Starting a dog walking business

At first glance, launching a dog walking business may seem like a walk in the park. After starting a business in 2009 I can assure you, it requires careful planning, preparation and organization to build a business that you’ll enjoy running. I’ve read articles around the steps to take when starting a dog walking business, these articles mostly include obtaining insurance, contracts, setting office hours etc. Although, these are important in their own right, one step should be taken before committing your most valuable resource, which is time. So, here are 5 questions to help you decide.

1. The most important question you can ask yourself, “what is my goal five years from now?” Motivations typically fall into three categories; a monetary goal, more control over one’s life or the decision is based out of passion. If your answer is monetary, think through the value amount you’re looking to achieve. According to an international association of pet sitting businesses, 11% of their 7,000 members have built businesses that achieve over 100K of annual gross revenue (PSI 2014). Are you comfortable making less money during the ramp up and how long will you be able to tolerate lower earnings. If your decision is based on time, you’ll need to have the power to say no and enforce your policies. If your decision is based on a passion, you risk nothing because you’ll enjoy what you are doing. For more information, Google the ‘wheel of life’, this will take you a step further in your search.

2. How big is the market? You can perform a quick estimate by searching on Bing, Yahoo or Google for dog walking businesses or dog walking services. According to a study conducted by IBIS World, the average revenue for a dog walking business in the U.S. is $49,988 (IBIS 2014).

number of dog walking businesses X avg. revenue = market size

Consider the cost of living to gauge where your market fits into the national average revenue for a dog walking business. Gauge the demand in your market by utilizing online search tools. It is amazing what Google provides for free, here are number of free tools available to analyze frequency of searches; Key Word Discovery, Word Tracker and Word Stream. After analyzing, is the market large enough to support your monetary goal?

3. How competitive is the market? The dog walking industry is 98% fragmented, so chances are your market is made up of eight — twenty independent businesses, all whom have mostly grown through word of mouth. How would you overcome the hurdle of acquiring these customers? Drivers are to capture any new business from new pet owners and new residents in your market. before your competitors. Consider how you’ll bring market share over to your business from your competitors. The second option is much more difficult, typically new businesses will see losses by managers offering discounts and coupons to steal share away. Can you differentiate yourself or do you have a competitive advantage such as relationships in the community or a skill set you can leverage.

4. Are you physically able to achieve your goal alone, or would you plan on hiring help? Well, you know the size of your market, after determining your price structure you’ll be able understand how many dog walks it would take to achieve your monetary goal. Now, ask yourself if this feasible alone or will you need help? If you decide to hire help, think through how you would structure these hires through contractor agreements or employee agreements.

5. What processes might need to be in place to manage tasks effectively? You’ll need to think through the day-to-day back office operations such as; invoicing, charging, collecting, communicating, payroll, scheduling and bookkeeping. Consider how you form your business wheather a sole priorteriohship, General Partnerhsip or LLC. If you are a sole member within an LLC, research “operating agreement” as this agreement can reduce risks by further separating a sole member from the company.

Pet businesses are unique, in the sense that pets are the end consumer, however they are not the customer. Think about this when it comes to marketing. Having a passion for people is important as well. I have talked to many dog walking and pet sitting business owners who prefer not to grow because they could end up managing people, which conflicts their passion to work with animals. If you decide to start a dog walking business I hope these thoughts will help you put your best foot forward!