Dog sitting Archives - Lazy Man and Money

Rover Review: Make Money Dog Sitting

April 16, 2019 by Lazy Man 10 Comments

I’ve made over $50,000 dollars sitting dogs. If that sounds interesting read on.

A few days ago, I got an email from a “Community Marketing Manager” with Rover.com. It was a generic pitch that I’m sure a number of personal finance bloggers got.

This picture is a reminder that dogs do NOT like to be hugged. (They feel trapped.)

I got a chuckle when I read, “Did you know that being a dog sitter or dog walker on Rover.com is a great way to make extra income?” I have been writing about my dog sitting gig for awhile now. I include it in all my monthly reports. It’s a little like asking LeBron James if he knew about this basketball sport. Okay, that’s an over-exaggeration. I don’t expect marketing people to read through dozens of articles on hundreds of blogs.

So we talked and she asked if I’d be willing to write about my experience with Rover. It seemed to me that this was clearly a sponsored post situation, because I’d be doing the marketing for them. However, because I love the dog sitting business, I asked for a tiny fraction of what I’d normally charge. So yes, this is a sponsored post, but these are my own thoughts after 2 years of experience.

What is Rover?

I describe Rover as AirBnB for dogs. For many years, when families went on vacation they brought their dog to a kennel. A kennel might have a just a small space for him/her. There are also pet hotels that offer a better experience, but the price for them can go way up. A few years back, DogVacay.com and Rover brought an alternative… people offering their own homes through an online marketplace.

When we moved from San Francisco to Boston and Rhode Island, we found that there were no reasonable pet hotels. I think the place in San Francisco charged around $40/night. In the Boston area it was $80/night because it priced per dog pound. (It was a real “meat market.”) After a little research we found DogVacay, where the prices where around $35/night. We read all the outstanding reviews and decided to give it a shot.

We barely got back in the car before we were being sent pictures. It was much better than our experience with the dog hotels.

And that was the end of my DogVacay story for a long time.

Changing From Sittee to Sitter

While planning one of our vacations, my opinion changed. The military family who had taken my dog in the past got transferred to San Diego. We had a mishap with the next closest person. Finally there was great sitter 45 minutes away. The only problem was the location. If we were going in another direction, it was a lot to go 1.5 hours out of your way.

I thought, “Why weren’t there any dog sitters near me!” The answer hit me in the face, “Because I’m not a dog sitter myself.” I am an ideal sitter. As I wrote in my About page, I am known as the local dog whisper at the local dog parks. However, we also have a sizable fenced-in yard that is a rare commodity. For some reason people tend to use electric fences in my area.

Lastly, I work from home. So 90% of the time people know there will be someone with their dog. That sounds basic, but there are a number of sitters who aren’t there during the day. It may work for some dogs (including mine), but surely someone who is around more is more desirable.

I created profiles on both DogVacay and Rover and people started to contact me. It trickled in at first in 2015, but as I got more reviews, my location, and offering stood out from the pack. In 2016, we had 566 “dog days”, which is about 1.5 dogs per day. So far in 2017, we have 236 “dog days.” It’s a bit of a drop-off. I think some of that may be due to DogVacay and Rover merging to become just Rover. Instead of being in two marketplaces, I’m now in one. Sure some of the DogVacay clients moved over, but maybe not all. And now I’m competing in one pool where I don’t stand out as much. Rover consistently puts people with 5 reviews ahead of me with my 100 reviews even though that person lives farther away or has lower reviews.

Pros and Cons of Being a Rover Dog Sitter

I didn’t intend for the introduction to go so long, but finally we get the point I wanted to cover in the article. Many people are wondering if dog sitting is right for them. Perhaps they’ve had the thought about Uber or AirBnb. I’m going to presume that if you are asking this question, you are comfortable with dogs. No one says, “I think I should be an Uber driver, but first, I need to get a car and learn how to drive. Plus I am afraid of cars.”

The easy answer is whether you should be a dog sitter is: NO!!! I don’t need any more competition! (I hope everyone sees that as the joke it was meant to be).

The reason answer is a lot more nuanced.

