Dog Walking Business Cards
Dog walking businesses are great for solo entrepreneurs who may not be able to devote more than 20 hours a week or so to their new business. Not only are the time requirements fairly modest, but the overhead is also very, very low. You don't need a retail location, you don't need expensive equipment, and you don't need to spend a lot of money on advertising to get your clients.
In fact, you can probably limit your advertising to flyers and dog walking business cards. The flyers can be created on a laptop at home, but the business cards are best done by a professional printer.
You won't need to get more than 500 cards, especially when you start, because you will probably learn a lot about what you want on your business card after a few months in business. But you have to start somewhere, and while you can limit yourself to just getting 250 cards, 500 is a nice compromise.
Here's what should be on your business card, assuming you are a solo dogwalker, not a larger company with multiple employees.
- Your business name
- Your full name
- Your phone number/s
- Your email address
- Your business (or home) address
- Your business's tagline, or a short sentence length description of your services (like, "affordable dog walks in the Upper West Side")
Here are some additional things to put on your business card:
- Your website address
- Any professional affiliations (like being a member of Pet Sitter's International)
- If you are insured
- If you are bonded
- Your business hours
- Your prices (the very short version)
- "References available"
Obviously it is going to be a challenge to get all that on a business card, and nearly impossible to get it all on one side of a business card. Personally, I like business cards to be blank and white on the back side, so you or someone else can write a short note on the back. You can now also get the business cards that fold over, which would give you four times the space as just one side of a standard business card. But those fold-over cards are bulky, and really a business card is meant to be contact information, only. Even adding an elevator's speech worth of promotional information is kind of overkill.
The next major concern is designing the card. Fortunately this has been taken care of for you. The big online printing houses like Vistaprint and MagicPrints (a smaller company, but they have nice designs and fast shipping) have literally dozens of pre-designed business cards that are suitable for dog walking businesses. These sites have interfaces where you can take your chosen design and then type in all your information on the card in the appropraite places. If you want to tinker with type size and type face, or move blocks of type around, you can do this, but generally its a good idea to not do too much re-designing on your own.
Here are direct links to some of the dog walking business card designs I like on Vistaprint:
- city dog
blue dog
skinny dog walker
happy dog
Here's one from MagicPrints
simple dog
MORE DOG WALKING ARTICLES:
How to Start a Dog Walking Business
How to Write a Dog Walking Business Plan
Dog Walking for Children and Teens
Dog Walking Services: Dogs' Day Out
Be the Best Dog Walker in Your Town
How to Handle Aggressive Dogs
How to Get a Dog Walking Job
Dog Walking Franchises
Additional Dog Services to Offer
Walking Puppies
How to Advertise and Promote a Dog Walking Business
How to Get Insurance for Your Dog Walking Business
How to Get Experience with Dog Walking and Dog Training
Pricing Your Dog Walking Services
Would You Make a Good Dog Walker? 5 Questions to Ask Yourself to Find Out
How To Interview Clients: The Owners and Their Dogs
Dog Training Basics Every Dog Walker Must Know: Dog Walkers' Obedience Training
Dog Walking Safety Tips
Dog First Aid
Dog Walking Etiquette
Dog Walking Flyers
Dog Walking Business Names
How to Stop a Dog Fight
Dog Walking Business Cards
Dog Walking Rates
Dog Walking Tips
Reviews of Dog Walking Business Books
Dog Walking Forms