How to Start a Dog Walking Business (Setting Up for Success)
Woof!
Welcome to ‘How to Become a Successful Dog Walker’.
My name is Harry, and I want to help you start your own dog walking business.
As you will no doubt know.
The pet industry is booming.
And it makes sense.
We all adore our dogs, and often give them all the chances in the world to be part of our lives.
However, as much as we love having a canine at home, a lot of dog owners find it hard to take their dog for a walk — especially with the increasing pressures of modern society.
Can You Spot a Great Business Opportunity Here?
You’re not the only one.
For instance:
“The value of the UK pet products and services market is forecast to reach £2.1 billion by 2023, a 25% increase from an estimated £1.7bn this year.” — Karen Pickwick, 2018
The pet industry is a vastly growing market.
And that’s fantastic news!
As it means there is plenty of demand (and growing demand at that) for your services.
It does mean though, that there will be competition.
And that’s exactly what this guide was written for.
To help you start and set up a dog walking business that will get you ahead from the start.
Are you up for the challenge?
If you are, then this simple little guide will help you to understand the key factors behind building a good quality dog walking business in the UK.
We’ll cover a variety of factors, such as:
- The benefits of being a dog walker (why you would actually want to be one)
- How to market your dog walking business (to ultimately grow and get more clients)- this is a particularly important segment to ensuring that your dog walking business is a success.
- How to properly price your dog walking rates (why you should probably be charging more than you think)
- Rules & Laws to being a successful dog walker (make sure you are properly getting law abided)
- How to write your dog walking business plan (set yourself for immediate and long term success).
These are some of the most important parts of being a dog walker.
And will play a leading role in helping you to decide and determine if this is a role that you can excel at.
It will give you all the help that you need to make sure you can build a successful dog walking business, and make sure it’s a business model that you can use for years to come.
Really, the deciding factors in what makes a good dog walking business are unique.
It can come down to all manner of factors, and often is determined by your willingness to do the groundwork.
i) Finding clients.
ii) Making sure you stand out from the competition.
iii) Ensuring you price your dog walking service.
iv) Offering a superior service
These are all a major part of the challenge in being a good dog walker — but if you nail them — you could very well have a dream job on your hands.
Especially if you are a dog lover.
Now all that sounds pretty tough.
However, it is by no means the challenge that you might think it is.
Not if you play it smart.
If you are serious about getting into this line of work, then, this simple guide will break down all of the information that you likely need to get started.
And might be even helpful to existing dog walkers who are looking to expand their business.
If you stick to the ideas in this guide, then I am certain that, come the end, you will feel very much attached to the idea of being in charge of your own dog walking business.
If that sounds like a place you would like to start with, then I can only recommend that you read on.
Sit back and grab a brew or two.
This might be a guide you want to bookmark — it’s deep.
To start off with, though, I want to answer a few pertinent questions for any would-be dog walker out there:
Why?
Why should you start your own dog walking business?
Why does it benefit you to do so?
7 Brilliant Kickass Benefits of Being a Dog Walker
Before deciding on this path.
It’s best to get a mental picture of exactly why it is pursuing it.
Like many people, you must realise how satisfying it is to be able to be your own boss, to be in charge of your own business.
However, while most people are more than happy to pay attention to the benefits of running their own business and being a dog walker, they don’t take into account the challenge of running your own business.
I will not lie to you — running your own business is tough. For one, you are fully, 100% accountable.
A lot of people struggle with that side of things: they are used to being only partially to blame for a workplace disaster.
As the business owner, though, you take maximum responsibility for all that you do.
That might seem like an unfair thing, but it’s just how being a dog walker is going to be.
Although you take 100% of the risk.
You also get 100% of the benefit.
Aim of the game is pretty simple then?
Minimize risk.
Maximize benefits.
If you are willing to persevere and work through the challenges of being a dog walker, then you should be able to benefit from its wonderful benefits.
What, though, are those benefits in the main?
#1 Get into Great Shape
One of the main reasons you might wish to go for the role of being a dog walker is that you will get fit from doing so.
Think about it; you are about walking all day, every day.
This is going to have a positive impact on your health, and make it much easier for you to start to feel good in a short period of time.
Most people who get into dog walking don’t realise just how good it can feel to get into the dog walking industry.
It feels good because you are out and about all the time.
Walking dogs often means that you will be working out a lot of the time, as walking is one of the best exercises that you can do.
A good bout of walking is only going to help you stay in better physical shape.
Not only that, but it will go a long way to making sure that you feel physically ready for the challenges ahead.
It’s down to this factor that many people want to be a dog walker: they want to feel better, to look at themselves and feel proud.
Being a dog walker will mean that you get to work out those leg muscles massively.
Before long, you will feel the strength in your legs.
If you keep on walking and keeping the movement up, you are almost certain to feel good thanks to all of that movement, fresh air, and interaction with dogs.
However, it’s also a good way to help make sure you can get your arms and shoulders in good condition: someone has to keep that cadre of dogs that you have with you in order, after all!
So, if you want to get into good physical shape through your work, dog walking is for you.
#2 See New Places
Another nice benefit of being a dog walker is that you will get to see a whole load of new places.
Many of us don’t get around too often, thanks to work and our general day-to-day life/schedule.
If you are someone who does not get around much, then you will find that being a dog walker gets you out, about, and seeing the local area — and further afield on weekends.
Dog walking will mean that you could be covering, easily, 70 miles plus per week.
Covering the best part of a trio of marathons every week is a lot of distance, meaning that you will probably be taking in a lot of new locations as you go.
