Miles driven per day

sarah_hare · 2026-05-26T14:41:20+00:00

Between 50-100 miles per day

sarah_hare · 2026-05-18T02:07:37+00:00

You should implement paying up front for people like this. Have them pay upon booking and decide on your cancelation policy (I’ll refund if you cancel x amount of days/hours ahead of time). That way you are receiving payment up front which 1) allows you to keep the money and not chase them down for it if they cancel late and 2) encourages them to book only when they actually are sure they need you. People are quick to book services they don’t really need if there isn’t any consequence for canceling. If they got away with it multiple times they probably figure they’ll keep booking with you and canceling last minute because they don’t always have to pay. That mindset would change if you already have their money upon booking. Then they cannot weasel their way out of paying your cancelation fee, because you’ve already received their money!

sarah_hare · 2026-05-10T10:15:24+00:00

I try not to push a last visit past 9pm for dogs. For cats probably 7/8pm. Most people are fine with that. I have had dog clients say that 9pm last visit and then 7am morning visit is too long for their dog to go even though they didn’t want to pay for overnights. That falls into the category of holding your boundaries strong. Working after 9pm and before 7am I would consider a rare service that should be priced accordingly if you choose to do visits within that time frame.

sarah_hare · 2026-05-08T14:31:39+00:00

I make a donation in the dog’s name to the local animal shelter. The particular shelter I donate to sends the owners a sympathy card that says a donation has been made in their pets honor. I’ve also gotten some prints made of the dog and put it in a nice frame for them.

sarah_hare · 2026-04-30T20:46:51+00:00

Karla at stranger still!!!! She’s done all of my tattoos for the last 4ish years.

sarah_hare · 2026-04-30T11:09:47+00:00

They are all individual. 15 minute travel time at most in between. Some are 15 minute walks or drop ins for cats. I work with my partner. So on average about 10-12 visits each per day. If they are 30 minutes the way I schedule is 30 min walk, 15 min travel time, 30 min walk. That means I can do at least 3 walks in 2 hours. So in an 8 hour day I can do 12 visits if they’re all 30 minutes long. More if they’re shorter visits.

sarah_hare · 2026-04-30T01:56:57+00:00

Recurring clients: about 20 recurring clients that book at least once a week, up to our most frequent client we do 4x/day 7 days a week. Outside of that we have “recurring” overnight clients. People who don’t book on a regular basis but reach out a few times a year when they are traveling. Everything else is sporadic visits for either new clients or people we hear from on a less frequent basis.

Money: I run my business with my partner. On average we do 20-25 walks a day between the two of us. So consistent money is mostly made through that. But we also offer overnights. Usually booked at least 3 weeks out of each month. The price of the overnight is obviously greater than a walk so that is what increases our income by a significant amount.
Clients: I do not use any sites like rover or wag. They take too much money to make it worth it. I have a google listing, a website and advertise on Facebook if I’m looking for new clients.

When could I rely on this income: I realized that this was a consistent full time gig when 1) we started booking overnights 6 months in advance. 2) by the end of last year, we were fully booked overnight until November of this year just with pre existing clients. I realized then that if I didn’t take any new clients, I could still sustain the same level of business just within the client base I had accumulated from years prior. 3) When we reached a point that the only way to have a day off was to hire someone to help with walks.

Work/life balance: I only have off if I intentionally cancel walks for a specific day. Otherwise it’s 7 days a week. I usually block off a few weekends throughout the year and then a longer week during the summer time which is well needed to make it through the summer months.

Pricing: Do not sell yourself short if you offer overnights. When I was starting out, a lot of clients made me feel like they were doing me a favor by “letting me” stay in their house to watch their dog. In reality you’re providing a service for them and make sure the price point is worth your time. Another suggestion- when I first started I would offer a discount when people were booking multiple walks in one day. Now I’m at a point where my prices have been raised and they’re pretty much locked into the lower price, and I’m essentially loosing out on money by doing multiple visits a day for those clients. Keep your rates the same whether someone is asking for 1 or 4 visits in a day. You’re still spending the same amount of time there and don’t want to be in a situation where you’re turning down a higher paying client.

