There are many things you need to take into consideration when faced with the decision to open up a business. Is it going to be profitable? Will I be doing something I like? What’s that? Oh, yes! Naturally, the first question that any aspiring entrepreneur needs to ask themselves: what field am I going to be investing in? I’d say that one of the biggest criteria is longevity. Can I see this business be open even years to come? Is the industry that I’ll be working in stable enough to not completely crash and burn? There are incredibly many questions, so you might find yourself a bit confused. Here, let me help with a suggestion: what about pets? It’s almost guaranteed that you can’t go wrong when deciding to opt for a business like this, and to back this claim up, here are 5 Reasons To Open A Business In The Pet Industry.

1. Recession-Proof

One of the biggest concerns of any producer is that annoying supply-demand curve. Combine that with a lot of worrying over the possibility of recession, plans meant to get your business through the worst case scenario, and it’s guaranteed that you’re already thinking about staying up late at night to conceive the best solutions (and popping pills for headaches). However, it’s almost a certainty that you can sleep like an infant if you’re working in the pet industry. Statistics have shown that, as we trespassed the shaky years of the worldwide recession, supply and demand of pet accessories – for example – have been steady. Moreover, think of many of our ancestors before us were pet owners, in times of even bigger need. Ever since we’ve domesticated the first animal, we’ve been keeping a companion at our side, and I don’t think this is going to stop anytime soon.

2. Predictability

I imagine that anyone who has a business that operates seasonally must have a pretty rough time. You need to plan months ahead, stock up based on hypothetical scenarios of demand, and all for just a few weeks per year. The worst thing is that you never know what’s going to be ahead of you, months and weeks from now on. Let’s say you sell accessories and gear for winter sports. What’s going to happen to all of those if there is no snow on a particular year? Yeah, that’s going to definitely be a problem. Sure, the reverse is always possible, too: you might cash in the profit of your life in a matter of weeks, if the conditions are right. But, in the long run, predictability tops the seasonal strategy. Every business has its ups and downs, the seasonal ones peaking during the period of the year they were destined to operate through, but stagnating or gaining no profit whatsoever during the rest. With predictable businesses, you are assured that there will always be a steady level.

3. No Customer Education

In many cases, business owners need to allocate a portion of their resources to educating the customers, too. For instance, take a brokering company or something more common, like banks. When someone crosses the threshold of a brokering company for the first time, they usually do so with merely a vague idea in their head. That’s because the offered services go way beyond the knowledge of an average person, who’s never dealt before with this kind of enterprise. The customer needs to be sat down, and provided with all the information needed to understand what it is that the company does, and only then will decide if it’s something they want to partake in. In the case of the pet industry, you hardly need to worry about that. When someone enters a pet shop, they have a clear goal set in mind and they don’t need further explanations regarding the business’ purpose.

4. The Kinderschema Effect

Konrad Lorenz, a biologist and ethologist, decided to one day try to find out what exactly it is that we consider to be cute, and also explain why we get the instinctive urge to “aww” at it. At the end of the study, he enlisted a series of traits, more commonly known as the Kinderschema. This experiment basically concluded with the fact that there is a certain pattern that we look for, like big eyes and heads larger than the body, and that we can’t help ourselves from finding something cute. Once that pattern is met, we are overwhelmed with the desire to pinch the respective thing’s cheeks. Pets are the biggest examples of Kinderschema, with puppies, kittens and baby animals in general hypnotizing us all with their cuteness. And when we find something adorable, we also grow softer, perhaps even instantly attached to the animal, and therefore more willing to fling some money out of our pockets and take the little fluff ball home with us.

5. Growing Market

Whether you are a retailer or a service business, the advantages of the pet industry are numerous. Since 1994, the number of  pets in the world has tripled, jumping to an overwhelming estimated 312 million. The more pets there are, the more services and various products they will need. Nowadays especially, owners have learned to consider their animals as proper family members and faithful companions, and thus, they will always try to make sure that they are the happiest as it can get. Dog owners are said to spend an average of $1,641 every year on services, like visits to the vet, and products like food, toys, collars and other gadgets or accessories, while cat owners pull out of their pockets approximately $1,125 for the same things.

Working in the pet industry can mean a variety of things: it means being a vet, owning a pet shop, breeding pets to find them homes and the list goes on. The number of adorable puppies, kittens whatnot is growing every day, and they all have needs and owner whims that need to be satisfied. So, if you still have doubts regarding the benefits of this opportunity, read the 5 Reasons To Open A Business In The Pet Industry again and determine if we are wrong.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.