The ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) estimates there are over 78 million dogs that are part of American families in the United States. Many of these canines are left alone during the week as their “parents” go to work. Currently, there are more than 30,000 dog walking service businesses up and are operating in the US. Faced with the option of paying a trusted visitor, many pet owners would happily give up a portion of their families budget to make certain their family pet isn’t cooped up inside the house all day.
How Much Can Your Earn as a Dog Walker?
When you are just starting out and launch your enterprise, you may have to charge a slightly lower price than your competition until you have built up a track record and some clientele. The current average price for a 30-minute dog walk in the US is $25. When you are first starting out, you might want to start at $20 per 30-minute walk and build a reputation before increasing your rate. There are very few barriers to entry for a dog walking business and your biggest challenge will be local competition.
Profit margins in this business are very high and you can assume around 90% profit margins. An average start up charging in the $20 range would provide you with around a $39,000 in annual revenue and a net profit of $35,000.
How to Get Started
Getting started as a dog walker and launching your business is relatively easy and although one of our “go to” references on this subject, Step-by-Step, quotes $2,000 to $5,000 to get started as a dog walker, in today’s internet savvy world, setting up this enterprise is actually a snap. In fact, we include this as one of our “Under a $100 Enterprises”. You will certainly need business cards and a good WordPress website but then its all about word of mouth. This is an easy business to promote on social media and especially if you take advantage of your website’s blog. Run specials when you get started, frequent local dog parks if available, and pay attention to your more elderly prospective customers.
Setting Up Your Website
Setting up a basic WordPress “Pet Sitting” website as dog walker is under $100 through DataMax Marketing and since these sites are constructed with the popular Elementor plugin for WordPress, you will have complete control of your site’s look and feel. In fact, once you determine a catchy name for your business and purchase your domain and hosting through DataMax, your site will be up in under 24 hours and you can be marketing on social media in no time.