Tumbleweed

It's a slow old process this dog walking business.

I've designed my logo (clearly very important), have been working on a business plan, set up a bank account (when I can raise £100 to open it), putting the word about on all the forums and to all the doggy people I know, started doing a pet-sitting course and doing various other things to help me to learn how to run a business.

I'm going to be designing some flyers now I have my logo - I want to leave some at the few dog shows there are left this year.

There are fewer dogs involved than I'd like at this point.

Carding Up

I've been giving out cards to contacts in 'the industry' but the phone hasn't started ringing yet.

What's going wrong?

Dog Walker to-be

Ok, so I've decided to try this 'dog walking' thing. So far I've not actually started yet, although I've dog sat a couple of dogs. Illegally apparently.

I'm going through this properly, setting it up as a business rather than just going out and walking dogs, so it's taking some time before I feel ready to look for customers. As I'll be a sole trader I can't risk losing my house so I'm working on the terms and conditions, among other things, first. Might be going crazy, but my business advisor thinks I'm not.

To board dogs in the house I need to be licensed, and there is no difference between a boarding kennels and one dog at a time in the home, so dog sitting is out. However, I have been told of a loophole - residential training, no licence needed. Excellent. I am now a residential trainer.

There are a few courses I want to do to help, one for training, and one for the pet care, I've got to get my car kitted out with some proper guards and I need to do all sorts of other things. My CRB check has arrived, so that's one thing out of the way! All the other stuff I think is just so I don't have to go out there and actually do any work just yet...