Small Business: The silly season - Stephanie Millar, Cat Whisperers

Stephanie Millar, owner of Cat Whisperers.

This week, Small Business editor Caitlin Sykes talks to business owners about dealing with the lead up to Christmas.

Stephanie Millar is the owner of Auckland-based cat minding business Cat Whisperers.

What pressures are you facing in your business at this time of year?

Our bookings amp up over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, so the main pressure is finding the right people for the cat minding roles I need to fill. I have to put a lot of trust in our people, so they have to be absolutely reliable, but they also need to be animal lovers and it takes time to find those sorts of people.

The other pressure is around keeping on top of bookings. I'm really busy at this time of year taking in bookings, so I have to be extra careful that all of those are locked in a spreadsheet and double and triple checked.

How many extra people are you taking on over this time?

Because we're still quite a small business, it's usually just me working during the year with a few people who I can call on for help over long weekends and school holidays. But over this Christmas I'm hiring about eight or nine extra staff who will be working for the busy six weeks or so.

How have you gone about finding those people?

I was 19 when I bought this business about three years ago and it's been a massive learning curve. My first Christmas was quite difficult; nothing went wrong, but I put myself under a lot of stress and that was something I had to think about dealing with better. Plan early and get in quite a lot more help was the big lesson.

I start looking for extra Christmas staff around July. I'll confirm who from last year is able to come back again this year, then go through places like Unitec and Vet Nurse Plus to look for suitable candidates who know their stuff. I then need to make time to do interviews as well as background checks, which can take a long time to come back, but I usually have it all done by September/October.

I had six people confirmed by October this year, but then as bookings started to flow in I realised I'd probably need a couple more people this year. At that point I advertised on Seek and I'm now just finalising hiring those last two. It was a bit stressful realising I needed a couple more people, but because I had the other people lined up earlier it took the pressure off a bit.

Is coordinating those extra staff another pressure you face during the busy season itself?

It is, although I probably won't be visiting many cats myself this year over Christmas. I'll still be working full time and getting up at 5am, but I'll be focusing on organising and coordinating the girls and sorting the rosters.

The long hours over Christmas mean there are personal pressures as well. Your family wants to spend time with you, but as much as you'd like to spend the whole day celebrating together they've had to get used to only seeing me for a couple of hours on the day, and not much over the whole month. Big family days and long lunches take a back seat.

To release the stress I also like to organise a holiday in about April; that's something I can focus on and really look forward to.

What's been the biggest lesson you've learnt about handling the silly season?

When things are busy you need to roll with the punches and take them one by one rather than looking at the whole fight.