How to Start My Own Pet Service Business

This dog wishes someone would take it on a walk.

A pet-service business is a great way for kids to learn about money, work and entrepreneurship. Kids can start their own dog-walking or pet-sitting business and make some extra cash while having fun and gaining valuable work experience. They can set their own terms when it comes to pricing and hours and learn about what kinds of responsibilities a successful business entails. A pet-service business is also a good way for children to learn about pet ownership.

Things You'll Need

• Flyers

Instructions

1. Decide what sort of pet service you want to run. You can run a dog-walking business, a pet-sitting business or a dog-washing business. A dog-walking service may be the easiest to run because you do not need to buy any special supplies or wait for people to go on vacation for it to work.

2. Get your parents' permission to run your business. Explain to them exactly what type of business you want to run and how you plan to run it. Your parents might tell you that you are not allowed to wash dogs in your driveway.,On the other hand they might help you find customers. Either way, they need to approve of what you are doing.

3. Study other comparable local businesses and find out exactly what services they offer and how much they charge. For example, look up other dog-walking businesses and find out how long the walks are for and how much they cost. This will help you make your advertisements and figure out what to charge customers. Make your prices a bit lower than the ones you find so you can attract customers to your new business.

4. Make fliers and advertisements for your new business. Give them to your parents to hand out to people they work with, post them in your church or community center, ask local businesses like coffee shops if you can hang hang them in their stores, and hang them on trees or lampposts in your neighborhood if that is legal. Make sure that your advertisements state exactly what services you offer and that they list your contact information. If you are printing your family's phone number on the fliers, it might be a good idea to also list hours of operation so that people don't call your house too late at night.

5. Advertise your new pet services on any social networking sites you may be a member of. You may need to create a few posts about your services to attract all of your friends' attention.

6. Make sure that you always get very clear and specific instructions from all of your customers. For example, if you are pet sitting, find out exactly what time the pets need to eat and how much they need to eat. Never feed the pets anything that their owners didn't tell you to feed them and never let dogs off of their leashes. You should also ask your customers whether their pets have any health problems or whether they are safe around other animals, and what you should do in any emergency situation.

7. Follow through with all of the services you have promised your customers. Always show up on time to feed or walk pets. If you have agreed to take care of someone's pet while they are on vacation, you must perform all of your pet-care duties every day. You can't decide that you don't want to take care of the pet anymore or skip days. Giving your customers good service is the best way to attract new customers.

Tips & Warnings

• Never, ever get into a car or go into a house with a stranger, even if this person says they want to be your customer. Pet sit only for people your parents know and approve of.

References

• Kids In Biz: Dog Walking Service