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hello
thinking of a change and love being outside/dogs. anyone do this? good or bad idea? seems to be a bit of need locally and already had a few notes of interest from neighbours etc.
I'd imagine it can be a lucrative business - round here it seems to be £10 per dog per day for an hours' walk per day...
Do 2 x 1hr walk per day with 5 dogs per walk and return £2k a month. I can think of worse ways to make a living.
Legitimately, or off the books?
£2k a month sounds good but you will need..
A van and all associated costs
Pay tax on your income
Pay some form of liability Insurance
Probably need some sickness insurance as you won't get paid sickness
You will need someone to cover you when you need a holiday
You will never be rich.
Good friend of mine does it, was fed up in the corporate world and decided to do dog walking. I've not asked about their income, but she has a steady number of dogs that get walked daily. Some days she does more than one round of walks. As she has some more rowdy dogs, she has to plan who can walk/play with whom.
There is a level of outlay needed. She had to buy a new van and had this fited this with the dogs individually caged. Her solution using a Berlingo works well.
I'd love to do it, just not at the point where I can afford to just yet.
but you will need..
to pick up lots of turds and dispose of them appropriately.
<Tannoy> Bushwacked to the forum please, Bushwacked to the forum. Thank you </Tannoy>
£cash a month sounds good but you will need..
A van or people carrier or fiesta
Somewhere to stash the bundles of cash
S**** at those that Pay some form of liability Insurance
Probably need to dip into the bin bag of cash because you’ve been refused sickness insurance as you’ve not declared the income/activity
You will loose the jobs when you go on holiday, and someone down the road takes overYou will be cash rich at various points during the year, and brassic during the other months.
FIFM
It seems to have moved on here from dog walking, lots of folk taking dogs overnight/weekends/holidays, generally middle age crazy cat woman type characters by the looks of them.
**** living next door to some of them.
Buy a small piece of land/use your garden... Call it a doggy play park and charge £5 per dog per 1/2 hour. Seen it done and there are plenty of mugs using it
A van or people carrier or fiesta
Need to make sure its a clapped out fiesta, no point buying new.....
ha thanks..usual mix of input! not lots of competition locally so thought it could be good and relatively easy to organise/set up. ive got some redundancy to come so will use that for the van etc.
to pick up lots of turds and dispose of them appropriately.
Some form of this exists in every job no? There is always someone else's shit to appropriately deal with.
thinking of a change and love being outside/dogs. anyone do this? good or bad idea? seems to be a bit of need locally and already had a few notes of interest from neighbours etc.
Any business with profit is a good idea while business with No profit is a bad idea.
I use a dog walker occasionally, here are a few tips from Customer point of view
Accept electronic payments, much easier for me than hunting around for cash (although harder for you to hide form tax man
Be as flexible as possible. I might go a month without using mine then message her at 8am for walk that day. Her flexibility is priceless
Share photos on Whatsapp or Facebook of the dogs out and about having fun. I like to see what my mutt has been up to when she is out with the Dog Walker
Clean the dog as best you can when taking it home
There's loads of them all of a sudden round near me in Leamington. Shame as my gf fancied doing it but I think she may have missed the boat.
Best named one near me, 'Wag 'n' Train' 👏
Strikes me as a market that's ripe for consolidation/uber-ification. That aside, I've always wondered if a 'I'll take your dog out all day for a proper walk on the moors and charge you more' proposition would stick.
A few around here including one in the street they picked trade very quickly from moving here last year. They all seem to make enough to live on and cause no issues and the pooches all seem happy.
Had a mate that did it. He didn't really make a go of it until he'd built up enough business in any given area. 2 dogs, drive to next area, 2 dogs etc. was too much expense not enough income. So be prepared to not have much income until you've built it.
What really made his business eventually was a)boarding the dogs for weekends/holidays while the owners are off on their jollies and b) home made dog treats that he fed the dogs and then sold to the owners when the dogs turned up their noses at supermarket treats. No idea what he put in them but it was apparently the canine equivalent of crack