Thinking of starting one? How much do dog daycares make on average?

Okay, so I've been kicking around this idea of starting a dog daycare for a while, and I finally decided to dive in and see what the money side of things really looks like. I mean, who doesn't love dogs, right? But love doesn't pay the bills, so I needed to get down to brass tacks.

First thing I did? I hit the internet, obviously. I started Googling everything about dog daycare businesses. I found some interesting stuff, you know, some general numbers. I saw that the pet care industry is HUGE. Like, billions of dollars huge. And dog daycare is a good chunk of that. I saw some numbers from I think,2019,that said the average was something around $280,000 for each business. It's big business, I thought, with almost half of American homes having dogs.

But those were just numbers on a screen. I needed to get a feel for things. So, I started calling around. I pretended I was looking for daycare for my (imaginary) golden retriever, "Buddy." I asked about prices, how many dogs they usually had, what kind of services they offered. I took, notes on everything, and I got all this information from the place.

Then, I created the plan.

• I need to find some space.
• Then get some basic equipment, like bowls, toys, maybe some of those little agility ramps.
• Get some staff to help out.

Then the math started. Based on what other places were charging, I figured out my own pricing. I did some estimating on how many dogs I could reasonably handle, especially starting out. I was trying to be realistic, not overly optimistic, I am not going to become a millionaire. I factored in the cost of rent, insurance, food, toys, and, of course, paying my awesome dog-loving staff. All this to get a number of all I needed to invest.

After all that, I ran some numbers. I did different scenarios, like "What if I only have 5 dogs a day?" and "What if I'm totally booked?" The numbers, honestly, they were encouraging. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it's definitely doable. And that was a big deal for me. I need some income and I love dogs.

The best part? I realized I could actually do this. It wasn't just some dream anymore. It was something I could build, step by step. It's still a lot of work, but now I've got a plan, and that makes all the difference.