Starting a pet sitting home business? Think local first!

Starting a pet sitting home business? Think local first!

Where you choose to provide your pet sitting home business services will be a significant cost driver to your business. Travel time, the cost of fuel, and the wear and tear on your vehicle are all direct costs that go straight to the bottom line. So, as you develop your pet sitting start up business plan, you need to make an early decision about what area you can effectively service in the beginning.

You should feel confident that a pet sitting home business is a service for which there is a real and abiding need in many communities. So, you may find that you can get all the clients you need very close to home – in your apartment complex or within a few blocks of your home. I recommend that you begin there. In your longer term pet sitting home business plan, you can consider how you want to grow. As you learn from your initial service area experience, you can project forward to where you want to provide services in the future.

As part of working your initial service area, you should invest in some very good, up-to-date local maps. “Initially I started within a five-mile radius of my suburban home” (quoted from my new book, Pet Sitting Business Success – The Critters Choice Way). In a rural setting, of course, you will need a larger initial geographic service area for your startup pet care business than in an urban area in order to have enough potential clients.

If your pet sitting startup business can afford the investment in a GPS in-vehicle system, you will find this an invaluable tool in moving through your service area. GPS systems will give you step by step driving directions to your destination either on a display screen or through voice instructions. However, do not rely exclusively on a GPS map based system because there may be new streets or buildings that are not included and sometimes there are errors in the GPS street database. So, always carry a detailed, laminated paper map of your service area with you. You may want to annotate the map with other pet care business locations such as veterinary clinics, vet offices and pet supply stores. Your service area map will also help you optimize routes for efficient movement between appointments.

My advice to the person starting a pet care business is to “get out there and see what’s available” and where your potential customer are, then gradually adjust your service area to ground reality. Be careful not to limit yourself at the startup of your pet sitting service so that you are out of the game before you begin. I found that response to my advertising gave me an excellent overview of where potential clients were located.

As your pet sitting home business grows, you should plan on revisiting your startup decisions about your service area. My advice is to begin small enough that you can successfully meet your client’s needs and the commitments you make to them. As your reputation for quality, caring, and reliable pet sitting home business service is established, you can choose to expand your service area following these same principles.