Most dog schools base their price on the competitor next door. The result is an industry in which many work below their value and only notice at the end of the year. This page shows how to calculate from your target income to a robust hourly price.
Work backwards, from your target to the price. Anything else leads to numbers that feel good but don't hold up.
What do you want to earn before tax? Add health insurance, pension provision and a reserve for lost income. That's the amount your business has to generate before any costs are even covered.
Ground, insurance, equipment, software, travel costs, further training, tax adviser. Work with annual figures – monthly amounts tempt you to forget items.
Not your working time, but the time someone pays for. Subtract holidays, illness, weather cancellations, travel time, preparation, communication and accounting. What's left is usually considerably less than half.
Annual target plus costs divided by sellable hours gives your minimum hourly rate. If it's far above what's usual in your region, you need larger groups, a specialisation or a different offering – not a lower price.
Suppose you want to earn 36,000 euros before tax and have 12,000 euros of operating costs a year. Together that's 48,000 euros. With 20 sellable training hours per week and 44 working weeks, you arrive at 880 hours – which means each hour has to bring in around 55 euros.
In a group of six participants, that's just over 9 euros per person per hour – and that's before anything is allowed for cancellations, bonus credit or payment fees. This is exactly where you see whether your group size and your price fit together.
Forgotten items are the reason a calculation works on paper but not in your bank account.
Lease or rent, fencing, weather shelter, electricity and water, maintenance. When working on the move, vehicle and mileage instead.
Business liability insurance covering other people's animals, employers' liability insurance association, health insurance and pension. For the self-employed, the most underestimated item.
Long lines, leads, hurdles, tunnels, dummies, first-aid supplies. Much of it wears out and has to be replaced regularly.
Website, management software, accounting or tax adviser, phone, bank charges, payment fees for card payments.
Seminars, specialist literature, association membership. Not a luxury, but a prerequisite for keeping your expertise up to date.
Website, photos, printed materials, occasional ads. Predictable and usually lower than founders expect.
Your hour is spread across several paying customers. The price per person is lower, but your revenue per hour is higher – as long as the group is full. That's exactly why a waiting list that moves up automatically when people cancel is worth hard cash.
The full hourly rate falls on one person. In return, there's no occupancy risk, and you can work on issues that don't work in a group – fear, aggression, separation anxiety. Include travel time here too if you drive to customers.
How to keep credit, bonus rules and billing cleanly separate without your accounting suffering is explained under Managing your dog school.
Note: The amounts given are worked examples to illustrate the method, not market statistics and not a price recommendation. For the tax side of your calculation, please consult a tax adviser.
With cleanly recorded attendance, credit and revenue, you'll see at the end of the year whether the calculation worked out.