Want to turn your passion for pets into a part-time job? Let’s examine some homebased pet business opportunities that may be right for you!

If you’re reading this it’s probably because you’re thinking about turning your passion for pets and animals into a second career or to supplement your existing income.

Believe it or not, I left a six-figure salary and a corporate job in New York city to devote myself full-time to my Lucy The Wonder Dog business. Why? Well, I left the “daily grind” as I liked to call it, precisely for that reason — it was a grind!

Commuting into New York City year round by bus and/or train, day in and day out for over 20 years can take a toll on anyone. Add 9-11 to the mix and the fact that I was tired of making money for someone else and wanted to spend more time with my family, I decided it was better to take the plunge now rather than later. After all, it never gets EASIER to make such a move.

I should explain, however, that I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to quit my job and start a homebased pet business. I had been developing and growing Lucy The Wonder Dog since 1995 when the World Wide Web was maybe a year old. It was originally based on my love of dogs, my Jack Russell Terrier Lucy, to be more specific, and one thing, as they say, led to another.

What started as a hobby became more and more serious until my day job began to interfere with my “hobby”. When it reached that point, I took the plunge. And I never looked back. But starting and growing a homebased pet business was years in the making. Not some spur of the moment decision.

Which brings me to my point: Starting any homebased pet business or business opportunity is hard work. There are risks and, of course, rewards, but no guarantees that you will succeed.

But the benefit of starting a home-based business — a PET RELATED home based business opportunity, is that you can begin slowly, test the waters, grow it at your own pace and then decide to take the plunge. Or not.

And because you have a love of pets (which is why I assume you’re here) you’ll be doing something rewarding that you love. If you stick with it, use your enthusiasm and follow a plan you’ll have a better chance of success.

PLEASE NOTE: All the things that are discussed throughout this site require real work. No get rich quick schemes here. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just trying to part you from your hard earned money. Having said that, starting a business does require an investment of some kind on your part. Whether it’s paying for web hosting or adding a fax line to your home office, don’t expect to start a business (or even research one) without investing some money into the process.

Here are some types of homebased pet business opportunties to consider:

NATURES PAWS

This homebased pet business is a totally web-based pet product site and business opportunity. Natures Paws offers a decent variety of cat, dog and bird products but the many typos on the site (Bowls and Dinners instead of “Diners”) were a bit of a turn-off. Even the name “Natures Paws” should technically be “Nature’s Paws”, but I digress. The product lines they sell are not proprietary, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because people will readily recognize some of the name brands like Dr. Harvey’s and Animal Apawthecary. Some of the hand made soaps appear to be unique to this site. In fact, the soap products seem to be emphasized throughout the site making me wonder if this used to be a soap company that expanded their line to include pet products.

Upon signing up, each sales rep gets their own website stocked with about 200 items that look to be drop-shipped by a third party company. I get the feeling that Natures Paws doesn’t warehouse the pet products themselves so they’re probably dealing directly with a pet product distributor, acting as a middle man. In fact, the site claims to get most packages out the door in 3 days with deliveries taking 1 – 2 weeks. A bit too long in my estimation.

But commissions on sales are fairly generous, ranging from a minimum of 25% to as high as 35%.

Having reviewed the broad strokes of the deal, they offer three entry packages, reasonably priced to get you jump-started with your own complete e-commerce solution for selling pet supplies.

Initial Startup Investment: Starting at $9.95 to $45.
Pluses: Your own website, fully stocked and ready to go. I also like that they sell the Dr. Harvey’s line of quality pet foods which can be a great source of repeat business.
Negatives: Only 200 items. Needs more. Also, don’t expect much in the way of sales support as the sign-up and recruitment information seems thin.
Visit Natures Paws HERE

PETLANE

Remember Tupperware parties? Well, Petlane is a direct marketing company that recruits “Pet Advisors” to host “PAWty demonstrations” in their homes or the homes of other pet lovers.

One thing I really like about this opportunity that sets it apart from some other similar programs is the use of proprietary, private label products, and even pet foods, that noone else offers. The added advantage is that if you do make a sale and people buy these items and like them, they can only get them from you.

Initial Startup Investment: Each startup kit costs $349 not including shipping. The startup kit contains a range of Petlane products that the Pet Advisor can use to demonstrate with as well as gain first-hand knowledge of the product line.
Pluses: A wide variety of products for dogs, cats, birds & horses.
Negatives: Like with any direct selling business, you’ve got to sell, sell, sell. If selling to your neighbors, family and friends doesn’t bother you than this can be a fun way to go.
PETLANE

SHURE PETS

Similar to Petlane in terms of hosting pet parties and direct selling, Shure Pets has a larger selection of proprietary products but sells some more common pet products and toys as well.

As a “Pet Consultant”, you can also earn commissions by sponsoring other Pet Consultants.

To remain in the program, you must be considered “active.” The sales amount needed to remain active is $300 a year and at least 1 transaction every 3 months. This shouldn’t be hard to achieve if you simply buy from yourself, but that’s not really the idea here. It’s to earn income not spend it.

Shure Pets offers a solid product line and several revenue streams either by direct selling (through parties, etc) or by sponsoring and mentoring other Pet Consultants.

Initial Startup Investment: Each kit costs $99 NOT including sales tax and shipping and handling.
Pluses: Some original products and low initial investment.
Negatives: No websites for Pet Consultants.
SHURE PETS DETAILS

PET PRODUCTS BUSINESS BUILDER’S KITS

This is an interesting little pet business opportunity that allows you to easily and creatively turn a craft hobby into a business.

