How to Make a Career Change With a Dog Daycare Franchise

Passionate about pooches AND being your own boss? Then why not make a career change by starting your own dog daycare franchise. There’s so much to do ahead of making a franchise investment, and the information available can feel overwhelming. That’s why Point Franchise has broken down everything you need to know in this article, allowing you to smoothly navigate a career change into the world of doggy daycare.

If you’re interested in working within a dog daycare business, now is a great time to make a franchise investment in the industry. Demand is higher than ever among the top dog daycare franchises in the UK, partially because since the pandemic, households have purchased a whopping 3.2 million pets [BBC], and these pets all need care. Take the leap, become your own boss, and work alongside perfectly pampered pooches every day!

Why consider making a career change with a dog boarding business?

Pets, especially dogs and cats, can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, ease loneliness, encourage exercise and playfulness, and even improve your cardiovascular health.
- HelpGuide

If dogs can do all of the above for their owners, imagine what they could do for you on a daily basis if you choose to start your own business in the dog daycare sub-sector. The advantages of running a dog daycare franchise aren’t limited to the advantages inherent to franchising (like a proven business model, an established customer base and ready access to to training and support). Instead, distinct pros are present. Pros like:

• The ability to work with dogs every day
• The chance to enjoy a dynamic, varied working life
• The availability of low-cost investment options in the sub-sector
• The room to grow your business
• The flexible working hours set by yourself, and the chance to enjoy a strong work/life balance

How to make a career change with a dog daycare franchise

With a better idea of why you might choose to make a career change with a dog daycare franchise, it’s time to dive into how you can actually make that happen. How you can get to the point of starting your own dog daycare business effectively, covering all the bases you need to in order to ensure long term success. Follow the three steps below, and you’ll do exactly that...

1. Assess the suitability of your skills

If you want to make a successful career change with a pet daycare business, not just in the moment but in the long term, assessing your skills is an important first step towards investment. When you know your own strengths and weaknesses, you know better which franchises would be suited to these and which wouldn’t. There are many niche areas of pet care that you should explore at this stage to make certain dog daycare is your top choice, but generally speaking, you’re on a good path if you possess the following traits:

• A genuine love of, passion for and interest in dogs
• An attentiveness to detail
• The ability to be flexible and patient
• The ability to use your own initiative 
• The ability to stay calm 
• The ability to work well with others 
• Customer service skills
• Excellent verbal communication skills 

2. Research the dog boarding industry

Research is your best friend when making a career change in any industry, but especially when it comes to an industry as fast-growing and competitive as dog daycare and dog boarding. When you know your skills are suited, it’ll be time to gain a deeper understanding of the industry. What’s trending? What’s happening? Who are your biggest competitors going to be if you invest with X franchise? What about Y franchise?

One important thing to figure out as you do this research is what the shape of your working life would be for each of the potential investments that interest you most. What would you be doing each day on a professional level, and would this be something that suited you? Do you enjoy more hands-on or managerial work?

Some investments, for instance, will see you caring for dogs - feeding, exercising, playing, grooming, so on - and keeping their care spaces clean. Others will see you meeting with, communicating with and regularly updating clients while managing and marketing your business, but taking a more managerial, hands-off approach vis-a-vis dog care, passing this crucial duty to well-trained employees. There’s no right or wrong way of doing it - there’s just what you’d prefer. Knowledge is power, so gather all the knowledge that you can in step two.

3. Ensure the franchise investment you’ve narrowed down to is your ideal match

This step largely comes down to two things: Making certain the investment is a financial fit, and doing your due diligence ahead of signing the franchise agreement and committing to a legally binding contract. First up, determining the financial side of things. This is something only you can figure out, but you need to be 100% honest with yourself as you do, because an over-investment won’t serve you or your franchisor. To give you a sense of expected costs in this industry, here are a couple of examples:

• Barking Mad - To become a Barking Mad franchisee, you’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £10,000, with a total investment cost of £14,995. 
• Dogknows - To become a Dogknows franchisee, you’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £7,500, with a total investment cost of £15,000. 

With the finances settled (and a funding backer in the pipeline, if you need one), it’ll be time to do your due diligence and assess the franchise opportunity in full, asking the franchisor plenty of questions, reviewing the FDD and speaking with existing franchisees about their investment experience. When due diligence is correctly completed, you can invest safe in the knowledge that you’re getting what you’re paying for.

Start a pet daycare franchise today and enjoy all the perks of running your own business

If you’re more certain than ever after reading this article that you’re destined for a career running a dog daycare franchise, you can browse Point Franchise’s range of dog daycare investment opportunities to find your perfect match today. Incredible, growing networks like  PetStay happily await a passionate, driven investor like you.