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By Beth Stultz-Hairston | December 1, 2020

2020 has been a difficult year for most pet-sitting and dog-walking businesses. As pet professionals who typically rely on pet parents who travel and/or work long hours, professional pet sitters and dog walkers were quickly impacted by the sudden changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While we are hearing encouraging reports from PSI members about increasing business, it’s important that pet sitters and dog walkers realize that there’s still much work to do as we head into a new year.

Whether your business is already booming again or you are still finding your business at a pandemic standstill, here are some steps you can take now to finish 2020 strong and set your business up for growth in 2021:

1. Revisit and actively promote your company’s COVID-19 safety protocols and procedures.

By now your pet-sitting or dog-walking service should have well-documented pandemic safety protocols and procedures. If not, make this a top priority! Consider signing up for PSI’s COVID-19 Certification for Pet Sitters & Dog Walkers to help you get started. If you do already have a COVID-19 company policy, make plans before year’s end to revisit your policy and see if any updates need to be made based on the number of cases in your area or the particular risk factors of you or your staff.

Remember, when creating or revising your policy, there are a variety of factors to consider, including:

• Safety protocols your company will implement
• Instructions you will provide to your staff, if applicable
• Current coronavirus guidelines (national and local)
• Contingency plan for clients
• Your staff sickness policy

For more tips on creating your policy, download PSI’s free Ultimate COVID-19 Resource Guide for Professional Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers.

And remember, it’s not enough to simply have your policies in place; you should be actively promoting your safety protocols to your current and potential clients. I’ve spoken with some pet sitters who have shared they are simply sharing any new protocols with clients when they book services, but this is a mistake.

Both your current and would-be clients are looking at your website and social-media pages, and they want to see what measures you are taking to keep them and their pets safe during this time. If they can not easily see that you are implementing safety protocols when they look at your website or social-media pages, they may never contact you at all.

You can communicate your company’s COVID-19 safety protocols and procedures to pet parents in a variety of easy ways, including:

• Having a link or eye-catching banner on your website’s home page that takes visitors to a description of your safety protocols
• Using social-media images (like these COVID-19 safety protocol images available to PSI members) across your social-media platforms highlighting your services and safety measures
• Posting photos of you (and your staff sitters, if applicable) in action (e.g., walking a dog with your mask on, etc.)

2. Seek out new markets for potential clientele.

If you’re like most pet sitters and dog walkers, business has suffered this year and you may have found that many regular clients are unable to use your services as frequently because they’ve limited travel or are working from home. To offset this loss in business and revenues, it’s important that you are constantly marketing your business—and seeking out potential new clients is more important than ever before. But, where should you look? Now is the time to target specific segments of pet parents who may be seeking a new pet-care provider.

Among others, this may include:

• Pet parents who have recently relocated. With reports of up to 23 million Americans relocating now that they are able to work remotely, there will be many looking for new pet sitters and dog walkers in their new locations. If you aren’t already, now is the time to network with local realtors, apartment and condo managers, etc., to get your information to new residents. Real estate agents are always looking to introduce their clients to local service providers that can benefit them, and some agencies even include relocation specialists.
• Essential workers, such as those in the medical profession, that may be working more than ever before. There’s no question that the pandemic has taken a particularly difficult toll on health care workers and many articles have described the pandemic burnout experienced by medical professionals this year. For those with pets working in the health care field, finding reliable pet care could help alleviate an additional stressor, so it’s important you market your services at hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities. I’ve spoken with many pet-care business owners who have decided to offer a discount to medical professionals and other first responders this year as a “thank you” for their work during the pandemic.

3. Diversify your revenue stream with complementary offerings.

While we’ve always talked about the importance of diversifying your service offerings here at PSI, that advice has, perhaps, never been more important than it has been this year. When daily dog-walk and vacation sit requests came to a virtual halt in the spring, many pet-care companies had to rely on their other service offerings—and those who didn’t have service offerings had to quickly scramble to determine what else they could offer (and how to promote it) to clients.

To help recession- and pandemic-proof your pet-sitting or dog-walking business, it’s important you offer other complementary services. By adding services that complement your current business model (versus finding an unrelated part-time job), you’ll be able to generate additional revenue while continuing to market to your current client base: pet parents.

In addition to basic pet-sitting and dog-walking visits, complementary services you may consider include:

• Pet transportation
• Pet food delivery
• Pet food sales
• Deep litter box cleanings
• Pet enrichment visits
• Dog washes or nail trims
• Pooper scooper services
• Pet products and apparel
• Pet lover apparel

Depending on your skill set, experience and educational background, other services may include:

• Pet behavior consultations
• Dog training
• Pet photography
• Pet first aid classes

In adding services that complement your current pet-sitting offerings, you’ll be able to offer more value to the pet parents you service and generate more revenue while keeping your pet-industry focus.

You’ve survived a tough year (that’s an understatement!) as a pet-care business—and finishing off this year strong can help set you up for a quicker comeback in 2021!

How are you setting up your business for success in 2021? Let us know in the comments.