Dog walking/ stable yard work

Ziggy18

I currently work part time in the mornings and I'm looking to top up my income in the afternoon to help pay for my horse!
I have been thinking of advertising to do dog walking, cat feeding, yard work etc but I'm unsure what to charge. Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks! Would I also need insurance?

InsideInsurance

Unless you are in the USA I wouldn't call it "yard work" as the UK call them gardens rather than yards.

Pricing - do both top down and bottom up pricing calculations..... see what your future competitors are charging and see if you could make sufficient a profit at that rate for top down.... work out all your costs, what percentage of the time you will really be able to be doing fee charging work (ie exclude your traveling time, doing quotes, marketing, between bookings etc) and what profit you want to achieve and that then gives you an hourly rate you need to charge. That should then give you a band in which you can charge.

Insurance will most likely be optional unless you are doing work for large businesses or councils etc. It may be sensible to have public liability insurance in case you accidentally damage your clients property. Tools cover is another option if your going to have expensive tools like strimmers or leaf blowers etc. Make sure your vehicle insurance also covers you for this sort of work, normally it would be class 1 business but you need to confirm

Ziggy18

Sorry but should have worded it as stable yard work eg mucking out horse, turning out!
Thanks for advice! I hadn't thought about travelling time, fuel etc!

SeduLOUs

You will need insurance for walking dogs. You are responsible for both the safety and the actions of the dogs whilst they are in you care. You will also need to get documentation from the pet owners, including vaccination records and information about whether the animals have been neutered.

You could take the risk and just do it without, but I doubt you'd get much business, if any at all, without appropriate insurances as most dog owners view their dogs as if it is their child and would not just hand them over to a complete stranger with no credentials or references.

Yard or garden work sounds much simpler and is something you could probably just advertise in local papers and shop windows for very little cost.

Good luck

2nd_Time_Lucky

There is a strong demand for holiday/sickness etc short term cover for stable yard work- we have terrible trouble finding someone RELIABLE to cover so we can go on holiday and its a common topic on the horse forums so there appears to be a national requirement
If you join: http://www.britishgrooms.org.uk/register
then that offers insurance for horse related work from £19.50 pa :j

Cyril

Personally I wouldn't have my dog cared for by someone other than a fully insured person who was running a dog walking business and the same for my horses.

I know it sounds mean but I'm not interested in people who want a bit of easy pin money, animals are unpredicatable and i'd want to know that I / they were protected for any unexpected happenings and that the person could handle any given situation.

In the same vein I wouldn't entrust them to a teenager / young person.

However I would be happy for the garden to be done as long as the person was reliable.