Thinking of offering a freelance horse/pet help service, advice?

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peaceandquiet1

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Hi i am wishing to earn some money now my children are older and not as dependent. I live rurally so commuting is very expensive and time consuming so I thought of offering some daytime services for others who may have full time jobs. When i had a full time job i would have probably used such a service, especially if I had a horse on box rest etc. I am not expecting to get rich just to perhaps pay for my own ponies instead of from the household budget. I am not the most confident person but do have 40 years of horse owing experience behind me. I also did a friends ponies on this basis two days a week for 18 months.

I would also offer to see to dogs, cats, small animals...not a pack dog walker but more of an individual visit.

If any of you do this sort of thing or use someone who does i would be really happy if you could give me any ideas. Am aware i will need insurance and CRB check.

Thanks!
 
You will need to be insured .
I don’t think CRB checks are compulsory.
I use free lance help all the time for all sorts of things .
From dogs to horses to helping at parties .
Make sure you factor your travel costs into your plan either charge it per job or factor it into your hourly rate .
There’s lots of people looking for cheerful competent help .
Some of the freelancers I have used have been mums whose children are just in school .
You will need a plan for what you would do if something went wrong ie the cilents are on holiday and your children get sick for instance .
 
At the moment I only use someone to do the horses if we go away but mainly because I cant find anyone local and the girl that currently does them for me lives over 10 miles away. If I could find someone locally I'd probably get them to cover farrier visits for me too as at the moment I have to take a day off work which really eats into my (very small) annual leave entitlement. I would imagine you will find lots of work with people who keep their horses at home.
 
there is a lady in our village who offers this service. she walks dogs for people who are out at work and also offers cleaning. she will feed horses chickens rabbits other small pets. think about cleaning too. whilst travelling somewhere to walk a dog you can stay there and do an hour or 2s cleaning. makes the use of petrol more cost effective,.you need to come across as very reliable and confident. good luck with your venture hope it works out well for you.
 
I did this for a couple of years , stopping 3 years ago when we moved. I charged higher first the first hour to cover my travel costs ie £12 first hour, £10 subsequent hours, £6 for a simple visit to feed a cat. (I still do cat feeding for several people at £6 per visit, £10 per visit weekends and bank hols). I also did house cleaning at £15/10.
It was hard work but I built up a regular clientele. I started by leafleting the area I wanted to operate - rural, fairly affluent. I got stuff further afield by word of mouth too.
To be honest, the cleaning was my bread and butter because it was all weekly and regular. The animals tended to be holiday cover so more occasional. The dog walking never really took off, I had a few regulars but they only needed me every now and then, and it's quite time consuming, especially if you have muddy dogs to deal with at the end.

Best of all was a smallholding which needed 3 visits a day (it was only half a mile away) which had lots of animals - I had sole care for a week or so each year when the owners went away.

I was not CRB checked (no need to be) and tbh I had no insurance either. Not the wisest, but I never had an issue.

Good luck! It's great to be able to pick and choose what you do, but you won't get rich.
 
Snitch said:
CRB is now DBS, Peaceandquiet1. You can’t DBS yourself, an employer (voluntary or paid) has to do it. Good luck!
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This is true, but once you apply for a DBS for one employer you can then subscribe to the update service, where you have the paperwork that means that any employer can check your record fast and free. It means I can do many jobs such as I am a film extra for different employers, teach privately, work in a school currently, and me paying £14 a year keeps the DBS current and accessible to all who need to see it.

OP, I don't think you need to have one, but I have found that it is an extra comfort to people who may wish to employ you. No one seems to check it, but if it is all set up they feel more confident, and could check you. After all, you are getting access to the property.

For insurance I would look at Julie Andrews horse insurance broker.

I would also say not to under value your service.
 
Red-1 said:
This is true, but once you apply for a DBS for one employer you can then subscribe to the update service, where you have the paperwork that means that any employer can check your record fast and free. It means I can do many jobs such as I am a film extra for different employers, teach privately, work in a school currently, and me paying £14 a year keeps the DBS current and accessible to all who need to see it.

OP, I don't think you need to have one, but I have found that it is an extra comfort to people who may wish to employ you. No one seems to check it, but if it is all set up they feel more confident, and could check you. After all, you are getting access to the property.

For insurance I would look at Julie Andrews horse insurance broker.

I would also say not to under value your service.
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Apologies for muscling in on this thread - I had to have a DBS for a job I did about 4 years ago - can I still subscribe to the update service - and how do I do it? Following this thread as I have been toying with the idea of doing this kind of thing myself for a while.
 
Landcruiser said:
I did this for a couple of years , stopping 3 years ago when we moved. I charged higher first the first hour to cover my travel costs ie £12 first hour, £10 subsequent hours, £6 for a simple visit to feed a cat. (I still do cat feeding for several people at £6 per visit, £10 per visit weekends and bank hols). I also did house cleaning at £15/10.
It was hard work but I built up a regular clientele. I started by leafleting the area I wanted to operate - rural, fairly affluent. I got stuff further afield by word of mouth too.
To be honest, the cleaning was my bread and butter because it was all weekly and regular. The animals tended to be holiday cover so more occasional. The dog walking never really took off, I had a few regulars but they only needed me every now and then, and it's quite time consuming, especially if you have muddy dogs to deal with at the end.

Best of all was a smallholding which needed 3 visits a day (it was only half a mile away) which had lots of animals - I had sole care for a week or so each year when the owners went away.

I was not CRB checked (no need to be) and tbh I had no insurance either. Not the wisest, but I never had an issue.

