Currently there are no pet sitter license instituted by the government. However, Always ckeck on your local laws regarding general business licenses. Licenses vary from state to state and city to city. It is better to invest the time to do the research first than later find yourself in legal trouble as we see often happen.      This comment was edited to remove a link.Please note that Community members may not include personally identifiable information, such as phone numbers. Please review our Community Best Practices (http://www.sba.gov/community) for more information about how best to participate in our online discussions. Thank you.  

The following thread can help shed some light on the pet care business. Our search tool  can help you find out what licenses may be required for your state. Another approach that may be useful is talking to a mentor who could offer you specific guidance or reaching out to a SBA resource partner like SCORE, Women’s Business Centers and Small Business Development Centers located across the country that provide free business counseling to individuals looking to start or expand a small business. Visit our local assistance guide to find your local SBA resource partners by entering your zip code.

Hi Cathy, Depending on where you live you may or may not have to meet any licensing requirements. In our case, we had to get a business license (as every business does) from the city, and also file for an 'assumed name' certificate. In our case, there is no licensing specific to dog walking and pet sitting that we had to meet. Check to see if your city, county or state have such a requirement for pet sitters. You should definitely get some sort of liability insurance for your business. As you note, if disaster were to strike - pet getting injured or killed in your care, or even you causing damage to the pet owners home, that could destroy your financially. In our case, we got our . I'm sure that there are others. If you have employee's also look into getting a 'dishonesty bond' which covers the business should an employee commit a crime, such as robbing a clients home. Your locality may also have requirements for workers comp insurance. Some only require this if you have over a certain number of employees, such as three. I hope that this is helpful to you. There are also a variety of books available on starting pet sitting businesses. Check your local library, book store or Amazon to see what's is available.   This post was edited to remove links. Please review our Community Best Practices for more information about how best to participate in our online discussions. Thank you.