HELPING HANDS PET SERVICES ©

Hello Everyone,

I cant believe we are reaching the end of 2011. THANK YOU so much for all the lovely gifts we have recieved so far, its truly overwhelming how kind and generous you are to all of us at Helping Hands.

How do I sum up 2011??.....WOW what a year !! it has been our best year yet for growth with the business, our mobile cattery service has a huge loyal clientele who have really put the word out about us, the clients coming to us from recomendations has been a record high this year, the service is so popular and is a full time job in itself and its with thanks to all our Helping Hands staff that we can run everything so smoothly and reliably....and im glad we can offer services at the drop of a hat when our clients need it , especially this year as we have had a baby boom with our dog walking clients ! when we got a text at 4.30am off a nervous dad-to-be at the hospital supporting his wife, he knew he could contact us to go and take care of their furry child at home who would need her 6am walk and breakfast. I gave one quick phone call to Martin who is their dog walker and he was duly there at 5.55am and all was well.

We had a FIRST for Helping Hands in February 2011....a client who didnt pay for her service!  Now im a very fair person but this particular client kept making excuses after excuses as to why her Dog Walking fee wasnt paid, i did make allowances for the glitch of internet banking but when the promised cheques and cash didnt materialise after week 3 i knew i was being fobbed off...so what do you do???....we had contiunued to provide the service, after all when their lovely little dog is so excitied to see you and wants to go out you cant just leave them at home, so at week 4 and the last promised payment was not there i left a note, I  text and I emailed the client ( just to make sure she got my message ) that we would be suspending her service if the payment was not there the following Day and her dog would not be walked , this then got a very angry responce from the client who decided she wanted to cancel her service as she did not like my tone! So the phrase " Sour Grapes " sprang to mind as she has had a superb service that she was going to lose. Sooooo long story short, after she sent a cheque that she then cancelled when she got her keys back, how rude !!  I followed the only course possible... through the courts, and when i told her of my intention it triggered a lot of intimidation and bullying off this client who said she would bad mouth Helping Hands on social networking sights such as twitter and face book if i persued her for payment through the court..well that is just a red rag to a bull with me!!  I did not correspond with her anymore and ignored her threats even though it did worry me a little as she is quite high profile in the NHS and we have a massive amount of NHS clients...but again Sour Grapes came to my mind, she is upset that i suspended her service and she would not have the flexible service that she needed and relied upon. Im very pleased to say that the court was quite rightly in our favour and placed an attachment of earnings on this clients wages.

Spring was a great season, the lovely weather brought everything to life and lots of bookings for clients going on last minute holidays to take advantage of the heatwave. The Royal wedding put a cheer in everyone's day, any excuse to have a party ! I managed to spend some time with my family in Nottinghamshire to watch the wedding thanks to Toni, Martin and Paul for running things, it was a memorable day. Our puppy care service had new additions and the dog walking service had graduates from the puppy care service...phew it was a busy time.

Spring soon became Summer and our regulars booked in for their holidays, I can practically predict who will book and when....and felix's owner is often on route when she books, it always makes me chuckle in fact i did have a little premoniton that she may book when we were going to be out of office for a weekend ( paul and I were having a chillaxing weekend in filey ) even though Martin was checking the office messages daily I felt I should send Jean a text to contact my mobile if she needed the mobile cattery service over the weekend and then i could let Sharna or Martin know to provide the service....and bless her she phoned me to thank me for thinking ahead as she would need us.

We had a very busy end of summer....life threw a test at us!  Steve our dog walker broke his wrist, Toni our other dog walker got the flu and Sharna our Cat girl and multi tasker, her new car broke down and had to be in the garage for 5 days, this was all in one week and it had to be on our busiest week ever !  So with most of the staff down plan b comes into play, fear not we are always prepared and with Martin and Emma Lister-Jarrett on hand and sharna on foot we coped brilliantly even though we were very tired by the time September arrived, we all had a feel good factor for a job well done.

Winter 2011 has started to throw its snow ...again !  We are quite use to it now, our trusty 4x4 gets us around. Santa Paws is organised this year, sadly last year my Father passed away in November and Paul's father had passed in August, so i just couldnt seem to get Santa updated with the usual photo cards, calenders and treats but this year im back on track and we are now in the week before Christmas. I just have consultations for new clients up until Thursday 22nd then that should be it...all booked in and raring to go. The last minute touches to the staff work schedules need doing and then our festive busy season begins on Friday, I cant wait, we have Dog walking Services then lots of cats, Hampsters, house bunnies, outdoor rabitts, Guinea pigs a Gecko and 2 new Ferrets having Mobile Cattery and Small Pet visiting services....Ho Ho Ho ! we all enjoy working over the Christmas holidays its a very magical time and we like to make it special for the pets, that is where Santa Paws comes in.

So all that is left to say is I wish you all a very Wonderful Christmas and New Year. I hope you get to relax, spend time with loved one's and that Santa leaves you some lovely presents under the tree. Myself and all at Helping Hands Thank You for using our services this year, Thank You for all the fabulous comments on our website and Thank you for all the promotions you have done for Helping Hands by telling family and friends about us...We are just one big and very extended happy family.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR !

See you all in 2012

Best wishes From Dawn, Paul, Martin, Emma, Sharna, Toni, Steve and Kirsty who have all been your Helping Hands in 2011 x x