Do you love animals? Have you ever dreamed of making them your life's work? Have you ever imagined yourself as a groomer, a dog walker/pet sitter, or an obedience trainer? This comprehensive book contains all the necessary tools and success strategies you will need to launch and grow your own home-based pet care business. Author Kathy Salzberg, a successful home-based groomer, shares her experience and down-to-earth advice on every aspect of setting up and running a thriving home-based business. Throughout these pages she will show you how to develop a business plan, estimate your start-up costs, price your services, and stay profitable once you're in business. From painless record keeping to savvy marketing techniques, her step-by-step methods are realistic, innovative, and easy to understand. From advice on zoning and insurance to pet grooming and health issues, this guide can help you experience the satisfaction of building your won home-based business. Learn all about: what it takes to be a professional groomer, dog walker/pet sitter, or obedience trainer; attracting clients and gaining their trust; equipping your home office and shop; pricing competitively; setting your daily schedule; building your reputation; managing growth. The following special features as well as workbook pages are included: business registration form; sample business plan; sample client card; sample grooming menu; pet sitter's service contract; obedience trainer's contract; business opening press release; advertising and promotion checklist. (7 x 10, 288 pages, business forms, charts)

Average Customer Review: ( 12 customer reviews )
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If you are looking for a book with information on becoming a pet sitter, though, this book contains only general information, much of which can be had online by joining mailing lists or bulletin boards.

53 of 55 found the following review helpful:

Too much emphasis on grooming, but OK overallMar 15, 2004

This book really should have been called "How to Start a Home-Based Grooming Business".

When I first got this book I was so excited! Finally, a book that would talk about all different careers working with pets. But when I started reading it I realized that the book is about 80% on grooming.

If you want to be a groomer, this book is written by a true pro and is a wealth of knowledge for you, but for anything other business dealing with pets, it just offers some basic tips that you could find on the internet. The sections explaining other petcare businesses are too small and I feel they're just some token information thrown in to justify the title.

I personally am debating getting into pet store ownership, dog daycare or becoming a trainer and in my case this book was useless. There's excellent info on grooming, but I wish they had added some additional authors who are experienced with training, running dog day care services, dog walking services, pet stores, pet sitting, etc.

And theres a spelling error on the cover ("Write you own").

20 of 21 found the following review helpful:

Very Informative, Well Written Book.Mar 16, 2006
By John Matlock "Gunny"
There are two main aspects to a home-based Pet Care business, or in fact to just about any business. First is the part of the business that is special to the particular business. For a pet care business this includes such things as grooming equipment that is unique to this business as opposed say to starting a car repair shop. Second is the standard rules fo business. For instance, what do you need in the way of business licenses, will you be a corporation, what about insurance -- all that stuff. This book draws a nice balance between the two requirements.

There's only one point I would do differently, not so much differently as with a greater emphasis. That is: Get a Computer. You don't need the latest and fastest, I bought quite an acceptable computer at a thrift shop for $75. Then get some accounting software. When they get around to questioning you, the IRS will look at computer generated reports with a lot more acceptance than they will at any manual system. QuickBooks is a good package (there are others). The latest version will cost you two or three hundred dollars. Or you can buy last year's version on eBay for about a hundred, or the year before that for about $65. Each year buy an income tax package, about $20. Do your own taxes and then have an accountant go over them. You can type stuff into the package just as well as he can and he will charge you a bunch.

All in all the book is very well written, the authors clearly understand the business. The writing style is clear and informative. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Focus on dog grooming businessJan 09, 2007
By NL Book Worm "Book Worm"
This book was informative however please note that it is very US focussed and will not be of great assistance with regards to regulations in other countries.

The book did not provide an all round knowledgebase for setting up a dog walking business - mainly focussed on grooming.



2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

How to Start a Home Based Pet Care BusinessJun 01, 2009
By Dawn M. Perry "yorkie lady"
This book has been very helpful. With step by step ways to get started on your way with your new business. I am taking grooming classes and want to start my own grooming shop in about a year and this book tells you how to get started.

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