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My fiance has decided that she wants to start a dog walking business here in Florida. We've already discussed her forming an LLC to protect her from liability but she also mentioned having dog walking insurance (like this). I'm a software developer and have only ever freelanced or started a business in that field so I don't know much about dog walking businesses.

Is this dog walking or pet business insurance necessary for starting a dog walking business? If it's not required, is it recommended and/or beneficial to have it or is it just a wasted expense?

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  • I'm thinking this question is a little out of the scope of this site. OnStartups might be a possible candidate for migration here.
    – Amelia
    Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 13:43
  • She will be self-employed and the only employee of her company. Questions about self-employment are on topic on this site as per the help page "Freelancing Stack Exchange is for questions relating to self-employed and freelance workers." Many of the topics on this site clash with OnStartups though which is why we have problems bringing in traffic and new questions.
    – Michael Celey
    Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 16:29
  • Good point. I seem to remember going through this with the other mods at some point, come to think of it.
    – Amelia
    Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 19:47

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I have no direct experience, but what if something happens to one of the dogs? Escapes, gets run over? In such situations it would seem that insurance would be important to cover your liabilities but also be useful for your customers' piece of mind.

Also, what if one of the dogs causes damage to a third party? It seems insurance for that would also be very important, otherwise you could have some very expensive bills - eg. hospital bills?

As for whether it is required, that will depend on your jurisdiction.

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  • I've looked around sunbiz.org and the Orange County small business site and haven't seen anything stating it's required. It never occurred to me that this might be a state or county specific requirement though. As for the points you made about having it, you're completely right. Without insurance, the business would have to pay all of those expenses and that's money we don't have starting out.
    – Michael Celey
    Commented Aug 26, 2013 at 16:38

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