Starting a new business - becoming a dog walker.

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A bit of background (Old thread)
I'd like to start my own thread on my recent decision to have a go at being my own boss. I've been very unsatisfied, unmotivated, depressed, etc, etc, with my existing job. For the last 4 years I've been stuck behind a desk, working in the maritime sector: planning vessel arrivals/departures, managing pilots, managing bookings and data entry, etc, for multiple UK ports. It's a demanding and stressful job, but totally unfulfilling and for a long time I've been unhappy. It's been effecting my health - high blood pressure, headaches, anxiety - and I've decided it's time to do something about it.

I've approached work and there's a very good chance I will be able to go part time; they're already recruiting, but haven't filled the post. There is already another part timer happily doing mornings, so I'm working on the assumption they'll want the PMs covered. This should equate to 20 hours per week and will probably be afternoons, 1300-1700, but this is yet to be discussed.

I love being outdoors, whatever the weather. I've been off a couple of weeks and spending a lot of time walking my dog. It's been an amazing help with my mental wellbeing. My wife and I have casually spoken about what I could do if I ever quit and sometimes dog walking came up. We know 3 or 4 dog walkers and they always seem happy and have said it's something we should consider. We've been speaking with them a great deal more this last few weeks and they've given us massive help in describing what the job is, the highs and lows, and the bottom line has always been - it's great! Do it!

My wife works 3 days a week and my plan to go part time should allow the dog walking business to grow naturally, without placing too much financial pressure on the household income. I'll start with morning walks, then, when word of mouth kicks in, I can judge when it's time to actually give up the shipping job, for which I will have to give 3 months notice unless I can negotiate it down.

Business
I've spoken with a few people about setting up a business and it's my belief that sole trader will be the way to go.

I'm looking into my choices of business bank account and as I already bank with Monzo, their offerings seem to fit the bill. I can start off with their free version and can go for their £5pm version if I find I need the extra features. This comes with a 6 month free trial of Xero. As I'll need some accounting software, is this a good one? I don't want to get deep into Xero but then find there's a better solution and have to switch (unless that's easy?) A good friend of mine who has his own Ltd Company recommended 'Counting Up' for a business bank account with invoicing and accounting functionality. Seems good at £9pm.

Costs
A dog walker friend of ours recommended an application called 'My Pet Walker'. This costs £15pm. To accept payment via Stripe, it's 2% + 20p; payouts 0.25% +10p. This software provides management for bookings, cancellations, invoicing, payments, etc. I need to look into this and see if it provides any tools in regard to what the tax man will need...

I've always been PAYE, so keeping track of the finances and automating as much as possible is quite high up my list of needs.

Insurance is going to be about £13pm.

No qualifications are required, but I can get a 'City & Guilds Level 2 Certificate of Technical Competence in Dog Walking' for free (usual cost £250) once my salary has reduced to p/t and becomes below the threshold to qualify. This course is also the foundation of gaining other related qualifications. I think having these will be a good usp and hopefully separate me from the pack.

Dog First Aid is about £30 and can be done online.

So initial setup costs are relatively low. And monthly outgoings also.

I know there are no guarantees and it'll take a while to get to the same level (if at all), but our closest dog walking friend happily told us she brings in £700-£800 per week, doing three group walks a day.

Motivation
I'm mindful this is becoming a wall of text and thank you if you're still with me! I'm sure I'll have loads more questions to ask, but in the meantime, if you've got any advice or simple words of encouragement, or tales of how you started off, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.
 
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Hope it goes well for you - it takes great emotional intelligence to recognise you need/want to change your job, and immense strength to carry it through.


Like with anything - you can learn/do it all yourself and save money, or take the risk/stress away but pay for someone else to do it.

The app sounds like a good idea to get you going, and perhaps a platform such as fresh books might help you get to grips with the accounting side of things (I want to add I haven’t used it, so can’t vouch for how good it is).
 
