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Casual Articles - Start Your Own Pet Sitting or Dog Walking Business
Fundraising is the term used for solicitation and gathering of monetary funds by requesting from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations or government agencies. This is the primary method used by non-profit organizations to maintain operations. Usually organizations use this method to raise money for religious causes, to fund independent research, to help veterans or injured military personnel, or to fund academic scholarship for students, human rights advocacy, or disaster relief projects.One method of fundraising is to organize a special event. This is referred to as a fund drive or fund pledge. If the event is broadcast on television, it is usually called a telethon. An alternative source of the fund is an endowment, in which an individual or group pledges to support an organization on a yearly basis.Some non-profit organizations employ the services of professional fundraisers. These professionals are either paid with non-monetary compensation or a percentage of the funds raised. The latter method of compensation is not preferred, in fact, it is forbidden by a regulatory board in the United States.Although fundraising is usually the territory of non-profit organizations, it is also a method used by politicians during political campaigns. Campaign fundraising has bee
Alright, now you have a business name, license and the paperwork. You are getting closer...
Next you need insurance. Insurance is a MUST. There are so many things you can run into and you should be protected. You may think you can get away with it, but, Murphy's Law, something will happen when you are not prepared. Insurance is pretty cheap, running less than $200/year. You can get insurance from your local carrier if offered or you can get from a specialist. Most pet sitters will go through organizations to get there insurance, like PSI or NAPPS. I used PetSit, LLC. It skipped over all the bureaucratic nonsense I didn't want. It is strickly insurance. They say it is a membersh
Having a can't do attitude can't do if the goal is to increase sales. Many sales training programs address negative attitudes in some fashion or other as a solution to improve business growth by the creation of positive attitudes. Can't do attitudes within the sales professional are usually just a symptom of a much greater problem such as self-esteem, no sales process, poor sales plan or a lack of alignment between the sales efforts and the overall strategic plan.What I have discovered is that most sales training programs or sales training seminars fail to bridge the gap between the attitudes of the sales professionals and the overall strategic plan. One simple way to determine if this gap exists is by using technology.Voice mail allows the sales professional to build an immediate relationship with potential clients. A carefully crafted voice mail will leave a positive impression. Unfortunately, what I have experienced both as a performance improvement consultant as well as a potential client is that even the best voice mail message can also create within me a can't do attitude. Let me explain.Recently, I called a real estate agent who requested the article 7 Tips to Real Estate Ag
Decide what sort of services you would like to offer. Many will start out offering pet sitting and dog walking then will branch out as suggestions from current clients roll in. Once you are secure with the pet sitting and dog walking end of it, start branching.
If you have a lot of competition in your area, offer something to set yourself apart from others. One thing I offered in my business was coming home service. I would charge a small fee to run to the grocery store and pick up some milk, bread and any other fresh item for my client so they do not need to bother with that. I did that because I know how much I hate coming home and having to stop at the supermarket.
Once you know what you want to offer, it is time to set up the business.
First, you need to set up a business name before you can get a license or go any further. Your name should be catchy. You want your potential clients to look over all the other "common" and "cutesy" names and go straight to yours. The trick to being at the top of the list is to start your name with the letter "A". Having a name that ties you to the community works best, in my opinion. For example, if you live in Westtown, you can call your business, "A+ Westtown Pet Care". Just make sure no one else took that name first. Try to get creative as well. There are tons of Pampered Pets and such. They have been played out enough. Move on to something else.
Now that you have a name, you can get licensed. Here is a link to the SBA, to see if you need a business license in your state. Just find your state and click on it. Many will just need to register with the state and will not need a license, but it varies....http://www.sba.gov/hotlist/license.html . After you check with your state, try your local, township office. Sometimes, they want to know about your business as well and you may need approval. Just make sure all ground is covered so you don't run into any surprises. I actually went to a township meeting this month and they discussed another individual wanting to start a business selling cars on Ebay. He said the cars would be in a garage and never seen by neighbors, but he still needed to get approval. This surprised me. I never thought about township approval.
