All right, during the holidays, your dog walking business will slow down because people will be home, but pet sitting is completely different. Pet sitting are people that are out of town. They have overnight needs, they have multiple daily visits, sometimes 24 hour care, depending on what you provide.
and it explodes, okay? It absolutely, I don’t have to tell you this. You know that it explodes during the holidays and I don’t want you to be caught with your pants down, which is why I’m talking about this right now. All right? And so you need to set your policies before you hire, okay? The mistake that I see all the time, business owners hire someone, they get them all trained up and then they try to tell them, ? you need to work Thanksgiving. And the employee’s like, I’m sorry, wait, what?
I’m going to my family’s house in Michigan. I told you I needed that week off. And the owner is like, no, you didn’t. We never talked about that. And now you got a problem. The employee feels blindsided. You feel frustrated. You’re short staffed during your busiest week. That’s why you set crystal clear policies before you hire and you communicate them often during the interview process. But let me also say this. There’s a way you can communicate this and seem really like you’re begging them. Like
okay, are you sure you can do this? Instead of being confident and assertive and saying this is what we need, we’re in agreement, right? You have to come from a leadership place of power, okay? All right, and so the holiday request, let’s talk about that too, because if you haven’t done this already, I need you to do that this weekend, all right? I’m hoping that you’re listening to this ? October 10th, and I need you to get this note out right away. ?
All requests for time off between November 15th and January 5th must be submitted in writing by date, whatever date that looks like for you. Requests submitted after this date might not be approved due to business needs and it’s on a first come first serve basis. Why? So it protects you and it protects the employees. They’re not wondering if they get time off. You might want to tell all of your existing employees right now, remember what the expectations are, okay?
First year employees and holiday requirements, team members in their first year are required to lease at work one or two major holidays. After the year of employment, holiday time off requests will be considered based off of seniority and business needs. That’s something that you could say, okay? And you wanna make it part of your onboarding. I understand that this position requires availability during a major holiday, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s. I confirm that I’m available to work these dates and understand
that holiday availability is an essential function of this role. Guys, I’m doing this episode today because so many just say, well, they said that they could work the holidays. Unfortunately, you can’t just ask them once. You need to have this plastered everywhere, okay? Now, let’s make holiday work worth it, your retention strategy, because now we’re making them do all this stuff, but you still need to be a leader and you still need to build your culture and it could be so much fun, okay?
The reality though is that working while everyone else is celebrating isn’t just hard, it’s lonely, okay? It’s exhausting. And if you don’t make it worth their while, they’re gonna quit before New Year’s Eve, or worse. They’ll be resentful and give your clients subpar service, okay? So let’s talk about how to make the holidays not just tolerable, but something that will actually get your team members excited.
So the first one is the holiday surcharges and pay increases. I’m sure a lot of you already charge your clients the holiday surcharge. I would pass that on 100 % to them. Okay, so whatever it is, whether it’s per day, per visit, whatever it might be. I see the typical, it’s like $10 per visit or $15 per visit. When I sold my company in 2016, it was $10 extra every visit. That’s what I did. And I gave it straight to my employees. What about taxes? Yeah, I ate that.
because it was part of it, you know? And then they could make some extra money on the holidays, all right? The other thing is you could do a flat holiday bonus, okay? So maybe it’s just $100 extra for working Thanksgiving, if you work at least 10 visits or something like that. Or it could be a holiday bonus for the entire holiday. If you work all three, you get $500 extra. I don’t know, you could play with that, but I want you to look at your numbers, look at your profit.
What can you afford and how can you get creative about it? Okay? You could also use the favorite things list. So again, if you have worked with me and we have done your hiring program using the jump method that works for hundreds of pet sitting companies, then you have the favorite things list. This is a really good time to use it, you guys. Really good time.
So maybe around December 20th, can surprise your holiday workers with a thoughtful gift based off of their favorites. Okay? It doesn’t have to be expensive. $25 gift card to their favorite coffee shop, a box of their favorite candy, a small gift related to their hobby. Okay? The point isn’t the dollar amount. It’s that you remembered and you cared. Okay? You caring about someone means so much more than money every single time. All right?
And then we have post-holiday perks. If you work Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, maybe you get your first choice of January and February schedule. know, public recognition, social media shout outs. Hey, big shout out to Sarah, who’s been out there taking care of your pets on Christmas morning while you’re with the family. Or client email, send a holiday message to the clients thanking your team by name. What? Yeah, it’s that easy. Maybe team newsletter or group chat, celebrate the holidays.
? workers publicly. End of the Year Awards, our hero award for the person who went above and beyond. ? Feel free to get creative. Okay? People are going to walk through the fire with you when they know that you care about them. This is building your culture. Instead of being a stressed out, frazzled mess, passing your nervous anxiety energy onto the rest of your employees. It’s really important. Okay.