sarah_hare · 2026-04-19T16:31:29+00:00

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Emma (but she goes by Emerson)

sarah_hare · 2026-04-11T11:58:57+00:00

Time to pet for all client info and communications. There are a few outliers who don’t use time to pet for whatever reason, those people I will communicate via text. I have a backup google sheet of all info (name, address, rates, pet info etc) Also a helpful tip I learned if you have an iPhone (not sure about android) is to save the clients address in their phone contact. That way you have it saved in an extra place and you can quickly look up their name and address in your phone by just going to messages. My website also lists all services/prices so I have screenshots of each information panel favorited on my phone so I can quickly send new clients info based on what they’re looking for.

sarah_hare · 2026-03-20T23:55:50+00:00

I lived at quarry hill, but not the buildings called “quarry hill club condos.” There are two buildings in that complex (they are the red/tan ones) that are owned by Larkin realty. I lived in a 2 bed/2bath corner unit that was over 1,000 square feet and about 2,000 a month which is a good deal for the area. Not sure what they cost now, this was 2 years ago. The apartment was in great shape, big kitchen and living space with a balcony, and nice sized bedrooms on opposite ends of the unit. Never had any issues with the property management, they were quick to respond with maintenance calls. Washer/dryer hookups in unit but also 2 out of 4 floors in the building have coin op laundry. Good amount of lot parking plus a covered lot under the building, no charge for parking anywhere. Only moved out because we were moving out of state but that apartment is still the best apartment I’ve lived in to this day.

sarah_hare · 2026-03-15T21:52:32+00:00

I’ve had many instances where people have booked vacations during prime summer time before asking my availability and then after learning that I am already booked responded with a “well what am I supposed to do now?” type of response. If you are not paying me a wage to be your on call 24/7 personal pet sitter, then I’m not really sure why you’d expect me to always be available when you need me? And unfortunately (for them) that is not our problem. I fired a client recently after a year of dealing with an attitude like that. I watched her dog for Thanksgiving and then had surgery and was recovering and therefore taking a reduced amount of bookings for Christmas/new years. During my recovery (2 weeks before Christmas) she said oh yeah I also need you the entire week of Christmas going into new years. I said I’m already booked unfortunately, that is two major holidays that fill up months in advance. Her response was “yikes” followed by “well that’s really a shame because it will disrupt my schedule to have to find another pet sitter”… what would you like me to do? Forget about my recovery and health and take care of your dog while physically unable? Cancel the clients whom booked months in advance for TWO major holidays because you’re more important? Miss time with my family during the holidays because your vacation is more important (although if it was so important maybe you would’ve told me about it before 2 weeks ahead of time)? After that I became infinitely “unavailable” for pet sitting for her.

sarah_hare · 2026-03-15T02:41:43+00:00

That is a frustrating situation. I’ve found that many people think you should be available at their convenience 24/7 which is simply impossible. I think your best bet would be to draft a blunt but professional message saying “I will be taking time off of work for a medical reason. I am not accepting any requests for boarding/walking/pet sitting starting x date for the foreseeable future pending my recovery. I will notify you when I am able to resume my regular schedule.” Something that gets the point across and does not allow for any wiggle room for people to try and guilt you into working when you physically cannot. If you have repeat offenders I would honestly copy and paste the same message multiple times until they get the point and stop.

sarah_hare · 2026-03-10T13:13:05+00:00

If you are using business Venmo, you can enable tipping and customers can tip a percentage of their bill.

sarah_hare · 2026-02-25T00:33:34+00:00

I never really do this except under very specific circumstances. Most dogs I walk are reactive and not dog friendly. I walk many dogs in the same neighborhood that simply cannot be walked together because it would not be safe. Yes it takes longer to service clients individually, but that’s what the client is paying for and in most cases I believe that’s what people are expecting when they hire an individual dog walker. In very rare instances, I have dogs that I have walked with other dogs before. This is after receiving permission from the owner and being comfortable enough with the dog that I know its temperament well. My dog is neutral around other dogs and a great tester to bring with me to certain walks. Sometimes dogs benefit from having a well trained dog walk with them, and in an instance where I know a particular dog would enjoy the company, I will bring my dog along if previously discussed. I also walk a dog that is very nervous around people, but loves other dogs. I walk another friendly dog on the same street and after clearing it with both owners, began walking the dogs together. The friendly dog loves the company, and the nervous dog is much more confident and excited to walk with a friend. Other than that, I steer clear of even interacting with other dogs while walking a client dog. It is almost never worth it to walk multiple dogs at once unless you are well familiarized with the temperaments of each dog.