Pros of being a Rover dog sitter

There’s the obvious money aspect. I’m not going to go into my specific numbers, but from what I’ve written you can come up with a ballpark figure. I’m more high-volume than most dog sitters. (I write that having had only one dog for one day so far this week.) It would be hard to make career money out of it, but I always say it beats the heck out of selling MLM crap like DoTerra, Beachbody Shakeology, and Le-Vel Thrive. With MLM, more than 99% of people lose money. With Rover I was more profitable on the first day than they’ll ever be.

There’s the obvious dog aspect. If you love dogs, it is sweet to get paid to be around them. Some people get paid millions to play a game of baseball. I get paid much, much, much to play with dogs. Much less. But playing with dogs.

Lastly, I can combine it with my other work from home. Most of the time dogs need fairly little maintenance. It allows me to earn two, albeit small, incomes at the same time.

Those are three very big pros.

However, it’s not all puppies and rainbows (or rainbows at all).

Cons of being a Rover dog sitter

There are times where being a dog sitter is hectic. If you have a few dogs, feeding them can take some time. You have to keep them all separate and only eating their own food. Dogs are most likely to fight over food. Also this is around the time where I’m trying to feed our 3 and 4 year old. Their kid table is the perfect height for a dog to eat off of. So I manage a couple of different rooms. If I have spare time, I prepare my wife and myself dinner as well. (We eat different things than the kids, because our food isn’t “kid-friendly.”) This isn’t solely a dog sitting problem, but it is another level complexity.

We found out early on that when one dog pees on a rug, another dog will as well. It’s very difficult to clean the rug to the point where another dog won’t pick up the scent and start the cycle all over. Poop isn’t as bad as it usually sits on top and can be picked up. We ended up tearing up our carpet downstairs and putting some waterproof vinyl composite flooring from Home Depot. We got a a new leather couch that was easier to clean from muddy paws.

We have all sorts of minor damage to the house. There was the dog that scraped at our cabinets. There was the dog that scraped at the door. Our lawn isn’t in the best shape due to all the poop, pee, and occasional digging. At any given time, I could construct four Great Danes out of the spare hair on our floors.

So just like an Uber driver might consider the wear and tear on his/her car, you might consider the wear and tear on your home.

The next con would be your time. Dog sitting is in demand during the summer, on the weekends, and during holidays. Do you like to do things with your family during those times? Or do you want to be available as a dog sitter? It may sound easy to say, “Oh I’ll take family every time.” I’ve found that being available for major holidays could be worth up to $1000. It’s not just that one day, but people go away for a whole week and holiday rates apply. It’s easy for me to have 5 or more dogs during those busy times.

Giving up a weekend to go visit family could mean the loss of a couple hundred dollars in bookings as well. The last couple of months, I wrote in my income report that we’ve taken a couple of vacations. That’s a big reason why we’ve had fewer dogs this year.

One more con is dealing with the dog owners. A vast majority of them are great. However, just like anywhere else in life, there are always a few who are a little off. I think most animal trainers will tell you that the real trick is training the owners. Again, this is a very small percentage. To be fair, I’ve met some interesting dog owners including a handbag CEO, a New England Patriot, and a house flipper.

The last con is the “false hustle” trap. Someone initiates a booking with you. You explain why the dog will be a good fit and accept the dog. Then they say, “Oh, I booked with someone else.” This happens a lot with Rover because they immediately show competing dog sitters after someone creates a request. In an extreme case like this past Saturday, I had it happen to me 3 times in a span of 30 minutes. One of them even thanked me for my quick response… while they went with another sitter. That’s a lot of productivity for zero money.

It can be worse with Meet and Greets. These are when dog owners schedule a visit to see the place before booking. Being a blogger, I’m not very big on scheduling things. However, I understand the need and do the same for my own dog. It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes I’ll spend 30 minutes with a Meet and Greet and the person won’t book. Usually because it’s their plans changed (or at least that’s what they tell me to be nice).

Sometimes I do freelance writing and I know a lot of other bloggers who do as well. They bake into their price things like invoicing, buying their own health care, and things of that nature. When dog sitting rates are around $40/day (in my area), it’s easy to see how losing an hour to “false hustle” trap can be a problem.

On the other hand, you never know if the next request is going to be a regular client. Regular clients are tremendous because you know their dogs extremely well and you know the owners well. I can accept booking in less than 15 seconds with a one-liner of “Happy to have Fluffy back again!”

Your Turn

Do you think dog sitting could be right for you? If so, head on over to Rover and sign up.

