Starting A Dog Business

Dreaming about working full-time in your own dog training or dog walking business, but can’t imagine how to make the leap? You need a transition plan. Whether you’re working full-time in another career, or spinning the hamster wheel balancing a part-time hobby business alongside your “real” job, a well-designed transition plan lays out a clear, step-by-step path to running your dog business full-time.

And in case you’re wondering whether it’s really possible to go full time, the answer is yes. It really is possible. We know, because we’ve been helping dog professionals do just that since 2003. So if you’re serious about working with dogs for a living, read on!

Creating a Transition Plan to Full Time Dog Pro
Your transition plan needs four steps:

1. Determine feasibility. Can you make ends meet with the services you’re looking to provide? And what does it mean to meet ends? We focus on this step here in Part.

2. Assess, prioritize, adjust. Before you enter a transition, you have to know where you stand. (It’s hard to make a plan to get somewhere without knowing where the starting line is!) So in Part 2 of this series, we outline how to assess your starting point, and then look at ways to set yourself up for success by prioritizing all the things you juggle and making sure your business is optimized to serve you and your clients.
3. Line up support. You’re much more likely to get to the other side of your transition plan if you don’t head in alone. In Part 3 we look at some simple and creative ways to line up the support you need.
4. Set milestones and marketing plans. How do you know you’ve arrived? How do you decide when to quit your job or scale back? Your milestones, set ahead of time for personal comfort and financial safety, will tell you. And marketing will help you reach those milestones as fast as possible. So in Part 4 we look at how to set milestones and choose creative marketing approaches to hit them.

Let’s start with Step 1:

What Is Feasibility?
Technically put, feasibility is a comparison of revenue to expenses. Simply put, is your business set up to make what you need?

To answer that question, you have to know what you need. If you’re not sure, it’s time for some personal budgeting. Ick, we know, but it’s not as awful as it sounds. Make a list of your household expenses. These would include rent or mortgage payment (include property taxes if you own your home), utilities, insurance (including medical), transportation, food, pets, children, and personal expenses (entertainment, grooming, clothing, and the like). Don’t forget big picture items like taxes and savings.

Estimating Revenue
When we create transition plans for dogbiz business consulting clients, we’re always careful to estimate revenue conservatively. We want any miscalculations to come out in your favor, so rather than basing your numbers on a full calendar year, assume 10 months of active work time. This will help accommodate holidays, your own vacation time (yes, dog pros can—and should—take vacations), and the unexpected.

To calculate your revenue, first decide on your capacity. When your business is running on all cylinders, how many clients can you handle sustainably? How many private training clients per week? How many classes can you teach, and with how many students max per class? What number of dogs can comfortably and safely play on your daycare floor or vacation with you in your boarding facility? How many dog walks can you take, or pet sits can you make?

Next, multiply that number by your rates to give you a weekly revenue. Multiply this number by 4 for the month and your resulting monthly number by 10 for the year. The number you get will be a simple estimate of your maximum gross revenue, or what you’ll make if your dance card is full. Divide this by 12 for your average monthly gross intake.

Because we want to be conservative about revenue, you’ve got a few more calculations to make: Multiply your gross monthly number by 75% and 50% to give you safer numbers to work with. These numbers will help show you what level of capacity you need to reach to cover your needs.

Estimating Expenses
To help protect against unwelcome surprises we estimate expenses liberally. To get a sense of your expenses, determine costs in three categories:

General expenses. Include any vehicle costs, communication fees (phone, internet, etc.), office supplies, training or care supplies, staffing costs if you have them, and marketing.

Professional expenses. Your professional membership and certification fees go here, as does your budget for ongoing professional development like courses, conferences, seminars, web seminars, books, and DVDs. Also include liability insurance and professional support such as accounting and business consulting.

Facility expenses. If you’re bricks-and-mortar based, you’ll have rent or mortgage to contend with, as well as utilities and repairs.

If you’re just getting started, don’t forget start-up costs. Though these won’t factor into your monthly feasibility figures, you need to consider initial education costs, marketing (logo and website), and if applicable, facility setup and build-out or improvements.

What The Numbers Say
Just a little more math and we can see where you sit. Simply subtract your monthly expenses number from your monthly gross revenue number to get your net monthly revenue, or what’s left for you. How does that number look? Is it enough to cover your personal needs?

