How to Set Prices for Dog Daycare -Paws

What I will tell you is that selecting a price to charge at your Dog Daycare goes back to performing solid research and doing your homework. Check the local area, does your proposed location lie in the middle class or the upper class section of your area.? In many cities there may be two competing Dog Daycares that are only 5 miles apart, yet one is in the upper class district and one is in the middle class district. This is a fact that you may easily miss if you do not research your local economy closely, and that could cost you valuable revenue to keep your business afloat in the beginning.

Understand the commuter routes for your local area, and try to position yourself in an area that is along these daily traffic lanes. Do not expect to get the same price in an industrial zone that your competitor is getting on the main highway, even though you may only be geographically minutes apart. People are willing to pay more for convenience, and a better location reflects more positively on the Dog Daycare as a whole.

It would not make sense to build a really upscale, high end facility, around auto-shops and convenience stores. Another thing that you want to consider is that in the beginning you need customers to survive and get off the ground. So if an established Daycare is getting $25.00 a dog per day, set your fee at $15.00 per day to get customers in the door, you can always raise the prices later. Remember that a small part of something is better than a large part of nothing.

Daycare Pricing Formula

Having been born with a very analytical mind, I have always tried to quantify different variables and societal variations using a constant. In so doing I analyzed the pricing of around 250 different Dog Daycare Facilities, through out different regions of the United States to try and find some commonality so I could create a constant to use as a guideline for determining pricing strategies in various areas. What I came up with is the following, a set of generalities that you can use as a guide for pricing your Dog Daycare Services. This will provide you with a good idea of what you can charge for your services in a specific area. This is by no means the absolute best price that you can get, or a definitive solution to setting your prices as prestige and reputation allow you to increase prices more to generate additional revenue.

Take the median income of your area and divide it by 2000 to get a base price.

Population	Price
Between 0-40000 people	Add $0.00
Between 40000-80000 people	Add $1.00
Between 80000-150000 people	Add $2.00
Between 150000-250000 people	Add $3.00
Greater than 250,000 people	Add $4.00

Location	Price
Residential or Rural	Add $0.00
Average location on the outskirts of town	Add $1.00
Inside city limits	Add $2.00
Downtown or on major commuter route	Add $3.00

Remember, if you are just starting out it would be advisable to adjust your prices down by a few percentage points until you gain a loyal client base. Never get overly greedy and overprice your services, a reputation as being overpriced is hard to get rid of once established. Your services must not only be appealing, but they must be affordable as potential clients can always let their dogs stay home for free.

Alright in the following I use the city of Orlando as an example of how the formula works.

Location	Price
Residential or Rural	$20.86
Average location on the outskirts of town	$21.86
Inside city limits	$22.86
Downtown or on major commuter route	$23.86

Adjusted price
A) $20.86 round up $21.00
B) $21.86 round up $22.00
C) $22.86 round up $23.00
D) $23.86 round up $24.00

If you research numerous facilities you will find this formula to be a fairly accurate representation of the prices charged for Daycare in most areas.