Starting A Dog Business – Turn Your Passion For Pugs Into Profit

Starting a dog business is a thought that probably occurs to almost every dog lover at one time or another. It actually is a very good thought. It’s a growing industry with a huge market. There are over 60 million dogs in the United States and about one out of every 4 households has a dog. Dogs are second only to cats. Almost one third of the homes in this country has at least one cat as a resident. Approximately two thirds of the homes have either a cat, dog or both. We mention cats here because many of the business discussions we’ll have can apply to a cat as well. But, for now, let’s focus on dogs and explore what it takes to start a business and see if it makes sense for you.

Do we need to state the obvious? You need to love dogs if you’re going to be successful in any dog business and truly love what you do. We’re going to make the assumption that you will want to start part time and create some spare income that may or may not grow into a full time business. Is there enough opportunity for someone who is thinking about starting a dog business? Absolutely! The pet industry is one of the fastest growing markets even in the recent economic downturn and there are any number of ways that you can make money. Most of them require very little investment and can be operated out of your home. They cover a wide range of services and, quite often, a person can offer more than one of them to their customers.

So what kind of business opportunities exist in the field of dogs and can any of them be done with just Pugs (since this IS a website about Pugs)? The range of activities is quite extensive and, believe it or not, if you’re willing to turn away some customers, you can build a business that specializes in Pugs. It will depend on the area, of course. You have a better chance of doing that in a highly populated urban area where Pugs are popular but almost no chance of doing that in rural areas. A better idea is to perhaps specialize in small dogs. This is a better strategy anyway. Many Pug owners are careful not to put their little friends in close proximity to the larger breeds especially if they are at all aggressive. For the purposes of exploration, let’s just focus on starting a dog business but keep in mind that you may have a preference for doing business with smaller dogs.

Let’s break down the businesses into two types. The first is the physical service where you will actually be doing some kind of activity and getting paid for your time. The second will be businesses where you offer a product or service but don’t actually have to be present to deliver it to your customer. Each type of business will appeal to different people and many dog lovers absolutely prefer the first type of business. Just as with any entrepreneurial adventure, starting a dog business will require careful thought and planning.

The physical services include things like training , boarding, grooming, dog walking or dog sitting. Any of these activities can lead to a part or full time income and we’ll discuss each of them separately although you can certainly combine one or more of them to offer a more complete service for your clients.

The other type of business involves the creation of something other than a service to sell to your customer. This can range from dog food to dog clothing, information and instruction books or by referring your contacts to other vendors. Although this can certainly be done through physical, one to contact in a traditional storefront environment, we will focus on doing this online or through the internet. Why? Three very big reasons. First, that is the growing trend. Second, it requires a much, much smaller investment than the traditional retail or wholesale storefront approach. Third, the possibilities are endless and you can be in business 24 hours a day and never leave your house. You can be sleeping and making money or traveling the world and enjoying a steady income from customers you never see! As you can see from this website, my preferred method of starting a dog business is to do it on the web!