 Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Start It Up. Today's video is about one of the fastest growing segments in the pet industry which is a dog boarding business. A dog daycare or also known as dog boarding is a service which allows owners to drop their dogs off in the care of professionals for a limited period of time by paying a fee. In the boarding facility, dogs are fed, walked and cared for by the staff who make sure that the dogs remain healthy and happy. Some dog boarding facilities also offer additional services such as pet daycare meant for those owners who need care for their pets while they are at work or otherwise engaged. You can also set up a salon or swimming pool to attract more customers who are looking for recreational activities for their pets. To begin with, you will need 3,200 square feet land as the dog needs area to play around and run as for location. We suggest that you locate your boarding in near vicinity of residential area which have maximum households with pets. It would be better to lease a land which at least has a small office space constructed on it as constructing everything from the scratch can cost your bomb. Once the area is finalized, next step is to set up and furnish the boarding. You will need to construct at least 6 to 7 rooms or iron cages and furnish them with bed, food bowl, fan or even an AC or a cooler if you live in a city like Delhi. After rooms, it is important that you set up a play area for dogs with toys, slides and maybe even a swimming pool. If you wish to offer grooming services as well, you can either take up a franchisee of a popular dog salon brand or you can set up your own salon. The advantage of taking up a franchisee of an established brand is that you can get customers smoothly without having to market separately. Now let's look at the investments involved in setting up a dog boarding business. A dog boarding requires one time heavy investment on setting up the facility. Furnishing and additional construction in the facility will cost Rs 4.5 to 5 lakh. Setting up the play area will cost around Rs 20 to Rs 25,000. Add another Rs 60 to Rs 70,000 on utility deposits, building the website, permits and other miscellaneous costs. As for operational costs, rent of a 3,000 square feet land will be upwards of Rs 1 lakh per month. Electricity and water bill can amount to about Rs 20,000 per month and grossly for dogs food will be Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 per month. Next, major chunk of your operating costs will be on staffing which will be around Rs 70,000 on two assistants and two more people who will handle the office work. Of course, if you handle the office work yourself, you can save on this cost to a great extent. Also, you may not require more than one assistant in the beginning till the time you start getting 5 to 6 dogs for daily keeping. Next cost will be on marketing which will be around 12 to 15,000 per month. Your source of revenue will mainly be the fees charged to dog owners. This fees will further vary depending on the type of services offered, type of room and the age of the dog. Charge for overnight stay for a basic non-AC room ranges from Rs 600 to 700. This includes food and boarding. For a room with cooler in the same category, you can charge around Rs 800 whereas a similar AC room can fetch you up to Rs 1,000. If you provide pool services, you can add Rs 200 to Rs 250 to the room charge. Similarly, for a puppy or an older dog who need exclusive attention, you can charge up to Rs 200 extra. That's about overnight boarding charges. As for daycare, fees will be lower at Rs 400 to Rs 500 for 10 hours. Again, depending on the age, size and temperament of the dog, you can charge higher than the regular fees. To give you an idea about your earning, if you get 100 overnight boarding bookings and 50 to 60 daycare bookings, you can book a profit of 20 to 25% from the total revenue. A word of caution here, it can take you 8 to 10 months to build a sizable customer base. So that's about dog boarding business. Hope you liked the idea and for more such ideas, log on to www.entrepreneur.com. Also, if you want to boost your existing business, look up www.entrepreneurplus.in. Like the video, then don't forget to like, comment, share and subscribe to EntrepreneurIndia. Hit the bell icon to get notified for more such videos.