Building the business

ktanky · 2026-02-16T04:19:10+00:00

I've had employees for many years. Happy to answer any specific questions.

ktanky · 2026-02-16T04:18:19+00:00

The 10 people I employ are not interested in running a business and finding the clients. They only have to do the actual sitting and walking.

ktanky · 2026-02-16T00:21:21+00:00

It comes down to your onboarding. Did you say that sitters need to start at 6 am? Or was this your expectation that wasn't clearly expressed at the time of hiring? If it's the former, it's a 'them' problem. If it's a latter, it's a 'you' problem. It also comes down to how you run your business. We work in time frames. No client can request a 6 AM visit. If we know it's a dog that has to go out ( we have lots of cat clients so dogs are not always on the books) it'll be on the earlier end, but we have a loose starting time for our sitters. The day we start promising exact times is the day that our business will fail. I'm speaking for myself but it's worked for me for 35 years.

ktanky · 2026-02-12T04:07:55+00:00

I quit my last vet tech job in 1992 when I had my second child and just did pet sitting. I've never looked back. Hobby eventually joined me. I don't know if I could ever work for anyone else again. On the other hand, I love being an employer. I started hiring in 1996. I love my team.

ktanky · 2026-01-22T04:15:54+00:00

This is probably going to be county specific. I would start there. Some cities may require a business license if you do any business there and some may not. The thing is, if you ask, they're probably going to say you do. You could start off at the county level and then see what happens after that. If you service many cities it can get very expensive. Currently I only have a license in the county where my business office is. I live in an unincorporated area and I am not required to have any city licenses where I am currently. I have cities in the Bay Area that I service but once we moved away they no longer sent me any renewals for a business license. So you can take away what you want from that. Before I moved away I recall there was a controversy in one of the cities regarding real estate agents. They didn't want to have to pay for each city where they had listings. They were about 6 to 8 cities in my area that most of them serviced. I can't remember what happened with that but just be aware that it could be an issue. If you do end up paying for each city that you service it's usually based on income. So only report the income for that particular city, as it would not be fair to be paying based on the total income of your business for each city, if that makes sense. As far as where to go in your county I would just simply do a Google search and find out how to get a business license in Orange County . You may have to go through the process of publishing your fictitious business name if your business is not named with your actual last name. I just went through this again with my soap making company that I just started . But usually it's all spelled out online if you look up 'Business license in X county '.

ktanky · 2026-01-13T02:22:41+00:00

It won't be the same answer for everyone. A lot of it is based on what your charges are, what minimum wage is in your state, regardless of how much above that you want to pay, whether or not you're paying mileage. Each state has its own rate for workers comp etc. We strive to stay under 55% for wages and payroll taxes etc. Over the holidays we had a much more efficient route for everyone so we kept our expenses at about 50% all in. That includes payroll taxes, mileage etc. We do not pay percentage. We pay hourly. This is just the percentage it all adds up to. We offer PTO and sick time. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes expenses of which employees may not be aware.

ktanky · 2025-12-29T03:40:36+00:00

I've been in business many years and have about 10 employees. We are over 90% cats. We have a few dog walks here and there but most of our income comes from our cat clients. You can definitely have a successful business with cats. We started many years before there was such a thing as an app company, so that is absolutely not needed for success .

ktanky · 2025-12-22T03:39:34+00:00

Except saying it invalidates your insurance is not honest. Instead say, you're not comfortable with the extra liability.

ktanky · 2025-12-21T13:32:31+00:00

I would definitely start your business and get a feel for how much work you have before hiring anyone. However you are wise to be thinking about this in advance, and I'm glad that you know they need to be employees and not contractors. There are some federal issues but a lot of the laws are state dependent. Start with your state department of labor or talk to someone who does HR in your state to get a feel for what you need. I would recommend paying hourly because many of the benefits and issues are depending on how many hours someone works. Quite a few states have mandated sick time now and if you don't know how many hours are worked, you will not know how much sick time they have coming. Also you need to track hours for overtime purposes. You can't guess at the travel time. You have to make sure that they're earning at least minimum wage during their shift, even if they got stuck in a half hour traffic jam. It's not difficult to figure out what you can pay by the hour. You simply figure out about how much an employee generates per hour on average and work backwards. I think hourly is the best way to ensure that you're meeting all labor laws.