From new public parks to areas that you might not normally visit — national parks, conservation areas, that kind of thing — you will find it very easy to use the art of dog walking to experiment and see the wider world.
For a lot of people, that is a major part of the fun of being a dog walker: you see places that you normally would not, helping to expand the excitement and interest of each day.
#3 Learn New Skills
One of the best parts of being involved in the art of being a dog walker is that you will get to learn a chunk of new skills.
For example, to get employed by someone you will most likely need to show them your skills in handling animals.
Therefore, you might wish to take the time to learn about things like pet medication, canine behaviour, and animal first aid.
Why?
Because you might need to administer treatment to a dog, or keep a dog on your walking list healthy with the medicine that it needs throughout the day.
However, the learning does not have to stop here.
You could become an expert in dealing with certain kinds of dogs, such as dogs with behavioural problems.
Or, you could become someone who is a bit of an expert in helping dogs to overcome their fears and problems in life.
That is part of what being a dog walker is about: this is more than just the art of walking a dog, it is the art of improving their lives.
For that reason, many people love to be a dog walker as it helps them to pick up new tricks — just like their dogs!
#4 Form a Relationship with the dogs
When you start to get regular clients and you begin to work with the same dogs, they will get to know you quite well.
For a lot of dog walkers, that is a major part of the fun of being a dog walker in the first place.
They get to see the dog jump, yap, and smile as they turn up.
That can give you a sense of immense satisfaction: knowing that a dog you do not own/feed is so happy to see you that they literally leap around the place.
If you worry that you might be struggling to get the right kind of reward for your job, then seeing dogs go absolutely nuts for you is a reward in its own right.
For many dog walkers, that is the best part of their day: seeing their ‘clients’ so excited to see them.
#5 Inspire Others
OK, so nobody wants to have competition floating around the place.
Yet, you cannot take on every dog that you see.
Not yet.
You being out and about and helping out local dogs in the community, though, could very well inspire someone else to get involved and start taking local dogs out for a walk.
Or perhaps a different route, where you inspire people who are on the edge of starting their own business.
You can the source of that added ‘oomph’.
#6 Helping Dogs to Improve
A major part of being a dog walker, though, is that you get to watch the dogs who you watch over and protect change, grow, and improve — all thanks to your input.
A dog will often be able to benefit from being around you, but they will also get to enjoy self-improvement.
While your dog cannot tell you what it has done today, you will notice a change in the demeanour and actions of a dog pretty quickly if you spend enough time with them.
For a dog walker, that can be immensely rewarding: to see the dogs change, improve, and grow into happy and positive canines.
If you are someone who appreciates the power of development, you will love helping dogs change their ways long-term.
For that reason, a lot of people get the biggest benefit from dog walking simply by watching dogs get better at life.
From making them more disciplined in helping them potty train, as a dog walker, you play an active role in their development from now on.
#7 You Are in Total Business Control
Outside of the things we mentioned above about being a dog walker, though, you are in total control of your business.
For a lot of people, being able to combine getting physically active and helping animals you love with being paid a sum of money you feel is suited to your skills is the perfect kind of job experience.
We all want to make a big more from our lives, and this often means being able — and willing — to work to get it.
As a dog walker, you will set your own hours, and your own rates.
Yes, you will need to wait until you have clients before you can say if your rates are fair, but you are the one who sets it.
If you feel like your present job (maybe as a dog walker for another company?) demands too many hours for not enough financial return, turning into a dog walker is a good way to solve that problem.
You will soon find that you are much more likely to get the job done because every penny is earned is yours.
You feel far more rewarded for your efforts.
So, now that we have covered just some of the benefits of being a business owner in the form of a dog walker, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.
How can you properly advertise a business aimed at walking dogs?
How to Market Your Dog Walking Business (The Successful way)
Alright, so now that you can see why being a dog walker might be such an awesome career path, what next?
What should you do next if you wish to take that next step?
Well, for one, you need to learn how to market that business.
As a dog walker, you have to be able to get your business seen, and this can take a lot of work.
Gary Vaynerchuk (a famous author of the Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook) says — you are a marketing company first, your actual business second.
Getting your marketing right is FUNDAMENTAL to the success of not just your business but any business.
If you take anything out of this guide, please let it be this.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular methods that would normally be used to help you stand out from the norm.
Word of Mouth Marketing
The most important and powerful form of marketing is, and likely always will be, word of mouth.
You will always listen to a close friend, a family member, a loved one, even a work colleague — heck, even Joe next door — over a random internet poster.
That is a good reason to make sure that you allow your dog walking business to be spread like wildfire by using word of mouth marketing.
As you might imagine, though, you need clients to get word of mouth recommendations.
And that is your biggest problem: landing those first few clients.
So, what can you do before you start using the all-power tool of recommendations from other people in the neighbourhood?
i) Build a Dog Walking Website
This is crucial for not just a dog walking business.
But for any business.
You can literally create your own little place on the internet that is going to provide you with dog walking clients for free, 24/7 at a very minimal cost.
It’s really a no brainer, particularly if you have no clients to begin with.
Like practically any other business in the world that is serious about making a go of it, you really need to have a website.
No dog walking business is going to thrive without being able to have a website to turn to, unfortunately.
A good quality website, though, will often go a long way to making sure your business can stand out from the competitors.
Now, I know what you’re thinking — websites are expensive.
Well yes, if you get a website developer to make one for you.
