Starting a pet care business is a popular choice as we’re seeing more and more younger generations grow older without children. Millennials are choosing to adopt pups in lieu of children, and it’s creating an interesting opportunity for entrepreneurs to start their own pet care business.

Whether you’re ready to sign on the dotted line or just considering it for the first time, a pet care business is a great way to make good money while providing an important service to the community.

In this guide, we’re comparing the pros and cons of pet care versus child care.

A Booming Industry

Younger generations aren’t treating their pups like a disposable item or an afterthought like we might have seen in years past. Their dogs are an active part of their life, and they treat them like their children.

These factors are creating great opportunities for those people who want to open a pet care business. When dog owners are constantly nurturing their fur babies, they feel more inclined to send them to a doggy daycare instead of a cheaper and less extravagant kennel.

It’s opening the door for boutique pet care businesses that offer much more than supervision, walks, and food.

Fewer Restrictions

If you look up how to start a daycare, you’ll want to throw your phone in the toilet when you read about the strict regulations and the overall cost of maintaining licenses and keeping up to date on the legal aspect of things.

With a daycare, you need to worry about the child to teach ratios, max capacities, high insurance rates, and much more. We’re not saying these factors don’t apply to pet care businesses as well; they’re just not as prominent of an overhead expense to get started.

As with all businesses, you need to maintain proper state and federal licenses, and there are routine inspections and zoning rules that prevent you from establishing the business too close to certain things such as restaurants and food preparation areas.

The pet care industry offers a huge opportunity to potential business owners. Check out why it’s worth the investment!

Pet Industry Statistics: Why Invest?

Potential Influence

One thing about a child care business is it allows you to really make an impact on society. You never know where a child will end up in life, and you may look ahead in 15 years to find out a preschooler you had is now an astronaut, surgeon, or professional athlete.

These factors make child care a very rewarding business because you get to see the kids come in and out each day with their backpacks, lunches, and bright eyes.

The experience is a little different from the pet care industry because you may never see a majority of the dogs again after they come in once or twice. Many people will only use the doggy daycare once in a while when they’re on vacation or away on business.

It doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance to make an impact on the life of a pup; it’s just not as apparent and obvious as it is with a child.

Relationship Development

This point is similar to the previous one, but developing relationships with both children and pets is important in both businesses. It’s one of the greatest similarities between the two. Very few jobs allow you to establish a cohesive bond between yourself, your staff, and your visitors/students.

You must understand how this bond can break, and it can lead to feelings of sadness. After a child leaves the daycare and moves onto the big school, if you have a chance to build a close relationship, that can be tough.

These types of bonds exist in the pet care industry, but they’re not as strong because you’re not likely to see the same pup every day for years on end.

Both the childcare and pet care business are great opportunities, but if we had to recommend one over the other, you know we’d pick pet care. From a business standpoint, the industry is booming, and we only expect that to get better.

From a personal standpoint, you don’t have to worry about developing tight and sometimes heartbreaking relationships. Plus, pets don’t talk back! (usually)