If you have been thinking about starting a dog walking business seriously enough to start checking out who else is walking dogs, or if you’ve been a dog walker for awhile, you have surely noticed that you aren’t the only one who has realized what a great business it can be.
In fact, many life-long dog walkers and dog trainers are starting to think that the whole dog business boom has created a glut of dog walkers. Either way, you’ve got competition, and in a tight economy that is enough to make a small business person nervous. So here are the things you need to be doing, or improving on, to make sure you stay at the top of the list of dog walkers for your town.
1) Return phone calls promptly.
It does not have to be within the hour, but if you can set a rule to return them within two hours, that gives you an edge. All too frequently, he who gets to the client first gets the job.
Returning phone calls will keep you among the good dog walkers, but to be among the best (as a business person, not necessarily as a dog walker) make sure you sound professional on the phone. Do not interrupt people. Make sure your cell phone has excellent coverage. Keep background noise out or to a minimum when you are on a call. Make sure your voice mail message is appropriate, and even first class. Ask good friends to give you a short review on these points.
2) Show up on time, every time.
Your reliability will get you and keep you more clients than how well you handle their dogs. It is the best way to build trust, and trust is the single most important thing to cultivate between you and your clients.
3) Have a trained backup person available in case the impossible happens.
Maybe you’ve never missed a walk. Ever. That’s great. Find and train and introduce a backup walker to at least some of your clients. You need to do this because good business people know that every once and awhile something blows up and people can’t do what they normally do. Your trained backup walker is your insurance against that. Think of it as trust insurance.
4) Become a certified dog trainer, or at least keep up with current dog training best practices.
If the dog walking market dries up, the ones to survive will be the professional dog trainers.
5) Offer pet sitting
The benefit of this can be huge. You’ll get potentially twice as many dollars from the same amount of clients. That means less marketing, less time meeting new clients, less time dealing with bad clients, and more time working with the dogs and the people you genuinely like.
This can increase your profits by a third or more. Offer some freebies to get your pet-sitting skills in order and your references ready.
6) Offer dog grooming
This is good for all the same reasons that pet sitting is good.
7) Manage your image
Not to get personal… but do you need a haircut? Some new clothes? You are not in the corporate world (thank god), but maintaining a professional, neat, and healthy image will help you with a lot of people. You are, in a sense, their dog’s trainer, so if it works for you, look to how the top-notch trainers dress and look.
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