There are many lucrative sides of the pet services industry, and additionally there are ample amounts of people who are quickly realizing that by starting their own pet sitting service they can easily garner a decent annual income. But sadly, many people who may want to break into this profitable and rewarding realm of pet services have not the faintest clue as to where to begin. I owned a successful pet sitting service for a number of years before I passed the antlers on to my sister and moved on to a different business. The best part about my pet sitting service was that it was easy to start, and easy to maintain, and that I enjoyed what I was doing. If you have ever thought about starting your own pet sitting service, here is what you need to know to get off the ground and running.

Get the Materials That You’ll Need
You will need invoices and business cards, as well as flyers so you can advertise your business. The local office supplies store will yield to you the invoices that you need, or you can make custom invoices by using spreadsheet software. You can also order business cards online for free at Vistaprint.com – or you can usually get a great deal on business cards at a number of other online venues. These are the basics. Design flyers and business cards and invoices. Start a file folder to keep track of new clients and most importantly, stay organized. The more organized you are, the easier it will be to run your pet sitting service.

Advertise Inexpensively
There are many avenues that you take to advertise for nearly no money spent. Put up black and white flyers at all of the local dog parks. Hand out your business cards to everybody that you meet. Tell your friends and your family, and offer a tollfree number for prospective clients to reach you free of charge. Finally, take out free ads on websites like Craigslist.com – where you can post ads for free and reach a decent audience. Slowly but surely the clients will trickle in. With each new client that you add to your roster, your monthly net revenue will increase.

Build a Website
You can use programs like Yahoo Sitebuilder to create a professional looking websites in a few hours, and for free. This program allows you to point and click and drag and drop, it’s like using a word processor. Then you can buy hosting from Yahoo for about ten bucks per month. This will give you a domain name, email address and web hosting for your website. The faster you have an internet presence, the more professional prospective clients will see your pet sitting service as. Finally, research other pet sitting services online and see what they are charging for their rates, and match or beat their rates to drive more business your direction.

Acquire Insurance
You will need a business license in order to get the right insurance, which is essential in protecting you from liability. Log on to the local government website for your city and follow their directions to get a business license. Then research different liability companies to find one that offers the coverages you seek and at the monthly price that you can afford. Never operate a pet sitting service without the proper insurance or you are just asking for necessary troubles to come your way.