5 Pet Business Ideas (For Animal Loving Entrepreneurs)
If you love animals – and want to make money – why not combine your interests and passions into your own profitable business? It’s possible.
In fact, here are 5 pet-related business ideas that you might want to consider.
Read more…
Categories: Business Ideas, Pet Profits Tags:
Allergy Fighting K-9s
Sniff out Mold with a Dog
That is right. You can have a dog trained to sniff out mold. Provide people with this service, and you and your pet will be making some money. Mold is a serious, toxic problem. People most worried about this problem are probably parents and mobile home owners. Set out to market towards those groups of people. What symptoms does toxic mold produce? We cannot normally smell mold, but dogs can.
Mold is a problem causing large numbers of problems to lots of parents and mobile home owners. Allergies are the main reason people are on the lookout for a means of getting rid of mold. Hiring exterminators prove to be rather expensive, and the work may not always be perfect. This is the reason people are nowadays turning to mold dogs for the eradication of mold. Therefore, if you have a dog that can sniff out mold, then offering your services for mold eradication can be a great business proposition for you!
Molds cause allergy related problems because of the dust spores released by these molds. It is because of this that people are prone to sinus infections and are affected by the molds. It is the black mold that causes toxic reactions, leading to chronic Rhinitis. Sometimes mold problems are so bad that people are compelled to change houses and offices!
With a mold dog, you could prove to people that mold dogs tend to give quicker and more accurate results for eradicating mold. This thus leads to lower remediation costs for schools, hotels, government buildings, homeowners, insurers, and commercial buildings. Realtors and insurance companies benefit the most with the help of your mold dog as they help with escrow timelines. Your dog can accurately inspect a home to give them the necessary information to quickly resolve and settle issues! You can charge at least $200 per assignment; these people are ready to pay you this much as it is much better than having to pay $1000 to professionals!
It is now known that the nose is the present cutting-edge technology and is considered the latest trend of the home inspection industry. While exterminators use a whole lot of instruments and gadgets to detect and pinpoint mold, with the mold dog, all this is done with no expenditure at all! People trust dogs, as it is a proven fact that dogs are man’s best friend and have been used in the detection of bombs and drugs by military and law enforcement agencies for some time now! These mold dogs are just another breed of dog that can help us with their sniffing prowess.
The main advantage of working with a dog in mold eradication is that the dog is trained to sniff out mold in exchange for food and love. Nothing done for profit! You save as you don’t have to split profits; just shower love and food on your dog. Dogs are naturally hard workers; a single dog can sometimes search about 200 rooms in a building in about eight hours!
You may have to first do some marketing about the availability of your mold dog; no one can hire you, if they are not aware of your presence! Create a website, pamphlets and perhaps place an ad in areas where mold problems are dominant. Once you cover a few assignments with your dog, people’s references should be sufficient for your advertising! Other than your marketing expenses, you have no other investment for your mold sniffing services!
Some mold dog resources are:
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How You Can Put Your Pets To Work
Is your pet your best friend? Do you spend lots of time playing with them and watching them? Have you often wished they could make money for you?
If you know a lot about your pets, this home-based business could help you make some money off them. No, I am not talking about sending a video to a TV program! That method can work but your chances of getting your pet seen on National TV are slim and making any substantial regular income, that way is impossible. This method involves a regular steady income just from having and enjoying pets.
Since you are not the only pet owner with a fascination for your animal, you can put this love to good use. Publishing a free “Pet Gazette” may be the answer you are looking for. Don’t worry if you are not good at writing, you could have freelancers write articles for inclusion in it. You could distribute it to various “drop-off” locations and make money from advertising (pet stores, veterinarian clinics, groomers, etc.).
-How to Get Started
First, you will need to create your Gazette. If you have a computer at home, this will be fairly simple. You can use Publisher (or MS Word) to create the publication. Use some cute graphics and be sure to include your contact information as Publisher. MS Publisher is easier to use because it includes several layouts that can help get you started.
You can print it up on plain white or a basic color paper on your home printer, which will eliminate expensive printing costs. A printing service can also be used, but may cost a little more than home printing.
-Getting Freelance Writers
Your articles do not need to all be professional. Poems or short bits from school kids can be fun to include in your Gazette. Another source of articles is writing classes at local schools, your veterinarian, and your friends. Every aspiring author wants to see their work in print, so it should be easy to get articles to use as long as you give them credit for writing the article.
-How to Get Advertisers
Contact your local pet stores, veterinarian, pet groomers, and any other company that have anything to do with pets and pet products. Tell them what you are doing and see if you can include a coupon to offer a discount for people reading the Gazette. Have them set up an account tracking code that can be put on the coupons so they will know the coupon came from your newsletter. At the end of every month, contact them to see how many coupons have been used and request your payment from them.
