Business models / Dog Walking & Pet Sitting / Own a franchise

A dog walking & pet sitting franchise, or your own?

Two franchise brands run a dog walking & pet sitting. Here they are beside the independent version of the same business, with each brand’s fees as it publishes them and worked out in dollars. A brand can bring customers an independent has to earn one by one. The question is whether it brings in more than it costs.

Typical for a dog walking & pet sitting: $25k to $250k in sales, and the owner keeps 30% to 50% after paying for its own marketing. Change either to your own numbers.

Work each brand out at

How the two sides are counted

  • Sales. A brand’s name brings customers an independent wins one at a time, so each brand is worked out at the sales it reports where we have them, and at yours where we don’t.
  • Marketing. On your own you pay for all of it, about 5.5% of sales here. The ad fund does part of that job, so it is counted once, not twice.
  • Survival. New franchised businesses were about 5 to 6 points more likely to make it through their first two years in Census data, and about half of all new businesses close within five years. It is not in the dollars; each brand’s details give the sources.

Your own dog walking & pet sitting and each brand, side by side

The independent version

Your own dog walking & pet sitting

Built and run under your own name

Cost to open
$10k to $33k
Annual sales
$80ktypical
Franchise fee
None
Royalty + ad fund
Noneall marketing is yours
$32,000
The owner keeps in a year, after about $4k of marketing
Taking new owners

Fetch! Pet Care

Pet sitting and dog walking

Total investment
$75k to $140k
Avg. annual sales
$98k to $284k
Franchise fee
$49k
Royalty + ad fund
7% + 2% of sales
$63k
The owner keeps in a year at $191k in sales (what it reports), after $17k to the brand
$31k more a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Woofie's

Mobile grooming, sitting, walking

Total investment
$182k to $295k
Avg. annual sales
$186k to $449k
Franchise fee
$58k
Royalty + ad fund
6.5% + 2% of sales
$106k
The owner keeps in a year at $317k in sales (what it reports), after $27k to the brand
$74k more a year than on your own

Before you sign: what to read in the disclosure document

Every franchisor must give you its Franchise Disclosure Document at least 14 days before you sign or pay. These are the parts that answer the questions above.

  • Items 5 to 7, the fees and the investment. The franchise fee, every other fee (technology, training, transfer, renewal), and the full opening budget, including working capital.
  • Item 19, what owners earn. Whether the brand states owner sales or earnings at all, and for which units. Put its figures in the boxes above in place of the typical ones.
  • Item 20, units opened, closed and sold. How many owners left in each of the last three years, and a list of current and former owners you can call.
  • Item 12, the territory. Whether you get a protected area, and what the brand can open or sell inside it.
  • Item 21, the franchisor’s own finances. Whether the company behind the brand is in good health.

smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice. Fees are as each brand publishes them on its franchising page and in its disclosure document, reviewed in the month shown, and change; the figures in dollars are worked out at the sales you enter and are not a forecast. We never take a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor. Before you sign, speak with a franchise attorney and a qualified financial adviser, and call owners from the disclosure document.