Going by the statistics available, America has a larger number of pets right now than it has ever had at any particular point in its existence. As a matter of fact, the American Pet Products Association (APPA) in one of its survey has confirmed that over 68% of US households own a pet. Now, this was a data released in 2016. Recently, more findings have been conducted, and one of such new findings is from Statista. According to a conducted 2019/2020 pet survey reported on the Statista, over 63 million households in the US owns at least one dog.

Presently, there are over ninety (90) million dogs in the United States according to American Pet Products Association and Statista. What makes this data more interesting is the fact that most of these dogs are owned by millennial. Also, the projections are showing that there would be a significant increase in the number of pets, especially dogs in the next few years. Now, what these statistics means is that there are a lot of dogs in the US, which means there would be a high demand for dog treats now, and in the nearest future. The increased demands for dog treats means more opportunities for entrepreneurs to provide the dog treats that pet owners need to nourish and sustain their pets.

Although, there are a lot of dog treat business in America presently, but the increasing demands for more dog treats that has been created by the rising number of dogs and the potential increase which is expected in the nearest future means that there is the need for more dog treat businesses to be opened. If you are an entrepreneur with an interest in creating a dog treats business, but you haven’t had it all figured out, you are reading a timely article. This article would provide you with a guide that should help you in creating the necessary platform to start your dog treat business while also supplying you with all the needed steps you need to take in order to grow the business into a stable and profitable venture within a reasonable period of time. If you are serious about turning that your nascent idea on dog treats business into something big and profitable in the nearest future, the steps below should come very useful for you.

 

• Make a Dog Treat Business Plan

 

The first step in making every business works is to create a compelling and feasible business plan. The business plan always serves as the guide to your Dog treat business, maybe a blueprint, and this is what you would have to go back to every time there is any doubt about the direction at which you are heading in the execution phase. A business plan could make or mar your business, as it is the foundation, and this is why you must put in a lot of efforts to develop a very good business plan for your dog treats business before any other thing. Once you have this in place, you are a step away from starting a profitable business. We would advise that you get a very good business and financial analyst in place to help you with your business plan writing in case you can’t come up with one yourself. This is because, it is the first and probably most important step to making your dog treats business work, and you should avoid anything that could ruin things from the start.

 

• Get a Business License

 

Before anyone can run a business in the United States, there are some statutory steps that must be taken in order to fulfill the stipulations of the law. One of the most important things you would need to get your dog treats business started is a business license. As a matter of fact, not having a business license means you do not own a business that is recognized by the law, and you know what that means. Once you are successful in completing your business plan, and it is acceptable, what you should do next is to apply for a business license in your state (i.e. where the business is to be situated). Every state has different laws, so, what works in Florida might not work in Illinois, and this is why you must get the operating license of the state where your business would be located. You should know getting this license may take some days, maybe weeks in some cases, and this is why you need to be proactive about it.

 

• Develop Recipes

 

The success of your dog treats business would depend on the recipes you have developed. Don’t forget that there are thousands of other firms who are already in the business, and a lot more are joining at about the same time you are starting your own firm. What this means is that, what you have on offer (recipes) would be the difference between your success or failure. Your recipes are directly proportional to your end product, and your end product is what your firm would be known for. This is why you need to pay a lot of attention towards developing your recipes. Make a lot of research and identify the kind of treats dog owners want for their pets and develop your strategies towards those directions. With this approach, you would likely break into the market and become successful within a short period of time.

 

• Secure a Business Location

 

Every branding and business expert understands the importance of securing a good location for your business. This is a major part of the setting up process you can’t afford to miss as it has a huge impact on how your business turns out to be in the end. How many times have we heard the story of businesses with great products that couldn’t make enough sales because they are located in the wrong part of town? This is a mistake you don’t want to make if you are serious about running a successful dog treats business. In choosing locations, you have to consider accessibility to your target market. You should ask yourself; how many pet owners are around this particular location? You should also consider how easy it would be for prospective customers to get to your business location. Are the roads accessible? Is it too far away from the pet community? Aside from this, you should also avoid setting up in a locality where there are a lot of established dog treats businesses already as it definitely would affect the volume of sales you can make.