Don’t panic or become discouraged if the answer is no. Very often an adjustment or two can work wonders. Are there additional services you might add? Or changes you can make to the service you’re planning or already offer that would increase revenue? Most dog pros set their rates too low—do you have room to raise revenue through a rate increase? We look in at these sorts of adjustments in Part 2 of this series.

Are You Ready To Go Full Time?
If you’re ready to put your career where your heart is, it’s time to build your transition plan. Start by setting aside some time to run your numbers, and then read Part 2 of this series. The dogs are waiting for you!

Find out more about Starting Your R+ Dog Training Business with our services and toolkits.

Are you dreaming about making your full-time living as a dog trainer, dog walker, or similar? Maybe you have a part-time hobby business you don’t know how to take further. Or you’ve never been sure how to take the first step to start your dog business.

Either way, there’s the big transition challenge: How do you actually leave behind a regular paycheck to run a dog business full time? How do you get to the point where you can quit your job, put your current career in your rearview mirror, and say good-bye forever to your boss? How do you make the transition from dog pro hobbyist to dog pro for a living?

Over the years of helping dog lovers make this leap we’ve found there are three key ingredients to a successful transition. Master these and you’re much more likely to find yourself in the enviable position of making your living working with dogs.

1. Transition Mindset
We put this one first because without it, no amount of planning or strategy will get you to full-time dog pro. Pursuing a big dream is both exciting and scary. Making the decision to leave a steady job or quit a career you’ve invested time, energy, and money into takes some guts. Choosing to strike out on your own as a small business owner is a bold choice. No matter who you are, there will be moments of doubt, pangs of fear, and days where you feel dispirited. Without a strong transition mindset, it can be easy to quit or to tell yourself that now isn’t the right time.

We’ve found the dog pros who make it through their transitions are those with fierce determination and desire. They don’t necessarily have more dog talent or business skill than others. They go through all the same feelings of doubt and fear. They get tired. It’s just that they want to be full-time dog trainers or dog walkers so badly that they keep pushing. They push through the doubt. They push through the fear. They dust themselves off after setbacks. They allow themselves to believe that it really is possible to get where they mean to go—that’s their key difference.

And it really is possible. There are dog pros all over the globe working full-time in their walking and training and daycare businesses. They all started from scratch. They all began with excitement and anxiety. They all cultivated a transition mindset to put their excitement to work and their anxiety to bed (or at least to keep it from getting in their way).

Cultivation is an important word. You don’t have to be born with a naturally bold or confident mindset. You can create it by stoking your desire, visualizing your life as a dog pro, developing personal mantras to battle tough moments, and taking small step after small step to build momentum and belief that carries you forward.

2. A Transition Plan
Armed with a transition mindset, you also need a transition plan to apply it to. No amount of mindset is likely to get you to full-time dog pro on its own, particularly if part of your challenge is replacing your current paycheck income. Here are some of the most critical pieces of a strong transition plan:

Budgeting and feasibility. You have to know what you need your business to make, and assess whether the business you have in mind can safely be expected to do that.

Prep work. This includes personal prep, which for some may involve tightening the budget. It almost always includes prioritization. You’re probably already plenty busy. Implementing a transition plan will add a lot to your plate, including starting and/or growing your business. A successful transition requires streamlining in order to protect the things that matter most to you (for example, time with friends, family, and your own dogs), and time to take good care of yourself to maintain your energy. Without this step it’s easy to burnout before reaching your goal.

You’ll also have prep work for your business. Decisions like how you package and provide your services, what you charge for them, and the policies you set all have a tremendous impact on the revenue your business is capable of, and how effective you are for your clients. Getting these things right significantly increases your chances of a successful transition.

Milestones. How do you know when to reduce your cubicle time or quit your job altogether? How can you tell when your business can be safely relied upon to pay your bills? Your milestones will tell you. These are carefully crafted “When… then…” statements that indicate when it’s safe to take a step in your action plan. Every transition plan’s milestones will be different, as they depend on the parameters of your personal situation. But one thing is the same for everyone: Without them, it’s all too easy to either jump too soon, putting yourself at financial risk, or move more slowly than needed, risking burnout before achieving your goal.

Marketing. How do you reach your milestones? How do you get your business generating enough revenue to allow you to reduce your hours or give your boss notice? That’s the role of a strong marketing plan. To move through your transition plan you must grow your business. To do that, you need clients. To get clients, you must learn to market your dog business.