Once you are licensed, it is time to set up the paperwork part of your business. You will need a service contract for your clients to sign. You will need a report card to record what you did during visits. You will need a way to track medications you may need to administer, you will need instruction sheets on how to take care of the pets and the home. Those are the most important and "necessary" forms you will need. Sound overwhelming? Do you have the time and skill to develop these forms? Don't fret. Go to http://www.businessformsstore.com/ . All these forms are there for you as well as more you may need. The kick with these forms is that they come personalized. They will come with your business name and logo if you have one. They also have many flyers to choose from which will also have your business name and phone number on it. When you are ready to hire employees or independent contractors, you can get those forms there as well. When I developed my forms, it took me, literally, months of research and design and I am pretty creative. It was tough. That is why they are now offered to you all!
Alright, now you have a business name, license and the paperwork. You are getting closer...
Next you need insurance. Insurance is a MUST. There are so many things you can run into and you should be protected. You may think you can get away with it, but, Murphy's Law, something will happen when you are not prepared. Insurance is pretty cheap, running less than $200/year. You can get insurance from your local carrier if offered or you can get from a specialist. Most pet sitters will go through organizations to get there insurance, like PSI or NAPPS. I used PetSit, LLC. It skipped over all the bureaucratic nonsense I didn't want. It is strickly insurance. They say it is a membersh
Clean Logo Artwork- How do you get clean artwork to have your logo reproduced? Most small companies have their logo in jpeg form that they use to paste onto their invoices or use for a quick flyer, etc. This form is usable but not the best form they could be. If you want to have your logo reproduced for promotional advertising products you will probably have to pay the advertising company to clean up your art which could be $55 or more each time you have something printed. Having your logo clean and ready to be reproduced is worth the time and initial investment. Whether you paid for a logo to be created or you created it in your word processing program or your neighbor drew it up for you it has the potential to be professional looking, as it should be; it is representing your company.To get clean logo artwork, look for a graphic artist who will clean up your logo and work to supply you with useable formats. I suggest those listed below:- First, request a vector form or your logo, Encapsulated PostScript (EPS). This is a standard file format for importing and exporting graphics files. This format is universally acceptable and small enough to email easily as an attachment.- If the logo is not available in vector format you should request a Portable Document Format (PDF). This i
First, you need to set up a business name before you can get a license or go any further. Your name should be catchy. You want your potential clients to look over all the other "common" and "cutesy" names and go straight to yours. The trick to being at the top of the list is to start your name with the letter "A". Having a name that ties you to the community works best, in my opinion. For example, if you live in Westtown, you can call your business, "A+ Westtown Pet Care". Just make sure no one else took that name first. Try to get creative as well. There are tons of Pampered Pets and such. They have been played out enough. Move on to something else.
Now that you have a name, you can get licensed. Here is a link to the SBA, to see if you need a business license in your state. Just find your state and click on it. Many will just need to register with the state and will not need a license, but it varies....http://www.sba.gov/hotlist/license.html . After you check with your state, try your local, township office. Sometimes, they want to know about your business as well and you may need approval. Just make sure all ground is covered so you don't run into any surprises. I actually went to a township meeting this month and they discussed another individual wanting to start a business selling cars on Ebay. He said the cars would be in a garage and never seen by neighbors, but he still needed to get approval. This surprised me. I never thought about township approval.
Once you are licensed, it is time to set up the paperwork part of your business. You will need a service contract for your clients to sign. You will need a report card to record what you did during visits. You will need a way to track medications you may need to administer, you will need instruction sheets on how to take care of the pets and the home. Those are the most important and "necessary" forms you will need. Sound overwhelming? Do you have the time and skill to develop these forms? Don't fret. Go to http://www.businessformsstore.com/ . All these forms are there for you as well as more you may need. The kick with these forms is that they come personalized. They will come with your business name and logo if you have one. They also have many flyers to choose from which will also have your business name and phone number on it. When you are ready to hire employees or independent contractors, you can get those forms there as well. When I developed my forms, it took me, literally, months of research and design and I am pretty creative. It was tough. That is why they are now offered to you all!
Alright, now you have a business name, license and the paperwork. You are getting closer...
