If you want to be your own boss and work with animals, I highly recommend starting a pet sitting business. A few years ago I decided to get a side gig to make some money so I created a Rover account. I quickly became one of the most successful pet sitters in my area and began earning more money than I had made at any of my previous jobs. In just a few months I was able to quit my job and take care of other people’s pets full time!
Let me share with you some tips that will make your profile stand out, get clients to trust you, and increase your profits.
In short here are the tips you need to attract new clients:
- Create an attractive profile with pictures and personal animal care experience
- Answer new booking requests within half an hour
- Have a successful meet and greet by focusing on your mutual love for animals and asking questions about the care you will be giving your client’s pets
To increase your profits you will want to:
- Set competitive rates when starting out to start accumulating new clients and reviews
- Adjust your prices every few months, staying $1 below sitters with similar repeat clients and reviews
- Become a star sitter by meeting all of Rover’s star sitter criteria
Attract New Clients
Create an attractive profile: Add as many images of you with as many animals as you can. Create a bio that quickly summarizes your previous experience with animal care, and mention how you take care of your own pets. Following the Rover prompts will be helpful. Being specific and conveying your love for animals through your profile will make people feel like they can trust you. Keep your profile concise, since most clients do not want to read through a long essay of information.
Creating a sense of trust is the most important thing when it comes to petsitting. Clients will need to let you into their homes and take care of their fur babies while they are gone, which takes a tremendous amount of trust. If clients know that you are kind and gentle with animals, they will feel more comfortable with leaving their pets in your care.
To show potential clients that you are serious you will need to answer booking requests as soon as possible. I have had the most success with being chosen by clients when I answer booking requests within about half an hour. Clients typically pick sitters who answer their messages first.
The final step to attracting new clients is to have a successful meet and greet. Meeting potential clients before starting a pet sitting job is crucial! Do NOT work for somebody unless you have met with them beforehand. The only big issues I have run into have been due to skipping a meeting, usually due to a client’s time constraints or urgency. Even if you are yearning for new clients, you need to require a meet and greet. Almost all clients will be okay with this and even insist on it. I also suggest doing these meetings free of charge, at least in the beginning.
To have a successful meeting you’ll want to be charismatic. If you don’t feel like you are a “people” person, remember these people love their pets just like you love animals. Focusing on their pets and giving their pets lots of attention during your meeting might help with any anxieties you might have, and it also shows the client that you are good with animals. Ask questions and be interested in the answers the client is giving you. I usually ask about what the pets’ daily schedule looks like, what type and how much exercise each pet requires, and questions about their personalities and their behavior with new people.
Increase Your Profits
Once you have created your profile, it is time to determine your rates. When starting out, I recommend going through the “booking a service” page and creating a fake booking for one of your pets. Just choose a random date in the future and see what local sitters are charging, then you’ll want to charge $1 below the lowest booking rate you see. You will want to get some new clients “in the door” so don’t expect to make much money on the first few bookings until you have a few good reviews.
Once you have some reviews you can adjust your prices to be just lower than other sitters who have a similar amount of reviews and repeat clients. You can keep adjusting your prices until you have reached the maximum amount of clientele you feel comfortable having. I stopped increasing my prices when I started getting booked out about 3 months in advance, but do what works for you. I suggest not increasing prices more than once every 3 months. Make sure to reach out to your regulars and tell them about the price increases as well as why you are increasing your prices (higher demands, etc.).
You’ll know that your prices are too high when you are getting less bookings. I also noticed that even when I became a top sitter in my area, I got less booking requests if I didn’t edit my rates regularly, so just changing your base rate by $1 every once in a while might put you higher in the algorithm (this is just something I noticed personally so I’m not sure this is actually how rover works).
Do what you can to become a star sitter as fast as possible. This shows clients that you are serious about being a pet sitter. The current criteria for being a star sitter are determined over the last 6 month period. Over these last 6 months you will need to have booked at least 5 different clients, have 2 repeat client bookings, and accept at least 33% of the last 25 requests from new pet parents. Also keep a 4.9 star rating or higher, respond to at least 95% of booking requests within 24 hours, and avoid canceling any bookings. Since star sitter criteria can change over time, make sure you are on track by visiting the star sitter page under “your insights” which is under the “more” page on the Rover app.
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Becoming successful on Rover will take some patience and dedication, but it is easy when you take it seriously and care about animals. Good luck on becoming a full-time pet sitter, and follow my blog for more information on being successful at this new business of yours.