However, they are actually VERY affordable, especially given the return they provide you over their life.
You just have to build it yourself.
But you don’t know how to build one?
It’s actually super simple.
In fact, I’m going to walk you through it right now and you could have a site up and running in less than 10 minutes with 5 simple-to-follow steps:
#1 Choose a Website Host
The best value, best supported, safest and website host to go with in my opinion is: Siteground.
(Note: the above is an affiliate link)
#2 Select the Package for You
This is likely to be the Start Up Package.
#3 Choose Your Domain Name
This is going to be the name of your business or if you are starting out yourself I recommend that you go for something along the lines of locationdogwalker.co.uk.
So if you live in Britstol, it would be bristoldogwalker.co.uk — this is going to benefit you long run for SEO purposes (which we will get into more detail a little later).
#4 Fill in Your Details
And then confirm payment.
#5 Start a New Website
You will be taken to a new window where you can select start a new website.
This will take you a super helpful Siteground set up wizard and you can just follow the necessary instructions to do so.
This is a great video for those who are new to Wordpress.
Granted, there is a bit of a learning curve.
However, it really is not as dramatic as you might think.
Plus, it’s going to save you A LOT of money than having to use a website developer who is going to charge you potentially a £1000 to set up the site.
Then any further changes you might have to keep paying them to make — and can take a long while to implement.
I know it appears intimidating at first.
But honestly, it really isn’t — and it’s completely worth it.
You can contact the Siteground team anytime and they are incredibly helpful to make sure everything runs smoothly for you.
If you want to make the site stand out, then check out websites such as ThemeForest for dog walking website themes.
They can often tool you up with all the features that you need to make the website stand out and look good.
Then, you just need to fill in the content, add important information to the site, and encourage people to contact you.
That website is going to be the hub of all of your marketing. All of the other suggestions that we have below should follow along with this in mind.
Remember, too, that the website must be search engine optimised (SEO).
What the heck is SEO?
It basically means you want to be ranking at the first position in the Google Search Results for your desired keyword.
And that’s very likely to be:
“Your location” Dog Walker.
So if you’re in Manchester.
Your website should be set up to target:
Manchester Dog Walker.
Go ahead Google the search term “Manchester Dog Walker”. Who’s in first position?
Whoever it is, they are very, very likely gaining a lot of your potential dog walking clients.
So how do we knock them off the top?
You need to set it up to target that key term, and how do you do that? That’s where SEO comes in.
This is something you need to do yourself — a web designer isn’t going to help you with this.
Either that or you can get in touch with an SEO expert and they can carry out some SEO Audit services for you.
A basic overview of what you should be doing is the following:
Your content should be built around dog walking keywords.
So, if you were based in Manchester, you’d be looking to rank for key terms like ‘dog walking Manchester’ and ‘dog walker Manchester’ as well as even more local terms, right down to the local area where you are based.
Use the Google Keyword Planner to pick out keywords based on their competition level and their monthly search volume.
We can see for “Dog Walker Manchester”.
It gets 590 searches a month.
That’s a lot of people searching for a dog walker in Manchester.
And if you’re #1?
Your website will be the major driving force for growing your business.
Fill out your website with interesting blog content, touching on the important things in dog walking.
If you want to stand out from the competition, add in some extra value to the website as well.
For example, sometimes people will want to walk their dog on their own.
Writing articles like ‘5 Tips for walking your dog without issues’ or locally-aimed articles like ‘The 5 best spots in Manchester to walk your dog’ makes a lot of sense.
I get why you might be hesitant to do that; are you not signing away business by doing this?
Not really to be honest.
People will value your sharing of information that other companies would normally charge for.
They appreciate you giving them something of value for nothing in return.
People appreciate a business that does this and will be more than happy to come back to you in the future if they do need a dog walker.
Improving your SEO and ultimately your rankings.
So, fill out your website with useful content, list your prices (more on that later) and make sure it's populated with information the reader can feel valued by reading.
Showcase other dogs you are walking to provide social proof to prospects that other people are enjoying having you walk their dog.
This will improve the number of conversions for your site too.
Also, make sure that it is easy to operate.
I would study up on an SEO course too, to make sure you know what you need to do.
Now what?
Create a Google My Business account
The next step that you absolutely must tackle is the crating of a Google My Business account.
Otherwise known as GMB, it’s an essential part of reputation management, of brand building, and of search engine optimisation.
Go to Google just now, and type in something like ‘dog walker in LOCATION’ — and change LOCATION to your city.
When you do that, what do you see?
A map of the local area.
Now, I know what you are thinking. Big woop — so what?
Underneath that map will be a listing of businesses — in this case, dog walkers assigned to the local area.
Click on any of those links, and you can read more about the business, find out their opening times, find their location, and get contact details.
Your business definitely wants to be in that little grouping of listings for search terms like ‘dog walker in LOCATION’ and ‘dog walkers LOCATION’.
To claim a GMB profile, you simply need to go to the Google My Business page and claim your location.
If you have a business address, Google will send you a postcard to verify the address.
Then, you can verify and finalise your GMB profile in a few short days.
Get on it & get active.
Encourage people to leave reviews, perhaps with dog walking incentives attached.
The more reviews, the more posts attached to your GMB profile, and the more searches you bring in, the higher up the ladder you go.
Can you now see why having a GMB profile would be so useful to build up your dog walking business?
Using social media to your advantage
Another fine way to get more marketing and more visibility is to start using social media to your advantage.
