07 July 2009
Last year I had the pleasure of designing and hosting a website for My Pet Friend - a pet sitting company based in Bournemouth, owned and run by Jess Bland. Despite the credit crunch, business is good for Jess so I invited her back to answer a few questions about starting out on her own. Here is the interview in full…
When did you decide to set up My Pet Friend and what was the reason for the decision?
I decided to set up My Pet Friend when I left my previous job in the spring of 2008. I realised working in an office wasn't for me and I wanted the freedom of having my own business and watching it grow. I had always worked for myself before my office job (and since leaving university) and I wanted to go back to achieving something of my own and being my own boss. I have always loved animals and wanted to combine this love with a living hence setting up a pet sitting business. In fact I don't know why I didn't do it earlier!
What was the most challenging aspect of setting up on your own?
Well going from earning a guaranteed wage into the 'unknown' is scary at first. However when I set up my own business I didn't set it up to fail, I knew I had to make it work or I wouldn't earn any money! You get out what you put in, once the initial planning and setting up is out the way you can enjoy watching the business grow and continue to work at it.
If you could start again, is there anything that you would do differently?
I would maybe budget better at the start. I just threw money into advertising here there and everywhere to get the work at the start and I soon lost track of what had been spent.However, once my current website was complete, it was what got me the most amount of interest and work. So I would advise good planning and keeping a track of what is being spent!
How vital is the website to your business?
Very! I wouldn't be without it as most of my clients find me this way. With my job people like to find out a bit about me before they contact me and the website gives them that option. I find nearly all the enquiries I receive from the site lead to work whereas often the phone calls from the local paper are just people 'phoning around' for prices.
Other than the website, do you have any other form of advertising? How do you get people to your website?
I advertise on yell.com, the Google business centre as well as using Google adwords.I believe all of these get people to use the website. I also advertise in the local press from time to time and have featured a couple of times in articles written about My Pet Friend. I have also advertised on various 'pet related' site directories although I haven't yet found these to be particularly useful.
What type of business are you operating as?
I am registered with Companies House as a LTD company. I decided to do this so that the 'My Pet Friend' name was safe and couldn't be stolen by anyone else! However at the moment, My Pet Friend is staying as a 'dormant' LTD company as it means I can stick to just filling out one tax return rather than two so it saves me heaps of time!
If you could give one piece of advice to a new start-up company or entrepreneur - what would it be?
Do your research and find out who else is offering what you want to do then do it better than them!