The Right Business Structure for Your Pet Care Business

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I was visiting a pet care forum tonight and answered a question from a new business owner about the choice of business structure. By chance I then visited Technorati to find other blogs on pet care businesses and ran into a great article series on business structures by a pet lawyer. So I figured it was providence and now must be a great time to write a short article on my blog about this subject!

Most of us start our pet businesses as sole proprietors and partnerships. This type of structure is very simple as it doesn’t require any paperwork to be filed and we can claim file our business taxes on our personal tax return. I still run my pet sitting business as a general partnership with my husband.

Lately because my business is growing I have been considering changing to an Limited Liability Company as this structure gives more financial protection to the owners and still allows me to claim business expenses against my personal taxes. Looking around at other pet care businesses online I found that the LLC is the most common structure being used by small pet businesses. I have bought a book on LLC’s by but haven’t had the chance to dig into it yet.

Laurie Kadair is a pet lawyer in Louisiana and has three very easy to understand posts about choosing a suitable structure :

Choosing a Structure for your Pet Care Business - Part 1

Choosing a Structure for your Pet Care Business - Part 2

Choosing a Structure for your Pet Care Business - Part 3

You can also find more information at the Small Business Adminstration website with forms for your state. Most of these structures except the sole proprietorship and partnership require that you conduct your business in accordance with the demands of the business structure. If the business is not run correctly and proper paperwork kept you may lose your right to operate under that structure. Make sure you understand the implications of each structure before jumping in with both feet. You shoud also discuss the implications with your business accountant.

Laurie also has some other great articles at www.lapetlawyer.com. I need to feature a pet lawyer as an unusual pet care career in a future post!

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Grab a free copy of my Ebook - Your New Pet Care Career

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Your New Pet Care CareerToday I’m releasing my ebook free so that everyone is able to use it to investigate pet care career options and pet business opportunities. 

Please feel free to pass on the book to friends and customers.  you can use it as a bonus or giveaway when selling another item or as a bonus for subscribing to your newsletter.

 In the book you will find:

A description of each professionals day to day activities

Links to resources on education and training

Advantages and Shortcomings of each profession

Expected income and pay rates for different careers

Comparison of start-up investment costs

Ways to get in touch with professionals in your career of interest

Pet care services and products that lend themselves to be combined as add-ons to other services to increase income and customer convenience

And Finally! Understand how you can start working with pets today no matter what your current circumstances

I would greatly appreciate your feedback about the book so please leave a comment!

You can download the book right now by clicking here.

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Blog Carnival Sunday July 29 2007

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Well here we go with my first blog carnival at Working with Pets.  Thank you for your submissions!

From Cade Krueger  - How Pets Can Help With Your Home Business Opportunity

and from Stacy Hansen - Start Your Own Business in 10 Easy Steps

I also have to share with you a video that my friend Beth sent me this week.  Spiderman Cat -  he has very strong nails and a very textured wall…   

Spiderman Cat Video 

and a story about a cat that has a sixth sense to predict the time of death of residents in a Rhode Island Nursing Home  - Grim Reaper Cat Story

Please submit your entries to the carnival by next Saturday to be included in my next Sunday issue. 

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What Should I Expect to Spend my First Year in Business?

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Pet Business Start-Up CostsTodays article about business start up costs was submitted to me by Stacy Hansen from Home Business Forms. Stacy supplies professional business forms for pet and cleaning businesses at her website - www.businessformsstore.com.
I am constantly asked the question, “What should I expect to spend the first year in business?”.

The following is a compilation of normal expenses when starting your own home based small business. The figures are based off of businesses such as pet sitting and house cleaning which has relatively small start up costs since office space and retail products are not required.

Write a business plan: Free template at SCORE a business plan will be a very important tool to ensure you know what to expect and stay on track.

  • Obtain a Free Business Checking Account: Most banks will offer free accounts. Be sure you are aware of how many withdraws and deposits you are allowed when comparing banks.
  • County/City Zoning for home offices – Varies (if needed): Most states will not require this since they are home based, but it is a good idea to double check to be sure.
  • Business License (if required) – Starting at $100/yr depending on state: Some businesses do not require a license, others do. Go to Small Business Association and click on your state to see if you need a license.
  • State Fictitious Name (if applicable) - $50 (depends on state): If you do not need a license, you will need to register your business with the state.
  • General Liability Insurance – Starting at $200/yr : Pet sitting GL policies are around $200 and cleaning will be around $500. These policies will vary depending on the amount of coverage you choose to have.
  • Dishonesty Bond - Starting at $125/year : Bonding is optional, but is a good idea if you have employees to protect your business assetts.
  • Basic office supplies - $200 : This covers paper, ink, business forms, business cards, pens and other incidentals.

Read more

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How To Get Honest Customer Feedback

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Getting customer feedback about your service is the best way to ensure that you and your pet care staff or contractors are meeting customer expectations. It is also valuable to show you which areas of your service can be improved or clue you in on specialty services that customers are willing to pay for.

To make sure you get regular feedback from your customers and don’t let this slip through the cracks when business gets busy, you need a system to put this part of your business on autopilot. In the last couple of weeks I have been working on an email follow up form that I can send to customers after we have completed their pet sitting visits. In past years I have also used a paper survey system that was left at the end of visits and made periodic one-off mailings to remind customers of our service and collect feedback. Although these systems were effective I found that for me it was difficult to be consistent with a paper system.

Here are some example questions that I have included in my new email survey:

1. Were your pets healthy and happy upon your return?

2. How would you rate our service:

Excellent Good Fair Poor

3. Were you completely satisfied with the service given by our pet sitters and office staff?

4. Would you use Claws Paw & Jaws to care for your pets again?

5. Was there anything extra that we could we have done to improve your experience with us?

6. How did you hear about Claws Paws & Jaws?

7. Do you have friends and family in the Mid-Cities area that you think would appreciate information about our services or pet products?

You’ll notice that I also prompt referrals in the last question and do some market research to measure where my customers are coming from in question 6. I have an introductory paragraph to the email that thanks the client for their business, tells them about our monthly newsletter, and lets them know about our referral reward program (we give clients that refer new business a gift card to a local pet store).

During the feedback process you also want to start collecting testimonials from customers. Customer Testimonials can be displayed on your website, flyers, and other forms of marketing materials. To gather good testimonials you need to ask questions that specify the type of response you are looking for.

When I ask for testimonials I want clients to tell me how we changed their pet care experience. Ideally they will tell me in their testimonial what they did to care for their pets before they tried us and how much better our service is compared the one they used previously. To get this answer here is the question I use:

8. Our goal is to provide pet owners with more freedom to travel without worrying that their pet’s quality of life is sacrificed. Can you tell us how Claws Paws and Jaws changed your travel and pet care experience?

9. Do we have your permission to publish your comments and your name on our website?

You’ll notice that I also get their permission to publish their comments on my website where I have a customer testimonial page. Getting this answer as part of your survey is easier than going back to them to get permission at a later date.

Think about the best system for collecting your customers opinions and then put it into action. You will learn more about your customers needs and also gather valuable testimonials.

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