Maybe it isn’t a good fit for your particular life circumstances now, but what if you were able to do some work from home, freelance, or do it as a second act in “retirement”? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Past, Present, and Future

May 29, 2017 by Lazy Man 2 Comments

I’ve never liked click-bait titles. You know, those kind of titles that end with, “… and you won’t believe what happened!” I am almost always disappointed because the “unbelievable thing”, wasn’t so unbelievable.

So today, I’m going to do the opposite and start with the most boring title I can think of. By setting the expectation low, I can’t help but surpass it, right?

We’ll start with:

The Past

It’s Memorial Day in the United States. For many it is a time to reflect on the people who gave their lives for our country. For some it is an excuse to drink beer and eat burgers. If you are in the later group, I hope you spend some time reflecting on why we have the holiday. Having an appreciation might make your beer and burger taste a little better.

It’s tempting to write a whole blog post about Memorial Day, but this site is about personal finance. There are some great military blogs and news sites that will do a far better job than I will

The Present

Long weekends are great for my dog sitting business. It was looking bleak for most of the month, but in the last week, we booked up completely. I even had to turn away a couple of dogs. (That’s always a heart-breaker.)

We’ve had a lot of rain this weekend, so I haven’t gotten out much. I’m a long ways away from The Shining territory, but I am starting to feel a little trapped. My 4-year old suggested that we play memory for Memorial Day. I liked his logic. The four of us played and my wife cheated by using her photographic memory. She got twice the matches I did. I got twice the matches my 4-year old did. And the 4-year old got twice the matches my 3-year old did. Sounds like an SAT problem.

The rainy Memorial Day weekend is significant for our local economy. We get a ton of tourism and Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer. (Shop owners can in some ways say, “Happy Memorial Day!” and not have it sound weird. This is when they make most of their money.) With the rain, people didn’t come and didn’t spend money. I’ve seen restaurants gut their staff after such a hit.

The Future

Today is also 5/29. For personal finance blogs like this one, it is a significant date. It’s an annual reminder to those of us who have kids that we might want to contribute to their 529 Plan.

If you are new to 529 Plans they are tax-advantaged way to save for college. They almost work like Roth IRAs where the money grows and comes out tax-free. That’s a decent tax perk. In my state, Rhode Island, we can also deduct up to $1000 from our taxes per year. Since we are saving for our kids college anyway, it makes sense to do it this way.

It seems that Rhode Island has another tax perk that could prove very interesting. It seems that a couple is allowed unlimited carry over of this deduction. I understand this to mean that if we put in $40,000 today we could deduct $1000 off our taxes for the next 40 years. I need to consult my tax advisor on this to make sure I understand it correctly.

If that’s true, it is not too shabby to have that tax deduction hanging around. Of course, who knows if we’ll live in Rhode Island or be alive in 40 years. The only downside is that a $1000 state tax deduction may only amount to a $40-60 savings each year at Rhode Island’s correct tax rates. Hmmm, that’s not too exciting after all.

It is a little dated now, but 10 years ago, I wrote a brief guide to choosing a 529 plan. The main ideas are still helpful, but the specific numbers for the states probably have changed.

I found that if your state offers one with some tax deduction (like Rhode Island), usually that’s the way to go. If your state doesn’t (California didn’t when I lived there), it may be best to explore another state’s plan. Back in 2007, I decided that Ohio’s was the best fit for us. I still have a couple of accounts with them today.

However, you choose to spend today, I hope it is meaningful to you.

Dependent Care: 20 Children or a Dog?

April 20, 2017 by Lazy Man 3 Comments

I usually try to write to a more national audience, but today a local news story caught my eye: “Substitute Shortage Leaves Six Classes Uncovered.”

The story explains that there was a flu outbreak and 8-9 substitute teachers were covering classes (aside from the 6 uncovered classes). While that sounds like a one-time thing, finding substitute teachers seems to be a continuing problem according to the town officials.

What really caught my attention is that substitute teachers are paid $70 a day. A quick search tells me that the school day goes from 7:30AM to 2:30PM.

At 7 hours that works out to be $10/hour. The minimum wage in my state (Rhode Island): $9.60/hr.

Let that sink in…

Let’s Look at Dog Sitting

I’ve been writing about my dog sitting gig for a couple of years now. I love dogs to the extent that I believe they are better than people. That’s a topic for another day.

