By Stacy Hansen
Are you thinking of starting your own pet sitting or dog walkingbusiness?
Here is a great starting point:
Step by step instructions to getting set up for success!
Decide what sort of services you would like to offer. Many willstart out offering pet sitting and dog walking then will branchout as suggestions from current clients roll in. Once you aresecure with the pet sitting and dog walking end of it, startbranching.
If you have a lot of competition in your area, offer somethingto set yourself apart from others. One thing I offered in mybusiness was coming home service. I would charge a small fee torun to the grocery store and pick up some milk, bread and anyother fresh item for my client so they do not need to botherwith that. I did that because I know how much I hate coming homeand having to stop at the supermarket.
Once you know what you want to offer, it is time to set up thebusiness.
First, you need to set up a business name before you can get alicense or go any further. Your name should be catchy. You wantyour potential clients to look over all the other "common" and"cutesy" names and go straight to yours. The trick to being atthe top of the list is to start your name with the letter "A".Having a name that ties you to the community works best, in myopinion. For example, if you live in Westown, you can call yourbusiness, "A+ Westtown Pet Care". Just make sure no one elsetook that name first. Try to get creative as well. There aretons of Pampered Pets and such. They have been played outenough. Move on to something else.
Now that you have a name, you can get licensed. Here is a linkto the SBA, to see if you need a business license in your state.Just find your state and click on it. Many will just need toregister with the state and will not need a license, but itvaries....http://www.sba.gov/hotlist/license.html. After youcheck with your state, try your local, township office.Sometimes, they want to know about your business as well and youmay need approval. Just make sure all ground is covered so youdon't run into any surprises. I actually went to a townshipmeeting this month and they discussed another individual wantingto start a business selling cars on Ebay. He said the cars wouldbe in a garage and never seen by neighbors, but he still neededto get approval. This surprised me. I never thought abouttownship approval.
Once you are licensed, it is time to set up the paperwork partof your business. You will need a service contract for yourclients to sign. You will need a report card to record what youdid during visits. You will need a way to track medications youmay need to administer, you will need instruction sheets on howto take care of the pets and the home. Those are the mostimportant and "necessary" forms you will need. Soundoverwhelming? Do you have the time and skill to develop theseforms? Don't fret. Go to www.businessformsstore.com . All theseforms are there for you as well as more you may need. The kickwith these forms is that they come personalized. They will comewith your business name and logo if you have one. They also havemany flyers to choose from which will also have your businessname and phone number on it. When you are ready to hireemployees or independent contractors, you can get those formsthere as well. When I develped my forms initially, it took me,literally, months of research and design and I am prettycreative. It was tough. That is why they are now offered to youall! Alright, now you have a business name, license and thepaperwork. You are getting closer...
Next you need insurance. Insurance is a MUST. There are so manythings you can run into and you should be protected. You maythink you can get away with it, but, Murphy's Law, somethingwill happen when you are not prepared. Insurance is prettycheap, running less than $200/year. You can get insurance fromyour local carrier if offered or you can get from a specialist.Most pet sitters will go through organizations to get thereinsurance, like PSI or NAPPS. I used PetSit, LLC. It skippedover all the beaurocratic nonsense I didn't want. It is stricklyinsurance. They say it is a membership, but never got hassledwith anything, so I liked it. PSI and others have a test to takeand more, I think. I never signed up for any of those, so can'treally tell you much. I do know most do, so maybe they offersome great things. I would definately check it out and decide onyour own. Here are the websites: PSI: www.petsit.com NAPPS:http://www.petsitters.org/Insurance/insurance_index.htm PetSit,LLC: www.petsitllc.com . Napps and PSI use Insurers of theCarolinas. You can check them directly athttp://www.petsitterinsurance.com/ .
Next is bonding. Now, bonding is not necessary if you areworking alone. If you have employees, you would want it. Bondingis there to protect your company against employee theft. Somebonding companies, however, will include the owner as anemployee and, therefore, you will be covered. Make sure youcheck on this. The way bonding works is if your client accusesyou or an employee of theft, the police are involved. If you oran employee is convicted of the crime, the bond pays out and youthen repay the bond. Some clients want you to be covered andpeople will get it as a marketing tool. It is up to you if youwant to purchase it. Now, PetSit, LLC offers a specialadditional coverage which will cover theft and accidents. It isaround $85/year. The special part of that is it is like bonding,only you don't have to pay it back and don't have to getconvicted. Check out www.petsitllc.com for more information.Okay, you are bonded, licensed, insured and physically ready tostart. Now you need to get clients...
