Customer Reviews

How to Start a Home-Based Pet Care Business, 2nd (Home-Based Business Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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").

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.

This book was informative however please note that it is very US focussed and will not be of great assistance with regards to regulations in other countries.

The book did not provide an all round knowledgebase for setting up a dog walking business - mainly focussed on grooming.

This book has been very helpful. With step by step ways to get started on your way with your new business. I am taking grooming classes and want to start my own grooming shop in about a year and this book tells you how to get started.

self help book in starting a pet business. I was hoping for a little more information

A lot of good Information but too wordy, you can tell the author was a journalist. It was hard for me to get through it because of all the filler info. Plus she was a dog groomer, and while she has it split into the different areas, the dog grooming portion prevails. I think she should have written three separate books rather than combine them. Other than that, the information was useful, although I'm still not done with it. She really doesn't leave much out and I feel I could start my own business from the information she provided.

not as useful as i thought, if you have never owned a business i think it had great info

The folks who wrote this book know exactly how to run a successful, customer-conscientious business.
Although many businesses today employ the dot.com mentality, some ventures only have room for the 'old school'
way of doing things. If you're thinking about starting a dog sitting or dog grooming business surrounded by
chaos, dirty floors, and bad customer service, hurry and buy this book. You might still be able to recover the
investments you're about to lose! On the downside ... the title of the book is "How To Start A Home-Based Pet
Care Business" which seems to encompass all pet types, however, the book speaks only to dog grooming and dog sitting.
I hoped for information on how to start a Cat Boarding Business. Other than that ... 5 stars.

Uneven coverage of different kinds of businesses. I was looking for something on Pet Sitting, and the book has very limited chapter on this subject. Other types of businesses have much more extensive coverage. Some extrapolates from one small business to another, but lots doesn't. Not very useful as a pet sitting how-to manual.