Marie Claire Posted October 19, 2009 Report Share Posted October 19, 2009 Hi I am tentatively thinking of starting a dog walking/sitting business. I have grown up with dogs, have a dog myself and have just started helping out at puppy training classes and will be joining a dog training class shortly in order to get more experience/knowledge. I know I would need to get insurance but wondered if anyone has any advice/experience/thoughts on doing this, how hard/easy it is etc? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura_E Posted October 19, 2009 Report Share Posted October 19, 2009 I don't know much about starting up a business, but I think there is quite a lot of demand for this type of service. I have been looking for somebody to walk/sit Tess for months now, but it seems that the more reputable businesses don't cover my area (South West London/South Middlesex area) so if you are anywhere near me, you have your first customer! I think in addition to insurance there might be some sort of restriction as to how many dogs you are allowed to look after, quite like the ratio of children per worker in a nursery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruthi (borrowadog) Posted October 19, 2009 Report Share Posted October 19, 2009 I have a Petpals franchise (well two now) and its been invaluable to me. The hardest thing with any business is the marketing, and they have that really well sorted. Their web page brings in more than half my customers(because they have the google thing sorted, and we are part of a large organisation), and the rest come via tried and tested routes. If you want to go it alone then you need to do all the classic things that come with starting up a business. Research the market, decide on your product and price, then market, market market. In addition to insurance you need to get CRB checked, and you may need to be licensed by your local authority. There are restrictions on professional dog walking on Ministry of Defence land and some other publicly owned land, and often local restrictions on how many dogs you can board at a time. Its getting harder all the time. Loads of people start up little dog walking businesses, but they fall by the wayside because its hard work and you need to have backup plans in place for when you are ill or on holiday. But its still the best thing I ever did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie Claire Posted October 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2009 Thank you for your replies . Laura, unfortunately I'm in South east London but I hope you find someone to mind Tess soon. Ruthi, I hadn't thought of a franchise before, and its certainly something to consider although ideally I would like to start out on my own as my first choice. Strangely enough I think marketing would be the easiest thing for me as I'm known as the dog lady in my area already and I'm not looking to take a lot of dogs on. I'm already CRB checked for my current job (although I will need to renew this shortly) so thats fine. The main thing I am worrying about is insurance, ie. whos the best, how much is it per year etc and also how to pay tax - would I need to set up a limited company or is there another way (fingers crossed) around this. I guess after that it would be calculating whether I would be able to cover my costs and still make some money to pay my bills Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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