Hello and help!

Hello! I am after your help! We are in the middle of setting up a dog accessories business and would be really grateful if you could answer a few questions to help guide us in what we sell and how we can best help and serve dog owners. Any feedback on the below questions would be hugely appreciated. Thanks, Lucy


What sort of items do you buy for you dog on a daily, monthly, yearly basis?


What are your main concerns when it come to the health and wellbeing of you dog?


Do you find dog training difficult? If so what problems have you experienced?
Do you find dog training easy? If so what training methods and routines do you use?


Where do you shop for your dog's accessories? Do you prefer pet supermarket brands for cost saving or something more boutiquey for something a little different/of higher quality?


As a dog owner what do you worry the most about?


What do you spend the most money on when it comes to shopping for your dog?


Are there any non-dog related retail shops (high street/online) that you would like to see a doggy equivalent for?

Not that I can think of.

What sort of items do you buy for you dog on a daily, monthly, yearly basis?

Food.

What are your main concerns when it come to the health and wellbeing of you dog?

I don't really have any concerns they are all fit and well


Do you find dog training difficult? If so what problems have you experienced?
Do you find dog training easy? If so what training methods and routines do you use?


I find training easy and fun, never had any problem I couldn't solve. I don't follow any particular method.


Where do you shop for your dog's accessories? Do you prefer pet supermarket brands for cost saving or something more boutiquey for something a little different/of higher quality?


Collars I buy online.

As a dog owner what do you worry the most about?

Other people.


What do you spend the most money on when it comes to shopping for your dog?


Food


Are there any non-dog related retail shops (high street/online) that you would like to see a doggy equivalent for?

NO.

welcome Lucy to the forum

My wife and I owned a boarding kennel and cattery for well over 20 years ( and owned dogs since 1973 ) so running your own business needs a litle more than knowing what you are asking.

First and foremost even before thinking about product you need to look at costs and outgoings.
Have you considered on what basis you are going to buy products on, ie sale or return or outright purchase. What are your overheads going to be .
What local competition is there. What about marketing .
Each of these can be broken down into subsections that need exploring.
What profit margin do you need to be able to live on.

Overheads -postage -returned goods- income tax- accountants- bank charges- insurance- travel costs-ta, to name a few and a trading licence if selling fresh animal food

Have you researched the prices in pet shops and can you compete? they bulk buy and will be able to sell for a lot less I expect than you can. Don't forget pets-at-home retail outlets sell as well as vets and supermarkets

Have you arranged anything with wholesale outlets and is there one near you. Manufactures more than likely will supply to them as against individuals

How are you going to advertise your products? Web site -yellow pages- flyers- local newspapers etc

Are you going to rent a shop to sell goods in, that costs as well or sell from home by mail order?

Have you approached local kennels to see if they might be interested in buying something

These and the rest all cost money which you will have to add to the goods prices.

So once done your homework you need to build a business plan with must reach targets for every product to make a living from.

Once you have done all that then is the time to consider what products you want to sell.

And how many hours you want to put into it, remember running your own business means no holidays- no wages/salaries- no pension scheme- private health and dental insurance (you can't afford to be away from the business)

So good luck but be careful running your own business needs a lot of thought first and make sure you have a financial reserve to fall back on..

The average time it takes for a new business to get established is about 7 years. It took us that long even having taken over an existing business to get it recognised in our own name. The previous owner had let it run down.

We only took about 8 days off in the first 5 years to give some idea, but went from a client base of about 350 to well over 5000 on the books when we sold

We very nearly went under in the first few years until we got established and this is the danger time in any new venture.
If you don't have total commitment than don't do it

I think you are a little confused Lucy

You are saying you want to start up a dog accessory business then go onto training and what owners are worried about.

So it looks to me, with all due respect, you have not given much thought in which direction you want to take. Either running a pet accessory business- or how to look after a pet ie training/ownership. health and wellbeing is a vets domain

Hi Lucy,

I spent most of money on food, I use rice bones, it's his favorite.

I never found dog training difficult, I use harmless dog collar sometimes.

Thanks

Hi Lucy