5 Tips for Building a Business Plan for a Successful Dog Daycare Franchise

Lily Sweeney, writer

Published at 24/12/2021, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 5 min

5 Tips for Building a Business Plan for a Successful Dog Daycare Franchise — Photo © 5-Tips-for-Building-a-Business-Plan-for-a-Successful-Dog-Daycare-Franchise.jpg

If running a dog daycare business sounds like an ideal way to spend every working day, why not start a dog boarding franchise? You’ll have all the freedom of ownership AND all the support of a franchisor. Plus, the following five tips for creating a business plan for your dog boarding franchise will help you keep up with the competition in the thriving pet daycare industry from day one.

Dogs are some of the best loved pets in Britain, and their owners are never stingy about giving their pampered pooches the best possible experiences in life - so much so that the UK’s annual spend on pet care and pet products was around £7.5 billion in 2020 [Statista]. If you’re interested in starting your own dog daycare franchise and achieving long-term success, you’ll need to know everything you can, pre-investment, about building an effective and useful franchise business plan.

>> Read more:

How to build a business plan for a dog daycare franchise

Putting together a business plan for your dog daycare is a worthwhile endeavour. [...] By the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the dog daycare business, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful dog daycare. - Dave Lavinsky, Growthink

When you’ve chosen the dog daycare franchise that’s right for you and committed to an investment, you should start building a business plan for your dog boarding business/doggy daycare right away. A strong franchise business plan is necessary. Not only will you often be required to present it to your franchisor during the initial investment stages, but you’ll also have to present it to a bank or other funding body if you’re seeking financial backing.

Most importantly of all, though, your business plan will be something that you benefit from. It’ll be a bible for your pet daycare business and something that you can regularly look back on and dynamically update, using it to measure your progress towards goals and keep yourself on track. Every franchise business plan, regardless of the industry or company that you’re investing with, should include the following elements:

An executive summary
A business description
Product/service descriptions
A management summary
Market analysis
Operational details
Business premises details
Sales and marketing plans
Financial projections and requirements

Beyond those core components that must be covered in order for your business plan to be truly considered comprehensive, here are five tips for building a business plan specifically for a dog daycare franchise in today’s competitive pet care industry. Follow each one, and you’ll be able to make a career change with a dog daycare franchise smoothly and effectively...

1. Explain how you’ll be operating (premises-based, in-home or at home) and why

There are many different types of dog daycare franchise, from overnight dog boarders to daytime pet sitters. Some work out of a central kennel-style location, while others care for dogs in their own home environments and others still send dogs to stay in the homes of vetted, trained carers.

Each way of doing business comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, from ease of customer drop-off to associated overheads and running costs. Whichever franchise you’ve chosen to invest with, you should highlight the particular pros in your business plan. Tell financial backers, if they’re going to read it, why this option is the most viable and why it will work so well for you.

2. Explain your dog daycare’s USPs and special qualities

One of the most important things to get across in your franchise business plan is the true viability of your dog daycare business in an undeniably competitive industry. To do this, you should be emphasising USPs wherever possible, whether they relate to the range of services provided, the way in which they’re provided, or the way they’re presented. Wagging Tails, for instance, always emphasises that it believes “dogs deserve a holiday too”.

3. Detail the licensing requirements that you must (and will) meet

If you want to avoid a fine, you need to be properly licensed to offer any animal boarding services. It doesn’t matter if you run a boarding kennels or if you look after other people’s dogs in your own home, from October 2018 UK law says you MUST have a license. - The IMDT

Licensing is something that your franchisor will be best placed to advise you on, but once you have been advised, it should be detailed in your business plan to evidence your understanding of the legal requirements, and your commitment to meeting them and ensuring your franchise’s operations are always above board.

4. Include market research and an ideal customer profile

Knowing your market is a must, and especially so in an industry as large as pet care. This means sharing your research in your business plan, getting to know your competitors (what they’re doing, how they’re marketing themselves and which niche areas you might be able to occupy that they aren’t) and developing a strong profile of your ideal customer (who they are, what they want, and how you can ensure you’re always appealing to them).

5. Be detailed and accurate about financial costings and projections

This is an especially crucial point if you are planning to apply for financial support with your franchise, as accuracy within your business plan matters greatly to banks and other lenders. Financial costings and projections should account not just for the initial franchise fee, but for all the ongoing costs, franchise fees and equipment costs. As the owner of a dog daycare franchise, this would include:

Bedding
Leads and anti-pulling aids
Travel crates and dog guards
Kennels and runs
Bowls
Collars
Dog clothing (coats for dogs that feel the cold, primarily)
Grooming equipment (if your dog daycare also offers grooming services, as many do)

>> Read more:

Use these business plan tips while running a dog boarding franchise to ensure long-term success

If, after reading this article, you feel more prepared than ever to launch your own dog daycare franchise, don’t let anything get in your way. Stay on Point Franchise to check out more dog daycare franchising advice, such as five tips for running a dog daycare franchise and the top four dog daycare franchises in the UK right now, available for your investment.