Sunday, August 26, 2012

What Are The Proper Pet Sitting Rates

By Sam Davis


An aspiring pet sitter wants to make the most of his time. It is a business where more money comes in daily with regular clients.

To put it in simple words, one who can give 3 to 4 hours to pet sitting can make more money than a person who does pet sitting only once in a week.

You can earn more money through net premium or higher fees through your business of pet sitting. This will require you to give more time along with more services to the clients. The average earning per visit is about $10 to $25 in United States. The earnings largely depend on the client's expectation from the pet sitter and how much is the pet sitter able to live up the expectations.

You do not have a rulebook or a formal set of guidelines to govern pet sitters. You must take the industry average into consideration if you do not want to overcharge for your services.

In this way you will avoid overcharging and will not lose out on prospective customers due to your exorbitant rates. It would seem outrageous to charge a client $50 for a work which can be done in less than half the rate.

Various factors influence the price you charge from your clients. If you are just a beginner with no client base then it is not wise to charge more for your services. You should offer the client a basic package and charge about $10 to $15 for the same.

You have the option to charge more money from clients in future by giving additional services like dog walking and basic pet grooming. It is necessary to expand your skill set as a professional pet sitter to be able to break even. This is more desirable if you have to drive long distance to reach a client.

The clients may also ask you to perform other housekeeping tasks. Do not be taken by a surprise since most of the clients ask their pet sitters to do a few household chores for them like watering their plants, taking the garbage out from pet's abode, etc.

If the customer wishes to increase the number of animals under your care, then do make sure that you add an additional amount for the same. The amount may be decided as per the requirements with a small discount for every animal added. Ensure that you maintain a balance between your rates and keep a tab of what is going on in the market. If you undervalue yourself, then the client may not gain confidence in your services.

The average rate that a pet sitter charges for an animal ranges from $10 to $20. However, if the customer has asked you to pet more than one animal and provide similar services of feeding food and giving fresh water to all of them then it is obvious that the pet sitter would charge more accordingly. If the pet sitter quotes a very low price for his services then it signals the customer a poor service that is not up to the mark and whose quality cannot be trusted.

You can also have a special rate to work on Sundays and other public holidays. In case you wish to restrict your services to only one aspect such as dog walking only then you can do so accordingly and fix the amount within the range of $10 to $15.




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