Thoughts on a dog walking business?

[jhbucks16]

Hey everyone,

I've recently identified an area to provide value within my city. There's a large demand for dog walking and from what I can see, there's also a lot of room for improvement on what already exists for the area.

I would follow the general blueprint outlined by MJ in The Millionaire Fastlane . That is, provide a value skew and then build to effect millions. In this case that would mean eventually beginning a franchise for the dog walking brand and selling it throughout the country, potentially further.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this or can identify an obvious reason as to why the idea is flawed that I'm not seeing?

Thanks heaps

 

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[stefanlazar]

Hey everyone,

I've recently identified an area to provide value within my city. There's a large demand for dog walking and from what I can see, there's also a lot of room for improvement on what already exists for the area.

I would follow the general blueprint outlined by MJ in The Millionaire Fastlane . That is, provide a value skew and then build to effect millions. In this case that would mean eventually beginning a franchise for the dog walking brand and selling it throughout the country, potentially further.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this or can identify an obvious reason as to why the idea is flawed that I'm not seeing?

Thanks heaps

Hello! I don't have any real business experience but how are you planning to walk the dogs? You'd have to do great marketing and it'd require quite a lot of effort to schedule every "dog pick-up", and what if the owners are not home? for example : pick up dog 1 at 8 AM and drop him at 8.30, then go to the second house to pick up the second dog and drop him in X time, but you'd reach a time of day when most people aren't home, or you'd have to go from one corner of the town to another and waste a lot of time. And this is in a best-case scenario)

Maybe you could make a profitable morning side-hustle out of it? For example, let's say you charge 20$ for every dog walk (that would be around 600$/month/loyal client) and you walk them for about 30 minutes ( I don't own a dog so I don't really know how much time it takes for each dog walk) and you do a job so great that you can walk 6 of them at a time. You'd make about 240$ an hour ( without accounting for the time it takes to collect the sh1t, drop off the dogs, walk up to each new house, etc.) And let's not forget that most people go to work pretty early.

This "plan" may be flawed as I don't know much about dogs, but it seems that you'd require a lot human resources, and this wouldn't work as a business, because you're violating the Commandment Of Time. Unless you want to invent a dog-walking robot.

OR you could provide the marketing for other people that would like this side hustle. For example: Talk to your friend Joe -> "Hey Joe, wouldn't you like to make 240$ every morning by walking some dogs?" -> Joe says: "Yea bro I LOVE dogs!!" -> You find dog owners and talk to them -> Make a map plan for joe -> Joe does the job every morning -> You take half of the profits -> You now have a "dog-walking" side-hustle that's (almost) completely automated and you make money every morning.

 

[BlackLands]

Hello! I don't have any real business experience but how are you planning to walk the dogs? You'd have to do great marketing and it'd require quite a lot of effort to schedule every "dog pick-up", and what if the owners are not home? for example : pick up dog 1 at 8 AM and drop him at 8.30, then go to the second house to pick up the second dog and drop him in X time, but you'd reach a time of day when most people aren't home, or you'd have to go from one corner of the town to another and waste a lot of time. And this is in a best-case scenario)

Maybe you could make a profitable morning side-hustle out of it? For example, let's say you charge 20$ for every dog walk (that would be around 600$/month/loyal client) and you walk them for about 30 minutes ( I don't own a dog so I don't really know how much time it takes for each dog walk) and you do a job so great that you can walk 6 of them at a time. You'd make about 240$ an hour ( without accounting for the time it takes to collect the sh1t, drop off the dogs, walk up to each new house, etc.) And let's not forget that most people go to work pretty early.

This "plan" may be flawed as I don't know much about dogs, but it seems that you'd require a lot human resources, and this wouldn't work as a business, because you're violating the Commandment Of Time. Unless you want to invent a dog-walking robot.