-Distributing Your Gazette
The same contacts you used for advertisers are a good place to start putting your newsletter. Ask them to place copies on the counter or give a copy to each person who visits their establishment. If you have kids, you could also have them put a copy on each of your neighborhood doors or porches, (stay away from mailboxes this is against the law).
If you make your newsletter fun and informative, you will soon have lots of readers wanting your publication for the value it provides them each month in discounts and information about their pets.
Helpful Resources:
library.humboldt.edu/~ccm/copyrite.htm
www.topstory.ca/newsletters.html
Categories: Business Ideas, Pet Profits Tags:
A Lot of Horse Cents
If you have a little horse sense, you can turn the love for this animal into a moneymaking endeavor. Teaching horse riding can be very lucrative and you don’t have to be an expert to do it. You do not even need to own a horse or stables.
Jenny Lee Doyle was a stay-at-home mother of four when she decided to do something about her desire to get back in the saddle again. In order to fight off the guilt that all moms feel when they decide to do something for themselves, she found a way to bring home the bacon, as well.
Because she grew up caring for, riding, and showing horses, Jenny Lee has the knowledge and experience to market herself as a horse-riding instructor. From September through May, she charges $175 for ten one-hour sessions. She teaches all ages and ability levels, but most of her students are school-age children. During the summer months, she offers one-week camps to make even more money.
When she first started teaching, Jenny Lee advertised as frequently and as cheaply as possible. Eventually, her classes filled up and now the yellow pages and word-of-mouth are her main advertising media.
The best part of Jenny Lee’s set up is that she teaches the classes at someone else’s stables. She uses their horses, their equipment, and their land. Because the stable owner is already being paid for the boarding and caring of the horses, Jenny Lee’s overhead is virtually nothing. However, she does purchase insurance as a safeguard; this is always a wise decision with any type of business.
Boarding stables provide a good opportunity for enthusiastic horse-lovers to find students. The average person boarding horses could use refresher courses too. Most could use more than that. Moreover, not every horse boarder is interested in teaching.
If you have an interest in horses, but not the experience, you can still work your way into becoming a riding instructor. First, you could take lessons, yourself. In the beginning, it is true that you would only be able to teach the very basics. But you could pair up with someone like Jenny Lee and offer to instruct horse care classes, leaving the riding to the expert. In fact, if you aren’t afraid of a little hard work, you might be able to negotiate a trade. You could do the “dirty work” in exchange for training on how to become an instructor.
Once you have gained the appropriate knowledge and experience, you can become creative in your packaging of different classes. Some stables offer birthday parties on the premises, especially if there are enough barnyard animals near by to make up a petting zoo. If the customer prefers, you could arrange to take a pony into town to a party. Classes could also be arranged through scouting and other youth programs.
If you have a little horse sense, you can turn the love for this animal into a moneymaking endeavor. With enough persistence, even beginners can cash in.
Helpful Resources:
horses.about.com/od/basiccare/Learn_to_Care_for_Your_Horse_or_Pony.htm
www.learningabouthorses.com/?gclid=CPeYuqGWi5QCFRaVggodQilGWQ
horses.about.com/library/partsofthehorse/blhorsemap.htm
www.learnhorseriding.com/?hop=maddy0324
www.roughingit.com/info/horse/?gclid=CNKHtdWVi5QCFRGYggodiQp7VQ
www.horsetrainingsuccess.com/?gclid=CLeV08SVi5QCFRaVggodQilGWQ
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The Pets Playground
Our pets need exercise and playtime just as much as humans do, if not more so. This definitely includes our dogs. You could own your own pet playground where you would have a dog daycare that emphasizes the benefits of a large play and exercise area. If you have a love of dogs and own the space to offer a playground for other peoples’ pets, this may be an excellent business idea for you to look into.
Most pet owners would love to have a place to take their pets to get some playful fun, association, and exercise. A happy pet is a much more enjoyable pet to own. You could offer to provide this ‘pet fun’ for people that don’t have the space or the time to give to their neglected pets. Dog owners could accompany their dogs and schedule play-dates at your playground or schedule a play-date with you so you can supervise their dog for them.
You could charge just as much as a human or baby daycare center, approximately $10.00 an hour or more. Check businesses in your local area and see what the typical rate is for boarding dogs on a daily basis too. This will give you an idea of what you can charge your customers in your area, per hour.