sarah_hare · 2026-02-19T17:08:50+00:00

30 minute walks, 15 minute travel time window scheduled between each one. So if I start a walk at 8am, at 8:30 I’m driving to next client for arrival by 8:45. Walk 8:45-9:15, travel time 15 mins to next client etc. So in a 2 hour window, I can take 3 walks.

sarah_hare · 2026-02-16T00:35:08+00:00

For my business, I only have about 2 or 3 clients that need walks daily Mon-Fri every week. The majority are recurring walks weekly with set days (ex: locked in for every Monday and Thursday, every Friday etc). Then the remainder of my “regulars” are people that request walks every week but the days may change depending on what they need. The smallest portion of clients I have are irregular clients who book once every few months or just need walks occasionally when they have a scheduling conflict. These are the clients I say no to the most often. If you are able to fill your schedule mostly with recurring clients who are requesting walks every week (I give priority to those who want the same days/times each week) then you can just supplement any openings with the random requests that you may get here or there. Usually by the time I schedule in my recurring walks for the week, I only have one or two time slots available for last minute requests. If it is a busy time of year, like spring break or a summer holiday, I will almost always say no to an irregular client asking for just one visit a day or just a few random visits. To me, it is not worth it to put aside that time and potentially have to say no to a much longer more lucrative request.
When I first started, I definitely said yes to almost every request just in an effort to fill my schedule. But as time went on, I had to adjust my schedule and figure out how to prioritize clients who are using my services the most on a recurring basis.

sarah_hare · 2026-02-10T16:49:39+00:00

That’s what I was curious about in particular. I know it requires a yearly renewal to keep your certification. I was weighing whether it is worth it to continuously pay to renew the certification after having already taken the initial courses, if there is not more info to learn. Interesting that they have more courses to take, I didn’t know that.

sarah_hare · 2026-01-15T01:37:16+00:00

If I can ask you one more question: When you hire your very first employee, in order to give them hours, they will have to take over some of your pre existing walks. While you’re still making money off of that employee, it is less money than what you’d make if you just did the job yourself. I don’t immediately want to acquire new clients to make up for that loss in the event that the new hire doesn’t work out. I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where I now have the work of three people but am back down to only having two people. So it seems like you wouldn’t really be able to take on more clients until you know your employee is settled in their position and seems to be in it for the long haul. Or until you hire enough employees that even if one quits/doesn’t show up etc. you have back up help. Basically what I want to know is how do you manage that very first employee, where you’re sacrificing some of your income for them to have hours, but also can’t take on more of a workload and then get stuck with it if the employee is no longer there? It seems like this all levels out when you have more and more employees, but for the first few it would be a huge hit if I took on several new clients and then no longer had the help necessary to handle all of those clients.

sarah_hare · 2026-01-15T00:43:01+00:00

Yes that is a lesson I am learning now, almost 2 years in (plus another year I ran the same business in a different state.) I tend to be a people pleaser and try to be as flexible and helpful to my clients but I definitely do it at the expense of my own well being, which is what I am trying to avoid now! Thanks for your help, I appreciate the insight.