OR you could provide the marketing for other people that would like this side hustle. For example: Talk to your friend Joe -> "Hey Joe, wouldn't you like to make 240$ every morning by walking some dogs?" -> Joe says: "Yea bro I LOVE dogs!!" -> You find dog owners and talk to them -> Make a map plan for joe -> Joe does the job every morning -> You take half of the profits -> You now have a "dog-walking" side-hustle that's (almost) completely automated and you make money every morning.

What if Joe decide to take your clients and doing sovavoiding to pay your half?

 

[parabolic]

Selling a dog walking brand as a franchise seems very unlikely to me. A more realistic idea would be to create an app/website that allows people to book a dog walker/sitter/other services and you collect fees. Provide more value to your customers than the other apps/websites and you will win.

If you want to try dog walking as a side hustle first - go out there, find some clients and walk some dogs.

 

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[Rangermac2]

Hey everyone,

I've recently identified an area to provide value within my city. There's a large demand for dog walking and from what I can see, there's also a lot of room for improvement on what already exists for the area.

I would follow the general blueprint outlined by MJ in The Millionaire Fastlane . That is, provide a value skew and then build to effect millions. In this case that would mean eventually beginning a franchise for the dog walking brand and selling it throughout the country, potentially further.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this or can identify an obvious reason as to why the idea is flawed that I'm not seeing?

Thanks heaps

If there is a need then there is potential for profit. I don't have experience with dog walking but I do with a dog sitting business. Many pet owners prefer to keep their dogs at home rather than boarding them at a kennel which provides a skew compared to if the dogs were sent to kennels for boarding where they will be walked, fed, and provided for. I kept my operations small mainly due to me being a one man business but I had opportunity to expand with many asking for good dogs service. I was averaging about $40 a day for about 2 hours of work. Arguably if structured more professionally you could charge more. You could offer all the perks of boarding but including things like watering house plants and caring for pets and checking up on the client's home.

I was dog sitting at maybe 15-16ish and it paid pretty well, providing myself money to invest in future endeavors. Add some additional skew and trust and it would be profitable. One difficulty is getting employees. I mentioned my age when I did that work because depending on juvenile work, you could potentially hire teenagers for flexible hours and well paying work. Reinforcing the belief of responsibility as it would be a legitimate business.

Entertain the idea further, control a big part of the market in your city and get dog groomers/stylists in a mobile dog grooming service. They watch the dogs, care for them, groom them, walk them, etc. The client comes back and BOOM the dog has been taken care of and groomed. I haven't recognized anything like that before which may be a unique edge to the business.

This isn't to say there isn't complications or liabilities. I've known people have been injured in dog attacks when watching them. You would of course need to structure yourself as an LLC as MJ says to do in Unscripted . With an LLC you are not personally liable for anything that happens in work whether employees, dogs, or client's possessions get damaged. So in the instance the company could be sued all your personal assets (and liabilities) will be protected.

Final thing, my operations were small enough where I didn't need or have a website. Instead my clients would personally call and text me, along with provide specific care instructions. If you had an easily accessible website that is user friendly to navigate and book requests you would have additional value skews.

Best of Luck!

 

[savefox]

I've seen a business like that in my area. You can go on their website and book an appointment online for dog walking. There's a lot of potential for recurring revenue. You can even sign people up for daily dog walking or something like that and they would pay a monthly fee. The biggest challenge is finding people to do the walking. I would hire them on full time and train them

 

[Rangermac2]

I've seen a business like that in my area. You can go on their website and book an appointment online for dog walking. There's a lot of potential for recurring revenue. You can even sign people up for daily dog walking or something like that and they would pay a monthly fee. The biggest challenge is finding people to do the walking. I would hire them on full time and train them

That's pretty neat. With the recurring revenue thing customers could schedule the times they need their dogs walked throughout a week if frequent users of the service. Mix in my mobile grooming service if the numbers are profitable to expand on the service depth and customers could set up consistent grooming appointments for their dogs. For instance every 6 months, and to expand on it so customers won't forget the system could send an automatic email or text reminding the customer of their dog's appointment.

The original poster has a lot that they could expand and utilize within this idea.

