How Hounds Town’s Cheaper Franchise Costs Are a Step Above the Competition
Business ownership is a common dream that many people go their entire life considering – but never acting on. While the costs associated with becoming an entrepreneur regularly scare off those less serious about this career move, the more interested parties that stick around can quickly find themselves comparing vastly different financial investment levels, especially in the franchise industry. However, what is the difference between these financial figures, and do you actually get more bang for your buck with the more expensive franchise brands?
At Hounds Town USA, we’ve realized that’s not always the case, especially in the pet care industry. While our business model allows us to offer an investment level that still provides the same superior corporate and marketing support, our competitors do things a little differently. Today, we’ll compare our investment and financials to our biggest competitors so you can see how the Hounds Town way of life – and business – compares and excels in the doggy daycare world.
How Our Investment Stacks Up Against the Competition
While Hounds Town is not the only doggy daycare franchise on the market, we are the only one focusing solely on what dogs need to be happy and have fun – without all the unnecessary bells and whistles dogs never notice. This no-frills approach allows us to create an affordable entry point for our dog-loving Pet Franchise Owners and helps them see a quicker break-even time than our competitors. With this, Franchise Owners can also choose to either become an Owner-Operator or a Semi-Absentee Owner while still maintaining large profit margins and a quicker break-even time.
When we take a look at the upfront financial investment necessary to get started, our franchise fees are consistently 40% less than the competition, which can range anywhere from $750,000 to almost $2 million dollars. Our $457,200 starting investment – which includes the $49,000 franchise fee – is the significantly more approachable amount that has allowed Franchise Owners across the country to cash in on the pet care industry in their market and become the financially free business owners they’d dreamt of becoming.
The Revenue Potential
While Hounds Town dog daycare began franchising in 2015, it was our ability to survive 2020 and thrive in the following years with fast growth that shows the successful model behind our business. Today, we have almost 100 franchisee partners opening Hounds Town locations across the country and more territories being awarded all the time.
In 2022 alone, our Average Gross Profit for our locations open for five or more years was $905,531* with an Average Net Operating Income of $438,133*, with our highest-performing Franchise Owner bringing in a $207,711.19 net profit!* Considering our financial investment ranges between $457,200 to $771,900, Hounds Town makes starting your own doggy daycare business feasible and maintaining a profitable business even more doable than the competition.
Why Hounds Town is the Smart Option
Today, Hounds Town USA continues to see significant year-over-year growth thanks to a few key aspects of our dog daycare business that make our model so successful and profitable. From our no-frills approach to our facilities to our streamlined approach to dog care, our doggy daycare beats out all others in terms of value for our Pet Franchise Owners. When stacked against our competitors in the market, we consistently offer exceptional guidance, marketing support, and an agile business model that has our Franchise Owners – and their customers! – raving about us.
Founded by an Expert in Dog Care
Hounds Town was founded in 2001 by former NYPD K-9 Unit Handler and Commanding Officer of the Nassau County Police Department, Mike Gould. Since moving from law enforcement to the dog franchise, Mike has taken his canine psychology-backed approach to offer an affordable and refreshingly straightforward approach to dog daycare services. Our simple business model is based on the transparent, honest strategy he built that provides our Franchise Owners with impressive returns while allowing them to spread joy and work in the rewarding industry that is pet care.
Our No-Frills Build-Out Approach
Since Hounds Town is a destination business for our pet Franchise Owners, we thrive in commercial and industrial areas, allowing us to lean on non-retail real estate to help keep rent costs low and operating costs minimal. With our Founder’s knowledge and decades of experience, we’ve created a build-out that’s simple and inexpensive – allowing us to keep our initial costs significantly lower than the competition.
Rather than creating spaces in our doggy daycare that don’t necessarily benefit the dogs, we prioritize a streamlined layout that offers dogs the experience they deserve while keeping operations easy for staff. With the supportive members of our corporate staff available to Franchise Owners, we can also adapt our layout to fit spaces of almost any square footage, depending on what the real estate market has to offer.
Built From the Dogs’ Eye Point-of-View
Thanks in part to our Founder’s extensive experience in canine psychology, each location is built around how dogs interact with their environment. This covers the aesthetics of each Hounds Town dog daycare, as well as how we simulate natural packs during the day. This provides the structure necessary for every dog’s physical and psychological health and is what leads to the “Hounds Town Hangover” each pup and their owner looks forward to with each stay.
Since everything is designed with a dog’s perspective in mind, there’s no unnecessary expenses just to appease the human eye; dog handlers may be the vehicle that brings pets to us, but dogs are the true customers at Hounds Town. Our doggy daycare facilities are based on the needs of dogs, so we only spend the money when it actually enriches their experience. With that being said, our town-themed daycare centers still provide a fun experience for dogs and humans alike, ensuring our locations feel like a welcoming hub in the community instead of a cold, unwelcoming kennel.
Simple Operations
At Hounds Town doggy daycare, not only is our build-out simple, but the everyday work of running the business is as well! We do this by focusing on a business model with consistently low overhead expenses and minimal staffing requirements, even as you scale your business into multiple locations. With our expertise and canine psychology-backed model, our Franchise Owners can comfortably run their doggy daycare locations with a 15:1 dog-to-human ratio. Additionally, since all Hounds Town locations are closed to the public from 12:00pm to 2:00pm each day, there is no need to schedule additional staff to handle customer service tasks – only dogs get attention during that time!
Because of our business model’s simplicity and the minimal requirements for daily operations, many of our Franchise Owners choose to operate as Semi-Absentee from Day One!
Multiple Services for Multiple Revenue Streams
Doggy daycare is an excellent service to offer, but there are so many more needs dog parents have that brick-and-mortar pet service providers can meet. At Hounds Town, we understand the unique position of our business model, so we empower our pet Franchise Owners to expand their revenue generation by diversifying their pet service offerings. These often include:
- Doggy Daycare
- Overnight Boarding
- Grooming Treatments
- & Other, Miscellaneous Services!
By providing multiple types of pet services and different tiers of those services to the community, you can establish your Hounds Town location as the go-to place for dog parents to lean on for pet care. We like to complement this by allowing our Franchise Owners to also have the option to add pet taxi services, veterinary care, cat care, expanded retail, educational classes, and mobile grooming to their location, ensuring each Owner is satisfied with the revenue they are earning.
Fairly Priced Services
From the beginning, Hounds Town has prioritized competitive pricing with our pet services. This includes our practice of not upcharging for special treatments or requests, unlike some of the big national chains on the market. We know that many of our dog daycare Franchise Owners get into the pet industry because they genuinely care about the pets in their community, so we made sure our business model doesn’t take advantage of customers’ emotions and love for their pets.
As a Hounds Town Franchisee, you’ll never be expected to charge extra for providing additional care. Whether that’s administering medications, offering personalized attention for a special needs dog, or giving treats, our pet services will always be fairly priced so Franchise Owners are left feeling good about the work they do. This is one of the many reasons why our customers highly recommend us in the territories our dog daycare Franchise Owners have been most successful.
Are you ready to take the next step and open a Hounds Town doggy daycare franchise in your market? Our simple and honest business model, with our exceptional economic returns and low financial investment, make Hounds Town one of the best pet franchises on the market today. If you think you’ve got what it takes to join our pack and the fulfilling world of pet care, see if you qualify to get started today.
*Refer to 2023 Franchise Disclosure Document-Item 19 Table 5c