I have just enough accounting coursework under my belt to make the numbers come out. I made a list of projected expenses, and ongoing expenses, and the price of gas, and drew a 15 and a 20 mile radius around my house. Then did the same for a more central, desirable location. I come up with some scary numbers.
I'll be burning almost (at least?) 100 dollars of gas a month, just to get back and forth from the area I want to work in. Everything is so spread out here that I could easily spend as much time going from house to house as walking dogs. And while it might be high, I'm assuming $3 in gas per location, just to get there and away.
And don't even get me started on playing with tax numbers. It's scary.
So if I'm going to do dog walking as a business, and feed myself and live inside, and meet all my financial obligations, I need to walk a whole boatload of dogs.
In order to make more money (or walk more dogs), i need to have them closer together. Cutting out travel time is the single biggest savings I can manage. If I go from needing 10 minutes between each of 8 houses, to needing only 5 minutes to get from one to the next, that's one whole extra walk I have time for, every single day.
I'm also running the calorie numbers. There's a lot of energy burned by walking 10 to 20 miles a day. I'm not sure I could actually manage to find and eat that much. the thought of trying makes my stomach hurt. But I'd rather work for myself than for anyone else.
So that's where I am. I know how much I'd have to make to break even (it's one customer for 1/2 hour walks, 5 days a week, all month). I know how far I live from the people I want to get hired by. I know how fast I walk. Now I just need to get the website up, the name registered, and find a couple customers.
Why is the hard part always next? Some days I really wish I was that girl who was willing (and able) to marry some rich guy and get him to pay off everything I owe. Drat my desire to be in charge of my own life.
Drat, I say.
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