Starting your own pet business is such an exciting adventure! You’re finally going to fulfill your dream of helping pets, and make a living while doing so. Of course, like any life adventure, you need to be prepared before setting out. And there are a lot of things to get in order before you start your pet supply store or grooming service. If you would like to know more about what you should consider before making yourself official, read the information below.
Research Your Market
The pet industry is a vast niche full of opportunities, but like other niches, will have ups and downs. It’s more than the simple question of “do enough people have pets to make my business successful?”
You need to conduct market research to grasp a better understanding of your customer, their needs and needs of their pets, the strengths and weaknesses of your current competition, and if you have a good chance at making a living in the pet industry. There are certain questions you should ask yourself and find the answers to regarding customers, competition, and business.
Customers:
- Is your market local? National? International?
- What are the common traits of your ideal customers (A.K.A target market)? These traits could be physical, such as age and location, or psychographic, like specific interests.
- Can you include multiple target markets?
Competition:
- Do you need to find out how much competition you have in the area where you want to conduct business?
- What are the latest trends in the pet industry that you should be paying attention to?
- How will you stand out from your competition?
Business:
- How well do you already know this area of expertise?
- Is your particular category of pet business growing?
- Will the present pet market in your area allow you to make a profit?
- Are there enough potential customers in the area that will support you AND your competitors?
- What does someone in the specific pet market you’re entering make in a year?
Be sure to keep paying attention to pet industry trends like where natural pet food stands with the public, or new pet-tech gadgets that solve common problems. If you stay on top of these, you are certain to maintain your relevance and can even gain ground over your competitors.
Building Your Pet Brand
Your brand is how potential customers are going to get to know the identity and persona of your business since you won’t be able to be the literal face of the company. These days, it takes more than a logo to make a good company like yours stand out.
One of the most important factors that identifies your business, however, is your business website’s design. Advertisements can only give passers by a glimpse of who your company is, but a website will clearly define who your business is, who you are, what is unique about your business, and show your professionalism.
In addition to a solidly designed website, consider a blog related to what you do. Blogging drives sales sky-high when done properly and when you include helpful information online you increase the peoples’ awareness of your brand as well as your credibility with them on your specialties. For example, if you are a pet groomer and your blog helps pet owners understand what they can do at home to help maintain the mat-free coats of different kinds of breeds, you earn more credibility as a groomer.
As you put your focus in bringing awareness to your pet business, never forget to make sure what you put out doesn’t sound cold or stiff. You’re a human being who is passionate about what they do and passionate about animals! Don’t be afraid to show off your personality. People will relate to your business on a much more personal level.
Marketing Your Pet Business
Marketing your business is what will really make you take off from the ground. Showing off your company’s work, offers, and values on social media and creating excellent and unique email campaigns are well-known marketing strategies, but there are other strategies that improve your marketing that you probably haven’t even heard about.
For example, did you know the importance of getting the right internet influencer to showcase your brand on various media platforms? Did you know about social media campaigns? Are you sure your current marketing is customer-focused?
Just as your pet industry follows trends and changes from day to day, so do marketing techniques. Your competition will be doing their best to keep up with the best marketing practices, search engine optimization keywords, and any new techniques they can come up with. So be on your toes! And try to build a strong team. You don’t need a big one, just a team with the skills to get your brand noticed.
Keep Yourself Organized
The downfall of any business, big or small, is poor organization. Finances, client info, affiliate info, important meetings, useful business contacts, and business resources are examples of important information that needs to be neatly kept.
The first thing you’ll need to do is figure out the fair-market value and prices for your products and for your services, if you are a service-based pet business. Make sure you have detailed records, and keep them for up to five years for tax purposes.
From the hundreds of business connections you will be making, you will absolutely want to make a professional cleaner one of those connections. That way, your business isn’t just tidy in its paperwork, but will be physically tidy throughout.
Those were four things you should know before starting your own pet business. In sum, there are many things to put into place before you make your first sale or first client, but after all of that effort, it makes the joy of making that first sale so much sweeter!
