Starting a dog treat bakery business may not be the first idea that pops into your head when someone mentions side hustles, but you may be surprised just how much money you can make with this. And as our Diva Dog Bakery course review will show you, it’s more than possible to learn how to fast track your earnings when you know just what to do.
In particular, with spending on pets booming in recent years, there’s a massive potential market here for your at-home business.
At the same time, it’s important to know whether or not a course like this is for you. And this includes figuring out if this really is a side hustle that suits you too.
This is why we’ve gone through every aspect of this course to give you our thoughts on what may work for you – and a few things you may want to keep in mind before deciding to give this a try.
What is the Diva Dog Bakery course?
The Diva Dog Bakery course teaches you everything you need to know about launching your own dog treat business. Aimed at dog lovers and aspiring bakers alike, its objective is to help you set this up as a side hustle so as to earn extra money.
Diva Dog Bakery was created by Kristin Larsen, who earned up to five figures a month from her own dog bakery business. She was even invited to have her products in the gift bags given out at the Emmy Awards!
While she started doing this as a side hustle, selling Etsy and in-person or selling at a local farmers’ markets, she eventually scaled this up to a fulltime job.
So she’s now turned this experience into a course to help you do exactly the same thing! In fact, it’s the only course in the world that shows you how to build your very own dog treat bakery business.
Find out more about how you can do this yourself from her free workshop!
Why start a dog treat bakery business?
While you may love dogs or love baking (or both!), it’s also important to check that there’s actually a market for your product. After all, you’re in this to make money at the end of the day!
Fortunately, in the case of dog treats, there’s a massive market out there. Specifically:
- Last year, Americans spent $95.7 billion on their pets, with $36.9 billion spent on pet food and treats.
- That same year, the top ten sellers of dog treats reported selling a total of $2.36 billion in dog treats, biscuits and beverages alone.
- This is probably because 92% of dog owners purchased treats in a 12-month period.
And interestingly, of that $2.36 billion of sales of dog treats, $360.73 million was sold by so-called “private label” sellers. This includes dog treat bakery businesses.
You might also like to know that 69% of millennials (who’ll be your target audience for a lot of these products) reported being more likely to consider buying naturally-made pet food over mass-produced versions.
So with literally hundreds of millions of dollars up for grabs here, it’s safe to say that there are plenty of people looking to spend serious money in getting high-quality, healthy, natural treats for their dogs.
What’s in the Diva Dog Bakery course?
The course includes the following modules:
- Module 1: Practice Makes Perfect – You’ll learn everything you need to get started with this, including several recipes that are proven to sell.
- Module 2: Hobby to Business – See how to get through all the legalities. This is important for anyone selling food products, as the legal requirements can get complicated, but this module breaks this process down to make it very simple to do.
- Module 3: Presentation is Everything – Find out how to make your products look professional, including when they’re displayed, packaged and shipped, with little effort. You’ll also see how to save money on all this!
- Module 4: How to Price Your Treats – Figuring out how to price your cupcakes and other baked goods can be tricky, as you don’t want to charge too much OR too little. This helps you set this up properly to maximize your profits.
- Module 5: Where to Sell – Kristin had success selling both online and in-person and uses this expertise to figure out which one will work best for you, as well as how to do it.
- Module 6: How to Accept Payment – It’s not simply about receiving cash these days, so this module takes you through everything you need to know about accepting payment for your products.
- Module 7: Shipping and Delivery – Nailing this is key to getting return business so the course shows you everything you should cover here.
- Module 8: Promote Your Business – To spread the word about your new dog treat bakery business, promotion is key so this module shows you how to do just that – for free!
Each step of the course also includes tips on how you can save money at different points of setting up your new business. This is a great perk, especially when you’re just getting this off the ground so aren’t generating any sales yet.
And by signing up for this course, you’ll have lifetime access to all of this information – including any updates or new information that’s added later. Speaking of which…
Bonuses in the Diva Dog Bakery course
As a new student, you’ll also get some FREE bonuses that are available right now:
- How to create nutrition labels (Value: $99 per treat) – These are a legal requirement in many states, so learning (for free!) what you need to do here can save you hundreds of dollars, not to mention hours and hours of trying to figure out what you have to do to avoid any legal issues.
- Dog treat recipe book (Value: $99) – Want some bonus recipes that are proven to sell? This will show you how to make these tried and true best-sellers from scratch.
- 30-days FREE access to the Diva Dog Bakery Facebook group (Value: $19 per month) – This is probably one of the most valuable bonuses, giving you access to a community of dog treat bakery owners who can answer any question you have and help you to learn from what’s worked for them (and what hasn’t!)
- All updated course material (Value: unlimited!) – Kristin’s already flagged that as she adds course material, the price of this course will go up. You, however, will have access to everything forever at no extra cost, including any updates!
To find out more about the Diva Dog Bakery course, check out Kristin’s completely FREE workshop here.
Who is the Diva Dog Bakery course for?
Having done our own in-depth Diva Dog Bakery course review, there are definitely some people who would be really well suited to running their own dog treat bakery business. This could easily be you if:
- You’re looking for a side hustle that also ties into your love for dogs
- You enjoy baking – but don’t want the stress of selling to humans
- You’ve ever been frustrated at the limited range or mass produced nature of the products available to your own pets
- You’ve been looking for a side hustle that you can do either in-person or online – or both!
