Fetch! Pet Care franchise ownership
Be very cautious before you get engaged with the purchase of a Fetch! Pet Care franchise. They are experiencing a lot of problems due to compliance issues with each individual state labor law. In my experience the current Fetch! franchise owners tend to be extremely responsible, caring and animal-dedicated individuals. It's the corporate office you need to be cautious of.
The sales numbers they "projected" tended to be grossly inflated from the actual numbers of franchise owners we spoke with. Working with pets seems like such a wonderful way to make a living; however, please, help yourself by going through a thorough due diligence process. Learning your state labor laws, the cost of insurance (liability, damage, workers comp., unemployment, etc., etc., etc.) the increasing franchise fees each year you're in business, the difficulty of finding/retaining quality Pet Sitters, the number of fixed monthly expenses, and understanding the massive responsibility/stress of caring for people's homes and dearly beloved pets.
As any small business owner will tell you, all of the "small" monthly expenditures/taxes that you don't always figure, really eat into your margin and make it difficult to be profitable.
If you don't think the economy is having a significant effect on the number of people wanting to pay a premium price for pet care, you're wrong. Not to mention the significantly reduced number of people actually needing pet care because they can afford to go away! Understandably, when people do travel, they are going out of their way to find less expensive alternative arrangements (family, friends or even the dreaded kennel).
Working with animals can be very enjoyable, it's the experience working with this franchise that is so disappointing.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
The 2 previous posts are accurate.
This posting is 100% accurate! All of the Fetch Pet Care franchises in the state of Oregon have closed due to the business model created by scam artist Paul Mann is not legal! It's not legal in his own state of California! Paul Mann is a thief! Numerous franchises have had to deal with being audited by their state, and have found out the business model of using independent contractors as pet sitters isn't legal since their being instructed directly by the local franchise they are in fact misclassified as independent contractors, and are in fact employee's. Their is simply not enough margin in the pet sitting business to pay for employee's. DON'T PURCHASE THIS FRANCHISE SCAM!
Why anyone would buy into a franchise for pet sitting is beyond me. It's a business that is sooooo easy to start on your own, then you can have your own business to run.