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Dogs are, allegedly, a man's best friend, giving a lifetime of love, affection, friendship and joy – but when their owners are at work, someone needs to look after the pooch.

And that's where dog day care centres come in. These franchises are fast becoming the ultimate way for fast-living, high-spending modern couples and families to be able to own a dog but not worry that it's going to affect their lifestyle.

Instead of staying at home with a dog all day, or leaving it alone to howl the house down, dog day care centres take on the challenge of looking after the animal, meaning they can run around and perform their normal tricks without any worries.

Of course, these specialist centres are not cheap, meaning anyone looking to branch into franchising in the right location could have a ready-made market of high-paying clients available.

But the potential franchisee needs to consider the usual factors when looking to set up a business. As well as location (setting up you franchise in a wealthy area of young professionals is more likely to increase your client base), franchisees need to consider the funding and their own skills before embarking on the challenge.

Ideally, entrepreneurs would be dog lovers – they will be spending a great deal of their day around dogs and will need to have a certain way of controlling them.

But many franchisers will take away the difficulties faced by many small business owners, such as marketing, administration details and training, leaving the franchisee to concentrate on running the centre and looking after the clients.

Dogs can be played with, sleep, be fed and groomed at many centres, meaning a certain amount of equipment, food and staffing levels are needed. However, anyone happy to get stuck in and get their hands dirty will have no problem with the routine.

And, as franchises go, the initial start-up fees are quite small. One centre in the US recommends that franchisees should budget for around $50,000 in order to start a small centre.

But it isn't all fun in the park. As with any franchise, hard work is the key to success, with a high level of new clients and retention key. Anybody looking to run a doggy day care centre needs to bear in mind that dogs need a lot of looking after, and with many centres fit to bursting with the loveable pets, it takes a great deal of energy as well as an entrepreneurial brain to achieve success.

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