Section 1: Executive Summary
This business plan came out of the business idea of starting a business of taking care of pets. The plan enumerates the reason why this business idea is viable; it explores the overview of the industry. Market analysis has been discussed; the marketing plan and ownership structure have been discussed. The business plan has also highlighted the operating and financial plan of the business among other aspects.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Executive Summary 2
Section 2: Business/Industry Overview 4
Section 3 Market Analysis and Competition 6
Section 4: Sales and Marketing Plan (4Ps) 8
Section 5: Ownership and Management Plan 9
Section 6: Operating Plan 11
Section 7: Financial planning 12
Section 8: Appendix 13
Section 2: Business/Industry Overview
Our business plan is about starting a pet sitting business. Pet sitting, in definition, is the taking care of pets such as dogs and cats at home. Our employees would be responsible for taking care of pets on request on behalf of the owners when they are away. In most cases, people land in a dilemma whenever they want to travel or whenever they have secured a job at a place a bit far from him where they cannot take care of their pets. In other cases, people find it hard to relocate to new homes with their dogs and cats. It is for this reason that we have come up with the business idea of providing service of taking care of their pets whenever the owners are not available.
Our company would provide a range of services, and each would be charged differently in accordance with our pricing strategy. Some of the services that we shall provide are; first, would be taking care of the pets whenever the owners are away. Most homes lack someone who can take care of the pets when the homeowners do not have time to care for them. Thus, our company will offer this service to relieve homes with the duty of looking after the pets when the family members are busy with other responsibilities. The second service that we shall offer is pet grooming, which involves cleaning and ensuring that the pets are safe with homeowners. We discovered that people do not know how to groom their pets, and this sometimes becomes worse when the pets are dirty and pose a risk of spreading infections. Some of the grooming activities that we shall be doing are; ear cleaning, nail trimming, washing and drying, haircutting, cleaning of problem areas, and spraying.
The third service that we shall offer would be dog walking. Many people do not have time to do dog walking to allow pets to grow holistically. We shall be available to provide these services for a few hours per day. We shall also offer vacation care services. This is where the owners have gone for a vacation in far countries for quite some time. We shall pick the pets and take them to our premises so that we can take care of them. When the owners return from vacation, we shall return the pet. This service will relieve the stress of traveling with pets.
Other services that we will offer are vaccinations and pedigree. We shall hire veterinary officers in our company who would be offering services for vaccination, treatment, and cross-breeding. We understand that many pet owners find it hard getting time to take their dogs for vaccination and also providing the pets with a chance to meet to give off offspring. Our company would take care of this service on behalf of our customers.
Moreover, our company will offer the necessary pieces of advice to clients on the management of pets. Our services would be different from those of our competitors in that we shall be working with professionals in delivering the services. We shall readily be available for any client within the Victoria BC in Canada, where we intend to start our services.
Pet sitting Industry is not new; neither is it old. It has been there for quite some time, although the players did not succeed well. Some failed to take, while others are still struggling. Pet sitting industry in Canada comprises of establishment mainly engaged in grooming and boarding pet animals. As of 2019, there were about 4,549 pet sitting firms across Canada, and about 99.7% of these firms have less than 100 employees. This is an indicator to show that most of the firms operating in this industry are small scale (Deveau, 2018). The average revenue in reference to 2016 for each firm was $156,900, and they were 85% profitable.
Studies show that in North America, pet owners spend about $90 billion every year, and this expenditure is growing by 8% every year. The records show that the Canadian pet industry is worth $7 billion, which includes; food supplies and services (Deveau, 2018). About 65% of Canadian household owns at least one pet. This pet sitting industry has a high axcq8uistion interest in that large firms buy small firms. Therefore, with the right formulae, an entrepreneur can survive.
Sarg amigos pet sitting company can fit well in this industry because most of the existing firms are small in size. This means that there would be no much technological know-how and cut-throat competition since small firms have no much competitive advantage over our new firm. One area our company will focus much to gain a share of the market is vocational sitting
Most Canadian go for holidays and vacations, and most of them find it hard to travel with their pets. Thus, our company will offer vocational pet sitting where the clients will leave their pets with us, and they go for their vacation and will come back and pick them up. Most competitors do not offer this service instead; they have concentrated on pet grooming and training (Wieland Hartmann & Vargo, 2017).
