Starting Your Own Dog Walking Business

Dog walking is one of the most viable businesses you could venture into. Similar to majority of the service-oriented businesses, the startup capital or costs are minimal while the financial rewards can be high. With this kind of dog business, you can both combine work and fun especially if you're a natural dog lover. So, what are the steps or requirements in starting your own dog walking business? The following short list should be a helpful guide.

• Plan, search, and identify your business' location. Dog walking can be a home-based business. But there are always circumstances when you needed to offer your service outside your community or locality. You have to determine whether there is a large population of household dogs that you can service. The majority of owners availing the dog walking service are those who are relatively busy working, studying, or attending to something important. Thus, your startup location should not only concern the population of dogs but also the actual need for the service.

• Concerns on registration or business documents. The need for business registration and documentation will generally depend on the scale of the dog walking business you are planning to put up. If it's a formal type or somewhat a large scale business with an office, equipments, etc, you will have to go through the legal process. But if you are planning to have a dog business that is micro in nature and which you consider only as a sideline, then, you don't need to stress too much on the documentation requirements. You can always start your high profit dog walking service business almost instantly.

• Determine your service price. Pricing is one of the startup concerns for this dog-related business. And when it comes to pricing your walking services, the most ideal way is to charge an hourly rate. You can nominate the price you want. But the industry average ranges from a low rate of $10 to as high as $25. You can alternately check the prevailing rate in your area for you to set a more competitive startup price. Instead of hourly charging, you can also charge the dog owner on a per-visit basis.

• Learn how to walk doga. If you are new to this venture, learning the essentials of dog walking is a must. The dog owners are entrusting their beloved pets to you. Hence, it is just right for you to know what you are doing. Having the right knowledge will also ensure that you will provide the best or excellent service.

• Invest in your equipment. This business does not only involve walking. It's essentially a form of baby-sitting a dog, hence; will require you to have a complete set of dog essentials from leashes, dog foods, certain grooming or training items, cage, etc. Since it is a business, you should consider these equipment and supplies as inputs or investments.

• Promote or advertise your service. Potential customers won't know that you are into this kind of dog business if you won't tell or inform them. After organizing all the things that you'll need in the business, the final thing to do to turn it into a high profit dog walking service is to accumulate as many customers as you can though marketing and promotion. You could sell your service manually by visiting homes, pet shops, and dog centers, or, you could create ads and other types of interesting posters.

Find these and other helpful tips in my eBook at: http://www.DogBusinessEBooks.com

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