The other thing that I want you to think about ? is like beyond the typical job ads, okay? God, this episode is so good. I like, I’m loving this episode. I hope you are too. Let me know wherever you’re listening. And if you wanna talk more about any of this, jump on my calendar, jumpconsulting.net forward slash 20, two, zero. ? Or join me in a mastermind and we can really chat about this. Jumpconsulting.net forward slash mastermind. Okay.
So maybe you have past employees or college students. I used to do this every single year. Okay. This is huge. Do you have any former employees who went off to college? Reach out to them right now. Hey Emma, I know you’re at Arizona State University now, but I wanted to see if you’re coming home for winter break. We’d love to have you back on the team. Like from mid November to early January, if you’re interested, or maybe just for a couple of weeks in December, you know, the holiday pay is X and we would love the help.
College students are perfect for the holiday season because the holiday season spikes just as they’re available. Next door is also full of people who live in your service area and might be looking for flexible work. Local pet sitting company looking for reliable animal lovers to join our team in the holiday season. Perfect for someone who’s looking for some extra income or flexible part-time work experience preferred, but not required. Vet clinics. You can reach out to them too. Leave flyers in their break room if they…
Approve that okay vet techs are also looking for some side income Facebook groups your current clients local college job boards Rover and wag sitters you might see some Rover and wag sitters that are advertising in like Facebook groups Sometimes they’re just not good business people and they would much rather just go play with the pets and not worry about that stuff And so choose accordingly, but that’s also an avenue that you can do
Maybe you could also do a referral bonus. Once they get hired, you’re going to give them one to $200 or whatever it might be. Or if they find you someone. I used to do a $500 referral bonus. If someone was still working with me six months later and you brought them into my team, it would be $500. Funny story. I never actually gave that out because no one actually did it, but it was a really good perk to put out there. All right. So I hope
that this helps you with thinking about your holiday season. I know a lot of you are stuck in the weeds right now or you’re just figuring out what do I need to do right now? It’s the beginning of October and you haven’t even started thinking about the holidays. Or maybe you’re sticking your head in the sand because you’re scared about it and you’re not sure how you’re gonna handle it. The other thing is is that you always have to consider supply and demand. All right, this has been around since the cavemen. ? There is a low supply of you and a high supply of them.
Okay, and so if you do not have enough ? people on board, then it’s a great time to raise your rates because you have a lot of requests coming in, but there’s a low supply of being able to help people, right? It’s a really great time to raise your prices and you don’t have to necessarily do it on your website. can just, you know, take them off your website and then as people are calling or emailing, you can just give a custom rate. ? All right, so.
I’m going to leave you with this because I think this one’s also really important. I told you a lot about what you can do and what you should be thinking about. But now I want you to think about these are red flags. If you hear any of these vague answers about holiday availability, this position requires you to work Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Are you available for those dates? ? Probably. I mean, I think so. I’ll have to check. Run. Okay.
Or, I’ll try to be available. I’ll do my best to work those days. I’ll see what I can do. Nope. If it’s not a hell yes, it’s hell no. All right? That’s what it comes down to. Or, I could probably work most of December, but I need to keep my options open because I’m not sure what’s happening with insert something here. That basically means that if something else comes along, that they’re gonna go there.
Whatever it is, whether it’s another job or an offer or a party or whatever. Okay. Wait, I have to work Christmas? That seems unfair. If they’re pushing back in the interview, imagine what they’re going to be like in December. Okay. No previous service industry experience and needs holidays off. Someone who’s never worked retail, restaurants, hospitality or any service job, they have no idea what it’s like to work while everyone else is celebrating. Okay.
If they also express hesitation about the holiday work, it’s a double red flag. Not to mention, guys, they might feel like, yeah, I can work holidays. I don’t like my family anyways, I’m gonna work holidays. And they commit to you, and then they go home. And their family is like, the hell you’re not. You’re gonna be here for Christmas. You’re not working. You better tell your boss you need it. And now they have this conflict. So really understanding the complete ecosystem of where they’re coming from.
is really, really important, okay? All right, guys, this episode, I hope, has been jam-packed for you. If you really liked it, I would love to hear your feedback. Go on to Spotify on YouTube, where we’re now, Spotify and YouTube now have the video. ? Let me know, do you like the video? Because I put hair and makeup on so I can appear to you. It was a lot better when I was just sitting with my hair on top of my head, not caring what it looks like.
But let me know, did you like this episode? Was it helpful? Is it helping getting you on track? I hope it’s motivating you to action. I want you to remember that you are the CEO of your company and that you get to decide what you want. And oftentimes when we’re overwhelmed or stressed, it’s because we’re not closely tied to our goal, because then every decision is it’s even moving us towards our goal or away from our goal, okay? That’s really, really important.
And I want you to remember that. And I want to empower you to make the decisions that serve you and those that you love that are in your life. This has been another episode of Bella in your business. Remember when life gets you down to always keep jumping. Bye now.