How to Start a Home-Based Pet Care Business (Home-Based Business Series) [Paperback]

Kathy Salzberg (Author)

Book Description

Series: Home-Based Business Series | Publication Date: February 1, 2002

Do you love animals? Have you ever dreamed of making them your life's work? Have you ever imagined yourself as a groomer, a dog walker/pet sitter, or an obedience trainer? This comprehensive book contains all the necessary tools and success strategies you will need to launch and grow your own home-based pet care business. Author Kathy Salzberg, a successful home-based groomer, shares her experience and down-to-earth advice on every aspect of setting up and running a thriving home-based business. Throughout these pages she will show you how to develop a business plan, estimate your start-up costs, price your services, and stay profitable once you're in business. From painless record keeping to savvy marketing techniques, her step-by-step methods are realistic, innovative, and easy to understand. From advice on zoning and insurance to pet grooming and health issues, this guide can help you experience the satisfaction of building your won home-based business. Learn all about: what it takes to be a professional groomer, dog walker/pet sitter, or obedience trainer; attracting clients and gaining their trust; equipping your home office and shop; pricing competitively; setting your daily schedule; building your reputation; managing growth. The following special features as well as workbook pages are included: business registration form; sample business plan; sample client card; sample grooming menu; pet sitter's service contract; obedience trainer's contract; business opening press release; advertising and promotion checklist. (7 x 10, 288 pages, business forms, charts)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Do you love animals? Have you ever dreamed of making them your life's work? Have you ever imagined yourself as a groomer, a dog walker/pet sitter, or an obedience trainer? This comprehensive book contains all the necessary tools and success strategies you will need to launch and grow your own home-based pet care business.Author Kathy Salzberg, a successful home-based groomer, shares her experience and down-to-earth advice on every aspect of setting up and running a thriving home-based business. Throughout these pages she will show you how to develop a business plan, estimate your start-up costs, price your services, and stay profitable once you're in business. From painless record keeping to savvy marketing techniques, her step-by-step methods are realistic, innovative, and easy to understand.From advice on zoning and insurance to pet grooming and health issues, this guide can help you experience the satisfaction of building your won home-based business.Learn all about: what it takes to be a professional groomer, dog walker/pet sitter, or obedience trainer; attracting clients and gaining their trust; equipping your home office and shop; pricing competitively; setting your daily schedule; building your reputation; managing growth. The following special features as well as workbook pages are included: business registration form; sample business plan; sample client card; sample grooming menu; pet sitter's service contract; obedience trainer's contract; business opening press release; advertising and promotion checklist. (7 x 10, 288 pages, business forms, charts)

About the Author

Kathy Salzberg has been involved in the pet care business for twenty-four years and is co-owner of The Village Groomer, a grooming salon and pet-related store in Walpole, Massachusetts. A nationally certified master groomer, she writes a monthly column in Groom & Board magazine called "Groomer Humor." Her feature articles also appear regularly in Cat Fancy, Dog Fancy, Dogs USA, Cats USA, and Popular Dog Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762710225
• ISBN-13: 978-0762710225
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,683,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great for Groomers- not much more!, May 8, 2002

By 

Stacey Voigt (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Start a Home-Based Pet Care Business (Home-Based Business Series) (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping for more information on pet sitting. I should have been warned by the fact that the author is a groomer - a good 70% of the content is geared toward starting your own grooming shop. The information appears to be thorough and well written as regards grooming and the grooming business.

If you are looking for a book with information on becoming a pet sitter, though, this book contains only general information, much of which can be had online by joining mailing lists or bulletin boards.

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much emphasis on grooming, but OK overall, March 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Start a Home-Based Pet Care Business (Home-Based Business Series) (Paperback)

This book really should have been called "How to Start a Home-Based Grooming Business".

When I first got this book I was so excited! Finally, a book that would talk about all different careers working with pets. But when I started reading it I realized that the book is about 80% on grooming.

If you want to be a groomer, this book is written by a true pro and is a wealth of knowledge for you, but for anything other business dealing with pets, it just offers some basic tips that you could find on the internet. The sections explaining other petcare businesses are too small and I feel they're just some token information thrown in to justify the title.

I personally am debating getting into pet store ownership, dog daycare or becoming a trainer and in my case this book was useless. There's excellent info on grooming, but I wish they had added some additional authors who are experienced with training, running dog day care services, dog walking services, pet stores, pet sitting, etc.

And theres a spelling error on the cover ("Write you own").

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative, Well Written Book., March 15, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Start a Home-Based Pet Care Business, 2nd (Home-Based Business Series) (Paperback)

There are two main aspects to a home-based Pet Care business, or in fact to just about any business. First is the part of the business that is special to the particular business. For a pet care business this includes such things as grooming equipment that is unique to this business as opposed say to starting a car repair shop. Second is the standard rules fo business. For instance, what do you need in the way of business licenses, will you be a corporation, what about insurance -- all that stuff. This book draws a nice balance between the two requirements.

There's only one point I would do differently, not so much differently as with a greater emphasis. That is: Get a Computer. You don't need the latest and fastest, I bought quite an acceptable computer at a thrift shop for $75. Then get some accounting software. When they get around to questioning you, the IRS will look at computer generated reports with a lot more acceptance than they will at any manual system. QuickBooks is a good package (there are others). The latest version will cost you two or three hundred dollars. Or you can buy last year's version on eBay for about a hundred, or the year before that for about $65. Each year buy an income tax package, about $20. Do your own taxes and then have an accountant go over them. You can type stuff into the package just as well as he can and he will charge you a bunch.

All in all the book is very well written, the authors clearly understand the business. The writing style is clear and informative. Highly recommended.