A business plan for a boarding kennel, daycare or cattery doesn't need to be long. It needs to answer three questions honestly: how many animals can you look after, how full will you be across the year, and what does it cost to run? Lenders and landlords will read the rest, but those three numbers decide whether the business works. This template takes you through each section, with prompts for what to write.
Copy the headings into a document and fill them in. Where a section doesn't apply, keep the heading and write one line saying why.
1. Summary
Write this last, in half a page. What the business is, where it is, who it's for, how much money you need and what for, and the year-one revenue and profit you expect.
2. The business
- Business name, legal structure and owners
- Services: boarding, home boarding, daycare, cattery, grooming, training, walking
- Capacity for each: number of runs, pens, daycare places or home boarding places
- Opening hours and days, including bank holidays
- What makes you different from other local businesses
3. The market
- Your area: where clients will come from, and how far people travel to a kennel or daycare
- Competitors: every licensed business within that area, with their services, prices, star ratings and reviews
- Gaps: services nobody offers well, full-up periods when competitors turn people away, poor reviews you can do better than
- Who your clients are: working owners needing daycare, families going on holiday, owners of nervous dogs, cat owners
4. Premises, licensing and planning
This section is where many plans fall down, so be specific.
- The premises: owned, leased or your own home, with size and layout
- Planning: whether you need permission, and the status of any application
- Licence: which licence you need, your council, the fee and the conditions that set your capacity. Our licensing guide and licence cost guide cover these.
- Works needed to meet the licence: unit sizes, barriers, fencing, heating, detectors, drainage
- For home boarding: permission from your mortgage lender or landlord, and how your home meets the home boarding conditions
5. Operations and staffing
- The daily routine: opening, feeding, exercise, cleaning, arrivals and departures, overnight checks. Our daily operations playbook can help.
- Staff numbers at quiet, normal and peak times, worked out from the licence ratios (in England, at least 1 to 25 for kennels and catteries, 1 to 10 for daycare and home boarding)
- Who covers sickness, holidays and the overnight check
- Qualifications and training
- Policies: vaccinations, cancellations and deposits, which dogs you'll accept, emergencies
- Systems: booking, payments, records and reminders
6. Pricing
- Standard nightly or daily rates for each service
- Peak rates and the dates they apply
- Discounts for second dogs, long stays or packages
- Extras: baths, extra walks, medication, late collection
- How your prices compare with the competitors in section 3, and why
Our guides to setting boarding rates and daycare pricing models go into the detail.
7. Marketing
- Google Business Profile, website and online booking
- Reviews: how you'll ask for them after every stay
- Local partners: vets, groomers, trainers, walkers, pet shops
- Opening offers or trial days
- How you'll fill quiet months
8. Financial plan
Build revenue from capacity and occupancy, month by month, because boarding is seasonal. A simple version for boarding:
| Formula | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs or places | From your licence and premises | 12 |
| Nights in the month | Calendar | 31 |
| Expected occupancy | Your estimate for that month | 45% |
| Dog-nights | Runs × nights × occupancy | 167 |
| Average price per night | After discounts | £34 |
| Boarding revenue | Dog-nights × price | £5,678 |
Example figures are for illustration only: 12 × 31 × 45% = 167 dog-nights, × £34 = £5,678. Use a different occupancy for each month, lower in winter and higher in school holidays.
For daycare, replace runs and occupancy with average dogs per day and opening days. For a cattery, use pens. Then list your costs for each month:
- Wages and employer costs, from your staffing plan
- Rent or mortgage, business rates and utilities
- Insurance
- Licence fee, spread across its length
- Food, bedding, cleaning and veterinary supplies
- Software, card processing, website and marketing
- Repairs, accountancy and loan repayments
Take costs from revenue for each month to get profit, and add a running total so you can see your cash position in the quiet months. Our article on whether dog boarding is profitable explains why occupancy matters more than price.
9. Start-up costs and funding
- Building work, kennels or pens, fencing and drainage
- Equipment: beds, bowls, cleaning kit, washing machine, first aid
- Licence application, planning fees and legal costs
- Deposits on the premises
- Opening marketing
- Working capital: enough to cover running costs until bookings build up
- Where the money comes from: savings, loan, investor or grant
10. Risks
List what could go wrong and what you'd do: a disease outbreak, a dog injured or lost, a key member of staff leaving, a poor first inspection rating, a neighbour complaint, a slow first winter, a new competitor. Lenders like to see that you've thought about it.
11. Milestones
Dates for planning, the licence application, building work, the inspection, opening, first full month and break-even. Keep them realistic: licence decisions in England can take up to 10 weeks after you apply.
Variations by business type
- Home boarding: sections 4 and 5 are about your house and your time, not premises and staff. Capacity is the maximum on your licence.
- Doggy daycare: build revenue on dogs per day and packages, and plan staff carefully because the ratio is one to ten. See how to start a doggy daycare.
- Cattery: pen sizes in the licence drive build costs, so get quotes early. See the cattery licence requirements.
Putting the plan into practice
Once you open, the plan is only useful if you compare it with what actually happens. KennelBooker's revenue and occupancy reports show performance by service, peak pricing applies to the right dates automatically, deposits are taken at booking, and the records your licence requires are kept as part of taking bookings. Plans start at $49.99 a month, every service is included, and there's a 14-day trial with no card needed.
Frequently asked questions
What should a dog boarding business plan include?
A summary, a description of the business and services, your market and competitors, premises and licensing, operations and staffing, pricing, marketing, a financial plan built on realistic occupancy, start-up costs, risks and your milestones.
Is there a free dog daycare business plan template?
Yes: the sections in this article work for daycare as well as boarding. For daycare, build the revenue model on average dogs per day rather than occupancy per night, and plan staff from the licence ratio of one person to ten dogs.
How do I write a kennel business plan?
Start with the numbers that limit you: how many runs or places your licence and premises allow, and how full you can realistically be across the year. Build revenue from those, then add costs, then write the rest of the plan to explain how you'll get there.
Do I need a business plan to start a dog boarding business?
If you're borrowing money, taking on a lease or bringing in a partner, yes. Even if you're not, writing one forces you to check the licence, planning, pricing and occupancy before you spend anything.