Jill's Doggy Daycare

Jill has started a dog-walking business. It's so interesting to watch her work at it. She got the idea from a scholastic book she got from the classroom book order. The book was The Smart Girl's Guide to Money. One of chapters in the book talks about starting your own business. She had been delivering flyers for a while but got laid off (quite a young age to experience your first job loss I'd say!) The company just decided to quit doing the flyers business. I think they had trouble getting enough people to do it. So she no longer had a way to earn money. With flyers she usually earned $8 - $10 a month (we didn't do very many flyers - it took about 20 minutes when we finally got it down). After reading the book she decided to start a business and chose a dog walking business. She sat down and figured out what she'd like to make and how many dogs she'd have to walk if she charged certain amounts. At first she thought she might like to have a partner - but when she figured out she'd have to split the money she decided she would just do it herself.

She's been pretty faithful about working on this little business. She designed some business cards and got Allen to print them in color. She carries them with her and whenever she sees someone with a dog she gives them her card. She wasn't getting any calls so she talked to Allen about it and he said he's found people don't call him when he gives them a call and the best way to do it is to get their number. So she changed her tactics - and things started picking up. She walks 2 or 3 dogs every Saturday and makes $2 - $4 each time....so she makes almost $10 on a Saturday...which is more than she'd make all month sometimes doing flyers (and certainly more than she'd get out of me if we were giving her an allowance). She's really excited about that aspect of it!

Today she decided to make some flyers and put them up. I think she's got a good gig going on. I really get a kick out of watching her figure out how to do it well. She keeps track of which dogs she walks each week and how much she gets paid so that she can keep track of the tithing she needs to pay.

She was telling me today how it's way better to have your own business instead of working for someone else. I had to smile. She sure is right there!