The covid crisis has led to a boom in pet sales, with lockdown prompting many of us to decide that we could do with one to keep us company. Pets4Homes, the free pet classified advertisements site, rehomed 2,000 pets per day during lockdown.
If you got a pet the chances are you paid a lot for it. With demand fast outstripping supply, prices have rocketed, with the average cost of a puppy doubling to £1,400. Cocker spaniels saw the biggest price rise. A puppy would have set you back by an average £2,109 in June, triple the cost 12 months earlier.
The price of cats also shot up by almost a third during lockdown. People were parting with almost £400 on average for a kitten. If you are inclined to get a pet, be careful. In March and April 669 people lost £282,686 to pet cons, according to Action Fraud. Scammers post advertisements online despite not having any animals to sell. They ask for a deposit, then more money for insurance, vaccinations and delivery, but the pet never appears.
Always identify a Kennel Club Assured Breeder, or find a breeder through a personal recommendation. Ensure you see a puppy, even if it’s over a video call, and ask to see vital paperwork, such as a puppy contract. Before you get a pet, consider how much it can cost you over its lifetime. Food, vets’ bills and other costs add up to an average of £4,500 for a small dog, rising to £13,000 for a large breed.
The average cat will cost its owner around £12,000. The next question is pet insurance. It is a booming industry, with 3.6 million policies. “Given the high costs of veterinary care, a growing number of pet owners are… paying a steady monthly premium for peace of mind. Claims have nearly doubled to £815m in the past six years.
The average pet insurance claim is £793. Before you sign up, note that the average premium for a dog over the age of five is £381 a year. If you have a dog that lives for 15 years, it would cost £4,975 to insure it. If you have savings to cover vets’ bills in the early years, then another option is to self-insure. Rather than pay an insurer you put the equivalent premium into a savings account.
Motivational Quote Of The Day
“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”
Joseph Campbell
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“Weather forecast for tonight; dark.”
George Carlin
Flush With Success
I was wandering through a shopping centre, when my attention was grabbed by the price tag on a mobile phone. It was over £20,000. I have no idea who pays such a large amount for a soon-to-be-obsolete item (people who haven’t worked very hard for the money, I’d imagine) but it does show there’s a market for an upgraded version of just about anything.
Atlanta Watercloset realised this when they launched their businesses, which aims to provide “exceptionally clean” portable restrooms (toilets) for outdoor events. If you’ve been to such an event, you’ll know that the competition provide the bare basics, but little more.
Atlanta Watercloset offer toilets with fresh water sinks, interior lighting, mirrors, coat hooks, shelves and branded loo roll. The environment around the restrooms can be specially prepared with privacy shields, flowers and pathway lighting. The service is particularly popular at weddings, where nothing can be allowed to spoil the special day.
Whatever the product, some people will always be attracted to an upgrade – a premium offering over and above what’s provided by the standard product. If you find yourself competing fiercely with everyone else in your market, now could be a good time to look at whether there’s a market for an enhanced version of what you do at a premium price.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL BEACH DAY !
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Dear Streetwise Customer,
I hope you’re keeping safe and well.
This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.
Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.
He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?
Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit.
Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought.
The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.
For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…
The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!
For full details take a look here.
www.streetwisenews.com/CFTFC
Very Best Wishes,
John Harrison
Streetwise Publications
P.S. Everything comes fully guaranteed and makes truly fascinating reading.