Full time sitters: How busy are you after the holidays?

I'm not a full timer, but my experience was different than Cari's. I was pretty busy from the end of January through April. I had 6 stays from the end of Jan through the end of Feb, 3 in March, and 7 in April, providing walks, daycare and boarding. I have a feeling that would have continued if I hadn't gone to away mode for May-mid July.

I only take one dog at a time, or dogs from the same family, so my experience might be a little different from full time sitters who take multiple dogs. I started my business in November of last year and was unavailable until January. My records show I had one client in January and one in February, with 0 in March and 1 in April. A lot of factors will determine how busy you are - as you mentioned, number of sitters in your area, where you live, as well as what services you offer and your rates.

Very much depends on area, as you mentioned, but as a general rule Sept-Oct and late January-April or May tend to be the slow seasons for dog boarding. I definitely wouldn't expect the aforementioned range of months to be particularly busy; maybe prepare for it to be a similar demand to your business during october and late september. It's almost certainly going to slow down after the holidays somewhat or a lot unless you're the kind of sitter who has always had constant high demand in a prime area for boarding, like Laura seems to be.

If you haven't already, try to get the word out in your community. Tell friends and family about your services & hand out business cards, talk to people in your area who have dogs, leave business cards at your local groomer's, etc etc

I'm a full time sitter. I started this past NYE weekend so I'm very new and just getting started.

For the month of January I boarded 1 dog and have a repeat dog I walk all month.

By the end of February I will have boarded 2 more dogs, had 1 dog for daycare and repetedly walk 2 dogs all month.

I'm already booking up fast for March for Spring Breaks. I will be walking 4 dogs and boarding 2 dogs so far.