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Why would you not just start a dog walking business yourself?
That’s a very valid question and you could. However in getting set up properly you will probably spend at least the amount of the inital fee but without the advice and support of where to spend that money so you may end up spending more and taking longer to make a return on that investment as you won’t have the support of a team of been there and done it (multiple times!). The initial investment includes:-
- Expert advice and support on Business Set Up.
- A license to operate in an exclusive territory under the Friends for Pets brand.
- Full initial dog walking training course for everything you need to be able to start and develop your business.
- Lease of our intellectual property enabling you to easily maintain and grow your business.
- Year 1 Insurance
- Dog Boarding Policies, Procedures, record templates rated 4* and 5* across each local authority we operate in.
- Dog Boarding first local authority fee
- Your marketing leaflets, flyers, business cards, vehicle magnets as well as digital copies of all of these.
- Laminator & Pouches
- Branded clothing
- Dog Walking franchise Equipment
- Your own Friends for Pets email and Search Engine Optimised web page.
- Use of our tailored booking system and software
- Operations Manual
- All legal pet franchise and Pet Carer contracts
- Dog Tags
- Access to our online customer, booking and invoicing database
- Access to our marketing and recruitment strategy.
- Contracts for your pet carers
- Customer registration forms for all pet care services
- Pet Carer Audit paperwork and checklists
Our State of the Art Online Dog Walking Franchise Software
As part of setting up your dog walking business, you will have full access to our state of the art online system tailored to your pet franchise and your pet carers will have limited access to this as well. We have developed our own tailored bookings database to record all of your clients, their pets details, record all bookings, generation of pet carer’s calendars, creation of automated invoices and pay for your pet carers, payment tracking as well as much more to help you. There is currently no other system on the market that does what our system can do and we currently only lease this system to our pet franchise owners. We are always updating our system to keep up with the times.
Your Tailored Pet Franchise Training Programme
You will be provided with a comprehensive dog walking franchise training package tailored to your requirements, which will take place online, at our head office and within your territory. This training will give you everything you need to launch and run your Friends for Pets franchise. Training topics are extensive and will include the following:-
A full breakdown of training is listed in our dog walking franchise prospectus which you can download using the link below.
- A Tailored training plan for you
- Company Overview
- Getting your company set up
- Services we provide and how we do them
- Home Boarding in depth
- Level 3 Pet First Aid for Pet Professionals
- Marketing
- Day to day running of your business
- Customer Service
- Accounting and finance
The Pet Academy
The pet academy is our little sister company that provides pet care education and pet courses to third party pet professionals and owners as well as everyone within Friends for Pets. As a pet franchise partner you will have pet franchise owner access (full access to all courses, some of which are only accessible to pet franchise owners) to this and your pet carers, the Friends for Pets pet carer access. There are a range of online courses as well as some classroom based courses, which can take place either at our Friends for Pets HQ or a venue near you. The pet academy enables us to provide training and qualifications to anyone working within the pet care industry or to those who are just dedicated pet owners to improve standards of animal welfare within the pet care industry, with our dog walking franchise owners leading the way!
Your Ongoing Dog Walking Franchise Support
You will be provided with as much ongoing support as you need to make your dog walking business a success. It is in our interest to give you as much support as you need as we are only as successful as our pet franchise owners. Ongoing support includes:-
- Round the clock support from head office and as much as you need to make your business a success.
- Access to new marketing templates, forms, contracts, tips, legal guidance.
- Online client booking facility.
- Online pet carer recruitment facility.
- National Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation.
- Maintenance of your companies and whole brand digital presence.
- Updates to all forms, contracts and legal templates.
- CPD for you and your team of pet carers.
- Dog Walking Business Development and growth support.
- Digital marketing support.
Could you be our next pet franchise success story?
For all your next steps in finding out more about a Friends for Pets franchise get in touch on the below head office email where we can assist in the below and anything else.- Providing a hard copy of our Prospectus (by clicking on the button below).
- Book a Phonecall with our Founder.
- Attend a Discovery Session with Us at our Head Office near Cheddar in Somerset.
One of our Success Stories! – Julia – Bath and Bradford-on-Avon
“Hi my name is Julia and I own and manage the Friends for Pets franchises in Bath and Bradford-on-Avon. I previously worked for Friends for Pets as a pet carer, prior to owning my own dog walking franchise. I enjoyed the work so much that it was both a natural progression and an easy decision to take on a pet sitting franchise of my own. My territory has tripled its turnover in the last six months thanks to the volume of enquiries that I get from our dedicated website and the help and support of my local network of pet carers, other pet franchise owners and Becca. Owning your own dog walking business provides huge variety in my working day. The role involves a lot of liaising and correspondence with clients, as well as interviewing and recruiting suitable pet carers. Additionally, I am responsible for marketing my business on a local level and the services that we provide, in my territory. Initially, I did most of the actual pet care myself, but as the business has grown my role has become more diverse, combining ‘hands on pet care’, with the administration required in running my own dog walking business (although I usually have a dog or two sitting under my desk if they are day boarding with me!) In 2016 I won a National Franchisee of the Year Award! It has been a fantastic and exciting journey so far. I was nervous about taking on and running my own dog walking business, but with the excellent training and guidance that I got from Friends for Pets and the continued support that they offer, the whole process turned out to be more fun than scary! For me, buying a dog walking franchise was more about a change of lifestyle, from sitting in an office all day working for someone else, to getting out and about, meeting lots of people, working with animals and owning my own dog walking business.”