Starting Your Dog Walking Busines By Nayanthara & Nalaka Daundaratne
How to Prepare Client Agreement
Making a simple yet proper contract is important due to many things. A contract or the agreement is what officially communicates what your services are, responsibilities, limitations, obligations as well as client’s responsibilities as paying agreed amounts in full and on time. Secondly, it is a valid document that has a legal power to protect both you and the client at any dispute during the time you are providing dog walking services. So, let’s discuss what information that you must enter when you make your Client Contract. Talk about the agreed charges and hours, what services you are going to provide and what not, agreed payment methods and when they should be made. Also, mention client’s obligations as keeping easy access to key or entry to premises if pet sitting visits are required. Then, make a note about how you expect to handle repetitive or frequent delayed payments by giving certain deadline in number of days or a specific day of a week. It depends on the frequency that you are planning to collect money. Typically, most people charge at the end of the week by giving the umber of hours. Payments can be accepted by either electronic means as bank transfers or traditional cash and cheques. There are many things that you can enter to your contract according to your needs. Remember, in dog walking business, it’s hard to keep a one size fits all agreement document as it’s mostly custom made for each client. So, make a general contract in your computer or any device and add or change elements as agreed with each person that you are going to provide pet sitting or dog waking services to. If you need assistance at making a proper business contract, please feel free to connect with Nayanthara Kumar or Pravitha Nalaka Daundaratne through our Contact Us page.
Registering Your Dog Walking Business
Your first step to make your dog walking venture official is registering your business according to laws and regulations of the country or state or province that you live in. Since you are starting as an independent worker, a sole proprietor registration is the most suitable. Now, decide how you want to name your business. As a sole proprietor you can use your own name or even a trade name that you prefer. Pick a catchy and relevant name which also has professional touch. Use your creative mind to do so. Now that you decided the name and the class of the registration, go through the rest of the requirements given by your province. As an example, here are the direct links to government requirements to register a dog waking or any other business in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, as given in their official websites. Similarly, obtain the correct information from the relevant office and gather what you need and get you dog walking business registered successfully.
How to bill your clients
Handling your finances properly from day one is important for all aspects of your dog walking business’s wellbeing. Start off by deciding your charges based on what services you are going to provide. Do proper research around your and/or refer to data given by provincial authorities to know what the minimum and average charges. Start by asking people that you know in dog walking business or through social media platforms. Start with and always offer reasonable rates to your clients.
There are number of billing methods you can use to receive money as Interact bank transfers, PayPal, cash, cheques, etc. While we cannot recommend a specific one, we suggest to chose more online options and offer many ways to your clients to show the flexibility of payment methods according to their needs. So, get information about these specific services from your bank and other companies and set up relevant accounts before you start receiving your money. Also, its idea that you do test transfers or receiving of money to these services before you take the first client. Sometimes there can be steps that we missed like verifying an email or an account that would prevent your getting the money which also will give a bad impression of your standards to your clients.
Prepare a basic receipt to give your clients for all the payments you receive. This can be either electronic or paper based as needed. Follow any common template that you find online from a valid source and prepare a one. Make sure the digital files that you send are locked or unmodifiable. While many software as Microsoft Word and Excel can save as 'read only', you can also print them into PDF format as an additional precaution.
How to decide where to work
Stick to be local at first. Time is money and everything. You must be able to move from one client to the other easily and fast. Otherwise, you will be mostly tiring yourself travelling while earning less. Find clients around a practically reachable parameter. Think about how you will be travelling and associated costs. For example, how often the buses or public transportation are available. If driving, the cost and common problems in certain areas as frequent road congestions as your will probably have clients that want you to take dogs for morning walks around the rush hours. Also, consider known details about number of potential customers in an area with pets in their household. This information can be obtained from your local veterinary office at least to get a rough idea or simply observe dog parks and similar venues around. I would suggest start with your and few closer neighborhoods first. Reach your neighbors, friends, and family around to see if they want the service or they can connect you with clients who are closer. Focus your marketing specific to chosen areas when making social media advertising, flyers and spreading the word through existing clients, friends, family, and community. Remember, always start closer, slow, and build things gradually by learning through experience for stable and better business development. Since you learned how to register your business, making contracts, billing and where to work, let’s head to the next part of learning how to market your dog walking business for success by Pravith Nalaka Daundaratne and Nayanthara Kumar. There, you will learn how to use traditional and digital social media effectively to build your clients effectively. If you need more information, please don’t hesitate to leave a message and we will do our best to assist you with all possible means.