Start Making Money by Taking Care of Animals – With This Simple Guide

If you are into pets and love animals as much if not more than you love people, then chances are you will get along with Rover.

Rover is an app and website that connects pet owners and sitters in exchange for money.

This means that if you want to take care of other pets- dogs, cats, or other animals- you can make money doing it!

Before we dive into details on how to start earning money on Rover, let's discuss the differences between a pet sitter and a pet services company. 

What is a Pet Sitter?

A pet sitter is someone who boards your pet while you're away. This could be a 1-time stay or an ongoing arrangement. 

A pet sitter is responsible for pets' day-to-day care while their owner is away. Pet sitters can take care of pets in their own homes or go to people's houses. 

Pet sitters leave food and water bowls out for the pet, ensuring they are comfortable and safe. They also clean up after them when they have gone to the bathroom. 

What is Rover?

Rover is a pet services company that connects pet owners with pet sitters.

Rover allows their pet sitters to offer dog walking, daycare, boarding, drop-in visits, and house sitting.

Pet sitters pick which services they want to provide, which dogs they watch, and what hours they are. 

To set up an account on Rover, you must follow a particular order which includes:

• Setting up your profile
• Choosing which services you want to provide
• Submitting a background check
• Deciding how much you want to charge. 

Setting Up Your Rover Profile

You will be asked to set up your profile when you first create your account. These include:

Rover Service Setup-

Service setup lets you pick what services you would like to do.

You can choose between walking, boarding, daycare, house sitting, and drop-in visits. You can even choose to do all of them.

You will also get to choose how much you charge. This section takes the longest time due to having the most questions to answer about the services you provide.

You will only get to fill out one service before your profile gets approved. So once your profile gets approved, remember to come back here to fill in the other services you provide.

Some questions do not pop up when first filling out your profile- such as “what questions do you like to know about the pets you will be sitting” that you will want to fill out. 

Creating Your Profile:

When creating your profile, you will get to tell pet owners why they should choose you. You can let them know about your experience and why it is amazing!

You will also get to add photos of your pets, house, and anything else that will help you stand out.

The profile creation takes about 20 minutes to complete. Less time if you already know what you want to tell your clients.

Requesting Testimonials

You will be required to have at least one testimonial on your site before you can start pet sitting.

If you do not currently have any, ask a family member or friend if you can watch their pet for a few hours for them in exchange for a review on your website. 

Taking A Safety Quiz

Rover cares about the pet sitters that they hire. That is why they have created a safety quiz that asks questions about what to do in particular situations.

The quiz should take less than 10 minutes to complete.  

Get A Background Check From Rover

Before setting up a profile to take care of someone's pets, you must pass a background check.

You do need to pay for Rover to do this background check.

There are two options a basic background check and an enhanced background check. 

In order to fill out the background check, you will need the following:

• Your full legal name
• Social Security Number
• Two government-issued IDs

After submitting your background check, you will need to wait up to 2 weeks to receive the results. Normally, it takes far less time than that.

There are two different background checks that you can get. Each one will give you a badge on your rover site, letting potential clients know you have been background checked.

Basic Background Check

A basic background check costs about $10 and makes sure that:

• You aren't on a sex offender registry
• You are not on a terrorist watchlist
• You are not in the National Criminal Database

If you apply for a basic background check, you will receive a blue badge with a checkmark on it listed on your account. 

Enhanced Background Check

An enhanced background check costs just over $30 and makes sure:

• You aren't on a sex offender registry
• You are not on a terrorist watchlist
• You are not in the National Criminal Database
• Look through the county records where you have lived based on addresses found in your background report. 

If you apply for the enhanced background check, you will receive a yellow badge that will be listed on your account next to your name. 

Submitting Your Profile

The entire process- from start to finish will take about an hour to complete.

After you have turned in all of your needed information, it will take Rover a little while to get back to you about your profile's approval.

Many times it only takes a few days. However, it has been known to take up to 2 weeks.

After Your Profile Is Approved  

Once approved, clients can find you immediately. 

Rover is slightly different because you cannot see who is looking for services. Instead, those searching will be able to find you and send you a message. 

Once approved, make sure to go back into your profile and answer the rest of the questions there. Many clients want to know who will be watching their pets- so the more information, the better. 

To finish filling out your profile, Rover will not send you messages, so you must remember to do it yourself. 

The Benefits of Rover

Rover has so many benefits to using it as a pet sitter. It is a great way to make money with a low setup cost. Some of the benefits of utilizing Rover are:  

• Easy to use
• Minimal experience is needed.
• Low start-up cost. 
• Mostly Flexible schedules.
• Safe.
• Low competition in many areas
• Payment through direct deposit
• You can be selective about which pets you give service too
• You can get paid by many different people.
• Rover gives its pet owners insurance for the pets in your care.

The Disadvantages of Rover

Rover has many benefits; however, along with the benefits, there are some disadvantages. 

• You will have to wait up to 7 days after you finish caring for a pet to receive your money
• There is no guarantee that anyone will book your services
• Anyone can send you a message 24/7, and Rover likes a quick response given, so this may interrupt important events

Time to Get Started!

If you love pets and caring for them, then Rover can be a great way to make some extra money. Remember to be accurate when listing your pet and ensure your profile is up to date.

Now for the fun part! It is time to set up your own account! If you are not ready yet, but need pet services for yourself you can save $20 off your first time hiring a pet caregiver on Rover!

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