Every occupation has its difficulties and starting a dog walking business is not short of pitfalls for anyone without experience. If you’re starting a dog walking business, you need some tips. What should you look out for if you are just starting out and do not yet belong to a community of professional dog walkers that can warn you about where not to step on?
Recently, a visit with a group of them revealed the top pit falls that they would avoid caving into again if they restarted their existing dog walking businesses. You may find their responses quite illuminating. Here you have the top 5 mistakes to avoid if you’re going to launch a new dog walking business.
Mistakes To Avoid In Starting A Dog Walking Business
1. Offering Price Discounts
Topping the list and almost by unanimous consensus is mistake number one: price discounting. There is no point in walking dogs without making a profit. And discounts undermine this objective. Many profitable dog walkers regret ever having offered their customers price discounts when starting out.
“Why do you think discounts will help you gain business anyway?” asked professional dog walker Tamara Stanley from Washington state. “Lots of people use Groupon to get a cheap service, for instance. But not many people go back to the provider for a full-price [service].” It may seem reasonable, if you don’t have any customers yet, to underprice the competition and get some new accounts. The problem is that you will attract only price-sensitive customers. The moment you raise prices, they ditch you.
Christopher White with Pet Pro Check in Albany, New York, says, “Lots of places discount and an equal number do not. It is not a critical component to success. For some, perhaps, it’s part of their plan. I used to discount. Now I don’t. I saw no added benefit. I’m not missing anything.” This does not mean that discounting should never be done. “If ever I did it again,” Christopher added, “it would be a limited discount by time – 10% off for 6 months, then full price.” So, ensuring that you have an expiration date on your discount offer is critical.
“Long-standing and loyal customers who value the service should not be paying more than people who are shopping on price,” says Linda Ward with Busters Dog Walking Services in Brentwood, Essex, UK. “I generally run the same rate as the local community, so if someone says that I’m too expensive, the reality will be that they will not be able to afford anyone,” explains Annie Copus, who has been walking dogs since December 2017. Therefore, if you are offering competitive prices and someone cannot afford you, the likelihood is that they simply cannot afford dog walking at all. Offering them a price much lower than the competition does not guarantee that they will stick with you when the moment comes for you to start making a profit from delivering regular-price and competitive services to them.
When does discounting matter? You discount when you understand that you are investing in building a name brand in your territory and not simply giving away your work. Therefore, discounting is a marketing technique and not a sales technique. It is an expense and not a revenue gain. And when starting a dog walking business you must keep your expenses to a minimum.
If you want to announce your services to people who are not price-sensitive and will produce a profit for you once they’ve learned of your existence, enjoyed your introductory offer and would try your services again, then a discount campaign might make sense to do. Else, if you hook some price-sensitive customers who might ditch you the instant that you raise them to a profitable level for you, then what you should do is either secure referrals from them or at least some testimonials for your website or Yelp reviews. In the end, it’s an investment in brand building and awareness. But do not expect it to generate profitable income. It’s not meant for that purpose.
2. Covering Too Large A Service Area
If you want to avoid burnout, do not explore for and serve customers beyond a 5-mile radius from your front door. It is tempting to be willing to drive 10 miles to get to your customer’s house, whether to pick up a dog to walk or to sit. But the fact is that you’ll have to coordinate that visit with another that could be another 10 miles away. Before you know it, you’re putting in 50 miles a day in wear and tear on your vehicle, not to mention the stress of driving and the gas expense. And that’s before you even hit the pavement with your dog partner! You’ll find yourself cutting appointments short, not providing the best client attention and running yourself ragged just so you can make all your other engagements. And for what?
“Millage depends on how your city is laid out,” explains Jes Wilkening from Butler, Missouri, “I physically can’t go to a visit that’s 10 miles away that would take me over an hour to get to. Time is money. I’d rather have 2 visits close to each other than 10 visits all over the place.” If you are running solo and you have between 4 to 8 dogs that you walk every day, you should consider a radius of no more than 5 miles. Even if you have assistants that you can deploy, you should cover from 3 to 5 square miles from their front door. Rich Miller with Walk It Like A Dog in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, stays in that range, having 360 clients of varying activity levels and between 50 to 60 appointments per day.
There are exceptions, of course. Leslie Copestick from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, is willing to drive 22 miles to meet with a client twice a year. The company she works for covers three counties based on availability. “I personally stay within about 5 miles of my house for walks,” she says. “Luckily I live in an area where I have enough people close to me to stay busy.” However, making these types of commitments when starting a dog walking business may not yield the level of revenue that justify the cost of covering such a large service area.
3. Not Tracking Your Expenses In A Timely Fashion
It can be too tempting to make commitments to clients and find yourself busily traveling to and fro only to discover that you’ve run out of cash and do not have enough to pay your taxes or make payroll for a week or more. This is not the kind of trouble that you want to have early in the game. Consider Jaime Cloud who uses Rover.com to walk his dogs. He knew that not saving all his receipts for items that he purchased would mean not being able to get tax deductions.
