My first day as an official dog walker!

Today, I sat on the train from Bishopton to Paisley and watched the trees fly by on my final day as an unemployed man.

I'd been a full-time carer until late last year, and after that came to an end, I found myself out of work. For the last 3 months, I've been trying to get signed off by the job centre so I could start my own dog walking business. The problem was, nobody could agree on what I was supposed to do first. HMRC told me to sign off and then register my business. The job centre told me to register my business first and then sign off.

But today, I finally got it sorted. An hour of paperwork later, I sat back on the train and watched the same scenery go by—but now I'm newly self-employed, and my whole world has changed.

Being my own boss and owning my very own business feels empowering, but there's a major problem: I have no dogs to walk, no transport, no money coming in, and no money to invest. Not to mention the three other established dog walking businesses already in my area! I need to let people know that Bishopton Dog Walking Services exists...

So far, I've built a website (I bought my website back in March) and printed leaflets I plan to post through every home in Bishopton.

Let's see what happens.

Edit: This is where it all began. If you're thinking of becoming a dog walker, I've written a guide : How to Be a Dog Walker.