With an estimated 8.5 million dogs in the UK, dog walking just might be one of the quickest and simplest businesses to set up. And if you love being outdoors, moderate exercise, and the company of our four-legged friends, it’s got to be one of the most satisfying business ventures. There was even recent outcry that dog walkers actually earn five times more than the average salary despite working less hours. Where do we sign up?
Well, maybe it’s a bit more complicated than that. That’s why we caught up with Joe Thomason of Green Dog Walking, one of London’s biggest dog walking businesses, to find out what’s involved.
How would you sum up Green Dog Walking in a sentence?
We provide daily adventures and stimulating exercise for London’s luckiest dogs!
Can you briefly summarise your background and what you did before?
I have always grown up with dogs and competed in shows with my own but my work background was in sales. I did a two-year trip backpacking around the world before moving to London to set up Green Dog Walking.
What was the inspiration behind Green Dog Walking? Was there a lightbulb moment when it came to you?
Being from the countryside, I had never heard of professional dog walking. My cousin suggested it when we were brainstorming business ideas so I looked into it. I had only planned to start it as a little side-earner while I set up a “real” company.
It soon became apparent that there was a huge gap in the market for a proper dog walking service in London.
Source: @greendogwalking
On the face of it, dog walking may seem like one of the ‘easier’ or ‘quicker’ businesses to set up – how true is that?
It was relatively easy to set everything up to call myself a business. Anyone can set up a website, print flyers, get a van, but to actually get clients onboard and gain peoples trust as a young startup was very difficult.
So, gaining clients is where a lot of the work is. What other challenges are there?
Logistics was a huge challenge at first; learning where to go, timings, how many dogs I could take on one walk (it varies from borough to borough).
How has the business grown since your launch? Have there been any particular milestones?
We’ve grown a huge amount. I now have a team of 20 full-time employees, seven new vans on the road and we walk around 180 dogs per day.
I’ll always remember the first time an employee drove away in one of my vans without me in it. It felt amazing, I really felt like I was now running a business rather than being self-employed. Since then we’ve had various milestones along the way such as getting our own office, hiring a general manager and developing our own custom made software.