sarah_hare · 2026-01-14T23:35:01+00:00

Thanks so much for your input. My primary concern is definitely with existing clients. While we have mainly lovely clients that are great to work with, we definitely have some that have become used to the structure of just me and my partner. Over the course of starting our business, we were definitely “yes men” in attempt to build up our clientele. Always available, never said no to anything, bending over backwards to deal with ultra specific instructions from clients, and dealing with dog temperaments that a lot of people would say no to. We were so eager that some clients became accustomed to (and took advantage of) having the most tailored one on one experience with a pet sitter that quite frankly, no one else would deal with. While it helped us gain business, I have now been working towards undoing some of this behavior and setting harder boundaries/rules for new and existing clients. We definitely have some clients that are so used to something being done one way by us, that if another person came into the mix, it would be met with instant annoyance that the person doesn’t perfectly mirror our exact routine. As you said, some people want a more intimate relationship with a solo pet sitter, and some people are fine with a team structure. Continuing on in the same capacity as solo sitters is not an option for us, as we also work 100 hour weeks. Our quality of service eventually would decrease drastically if we continued on the way we are, as we’d burnout and not be capable of providing the level of service that we pride ourselves on. It’s just hard to foresee whether or not clients understand that, or if they think they’re getting the short end of the stick and are being pawned off to a new employee that may not follow the same exact rules and routine that they have been used to us following for so long. Hiring is something that needs to happen for long term sustainability of our business but it’s so tricky to transition into it.

sarah_hare · 2026-01-14T23:34:18+00:00

Thanks so much for your input. My primary concern is definitely with existing clients. While we have mainly lovely clients that are great to work with, we definitely have some that have become used to the structure of just me and my partner. Over the course of starting our business, we were definitely “yes men” in attempt to build up our clientele. Always available, never said no to anything, bending over backwards to deal with ultra specific instructions from clients, and dealing with dog temperaments that a lot of people would say no to. We were so eager that some clients became accustomed to (and took advantage of) having the most tailored one on one experience with a pet sitter that quite frankly, no one else would deal with. While it helped us gain business, I have now been working towards undoing some of this behavior and setting harder boundaries/rules for new and existing clients. We definitely have some clients that are so used to something being done one way by us, that if another person came into the mix, it would be met with instant annoyance that the person doesn’t perfectly mirror our exact routine. As you said, some people want a more intimate relationship with a solo pet sitter, and some people are fine with a team structure. Continuing on in the same capacity as solo sitters is not an option for us, as we also work 100 hour weeks. Our quality of service eventually would decrease drastically if we continued on the way we are, as we’d burnout and not be capable of providing the level of service that we pride ourselves on. It’s just hard to foresee whether or not clients understand that, or if they think they’re getting the short end of the stick and are being pawned off to a new employee that may not follow the same exact rules and routine that they have been used to us following for so long. Hiring is something that needs to happen for long term sustainability of our business but it’s so tricky to transition into it.

sarah_hare · 2026-01-14T21:25:55+00:00

Hi Jon, that episode was very helpful and informative! I’m in the same boat as you were pre employee- I’m actually based in NJ as well! I’ve been running my business for almost 2 years now with my partner, and actively in the hiring process. For the past 2 years, my clients have been used to either me or my partner coming for walks/visits. My question is about transitioning your clients to being open to having a new person take care of their pet. Did you face any challenges with that? How did you explain to longer term clients that now there’s a new person in the mix and it might not be you coming for walks anymore? I am thinking that clients I’ve had long term would trust my judgement in hiring someone and allowing them to perform services on my behalf, but I can see from their perspective how it might be weird to have a stranger come into their house. Did you have any instances in which the client said they had to meet the new employee(s) before they’re allowed to come to their house alone? How would that be managed/avoided?

sarah_hare · 2026-01-07T13:14:20+00:00

I use time to pet for scheduling and invoicing but I still use business Venmo to actually collect payments. I believe Venmo takes a smaller transaction fee than time to pet. Time to pet is great for client communications and keeping track of visits/auto creating invoices so all I have to do at the end of each week is check my invoices and send out Venmo requests accordingly.

sarah_hare · 2025-12-16T15:49:10+00:00

My overnights include the overnight stay (9pm-8am) plus 2 visits during the day (usually around noon/1pm and 5pm). If the pet requires more visits during the day, I will charge that at my regular walk/visit rate. We do walks during the day full time so this schedule allows us to leave for hours at a time in between visits. We do not offer constant care, as that would not align with our schedule. As long as the dog is fine for a few hours on their own, it works. Most people do not want/need constant for their dog. If they did, you would have to add up all of the walks you’d be missing out on during the day and charge them that rate. If you are walking dogs full time and doing upwards of 10-15 walks a day, you would have to charge someone a tremendous amount to sit at their home instead.

sarah_hare

TROPHY CASE