Dog Walking: Should I work for a company or set up on my own?

thedoghouse

I want to start dog walking to earn some money. I already do this voluntarily for a local rehoming charity, have 2 dogs of my own & have a longterm interest in a career working with animals.

I have been offered a job as a dog walker with a company which operates various pet care services across Scotland. However, in order to work for this company I must sign an Agreement Not To Compete (while employed by the company & for 1 year afterwards, directly or indirectly, by participating in a similar business in the same geographical area).

However, I was kind of thinking at the back of my mind that someday I'd like to set up my own dog walking service & this Agreement has made me worried that I may jeopardise those aspirations by working for this company now. It has also made me stop & wonder why I am not just setting up my own dog walking business in the first place.

I am not really from a business background, having previously worked in health-care & recently started up a small crafts business online (just selling some handmade things on Etsy), & while the idea of setting up a small dog walking business seems simple enough to me on the surface, I'm wondering if there is anything major I am missing.

From what I understand so far, the downsides to setting up on my own would be -
- having to deal with my own taxes
- having to get my own insurance
- having to spend a bit of money & time on marketing & promotion,

but the upsides would be -
- I'd be my own boss
- someone else wouldn't be taking a cut of the money I earned
- I would not be limited in what kind of work I wanted to do with animals in the future.

What would you do if you were in my shoes? Would you take the work with the company or set up on your own? I'd really appreciate some advice, especially from other dog walkers (& people who use them) & anyone who knows anything about business really.

Raksha

Your best bet might be to ask the same question on the small businesses board. I'm not sure that these sorts of covenants are enforceable.

Barneysmom

Are you likely to get a weekly income from the company you are thinking of working for?
It seems a bit more secure than going out on your own and having all the hassle of tax forms public liabilty etc?
The agreement seems a bit rigid, is there any room for manouvre with it?

lynzpower

I know you are new here OP but im afraid you cant advertise here, please take the advert out of your signatre. I think, however, you can add it to your profile as "my web address"

I love your stuff btw, as a dog fan its lovely.

Personally I dont think these agreements are worth jack- after all, its not your potential employer to tell you what you can or cant do. My employer has a clause the same, and I understand that a previous employee tootoled off and set up as a competitor. The legal people looked at it and said nothing you can do, as it is agianst human rights ( freedom of movement etc)

thedoghouse

Thanks for your advice everyone - all things for me to think about.

lynzpower - so sorry about my signature - I didn't realise. Thanks for pointing it out.

WolfSong2000

Working for a company to begin with has a lot of benefits, as there's lower initial costs and you're able to build up your own clientele, which you would be able to probably take with you when you switched to becoming independent.

There are a lot of factors to consider, however, especially insurance...walking dogs together can be interesting as they can be unpredictable at times, like any animal.

I'd check up on whether the clause you're worried about can be upheld...get some legal advice. If it can't, just work for the company, then go independent, and if it can you're no worse off than you started

Another option to think about is "dog-sitting". This can be quite lucrative if you want it to be, but it does require a *lot* of effort on your part. If you have any questions about it, feel free to PM me as my mother used to do it

alfiedog_2

My daughter runs her own dog walking business. It was relatively easy toset up. She has insurance and is police checked. She set up her own website and this has been far the best advertising tool.

She also looks after cats when people are away, going in to feed them and change litter trays. Many cat owners do not like to put their cats in catteries whilst they are away.

My husband is an accountant so deals with all the finances etc but it does not involve too much work.

The business has been much more successful than we could have imagined but it is hard work in bad weather . My daughter likes being her own boss but if she is ill or wants some time off things are a bit more difficult although I do help out.

Good luck with it all, if you love animals its a lovely job:j

Hintza

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

Working for a company to begin with has a lot of benefits, as there's lower initial costs and you're able to build up your own clientele, which you would be able to probably take with you when you switched to becoming independent.

That is the whole point of these clauses. To stop folk stealing clients, whether it is reasonable and/or enforceable or not will only be sorted out in court. Can the OP afford that?

If you were in business and gave a job to someone who left after say 6 months with a number of your customers you wouyldn't be too pleased.

The answer might be to work in another area initially and then set a branch for the company or alternatively if you are not in the same area then of course they would be hard pressed to enforce a restraint of trade contract.

alfiedog_2

Excellent post Hintza:beer:

picklepick

ive just started working for a lady who runs a dog walking business but im remaining self employed which i guess makes a difference. ill be marketting the business to a new area and getting my own customers although as im using her business name, insurance, websites, promo material etc shes taking a small percentage of every walk i do. something like £1.50 an hour which isnt going to make much difference to my own money.

to be honest having set up a business myself in the past its pretty easy to do, the only reason i didnt this time is that she was already set up with insurance and current customers that have been transfered to me.

the best people to speak to are business link. they are really helpful and will point you in the right direction. if you'e worried about tax etc dont be. when you register as self employed the government will offer to send you on a day course which is free and is designed to show you how to keep accurate records and how to fill in your tax returns. its pretty straight forward so dont let that put you off!

good luck!

orlao

From a customers point of view - I prefer to use a firm for a couple of reasons. Mainly because if it's a one man band and that one person is sick , stuck somewhere or has a family emergency I need to know that there is somebody else available to go in and look after/walk my dogs. It has happened to me in the past that I've had a call to say "really sorry, can't make it for x,y or z reasons but that is no good to me if I've already left and am now anything up to 200 miles away on business....I can't just cancel everything and return home (even though I have done but it nearly cost me my job:eek: ) so end up ringing round friends to step in and then trying to arrange keys for them.....

The other reasons are security, the safety of my dogs and whether an individual will be reliable enough!

I do agree that if you go with the firm knowing the restrictions on setting up yourself upfront that IMO you should honour those restrictions......