3. Transition Support
Transitions are equal parts exciting, scary, and exhausting. You’re essentially working two jobs—your regular one and building your business. Plus all the other things you do—running your household, caring for family, exercising your dog… Let’s just say it’s a lot. We find that dog pros who build a support system before jumping into a transition are far more likely to find themselves working with dogs full time at the end. If you tend to adopt a stoic, “I can manage” attitude, this is one time to fight that inclination.

Support plans are as personalized as transition plans. Yours might include personal support (via paid professionals or the helping hands of friends, family, and neighbors) with household responsibilities, child or dog care, errands, mealtimes, etc. You might choose to hire help for your part-time business to free yourself up to serve more clients or work on your marketing. If you’re not entrepreneurial by nature or lack business experience, you might benefit from professional support through classes, or the guidance of a personal business coach. Whatever elements you choose for your support plan, putting one in place will greatly increase your chances of a successful transition.

What do you think? Tired of daydreaming from the sidelines? Ready to make your living working full-time in your own dog training business? If so, start cultivating your transition mindset, working on your transition plan, and lining up your support. There is no better way to make a living than working with dogs, as any dog pro will tell you. They’re all out there doing it, and you can, too.

For more tips, continue reading Part 2, How to Become a Full-Time Dog Pro. 

Ready to take the next step? Find out more about Starting Your R+ Dog Training Business and how we can help you launch your dream job with confidence.

Ready to leave behind your cubicle, demanding boss, 9-to-5 hours, difficult co-workers, exhausting commute, mind-numbing/ stressful/ dissatisfying work? Dreaming instead of happy dogs, grateful clients, fresh air, daily exercise, flexible hours, and looking forward to your workday? Sounds like dog walking might be for you.

If you’re serious about being a professional dog walker, you’ll need to set yourself up to make a living at it. Here are the three steps you need to take to become a dog walker:

Step 1: Go to dog walking school
Dog walking is an unregulated industry; unlike true professional fields like medicine, law, accounting, etc., there is no official body determining whether you can be a dog trainer. But if you’re serious about a career in dog walking, and you care deeply about dogs, you owe it to yourself and them to pursue the best possible education in dog walking and behavior.

You probably wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t love dogs. A lot. And most likely you’ve had the pleasure of growing up with them. But loving and living with dogs doesn’t make a dog professional, any more than loving and living with people makes us psychologists or teachers.

You’ll get much more enjoyment from your work and have a far greater impact on the lives of dogs when your love of them is backed by a scientific understanding of how dogs learn, and professional walk management skills to keep dogs safe.

When you’re ready to go to dog walking school, choosing the right one is paramount. An unregulated industry also means that professional programs are unregulated. The Dog Walking Academy is the first, most comprehensive, and most widely-respected program for professional dog walkers, covering canine learning theory, body language, aggression, walk management, basic training, canine 1^st aid & CPR, emergency planning, and ethical business practices.

Step 2: Get a Dog Training Business Education
If you wish to move beyond working as a dog walking employee, you’ll also need a business education.

If you’re like most dog walkers, it’s a love of dogs that’s brought you here, rather than a burning entrepreneurial spirit. So if the idea of starting and running a dog walking business has you drawing a blank (or, even worse, breaking out in a cold sweat), business learning is your next step.

You’ll need to know how to design your walking services, what to charge for them, how to set and enforce policies that protect your income and keep dogs safe, how to market your services to get dogs to walk, and so forth. Don’t worry—you don’t have to be a sales, marketing, or business natural to succeed as a dog walker. But you do need to learn the basics.

In addition to the Dog Walking Academy, consider personalized Business Consulting for a more one-on-one handholding approach. Still just exploring? Read our book The Business of Dog Walking: How To Make a Living Doing What You Love.

Step 3: Create a Transition Plan
The idea of starting a dog walking business may be hard to fathom if you’re working full time for a living. It’s one thing to dream about becoming a dog walker. It’s another thing to get from here to there. How do you transition from your current job or career to walking dogs for a living? Is it even possible?

That last question is easy: Yes, it is. We’ve seen dog lovers from every conceivable background make the transition—from restaurant and retail workers, to teachers and tech folks, to medical doctors and marketing execs.

The how question is a bit more complex: You need a transition plan. To be more exact, you need a transition plan personalized to your unique situation. For example, your transition plan will look different depending on how much you need to make, whether you work a job with flexible or strict hours, whether or not you’ll be able to exit your current position gradually, what kinds of additional demands you have on your time, what your support network looks like, and so forth.

