Mollie Newton is an animal lover and an expert in animal behavior. With her experience in taking care of animals, she wants to provide a wealth of knowledge for people who have the same interests as her. She believes that every animal deserves to have a good and meaningful life and that humans must contribute to making that happen. 

Can you tell our readers about your background?  

A: I have loved animals since I can remember, though, I did not immediately pursue a job in animal care or behavior. After I left school, I began working in retail and studied HR. Shortly after completing my studies, I moved to a career in HR. I worked in corporate HR for about eight years, but after my two kids came along, I realized that the corporate world was not for me. I still felt the draw to animal care and so I began my blog PetMeTwice, which I am successfully running to date. 

What inspired you to start your business?  

A: My kids were definitely the biggest inspiration to start my own business. I realized that working in corporate would not afford me the opportunity to spend the time with my children that I wanted to. Owning your own business comes with many unique demands and challenges but having the ability to work in a way that suits both my business and my family, well, that was all the push that I needed to take the leap. 

Where is your business based?

I live and work in Columbus, OH, but my business is based completely online and all of my employees are remote. I wanted to be able to keep the business flexible and having a remote team assists in achieving this objective. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took? 

A: I suppose that, in some way, my business began years ago, when I spent as much time as I could with animals, learning about their behavior and how to care for them better, but it officially began when I started researching ways to generate an income from the pet care industry. Writing has always been a passion of mine, so when I discovered that I could produce an income from two of the activities that I loved, I was sold.  

I began researching niches in the pet care industry that were relatively untapped, but also in demand. I found that, though the pet care blogging industry was relatively full of great resources, few blogs covered care for fish, which there was quite a lot of need for. I produce quality content about fish care exclusively now and hope that this will act as a segway to other forms of pet care in the future.  

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?  

A: Guest posting has been super effective for me. I employ a content manager who reaches out to other blogs in our niche, who are not in direct competition with the blog, and we work with them by producing a post or section of a post that offers their readers awesome insights. While it is always risky to apply resources to another blog and not your own, we have seen huge spikes in traffic as a result of it.  

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?  

A: When I started the blog, I had a huge issue with staff turnover. Though I paid relative to industry standards and tried my best to ensure that I was giving my writers the best work possible, I didn’t have the volume of work or the budget to hold the attention of the talent that I wanted on my team. I made use of freelance services to keep costs low, but this also meant that the team was not dedicated to my account only and moved with the money/ quantity of work – two things most bootstrap businesses and blogs cannot offer. 

I didn’t overcome this by doing anything in particular, aside from growing the business and offering a more attractive environment for the team I work with as the business and budget grew. 

How do you stay focused? 

A: I’ve found that goal setting and journaling have been the most effective means of staying focused for me. Every morning I dedicate at least one hour to reading and journaling. Once I have done this, I feel like I can more clearly identify what I need to achieve that day, which helps to motivate me; knowing that I am working toward a goal that will help me reach a new level of my business and self (or both). 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?  

A: Many reader-supported blogs focus on the products that they promote. When I started PetMeTwice, I wanted to be the go-to blog for pet owners seeking improved care for their animals, which has made the product links on our blog a byproduct of our main goal – to improve the lives of pets and pet owners alike. For me, value to our readers is far more important than the bottom line. This has resulted in a slower start for us, as compared to other blogs at the same age, but it is something that I see benefitting us in the long run, by separating us from the competition in a huge way. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?  

The new norm caused me to stumble across one of the best ways to grow my blog – networking. Online conferences and networking events for industry professionals has been hugely successful for me and lead to making some of the most valuable connections for my business.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?  

Passion is not all it takes! Before I started, I thought the biggest determiner of my success would be the passion that I have for the niche I cater to. While this is a huge contributor, I didn’t account for the continuous learning that I would have to do to remain relevant online. I knew extraordinarily little about SEO when I started my blog, except that it is important. Now I know all about algorithms, domain rankings, and all of the nitty-gritty stuff that goes into SEO. You have to have the will to support your passion with things that you may not be passionate about, but if you can stick it out and work hard to gain skills in these peripheral areas, you’ll find success!  

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why? 

A: See below: 

App: Podcast Addict. I love to learn while I work, which makes Podcast Addict a great tool for me to have on my phone. Headphones in, a podcast on, work getting done. 

Blog: I’m sure I’m not allowed to say my own, so I’d have to go with bycrated.com. I just love how much emphasis they put on sustainability and small business development in a way that not many think of these days. 

Book: Stephen King's, “The Green Mile”. I have read it over a dozen times and it still evokes emotions in me that no other book has ever done.  

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why? 

A: Asana. Asana is an amazing project management tool that allows me to plan work, share briefs, communicate with teams, create project boards, assign roles and tasks – pretty much everything procedure-related is catered to, which is the perfect tool for a scatterbrain like me!

Who is your business role model? Why? 

A: My aunt. My aunt has worked as a Project Manager for many, many years. She has been headhunted by several top-tier tech companies, all while fighting stereotypes and misconceptions along the way. She has been called a “glorified secretary” by subordinates, lost promotion opportunities to less qualified male counterparts, and overcome her own internal self-doubt, all to achieve what she has today. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been on the brink of quitting, only to remind myself that women like her didn’t work and struggle as she did for future generations of women to give up on their dream because it got hard.  

How do you balance work and life?  

This is one that I am still figuring out. I have had to learn to survive on a lot less sleep to keep up with my day-to-day, which has become easier as time has passed, though I definitely wouldn’t define this as the ideal “balanced” lifestyle. 

What’s your favorite way to decompress? 

A walk in the park with my husband, kids, and dogs is definitely my favorite activity when I need to decompress! 

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

Over the next six months, I plan to grow the blog’s community exponentially. I’m in final talks with a seriously talented Social Media/SEO specialist who we’re going to hopefully be onboarding soon. We have put a lot of focus on quality over the last year and we will continue to do so but it is time for us to really branch out and expand our reach as best we can!

How can our readers connect with you?

A: First, they are welcome to check out my blog – petmetwice.com. If they would like to connect with me, I am most active on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mollienew