Next you need insurance. Insurance is a MUST. There are so many things you can run into and you should be protected. You may think you can get away with it, but, Murphy's Law, something will happen when you are not prepared. Insurance is pretty cheap, running less than $200/year. You can get insurance from your local carrier if offered or you can get from a specialist. Most pet sitters will go through organizations to get there insurance, like PSI or NAPPS. I used PetSit, LLC. It skipped over all the bureaucratic nonsense I didn't want. It is strickly insurance. They say it is a membersh
Sometimes, people that are not really capable for the job manage to impress on their interview and get employed. After you have spent money and time on that person, you realize you had made a big mistake employing that person. This is a very common issue these days as people appearing for their interviews, use materials and tips from the internet or through some professional, just to make an impression on the employers, even if they are not at all fit for the job. Therefore it is important for employers to learn the art of employing the right people the first time.Add to your advertisements a few specifics on the kind of person you are looking for. Make it seem like a challenging job and those people who do their work without any dedication will automatically not apply for it. The internet has made this job a lot easier. You can post your advertisement on forums where only worthy people might see it. Internet enables you to check entire past records of people, showing you if the person is worthy of the job or not.The next step is to prepare the right questions for the interview. The questions should not be too general and should contain questions that will show what kind of personality the person giving the interview has. Add some psychologist to your interview team to assess the per
Once you are licensed, it is time to set up the paperwork part of your business. You will need a service contract for your clients to sign. You will need a report card to record what you did during visits. You will need a way to track medications you may need to administer, you will need instruction sheets on how to take care of the pets and the home. Those are the most important and "necessary" forms you will need. Sound overwhelming? Do you have the time and skill to develop these forms? Don't fret. Go to http://www.businessformsstore.com/ . All these forms are there for you as well as more you may need. The kick with these forms is that they come personalized. They will come with your business name and logo if you have one. They also have many flyers to choose from which will also have your business name and phone number on it. When you are ready to hire employees or independent contractors, you can get those forms there as well. When I developed my forms, it took me, literally, months of research and design and I am pretty creative. It was tough. That is why they are now offered to you all!
Alright, now you have a business name, license and the paperwork. You are getting closer...
Next you need insurance. Insurance is a MUST. There are so many things you can run into and you should be protected. You may think you can get away with it, but, Murphy's Law, something will happen when you are not prepared. Insurance is pretty cheap, running less than $200/year. You can get insurance from your local carrier if offered or you can get from a specialist. Most pet sitters will go through organizations to get there insurance, like PSI or NAPPS. I used PetSit, LLC. It skipped over all the bureaucratic nonsense I didn't want. It is strickly insurance. They say it is a membersh
After several years of healthy growth during the second half of the 1990s, the office furniture industry in Great Britain has entered a phase of stagnation or only modest growth. Most of the observed growth goes on account of higher prices. Sales in real-terms - that is after the elimination of the impact of inflation - are now approximately thirty percent lower than at the beginning of this century. We anticipate that growth this year and again next year will remain lacklustre and hover around the two percent range. If our predictions are correct, the market value will exceed for the first time the ?700 million mark this year.Sales of filing cabinets and other office storage furniture fared particularly poorly. This is not surprising and a reflection of the continuing transition from paper-based offices to paperless offices. On the other hand, workstations and other system furniture, as well as office chairs have been performing better. In fact the market share of workstations and similar furniture is now close to one-half, while it was only in the forty percent range during the late 1990s.An interesting trend is that wooden office furniture is gaining in popularity, even though such products are generally more expensive than metal or plastic furniture. A possible explanation for th
Alright, now you have a business name, license and the paperwork. You are getting closer...
