- Start Up Cost:
- Franchise Type:
- Sector Type:
- Investment Type:
- Market:
- £7,000+VAT
- Home Based
- Pet Services
- Start-up
- B2C
If you love cats, want a more flexible work-life balance and have dreams of being your own boss, running a profitable and sustainable cat care business as part of a premier and nationally recognised brand, then we have the purr-fect opportunity.
The cat care market is booming and will continue to see unrivalled growth over the next few yea
3.2 million households in the UK have acquired a new pet since the start of the pandemic, and a lot of these pets have been of the feline variety! The Pet Food Manufacturers Association (PFMA) estimates that some 12 million homes across the UK are now ruled by a cat. That’s a massive increase from 7.5 million cats the year before the pandemic!
With the number of pet cats growing at a phenomenal rate, there’s never been a better time to come on board! The massive growth in the UK cat population presents a substantial opportunity to provide quality assured cat sitting services to a broad range of people taking regular breaks and holidays.
Why not escape the rat race and the grind of the 9 – 5 and become your own boss with The Cat Butler? The Cat Butler franchise is flexible. You can run your business from home around lifestyle and family commitments. Our only real requirements are that you love cats and that you’re excited about the idea of running your own cat sitting business.
Who are The Cat Butler?
The Cat Butler® was founded in 2015 by Sandra James. Established to provide a stress-friendly alternative to a cattery, The Cat Butler provides feline customers with consistent, reliable and tailored care in their own homes when their humans are away.
Our clients use our services while they are on holiday, travelling, or away for the day. As well as caring for cats, we also offer a complimentary home care and security service, giving owners’ peace of mind that their home is looked after while they’re away. Today, The Cat Butler cares for thousands of cats, with services delivered by a network of vetted, trained and fully insured professionals.
“A wonderful business idea as it gave us peace of mind regarding the well-being of our cats and home security at the same time. We will definitely be using this service again and recommending it to others.” Client Testimonial from Kristen – Owner of Midnight & Spike
Turn your Passion into Success
Wouldn’t you love to escape the rate race and spend time every day in the company of adorable cats and fellow cat lovers?
Gregory & Romina Deaton from Bromley explain why they chose to buy a Cat Butler franchise:
“We saw it as a simple business model that permits people with little experience running a business to start up and build up a client base quickly. It was particularly advantageous to us in that it was also home/locally based and allows us to work around our family.
and existing work commitments. The marketing and training assistance is also a big draw. It is essentially the complete start-up package for those of us that love and live with our feline friends.”
Paula Steffensen, owner of The Cat Butler Franchise in Dorchester and surrounding areas and her husband Carl, explain what attracted them to The Cat Butler Franchise:
We came across The Cat Butler and loved the idea of somebody coming to look after cats in their own home. It wasn’t just somebody who popped in and put some food out, though – it was a tailored service, delivered by vetted, trained and professional staff. We hadn’t seen anything like it before, and certainly not in the local area.”
“We did some research and spoke at length to Sandra at The Cat Butler. We knew there was a market for these services where we lived, and we were really impressed with what Sandra and her team had built and the reputation the company had in other parts of the UK where it was already serving thousands of cats.”
Demand for our in-home cat care services is at an all-time high right now – and it’s only set to continue given the huge growth in cat-loving households recently. To help us meet this demand and to deliver the very best service to cats everywhere, we are recruiting enthusiastic Cat Butler Franchisees across the country. Could this be you?
Comprehensive Business Support
Six hundred and sixty thousand new companies are registered in the UK every year. That’s equal to 70 new businesses being formed every hour. Britain is a prosperous nation of start-ups, but it’s a less-talked-about fact that 60 per cent of those new businesses will go under within three years, and 20 per cent will close their doors within just 12 months.
Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/24/start-ups-across-uk-going-bust-need-careful-management-economy/
In comparison, the latest Natwest Bank/British Franchise Association survey reported that failure rates for franchises remain very low, with less than 1% per year closing due to commercial failure. Source: 2019 Nat West bank/BFA survey.
A major advantage of opting for the franchise route is that the franchise model gives you a blueprint for success, with proven systems in place. But like any blueprint, it only works if you follow it! No one can guarantee that you will be successful in business, but becoming a franchisee with a well-developed and proven Franchise significantly increases your chances.
The Cat Butler is an accredited member of the British Franchise Association (bfa), and our Franchise has been developed by specialist franchise consultants and solicitors affiliated with the bfa and is in line with the bfa code of ethics for commercial practice.
We only work with cats, and we have a vast amount of knowledge and experience in cat care. We take your love of cats and transform you into a professional cat care expert. Not only that, we help you build a profitable and successful business while you do it! And, if you ever need support, you have access to our central expertise 365 days a year – so somebody is always on hand to help.
Repeat Business and Referrals in the Booming Pet Care Market
The Cat Butler franchise model offers you the opportunity to build a highly successful and profitable business in your area. With low start-up costs, the ability to work from home, and the high potential for repeat business and referrals, we give you everything that you need to grow your business year after year after year.
Our customers love our service, as demonstrated by our hundreds of online 5-star reviews. They use us regularly, and they recommend us to other cat owners. This word of mouth promotion and repeat business means a robust business model for our franchisees.
With immediate access to everything you need to start and run your own successful Cat Butler business, plus ongoing support throughout your business journey, The Cat Butler franchise option offers exceptional value to ambitious individuals.
If you’re a cat lover and dedicated to providing exceptional customer service, then The Cat Butler could be perfect for you. When you join our franchise family, you might be your own boss, but you’ll never be alone – we are always here, ready and willing to help you build a business that we can both be proud of.