MrRockliffe said:
Hope it goes well for you - it takes great emotional intelligence to recognise you need/want to change your job, and immense strength to carry it through.


Like with anything - you can learn/do it all yourself and save money, or take the risk/stress away but pay for someone else to do it.

The app sounds like a good idea to get you going, and perhaps a platform such as fresh books might help you get to grips with the accounting side of things (I want to add I haven’t used it, so can’t vouch for how good it is).
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Thanks. My emotions are all over the place at the moment. One moment I'm thoroughly excited and keen to dive in, to the point I think I should just hand my notice in now and go all-in in three months time; the next I'm nervous as hell and wondering if I'm doing the right thing.
 
busy sector to get into but its a thriving market and will spike as people start heading back to work and leaving their lockdown puppies at home.

personally i'd be offering a pickup/drop off service with the option to collect despite people not being at home. takes a lot of trust but once i had a relationship with a dog walker i would have no problem with you having a key to my house and picking my dog up/dropping them off

if your going for a larger van transit/sprinter sized think about a dog washing unit on board. for those wet and wintery days, nothing worse than having a filthy dog dropped off, or at least a large supply of towels to try and clean/dry pups off before they return home.

online diary system and booking would be great for one off and regular clients app based is the way to go, spend a bit of money on the app if you can and let people book/prepay online. invoicing and accounting is also important as its so easy to overlook and miss billing clients. if you dont want to go tech, diary everything.
 
233 said:
busy sector to get into but its a thriving market and will spike as people start heading back to work and leaving their lockdown puppies at home.

personally i'd be offering a pickup/drop off service with the option to collect despite people not being at home. takes a lot of trust but once i had a relationship with a dog walker i would have no problem with you having a key to my house and picking my dog up/dropping them off

if your going for a larger van transit/sprinter sized think about a dog washing unit on board. for those wet and wintery days, nothing worse than having a filthy dog dropped off, or at least a large supply of towels to try and clean/dry pups off before they return home.

online diary system and booking would be great for one off and regular clients app based is the way to go, spend a bit of money on the app if you can and let people book/prepay online. invoicing and accounting is also important as its so easy to overlook and miss billing clients. if you dont want to go tech, diary everything.
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The app that was recommended to me was actually designed by my dog-walking friend's ex. She still uses it and says one of the best bits is the immediate payment upon booking. It's improved her cashflow and reduced delays in getting paid. It also takes the hassle out of cancellations.

I've checked locally for dog walkers and started to contact them. It's difficult, as the first one has already replied asking me not to poach her business. It's not my intention to undercut anyone. It won't do myself or the market any favours. I don't want it to be a race to the bottom. So I'll be going in around the middle, with a view to being at the upper end of the market as I plan to offer more than just pavement walking.

Initially I'll be using my car. It has space in the boot for two dogs (I already have partitions from owning my own dog). I'm going to check out how much space I have with the rear seats dropped, as I already have crates that be used for safe transport. Another dog walker friend of mine uses her Freelander and just has the dogs in the boot and on the rear seat with seatbelts/harnesses.
 
We use Xero and have done for 5 years, 12 person business. You won't need any other system like 'My Pet Walker' or whatever, and I believe you can also take online payments via Xero though it's a functionality we don't use as we're B2B.

But to be honest, that's the nitty gritty and you could easily get away with a spreadsheet until the business is proven.

The biggest challenge will be having a business in the first place. Are the health issues you mention - anxiety, high blood pressure etc - solely related to work or are they in other parts of your life? The grass is often greener and working for yourself/running a business is no easy road. How will your anxiety fare when there's a COVID 2.0 and your revenue drops to almost zero overnight for 12 months? Or someone like you starts up and starts taking your clients? Or the business just doesn't grow and sales are difficult?

As per that, I imagine half of your working time won't be spent doing the bit you enjoy (walking dogs), but all the above; sales, marketing, chasing payments, bookkeeping, etc. If that's something you enjoy/think you'll enjoy then great.