You will have to make sure that all of the dogs that come to play have all of their shots and they are socially skilled to play with other dogs. If not, you might offer smaller areas for one dog at a time to play in. Often larger dogs never get a chance to have a good run, so if you could offer an area that they could run in for a while and a place to swim you could even call your business a dog retreat or spa!
If you could work with a local veterinarian, it would work to your benefit also. Make sure that he/she will see any dog that might have a mishap while with you and see if he/she would be willing to offer other services also while a dog is visiting you. The dog owners would love to schedule regular visits with the vet while their dog is with you. You might be able to set aside one or two days a week for the vet to visit your establishment and offer his/her services.
If you could also offer dog-grooming services at your facility, you could make a profit from this also. The option of puppy training and socializing with trainers could be beneficial options also. Over-night boarding and vacation boarding could be added options if you are able to provide cozy little rooms for your canine guests. Offering a car service to pick up the dogs on a regular basis could be a good idea too, for those busy people that wouldn’t have time to transport their dogs to your playground park!
Just starting out with a play-park for dogs and then expanding with time could be a wonderful way to make a fun income, leaving you many ways to expand your business with time, if you choose too!
Advertise your business anywhere that dog owners might frequent. See if your local veterinarian’s offices, pet groomers, and pet stores would allow you to leave information with them. Advertise in your local newspapers and magazines also.
Resources:
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Pet Lovers Get Rich
Do you have any pets? If you have ever left them behind while you go on vacation, you know the big decisions that go with leaving a pet behind. You need to find someone to feed them, play with them, and walk them. Someone responsible and able to deal with your particular pet’s personality and health problems.
Well, imagine yourself in that job and imagine yourself making big bucks! People who love their animals will pay well to have someone care for them. I only recommend this for those of you who enjoy animals because otherwise it could get nasty.
As a pet-sitter, you need to charge according to the complexity of the job. A cat needs less attention than a dog, and a healthy dog less than one with a myriad of health difficulties. The amount of time you will spend with the animal should be factored into your price. You might want to check local boarding facilities for animals to see what the going rates are in your area. Divide the daily price into hours and your price should be a little higher, since you are providing individual personalized care. You might want to negotiate as well. If your client is going away for two days, the price should be your normal price, but if they are leaving for two weeks, you can offer a discount. You might also wish to give frequent traveler discounts.
Run ads in your local newspapers, hang flyers in dog-walking areas and in the veterinarian’s offices. Word of mouth is a very valuable tool also. If you are taking excellent care of animals, people will talk and you will receive more customers. Keep business cards on hand and give several to every client, so they can pass them on.
Once you have the job, make sure you understand all your responsibilities. Some pets have very strict schedules and you need to write all this down. I suggest a notebook with a page or two for each of your current clients. A small binder is ideal, you can keep current clients in front, when the owners return, move their info sheets to the back. This way your current clients will be in the front of your binder at all times.
If the animal needs medication, make sure you know where they will be kept, see if they are properly and clearly labeled, and ask the best way to give the medications. Grooming is the same, ask to see where the supplies are, and view a grooming session with the client and her pet. You should have a list of where food and toys are also. Ask that the client leave a sufficient supply of food.
Now that you have all the needed information and have met the pet, you are ready to begin. The client should leave you a key to the house so that you can enter while your services are required. Just remember, this is not a time to bring friends over or root through the fridge. You are here only for the benefit of the animal. Follow your schedule and give the animal the attention it needs, whether this be playing fetch or going for a long walk.
If you decide to combine two jobs and walk two dogs at once, I suggest being careful. It is possible the dogs will not get along. Introduce them first and at any hint of trouble, cancel that idea. The last thing you need is a freshly scarred pet for your client to return home too!
Apart from that little warning, enjoy your temporary pets! Keep the family veterinarian phone number on hand, just in case and be responsible and they will call you again.
Helpful Resources:
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MySpace for Dog Owners
Create a social networking website for a certain type of dog owners – it could be a breed, size, – anything. It would be free for people to use and sign up, and you make money with the advertising you place on the website pages.
Who would have thought that MySpace would have been so successful? It is basically a way of meeting other people that have similar interests. Why not start up a social networking website for a segment of society that are dog owners? They will all have the love of dogs in common. You can give them the opportunity to show pictures of their dogs and share stories and friendships with others that have a great love for their dogs too.
If a website for dog owners is too broad a segment of society, you could offer a site, or sites, for dog owners of specific breed types. Whatever you decide to do, there are many different avenues that you can choose from to do. Just make your website free for whoever wants to join and sign up, you make your money with those that choose to advertise on your website pages.