Marketing is the trickiest, most frustrating and time-consumingpart of this business. Once you get some clients, the ball willstart rolling more by word-of-mouth, but for now, you need toadvertise...
Flyers are the cheapest and are best for getting just your area.Go get your personal flyer at www.businessformsstore.com andstart distributing. Now, you can't put them in people'smailboxes without going through the post office...it is illegal.But, you can put them on people's doors and cars. The bestplaces I have found are the pet food stores...not only PetSmartor Petco but local smaller stores. Pet Stores also work good.Post office bulletin boards are great and so are supermarkets.Basically, anywhere you go which has a bulletin board, put yourflyer there. The best would be a Vet offices. If they offerboarding, you may want to get on their good side so they willrefer their clients to you especially when they are booked.Another good advertising technique is the community newspaper.It is cheap, about $10/week and everyone gets one for free.After that we go up in price. Getting in the yellow pages isexpensive and you can only get in at the right time of the yearwhen they are publishing their new book. Call for rates. You cando tons of internet advertising and tons for free... Go tohttp://www.businessformsstore.com/free_business_listings_for_animal_care_professionals for a list of places to advertise forfree. You can also advertise there for free if you have awebsite with a reciprocal link. Alright, now you are advertisedand you should be getting that first call any day now...but whatare you going to get asked and are you ready to answer questions?
They are going to first ask what your rates are. Do you knowwhat you want to charge? Keep it simple. I see people chargingflat rates to all these extras. Don't confuse your potentialclients and don't make it seem more difficult. This will turnthem away. Be straight to the point. This is what I did... Icharged $1o for a 15 minute visit, $15 for a 30 minute visit and$20 for an hour. Now, keep in mind this was 5 years ago and gascertainly wasn't even close to this expensive. I did this tomake things easy. If a client just has a cat, you want a simple,cheap alternative for them. If they have 5 cats, 4 dogs and 2rabbits, you know it will take some time for you to cleanlitter, cages, feed, water and then give them attention, so youknow the $10 and even $15 rate doesn't apply. If you are goingto service a larger area, you may want to do a mileagesurcharge, but that is up to you. Even though gas prices are up,your really are not spending too much more per day. Maybe adollar or too. Work it out. You will see. If you want to offerextra services as optional to try to make more money, that wouldwork just fine. For example, pooper scooper. You may want tocharge $5 per day or per trip, it depends on how many and howbig the dogs are. If you want to charge extra for watering theirgarden for them, you can do that. Have all you want to offer andrates written out and ready for their call.
They will ask you what is included in the pet sit. Make sure youhave a list of that also. For example, you may offer free mailand newspaper pick up, free light alteration, free trash tocurb, etc. Be prepared to talk about your services. You shouldalso tell them what you will be doing with the pet, which iswhat they do everyday to keep the pet in it's same routine. Thisis the purpose of having a pet sitter over boarding. HomeBusiness Forms ( www.businessformsstore.com ) has a great petsitting package which includes all you will need. In thispackage is a telephone reservation form and pet and clientinstruction sheet. You will use these to document all they willbe requesting.
They will ask you if you have insurance and bonding. They mayask some specific coverage questions. I have a Q&A on the yahoogroup PetPro about this. Go tohttp://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/PetPro/ to sign up andread about these coverage questions. This is also a good supportgroup for those just starting out and those already pet sitting.
Lastly, hopefully, they will ask if you are available and willbook you!
It may seem overwhelming reading this, but it will become secondnature once you get started.
For more information on this business and other aspects of petcare, go to www.businessformsstore.com . This site covers areassuch as pet sitting, dog walking, boarding/kennelling, in-homeboarding, aquarium maintanence, pet taxi, house sitting and somuch more. You can also email Stacy atinfo@businessformsstore.com with any questions.
Good luck with your business endeavors!
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