If We Can, You Can

Author:

Lisa Scott

Business:

Pet Taxi

Published:

12/11/2008 11:40:00

Two years ago, fed up with earning a minimum wage and with a real passion for animals, I had a unique business idea - a taxi for pets. The idea came to me when a friend of mine lost his dog due to the fact he couldn’t drive to the vets. I gave up my job working with animals at a boarding kennel after five years to start my own "Pet Taxis" business.

My idea is completely different and I have successfully built it up from nothing. My business provides people with a service to transport their pets anywhere they need to go at reasonable price.

A lot of people don't have their own transport or can't get out to take their pets to the vet, or to be groomed, and taxis are often too expensive or won't allow sick pets or large dogs in their taxis

I provide an excellent service and now have many regular customers as well as new customers everyday. I am an animal lover and am very passionate about my work which has no doubt lead to my currently growing successful business.

I now offer a 24 hour service which means I get a lot of calls during the night for emergency trips to the out of hours vet. Some of my customers use the Pet Taxi to get a lift to the beach to walk their dogs.

Recently I've been trained to administer injections which I do regularly for a customer who has a diabetic dog when he goes on holiday as the person that looks after him is unable to do it.

Being on call 24 hours a day is really demanding as I often have to work extremely long hours. However, my love for animals makes it incredibly awarding, and I never say no to a job.

I also collect blood from vets around the North East and transport it to the Pet Blood Bank in Loughborough. The RSPCA now uses Pet Taxis for calls during the day and night to collect animals injured or killed in road traffic accidents.

I also do work for local animal charities such as Pawz 4 Thought and Animal Crackers which usually involves taking pets to the vet or to their new home, but sometimes I will collect stray dogs or cats that have been caught in traps and take them to a kennels.

I think the main mistake that I have made so far is the size of my van. Looking back I should have bought a much bigger van to enable me to take more customers.

If I had to give advice to anyone out there thinking of starting their own business, I would say do your research! It’s so important to really know your topic and to really prove yourself within the community.

I have aspirations to one day expand my business by buying a second van. I cover the entire region so a second van would be a great way of being able to take on more jobs.

I do find aspects of my work challenging. I have never been good at paperwork and the admin side of running my own business. Picking up injured or deceased animals from road traffic accidents can be very emotional too as I love animals. I just had to accept that this was part of the job.

The main success I’ve enjoyed so far is getting the business off to a flying start and making myself really well known and trusted among the animal care sector. Although I have just one Pet Taxi van my business has grown massively from my original idea two years ago.

Support I received has been great. As well as family and friends I gained help from NewView, based in Sunderland, who provided me with a £1,000 grant.