People will inherently brag, over egg numbers, or 'accidentally' not include costs, so I would imagine the £800 your friend mentioned is probably best case scenario. Even still that's £38,000 per year, less all the costs you've already identified such as insurance etc (don't forget commercial car insurance which doesn't come cheap), working the maximum (which I assume isn't the case due to seasonal changes etc), less personal or corporation tax depending on which way you go, plus funding your pension with no employer contributions. Is that 'best case scenario' enough to sustain your current/future expenses and quality of life? Are you at liability to say how much your income will drop by going part time?

Also be prepared for anything financial like a loan, car lease or particularly a mortgage to not look fondly on such an income stream and require loads of paperwork that's been stamped by an accountant. We've been operating for 12 years, it's still a pain but in the early years my parents were always needed as a guarantor. That depends on your personal financial position of course and how much equity/existing assets you have and whatnot.

I appreciate all the above sounds 'negative', but that's not the case, just trying to flag some realities. Almost every CV we receive now is from someone who went self-employed during COVID (for want or must) and is now trying to revert back.

If you want any specific advice, or anything re: Xero, let me know!
 
No, not taken negatively at all. I really appreciate your candour.

Health issues are predominantly work related. So I need a change, no matter what...

My current job is a lot of scheduling, talking with customers, other stakeholders, some finance, so I see myself having transferable skills. But I'll be making them work for me, on my terms, in an industry I'm interested in. If you get my drift?

Dropping to 20 hours per week will reduce my income by ~ £800pm. I anticipate the hourly rate being £10-15. But if we go at the lowest of £10, that'll mean I'll need to be walking 4 dogs at a time, Mon-Fri. The local limit is 6, but I do not plan on doing that initially. Four is a good number to aim for. So it will be tough to start with and I'll be earning less. But it's not just about the money. :)
 
*thumbs up*

Have you considered dog sitting as an added service? I don't have a dog but I know someone locally who can have dogs into his own home as an alternative to kennels. It would be an income stream that's more than just an hour at a time, somewhat passive, they could be walked at different times to your 'day' clients to keep within the limit, and would bring on different customers who you could then convert to the walking service (or vice versa).
 
I have. There are quite a few additional services that many dog walkers offer. There is a Pet Pals franchise in the area and they offer all sorts of pet related services, as I'm sure other people do too: house visits to feed rabbits, goldfish, dogs, cats, etc, boarding, long walks, one to one care...I'm going to see how it goes with just the dog walking to start with. But if people start asking me for the other stuff, then it'll be sensible to offer what the market wants/expects. I suppose it'll just mean quitting my job a little sooner to fit it all in! ;)
 
BadMojo said:
I have. There are quite a few additional services that many dog walkers offer. There is a Pet Pals franchise in the area and they offer all sorts of pet related services, as I'm sure other people do too: house visits to feed rabbits, goldfish, dogs, cats, etc, boarding, long walks, one to one care...I'm going to see how it goes with just the dog walking to start with. But if people start asking me for the other stuff, then it'll be sensible to offer what the market wants/expects. I suppose it'll just mean quitting my job a little sooner to fit it all in! ;)
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Inb4 this becomes an undercover Ashley Madison :D
 
BadMojo said:
I'd like to start my own thread on my recent decision to have a go at being my own boss. I've been very unsatisfied, unmotivated, depressed, etc, etc, with my existing job. For the last 4 years I've been stuck behind a desk, working in the maritime sector: planning vessel arrivals/departures, managing pilots, managing bookings and data entry, etc, for multiple UK ports. It's a demanding and stressful job, but totally unfulfilling and for a long time I've been unhappy. It's been effecting my health - high blood pressure, headaches, anxiety - and I've decided it's time to do something about it.
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I can relate a little - I was working overseas in a country I don't like, miserable, alone - depressed, self harming, (I ended up and I'm still on anti-depressants, but due to come off in the next 2 months) I took heavy handed action to force change, put my foot down and just made the changes I needed to make, to make me feel happier and healthier, it was well worth it.

