I’ve been running my pet sitting business for the last three years and safely say that to operate at a decent level of income per year takes more than just a couple of stroles in the park with a few dogs every day.

To those of you who are thinking of setting up simply as a sideline then my advice is thats great. With a small collection of customers you won’t be stretched much for time and will pretty much be able to relax while your ‘at work.’

Now, to those who need this to make them say £20k+ a year. You have to be readily available every day and that includes weekends and key holiday periods such as Xmas Day. My business runs dog walking, cat/small animal visits, home boarding for dogs and small animals and house sitting and I currently have two splendid ladies that help me out. Offering all these services creates extra revenue streams but also means that I don’t take a day off inless I can provide suitable cover so don’t roll into this if you value your personal life too much, not at least till you have a few helpers. Many of my regular and holiday customers have got used to me being around and available and thus have used me more and more for extra weekend breaks and evenings out etc so be prepared for short notice requests if you want to keep them happy!

I charge £10 for an hours walk and walk dogs in groups as much as possible. This is in order to fit everyone in and make enough money and also dogs by their very nature are social animals and love having play with their mates every day. This price may seem quite a lot to a few of you but I have to charge this, really I feel that everyone should charge a few £’s extra but thats the market and I’m not going to complain about that. This price takes into account the day to day costs such as travelling time and petrol expenses getting to and from a customers property and we all know how much fuel costs at the moment!

Also, I have to say something about responsibility of care. Most of my customers don’t have children and their dogs are in effect their replacement children whom they care greatly about. All dog walkers have a great deal of responsibility to bear whilst in care of their customers loved ones that I feel is greatly overlooked by many and although I can’t place a financial figure on this level of responsibility I would say that for £10 an hour this is quite acceptable.

In conclusion, I would say that dog walking is a great thing to do but if you want to make a proper living out of it, it can get very chaotic at times when customer after customer rings up thinking they are the only people in the world wanting their dog to be walked at 12pm every weekday!

Anyone wanting any advice about anything please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at rob@wolverhamptonpetsitters.co.uk.

To start with you will need a good pair of walking boots, a mobile phone, lots of poop bags and 1 or 2 spare leads/collars. A torch, waterproofs and a personal attack alarm are useful.

It would depend on how much advertising you do as to how many customers you get. Put cards in Newsagents, Vets, pet shops, Libraries etc. you could make some flyers and post them through doors.

I get most of my enquiries through my website – but that can cost lots.

Wendy – petzbestfriend.co.uk

All my new clients have been happy with this.