I believe that one of the best ways to improve your visibility is to use social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
While I would probably make one for everything, from LinkedIn and Twitter to Snapchat and Pinterest, the first two are probably the best place to kick things off.
They tend to be a good place to start as you can so easily find people who are looking for a dog walker in your area.
Simply carry out searches for people who are using hashtags to do with dog walking or use the Ads system on Facebook and Instagram to target people based on their location and their topic of choice.
If they mention dogs, dog walking, or needing a dog walker, follow them.
If they start following you back, then you could wind up with a healthy number of followers in a short space of time.
Just be ready to engage with people, and not simply spam out links to your website or your advertisements.
Social media, used properly, is immensely powerful.
It’s all about the locality, though.
Don’t waste your time following accounts of people, businesses etc. outside of your catchment area.
Know where you want to work and use the various social media advertising tools to look for people only with their location listed nearby: this helps top optimise the quality of your conversions.
Local advertisement
While many people see the art of using local ads as dead, I would really hesitate to agree.
While the art of writing an ad can be tough, you can hire people with good local advertising copy experience.
Some local papers even offer an advertising writing service (though be ready to pay a fair amount for the help).
·Hiring someone, or doing it yourself, should be an effective way to help get yourself more visible locally. The main reason why a local advertisement works so well is because:
· Only people who are looking for your help will see it; only those interested will look in the ads section of their local papers.
· The quality of the people you can attract is increased, as only locals will be reading the paper, so you avoid needless enquiries.
· Local advertising is known to help make sure you can build up a reputation locally. Even if they don’t hire you, the readers will now know who you are.
However, you will want to make sure that you don’t just put out ads to feel as if you are doing something to remain visible.
Local advertising is a big expense, so you should be prepared to pay a pretty penny to get the help that you had wanted.
However, if you do it right, local ads are a good source of bringing in attention and interest in the kind of business that you are and doing so in a manner that won’t feel needlessly invasive.
Local events
A good way to make sure you can build up a rapport with locals is to reach out to them at local events.
For example, a good way to keep business flowing well is to attend a dog meet-up group.
For example, do you ever see people posting on social media, classified ads etc. that they are looking for a dog walker?
Then go along.
You can meet locals, build a relationship, and even get to know their dogs. Sometimes, people who go on local dog meeting experiences will want some help with their dog if they have a busy time coming up.
You could be then introduced as the solution to the local need for more dog walking aids, and thus more likely to get the call when they do need some help.
The secret with local events is making sure you are not too pushy.
Simply take your dog along, meet some locals, mingle, and hand out a few business cards when it seems right.
Don’t introduce yourself as a dog walker, though; you immediately just appear as someone who is trying to get some business for nothing.
Local services
Lastly, a rather abstract way of drumming up some regular business for yourself is to start going to local businesses.
For example, everyone from the local dog groomers to the local vet probably get asked about dog walkers.
If you were to go in and introduce yourself, you could offer them some kind of referral deal.
For everyone they recommend, you could give them X% of the cut of the money if they hire you, that kind of thing.
It can also be good to make sure that you even introduce yourself to other dog walking businesses.
When they are too busy to take on a dog but don’t want to lose a client, they could outsource them to you in a bid to make sure they keep the client.
It’s a simple and effective technique that more often than not can lead to business.
Yes, you are likely to find it odd, going to your competition asking for work, but I have seen it work many a time in the past.
Simply make sure that you take the time to look at this important aspect of getting a dog walking business off the ground: don’t be too proud to reach out to find opportunities.
So, now that we have a better idea of what kind of ways you could advertise a dog walking business, it’s time to move on to the next section.
Let’s take a look at a very undervalued part of being in charge of your own dog walking business: the pricing side of things.
Pricing is a hard thing to get right, so much so that we recommend you take the time to read through this quite closely.
It’s a tough section to get right, but something I really recommend you consider in detail.
Extra Reading: Dog Walking Advertising
How to price your dog walking business
So, if you are intent on creating a top quality dog walking business, the one thing you need to have is a good pricing plan.
Now, as I imagine, you probably want to know how much you can earn as a dog walker.
The average cost of a UK dog walker is around £5–10 per day, per day.
That might not sound like much.
You might now have a comical image of yourself trundling down the street, holding about 45 leashes, just to try and get some money in for the day.
However, it is not like that as a dog walker.
If you want to earn a solid living as a dog walker, then you absolutely need to be ready for the challenges that exist in dog walking on a day-to-day basis.
If you are someone who finds the aspect of being a dog walker quite a tough one to get your head around, then you should definitely look to read on and get a better handle on what I recommend.
So, I would recommend that, from the start, you should look to charge around £7–8 per dog.
That is a rate that is going to be cheaper than your most expensive competition, but not cheap enough to put people off hiring you in the first place.
That is a common mistake, and one that a lot of dog walking business owner swill make.
If you want to avoid that problem, then I recommend that you look to try and get a good price.
For a 30-minute dog walk (the average), you should be looking for around £7–8.
If you are taking more than one dog out, though, you could probably settle for a bit less — at first.
As time goes on, though, you want to increase your prices as much as you can.
Look at your biggest competitors: what are they charging?
Naturally, at the start, nobody will pick you over the top businesses with good reputations if the price is the same.
That is why having prices which are higher than the lowest, but lower than the highest, is the best happy medium for you to hit.
However, always be sure to match your pricing plan to the local area.
Don’t just go with the £7–8 per dog rate if your local competition is all in the £20+ range — charge a bit lower than the best, but more than the worst, in your local area.
