Rates and Services

What to Offer and What to Charge?

Now that you have the knowledge about what a pet sitter does and you have chosen a business name, it is time to write down exactly what you will offer and what you will charge. Get out a piece of paper and start writing.

What do you want to offer?

Do you want to start out with just pet sitting?

Will you offer other services such as:
· Dog Walking
· Pooper Scooper
· Overnight Care
· Taxi Services
· House Sitting

Now that you have written down what you are going to offer, it is time to determine what you will charge.

In my opinion, it is best to charge for your time. Have time slots set up with a rate for each.

For example:
A 15 minute visit is $15; a 30 minute visit is $18 and so on.

This is for as many pets they have in a single household. I don't think it is wise to charge extra fees for more than 1 pet or 3 pets. It turns out being a turnoff for your client when you start to add on more and more fees. If your client has more pets than you feel you can handle in the time slot they request, they would have to purchase a longer time slot. Many pet sitters will charge a small fee for administering meds. This is fine and recommended. A nice up sell is to add on Pooper Scooping. Cleaning up what the dog does while you are there is included if asked, however, you can offer to clean the remaining yard for another small fee. Basically, what is included in your visit is doing all that the pet owner does to keep the pet in its same routine. That is one of the luxuries of hiring a pet sitter. Boarding kennels are very stressful on a pet. They feel much more comfortable in their own home in their own bed. Next we will be discussing getting a business license.

Job Description

What Does a Pet Sitter Do?

Pet sitters usually offer an array of services from pet sitting, dog walking, pooper scooper, pet taxi and more. The most advertised is the pet sitting aspect of the business.

Pet sitting consists of taking care of all types of pets in the comfort of their own surroundings. Pet sitting does not mean taking the pets into your home. That would be considered animal boarding.

The purpose of pet sitting is to limit the stress to the pet while the owners are away for the weekend or a long vacation. Pets seem to do better when they are in their own home with their own bed and blanket, their own toys and their own buds (other pets). Pet sitters provide this luxury by making daily visits to care for the pets.

The following is a list of common pet sitting duties during regular visits:

• Potty Break for dogs (can consist of a walk)
• Feed/Treats
• Refill water dishes
• Play time
• Snuggle time
• Petting time
• Clean any messes/litter box/cages
• Administer Medications

This is what most pet sitters will do on most visits. The purpose is to keep the pet in its regular routine. So, if the dog normally gets a treat when it wakes up, you would give a treat when you arrive in the a.m. If the pet normally takes a walk around the block daily, you would do the same. If the pet likes to get read to (birds like this), you would read to it. This minimizes stress and allows the pet owners to relax more while they are away. If the pet needs a pill everyday at 6pm, you would be sure to arrange your schedule accordingly.

Pet sitters can also offer many other services to supplement their income. Many pet sitters will also offer daily dog walking to help those clients who work long hours, have an elderly dog or have a new puppy. Pet sitters may also offer pet taxi to the vet or pet taxi to the groomer. Pet sitters may also offer pooper scooper. This is picking up what the dog did while you were not there. This is a nice convenience since you are already there. You can use their scooper, plastic bag and throw it in the trash. You can make a nice $15 or so for just 20 minutes of work or less depending on the size of the yard. Basically any service you can think of pet related you can add on to a pet sitting service. You can even add on errand services. The possibilities are endless.

It is recommended to start off with just pet sitting and start building your business based on customer requests. This way you will learn what your area is in need of and start advertising based on that. The bulk of your requests and client bookings will more than likely be derived from pet sitting and dog walking.

Now that you know what a pet sitter does, you can determine if this is the right business for you. Remember you are taking care of pets. You may have some messes to clean up and you should have some basic knowledge of pet care.

Once you have determined if this is the right job for you and you have thought about which service you would like to offer within the pet sitting industry, it will be time to set up your business. The first step in setting up your pet sitting business is picking a business name.

We will discuss how to pick a business name in the next installment.

Start Pet Sitting

Start Your Own Pet Sitting Business Today!

Are you ready to be the owner of your own amazing professional pet sitting business? If so, you are at the right place. We will tell you ALL you need to know to start your own professional pet sitting business! Best of all...IT IS ALL FREE!!!! That is right. We want you to have all the available, up to date information to help start you on the right track.

We know how hard it is to find all the information you need. We understand the frustration and neck aches while you are browsing for this information all over the web. Now, you can find it ALL right here.

We will be discussing all areas of owning your own professional pet sitting business from what a pet sitter does to how to pick your business name to how to hire employees. So, stayed tuned and check in regularly to see what we have to say.

Even if you already have your own pet sitting business, we will still be providing you with very useful pet sitting business advice. We will be discussing many aspects of advertising with a focus on free and low-cost advertising. So, this is even for you veterans out there.

Stay tuned for our first installment which will be released shortly!