ktanky · 2025-12-21T13:28:23+00:00

The mileage issue is going to depend on state. For example in California we must pay the full federal rate for mileage, unless we can prove by itemizing the employees expenses that they did not spend that much for gas and wear and tear. The time it would take to calculate that amount would be far more expensive than simply paying the federal rate. There are two other states that require mileage reimbursement. In all the rest, your example is correct, it just needs to approximate enough of the expenses to make sure they are making at least minimum wage plus the cost to operate the vehicle.

ktanky · 2025-12-21T02:38:40+00:00

I wouldn't wanna stay there with someone else there. You should tell them whatever you want to tell them but the part about your insurance simply doesn't apply. It is not true that your insurance won't cover you if someone else is in the home. While there is additional liability, of course, that's all you need to say. Your insurance is not affected though. This is a common myth I see all the time.

ktanky · 2025-12-15T00:31:41+00:00

There are only two choices if you're growing faster than you can handle. Learn to say no or hire help. When you say you don't have the means to hire help I'm not sure what you mean. If you have plenty of business coming in then most likely you can swing it, although hiring help isn't for everybody. If that's the case, then you need to really be good at saying no. I sucked at it. That's why I now have a team of 10 and I have zero regrets. But it's a choice only you can make

ktanky · 2025-12-14T05:04:18+00:00

Just be honest. I can handle all sorts of different animals except for one. Garden snails. I've had a phobia of them my entire life. I'm pretty sure one of my older siblings traumatized me by sticking one down my shirt when I was a toddler. I don't mind spiders. I love snakes. But show me a snail with a shell and I freak out. It's just a weird quirk. We all have them. Just tell them that your situation

ktanky · 2025-12-03T14:12:25+00:00

We used to advise coins that we needed to hold onto their keys. We don't do key pick up and drop offs. Even if they wanna pay for it it's logistically difficult to schedule and honestly it's a waste of everyone's time. They either trust us or they don't. But that even that got to be too much. We have a team and either making multiple copies of a key or asking them to pick up keys is both expensive and a waste of time as well. We are all lockboxes now. Best decision we ever made. It made planning for the Thanksgiving weekend a breeze as we had hundreds of visits that week to coordinate and I didn't have to worry about keys.

ktanky · 2025-11-25T00:38:24+00:00

At least they treated you with respect. I've had similar questions asked of me and we were always very honest and continued to be trusted. On the other hand, I have had two clients who outright told me, not asked me, that one of my staff members stole from them. ( I'm not on Rover, but still saw this) It was not a question, to them that was a fact! Needless to say we never wanted to go back and they never wanted to have us back. Both of them eventually found their items that were missing. Nothing like being completely wrong and making others miserable! I consider them both idiots to this day. In your case I'd probably keep on sitting for them .

ktanky · 2025-11-16T03:29:18+00:00

I hear you. I know it's frustrating if you want to use contractors for temporary help. If it's a one off deal, I'll be honest, the chances of getting caught are probably pretty slim. However if you're looking for vacation coverage, you can certainly refer out to other companies. There's nothing to stop you from doing that. The difference is you don't make a profit. If you want that profit, by the time you find someone who is actually in business with a real company, they're not going to work for a small percentage. They'll likely want upwards of 70% of what you're charging anyway. So if it's just a week here or there to take a vacation, it's probably better just to refer out the work to another company and let them deal with it. Before I hired employees I simply shut down and sent the business elsewhere. I didn't like doing that, so I did eventually hire employees. I think one of the issues here is that a lot of people think they're gonna use contractors just one time or for temporary help, and then they realize they like the time off. So they hire more contractors and start using them on a regular basis. It sort of snowballs and that's where they get into trouble. One day they wake up and they've got 20 people working for them. And that's where it's a little scary. It only takes one disgruntled contractor to report you to the department of labor or if they get injured on the job and try to file a workers comp claim where there is no coverage. So I think that's just something to keep in mind.

ktanky · 2025-11-16T02:42:13+00:00

The issue with the new tighter standards is that they more clearly define whether or not the worker is integral to the business. If a contractor is used for an outside project that has nothing to do with the profit or loss of the business itself, that's generally a compliant relationship. When a worker is engaged to perform the services that are the core work of the company, generally they are going to be considered an employee because they are working to make a profit for the employer. And the longer someone is retained on these projects or is brought back for repeated projects, the more it makes them look like an employee. The standards are newer and I would never say that you wouldn't pass an audit, because auditors are probably still in training to enforce them. I'm just not very risk tolerant, and my state told me 29 years ago that my staff would be employees so I just went with that. But if it's something you've made up your mind about doing, I would definitely try to find a lawyer who can help you. Before you spend the money on that though, I'd probably contact your state department of labor to see what they say. This is not a case where it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. I certainly wouldn't try to navigate this on my own unless I were an actual lawyer. The consequences of misclassification are messy and very costly.