You also need to think about tailoring your pricing plans as time goes on.
Making sure you get good value as a dog walker
I think one of the biggest mistakes that I see is dog walking businesses that lack self-belief.
You worry that someone will pick competitor A.
So, in a rush to secure the work, you basically promise to do stuff or a smaller price.
Before long, you are working more hours than you intended for a fraction of the money you should be on.
But you don’t want to turn around to your new clients after a few short weeks/months and tell them you are charging more.
What do you do?
For me, the best thing that you can do at this stage is to start making sure you can earn a living from the project.
Consider that one 30-minute dog walk could see you taking as many as 4–5 dogs out at once: that’s a good amount of money for not many hours work.
As your client list builds, you’ll be working longer hours, and thus bringing in a bit more money.
However, one thing I have to say is that you must take into account your overheads.
Many people think being a dog walker means no overheads apart from time.
That is not the case.
You need suitable travel arrangements to get around, so petrol becomes the first problem.
Then you also need to factor in the tools you need, such as dog leashes, treats for the dogs, that kind of thing.
Some clients will give you all this stuff, others expect you to provide it.
The challenge, then, is working out what you are investing to get the clients so that you can then charge accordingly to suit what you need to cover your time and costs and be left with a profit.
Working the hours that suit your clients, not yourself (at first)
The big problem you need to face up to, though, is that most dog walking businesses work the hours suited to their clients, not themselves.
With that in mind, be prepared to get the money that you need to fit into your schedule.
You might find you do a lot of Monday-Friday lunchtime shifts, as that is when your clients are working and thus need the dog picked up.
You aren’t likely to be able to tell a customer that you will work the hours you want.
If you do that too much, expect them to look elsewhere.
If they ask you to be there for X time, you need to be there Y minutes beforehand.
It’s all about being punctual and proving to the customer that you are worth their time and money.
That is a big challenge, and one of the many reasons why I recommend that you spend as much time as you can getting to grips with this side of being a dog walker.
You can make a lot of money, but you often must be prepared to sacrifice your time to fit in as many clients as you can.
The majority won’t need you in the early morning, or in the early evenings, so it’s either going to be late, late night stuff (avoid if you can), or afternoon work.
Lunchtime is the most common time that you will be working, so make sure that you can be ready to pick up the right dogs at the right time.
Get that right, though, and you can easily make a lot of money as a dog walker.
The challenge is making sure that you group up customers — who is happy to be walked in a group?
Who has the most/least flexible schedules?
Once you get used to doing that, though, you will be flying and making a fair amount of money.
Making sure you minimise travel times without being too picky will help you to make sure you earn more and spend less, too.
Dog Walking Prices & Rates
There are a lot of prices and rates that get quoted around when it comes to how much a dog walker can earn.
You just have to look to the press for indications of this.
For instance, the Daily Mail headlines it at being £64,000 a year — professional dog walking salary in 2015.
In reality, it just depends.
If you are trying to figure out your own rates and how much to charge as well as how much you are going to earn as a salary.
Know that, these are two different questions.
Firstly, let’s tackle the first question.
How Much Should You Charge?
Know this, it’s going to depend on a few things.
How many dogs you are walking?
Are you walking just one, two or a group? Typically a lot of professional dog walkers will charge more for one-on-one treatment, rather than a bundle all at once.
Location
Dog walker rates in London are going to be a lot different to those in Hull.
It’s going to take some investigative work, but we will get more into that in just a moment.
How long are you walking for?
Are you charging for a 30 minute walk or a hour long walk?
Do you charge by the hour.
Do you offer ‘extras’?
Do you make sure the dog is returned cleaner than when you picked up.
Do you send a picture of the dog enjoying themselves to let the owner know they are having a good time?
Do you give the dog healthy treats too?
Basically are going the extra mile that other dog owners don’t. A premium service, should entail a premium price.
There’s even more factors that we might have not considered that you have. What we do recommend you do that can prove helpful though is the following:
Spreadsheet Dog Walking Competitior Analysis
Fire up a google sheet or an excel file.
Here you are going to size up the competition.
Identify all the local dog walkers through their websites and note down their details. Is one a lot more expensive than the other? Is one undercharging? Why does this one get away with charging the most?
The idea is to not only help you get a ballpark figure of what you should be charging.
However, it’s to give you potential ideas too, to get an edge over the competition.
Think about how can you do things better, giving more value to the client than they can.
- Do you attach a tracker to the dog to ensure that this it is extra safe?
- Do you boast additional dog behavioural qualifications?
- Do you give the dog some additional grooming?
Overall, this should give you a much clearer idea as to the pricing strategy you are going with too.
(Note: I highly recommend you study up on some pricing strategy books too — one I certainly recommend is “How to Price Your Platypus” to give you the edge and how to justify your pricing).
You are able to plot the competition out and see exactly where you fit in and where there is a potential gap in the market.
The second question (which will actually help you with the above question too).
How Much Can You Earn?
Of course, you might charge the most.
Say £30 an hour. However, if you only plan on working one hour, 3 days a week.
You aren’t going to earn as much as the dog walker doing 10 hours a week, 7 days a week at even a third of that rate (£10 an hour).
There are a lot of factors that come into this.
Your expenses.
The amount of clients you have and the planned hours you want to work.
Your health (if you can’t walk as you’ve hurt your leg, you’re not going to earn much).
Ultimately, the amount you can earn depends on you. How much you charge, how many clients you have and how good of a grip you have of expenses.
If you do have a target in mind though, let’s say £50,000.