Section 3 Market Analysis and Competition
In coming up with this business idea, we had interacted with many pet owners, and some of the common complain about pets were, first, how some countries have laws that restrict immigrants or tourists from coming with their pets. Other airline companies do not allow passengers to come along with their pets. Secondly, we heard many people complaining that they have no time to spend with their pets at home due to the tidy work schedule or studies. Other clients complained that they do not know how to groom their pets, and they sometime beco9me a nuisance in the family. We collected all these views, and this is where our business idea conceived. We decided to form a company that would provide services that the pet owners are missing to give them a reprieve and be free to do or go where ever they want to go without the worry of their pets.
The market of pet sitting is big. Over 4,000 firms are offering related services, but still, the market is growing at a rate of 8% per year. This clearly indicates that the market is available, and the services are in high demand. In Canada alone, about 65% of households own pets meaning that the company would have a potential client since the need for the service is enormous. The market for pets’ extents to the Southern part of the US. Most households in the northern United States have pets. Thus, demand crosses the border. All the potential clients usually go for vacation or holidays at least once a year; some escape the spring season and come back later, while others are holidaymakers who go out to explore the world (Press, 2009).
Once our company comes into operation, we shall, first of all, serve a small market. However, as time goes, we shall employ and terrain more workers who would be spread across all over to offer pet sitting services. Since about 99% of the existing competitors have less than 100 employees, it means that in a few years after the start, we shall; be one of the leading pet sitting companies because it is our plan that we employ more than 1,000 employees in the next three years (Press, 2009). We are hoping that our services will be sort by many clients and this is why we shall seek employment employees. Our competitive advantage would be offering vocational pet sitting a service that is not provided by any other company. We shall offer a range of services, an action that would pull more clients because most confirm offers one or two services.
Looking at the table below, one can realize that our company would provide all kinds of services hence, attraction many clients
Service : Sarg amigos pet sitting Company Petsitter.com Petsgo pet care
Pet Grooming
Vaccination and treatment ×
Vacation pet sitting × ×
Taking care of pets for hours a day ×
Dog Walking and training
Hair cutting ×
Veterinary officers × ×
Volume 200 168 145
Sales Average $550,000 per mon Average 45,600 per mon 36,000 per mon
One of the barriers to entry in this industry is securing licensing. The process of getting a license to start operating a pet sitting company is tedious in Canada. It takes quite some time, and there are several things the prospectus has to fulfill before given permission. Getting a license will delay our entry. For example, we have to meet the medical requirements; we have to. Secondly, the cost of establishing such an enterprise is costly. We need to hire and train our workers, we need to build premises that would accommodate vacation pet sitting, and this has to be done all over. We need to hire our own veterinary officers. Thus, the high cost of capital required to do all this will be a barrier or delay our entry.
Section 4: Sales and Marketing Plan (4Ps)
Product
Our products or services aim to remove the stress which the pet owners tend to have whenever they are busy or whenever they are traveling. Our services would help them be free to do their things without the worry about the welfare of their pets since we will be taking care of them.
Pricing
In pricing, we shall base our pricing on the duration we stay with the client’s pets. The vacation pet sitting would fetch more prices since we will have to provide food and shelter for the pets. However, daily pet sitting whenever the owner is busy at work or in studies will be charged lower because the owner would be asked to provide food for the pet. We shall also base our prices in comparison to those of our competitors.
Place
We shall rent or built premises near the city of Victoria BC to reach to as many clients as possible. We shall ensure that each client in towns is only 2 kilometers away from one of our premises. This way, we shall be able to capture a large share of the market.
Promotion
While promoting our services, we shall use all kinds of media; newspapers, television, social media to inform potential clients about the availability of our services. We shall circulate the pictures of our premises together with the pets to showcase to the potential clients how we take care of the pets on behalf of the owners. We shall use fliers, business cards, brochures to promote our products. We shall be attending trade shows and exhibitions to the case to the clients on what we do.
Section 5: Ownership and Management Plan
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