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Subject:
How to Grow our Dog Walking Business ?
Category: Business and Money > Advertising and Marketing Asked by: jollygood2000-ga List Price: $5.00 |
Posted:
24 Jan 2006 13:01 PST
Expires: 23 Feb 2006 13:01 PST Question ID: 437262 |
We're looking for ways to grow our dog walking business. We're a mom & pop business with no special facilities or expertise. We cater to busy people who don't have time to walk or excercise their dogs, especially during the day while they're at work. We drive to their place & walk their dog at their neighborhood park. We charge $12 for 30 minutes, $16 for 45 minutes, $20 for 1 hour. These seem to be good rates for this industry for this kind of service. We aren't too interested in servicing vacationers because we don't think it's worth the overhead for the amount of work we'll get paid for. We're looking for regular customers. We've run google ads driving traffic to a simple webpage but it's losing money. We've also placed ads on craigslist and we get more curiousity seekers than customers. Our customers are very happy, they've agreed to be references, and we've reminded them we're available incase they need to use us more. We're planning to ask our customers for referals. We have capacity for a few more customers but it's going slow. |
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There is no answer at this time. |
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Subject:
Re: How to Grow our Dog Walking Business ?
From: pinkfreud-ga on 24 Jan 2006 14:09 PST |
Pet-related merchants sometimes have corkboards where business cards and small ads can be placed. A friend of mine who used to operate a pet-sitting business got most of her clients in this manner. |
Subject:
Re: How to Grow our Dog Walking Business ?
From: czh-ga on 24 Jan 2006 14:37 PST |
Post your flyers at local gymns. The owners are getting their exercise and probably would appreciate help with their dogs. Are there any hotels in your area that allow dogs? Let the concierge know about your dog walking services for future referrals. |
Subject:
Re: How to Grow our Dog Walking Business ?
From: taylor4321-ga on 24 Jan 2006 14:39 PST |
jollygood, Two ideas. First, approach anyone in the area you see walking their dog, introduce yourself (complement them on what a fine annimal they have!!!) and hand them a brochure on your service. If they seem warm you can also ask them if they know of anyone else who might be interested in your service. Second, assuming that you live in an urban area with distinct neighbourhoods and there is business to be had in those distant neighbourhoods, you could consider "franchising" your business. This idea is driven by the fact that it might not be hard to recruit reliable dog walkers in those areas, but they don't want to handle the "business" end of things like billing and collecting. The secret in most small businesses is volume and so if you branch out to those more distant neighbourhoods you could easily afford to pay your associate dog walker 75% of the fee. The math is clear; if you can find associates to look after an additional 50 half hour assignments per day that's 50 X $3 = $150 additional dollars per day in your pocket and your out-of- pocket investment is the cost of billing, collecting and your payroll. I hope that helps, Pulio |
Subject:
Re: How to Grow our Dog Walking Business ?
From: leskowitz-ga on 24 Jan 2006 22:39 PST |
You could put advertising on the dogs while you walk them. Kind of like an auto wrap. That would be creative. Actually, I would try to get your flyers/your business cards with the groomers. Maybe try to strike a deal with them that you will swap advertising/coupons or something. However, your business sounds more like a word of month type of operation like babysitting. I agree with taylor you need to find these people. Is there a common trait of your customer? DINK, professional type, wine drinkers, bed wetters, whatever. If so, try to target that common thread. My friends use this service except on the weekends. That is when they walk their dogs theirselves. I think that is your target time. Maybe you pass out your business card with a dog chew or something. Give a first time discount or something. This is my free advise as a non paid google researcher. Good Luck, Paul |
Subject:
Re: How to Grow our Dog Walking Business ?
From: cynthia-ga on 13 Feb 2006 15:15 PST |
Print cards and flyers, contact pet stores, groomers and ask if you may post a flyer and leave cards. Also, don't forget about Dog Parks! Leave flyers on cars several times a week. |
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