Then simply reverse engineer it.
£50,000 divided by 260 working days.
That’s roughly £200 a day.
To earn that at a rate of £10 per hour per dog. You need to be walking 20 dogs.
That could be 5 walks with four dogs at £10 an hour. 5 hours work? Not bad.
Of course, this doesn’t take into account expenses (with insurance etc.) but hopefully you get the idea, if you are wanting to set yourself a target — that you want to achieve.
From there, you can simply adjust the variables.
Don’t want to do 4 walks a day, or feel like you can do more? Can you handle more dogs? Less dogs? From here, this should feed into the point we made above too.
This should help give you an idea of what you want to end up charging your clients.
The point is though, that it is ultimately that you who determines how much you earn. If you are willing to walk dogs rain or shine, 365 days a year and have plenty of clients who want to work with you. Then you can probably make six figures.
More still, if you are prepared to hire staff.
It’s up to you if this is a serious money making venture or more of a lifestyle business. Either is great, just do what suits you.
The Rules of Being A Dog Walker
Now, I know that a lot of people see the concept of being a dog walker as win/win.
You get to spend all day with dogs, walking around and keeping fit.
You get to enjoy afternoons of being busy, seeing new places, meeting people, and making money.
Then, you get to just sit down, relax at night, and do it all again when you are in-demand. It’s a fun job that, once you get it right, will make a huge difference to the quality of your life.
Here is the reality, though: you need to be ready to meet the rules and regulations of being a dog walker.
Getting qualified
If you wish to work as a dog walker, you technically don’t need any experience or any qualifications.
You do, though, need to meet some very particular circumstances.
The first thing we want to make clear is that dog walking qualifications should be explored in full.
For example, many people will choose to go and get some relevant qualifications to do with dealing with pets.
For example, if you were to pick-up an animal first aid and/or animal medication qualification, you would do well out of it.
This is an important qualification to have, as many people will feel uneasy leaving their dog with you without it.
If they have a dog with dietary or lifestyle requirements (highly likely), then you are going to need to make sure you can look after the dog for them.
Therefore, people will want to know that you are good at handling their dog.
The other qualification that I recommend that you look at is animal behaviour and/or animal psychology.
People want to make sure they can leave their dog with someone who is good at handling animal-like issues.
If a dog has behavioural limits, they want to know that you are someone who can keep their dog calm and happy when they start to flake out.
So, while you do not need to have any qualification, you would be really leaving money on the table if you don’t.
People will want to know why they should be hiring you over another option or two — if you cannot give them a clear answer on that, you might just have lost out on a customer!
Qualifications are important — as a way to signal you out from the competition but also to ensure a superior level of service.
Anyone can walk a dog, technically.
Not so many people, though, can walk a dog well and ensure their health and well-being!
Eligibility and Trust
So, one thing that you absolutely MUST do is that you must invest time and money in making sure you are eligible to work as a dog walker.
This means that if you are to talk to someone about what you can bring to the table, they want to know that they can trust and rely upon what you are saying.
You’ve got the experience, and you have a few qualifications as listed above: now what?
You need to show that you can be trusted.
For example, you should be looking to get a clean and clear criminal record as soon as is possible.
If you don’t have a clean criminal record, then sorry: it’s going to be a stain on your reputation.
You will, though, need to go for what is known as a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
This gives you a copy of your criminal record and is basic level disclosure.
That’s very useful for those who want to show the world that they can be trusted.
This will show any convictions which are not spent. S
ome criminal issues and mistakes will vanish after a period of months: this will show any that are a permanent mark. You simply just need to pay a fee of £25, which can be done via debit/credit card, or via Google and Apple Pay.
To make this possible, all that you need to do is apply for a DBS check.
Getting NARPS-ready
So, another thing I feel is so important to point out is who you should be looking to join.
As a dog walker, you are the owner of your own business. Your business, though, still needs support.
That is why I recommend that you check out the National Association of Petsitters and Dog Walkers.
Otherwise known as NARPS UK, they are the trade association and the perfect guideline to get started with for becoming a better dog walker.
If anything crosses your mind about the legality of what you do, or how to do something, NARPS UK will have all the answers that you need.
Really, I cannot recommend signing up for their membership as soon as possible enough.
For a beginner, the information and detail they can give you are priceless.
It will cover many things that you might think about, but never look further into.
From the most obscure and particular of questions to requests built around specific problems, NARPS UK helps you to understand being a dog walker.
Just some of the vital things that they cover that I feel you must investigate are:
· The process involved in accepting a new client: what kind of information and detail do you need to ask for?
· Protecting the privacy of your clients — especially important now with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in place.
· How to handle the dogs when you take them outdoors, and your responsibility involving cleaning up after the dogs you have.
Signing up for membership, by the way, gets you access to things like a training course, insurance, forms, and contract plans for clients, full-scale support, and advice, and even a website for your business.
While you can do much of this without NARPS, you would now have total confidence that what you have put together is suitable.
Signing up for NARPS would also be good for making sure that you can stand out as a more credible option.
It’s like when you go to hire a tradesman/woman and you see that they are qualified by certain trade bodies.
It just offers a bit more self-belief that the service you offer is going to be good enough.
They also have a brilliant training course on animal law and regulation: be sure to look into this. It will ensure you can get the right legislation, and make sure you sit on the right side of the law.
Another fine place to look to for advice on this kind of stuff is Startups.
This is a leading resource for new business start-ups, and I recommend you look thoroughly at their expert analysis of starting your own dog walking business.
