When you start a new business, it’s sometimes difficult to land your first customers. Starting up a dog walking business is no different in that sense. For one thing, most people don’t want to hire you if you don’t have any experience. But how can you get the experience if no one will hire you? It’s a vicious cycle and it can be quite frustrating but here are 3 surefire ways that almost guarantees you landing your first customers:

• Volunteer at an animal shelter – one way you can get some experience is by volunteering at local animal shelter near you. At least this is what Lindsay Stordahl did when she quit her full-time job to start up her dog walking business. Lindsay says that she started out by volunteering to walk shelter dogs and that gave her the experience she needed. In no time at all, you should have the experience that people will be looking for to hire you to walk their dogs. You should also be able to get the shelter to write a letter of recommendation for you which you can use to win over potential customers.

• Recruit your neighbors dogs – Lindsay suggests that if you can start off with just one customer, that first customer will more than likely tell other people about your services and more customers will follow. Lindsay says that she was able to find her first customers in her apartment complex just by handing out flyers. Heck, you could even offer to walk their dog free of charge for one week. Then after that, if they like your service, they can hire you.

• Join a pet sitters association – another thing that you can do is join an association such as the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters. Members of  NAPPS are “listed in their referral network, which can be accessed by pet owners online or via phone”. This of course mean that more people who are looking for pet sitters and dog walkers will be able to find you.

Starting a dog walking business is no monkey business (I can’t believe I just said that!) and you have to know how to get customers if you’re going to make any money at it. But if you follow these three tips that I just gave you, I’m sure you’ll have no problems at all getting your dog walking business off the ground! Good luck and I hope you have a dawg of a good time!

About Steve: I'm 18 years old and my goal is to one day become a millionaire! I’m really into business and entrepreneurship. I love being independent and having my own money so I'm always finding ways to earn more. In between school and homework, I write articles and maintain pages on facebook, myspace, twitter and youtube for TMMI! Continue reading here.

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