Finance & Paperwork for Professional Dog Walkers

We’ve all been there, we love the dog, the owner is great and everything is going well except one small thing… they keep forgetting to pay you! Let’s take a look at how we can make it as easy for your client to pay you and what to do when it all goes wrong. Options […]

Surprisingly the answer is yes, but with some very strict guidelines including the fact that the money from all your self-employment income streams must not exceed £1000 per year before expenses. Let’s look at the details. What is the £1000 trading allowance? In the UK we have something in our tax system called a trading

So now that you’ve checked out the pros and cons of having signwriting, your next question is probably if it will affect your insurance premiums. Signwriting is a modification that you need to tell your insurance company about, however, some types of temporary signwriting are not classed as a modification. What is classed as signwriting?

The concern is that if a client’s dog wears a GPS tracker, can the client see not only where their dog has been, but also each stop you made to collect and drop off any other dogs on your group walk that day. Let’s take a look and see if you’re right to be concerned.

As a newly registered self-employed person you may not be aware of all the things you can put down as expenses when it comes to filling in your tax return each year. I certainly didn’t realise I could claim laundry expenses when I started! Let’s take a look at what you can claim and how

Just like parents and their children (*), you will eventually have your favourite dogs (and owners) as you build your client base. Unfortunately, someone will always be bottom of your list, whether it’s a client who never pays on time or a dog who always pees in your van, there will come a time when

Lots of councils in the UK now have public space protection orders (PSPOs) in place and many of these have dog control orders (DOCs) or dog fouling orders (DFOs) as part of them. Knowing if your council has one, where they are applicable and what the penalties are if you break them is important for

It’s tempting to opt for the cheapest insurance quote, especially when you first start up your business, and then hope you’re covered for every eventuality. (If you’re wondering if you need insurance at all, check out our previous article on the subject here; do I really need insurance?) Taking some time to understand some of

Most professional dog walkers will have to make the decision at some point in their business whether to charge clients a retainer or not. The most common situation is a client who is a teacher who does not need their dog walking during school holidays. And the question for the dog walker is… Should you