For example, they have a brilliant piece on dog walking regulations: I cannot recommend reading it over enough.
Alongside the information in this guide, it should help to reinforce your knowledge of what being a dog walker means and entails in the long-term.
Learn your laws
I recommend, too, that you spend some time looking over some of the following animal related laws:
· The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environments Act 2005.
· The Road Traffic Act 1988.
· The Dogs Act 1871 and Dogs Act 1953.
· The Control of Dogs Order 1992 and The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
Alongside the useful information you would get from joining up with NARPS, this should give a good grounding on what you need to know about being a dog walker.
It’s a tough thing to get into and to learn from: I recommend that you take your time to master all these laws before you make any more decisions about becoming a dog walker.
Also, at the very least, you should make sure you have Public Liability Insurance.
NARPS registration would make it easy to get this, but at around £140/year, it’s a very much worthwhile expense.
This is great for making sure that you can feel like you can take the dogs out and not have to worry so much about the personal financial damage that could come from the dog acting out or being destructive.
Get used to doing lots of paperwork
Sorry if I am shattering your illusion here, but it is very important to note being a dog walker means spending a lot of time doing paperwork.
I hate it.
You hate it.
We all hate it. But for professional purposes and for taxation purposes, you need to keep a lot of paperwork around the place. I
Is it annoying?
Yes.
It’s also crucial to making sure you can become a dog walker and do it right.
Writing A Dog Walking Business Plan
Now that you are more familiar with the concept of running your own dog walking business, you have to create the business.
Just like any other business, though, you must show that this is a viable and legitimate business that has a clear plan behind it.
The UK has seen one too many fly-by-night businesses that fail to plan.
As such, you are expected to show the UK Government why your business is one that they should incorporate.
To do that, you create your dog walking business plan.
Now, the reason that a lot of people worry about when they hear about writing a business plan is they freak out over analysis.
Don’t worry: you aren’t expected to start handing in all manner of sketches of dogs, dog walking route plans, and massive financial details with all manner of graphs etc. attached. I
It’s nowhere near as hard as it sounds: something I want to show you by giving you some good ideas below.
The real aspect of it, is not the plan itself.
But the questions that it poses that you might not have asked yourself but makes you wonder about them.
What should a business plan entail?
Any good business plan is the equivalent of a plan for a novel.
If you wanted to become an author, you would need to go to a publisher with the idea of the book.
It would include who the book involves, what the book is about, why the book is being written, where the book is based, and when the book is going to be ready for.
A dog walking business is similar, but still a little different.
You will need to answer a series of questions.
t will show the government or any investor what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what reasons they should read over to see why your business is worth backing in the first place.
What if you don’t have any investors?
That’s fine.
You still need a business plan, though. You’ll often need to show one when starting the business, but you also need to have one for yourself to stick to.
It means that you can turn to it and see if you are on track — and it also gives an easy document to remind yourself of where you want to be as a dog walker.
So, to make sure you have a business plan worth looking through, try and include the following details throughout the business:
· What kind of business is it going to be? This is important to note. Is it a sole proprietorship? A Single Member Limited Company? I recommend the former to start with.
· Who is involved in the business? This will be determined in part by the above. If you are the only person involved in the business, it can be a sole proprietorship.
· Where will you be based? A good dog walking business plan breaks this down in huge detail for the reader. Explain where you will be working, your catchment area (with images), and what kind of locations you will spread out to as the years go on.
· What will you walk? Will you go for a certain kind of dog? Or just any kind of dog? Solo trips, or group walks? Make this clear. What kind of dogs will you work? Where will you intend to walk them?
· When will you be working? While this is often a flexible answer, try and mark down how many hours you intend to be working. It often starts small (due to lack of clients) and ramps up. Make sure you look to understand this part of the process, as it’ll help you with planning.
· What do you see your business becoming? In the long-term, could you ever try to franchise your business or look to bring in more staff? Again, this is a more abstract answer, but one you should look to try and answer as best you can in any dog walking business plan.
· How will you service your clients? Most important of all, though, is showing how you will serve your clients.
Will you just be a dog walker?
Or will you look to include other services and skills as time goes on?
Define what you will offer so that you know exactly what you do.
Now that there is a clear set-up of your goals and aims, it’s important that you look to try and make more of the business plan.
Try and make sure every goal is a clear, concise plan — not a ramble or an empty promise.
Basically, try and write it in a way so that you can read it in a years’ time, a decade’s time, and know exactly what you meant!
Defining your market
The next most important part of a good dog walking business plan is making sure it is clear about who you will target, and why.
If you want to write a dog walking business plan that does the job intended, then it must be well-researched.
So, rather than just being ‘a’ dog walker, you want to be ‘the’ dog walker to a certain kind of dog (or dog owner). Who would that be?
For example, do you wish to build a dog walking business that is all about certain kinds of dog?
Or do you want to build a dog walking business that looks at dogs with behavioural issues?
Try and be very specific about your ideal client.
But remember that you can hire outside of this; it’s merely to give a clear idea of who you plan on working with most of the time.
This part of the business plan should be based around important questions such as:
· Is there a big enough demand where you live for a target audience?
· If so, how do you intend to target them and get more business?
· If not, where do you intend to travel to for more of our ideal client?
· How will you then advertise your business in these areas?
· Why will this form of advertisement resonate with your ideal client?
· How much money can you afford to spend on advertising to start with?
Every one of those questions is essential to building a well-defined, authentic looking business plan.
