Our company is now going into our eleventh year in business. We are very proud of this and strive to improve continuously, always looking for ways to make the lives of our clients and their pets better. Over the past couple of years, a major decision has been looming. Should we transition from Independent contractors to employees? Upon studying this topic, we learned a lot and found that many people know about this topic. We consulted with our CPA, an attorney, business owner, consultants, and such. We tapped the brains of anyone knowing anything about this topic.
At first, our objective was to learn ways to safely keep our IC status. While difficult, I believe, if audited, we could have done that. I will not go into all the things we did, but let’s just say that, in the end, we felt the IC model was substandard and did not reflect the values of our business. Our goal is to be superior in every way possible. While moving to the employee model is expensive and means a rate increase will be necessary, we need to run our business correctly or not at all. That is the bottom line. Since coming to that conclusion, we are now excited about transitioning to employees, and are embracing this change.
Benefits of having a Professional Pet Sitter Employee vs. an Independent Contractor:
- Accountability: Employees can be scheduled at specific times, as the client desires.
- Training: Our employees are trained and coached. Independent Contractors cannot be trained and coached.
- Professional Pet Sitter employees are covered under workman’s comp, liability insurance, unemployment compensation, and auto insurance. In most cases, if the pet sitter is injured in the client’s home, workman’s comp pays all costs of the claim. This lessens the client’s liability as the home owner’s insurance will not be sought to cover the claim.
- The best liability insurance in the industry. While we have always been insured through Kennel Pro, the top pet sitter’s insurance available, independent contractors are not supposed to be covered by our insurance. As employees, we can absolutely cover them. Most pet sitting businesses that use independent contractors require their pet sitters to buy their own policies. As a result, the IC pet sitters purchase the cheapest available policy, and may not always keep it current. This is a huge risk to the client and business owner. We do not believe in this practice.
- GPS tracking: We cannot track independent contractors, but we can track our employees. We feel having the pet sitters check in and check out with GPS location provides peace of mind for client, sitter and business owner.
We hope this begins to explain why we changed. The Pet Sitter of Boise, LLC will continue to seek out best practices in our industry. We strive to provide the highest level of care possible for your pets while gaining your trust and confidence.
Please feel free to call or email us any time to answer any questions you may have.
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