Next you need insurance. Insurance is a MUST. There are so many things you can run into and you should be protected. You may think you can get away with it, but, Murphy's Law, something will happen when you are not prepared. Insurance is pretty cheap, running less than $200/year. You can get insurance from your local carrier if offered or you can get from a specialist. Most pet sitters will go through organizations to get there insurance, like PSI or NAPPS. I used PetSit, LLC. It skipped over all the bureaucratic nonsense I didn't want. It is strickly insurance. They say it is a membersh
Take time to analyze each event you attend and every networking group where you are a member. Calculate the cost of the event or membership. Calculate the amount of business you have gained through the group. If you have not gained more than you have spent in money and time, you should move on to another group. Group loyalty does not pay if you are not reaping any rewards. You have to be able to target more effectively or you are wasting your time. When you first encounter a new group, set a goal for the amount of business you wish to gain. Give yourself quarterly and annual goals. If your quarterly goal is met then keep further track to see where you stand at the end of a year. If the group is not "paying" in qualified leads, then you should move on.Leads groups are for gaining more business, they are not a place to form social friends. Leads groups cost you money, therefore, you need to be very picky about the group you join. Be effective with your time and use it wisely. Here is a list of three things you can do to target the right group: Ask what kinds of businesses belong the group in question Survey some of the members to see what kind of leads the group has generated for them Attend one or two meetings to get a feel for the group
Alright, now you have a business name, license and the paperwork. You are getting closer...
Next you need insurance. Insurance is a MUST. There are so many things you can run into and you should be protected. You may think you can get away with it, but, Murphy's Law, something will happen when you are not prepared. Insurance is pretty cheap, running less than $200/year. You can get insurance from your local carrier if offered or you can get from a specialist. Most pet sitters will go through organizations to get there insurance, like PSI or NAPPS. I used PetSit, LLC. It skipped over all the bureaucratic nonsense I didn't want. It is strickly insurance. They say it is a membership, but never got hassled with anything, so I liked it. PSI and others have a test to take and more, I think. I never signed up for any of those, so can't really tell you much. I do know most do, so maybe they offer some great things. I would definitely check it out and decide on your own. Here are the websites: PSI: http://www.petsit.com/ NAPPS: http://www.petsitters.org/Insurance/insurance_index.htm PetSit, LLC: http://www.petsitllc.com/ . Napps and PSI use Insurers of the Carolinas. You can check them directly at http://www.petsitterinsurance.com/ .
Next is bonding. Now, bonding is not necessary if you are working alone. If you have employees, you would want it. Bonding is there to protect your company against employee theft. Some bonding companies, however, will include the owner as an employee and, therefore, you will be covered. Make sure you check on this. The way bonding works is if your client accuses you or an employee of theft, the police are involved. If you or an employee are convicted of the crime, the bond pays out and you then repay the bond. Some clients want you to be covered and people will get it as a marketing tool. It is up to you if you want to purchase it. PetSit, LLC offers a special additional coverage which will cover theft and accidents. It is around $90/year. The special part of that is it is like bonding, only you don't have to pay it back and don't have to get convicted. Check out http://www.petsitllc.com/ for more information.
Okay, you are bonded, licensed, insured and physically ready to start. Now you need to get clients...
Marketing is the trickiest, most frustrating and time-consuming part of this business. Once you get some clients, the ball will start rolling more by word-of-mouth, but for now, you need to advertise...
Flyers are the cheapest and are best for getting just your immediate area. Go get your personal flyer at http://www.businessformsstore.com/ and start distributing. You can't put them in people's mailboxes without going through the post office...it is illegal. But, you can put them on people's doors and cars. The best places I have found are the pet food stores...not only PetSmart or Petco but local smaller stores. Pet Stores also work good. Post office bulletin boards are great and so are supermarkets. Basically, anywhere you go which has a bulletin board, put your flyer there. The best would be a Vet offices. If they offer boarding, you may want to get on their good side so they will refer their clients to you especially when they are booked.
Another good advertising technique is the community newspaper. It is cheap, about $10/week and everyone gets one for free.
After that we go up in price. Getting in the yellow pages is expensive and you can only get in at the right time of the year when they are publishing their new book. Call for rates.
Home Business Forms has compiled a list of places where you can do internet advertising for free. You can also get a directory listing in the Pet Care Directory with a purchase.
Alright, now you are advertised and you should be getting that first call any day now...but what are you going to get asked and are you ready to answer questions?
They are going to first ask what your rates are. Do you know what you wan
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