If you are serious about making sure you have a plan that people can stick to and enjoy learning from, the making sure you spend as much time as you can researching all the above will be useful.
Things might change from the plan as the years go by for now, though, you have to show you have a definitive plan to everyone: investors, even just yourself!
What will you provide?
I mentioned earlier on that I believe it’s important that you do more to define the services you provide.
This should include making sure that you have a clear costed breakdown (with room for leeway) in the services you offer.
Research other competitors and nationwide businesses in similar economies to where you are based.
Use them as a reference for your pricing model and show why you believe your own business could match-up to that competitor in time.
A successful business will always have a clear plan of action in mind to make sure you can specialize in some key areas.
If you want to build a reputation, then it’s better to have 2–3 services you are brilliant at, than 5–6 services you can only do a passable job on.
As a dog walker, this means creating a price structure should be surprisingly simple.
Try and explain that smaller service catalogues and smaller pricing plans will change over time.
It’s just a plan: you could even show what increments you would increase at what milestones.
For example, if you now had 20 clients, you could look to improve prices by X%.
Make clear if that is your plan, and you should find it a fair bit easier to start moving forward in your plan.
Ask around local dog walking businesses — as a ‘potential customer’ — to see what they charge.
If they aren’t offering a clear pricing plan online, find out why. It could give you a good idea to help fill in some of the blanks on your business plan.
How will it be financed?
While you might be starting a business on your own, you still need to show that your business can survive until you find some clients.
A dog walking business will not need much to get you started, so work out the products you need to buy.
Things like dog supplies, dog treats, items such as leashes, balls, toys etc. are all things to include as part of your early days investment.
Since you likely don’t need to hire staff or bring in any additional buildings, you will be spending a less money on being a dog walker than you might expect.
Get some basics down on there, though, like portable dog water bowls, leashes, walking tools, first aid kits, and toys for the dogs to enjoy.
You won’t have a big financing section, but it’s important to show what you need to buy to get started — and how that will be paid for.
Keep in mind, though, that any advertising or business tools — from flyers and business cards to websites and offline marketing ads — will also need to be included as a start-up cost.
Everything from content for the website to a business logo will need to be looked at, also.
Showing Who You Are
A small but important section to have is your company profile.
So, for example, try and break down things like your vision, your aim, your ambitions, and what you believe is an example of a good client-staff relationship.
Give people every reason to believe that you have the nous and experience to help them grow and improve.
Show anyone reading the business plan that you have a clear plan in mind about how you handle disputes, your commitment to punctuality, that kind of thing.
It’s vital that you consider this quite carefully, as showing you are committed to a customer-centric approach to business is very important.
Show that you are committed to making your dog walking as safe as possible and that you are committed to making that part of your business.
Legal requirements
We spoke about this earlier, but I just wanted to reiterate that a good dog walking business plan will always have a good section on your legal needs.
This means mentioning the following:
· What kind of qualifications licensing you need/intend to get for your business?
· What forms of insurance you have picked up for the entire business?
· The kind of terms you have: client contracts, liability wavers etc.
An understanding of dog law across the UK, as well as leash laws and litter laws.
This is a small but essential part of your business plan. It’s going to help make sure that you can show anyone reading the plan that you have done your research.
Is your business plan good enough?
So, lastly, I want to touch on something: something I am going to call ‘commitment confidence’.
You have penned your business plan, now you want to know one thing: is it any good?
I recommend that you look to work with a local government group, or a local education facility such as your local college or university.
Someone, there is often likely to be involved in the art of business start-up and can usually offer you advice on whether your start-up covers all the information that it should.
They can also remind you that no business plan for a dog walking business is set in stone: much can change from planning to incorporation!
Not sure if you can write a dog walking business plan?
We’ve all been there.
Writing a dog walking business plan is not something I would recommend to a newbie.
It’s tough, and it can take a huge amount of work and effort. It’s also to make incorrect claims or assertions in good faith that could be held against you in some capacity.
With that in mind, might I recommend that you hire someone to do the writing for you?
Simply do a Google search for ‘dog walking business plan writer’ and you can find all manner of quality people doing business plans specifically for your niche.
So long as they are as UK company and grasp the UK requirements for a business plan, you should have little to no problem in hiring this person and having them produce a high standard of work for you.
If you are confident that you can grasp the idea of writing a business plan alone, then give it a shot.
However, if you worry that you might be making a mistake, then you should absolutely hire someone to do the work for you.
A dog walking business plan must meet all the above recommendations. If you cannot do that on your own, hire someone!
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read through my guide on how to start a dog walking business.
I hope that by now you are feeling excited about the whole thing.
There is a lot to do and so much to achieve: the secret now is to start taking action.
I have given you much of the information that you need to go and research: it is now up to you do it and to take part.
Building a dog walking business is a fun, exciting, and profitable way to make a living.
It’s also a great place to be when you are serious about building a long-term business that you 100% own.
The challenge is doing it right.
Hopefully, though, you now feel a lot more confident in knowing what a dog walking business is, what it involves, and how you can go about setting it up in the most effective way.
Now, I want you to take action.
Start researching that business plan.
Design your logo or hire someone to do it.
Start looking at other searching dog walking businesses nearby and across the country.
Build a clear, cohesive strategy to turn this into a business.
Sadly, I cannot do it for you. Now, you need to be ready to get started and to build a dog walking business that is made the way you always wanted it to be.
You are in total, 100% control of that business.
The secret, though, is getting started.
When will you let yourself off the leash and start building your own business, then?
