Setting up a guinea pig boarding service

loulou123

losingpatience wrote: »

I'm based in the North East and looked at other people offering rodent boarding in the area. The lowest other price I found was £5 per day, some charged £7.50 per guinea pig per day so I really didn't think I was being unfair in what I thought of charging. A vet trip to trim nails alone can cost upward of £15 for 2 guinea pigs ( depending on your vet ) yet I would include it at no extra charge. Plus it's only 25p per day more then you were being charged last year for 2 guinea pigs.

£28 for a weeks care including fresh food, laundering of bedding, nail trimming, bathing and one on one time each day for two guinea pigs I thought was reasonable, bearing in mind at least £5 of that £28 will go on the fresh food for them then theres the hay as well

I would make it clear that I do work full time as I do realise this may be an issue for some people.

I misread and thought you were going to charge £4.00 a day per piggy (so £8.00 a day for the two pigs in the cage.) Which explains why i thought your prices were abit high

I do think its a good idea and the lady i used to take mine too always seemed to have a few bookings so there must be a little money to be made in it i guess.

tasha-debt

Locally to us (Essex) their is a lady who charges £10 a week per hutch if you provide everything from bedding to food, or £15 a week and she provides everything. If you have more than 3 in the hutch she charges an extra £5 a week. She has these big outside runs that she puts the piggies in if the weather is nice.

I think it could be pretty good little business.

paulwf

OP as with any business idea you need to sit down and do some basic calculations. What will your yearly costs be i.e. insurance, website costs, advertising etc? What will be your net profit per day and how many days will your service be used?

My concern would be that you'll end up at the end of the year making £200-300 profit. Although any extra money is welcome as you already have a full time job you might be spending a lot of time on this project and have the inconvenience of waiting in for people which most people don't want after a hard day at work. Do it because you love guinea pigs but don't do it as a way of making money unless you've done the sums and you are sure your service will get used all year round.

What arrangements have you got in place of one of the animals you are looking after becomes ill? If you have to take time off work at short notice to take it to the vet how will your boss feel about you being absent due to your money making project? Unless someone else can do vet runs that would concern me.

BeautyandtheBeast_3

Insurance Insurance Insurance!!

paulwf

BeautyandtheBeast wrote: »

Insurance Insurance Insurance!!

And check what it covers! They could feasibly treat a guinea pig as any other asset and just pay the replacement value. Trying to explain to a family that you've accidentally stepped on their guinea pig but it's ok as the insurance has paid out £10 probably isn't going to work.

Are there set rates in law to compensate for an animal injured, lost or killed?