The power of a transition plan is that it lays out your exact steps to reaching your goal of becoming a dog walker, and exactly when it’s safe to take each step. Without a transition plan, most would-be dog walkers either never make it to full time, or jump too soon and find themselves in financial hot water.

If you’re serious about making your living as a dog walker, dogbiz University online course Transition Planning for Dog Walkers provides step-by-step instruction to build your personalized transition plan, or take advantage of our career consulting to have your plan created for you.

 

There you have it: The 3 steps to becoming a professional dog walker. Granted, it’s not a small amount of work. But the rewards of walking dogs for a living couldn’t be more worth it. We hope you agree—the dogs in your community are waiting for you!

In the first three parts of this series about transitioning from a current job or career to full-time dog trainer, dog walker, or other dog pro we’ve looked at:

1. How to determine what you need to earn and whether the business you envision has the potential to get you there.  Read Part 1
2. Making necessary adjustments to your personal finances and your current part-time or hobby business (if you have one) to set yourself up for success.  Read Part 2
3. Lining up support for the easiest possible transition.  Read Part 3

Now it’s time to build the road map part of your transition plan by answering two important questions: How will you know when you’ve arrived at your goal? And how will you get there?

Setting Milestones
One of the hardest things about making a transition to full-time dog business owner is knowing when to quit your current job. How do you know when it’s safe? How can you be sure you’ve reached the end point of all this planning and preparation?

Fear of giving up a dependable paycheck makes it easy to stay in transition longer than necessary, running the risk of burning out before you arrive. But jumping too early is financially risky. It’s a Goldilocks conundrum—when is just right?

Your milestones tell you when. A sample milestone might look something like this:

When: You’re maintaining X clients per week, making Y dollars, for Z months

Then: Time to quit!

If you were lucky enough back in step 2 to find you have the luxury of scaling back your work hours over time at your current job, your plan will have more than one milestone, possibly several. For example, say you’re a dog trainer wanting to specialize in day training and needing to make $45K per year minimum but hoping to replace a $50K salary. Your milestones might look like this:

Milestone #1:

When: You’re maintaining 1 client per week, making $1,200 dollars/month, for 3 months

Then: Reduce job to 32 hours

Milestone #2:

When: You’re maintaining 2 clients per week, making $2,400 dollars/month, for 3 months

Then: Reduce job to 20 hours

Milestone #3:

When: You’re maintaining 4 clients per week, making $4,400 dollars/months, for 3-6 months

Then: Quit job

This example assumes the ability to phase out of your full-time job gradually. If that’s not the case, you’ll have just the one milestone. A single milestone is a bigger challenge, with a higher risk of burnout, as it requires juggling both your job and your growing business for longer.

On the upside, as your business grows and you continue to draw a steady paycheck at work, you’ll see a period of time when your income rises well above your current needs. Socking away your business income as savings can allow you to jump the workaday ship sooner. You’ll rely on this financial cushion to make up your monthly difference while you use your new 40 hours of free time to make the final marketing push to get your business to the point where it covers your full needs.

Benefits note: When setting your milestones, don’t forget to factor in health benefits. If you currently enjoy benefits through your job, you’ll need to know the cut-off point: How many hours do you have to work to keep them? And then be sure to add to your milestone figures the cost of covering yourself. (Note that the previous example sets the quitting point above the $45K mark to provide some wriggle room, including budgeting for benefits.)

Marketing
Your marketing plan answers the “How will you get there?” question and is key to reaching your milestones as quickly as possible. It’ll be key to your sustained business success afterward, too, so laying good foundations is worthwhile.

Choose content-rich community marketing projects that expose people to your expertise, personality, and professionalism, rather than expensive passive marketing like brochures and advertisements. Not only is content marketing more effective for dog pros, it’s generally less expensive and has the added benefit of providing community service via education about dogs and dog behavior. You’ll be doing good by dogs and dog lovers while promoting your business and working toward your goals.

Print and email newsletters, writing for local publications, how-to choose your dog walker fliers, and folders full of branded training tip sheets to be handed to new pet parents upon adoption or at their first vet visit are great examples of this kind of marketing. Visit the marketing section of our dogbiz blog for many more marketing ideas and how-to’s.

Are You Ready To Go Full Time?
If you’re ready to put your career where your heart is, it’s time to set your milestones and start marketing. Then take a deep breath and get ready for the ride. Being in transition can be challenging—but the relief, joy, and accomplishment of getting to the other side is worth working for. And the dogs will thank you!

Find out more about Starting Your R+ Dog Training Business with our services and toolkits.