i have started a dog walking service,
and been chatting to people and thought i should throw everything i can do into my web page and see what if any of my services are in demand,
heres the list

dog walking
dog sitting
cat sitting
feeding animals whilst owners out or away,taking to vets,or groomers

house visits,while your away i attend your home,move post,feed any small animals,cats,fish etc,water plants,garden,
offer a return home hamper(milk,bread etc)
poss even a cleaning service


what do you think?
any suggestions?
any advice?
all appreciated,thankyou

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need a dog walker/sitter in sheffield/rotherham

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...354980&sk=wall

also


www.houndandhouse.co.uk

People that succeed in business are not lazy; you might start your business off by first taking the time to write correctly. Use capital letters at the beginning of sentences and the capital "I" in stead of "i". You might be dyslexic or rebelling against an old English teacher from your past but any work you do in creating a web-site will be wasted as search engines give better ratings the correct grammar. If you are lazy about writing sentences it suggests you are lazy in other areas as well.

Is it worth offering such rates, unless sold as a set of 10 walks for example your travel costs would swallow such small fees, are you a business or a charity?

You should bring together all the little snippets of advertising that you have already draped on different web-sites and present the information in a coherent format: Times, prices, contact details.

I suggest you create a separate personal Facebook page and remove the non-work related "Activities and Interests", it just adds clutter.

There is a good argument to modify wording and presentation of your business to cater to the particular audience of the media in which you are working. So you might keep your main web-site as more formal where as Facebook and Twitter might be more relaxed.

You ask for a business name thoughts:
Letsgo Walkies is a good name, but it is also popular among other dog walkers, there is no problem where these people cover differing areas and no one is that bothered about protecting "their" brand name. But it would be wise to own it if you are serious about using the name long term. If I were to create a dog walking franchise and invest money in branding one of my first actions would be to issue a cease and desist notice to anyone else using the name or it's variations, "Let'sGo Walkies" for example.

You need to register this as a company name.

Your logo is good. The only question I offer is that does it suggest that you only offer walks for small dog breeds? Some people might be attracted to a company that specialises in small dogs?

Corporate Identity. Based on your business logo get a Red Fred Perry type tee shirt and baseball cap and recreate your avatar for a few photographs of you walking dogs of different breeds with different back drops. Small point but a pictures communicates much more quickly than reading text and the tie in of real life to the logo suggests a more professional considered business than a random part-time dog walker of which there are hundreds.

If you are offering Dog Sitting as well you should up-date your various web footprints to reflect this. It can be difficult to manage lots of different sites so you would be wise to create a separate "Business Promotion" favourites/bookmarks folder and then monitor & update them in turn as your services or prices change.

Spend some time looking at other dog walkers sites, many are really poor. No maps showing the area that that they cover, no defined price lists, no comments on insurance, nothing about transportation, nothing about sole or shared dog walks. Those sites that offer details of insurance and CRB checks present themselves as businesses rather than someone working on the side.

Looking at one walking service in Sheffield it is nice to see that the walker defines exactly how many dogs are included in the walk and that they carry a doggie first-aid kit with them. Pity there is no mention of first-aid certification nor policy on serious accidents - IE does the walker carry loco-parentis in terms of getting veterinary treatment if necessary during a walk or house-sitting engagement.

For this you would be wise to draw up a contract that covers these details and record the vet contact details for each of your charges. Also carry a map of your coverage area and the vets (and there opening hours) there in.

This line from one site shows the level of detail that they have considered when writing their site: "Walks will go ahead in all weathers. All paws will be wiped dry and dogs toweled off. " Of course it would be even better if the dog was towelled off.

Looking at the Sheffield area Dog Walking web-sites that Google Maps throws up suggests that creating a better web site will not be difficult. It also suggests that either they have little web skills or they go out of business.

Good luck with your venture.

firstly wow!!

secondly,i have a separate facebook,separate email and phone already.
i have registered the business,only this week,and i am making an appointment to see an accountant to sort tax and advise me.

i have crb enhanced and are taking out insurance also this week,

i do agree the £5 half hour walk is very cheap but for most small dogs its enough,

i am meeting a friend tomorrow to discuss and set up a web page,i will make sure to add a map of the area i can cover,and i only walk one dog at a time or 2 if from same home.

i do agree i need more of a business look than someone doing it as a bit of extra money.

__________________
need a dog walker/sitter in sheffield/rotherham

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...354980&sk=wall

also


www.houndandhouse.co.uk

You need a website, and to do that you need a domain name,

Letsgowalkies.com and .co.uk are gone, however as i write this letsgowalkies.org.uk is available, as you are only targeting local UK market, this is your best alternative and with the right SEO and work can rank highly in search engine results.

If you are going with the name LetsGoWalkies i would register it quickly, you never know who is watching these forums and if you snooze you lose in domains.

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PetInsurance.tv

There are alternatives to registering the domain name with one of theses "lesser" domain name extensions; .org .net etc.

IMHO it is better to use a domain name that is regional in nature as the key element of the business is geographically based.

The point of domain name is to aid SEO ranking in part (but much of this is down to the content) but much more importantly is easy to remember and recognise when printed on a business card or printed on the back of a car.


The entity in this case is a business and not an organisation, which is normally non-profit.

If nothing else going for a web-site name that encompasses the whole city area allows both room for expansion or sub-contracting/franchising other areas of the city or selling the domain name at a future date.

One thing that struck me is your plan to only walk one dog at a time, is this financially viable? Most people I would imagine want their dog walked in the middle of the day, say between 11.30 and 2.30. Allowing for travel time and drying off dogs you can probably do 5 max, which is £25 per day.

I'm not a dog walker but we do use one and she does multiple dogs. I know you are offering other services, but have you done a business plan? If you Google Businesslink there are templates on there.

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http://www.furbuddiesphotography.co.uk

Agreed, but in my experience a .org.uk will rank better than a .net or .org for local based business, for me i always try to get the .co.uk and dot com. anything else tends to leak traffic although in this case as the majority of traffic will come from search engines (eventually) and direct from business cards then it shouldn't matter so much.
Re the .org part, it is no longer like that imo , dot com is commerce but nobody sees it like that, .tv is Tuvalu but is used for all things TV .me as a personal extension, etc etc.

I do also like one those names you suggested and think it would be ideal.

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PetInsurance.tv