What items would I need for a pet sitting / dog walking business? Do I need a license? Capita?

Answer 1

I saw that no one posted any answers to your question, and while I'm not a pet-sitting business owner myself, I'm a vet tech with a couple co-workers and clients who have one.

One of my co-workers stays at other people's homes when they go out of town to watch the dogs and cats. Her general rule is $14 a day per dog, $10 a day per cat. If it makes her commute to work longer than 30 minutes, she will increase the price by a dollar or two to compensate her for the extra driving. Another technician I work with takes dogs and cats into her home. She's not yet become busy enough to have too much of a structure, but she charges about $18 a day per pet. She also will come over to people's homes to let dogs out and feed if they don't want the pet at her house, charging about $6 per visit.

One client sees us who runs a business full time out of her home. She is insured and bonded through a business owner's insurance policy for the care of pets in the home. In the state of Ohio, there are no license requirements for pet sitting businesses. She interviews people who are interested in her services at their home to meet the dogs and owners and become familiar with their routine and needs. She has the owners fill out a special sheet to obtain information that might be otherwise overlooked, like what kind of food they eat, how much and how often, their medications and the schedules on which the medications are administered, the name and number of the animal's regular veterinarian, on what and where the dog or cat usually likes to sleep, and what sort of health issues they've had/have. Since the pet-sitting business is her only job, she doesn't have to worry about the hours she's away from home or what each particular pet needs during certain hours of the day - I'm not sure if you've got that kind of luxury, but her fees do reflect the fact that she can accommodate pets in this way. She charges $35 dollars a day, paid up front, and for pets who have chronic medical problems that may require a vet checkup, she asks for a deposit, refundable upon return if the pet doesn't need to see the doctor.

If you're working out of your home, some investments that you might consider, besides the insurance, are baby gates and kennels to separate or accommodate dogs who're used to these kinds of arrangements. A number of litter boxes with the cat's preferred litter type are a must if you're going to include cats in your program.

I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for, but I hope this will help you out a little. Good luck with your business!