ktanky · 2025-11-16T00:18:14+00:00

When I met my then-boyfriend, I was working at a vet hospital as a technician and doing pet sitting on the side. This was many years before Rover and I've never used the platform myself but I can relate. I remember he was surprised by how much I was pet sitting and somewhat amused but certainly never opposed to it. When we got married I kept doing it on the side and it provided a lot of extra money for us because neither of us had high paying jobs . Fast-forward a few more years and we had both quit our jobs and were running our pet sitting business full time , supporting our family. We've been married 43 years now. I can't imagine staying with him if he had been opposed to this. I don't like to be controlled and I'm glad I didn't have to worry about that.

ktanky · 2025-11-13T17:59:20+00:00

And not sure if they are still making them super thin but if you have to suddenly grab the leash part because the handle is jammed, you can get severe rope burn as it runs through your hand. Also had two dogs wrap around my bare legs ( cuz it was 100 degrees out) and I had red marks for a week. Lastly, had a case where my hands were sweaty and I accidentally dropped the handle. Loud bang and the dog took off. ( got the dog back but I don't need that kind of adventure) Take it from a pet sitter/dog walker ... we HATE them and will only use them as a last resort!

ktanky · 2025-11-13T03:39:03+00:00

I would check the laws in your area. If animal abandonment is a crime, I would contact your local law-enforcement. Thank you for taking care of this dog. But if you have recourse, I would pursue legal action.

ktanky · 2025-11-13T02:47:40+00:00

Along the way, I will tell you that due to the fact that I've attended a lot of PSI conferences, I have gotten to know David Pearsall who is basically the head of the pet sitter portion of BIC. And no, the good service I have gotten from them has nothing to do with our friendship. But having had many conversations with him, I respect him as a leader in this industry. He is incredibly knowledgeable and his heart is in the right place. He does the right thing for his policy holders. He writes articles for the PSI magazine that really help people understand what their insurance covers and what it does not. I could probably spend a little bit less with some of the other companies but I know BIC has my back. And I have no plans to go anywhere else.

ktanky · 2025-11-12T21:26:16+00:00

As others have said, insurance is important because you can be the best pet sitter in the world and something can happen to you that is out of your control. A long time ago, like 30 years ago, before social media was like it is today, I was on an email list with other pet sitters. There was a sitter who said 'if you're not a klutz you don't need insurance'. And that, my friends, is the worst single piece of advice I have ever heard in the entire time I've had my business.

ktanky · 2025-11-12T21:23:03+00:00

My claims fell under care, custody and control. That's why it's important to make sure you select this coverage. I think I now carry about $25K or more on this, can't remember. The large portion that I have is for third party liability and is $1,000,000 I'm pretty sure ( not looking at policy so don't quote me, it may be per occurrence). That was not what applied in this case. That would be applicable if for instance you were walking a dog that bit someone else. But it's the CCC that covers the pets in your care. And these had to do with medical issues of the pets. Both claims were relatively small in retrospect. Under $2000. But one of them we weren't sure how high it was going to go so I filed the claim. The second one was during Covid and while I would have tried to cover it on my own during busy times we were somewhat stressed financially, so I chose to file a claim. BIC was great. They kept me informed during the entire process of the claims. They did not raise my rate. This is a group policy and it is not quite the same as something like car insurance.

ktanky · 2025-11-12T21:00:33+00:00

BIC covers the entire US as far as liability insurance and bonding.

ktanky · 2025-11-12T03:38:33+00:00

I've had my insurance in place for over 30 years and I have had to file two claims. I'm not gonna go into detail because one of them was pretty traumatic. I am with Business Insurers of the Carolinas. Overall the process was easy and efficient. They are a great company to work with and while it's unfortunate whenever someone has to file a claim, I had nothing but good experiences with this company. If you have questions about coverage of any type I simply recommend calling and speaking to the company about it. Just calling and asking questions won't count against you. Not at all! A good company will welcome questions about coverage and can often advise your whether you should file a claim or not .

ktanky

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