As dog trainers, we often open our business and hit the ground running. We take on as many clients as we can, work a random assortment of hours, and try to bring in as much money as we can. Telling ourselves “someday” we might have a building, more services, or employees.

And eventually, you reach a point where you realize you need a few things in your business: Boundaries. Work-life balance. A business plan.

Hopefully, you have been working on all three of those things. Especially the “PLAN” part. It is easy to just ride the business wave and see where you end up, but to be truly successful you need a plan.

COVID changed the dog ownership world. More and more people seemed to take refuge by acquiring a new dog. Many of us went from being closed for a few months to being busier than ever. As we see vaccines roll out, we will eventually see an uptick in people returning to the office, or going back to their previous travel habits. That means they will need help with their dogs and pet care… that means there may be opportunities in your area where you could expand your offerings to make more money.

Should you offer more services?

Today is the time to ask yourself:

• What services does my area need that are not currently provided?
• Are these services I could or want to offer through my business?
• Has the pandemic changed the needs in my community?

In many communities, there are suddenly a LOT more dog owners, while at the same time some of the smaller pet service businesses may have closed. There may be a need for the following in many communities:

Pet Sitters: Many people want in-home pet sitting. It makes them happy that their pets are happy and staying home. This could be overnight or drop in, in their home or yours.

Dog Boarding: Boarding with extras like playgroups, hiking, or special kennels for reactive dogs will be in high demand as people start returning to old travel habits.

Dog Walking: Many of these pandemic dogs have never been left home. That means as owners trickle back to office life, these dogs will need regular walks during the transition and maybe longer.

Day Training: Some owners will have long term training dogs, and may prefer they get a walk and training done together, so offering a day training service while owners are at work may be desirable.

Poop Scooping: More dogs equal more poop. Depending on your location, communities may be willing to pay someone else to do the dirty work, meaning its an opportunity for you to hire and expand.

Should you be the one to offer these services? You could provide jobs in your community, increase your earning potential, and solidify the value of working with you because clients can have multiple needs met in one place.

The next steps are up to you. Do your market research. Do a cost benefit analysis. Make a plan, and then take action!

Have you ever offered any of the listed services? Tell us in the comments how that went for you! Need more help deciding? We did a FREE facebook live in the DTU facebook group a few weeks ago — you can watch that here (you do need to be a member of the group first – but it’s free!)!