I had a discussion with a friend this past weekend. He was trying to convince me that in order to start a business today, it costs a lot of money. While I will concede that it can cost a lot of money to begin a wide variety of businesses, there are also many that can be started for very little money.
I gave him the example of the dog walker I had run into a couple of weeks ago. While I was eating lunch, the dog walker came down the street with six dogs, let them all free to run around in the grass area, put them all back on their chains and started walking them home in the hour I was sitting there. What are the costs to starting a dog walking business? Very little.
I approached him and asked how much he charged to walk the dogs. He said he charged $20 to $25. Multiply that by 6 dogs and that comes to $120 – $150. Even with taking the dogs to the park and taking them back, I would estimate it would take him 2 hours round trip, maybe three at the very most. I figure he can make 2 trips a day at the minimum ($240 – $300) and possible three trips ($360 – $450) a day. That is certainly a decent income for a job that costs practically nothing to begin.
Photo by manarh.