How to set up a dog walking business
The Complete Guide
How to start a dog walking business
To start a dog walking business, there are a number of things you should consider before launching your business.
Qualifications and experience
- What qualifications do I need?
Whilst you don’t need any qualifications to become a dog walker, having experience with dogs is an absolute must.
What if you don’t have any experience?
You can ask your friends and family and if you can take theirs out to build your experience.
2. Is a dog walking business right for you?
You need to ask yourself if you enjoy being around dogs and feel confident handling them – there’s a lot more to it than playing ball.
3. Do you have enough dog knowledge?
If you don’t, you could offer to volunteer at a local animal shelter. It is a good place for you to get to know various different breeds and develop an understanding of how to manage a number of different animals at once.
Dogs behave differently in a pack environment, so it is important that you have experience managing more than one at a time before beginning your business.
Knowing the costs
Starting a dog walking business is like starting any other businesses, there will always be costs involved such as marketing costs.
There are many free ways to promote your dog walking business such as putting a note in your local shop but most ways will cost money such as printing out flyers or advertising on online marketplace.
Make sure you take these costs into consideration when budgeting.
Promoting your dog walking business
- If you want your dog walking business a successful one, you need to know how to market and promote your business.
Online directories
Add your profile on as many dog walker directories as possible, you can add via the links below.
- Puppydoggies (Free and $0 commission fees)
- Madpaws
- Pawshake
- Airtasker
Building a customer base
Advertising will help to get you new clients, however what is more important is to keep your clients happy and get referrals from them. By doing that you are growing your customer base and if you reach a point where you cannot take on all the jobs you can setup your own network and refer jobs to other dog walkers in your network and take commissions in return.