How to Start a Cat Sitting Business
If you love cats and have been wanting to start your own business, cat sitting could be the perfect choice for you. The PDSA states that 24% of UK adults have a cat. That’s 10.8 million pet cats! So there’s certainly money to be made. But how do you get started?
That’s where we come in. In this blog post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about starting your business.
What to Expect
You might be wondering what running your own cat sitting business entails. Well, you can decide whether you want to offer just drop in visits or overnight visits.
Drop in visits involve popping into the owner’s house for between 20 minutes and an hour to take care of their cats. You’ll likely visit multiple cats in one day, driving between each home at the agreed times.
Overnights may involve you staying at the owner’s home, or bringing the cats to your home depending on what you prefer.
Before you accept a new client, you’ll chat with the owner to see what they want and discuss what you can provide.
If you’d like more detail, check out our post to find out: “What Does a Cat Sitter Actually Do?”
What You’ll Need
Since, for the most part, you’ll be going into other people’s homes to care for their cats, you don’t need a lot of equipment. However, there are plenty of skills and traits that will be required.
Your Skills and Personality Traits
To be a good cat sitter you will need to be responsible, reliable, and trustworthy. You’ll be taking care of a precious member of the owner’s family, so they need to know you are up to the task.
You’ll also need to be kind and caring, with a genuine love of cats. If you don’t love kitties, then that will show. Plus, you’ll likely get bored taking care of them all day if you don’t truly enjoy what you’re doing!
You’ll also need the following skills:
- Experience with cats: Ideally, you’ll have previous experience working with cats. If not, you should have some experience being around cats as pets so that you know how to interact with them and take care of them. This is important so owners know their kitty is in experienced hands.
- Customer facing experience: Having experience with people is vital, as you won’t just be dealing with the cats, but also their owners.
- Basic internet skills: You’ll need to set up a website or profile on a pet sitting website. So, you need to know your way around a computer.
- Organisation: Since you will be visiting many cats (if all goes well), you’ll need to be organised. You need to turn up on time, and keep track of each cat’s address, requirements, and schedule.
The skills below can make you stand out from the crowd and may help you get more customers:
- Experience administering medication: Many cats will need to be given medication, whether in a tablet, liquid, or injection form. If you have experience with this, it will set you apart.
- First aid skills: If you have a pet first aid qualification, owners will know that you can handle any problems that might arise.
- Grooming: If you have a grooming qualification or previous experience grooming cats, this will certainly add an extra string to your bow.
Practical Requirements
Of course there are also practical requirements before you get started. You’ll need a means of transport to get to people’s houses. Ideally, you’ll have a driving licence and a car.
You’ll also need to be reasonably physically fit, as cleaning multiple litter boxes and taking care of lots of cats in a day can be harder work than you might think!
If you are going to be taking care of the cats in your own home, you’ll need lots of supplies such as toys, litter trays, bowls, cat carriers, and so on.
You may want to consider getting an official police check (this is often called a Disclosure and Barring Service or DBS check). This can help to build trust with potential clients. Since you’ll be entering their home while they’re not there, this can be really reassuring for owners.
Although you don’t need to have insurance to cat sit, we strongly recommend it. That way, if anything does go wrong you’re covered and don’t need to worry about it. Like the DBS check, this can help to put owners at ease.
Benefits of Being a Cat Sitter
There are lots of benefits to being a cat sitter including:
- Enjoying your work: If you love cats, getting the chance to work with them is so much fun!
- Flexible hours: You’re in charge of your schedule so you can fit cat sitting around another job and other commitments.
- You’re the boss: You get to decide how far you’re willing to travel, what services you want to offer, and how many clients you take on.
- Not much equipment needed: Unlike some other pet sitting businesses, you don’t need to buy a lot of equipment to get started. This is especially true if you’re cat sitting in other people’s homes. So, your start up costs are fairly low.
- Additional income: Even if you only want to do cat sitting as a side hustle, you can earn some extra money (which, let’s face it, we could all use).
Getting Started
Let’s get down to business: how do you get started with cat sitting? The best way to begin is by doing some market research. You’ve already made a good start by being here!
