***Animal Lovers in Business - What’s working now?

What is working now for animal lovers that chose to be in a pet-related business? In the past, pet businesses were primarily brick and mortar. The family-owned pet store is harder to find, perhaps because the distribution of pet products to the consumer is changing also. In some cases, manufacturers have bypassed the costly middleman serving regional territories. Megastores have capitalized on people’s love for their pets and have a greater profit margin since they can buy in larger quantities at lower prices than the smaller stores. Manufacturers are also finding that selling directly to the consumer is working now.

Animal lovers are entrepreneurial. During times of recession, dog groomers may be working longer hours and seeing their clients less frequently. A once thriving pet sitting/dog walking service may not be able to compete with the doggie daycare that has recently opened. IBIS World’s research shows about 50,000 pet day care establishments in the United States in 2010. These daycare centers are working now by targeting a segment of the population known as “Dinks” which are double-income households with no kids and a dog. The household income is usually $75,000 or higher if they are younger or “Dinks” may be those over 50 with no kids at home but love to travel and choose to leave their pets at home in the care of professionals. Bottom line though, the reason this option is working now is the art of communicating with the animals includes the art of communicating with the pet parents to make this choice attractive to the pet parents.

The Internet and web technology are working now as primary sources of advertising for pet businesses. Social networking on sites like SelfGrowth.com, Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube can explode an animal lover’s business as they reach out to an endless number of people online.

Animal lovers must be prepared with core business skills to build relationships online so that others will know, like and trust them and be more likely to do business with them. They do not need to know everything about the business but they do need to key into what their customer wants.

Although many animal lovers work alone as pet sitters, dog trainers, massage therapists, veterinarians, horse trainers, pet photographers and pet website developers, they know that in order to succeed in business, they need to develop multiple steams of income. Seeking referrals and leveraging their efforts is working now for the strategic entrepreneur in the pet business. Pet franchises are available for those that want to start with a proven blueprint.

Animal lovers have found that team building leverages their efforts in a pet-related home based network marketing business as they teach others to be successful marketing both retail and wholesale pet products. Leaders in such a company provide value across the lines so that the company itself can grow and support the increasing needs of the representatives so that they can be productive and prosper.

As with any endeavor, animal lovers should do their due diligence in determining whether a pet business opportunity fits their lifestyle, has integrity within itself, provides support, and is sensitive to what the customer wants. Will the business allow the animal lover to spend quality time with their own pets or will they be like the shoemaker with no soles on his family’s feet…or in this case, unhappy souls patiently waiting for their attention? If you are an animal lover wanting to go into a pet-related business, be sure that you know what is working now that benefits both the pet and the pet lover.