5 Simple Ways to Grow Your Dog Boarding and Kennel Business

Running a doggie daycare, just like running any type of small business, is hard work. Many people think that starting a business is going to give them the chance to work less. Well, as it usually turns out, entrepreneurs work MORE than their office worker compatriots. However, when you're working for yourself, instead of working for, the man, it seems to be a bit easier. You've spent hundreds of hours building your facility, getting all your business licenses and now it’s time to start making some money. Luckily, we here at DoggieDashboard are here to help. We've been helping doggie daycares, boarders and kennels to earn more money since 2013. Over 2,000 pet businesses, just like yours, use DoggieDashboard. Here are 5 tips for increasing the business at your doggie daycare.

Offer a First Month Free Program

This might sound counter-productive to most business owners, but offering a free month is one of the best things you can do to increase your business. Most pet owners are looking for a long-term doggie daycare. They don't anticipate switching between numerous different doggie daycares. The switching costs are also quite high. Dog owners want to feel comfortable with the people who are taking care of their dogs. If you can get someone to sign up for a free month, and blow them away with good service, you're more than likely going to get a long-term doggie daycare client in return. So toughen up, take a one-month hit on your revenue, and start giving our those free month passes ASAP. You're going to see boosts in revenue in the future when those customers become loyal and start coming every week.

Start a Refer a Friend Affiliate Deal

There's a very good chance that you're current doggie daycare clients are friends with other dog owners. That's just how pet owners are, they tend to stick together. If you haven't yet, it would be a great idea to start a doggie daycare refer-a-friend program. It can be as easy as giving away a free week of service for every client that your current customers refer. You'll build you customer base while also keeping your current customers happy by giving them a great discount for helping grow your business. There's a good chance that before starting your own doggie daycare, you actually went to someone else's business. How did you find out about that business? There's a good chance someone told you about it. See, referrals are pretty strong stuff!

Partner with Local Vet Clinics

Vet clinics are a great place to look for new clients. Most vet clinics are more than willing to refer you to their clients. It might take a bit of time to generate a relationship, but once you have a solid relationship set up, you'll be able to reap the benefits. Vets are one of the first places that new pet owners go, and if they've got your business in their rolodex, you'll start getting new clients without doing any work. You might want to pay the vet clinics a referral bonus, that but that's an issue for a future blog post. Business partnerships are a great way for small businesses to join forces and become stronger. When two little businesses come together and help one another, they're stronger than their individual selfs.

Increase Your Doggie Daycare Service Offerings

Does your doggie daycare offer grooming? Does your doggie daycare offer in-house vet checkups? Does your vet offer baths? These are all simple things that you can start including in your doggie daycare offerings. Most vets will happily do a weekly housecall to your doggie daycare facility. It's just a matter of having your clients sign up for the "weekly checkups" that you offer. You'll get a cut of the business that the vet charges, and your clients will be more happy as a result. Adding another source of income to your business is a great way to diversify your revenue stream. If you're having a bad month in the boarding business, maybe you'll make up for it with your grooming business. Maybe grooming isn't doing too well, but you've made ends meet with your pet taxi service. Having more irons in the fire will help make money, plain and simple.

Create Stronger Customer Relations with Doggie Daycare Software

Doggie daycares rely on one thing more than any other, good customer service. People are putting their dogs in your trust. If you lose that trust, your business will fail, it's that simple. Customer service can be the make or break for your business. Good customer service will drive more clients, bad customer service will put you out of business before you know it. A great way to increase your customer service is to use a doggie daycare software tool like DoggieDashboard. With DoggieDashboard, you can keep track of your clients, and pets, and even send emails to your clients from directly inside the app. It's totally free and helps you keep an open line of communication between your clients and yourself. There's nothing like having loyal customers, and getting them is easy when you provide great customer service. Let your customers know that you care about their business, it's as easy as that.

We hope you've enjoyed these tips to increasing your doggie daycare business. Best of luck and keep DoggieDashboard in mind for when you need a free doggie daycare software tool.

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