With horror stories causing many people to wonder if they can really trust a kennel to care for their beloved pet while they are away, the need for home-based pet sitters is growing. If you love animals, running a pet sitting business can be a very rewarding and enjoyable opportunity, allowing you to work at something you truly love, make good money, and be your own boss…
What Does a Pet Sitter Do?
Pet sitters carry out various basic pet care duties – providing food and water, giving baths, cleaning cages or litter boxes, taking pets for walks, arranging playtime, giving medication, daily photo updates to the Owner and so on.
When they are separated from their owners for a long time, pets usually feel a little sad or stressed, and may be wary of strangers too. So, pet sitters also need to be emotionally supportive and enthusiastic, giving each pet loving, personal attention to put them at ease.
The Perks of Working as a Pet Sitter
There are a lot of different business options for an animal lover, but few allow for the flexibility that pet sitting does. Here are just a few things that make working as a pet sitter a great choice.
Lower Start-Up Fees: Most pet-related businesses require quite a bit of capital and office space to get started, for example, becoming a pet groomer or a vet. Getting started as a pet sitter, however, requires very little start-up cost if you join up with a platform such as PetCloud.
There are no franchise fees, or membership fees. Generally, the Owners provide almost everything for you. All you need is transportation to get to and from the pet owner’s house. If you decide to board pets, you’ll need a small section of your home that’s reserved for your furry guests, as well as basic pet supplies. You might also be required to have a council permit to board pets, so check out local laws to be sure first.
You Decide Your Work Load: Being a pet sitter allows you to work part-time or full-time, taking on just a few pets for some extra work each day or working full time with as many pets as you can possibly handle. Since you’re self-employed, you get to decide how much of a workload is right for you and your circumstances.
Good for Your Health: Walking and playing with all those pets is sure to be good for your physical health. Studies show that spending time interacting with animals is good for your mental health as well, improving mood and reducing stress. Some people even feel a spiritual connection with animals that gives them a sense of peace.
High Demand: So many pet owners need a reliable pet sitting service they can trust to care for their pet’s needs when they go on that business trip or vacation. Pet sitters rarely have a hard time finding work. If you build a good reputation, word will spread quickly from one pet owner to another, and you may find yourself with more demand for your services than you’d ever imagined.
You decide your prices: on platforms such as PetCloud, Pet Sitters set their own prices, and a minimum price is provided to ensure you don’t under charge yourself and to ensure you can sustain running a prosperous pet sitting business.
Other Perks of Pet Sitting Platforms: Platforms like PetCloud enable you to showcase your services and photos of your listing online, without giving out your address to strangers on the internet.
PetCloud’s escrow facility allows payments to be ‘held’ until both parties involved are content with the outcome of a booking. This ensures you get paid for your work, and prevents you from being ripped off by dishonest, mentally unstable, or broke Pet Owners.
PetCloud provide a free online training course which gives you confidence to understand the standard of care the RSPCA advocates for. It also helps you understand Council bi-laws you need to abide by.
PetCloud also provides insurance, which protects you against the financial burden of huge emergency vet bills worth tens of thousands of dollars in the event that a guest pet swallow an object, get injured during play, or escape and get hit by a car. Large, unexpected debt can set a person back financially for years trying to recover.
PetCloud’s App also saves you time in being bogged down in administration by having to send many appointment reminders via email and sms to multiple clients and reduces no-shows and last minute cancellations. It also has a choice of refund policies, so there’s no awkward haggling on prices, or customers not wanting to pay cancellation fees.
The PetCloud App also holds all Client Pet Profiles about their Pet’s health, Habits, Identity, Vaccinations, Profile photo, and Care Routine to save you having to write it all down. With one tap of your finger, you can have your Client’s Pet info in the palm of your hand.
Your listing contains a Calendar which also reflects your availability, bookings are able to be done any time of day or night without you being disturbed and having to reply via sms, which can get exhausting if manually doing it all the time.
They also do a lot of the advertising work to bring you Pet Owner client leads to your listing. You also are able to order personalised custom cards through PetCloud to hand out to Pet Owners in key spots around your neighbourhood.
So if you love animals and love the idea of having your own business, pet sitting might be the perfect way to satisfy both. Become a Pet Sitter with PetCloud today and earn money doing something rewarding and low stress.