Setting up your website will cost you a little of an investment of money and time at first, but it will be well worth it in the future. Then you will need to advertise your site, once people start joining, word of mouth will help build your membership numbers. The more members you have, the more chance of companies wanting to advertise on your site. This is where you will make your money – by referring your members to businesses that will sell them products.
These are the types of sites that can bring you a slow steady income, the longer you maintain them, the more money they typically will make for you. You just need to make sure that you keep your members returning to your website regularly and posting often. Offer occasional fun contests for your members to join in on; maybe the funniest picture or video posted for the month, the saddest dog, cutest puppy, and the list is endless. Let the members of the site vote and decide who should win too!
Post your own articles also about the different breeds of dogs, care, grooming tips and problems that members are experiencing. The members will enjoy the interaction with others that also love their dogs.
Post your site name and address in as many places as you can find that are frequented by dog owners; pet stores, dog parks, veterinarian offices, local pet shelters, and societies. Post articles on-line about dogs and include your URL within and after the articles. This will help people find your site too.
If you have the money to invest in more advertising, you can also advertise your website in pet magazines and advertise in as many newspapers as you can afford. The more investment you make in advertising, the faster and larger your website will grow. Just make sure that it is a fun place for dog lovers to visit and they will take care of the rest.
Resources:
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Fight Loneliness While Making Money
Do you know people who live alone and get tired of being lonely? Does your neighborhood have a college or many retirement communities? If you have always loved animals and creepy crawly things, then this could be the perfect business opportunity for you.
Cats and dogs take lots of care and time. They get sick and need veterinary care. There are lots of people who are allergic or live in a place where they are unable to have a traditional pet because of building restrictions (such as apartment buildings, retirement homes, and dorms). The answer may be an exotic pet store.
Exotic pets make truly unique and fascinating pets. They require minimal daily maintenance, and can provide entertainment, and even companionship. Although most people do not think of insects, rodents, amphibians, or reptiles as pets, many of them have personalities and can become great companions.
Take the gecko for instance, after they get to know you, they may snuggle on your shoulder and give you kisses with their little lizard tongues! While not all non-traditional pets are quite this friendly, they are sure to provide hours of entertainment and help you to earn money at the same time.
CARE AND FEEDING
Since most non-traditional pets take very little proper care, you will not have to spend lots of time taking care of your products. All you will need to start your business are some tanks, some substrates (bottom material), some heating pads and/or heat lamps, a dark hiding place in each tank for the creature to relax and sleep, and water dishes.
You will need to keep the tanks clean but if you use a good substrate, it is easy to do. Using the heat lamps on a timer will save you the time of shutting them on and off. They will go off in the afternoon and lower their temperatures at night.
Smaller exotic pets will eat mainly crickets and can be fed as little as 2x/week. Pinky mice, mealworms, and wax worms are occasional feeding alternatives. If you choose to sell larger pets, such as snakes, you may need larger mice, rats or small rabbits.
BENEFITS OF SELLING A NON-TRADITIONAL PET
There is very little you can do that will kill them (other than not caring for them properly!). They take very little time and space. They hardly ever need to visit a veterinarian. Most places do not sell exotic pets on a regular basis. They only carry the occasional exotic pets.
There are many exotic pets that you can offer such as: Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, Malaysian Jungle Nymph, Thai Five Horn Rhino Beetle, Thai Spotted Jewel Beetle, hundreds of different tarantulas, a wide variety of geckos, and thousands of different types of snakes.
MARKETING YOUR EXOTIC BUSINESS
Finding clients is easy. You can visit your local school or university and talk about your creatures; contact your local retirement communities and offer to provide a talk about some of the different pets; take out a small ad in your local newspaper; or even create a web site that offers them around the world!
RESOURCES
If you are interested in starting a non-traditional pet store, there is lots of information to help you choose and maintain the pets you offer. Here are some links to get you started:
– To purchase exotic insects and supplies:
– To find out more about exotic pets:
www.insecthobbyist.com/breeder/
– More information about the care and feeding of exotic pets:
Categories: Pet Profits Tags:
Fashionable Cats and Dogs
Unfortunately, nametags on cat and dog collars can fall off or get lost. You can solve this problem by creating collars with their name and your contact information embroidered right on their collar. You could sell each customized collar for about $15 each.
Isn’t this a great business idea? Most of us have had a pet that just cannot hang on to their nametags. Who knows what happens to them but they just disappear on a regular basis especially if your pet hates it. (I wonder how many dogs have buried theirs?)
Offer a service that will embroider all of the important information needed on collars for cats and dogs, or any pet that needs one. Just think if someone finds it separated from your pet, you might actually get it back again. If the collar is still on the pet and the pet is lost, you will get them both back.
