Money Earning Ideas: Low-Cost Start Up of the Week

Make up to $54,000 a year as a dog walker

When I rang in the New Year, I promised my readers that I would incorporate more money-making ventures into the blog. I know that there are a lot of folks out there who are trying to dig out from the long-term unemployment chasm and it’s time to get down and dirty and revisit some ideas with a fresh perspective. So, I bring you, the low cost start up for the week:

Dog walking and pet sitting

Materials: Leashes (start with one)

                 Treats

                 $25

Total investment: $40 - $50

Potential: Up to $30/hour or $57,000/year                   

How can you start a lucrative business for $40 to $50? I will tell you.

1.   Get a website. I wrote a post awhile back about using Yahoo to start a business website. Check it out. Point, click and done. A website legitimizes your business, even if you are running that business out of a 600-square foot apartment.

2.   Get a domain name. Select something people will remember, like “Peggy’s Pet Sitting”, check Godaddy.com, and see if peggyspetsitting.com is available. Play with variations until you find a winner.

3.   Know your price point. Research other pet sitting services and dog walker rates in your area and set yours comparably.

4.   Put contact information on your website. Yahoo even lets you put in pre-programmed “Contact Me” forms that go straight to your email (so does Wordpress if you want to run a blog) and you don’t have to be tech savvy to do it. Once your website is up and running, it’s time to go after clients.

5.   Advertise on Craigslist, Ebay classifieds and even on Facebook and Twitter. The key is to do this every day. You can’t just put an ad up and wait. You have to be proactive. Since these are free advertising methods, consider using your $25 start up investment to put an ad in the local paper, a newsletter or print up some flyers and leave them around your neighborhood.

You can (literally) have your website live in an afternoon and start getting clients contacting you by that evening, if you do this correctly and if you are diligent about it. From there, open a business checking account, deposit all of your profit, live off half of it (at the beginning) and put the other half into expanding your business. Hire more dog walkers, take a cut of that pay and handle scheduling; start looking for a place to set up a pet hotel; buy more (and replenish supplies). Forward thinking is everything, even if you are starting small.

Questions? Just ask! Leave me a comment or use the contact form up top. 

 

Posted in: Money Earning Ideas