“We have multiple businesses,” he explains, “So, we have a CPA and I just keep receipts in an envelope and make a spreadsheet. But over the years, I have bought extra leashes, treats, car seat covers, walking shoes, poop bags, etc., that could have been deducted. But I didn’t think to save receipts.” This can turn into thousands of dollars that you cannot account for. You could attempt to do as Jaime suggests and put them into a shoebox to hand to your accountant at the end of the day, or you could try using a service such as Shoeboxed that makes receipt scanning and expense tracking painless. Either way, be sure not to neglect monitoring your expenses and cash flow just because you become too occupied with serving your new customers.
4. Not Subscribing To A Dog Walking Operations Software Service
There are many moving parts to your young dog walking business. If any one component of this puzzle fails to work as required, your entire operation can come to a sudden stop and your money generating engine will fail. Therefore, many experienced dog walkers would not start their businesses again piecemeal. They would centralize email, phone, texting, website, calendar, booking and billing, client and dog record-keeping under one platform and manage their entire clientele from that single place. This type of tool would enable them to schedule appointments quickly, assign resources to these engagements, notify and bill clients for services automatically, manage prices and monitor walks in a safe and reliable way.
Although it is possible when starting a dog walking business for you to begin by using freeware platforms like Google Docs, experienced professionals who may have started their businesses that way would not do it the same way again. Kara Dello Russo with Kara’s Pet Care in South Berkwick, Maine, explains that if you want to see your business thriving with employees in a few years, then you should “Set yourself up for that. Put every note [into your software] at the beginning; right from the meet and greet get-go, and update animals as you go.”
If you wish to learn what type of dog walker software platform to consider for your needs and budget, keep in mind the importance of understanding your work flow, that is, the way that you want to operate your business. Tamara Stanley adds that the question as to which dog walker software app might be best is on-going. The answer depends on how you want to run your business. What do you need for invoicing? Do you want a mobile app and clients to be able to login to a portal to check their accounts or request scheduling from you? How much support do you want to set up your system? Do you run pack walks? Do you want to schedule unrelated time blocks or repeat appointments in your calendar?
Beck Nevin with Prancy Paws in San Diego, California, illustrates when it may be that this type of software can become mission-critical to a successful dog walker who started with a less professional system like Google Docs. “I’ve just outgrown the system. I’m looking to hire employees eventually, and I think software tends to look more professional. Also, Google Calendar cannot accommodate all of my daily visits. Most days I have 8 to 10 different stops to make. And on a busy day, it can be close to 15. It worked for me for a while. And while I still think it’s an excellent tool for solo workers, I’m looking for more.”
5. Not Understanding Your Target Audience Before Running Ads Campaigns
“Print ads in golf books were the biggest waste for me, but I also spent poorly on Facebook and Google AdWords,” confesses Yenni Desroches from Next Level Pet Care in Worcester, Massachusetts. “Paying for Yelp ads is a huge waste,” adds Merika Reagan with City Hikes Dog Walking & Pet Sitting in Richmond, California. And Desroches agrees. This is not to mean that advertising is a waste of money if you’re starting a dog walking business. The point is whether you should advertise without first knowing who your audience is. The answer is “Don’t do it!”
In the case of Facebook, for example, Daniel Reitman with Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting in Washington, New York, suggests, “Don’t pay for a post boost. Go in to your Ad Manager and target your customers and promote an existing post. Boosting isn’t nearly as cost effective.” Meantime, Christopher White with The White Walker in Albany, New York, adds, “Well, are you boosting to get link clicks or post likes? Do you have a customized target group? I have certainly gotten business from this. But it’s a matter of really tinkering with a target audience. I will say, the return on investment is not outstanding.” Dog walker Duane Greene concurs. “Facebook hasn’t been a great advertising venue for me. I’ve played with it quite a bit too. Different markets may get different results, though. So, there’s only one way to find out.”
The way to find out is by testing which type of sales offer might appeal to a specific kind of audience and track the performance of each campaign until you find your niche. This takes time and specialized skill. When starting out, time and money count a lot. So, it is best to leave this type of activity to an expert, if you can afford one. It doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t be able to succeed if you attempted it yourself. Valeri Carr with Waggle De Tails Pet Services in Havertown, Pennsylvania, says, “I get more clients from Google AdWords – 3 steady clients in the last 6 weeks – and have gotten a couple actually off of Craigslist. Now it costs up to $5 to promote a service. And also, in the Facebook community forums, some of them allow small businesses to plug themselves. And when someone asks about a dog walker, my company is mentioned. I do boost some posts and also promote existing posts, and it’s doing well.”
Starting A Dog Walking Business That Can Last
Although there are more mistakes that you should avoid when starting a dog walking business, clearly by keeping these five in mind you will get ahead much sooner than if you act contrary to the advice of these professional dog walkers. When starting a dog walking business be sure to keep your bottom line clearly before you. Don’t discount except if you recognize it as a marketing technique and business expense to generate awareness in your market about your presence there. It is not a revenue generating technique. It is an expense.
Don’t cover more space than you can afford to service. And track every expense to avoid cash flow problems or missing deductions when tax season comes along. Try to simplify your operation and monitor all your activities digitally by using a subscription dog walking service software. And be sure to know who your audience is and what type of service offering might appeal to them well in advance of launching your first social media or advertising campaign. You don’t want to lose money or time too early in the game of starting a dog walking business. It will hamstring your future success.