You can also take a look around locally and online to see how other cat sitters are running their businesses. See how many people in your local area have cats and what your customer base might be.
Choosing a Platform
Next, you’ll need to decide how you’re going to run your business. These days to be successful, you’ll need to be online.
You could choose to run your own website. But keep in mind this can be costly and it means you have to drive your own traffic to your site to get noticed.
Some cat sitters choose to run their business primarily based on word of mouth. They may only have social media accounts rather than a website. This can keep costs low, but it may be hard to build a client base. In addition, you have to navigate payments yourself.
Alternatively, you could sign up for an account with a dedicated cat sitting platform, like Cat Minder. You simply register and enter your details. Once you’re verified, you’re ready to accept clients.
The benefits of doing it this way are that the site already has traffic, so you don’t need to rely primarily on your own promotion. You don’t need to concern yourself with running a website and all the costs that come with it. Payments are done securely through the website, so you don’t need to worry about not getting paid for your work. Plus, there’s customer support so you aren’t alone (which can feel daunting when you’re getting started).
Deciding On Services
Are you going to focus on drop in visits? Will you offer overnight sitting in the owner’s home? Or do you want to bring the cats to your home? Once you’ve made these decisions, make them clear in your profile or website. Then you can go ahead and list which other services you want to offer.
Basic services you’ll need to offer as a sitter include:
- Feeding cats and providing water
- Cleaning out their litter trays
- Keeping an eye on their health
- Playing and cuddling with them
- Giving the cats any regular medicine and supplements
Depending on your skills and experience, you may also want to offer additional services such as:
- Basic grooming
- Taking cats to vet appointments
- Providing updates to the owner (such as pictures, videos, and regular messages)
- Doing jobs around the home (such as cleaning, taking out the bins, collecting the post, and watering plants)
Setting Your Prices
When you’re setting your prices, have a look at what other cat sitters in your area are charging. Remember, if you have a lot of experience and qualifications, you can get away with charging more. However, if you’re just starting out, start with lower prices until you build up your client base.
Set rates that will cover your travel cost and time. Typically rates are set per half an hour or hour. For example, you might charge between £10 and £30 for a half hour pop in visit. A flat rate for overnights usually works best.
Many sitters charge more for cat sitting on public holidays and weekends. Of course, your prices are completely down to you – it’s your business.
Set Up Your Account or Website
Once you’ve made the big decisions, it’s time to set up your account or website. The best advice I can give on this is to think about what you would be looking for if you were seeking a sitter for your beloved pet.
I’ve included a few basic tips below to set you up for success:
- Choose a business name or simply use your own name (the latter works better if you’re using a cat sitting platform).
- Write a little bit about yourself and your experience with cats.
- List any qualifications you have.
- Include a clear list of the services you offer and your prices so people can see what they’re getting at a glance.
- Add some photos (pictures of you with cats are best) to attract attention to your profile or website, and to add a personal touch.
Promoting Your Business
With any business, you need to put some work into promoting it to get the ball rolling. Word of mouth with the help of family and friends is a great start.
Social media can be a fantastic tool to drive traffic to your business page. It’s best to set up social media accounts specifically for your business. Post to them regularly, and link your business in your bio.
You might also want to get some business cards or fliers printed to hand out. You could ask local shops and cafes if they can put one of your fliers in their window.
The more work you put in to get your name out there, the more likely you are to be successful.
Additional Things to Keep in Mind
Remember that you will need to do your own taxes. If you’re earning over £1000 per year you’ll need to submit a self assessment tax return. You may also need to register your business. Make sure you look into all the legalities of this and keep on top of your finances to avoid stress.
Over time as you complete cat sitting jobs, you can ask owners to leave you a review. The more positive reviews you have, the more likely you are to attract clients.
Cat Minder Makes Starting a Cat Sitting Business Hassle-Free
Starting a new business is an exciting but nerve-wracking time. Cat Minder provides a simple-to-use website with customer support and a large customer pool to set you up for success!
Why not try setting up your cat sitter profile with Cat Minder today? We’d love to help you achieve your dream.
References
The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, (2024) “How many pets are there in the UK?”