If you sew and have a sewing machine that you can use to make these collars, this could be the business idea you have been looking for. You could sell these attractive customized collars for about $15 each. Offer them in lots of fun colors and embroidery designs. Making them from washable fabrics will be a nice option to offer too. If collars were more comfortable, they might stay on longer also. However, you also have the option of using pre-made collars and just embroidering the pets’ important information on them too. If you buy the collars in bulk from a wholesaler, you should be able to receive an inexpensive price on them; this will keep your costs down and provide you a good profit margin.
There are many new high tech sewing machines on the market that can make this project easy to do, whether you are a sewer already, or not. If you don’t own one already look into how much it might cost to purchase an embroidery machine that could accomplish this task easily. If the price seems reasonable, then you might also think of purchasing fabrics that would be durable enough to put on a pet for a collar. The nice thing about making collars like this is that you will not have to use much fabric to make them; this will keep your cost to make each item quite low, you will probably spend more on a buckle for it.
Your initial investments will be in thread, fabric and a machine that will embroider for you. Then invest in a site that you will be able to sell them on, or if you would prefer – offer your collars at flea markets and fairs. Whatever your choice will be, it should be a fun project to pursue.
It would even be a great wristband idea for Alzheimer patients that have a habit of wondering-off or for toddlers that wonder in stores and other crowded places. You could offer a second business doing the same thing for other types of customers. Your wristbands could become a popular item to wear if they are attractive enough.
Resources:
home.search.ebay.com/dog-collars_Pet-Supplies_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR40QQsacatZ1281
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Cover the World with Fur
You can design and sell loosely fitting coverings for furniture and other surfaces of the house for pets to lie on. These smaller washable surfaces will be more inexpensive for the average pet owner and easier to maintain than a full size custom created cover for a piece of furniture (or for instance, a rug). This will prevent any hair and/or fur from sticking to the surface of a piece of furniture or carpet. It can also prevent those annoying smells, which seem to penetrate the fibers of a piece of furniture, that never seem to come out! Your covers will also offer the added benefit of keeping a home cleaner and overall more sanitary. This wouldn’t just be a wonderful easy option for pet owners, but also for pet sitters, groomers, or kennels as well!
Over a hundred million furry pets are owned in the United States alone. Now, imagine how much cat and dog hair is covering each-and-every piece of furniture across each of these pet owning countries. There is no denying it. That’s a LOT of furry furniture! While completely covering every piece of furniture with a washable, removable cover may be an option for some households, most people do not have the time or resources to do this. It just isn’t a practical option. This is where you come in.
According to the U.S. Humane Society, there are more than 78 million dogs owned as pets in the United States. Twenty-five percent of these pet owners owned two dogs. This same study said that there were more than 90 million cats owned as pets in the United States also. Fifty-six percent of these pet owners own more than one cat. There are over five million cat owners in the UK and of these, 38 percent have more than one cat. France and Germany also maintain high pet ownership statistics. In Japan, one in three households has a pet.
Depending on the size of the cover, you could charge $20 – $60 per cover. You should offer them in a range of sizes and fabrics. You can create them in many colors and designs. You should also offer some covers with elaborate ribbons and fancy embellishments for the pet owners who like to make the animal members of their family’s feel like royalty. Keep in mind also the wide range of surfaces that dogs and cats like to make their favorite napping spots. Cats love high places like the back of a couch or on top of a television. Dogs generally like large fluffy couches or surfaces like beanbag chairs. Animals also like to lie across the back section of a car or perch on the edge of a vehicle seat, or balanced out a truck window. Some pets prefer the seat of a rocking chair or making themselves comfortable sprawled across the foot of a bed.
Be sure to keep in mind the range of sizes that people will need for different breeds of dogs. You will need to make these covers durable and able to resist frequent washings and the occasional animal chewing on them. You could even offer personalized covers with the names, or initials, of the pet on them for a little dash of personality and charm!
Next, you will need to find a way for your many potential customers to find you! You will likely want to advertise your services by running a visible advertisement in your local phone directory, list your business with an online business directory, and also by printing up flyers and posting them in places where people who would benefit from your services are likely to visit; like vet offices and pet stores. Be sure to include elementary schools, grocery stores, popular lunch places, and coffee shops! Most post offices and grocery stores also have bulletin boards that they will allow you to place an advertisement on with your business information. Be sure to take advantage of any public bulletin boards in your immediate area to find people who are looking for you and your services. In no time at all, you will have built up a large clientele base, many by word of mouth as they receive items with you and tell their friends!
Resources:
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