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How a Dog Training Guru Built and Sold Her Business

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Robin Bennett The Dog Gurus

How a Dog Training Guru Built and Sold Her Business

Nowadays, people see their dogs as pets and as part of their families. For someone like Robin Bennet, she knew she had a natural connection with dogs and leveraged this knowledge to train them and eventually started her dog-sitting business. She was not a certified dog trainer when she started doing her business. Still, her knack for identifying opportunities is something that you can tap into when you start your own dog training business.  

Dog Training Business

Professional dog trainers have a deep-sea understanding of why dogs act a certain way. They have training methods that seek to improve a dog’s obedience and fix unwanted behavior by going through a behavior modification process, much like how kids are taught how to behave properly, build habits, and get familiar with routings.

A dog training business will serve as a school for dogs because not everyone will know how to train their dogs. The advantage of having trained dogs is that it fosters the bond and relationship between the dogs and their owners.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is creating a business based on someone’s knowledge and understanding of the market and crafting a product or service to offer that market. It requires financial risk that can potentially generate profit.

Entrepreneurs have common traits. They love innovation, taking risks, recognizing opportunities, effectively managing monetary and non-monetary resources, and working towards value creation in every area of their business.

How To Start A Dog Training Business

If you think you can turn your passion for training dogs into a profitable venture and you are interested in starting a dog training business, here are the steps you can take to start your own business:

1. Conduct Market Research 

Before you start a dog training business, first understand what the demand is for the potential customers in your area by contacting pet businesses like pet shops and veterinary clinics or hospitals to get an idea of how big your target market looks like.

2. Get Certified as a Dog Trainer

Certification helps with your credibility as a dog trainer. It is not mandatory but this can also help you expand your knowledge and understanding of a dog’s psychology. It gives assurance to your clients that you can provide the highest quality of training for their beloved dogs.

3. Create a Business Plan

This is an essential step before you start any business. A business plan will provide you with a detailed description of your company’s goals and objectives and the necessary steps you need to take to achieve a successful dog training business.

This also includes the business name, a detailed description of the services you plan to offer like training sessions and dog training services, your funding, pricing profitability, and growth potential.

4. Decide on a Business Structure

Choosing the right legal entity before you open a business is essential especially if you want to avoid paying hefty taxes and limit your liability. The preferred type is a Limited Liability Company (LLC) because of the liability protection that business owners get.  However, there are other business structures to choose from, each having their own sets of advantages and disadvantages.

5. Register Your Business.

This step involves filing all the necessary paperwork, deciding on the business structure, and obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN), which will help the IRS business identification process be more manageable for tax reporting purposes.

6. Find a Training Space.

Now you have all the documents necessary to operate your business. It is time to decide where the training space for the dogs will be. You can rent a space, choose the outdoors to save rental fees, or maybe transform your garage.

7. Market Your Business.

People need to know that you exist. Marketing activities will inform potential clients of the dog training services and the type of training you offer. Marketing will build your brand, and create brand awareness and brand recognition.

Leverage the use of social media to increase your visibility and boost your sales.

Business Building

Business building is how you plan to structure your company, the type of business you plan to run, what the operations look like, including how the finances are going to be managed.

The steps involved in this process include the following: 

Decide the business structure.

There are many options to choose from and you must ensure that you choose what will work for you and your business. Here are three of the most commonly known business structures:

  • Sole Proprietorship – A single person owning and running the business by themselves. Liability extends to the personal assets of the owner.
  • Partnership – Two or more people own the company and share the responsibilities, profits, losses, risks, and responsibilities.
  • Limited Liability Company (LLC) – A type of structure that protects the owner from double taxation and separates the business liabilities from the personal assets of the owner.

Decide how you want the business to be funded.

How will you finance the costs of starting the business?

  • Personal Funding – Using your funds to cover all the necessary expenses to begin operations.
  • Debt Capital – Borrowing funds from a specific individual or a bank through a loan. 
  • Equity Capital – Obtaining funding from investors in exchange for ownership of your business.

Obtain insurance.

This is essential because dog training business owners need to be prepared for all the risks, such as injury, which is one of the main concerns of a business involving dog training.

  • General Liability Insurance – this is a type of insurance that will help cover any damage untrained or trained dogs will do under your care, such as property damage or someone getting bit. 
  • Animal Bailee Insurance – covers your animal training business in case you are legally liable for animals in your care who suffer injury or even death. 
  • Business Property Insurance – unforeseen circumstances like fire, theft, or vandalism that damage your property or equipment; this will cover the damages.

Business Sale

Before selling your business, determine first why you want the sale to happen. It could be because you plan to retire, venture into another business, or you simply want to exit. This condition of the sale will provide you with an idea of how you want to make your exit. Selling your business is not easy, especially when you’ve built your business from the ground up.

To make the business sale efficient, less time-consuming, and effective, and provide you with the results you need, you can check the different steps involved with the sale:

  • Preparation of the Sale.
  • Search for Buyers. 
  • Sales Negotiation.
  • Sales Finalization. 
  • Transition to New Ownership. 

 

Work with a team of business brokers closely before you officially start the sales process. This will save you a lot of time and money and can get you the maximum value for your business. 

Success Story of Robin Bennett

Robin Bennett loved dogs even from a young age even though she didn’t have one growing up. Right out of High School, she joined the Marine Corps and served. After her return, she went to a dog training school to get the skills she needed for what could be a very successful business.

Her business started by driving to people’s houses until she decided to open up a daycare which had great reception. Over the years, she accepted speaking engagements which led her to write her first book called, “All About Dog Daycare.”

Robin ran her dog daycare business for 18 years until she eventually sold it but kept the training business and the business name. 

The second book she wrote is called “Off-Leash Dog Play” which was co-written by her business partner Susan Briggs. It turned into a DVD training program called “Training Dogs” and became part of the Dog Gurus – the company that Robin and Susan co-founded. 

It was initially a membership site selling DVDs and focused on daycare. They then added new programs for new and existing business owners. It eventually became a coaching business. Before COVID-19 hit, they were already strategizing their exit. Although there were conflicts during the sales process due to Robin and Susan’s different goals, they managed to make a successful sale on the 4th of April 2023. 

 

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