If your ideal job is spending your workday roaming the countryside with four-legged, furry coworkers, running a dog walking business may be right up your street.

Starting a dog walking business is, in many ways, the exact opposite of working an office job because you get to spend your day with dogs away from the dull drain of an office environment.How can you beat that?

However, before you jump straight in, it’s important that you understand that launching a dog walking company is not quite as straightforward as donning some sneakers and heading out. There are many things to think about before starting dog walking as an entrepreneurial venture, as is the case with any business.

Here’s a comprehensive guide to running your own dog walking business.

• Make sure there is demand for dog walking services in your local area

Almost every industry is affected by the concept of “supply and demand.” Effectively, to run a business, the demand needs to outstrip the supply. In this situation, the amount of supply that should exist depends on how much demand there is for a company in a particular industry or specialization.

As long as there are more customers than businesses, services that are in more demand can charge their clients more. On the contrary, if there is more supply than demand, you’ll find yourself operating in a very competitive environment in which you will be forced to lower prices and operate on slim profit margins.

What relevance does this have to dog walking? If you want to launch a profitable dog walking business, make sure your target market isn’t already oversaturated with dog walking businesses; if it is, you may find it difficult to stand out from the other, more established businesses and make a profit.

• Write a solid business plan

A thorough business strategy can be advantageous for even the simplest new firms. Let’s be honest; you wouldn’t be able to build a basic dog house without plans, so what would make you think you could operate a business without adequate prior thought?

By creating a business plan, you provide your organization with a structure to work within and may identify the best growth methods for those critical initial few months.

Business plans differ from industry to industry, but you can expect to include the following:

• A distinct vision of what you want your company to be
• An understanding of the level of competition you can anticipate in your field and industry
• An overview of the staff and resources you will need to run your business
• Ideas for the services you plan to provide (for instance, you could contemplate offering dog training or house sitting services in addition to your walking services)
• How you will market and promote your business
• Financial forecasts, including predicted revenue and the price of your services

Depending on how big you want your firm to be, including a business plan as you launch your dog walking business could seem like overkill. However, developing a plan early on can help you position your business for future growth. Additionally, it’s best to create a business strategy now rather than later, when you have less time to do so because you’ll be busy walking dogs!

• Obtain the required business permits

Nearly every state and municipality require businesses to get business licenses in order to operate legally. To ensure that what you’re doing is ethical and legal, you’ll still need to register your business with your local governing body, even if you only want to start a dog walking business with your four-legged companions.

You will also need to set up a formal business entity. Most dog walking businesses start out as sole traders. This form of business is straightforward to start up and manage but gives fewer protections than other company structures, like a limited liability corporation (LLC). Unlike sole trading structures, LLCs assist in separating a person from their business; i.e., you will be considered to be a separate legal entity to your business; as such, you will not be personally liable for any legal troubles your company may have.

• Obtain appropriate insurance

A dog walking business is no different from other small businesses in terms of the need for insurance. Generally speaking, you are more likely to want comprehensivedog walking liability insurance. Even if your state or municipality doesn’t mandate that you carry a specific type of company insurance, it’s still a good idea to think about this additional security.

The requirement for insurance is even more important when working with animals, as is the case in a dog walking service. To begin with, you may benefit from putting in place a reliable general liability coverage that can shield you from any damages sustained while you are visiting a client’s property (or on the property of anyone else during a stroll).

You’ll also want to consider personal and commercial property insurance to cover any losses (or damages) that the dogs may cause while out walking. Last but not least, if you intend to drive dogs or if you decide to offer animal boarding as a business, you may also benefit from purchasing animal bailee insurance.

This is not an exhaustive list, nor is it intended to offer any recommendations regarding which insurance you should get. Before you begin your dog walking business, make sure you have all the coverage you require by consulting a legal expert, an insurance specialist, and any local regulatory organizations.

• Promote your company

Even after completing all of the planning and preparation, starting a dog walking business still requires a lot of work. To attract new customers, you’ll need to market and promote your services.

The good news is that effective small business marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. In the case of dog walking enterprises, word-of-mouth advertising can be more effective than sponsored advertising.

An excellent initial step in starting your business is building a small business website. This should contain details about you and your background, the region in which you operate, your prices, and contact information for potential clients. Building a straightforward website may be both inexpensive and simple to maintain, and it can be really beneficial as you establish the reputation of your business.

Small business owners frequently undervalue their capacity to stimulate word-of-mouth promotion. Since individuals prefer to rely on the recommendations of their friends and family when entrusting the care of their cherished pets, customer testimonials can be particularly crucial for small enterprises like the dog walking industry. By rewarding pleased clients with pre-determined benefits, like free walks, offering a customer referral program can assist in encouraging your existing clients to share details of your services with others.

• Keep an eye on your finances

Even though establishing a dog walking business would seem like it wouldn’t require much capital up front—after all, don’t you just need some treats, a few leashes, and a good pair of walking shoes?—you might discover that you need a little additional money to help your business get started or grow. Some of the financing options that may be at your disposal are as follows:

• Loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA)

SBA loans are a fantastic choice for small firms that meet the requirements. They frequently offer bigger loan amounts than their competitors, longer repayment terms, and lower interest rates than standard business loans.

Because SBA loans offer such fantastic benefits, they are also in very high demand, and you will need to jump through a lot of hoops to secure funding. However,in most circumstances, it’s still worthwhile going through the application procedure, even if your efforts don’t quite pay off. The time you invest in the application will help you get the data you need for other financing applications.

• Loans for commercial vehicles

Consider a small business auto loan if you require a car or other vehicle to pick up and drop off the dogs you walk. Auto loans assist small businesses in obtaining the funding they require to buy a vehicle, and they sometimes have cheaper interest rates than short- or long-term loans that aren’t expressly related to this purchase.

Once you have identified a certain vehicle (or vehicle type) that you want to purchase, contact lenders who specialise in business vehicle loans.

• Business credit line

Small business operators occasionally require ongoing access to additional funds. For example, let’s say a series of invoices have not been paid, and you suddenly encounter some unforeseen costs. You might not require a large sum of money at once, and would prefer to avoid paying interest on funds that are not being used.

A small business line of credit can be useful in this situation. For as long as the line of credit is open, the lender will give the borrower access to a fixed amount of money. Over the course of the line of credit’s life, borrowers can borrow money multiple times while only paying interest on the funds they have accessed.

• Loans for small businesses

Loans for small businesses are arguably the most comprehensive and all-encompassing financial solutions available to small business owners. These loans enable borrowers to access a predetermined quantity of cash to cover any business-related expenses in exchange for agreeing to pay an interest rate over a predetermined period.

Business loans can help you coverthe typical startup costs associated with running a dog walking business. However, you need to be aware that, in comparison to business vehicle loans, a small business line of credit, and SBA loans, short- and long-term loans do frequently have higher interest rates.