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Start A Dog Walking Business
Author: Katie-Anne Gustafsson
If you love dogs and being outdoors, why not set up a dog walking business. For a little bit of organization and next to no start-up investment finance, you can soon be walking your way to a successful small business.
Know The Basics
Skills
Aptitude with dogs, love of walking outdoors (in all weathers), patience, reliability.Qualifications
None required, but learning some dog related first aid may be useful.Earning Potential
Dependent on your level of fitness and the number of hours you can walk. Research local rates for similar type of work, but think of about $30/hour minimum.Set-up Costs
Nominal. Basic promotional material – including a website, cell phone so that clients can contact you at all times, insurance premiums if required, plus smaller items such as disposable poop sacks, water flask/portable water dish for the hot days when you need to ensure your dogs are kept hydrated on the walks, and a pile of towels you’ll need to keep freshly laundered for drying off dogs following a walk in the rain.
Be Prepared
Assuming you have a natural ability to get along with dogs, there are two things you should consider before putting up your dog walking shingle:
Prepare For All Weather
Dogs need to be walked in all weathers. It may seem like a dream come true to walk dogs and make a living at it whilst the weather’s nice, but what about when the rain’s pouring down, or the snow’s 2 feet deep? This will be your job, and you don’t get “snow days”, so make sure that you’re not a fair weather person before choosing this kind of business.Secure Property
You will have responsibility for not only walking other people’s dogs, but also securing them and their owner’s property before you leave. Check out liability insurance costs before you start off your business as this could be a good idea in case of things going wrong.
Get Started
Know The Law
Check out if there are any local laws regarding this kind of business that you need to consider before starting up your business. As you won’t be having the dogs in your own home, there shouldn’t be zoning laws to take into account, but a call to your local Chamber of Commerce or Small Business Advice Center will help you identify any laws you will need to consider when running this type of business from home.Identify Your Work Area
It needs to be big enough to hold a lot of potential clients, but close enough to your home not to incur too much in travel expenses. You may find it cost effective to choose an area a little further from where you live and have the clients all in one area rather than have some near to home, and others further afield.Identify Your Walk Area
Choose somewhere that will allow for shorter less strenuous walks for older and less healthy dogs, but which has the potential to give larger energetic dogs a chance to really stretch their legs.Identify yYour Personal Boundaries
What’s your limit with regards to how many dogs you can take on your books? This is directly related to how fit you are! If you can walk for 4-5 hours every day with a few short breaks between dogs, then you can take on a lot more clients than someone who can only walk for 2-3 hours daily. Would you be comfortable handling more than one dog?
Identify a back-up resource so that if for some reason you are unable to walk the clients’ dogs on a particular day – if you are ill for example – there is someone else who can take over from you. As with being responsible for the welfare of children, you must ensure that the dogs are walked, even if it is for less time than you would normally give them.
Move Forward
You now know how many dogs you can handle, so what are you going to charge? How long do you estimate per walk? What are you going to charge for this service? How do you want paid (weekly/monthly – check/bank transfer)?
Are you going to have forms for your clients to sign that state their dogs’ vaccinations are up-to-date and they take appropriate measures for flea/worm control? This last point is important if you are going to walk a number of dogs in one day as you can carry little beasties from dog to dog if they aren’t covered by the appropriate deterrents, especially in the summer months.
Think about all of these issues, and any others that occur to you about the service you intend to offer, and make up a form/leaflet to give to interested dog owners.
You should have a second version of the form that has spaces for you to fill in the details of when the owners require you to walk their dog, whether it is to be leashed or running free, any health information about their dog you should know, if they consent to you walking another dog at the same time, and of course a place to for both you and the owners to sign and date. This will become the contract once the dog owner becomes your client.
Promote your business where you know your target market will see it. Dog owners frequent pet stores, grocery stores, veterinary clinics, churches etc so make full use of any notice-boards in these places. Make an attractive A4 poster that advertises your services. Make sure that your contact information is set out so that anyone interested can easily make a note of it – or design your poster so that it has a row of “tear-off” contacts across the bottom.
Start Walking
When potential clients contact you, make an appointment to meet with them and their dog before agreeing to accept their dog into your business. You want the client yes, but you first need to make sure that it’s a dog that you can handle, and that it doesn’t seem to have any anti-social behavior you need to be aware of before taking it out, etc.
If you think that you can handle the dog, take it for a short 5-10 minute walk and see how things go before you accept the dog as a client.
You should discuss your policy for multiple/single dog walking, and any discounts you give for walking multiple dogs from the same home, as well as assure them that you have a back-up walker who will take their dogs out if you are ill. Show that you take your work seriously and will give their dog’s health your priority.
You’re happy with the dog, and the owners are happy to have you take responsibility for walking their dog, so all that remains is for them to sign the contract form that you’ve already created. This sets out the agreement about when you’re going to walk their dog, how long the walks will be, how many times a week, and what happens in a contingency plan situation (perhaps you can’t go, or they get stuck at walk and need you to do extra etc). That’s it. You’ve got a client!
Happy Trails!
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