Here are the pros and cons of starting a dog walking and/or dog running business. Plus, these are necessary considerations if you're comparing dog walking to the pros and cons of pet sitting.
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There's no doubt it takes enormous amounts of skill in a variety of disciplines to effectively start and grow your pet business.
Skillful marketing, hiring, management, customer service...all these things, among many others, are required for success.
I'd say that one item in particular outranks all the others in importance, though. Because, without it, you will never ever have a chance to succeed.
It is...
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What are the top 10 gifts you can give to your pet sitting and dog walking clients?
I've compiled a list of ideas that you can pull from for all occasions, whether it's a holiday gift, a special day, or just a friendly "thank you" item.
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Would you like it if your pet sitting business had more consistent weekly and monthly revenue? How about if you could make more money and do less work at the same time?
What if you could eliminate most of the time you spend scheduling visits with your clients? And substantially reduce the time and effort that goes into coordinating your staff's visit schedule?
And what if your holidays were less crazy but you still made good money?
Well, you can do all this. And it's pretty easy. Here's how.
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Getting your dog walking and pet sitting clients a holiday gift is a great idea. It shows you care about them and appreciate their business, among other things.
I've heard of lots of great gift ideas before.
My favorite though is...
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So you're all happy that a new dog walking or pet sitting client is going to use you. You've had a great consultation with them. They seem like super-nice people.
Then, they drop this on you...
"Well, John. I'd like to use you but your prices are higher than your competition. Since I'm going to be using you for dog walking 3 times per week, I think I should get some type of volume discount."
They're trying to negotiate with you. They want you to discount your rates.
So, you freeze. You have no idea what to say next. You thought they were going to be such an easy client to work with and then they throw this monkey wrench into the equation.
How do you react? What do you say next?
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When your clients ask you for a "deal", should you discount your dog walking and pet sitting prices? Or should you stay with your normal rates?
I say...don't do it! Stick to your normal prices.
To understand why I think you should not discount your rates, let's break this down and first talk about why you think you might provide some type of discount.
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Here's a website review for Auburn Home Watch. Overall, they've done a nice job and we can make it even better with a few tweaks on their home page and navigation.
As of the date of this article, they are already in process to make some updates. It will be interesting to see a "before & after" comparison.
Watch the video below to get some ideas for how you can make your own site better.
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One day it will happen for the first time. Then, eventually, it will happen every day.
It's the dreaded client call asking you to somehow alter their scheduled visits at the last second. For many dog walking and pet sitting business owners, this is the bane of their existence.
Since these alterations will require extra work and time - and a hefty dose of frustration - should you charge your dog walking and pet sitting clients extra for changes, cancellations, and additions to their schedule?
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Dog walking and pet sitting is not really a 9 to 5 job. It's a service business so you work when people need you.
With that comes the need to work on weekends and make after-hours visits outside of the normal Monday-Friday, 9-5 workday.
So should you charge more for these weekend and after-hours visits?
I'll make the case for both sides of the issue, but I definitely like one over the other.