 

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[BlokeInProgress]

I guess the question is how much will the people pay for the dog walking service? There are several apps that you may take into consideration and the members sometimes compete making the services really cheap.
Are you willing to compete with them?
And would the $$$ amount paid per hour be worth it for your time?

Some other ideas to look at are home visits (feeding service while people are at work - needs trusts).
Pet sitting - either at your home or customer's home
Not limit to only dogs - add cats, birds, fish, etc...

 

[Mister]

When u think u can make it work, just try it and learn from it.

Worst case is that you are at the same place as you are now.

Best case is that u have a small biz which brings u good $$$.

Planing < Doing

 

[jhbucks16]

All great stuff thanks everyone.

The general concept at the moment is to provide services that very few, if not no one provides at the moment. One example is the increasing demand for 'dog adventures' in my city. This is where big groups of dogs are taken to an off lead area like a hiking track, forest or river for example and let to run rampant and be dogs. The idea is that the dogs have an amazing time whilst also being fully exercised and socialized in one hit. Things like this will be the USP to my clients and my reason for not indulging in a bidding war with competitors.

In terms of the commandment of time, yes it will initially require a time for money trade. Although the idea is to do the dog walking myself until enough of a customer base is developed, then employ someone to replace me for the dog walking duties whilst I focus on marketing and development. From there just repeat and hire more dog walkers whilst I worry about building the business structure and culture.

Looks like I'll be giving this a good shot.

Thanks again

 

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[Strm]

If there's a need, go for it. Better to do that than nothing!
You could also mix it with ecommerce, you should make a homepage anyway and maybe sell some unique stuff as well? I see a lot of service businesses being mixed with physical products.

 

[David Fitz]

My friend has a dog walking business and he's broke from being a taxi driver for the dogs because he spends a lot of his income on diesel and maintaining his van.

He has to go from house to house collecting dogs. He collects about 15 in total. Takes them all for a walk in a field he rent's and then drops them home. Then he collects more dogs during the day. Think he does 3 rounds per day. I gave him my old van and he has it battered after 6 months of driving.

If you could find a way to bring the dogs to you and avoid doing all that traveling around you could have a better business model unless people are paying a high price to walk their dog.

Then you have to worry about if something goes wrong with the dogs while it's in your hands.

 

[stefanlazar]

What if Joe decide to take your clients and doing sovavoiding to pay your half?

Then you just beat Joe up and steal all of his money for being a fake friend

Probably in this case it'd be better to have a way for the clients to pay 2 times : half when they book the dog-walker, and the other half directly to the dog-walker

 

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[Einfamilienhaus]

I am not a dog specialist, but I can say that there are 2 groups of people you need to know.

1. the bigger the city, the more lonely people there are, the more they depend on their dogs.
2. the second group are the couples/families who aspire to the classic family image. Husband, wife, (child), dog

For these two groups, the dog is an essential part of the daily decisions they have to make, like for a small child. You can't travel whenever you want because of the dog. You can't just hang out outside if you don't have someone to take care of the dog in the meantime and so on....

How did you think about opening a doggie daycare? You can try this idea on a small scale if you have the space, like in your own backyard or something.

People can bring their dog before work and pick it up after work. In the meantime, you take care of what the dog needs.

The goal of your marketing campaign should be to treat the dogs as human beings and offer the same service to these dogs.

 

[100k]

Low barrier to entry.

If I were to do it, I would go after super rich/famous people's dogs.... not your average joe.

That would be a high barrier to entry, how do you go about dog walking Britney Spear's dogs? Figure that out and you have a decent business that would pay handsomely.

Then you just gotta skew/provide immense value to warrant the premium rates you'll charge.

Are your dog walks certified in CPR for dogs?
Do you have up to 1 million dollar insurance on each dog?
Are your walks certified dog trainers?
Will you record the dog walks and stream the walks on tiktok/youtube so the dog owners can check in on their dogs at any time...?

etc. etc. etc.