We all love cats here at The Cat Butler. If you do too, and you’re looking to build a profitable and sustainable business as part of a premier brand, then The Cat Butler Franchise could be the perfect opportunity for you. We’ve been building our brand since the day the business started and continue to do this as we grow our franchise network and regional and national presence.
Our Franchise provides cat-loving professionals with an opportunity to take a slice of the growing cat care market in their local area, with support and guidance from an established, premier brand. The Cat Butler is recognised, trusted and, along with the UK pet industry, continues to grow each year.
Established in 2015, we have grown because of the excellent reputation in the areas we serve and the powerful Cat Butler brand and high online visibility (over 150 000 followers on social media).
If you love cats as much as we do, then you’ve certainly ticked that first and most important box. The Cat Butler isn’t just a business for us – it’s part of our lifestyle, and that’s what we want for all of our franchisees.
Franchise support
Whatever you need, and whenever you need it, we are here to support you. Got a question? Give us a call. Not sure how to respond to a request from a customer? Drop us an email anytime? Need some extra help with something? Let us know, and we can arrange an online or a face-to-face brainstorming session. We’ve learned a lot since we launched The Cat Butler. As a franchise, you can tap into those years of experience, knowledge, and general know-how. There aren’t many challenges that we haven’t overcome ourselves; if you do find one, though, we will tackle it together!
Passionate about cats and excited about providing excellent customer service? If you think you’d like to join The Cat Butler team, we look forward to hearing from you!
* The investment to become a cat Butler franchisee is just £7,000, and this covers the initial package of services and start-up support that we provide to every franchisee. Using our marketing systems, we expect that your bookings will start within the first few weeks. You may be able to obtain finance for your Cat Butler franchise business via the franchise units at major clearing banks. Typically, banks are willing to lend up to 70% of the total capital required for a franchise business. As part of our franchisee recruitment process, we will provide you with support to create a business plan, and this can be shared with the bank to raise funding if required.
When you join The Cat Butler team, we take you through our comprehensive onboarding programme, where we cover all the things you need to know to run a successful cat sitting business. We help to market your business and educate you on how to manage your services and your finances.
Everything that we do in the business on a day-to-day basis is detailed in our comprehensive operations manual. We also cover the key topics during your induction programme, and the manual is provided for you to refer back to you as and when you need it. And, if you’re ever unsure about anything, we are just a phone call or an email away!
We provide comprehensive in house training, including:
No two days are the same for The Cat Butler team – and that’s exactly how we like it! Each cat we look after is different and comes with its own quirks and needs. Then, of course, there are the unexpected challenges – from felines who like to hide when it’s time to take their medicine to kittens that manage to scale up the curtains and can’t get back down! We love what we do, though, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
The Cat Butler model is flexible, and our franchise opportunity enables you to build a successful business around your passion for cats, as well as your family and your lifestyle. You need to be prepared to work hard, especially in the early days, but the rewards are more than worth it! And, with help and support on hand whenever you need it, we take away many of those challenges associated with starting and growing a new business.
When you join The Cat Butler team, you become an important extension of our brand. We want you to succeed and work with you to ensure that your business is both profitable and enjoyable to run. Of course, we can’t do all the work for you, but we do make it as easy as possible!
You will be responsible for growing your presence in your territory and positioning your franchise business as the cat sitting service of choice. You’ll also spend time responding to new customer queries, meeting families, scheduling visits, and dealing with requests from clients and – as you grow – team members. Then, of course, there’s the invoicing – that’s pretty important! – the administrative duties, bookkeeping, and accounting. It might sound like a lot, but with the training and systems that we provide, it really can be very straightforward. As your business grows, you will recruit cat carers and staff to assist with operational and administrative tasks.
Gregory Deaton is the owner of The Cat Butler Bromley. He lives with his wife, Romina and son, William, in Bromley, Greater London. Before buying his Cat Butler Franchise, Gregory had spent the last 30 years selling high-end coffee machines to businesses across the UK. As the country was plunged into lockdown, Gregory soon found himself in a situation where demand for these machines dried up.
He commented: "With offices closing and more people working from home - even now - the demand for these coffee machines plummeted. The pandemic really knocked the stuffing out of the industry, and it just became untenable."
Gregory spent the following months at home, homeschooling his son William, 7.
"It came with its challenges, for sure, but having that extra time at home made me re-evaluate my priorities," explained Gregory. "As the restrictions eased, I knew that I wanted to do something different - something that would enable me to be around for the school drop-offs and pick-ups and give me the flexibility to do those things that I'd previously missed due to work commitments."
"After spending 30 years in the business-to-business sales world, it was quite daunting to be starting something new - and I wasn't sure what to do next. I looked at all sorts of options, including HGV driving opportunities - ultimately, though, I knew this would take me away from my family for large stretches of time, so it wasn't right for me."
"I wanted to do something for my family and for me. I'd long dreamt of working for myself, but the timing had never been right. Now, though, the stars were aligned."
"I spent a bit of time looking at franchise opportunities. There were loads out there, but none felt right for me," he added. "Then, though, I came across The Cat Butler."
"I've always had cats, sometimes up to seven at a time - all with their little peculiarities!" Gregory laughed.
"With the huge growth in the number of pet cats in the local area, The Cat Butler opportunity really appealed to me."
"I've come across various cat sitting outfits in my time as a pet owner. One thing that never really felt right for me was this perception that it's enough just to pop in, leave some food and go. Cats need so much more than this - they need chin rubs, affection, and somebody to wait on them, hand and foot. They need somebody who has real empathy and knowledge of how to care for them."
"With my cat owner hat on, I knew how much I would value the premium services that The Cat Butler were offering, and I could see there is a huge demand for them in my local area. There isn't anybody else around here providing the same level of service. On a more personal level, it also allows me to enjoy a more flexible work-life balance and spend more time at home with my family. All, of course, while interacting with cats - which I just love!"
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