From reading your posts - it feels like uprooting your situation and just "doing it" would probably be great for you. I feel like it might be a bit of a two way door, in the sense that if it all fails and you hate it or don't make any money, you could always go back..

That said, there are so many people with dogs now, (I'm a dog lover had a Weimaraner previously and I'll hopefully have a Bullmastiff in the next year or so) so if you enjoy doing it and you make a bit of money - who knows where it might lead. You might want to get into training and behavior - there are lots of unruly, un-socialised nightmare dogs out there, plenty of other things that it could lead to.
 
I've reached out to a few dog walkers/sitters in the area and I'm meeting up with one of them next week. We've been texting and she's being amazingly helpful. She walks the dogs of a friend of my mother in law. My mil has been out and about, spreading the word with all her oap friends!

The lady has offered to help set me up! She's sent me paperwork, examples of her contracts, recommended courses, but also got her message across about not under-cutting each other price wise. Which I respect.

Encouragingly, she confirmed the area is ripe for the picking. There are several dog walkers in the surrounding area, but I inferred there's lots of business and they're helping each other out with referrals and cover for each other when people are sick/on holiday.

I've also bought a domain name and plan to create a simple web page with contact details, etc. I think social media and word of mouth will play an important part initially, but I have to have a website! :D

I bought the domain from ionos. It was late last night and I don't know what tools they have, if any, for creating websites. But if anyone has any recommendations in that regard?

Edit : Potentially first rookie mistake: in my rush to secure a domain name I didn't check IPO for trademarks and it appears a similar name was registered in 2018.

We were hoping to use 'Crate Escapes'. A play on words suggesting freedom from confinement and escaping to adventures in the outdoors. However, 'Crate Escape' is registered as a Trade Mark, list of goods, class 9, fire escapes.

It's also listed as company, but with dissolved directorship, for dog walking.

As a sole trader, is there any hope, or should we look at alternatives?
 
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What domain did you buy? There's 3 companies registered with that name, not sure what they do but 2 are active.

Trademark being available is certainly a check, but almost as importantly is availability of domains and social accounts and proliferation on Google/ease of achieving organic search success.
 
Never use hyphens in domain names

It is also a fun name but tells me nothing

'<BadMojos-Location> Dog Walking' is much more effective. You aren't competing with Amazon here and need some fun, globally recognised name.

Also your location + dog walking is precisely what people will put into Google.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Sincerely.

It was something my wife and I discussed at length, but we just loved the name and kept coming back to it. The feedback from other dog walkers has been positive. But you're right in that we're not helping ourselves as far as Google search. But every dog walker has told us their business comes from word of mouth primarily, like 80% of it, from being out walking and meeting people. Then enquiries via FB through local area groups asking for recommendations. None of them actually have up to date websites, with anything more than a landing page with contact details. It takes time and money to maintain and that means less time earning.

With the above forefront in our minds, we decided to go with the catchy, play on words name. Time will tell...

But don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing what you've said. I'm sure it's totally accurate when it comes to increasing Internet exposure and if I need to evolve and change tack, I will.

With that in mind, I've bought a couple of .co.uk domains that have our location and dog walker in the URL.

Has anyone used both Starling and Monzo business accounts and can offer some real world comparisons/advice?

I was leaning towards Monzo as I use them for my personal account, but a few reviews say Starling just pips them to the post due to a more polished approach.

I've spent some time with another dog walker the last two days and she's been amazing. She's helped me out with examples of her contracts, administration, equipment, diary, loads of stuff. I spent 2.5hrs with her yesterday and went out on a walk. So go to experience handling four dogs. It was great. It was wet and muddy and I loved it!
 
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