I have to make that clear because I don’t want to diminish the value of dog care.

Some of the competing dog sitters in my area charge $55 a day. That’s for an overnight stay. It’s not worth doing an hourly rate, because dogs don’t need hourly care.

Would you rather have a dog (playing with your dog) in your home for 7 days or spend 5 days teaching 20 children? If money is a motivator, you’ll make more sitting the dog.

Dog sitting isn’t for everyone, but neither is being a substitute teacher. In order to be a substitute teacher it seems you need a Bachelor’s degree and certification (according to the article). Dog sitting doesn’t require either.

As a result of this incident (6 classes going uncovered), the town officials voted to raise the rate for substitutes to $90/day. That seems to be competitive with other surrounding towns. It still doesn’t seem enough, does it?

Five Reasons Side Gigs Aren’t Just for Freelancers

March 8, 2016 by Christina Garofalo Leave a Comment

According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, in recent years, 20 percent of full-time workers have picked up a second job. Since the economic crisis in 2008, more and more people are seeking side income to avoid falling at the mercy of corporate layoffs. Today, diversifying your income is a good idea even if you do have a full time salary that covers your needs. From greater financial security to a more rounded resume, here are five ways locking down an extra source of cash can go a long way.

1. You’ll build greater financial security

A second study by CareerBuilder.com found that 42 percent of full-time workers usually or always live paycheck to paycheck just to make ends meet, making it difficult to save for the future let alone enjoy the present. Whether you turn your spare room into a B&B or you start a dog sitting business on weekends, earning extra cash off of assets you already have will lift the weight of worrying about every dollar spent and help you save responsibly for your future.

[Editor’s Note: I can give you a ton of information on dog sitting having hosted nearly 150 “dog days” (number of dogs times the number of days.]

2. You’ll be more marketable

Building a career is, in essence, incumbent upon the ability to hone a skill that makes you valuable and hopefully indispensable to an employer. Therefore, the more new skills you acquire, the more opportunities you have to be indispensable. And the easiest and most economical way to acquire a new skill is to learn it on the job.

By diving deeper into skills you already have — like learning to use new data analytics software — for a side job, you will be better apt to get a new job (if you are looking) or to bring more to the table at your primary job, which could earn you a promotion. Plus, the balancing act that comes with working multiple gigs will help you prioritize and manage your time better.

3. You’ll save more

People are more likely to save a tax refund than they are to save that same amount of money when they’ve earned it in smaller increments throughout the year’s worth of paychecks. Similarly, money from a side gig — because it’s separate from your standard paycheck — has a better chance at finding its way into retirement savings or other investments. You might find that having a steady stream of income separate from your paycheck helps you to better compartmentalize and commit to your saving strategy or debt pay off.

4. You’ll build a better professional network

Getting a freelance writing gig in addition to my full time job ultimately primed me for more writing opportunities, which enabled me to form a full-time freelance career. By maintaining several side jobs at once, I was able to multiply the number of good professional references and contacts in a shorter period of time. Furthermore, many companies like to test out employees on a part-time or freelance basis to make sure they are a good fit before offering them a full-time job. Getting a side job with a company or organization you like or aspire to work at can be a good way to get a job there in the future.

5. You’ll make friends and get free perks

A friend of mine wanted to get her yoga teacher training certification. Instead of shelling out $2,000 on a training program, she offered to work the front desk at the studio near her apartment, where she took classes several times a week, in exchange for the certification. I’ve known people who have gotten similar perks from working at running and surf shops as well. Working at a place where people share similar interests can also open you up to a broader network of people who share your interests — a great option if you move to a new city and are looking to make friends.

Overall, having a side gig puts you in better control over your finances. Whether you are saving up for retirement or for a big vacation, the odds are always more in your favor if you have several ways of getting there.

My 2015 Finances Reviewed: Blogging/Income

January 2, 2019 by Lazy Man 3 Comments

[This is the third part of My 2015 Financial Year in Review. You can read more of my financial picture at that link as I publish more articles.]

I’ve had a lot of challenging years in blogging, but 2015 was my most challenging. Like the other reviews of my financial life, this is going to sound really negative. If you stick with it until the end, you’ll see the positive though.

I’ll start by getting some of the nasty stuff out the way.

