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It’s only been three months… but it’s high time we had a chat with Tracy – Suffolk’s Fairydogmother and found out what inspired her to start a dog walking business and spend every day with her best friends.
It was April this year I started The Suffolk Fairydogmother.
This all started when I lost my job and my good friend said, “Why don’t you start a dog walking business, we need you to walk our dogs as we work long hours so there must be other people out there who are in the same position”. Well this got me thinking… could this really be the job I have always dreamt of? Spending all day with my furry friends? I did loads of research and decided to go for it. Since then I have never looked back. The name I just loved! I am now a “fairydogmother” it makes everyone smile when I tell them so I knew it was right. The next step was to get insurance and CRB checked and to start a Facebook page. This was great fun when I started that as the first week I got 100 likes – I couldn’t believe it! Now I have 260… so excited! I am a very keen photographer or shall I say FURRdographer… so I combine the two and take lots of photos of all the doggies and post them on Facebook so the owners can see what their dogs have been up to and I always try and add a funny caption. I had some business cards designed and flyers to post about – very pleased with those – it felt very real when I received those. Next step I had some T-shirts printed and my logo put on my car. I still have to pinch myself as I can’t believe this is my job now. I remember someone saying if you love your job you will never do a day’s work in your life and it’s so true. When I go to meet a client for the first time I spend time with the dog and the owner, maybe even go for a walk to see if we are all happy. I have lots of paperwork for them to fill out with all the info of the dogs etc. I charge £10 for an hour’s dog walk £15 if they want a one-on-one walk. Sometimes I have the dogs for the day which I charge £20.
It’s funny how you start with one thing and end up doing lots of others. Recently I have been house-sitting, looking after two adorable dogs – I was very sad when I had to leave them, still they were very pleased and have booked me again. I think the best advertising is word of mouth. I make the dogs a little doggie bag when I leave, I think the little touches go a long way. I am now looking into changing my car for a bigger one so thats good news. The other great thing about dog walking is they are always pleased to see me and it’s great exercise! On average I walk 8 miles a day. There are some amazing walks around here, my favourites are the Fynn valley walk, Grundisburgh, Woodbridge, Sutton Heath and Pin Mill. I am always discovering new ones and when the sun is shining it is just heavenly. Mind you, if it does rain there is no such thing as bad weather – just wrong clothes – so as long as we are all warm and dry it’s fine. Please look up my facebook page it’s full of happy furry faces!
The Suffolk Fairydogmother can be found on Facebook here.
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