starting a pet sitting bussiness, does this sound reasonable?

[missychicky]

I am in the proccess of starting a chicken/pet sitting bussiness and I just wanted some feed back on what I've got so far.

this is my flier-

Chickens and more pet sitting

I am a high school student that loves animals of all kinds .I specialize in chickens but I will care for any animal you have. I am qualified to do this job because I have fish, a snake, 2 cats, a dog, and chickens. I have also cared for gerbils and rabbits so I can care for most any animal you have. I only serve the West Salem area

Prices
Chicks (in the brooder)-5 dollars per day
Chickens (out of the brooder) - 10 dollars per day
Any animal other than dogs that is not listed-5 dollars per day
Dogs-10 dollars a day
I charge by type of animals and number of days,

Times
I can care for animals any day of the week, all week

Service includes
Feeding and watering, playtime, walks for dogs, brushing (if requested), letting chickens in and out of the coop, 2 visits a day for chickens, email update (if requested), walks for dogs,
I would prefer the tour of the house and animals to be on the weekend, and please schedule the tour and service to give me at least two days notice.

what do you think?

 

[debilorrah]

I think I would hire you!!! Seriously though, you need to charge by the number of chickens. I have 55 chickens, 11 ducks, 2 goats, 2 horses, 1 cat and 1 dog. You would be there all day long chasing them suckers back into the coop. And you also want to list out horses. I would be happy to pay you $5 a day to come clean poop, drag out 4 bales of hay twice a day and groom them!!!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

What about travel fees? Will it cost you more than 5 bucks in gas and time to get to the houses?

 

[DesertChickens]

Finding somebody to take care of chickens is actually harder than one might think. I think you bring a good service to the table here. I would be sure to mention not only letting them out and back into the coop, but also gathering of eggs (we have SO many layers, it's absolutely necessary).

I think the rates are reasonable- we've paid about $20 a day to the girl that watches over our animals. When she watches them, it's really gathering the eggs, making sure nobody is in trouble (health, death, etc- in which case our neighbors can assist with dealing with that part), making sure the food bowls for the dogs and cats are topped off, and throwing some hay to our resident mini-horse.

Be sure to advertise at the local feed stores as well as veterinary offices.

GOOD LUCK!

ETA: About the pay-per-chicken part, you'd want to be careful about ending up charging too much if you go that route. Keep in mind what work will be required- mine actually let themselves in and out via our "chicken tunnel". If you charged 50 cents a chicken, it would cost me $35 a day JUST for the chickens. More than I could afford, honestly.

 

[hoppy]

and you should be bonded. incase something gets stolen or the house is broken into, it protects you.

 

[jojo54]

Looks like you have done alot of thinking about this. I do agree that you need to qualify the numbers of animals. Have a base rate with a maximun number of chickens and then go up from there.

Good luck!

 

[missychicky]

ok so an edit would be-I charge by type of animal and number of days unless there is a total of more than 20 animals (all fish count as 1)at which point ..... not sure what to do here

I should add that I am targeting the suburban chicken owners, and that chickens JUST got legalized here. Sooooo, since I don't have experience with farmyard animals, other than chickens, I don't think I should care for them. How should I word that? Or do I even need to mention it?

 

[mychookschick]

Hi, not too much info here but I thought that you would want to know that your first post about your flyer says walking fro dogs twice....

Keep up the good work! Very good idea! I may start one for my area of Maine!

 

[AngieChick]

Hi there, what a great idea.

As to the flier, I think that you may want to tidy it up a bit. Instead of charging per animal or per type of animal maybe charge a baseline fee and go from there. We have a young lady that comes out and cares for our animals when we are gone. She ends up coming here 3x a day to feed everyone, let the dogs in and out, and let out or lock up our poultry. We pay her $15 a day, but will increase it to $20 when we add a couple of goats. As milking is a major job, when they are in milk we will have to go a bit higher. She was happily surprised when we paid her that much, but it's a service well worth it.

Anyway, you may want to start with a baseline fee and have certain circumstances that would increase it. Such as, having an abundance of different types of animals, having certain animals that are more work or riskier to care for, and having longer travel times. Really, much of the work is getting there and back.

 

[missychicky]

oops! thanks for catching that!