The Lawsuits

Legally, my LifeVantage/Protandim Statement is all that I can say. There’s a reason why bolded the following, “I simply could not afford the cost of defending the lawsuit any further. Because of the personal expense that further litigation would have entailed, and for no other reason, I have reached a settlement with LifeVantage.”

Freedom of speech is expensive. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a legal defense. I learned that wealthy people and companies can dictate individual’s freedom of speech simply because of this reality. I’m not sure the creators of the 1st amendment really intended this to be the case with the judicial system, but in my experience that’s where we are today.

I suppose I could have represented myself at my own cost. I don’t think the legal system is designed to make that a fair method of dispute resolution. After all, here’s a real life 7-minute conversation of two sides trying to figure out if someone knows what a photocopier is.

Imagine if you got in an argument with Lebron James and the way to resolve it was by playing him one-on-one and winning. That path isn’t likely to lead to success. That’s what I feel like it would be representing myself in an environment that is devoid of anything approaching common sense.

As I was finishing up with that settlement, I got word that I was being sued again.

This time a water purification company is suing me for writing what amounted to a Yelp review. You can make your own assessment if there is anything in there that would even seem illegal, but I felt like I was simply telling a personal story of what happened when I tried to get purified water when our county alerted us to a possible issue. The additional information I found was as accurate as I could find.

I had communicated with the company VP soon after I wrote the article and they didn’t express any concerns about the content. Eighteen months later they seem to have changed their opinion. The only thing that I can think of that has changed is that Google has decided it is a very good article about that company. If that’s really the reason for the lawsuit (as I suspect), I can understand why they’d be unhappy. In this case, I didn’t like the sales method, but I did praise the company’s products.

I asked my lawyer what the difference is and he said that typically companies don’t sue over bad Yelp reviews. If someone is sued over a bad Yelp review, they typically would simply delete the review and eat at a different restaurant in the future. As a consumer advocate, I feel that I have to meet a higher standard to not delete helpful information. I owe it to readers like you.

Unfortunately, the company didn’t attempt to express any concerns to me before filing the lawsuit. That’s not what I would I have expected from a responsible company, especially since the lines of communication were already open. In our last conversation, I had told them that I’d love to help them do better with consumers in the future. My guess is that they saw that this can be effective way to remove undesirable information from the internet.

The gravamen* of their complaint is that the presentation I received was from an independent distributor and that my article shouldn’t have been about the company itself. After I saw a 3-hour specifically-branded presentation on an iPad that only covered the company’s products, I considered it to be about that company. As I did more research, I found that people on the internet generally did the same. I offered to offer to clarify the corporate structure, but I haven’t gotten their approval to go forward with it. For now it is up to the lawyers and courts to figure it out.

There’s a lot more about this that I wish I could write. I can probably write most of them, but I’d want to clear it with my lawyer first and that’s a process that I’d like to avoid.

* These are the cool words you learn when you get sued.

Everything Else

Like my previous articles on investing and real estate, there’s a happy note to end on. In 2015, I had nearly 2.5 million page views. I don’t think I had come close to a million page views in any other year. That’s huge, huge growth. It warms my heart that people are coming here to get great information and, if they disagree, can use the comments to help make it better. That’s why I continue to respond to just about every reader who leaves a comment.

I expect a major publication to publish a story about my consumer advocacy within the next few weeks. I can’t give you much more information, but if you follow the articles here I’ll be sure to let you know.

You’d think that with all those page views and all that growth, I’d be printing money. If I were a casual reader seeing all the advertisements and those numbers I’d think that as well. The reality is that advertisers are putting more and more money into other platforms such as Facebook advertising. One telling article that I’ve read recently is Get Rich or Die Vlogging: The Sad Economics of Internet Fame. That article is about video blogging, but it could be about blogging in general too.

I am making more money than I did in 2014, which is almost like saying that I performed better than the Bengals in a playoff game (sorry Cincinnati, I was rooting for you). That’s how bad 2014 was.

I’m trying to diversify my income. My dog sitting business is going well. I’ve been able to make another $350 a month on average with it thus far. I’m optimistic that will go up with repeat customers. It’s more responsibility, a little more work, a lot more fun, and an extra $4000-$5000 a year. That said, the dogs definitely bring some wear and tear with them.

I’ve got a lot of other ideas to look into in 2016, but I’m going to leave those goals, projections, etc. for another post.