Thinking about starting my own business...

at the minute im finding it hard to find a full time job in a boarding kennels. i work part time but dont even get paid minimum wage, sometimes just £20 for 8 hours.
thinking it through i thought maybe i could start a dog walking business. there are plenty of people around here who have dogs, and people have already said if i set it up they would pay me to walk theirs.
im seriously considering it because at the end of the day if i make more than £20 a day im doing better than what im doing at work.
i was thinking about charging by the hour, and giving discounts to households with multiple dogs, and maybe after ten paid walks they get one free, that sort of thing. but im writing on here for your help. how much would you pay for someone to walk your dog for an hour? what things like insurance do i need, and as its my own business what do i do about taxes and things.
so guys what do you think?

I know what you mean about kennel work. I used to work all weekend (okay it was quite a few years ago now) from 7.00 in the morning to gone 6.00 at night and I got £2. we also were not alllowed to keep any tips (not even put them in a jar) the kennel owner took them. She would let you get the dog and then take it from you just before you reached the owner thereby stopping you receiving anything. If you did manager to get a tip from an owner she would ask for it from you.

I think if it is something you can make a go of then do it. I don't know if you need a licence or anything like that but perhaps try it part time to start with to see if you can build up your client list and go from there.

Perhaps you could see if you can get a government grant of some sort to help with start up costs (as I think you will need insurance cover of some sort but I could be wrong). I am not sure what I would pay it would be something I would have to think about but I know there is a demand for it.

Good luck & let us know how it goes.

Sounds like a great Idea. I had to use a Dog walker once and she was an absolute godsend. The 1 day a week work made me leave the house was costing me a fortune each week in damage done by my dogs about £60-£100 each day !!! I got recommended a 'Doggy Daycare' and that was £80 p/day but the Dog Walker I got was £9 per hour per dog and she would come half way through the block of time I was out and take them for an hours walk.

I'm always recommending her to others as she does long term and one offs all the time and was brilliant with my dogs. I think they actually miss her !!!

Good Luck I do now you need Public Liability Insurance, but other than that it's the usual rules for walking a Dog ie collar tag lead and control

thanks. i was only thinking of charging like £6 an hour!

Try petbusiness insurance, they are great, will insure you for everything you need for walking and boarding...i think its just over 100 quid a year but well worth it.
Also get yourself CRB checked and people are happy to give you there house keys to pick dogs up.

What I would recommend with a walking business is stick at it!! Word of mouth goes a long way too. It may take a while to get enough clients to make a good amount of money, but once you have a client base, if your reliable you will always be known around your area and people will recommend you to others.

Try and find what is "missing" in your area. For example, where I live there are LOADS of dogwalkers BUT they all only do large group walks....so I do individual or pairs walking which a lot of people like, and also a lot of mid day drop ins for people that work, cos noone else does them!!

Good luck x

If you haven't already got a CRB, this is the only place that an individual can get one
http://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk/

I pay £5 an hour for my dog walker/sitter. If I had more money I would happily pay more as knowing that Lana is well taken care of puts my mind at rest.

Lana plays well with the dogsitters dog but we met them at the park one day and there was another dog there. Lana didn't like that at all that someone was playing with HER friend The dogsitter has said she won't bring another dog in whilst she has Lana there so I know I don't have to worry on that score.

You could also try daily rates as well, slightly cheaper than the £6 an hour or half day rates for people who work part time and maybe can't leave their dog alone at all.

For taxes and things you would contact hmrc and say you are going self employed. You'll get a little booklet, can pay your NI stamp each month and then write down each time you have a dog, how long, how much you charged and keep note of it. You could set it up in excel if you have that on your pc.

If you buy treats you can take this off the money you earn, also petrol money and any other expenses, like insurance that you might have with the business and then whatever profit you have left, if it's enough, you pay tax, if not you are not due anything.

Most places run starting a new business course so you could find out from there how to do the bookkeeping and you can fill in the forms online now.

A good accounting program can be found at http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ I think the sole trader basic accounts one would be fine. Once everything is filled out there's a page which is a copy of the page on the governments site so you can check the figures in the boxes on the accounts program and just put them into the same boxes on the online self assesment form.

I used to get someone to fill in my forms, cost a couple of hundred pounds but with this software it's so easy to follow that I do it all myself now.

I don't have any affiliation with the above link, just I tried numerous programs and couldn't gt to grips with them and found this a boon and so easy to do.

Hi
cliverton is a good insurance company for people working with animals, you could also look on the HM Revenue and customs website for information about working for yourself and another good place to go for help and advice is business initiative. Hope this helps

Is it even legal to not pay the minimum wage?

As for how much to pay per hour, it really differs depending on what end of the country you are in. Down here, the norm would be £8 (if you are lucky) to £10 (more likely) per hour walk.

no its not legal. she pays cash in hand so gets away with it... i started just for the experience, however now im her general skivvy rather than a kennel assistant