 

• Purchase Raw Materials and Equipment

 

Before you start producing your own dog treats, you would need a number of tools and raw materials to do so. After writing your business plan, getting your license, and developing your recipes, you can start investing into the tools you would need to make your dog treats. Aside from the tools, it is also important to purchase the raw materials (especially no perishables) you would need to make your final products. In buying your equipment and tools, make sure you are investing in the right options that would help you get the job done without any fuss. The worst mistake you can make as a starter is to invest in defective tools and equipments. Don’t forget you are facing a lot of battles from various fronts already, and it would be sad to create another internal battle for yourself by investing in defective tools that would hinder your own productivity. 

 

• Launch Your Business

 

Once you have succeeded in putting the first five steps in place, the next thing to do would be to launch your business. What we mean by launching your business here is to get your business running. You have spent years, maybe months to plan the business, and you have gotten here, now is the time to get going. Open your business location, hire employees (if you would need them), get your paper works in place, set up your business accounts and put every single thing you need to get going in place. You have put everything in place, now is the time for action and implementation of the vision you have dreamt.

 

• Start Producing Your Dog Treats

 

Once you have launched your business, it means the time have come for you to start producing your dog treats. Congratulations, since you have all the tools, raw materials and the recipes in place. Now is the time to use the tools, and the raw materials to create the amazing recipes you have created in the past. In this phase, what works for one entrepreneur might not work for another since their business goal and size may be different. For some entrepreneurs, they are running the business themselves, and it means they would have to do all the productions by themselves, while others are operating on a bigger scale and would need more hands to create their dog treats. If you are in the second category, apart from producing, you would have to do a lot more like supervising, motivating and putting your workforce in line, so that everyone would be working towards fulfilling the goals and objectives of the organization.

 

• Seek Out Customers

 

After producing your first batches of dog treats, the goal would be to sell them right? Yes, it is always the goal with every new business owner, and this is where you may witness the first major challenge as a dog treats business owner. After all, of what use are your dog treats if you won’t be able to sell them? No matter how great they are, the goal is to sell them, and this is why you need to seek out customers in order to sell your products. Luckily, you would have done the research and found out that there are a lot of dog owners in your business location. Now is the time to seek them out. Forget the awareness you have done before, this is the time for more awareness. The products are ready and they need to be sold. How do you do this? Visit dog owners, send them mails, take your products to them, offer discounts and trials sometimes. This will most definitely bring in a number of customers, and once you have a good product, they won’t be leaving anytime soon.

 

• Grow Your Business

 

After the initial success of your dog treats business, it would be foolhardy to make the mistakes that a lot of business owners have made in the past, which ended up killing off their businesses. While it is cheering news that you have been able to move past the start up stage and keep your business running for a few years, it is also important to know that is not the end, especially if you are serious about longevity and growth in business. The period when you managed to break-even and start making some profit is not the period for you to rest. Rather, it is a period that calls for more hard-work and the formulation and development of strategies that can take your business higher. This is the time to invest in more advertisement, invest in more workforces, produce more products, and develop strategies that can lead to further growth. Further growth means more stability, profit and more market dominance, and these are what will make your business a big brand to be reckoned with in the long run.

 

• Leverage on Your Growth

 

In business, it never ends, especially if you are a very ambitious business owner. In spite of what level of growth you may have attained with your dog treats business, you should do things that could help you to improve your standings and attain a new milestone. Once you begin to grow, the next challenge is to leverage on the growth of your business. It is cheering news that you are now the market leader, but you must ask yourself what you can do in order to continue to be the market leader. Don’t forget there are a lot of firms around you who would want your positions, and you can’t afford to let them have it. so, what do you do? You do things that would extend the gap between you and the competitors. Invest in more human capacity, develop better recipes, organize local fairs for dog owners and invite them for free, meet new entrants into the industry, acquire promising businesses in your industry and add them to your business. The list goes on and on. The bottom line is to leverage on your existing advantages and use it to stay ahead of the pack.

Becoming a successful Dog treat business owner would require a lot of dedication, passion, perseverance, and thorough planning, and this is the same reality with setting up a dog treats business. There are no shortcuts to success, and you must be ready to pay due diligence and pay attention to every business guidelines in other to be successful. Most importantly, you must have a good product, because, more often than not, a good product sells itself.