Starting Your Own Business

Starting your own business…lessons learned through experience by starting my own dog walking business.       

by- Maddie Pierre

Have you ever wanted to start your own business? It is a great way to make money and do something that you love. I started my own business 5 years ago and here are some ways I was able to make it successful! 

• One is to start with something that you love and know a little about. If you are doing something you love you will want to continue to spend your time doing it and put 100% into it and if you know a little bit about it it won’t be as hard to learn everything from scratch. I always loved dogs and knew a lot about them so even 5 years later i still love and want to do it all the time. 

• When you start, watch someone else or ask them questions about what you are starting to do, it will give you a lot of tips to help you with the specific thing you are doing. 

• When you start your business, start small and simple. You first need to build your reputation and figure out the base of your business and how it works best for you. Once you build your reputation people will be more prone to trust you

• A lot of times it’s good to have someone do it with you/help you with it. I work with my neighbor, this makes it easier for us to handle the large amount of dogs but also to give another opinion about the business and to be able help when you are unavailable. 

• When you are doing whatever you are doing, make sure that you make it worth it for the people you are doing it for and that you are reasonable with them. Having fair pricing and going out of your way to do extra things for your clients will make them want to come back to you.  Let them know that they are getting their money’s worth!