Good luck! It's great to be able to pick and choose what you do, but you won't get rich.
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Landcruiser how did you sort out payment? I'm assuming when you attended these people's homes they were not there. Do you leave an invoice and get paid into the bank? I just wonder how you keep track of who owes what if you're seeing several people a week?
 
cowgirl16 said:
Apologies for muscling in on this thread - I had to have a DBS for a job I did about 4 years ago - can I still subscribe to the update service - and how do I do it? Following this thread as I have been toying with the idea of doing this kind of thing myself for a while.
Click to expand...

I believe you have to subscribe to DBS update within a short time period after you've made a DBS application. There's more info about it here: https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
 
This is a service I would like to use, but have not done so yet. I can tell you what I am looking for though. I want someone with insurance and all the checks. I need someone who is not phased with one not particularly easy horse. I also would like someone with a 4x4 or who is willing to walk some distance down a muddy track. I would like someone happy to check on a cat at home twice a day and 3 horses who live out. One is on medication and in winter needs rugging. Ideally I would like someone happy to take photos and text them to me to reassure me that everything is ok. I am happy to pay well for this so as someone else has said dont do it for hobby money. I want someone keen to earn and come back again hence why happy to pay.
 
Red-1 said:
This is true, but once you apply for a DBS for one employer you can then subscribe to the update service, where you have the paperwork that means that any employer can check your record fast and free. It means I can do many jobs such as I am a film extra for different employers, teach privately, work in a school currently, and me paying £14 a year keeps the DBS current and accessible to all who need to see it.
Click to expand...

Yes, it was remiss of me not to mention this.
 
Cocorules said:
This is a service I would like to use, but have not done so yet. I can tell you what I am looking for though. I want someone with insurance and all the checks. I need someone who is not phased with one not particularly easy horse. I also would like someone with a 4x4 or who is willing to walk some distance down a muddy track. I would like someone happy to check on a cat at home twice a day and 3 horses who live out. One is on medication and in winter needs rugging. Ideally I would like someone happy to take photos and text them to me to reassure me that everything is ok. I am happy to pay well for this so as someone else has said dont do it for hobby money. I want someone keen to earn and come back again hence why happy to pay.
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Oooh yes, I forgot to add. The girl who does mine texts or emails me each day to confirm the horses are all ok which is always reassuring.
 
I have used a freelance person who lives a couple of miles away for years and years. She keeps quite busy as she does clipping as well and when younger would excercise horses and help with breaking, bu not now.

This is quite an affulent area, so she keeps as busy as she wants to be with looking after horses. She is completely reliable and sensible and I would trust her to act if there was an emergency. I don't think she really charges me enough, but I always leave the feed bagged up so there is no mixing of feeds and I always round up the money to the nearest £5 or £10.00 because I am so grateful to have her.

She always leaves a little note to say "no problems" (touching wood frantically!) The one time she noted that the horse didn't seem too interested in the feed, but that particular horse did that and it was normal, but I am glad that she noticed and wrote it down.

You would need to check how much you can earn and what the National Insurance rate is before you have to pay it and keep a note of all your expenses. You may need to check that your car insurance is OK too and if you got really well established look into personal accident insurance, but maybe not to start with.
 
I like to commucate by text with my freelancers I can check what I asked later if I need to and then both of us know where we are and I can easily change things without disturbing them while they are up to other things .
They will usually text me when they are finished if I am not here .
I ring them daily aiming to do it while they are at the house when I am away from home .
When I am abroad they use the home phone to ring me .
 
cowgirl16 said:
Landcruiser how did you sort out payment? I'm assuming when you attended these people's homes they were not there. Do you leave an invoice and get paid into the bank? I just wonder how you keep track of who owes what if you're seeing several people a week?
Click to expand...

It varied. Often I would work out the charge in advance (still do, with holiday cat care) and the client would leave the cash. My cleaning jobs were the same price weekly, also cash, either left for me or given to me if the client was there. Dog walking - cash left for me. Smallholding - invoiced at the end, once I knew how many hours I had done. You get into a routine - I just used a diary to keep records. Tax wasn't an issue because I was never going to earn enough to pay it anyway! And obviously, no holiday or sick pay to worry about working like this.
 
Landcruiser said:
It varied. Often I would work out the charge in advance (still do, with holiday cat care) and the client would leave the cash. My cleaning jobs were the same price weekly, also cash, either left for me or given to me if the client was there. Dog walking - cash left for me. Smallholding - invoiced at the end, once I knew how many hours I had done. You get into a routine - I just used a diary to keep records. Tax wasn't an issue because I was never going to earn enough to pay it anyway! And obviously, no holiday or sick pay to worry about working like this.
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Thanks for that.
 
A friend of mine supplements her income by helping out a neighbour who runs a daytime dog creche. People drop their dogs off on the way to work and pick them up after work. My friend has the occasional 'overflow' dog or two when the creche is full. I think she gets about £20 a day per dog - she's based in an affluent area of East Sussex.

Not sure if things have changed in recent years with regards to CRB documentation, but when my husband worked on a self employed basis for a London transport consultancy a few years back, he was able to apply for clearance himself using the criminal records bureau in Scotland (can't remember the name of the Scottish CRB equivalent).
 
The key to your success is reliability - once you get a reputation for showing up when you say you will and doing a good job week in and week out you will be turning people away. In our area lots of people start similar businesses but fail because they can't provide consistency and think it's OK to let people down with little or no notice. If you have children you have to have robust contingency arrangements in place; people will not stand to be let down more than once however good the reason.
 
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