What You Should Know About Starting a Doggie Daycare

Business Overview:

Attention dog lovers: if you love showering puppies with praise and are looking for a great business idea, consider starting a doggie daycare business.  A doggie daycare is a pet sitting business, and the idea behind it is simple: you take care of multiple dogs at once throughout the day–and generate a great income doing it. Due to work commitments many dog owners worry and feel bad about being unable to exercise, socialize, pamper and generally look after their dogs as much they would like to. This is the problem that your doggie daycare business will help solve. During the day you look after the dogs by playing with them, walking them, and giving them attention. As such, a doggie day care business will be a very rewarding business because you’ll know that your services help put worried dog owners’ minds at ease, while at the same time giving their dogs a better quality of life by providing them with the attention and activity that they need during the day. Added to this, a doggie day care business can be very lucrative. Owners will typically pay $30 USD or more to have their dogs looked after for a day, and most dogs will come at least 2 or 3 times a week, which means you can count on a steady, consistent clientele. You also don’t need much start up capital as you can start a doggy daycare business at a low cost. While you could definitely run this by yourself as a one-person business if you so desire, you could also expand your business and increase your revenue further down the line by hiring people to help you take care of more dogs. Of course, by hiring people you could also run this business without looking after the dogs yourself. Because you will likely have many dogs, it would be wise to rent or purchase a building specifically for your doggie day care center. If you just want to watch after a few dogs, you could run this business from home. However, if you’re looking for a large-scale business, you’ll want a place for the dogs to gather that’s not in your home. All in all, starting a doggy daycare business offers a lot of flexibility, and represents an excellent business opportunity for anyone who wants to help make the lives of other people and their dogs happier, healthier and more enjoyable.

A Day in the Life of a Doggie Day Care Business Owner:

As a doggie day care business owner, a typical day would start at around 7 a.m. Usually your clients will drop their dogs off on their way to work. By 9.a.m, when most people will be at work, you will be in charge of looking after multiple dogs—perhaps 5 or more. Throughout the day you would exercise the dogs, give them lots of attention, feed them, and generally pamper them and keep them happy and active. The owners of the dogs would then return to pick up their happy pets after finishing work, which will usually be between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. You’ll then want to clean and sanitize the building in preparation for the next day.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be dog owners who, most typically, will be people who are working the majority of the time during the day and are concerned about leaving their dog alone for a large amount of time. They will be people who care a lot about the happiness and fitness of their pet, and want someone to help put their mind at ease, and ensure that their pet is kept active and happy throughout the day.

What You Need to Start:

• A love of dogs—and the ability to control them well
• Advertising—flyers, magazine, newspaper, online
• A location for your doggie daycare business (this could be your home, or you could rent out a larger space)
• A business license
• A doggie daycare business plan
• Business insurance
• Financial-tracking software

The Good:

• If you love dogs you’ll be around your favorite pets all day.
• It’s very rewarding–you’ll be putting worried pet owners minds at ease and adding to the happiness, fitness and general quality of life of their dogs.
• It can be very lucrative—you can charge $30 USD or more per dog per day.
• Most dogs will come at least 2 or 3 times a week—meaning you can count on a steady, consistent clientele.
• You can start this business at a low cost if you operate it out of your home, though the cost will be considerably higher if you choose to rent or purchase a building.

The Bad:

• You may have some dogs and clients that are difficult to work with.
• It may take some time for you to build up a big and consistent client base.

Resources:

• Pet Care Services Association
• National Association of Professional Pet Sitters
• Bureau of Labor Statistics on Animal Care and Service Workers
• Wikipedia on Dog Daycare

About The Author

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