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Do You Need Staff For Your Cattery?

By: June Crowe - Updated: 13 May 2015 | comments*Discuss
 
Do You Need Staff For Your Cattery?

Employing staff for your cattery will depend on many factors. have you commitments that will take you away from the business premises during the cattery opening hours? If you have other commitments in your life you may need to employ staff.

Could a Cattery Run Without Staff?

Running a cattery without staff will depend on you personally and what size your cattery is. It could also depend on your opening hours. The last thing you want is to be by yourself in the middle of feeding the cats, and cleaning the cattery, then have clients turning up to drop off or collect their animals.

Ideally all the feeding and cleaning should be finished before you open. If you are an early bird and can get up and out into work mode early enough, you could have all the work done before you open the gates.

Most catteries open around 9am. That doesn't mean that you have to open at this time, you could open later if it suited you. On average a cattery of say twenty to thirty pens is quite easily looked after by one person. Any larger than this and certainly at some time of year you could need one or more employees.

Would Staff Be Needed all Year?

If you are fortunate to have a cattery that is busy all year, hiring staff would help you to have some time to yourself. A good reliable employee will give you peace of mind on the occasions that you need time off. You will probably want a holiday at some stage, and if you are working alone this would mean shutting the cattery and losing clients and income.

Many boarding catteries have quiet periods. The real rush is during school holidays and any bank holiday. Although you may have some clients who go away in the winter, unless you are very fortunate you will have quiet spells. During your quiet months will you want to keep paying wages to an employee? If you are lucky enough to have help from someone who doesn't mind working seasonally you will not have a problem.

Because of the very nature of the work you need to feel very happy and confident in the ability of your workers to look after the cats and deal with the clients. You will need to assess the need for year round staff once you know the pattern your business is taking.

Time Off With No Staff

If you have nobody to take over for you it can be very difficult to take time off. The problems arise when you have an urgent appointments, unless you have staff you can rely on, it would be almost impossible to get away. Most catteries have specified opening times and you have to arrange your life around those times. Naturally if you have reliable staff you will have the freedom to come and go.

The lack of time off could be your deciding factor as to whether or not you have any employees. If you have children it is imperative that you have time to do the school run and all the other things that children need you for. If you have no dependants it would be far easier for you to manage the cattery work yourself, with maybe just the occasional help from friends or family.

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I'm trying to get an idea how many customers you need to run a successful and profitable Cattery. We are looking to be licensed for 50 cats.
Mike - 13-May-15 @ 7:40 AM
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