- You want to make sure that you’re starting a side hustle in a field with a guaranteed market (no shame in wanting to make money, it’s why we’re all here)
Kristin says that you can make $1,000+ a month only by doing this as part time work. And if you want to take this full time, like she did, you can easily have five figure months!
Who may not want to start a dog treat bakery business?
Not every side hustle suits everyone and the same is true here. This means that you may want to reconsider signing up for the Diva Dog Bakery course if any of the following sounds familiar:
- You’d prefer to build a side hustle that’s mainly passive income. Given that you’ll have to bake your own products, this is quite a hands-on business, which may not suit everyone. These part time online jobs may be better for you, in that case.
- You’re really not a fan of cooking. You definitely don’t have to be an expert baker to do this successfully but if you really, truly hate being in the kitchen, then you may want to look elsewhere.
- You’re not interested in working out how to follow local regulations. Dog treat regulations are far less strict than human products, but it’s still important to comply with any legal requirements. While this course will show you exactly how to do this, if this is a complete turn-off for you, perhaps consider a different side hustle.
- You never see any dogs around your local area. If you plan to sell at local farmers’ markets, knowing that there are dog owners around will be key. So if you live somewhere where there aren’t many dogs (which is rare, but it happens!), consider if the local market is there for your dog treat bakery business.
Looking for some other business ideas? How about:
How much does it cost to start a dog treat bakery business?
The exact costs involved in starting a dog treat bakery business will vary depending on where you are and which local regulations apply to you.
As a very rough estimate, you should expect to pay at least for the following:
- For any ingredients and baking equipment that you don’t already have (as dog treats are generally made with the same ingredients you use for your own cooking!), you’ll probably have to pay between $20 and $50 depending on how much you need.
- Buying packaging for your treats could cost up to $75 – but it can also be free if you follow Kristin’s tips to save money in start-up costs in the course.
- A business license will be needed for you to operate and this can cost between $25 and $50 depending on the fees that apply in your area.
- Treat registration fees are also required in this kind of business. These can vary a lot, from anything around $25 as a one-off payment for everything you’re selling or up to $50 for each treat you plan to sell. It’s true that this hurts a bit but you’ll make the money back once you start to sell your products.
The Diva Dog Bakery course takes you through all of these, including ways that you can save money on each step. If you do want to check on the registration fees before getting started though, check with your local business authority for more information.
What baking equipment do I need for making dog treats?
Baking dog treats involves much of the same equipment and ingredients as you use for baking human treats. This means that you probably have a lot of what you need for this business in your kitchen already.
Some basic items that will help you get started with this include:
- Mini muffin pan – to make pup cakes
- Mini donut pan – as doggie donuts are always popular
- Measuring cups
- Mixing bowls
- Cookie cutters – these bone-shaped ones are great for your customers
While not required, having a mixer will save you a ton of work compared to having to mix everything yourself, especially once your business starts to scale up and you have to make more products. This Cuisinart stand mixer is perfect for this – at a really reasonable price, in my opinion.
How do I start my dog treat bakery business?
The Diva Dog Bakery course will take you through every step you need to follow in order to start your dog treat bakery business.
There’s no question that it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming starting a new business, especially when people start to talk about local business regulations and having to worry about legal issues.
That’s why having a course to show you what to do can be so reassuring, as it’s basically like someone holding your hand and walking you through each step of the process. Not only does this save you stress, but it also avoids problems down the track if you forget or didn’t realize you had to do something.
With all that being said, the very first thing you should do once you decide to go ahead with this is to pick a business name.
When people think of dog treat bakeries, they think of fun products that make their pups happy. This means that you should try to pick a name that has the same effect on people when they hear it. Ideally, this should also have some sort of dog-related word in the title.
So any variation of pup, dog, woof or bone would work…use your imagination!
The next thing you may want to do is to start a website for your new business. Now, this isn’t strictly required but as you know if you’ve bought, well, anything at all in the last 15 years, having an online presence that your customers can find will really make your new business seem ultra-professional.
Whether or not you go ahead with making a website (or even just buying the name of it now so you can set it up later), you should at least lock in the social media profiles for your dog treat business.
As the Diva Dog Bakery course will show you, Instagram and Facebook are both key here for promoting your products for free, so you should check that your business name idea is available on both platforms before going ahead.
Final thoughts on our Diva Dog Bakery course review
If you’re looking to start a new side hustle and all the usual ideas aren’t doing it for you, why not look into starting a dog treat bakery business?
It’s true that it’s not going to be for everybody, as outlined above. But if you love dogs and know your way at least partly around a kitchen, this is a great business to start with serious money making potential.
And as found from our Diva Dog Bakery review, this course takes you through every step you need to follow in order to launch this successfully. The fact that the founder of this course has done this herself by building her own dog treat bakery up the way she did means that you know you’re benefiting from her actual, personal experience.
Personally, I find working out which legal requirements you need to follow, not to mention how to do this, to be really overwhelming at times as I’m always worried about missing something. I’m also always really aware of what I’m spending when no money is coming in yet, as there’s always the concern that you won’t get those costs back.
So the fact that the course directly addresses both of these points makes it a success for anyone with similar concerns.
And at the very least, you know your furry customers will always be satisfied!