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True Costs of Hiring and Training Dog Daycare Employees

Last Updated: October 11, 2024 • Visit Blog Homepage


Starting a dog daycare business can be an exciting venture, but it can also be a financial challenge, especially when it comes to hiring and training employees. Hiring staff is a difficult process that needs to done with care. Many business owners make the mistake of underestimating the costs associated with this process and end up struggling to keep their business afloat. Not you though! You're doing your research beforehand so that you don't make the same mistakes that your competitors did.

In this blog post, I'm going to go over the true costs of hiring and training employees for your dog daycare, and what you can do to ensure that your business stays on track.

Recruitment Costs

The first step in hiring and training employees is to find the right people for the job. This can be a time-consuming and expensive process, especially if you're looking to recruit people with specialized skills or experience. Depending on the size of your business, you may have to advertise in various media outlets, attend job fairs, or hire a recruitment agency. Each of these methods carries a different set of costs, and it's important to budget accordingly. For dog daycares, you're most likely not going to be going to career fairs, however, you're going to have to get the word out. This could entail putting an advertisement in the local paper or a local career-finder website. Ideally, you can rely on current staff to help you find new staff, but that's not possible when making your first hires.

Training Costs

Once you've hired your employees, the next step is to train them. Training is crucial in ensuring that your employees are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to do their jobs effectively. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to provide a variety of training, including safety training, handling techniques, customer service skills, and more. Each type of training requires different materials, and the cost can add up quickly. Depending on your state, your employees might need to have certain certifications before they're allowed to start working. The cost of these certifications will have to be paid by you. If an employee isn't able to complete one of the certifications and decides to quite, you're going to lose that money.

Wages and Benefits

In addition to the costs associated with recruitment and training, you'll also need to factor in the wages and benefits you'll be offering your employees. Depending on the size of your business and the type of work you do, this can range from minimum wage to a more comprehensive package that includes health insurance, paid time off, and other benefits. These costs should be included in your budget, and you should also consider the long-term impact they'll have on your business. Make sure to set up a comprehensive budget so that you can see exactly where you're spending money. If you're only earning $2,000/month from boarding and daycare, but you're paying $1,500 a month in wages, you're not giving yourself much wiggle room for when business slows down for a month or two. And it will. Business slowdowns are normal and you need to be ready to deal with them.

Ongoing Costs

Finally, it's important to consider the ongoing costs of hiring and training employees. This includes the costs of providing continuing education, maintaining equipment and supplies, and offering ongoing support and feedback to your employees. These costs can add up quickly, and it's important to budget for them accordingly. Going back to the certifications. If your employees need to get yearly certifications, you're going to need to budget for those classes every year. For example, pet CPR certifications are normally good for one year. This makes sense since employees need to be up to date with any new techniques that have been developed since they received their previous certification. If you have 5 employees that each need a new certification, it could cost anywhere from $500 to $1000 to get them certified, so make sure you have the money budgeted.

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