Creative Design Works basically offers hardware kits that contain the necessary buckles, clips and other hardware that you need to make your own line of pet leashes and collars. They even sell a line of pet cookie molds for making pet treats.

Aside from the hardware, each kit “includes a comprehensive guide for all you need to know to build a successful pet products business.”

Each kit comes with enough materials to make $150 worth of products.

Initial Startup Investment: Each kit costs $34 which includes shipping
Pluses: Small investment that also allows you to create original products and designs. Offer something truly unique and necessary to every pet owner.
Negatives: You’ll still need a way to sell these items — that’s up to you. Maybe good for flea market sellers as well as Ebayers. Also great as an add-on for existing websites but you’ll have to do all the work yourself which is both the charm and burden of this type of homebased pet business opportunity. May be too time consuming to create all those collars and leashes by hand.
Visit Creative Design Works

TOP DAWG PET SUPPLY

Basically, this is a pet business opportunity to buy pet supplies at wholesale or below wholesale prices and resell them in your own pet supply business.

The company offers three levels of entry: A Basic Package, Platinum Package and V.I.P Package.

While the Basic Package is only $49 I would avoid this one if you’re planning on reselling the items. This level is only if you want to enjoy discount pricing for your own personal use. What the Basic Package amounts to is you paying them $49 for the right to buy products from them at prices they describe as 25% below RETAIL. Not quite wholesale.

The “Platinum” package probably deserves the most consideration because not only do you get the right to buy products from them at “5% BELOW wholesale”, but they also give you your own fully-functioning website to sell with.

The V.I.P. package gives you prices 15% below wholesale as well as assorted other ebooks and other incentives. And as of 2006 they’ve reduced the price of entry significantly. It used to be $5,500 but has been reduced to a one-time fee of $299 and $20 per month thereafter.

The main issue I have with this opportunity is the lack of “consumable” items — no treats, supplements, vitamins or food. So whether you’re getting the 25% below RETAIL pricing or the 15% below WHOLESALE pricing you’ll be limited to the limited product selection that Top Dawg offers.

When I spoke with Jason Santini, the VP & General Manager in charge of business opportunities at the company, he told me that they developed the business as a “real business for real people”. Since they’ve only been in business since November of 2004, I’d say they’re off to a good start.

Initial Startup Investment: From $49 to $299.
Pluses: Higher level packages offer a fully-functioning website stocked with pet products. Offers a 6-month trial period.
Negatives: Limited to selling only Top Dawg inventory on your website. Somewhat limited product selection. Also, sales site is a little hyped up and a bit hard sell. The line about pet product sales having “limited competition” could NOT be further from the truth
Visit Top Dawg Pet Supply

START YOUR OWN PET BAKERY

This is a downloadable ebook that offers step-by-step information on how to start your own successful (hopefully) pet treat business. Written by two men who used to work at Farmam and PetSmart, this ebook claims to not only help you create pet treats that will sell, but how to market them effectively while avoiding many of the rookie mistakes that people getting into this business often make.

While I personally have not read this book, I was impressed by the thoroughness of the website and the checklist of steps that this book claims to cover. But here’s the best part: because this is a downloadable ebook sold by the highly reputable company named Clickbank.com, no matter what, your purchase is guaranteed for 90 days from date of purchase. Not satisfied for any reason? Clickbank will refund your money no questions asked. I’m first-hand familiar with Clickbank because I, too, sell a “Happy Housetraining” ebook using their services and the several refunds I’ve had to give over the years were handled by them completely without any involvement by me.

Initial Startup Investment: The Ebook costs $24.95 which is well worth the investment if you’re interested in this niche pet business opportunity.
Pluses: No-risk investment. Highly targeted niche information unavailable elsewhere.
Negatives: Claims of selling a million dollars worth of treats in 3 months smack of hype. But for $24.95 with iron clad 100% refund guarantee, it’s worth a look.

START YOUR OWN DOG BAKERY

FETCH PET CARE

This is a solid business opportunity with it’s share of pluses and minuses. On the plus side, Fetch Pet Care offers a slick image and business concept, great logo and instant credibility and professionalism. What I also liked alot about Fetch’s approach was the fact that the business is designed to be run by the owner without the owner having to do the actual pet sitting. Why this is important is because the biggest problem with running a service business such as pet sitting is that it’s hard to scale up. If what people are buying is you, personally, you’re limited to how many places you can be at a time as well as how many hours in a day.

The key to Fetch’s approach is to hire and manage a group of pet sitters to enable you to grow your business more effectively.

Another thing I liked a lot about Fetch is the relatively low franchise investment of $5,000.

The only negatives I found were the prices they charged for their services. $20 for a half hour of dog walking is a bit steep even in the affluent town where I live, but the business model has to charge a reasonably high amount because the fees collected from customers are split 50 – 50 between the pet sitter/walker and the Fetch franchise owner (you). So in order to make it worthwhile, that’s what they have to charge.

I compared that with the $19 I pay locally for a dog walker to come to my house and pick up my dog for 2 – 3 hours or the $18 I pay for 5 hours of drop off doggie daycare.

My advice: do homework in your own market to see if Fetch’s suggested pricing makes sense. What are dog walkers/sitters charging in your town? Because this will be your competition.

Initial Startup Investment: Franchise fee is $5,000; one of the least expensive franchise fees I’ve found..
Pluses: Great business model; slick logo and marketing materials; great plan for growth based on hiring other pet sitters while you focus on growing the business.
Negatives: The success or failure of this business depends heavily on being able to hire the right people that you can trust to go into other people’s homes and care for their pets. Prices charged for services are a bit high, making them more vulnerable to pricing competition.

Fetch Pet Care