People like dogs. But dogs are a lot of work. Perhaps that is why more and more people are opting for cats. Cats are easy to take care of. They are pets for people who are too lazy to get a dog. Cat people, don’t bother to send me emails. I will ignore your complaints.
Many people who have dogs feel guilty about leaving them alone all day if everyone in the home has to go out and work. People are often unwilling to leave their dogs alone for long periods of time outside of work. These are reasonable concerns. Dogs like attention and it is important to get them outside for exercise and to expel waste. That is where you come in.
There might already be people or companies in your area offering dog walking and related services. But with low overhead and a large market, there is no reason why you can’t offer your services as well.
The job is not very complex. If you can walk a dog and pick up after him or her, you are qualified. So I don’t need to offer you tips on how to do this job.
But how do you get started? First, research what services are available in your area. See what your competition offers to do and what they charge. Plan to offer the same services, but charge a few bucks less.
Investigate and see if your local government requires any license. Insurance could be an issue as well. I recommend setting up a limited liability company, corporation, or something like that to limit your liability, especially as you grow.
Setup a website. WordPress can provide you with basic templates. And setup a Facebook Page. Come up with a name. The name should reflect your geographic location and service. Boston Dog Walkers or something like that, so it will be easy to find on the internet when someone in Boston searches for a dog walking service. Find a way to make the name sound a bit cuter than that as well.
On your website, put up a biography of yourself and any experience you may have had with pets. Don’t be afraid to include cute stories about your pets, current or previous, and pictures of you with dogs and other animals.
Advertise your company by posting flyers with your phone number and website address at dog parks, grocery stores, and community centers. See if your local pet stores will also let you post something. Place some free ads on Craiglist. If you have a local publication such as The Penny Saver post an ad there as well. Then just sit back and wait for the calls and emails.
Accept cash (obviously), checks, paypal, bitcoins,silver bars, or even credit cards through your smart phone. You never want to miss an opportunity because your potential customer doesn’t have the right form of payment.
You can keep your day job by only accepting appointments during your lunch break, after hours, or on weekends. Keep in mind the time that it will take to get to the address and ask how long the person needs to walk the dog before it relieves itself. This will be a process of trial and error, but once you get to know your customers and their pets, you should be able to figure out how to do this successfully.
If the business grows, you could look into bringing on people to act as subcontractors. You get the job, but give a portion of the pay to the person you send out to the house. Clear this with the pet owner first. Do a background check on the person too. Keep in mind that they will be going into people’s houses. The pet owners will be giving you a house-key. This is a tremendous responsibility and also comes with some risk. If a paranoid homeowner misplaces a valuable item, you or your employee are going to pop up in their minds as suspect number one. If you don’t steal things and don’t work with thieves, then you shouldn’t have to be unusually worried about this. The police aren’t supposed to arrest on mere suspicion. If you do steal things, then hopefully you will get caught – probably very easily as you will be running to your local pawn shop to sell the item and they keep records, which are routinely reviewed by the police. You might want to seriously think about getting insurance if you hire out subcontractors or hire employees to protect yourself and your business from loss.
If you are honest and work hard, this could turn from a part-time self-run business to a full time business with several employees and contractors. Walking dogs is not a terrible way to earn a living.
