The family business behind BearWalk.

Some of the dog walkers we know do this for a living, and they're brilliant at it. But being a great walker and running a business are two different jobs. Clients cancel at the last minute, invoices go unpaid until you chase them, and messages pile up at all hours. None of that is a reflection on the walker. It's just the messy side of running your own show, and it lands on you whether you signed up for it or not.

The trouble is there was never a tool built for the way walkers actually work. The software out there was made for big pet care franchises, or American marketplaces that take a cut of every walk. So the business side got run on whatever was to hand, because nothing existed that was made for an independent UK walker.

So we built it ourselves. BearWalk is a small family business, run by the two of us and named after our dog. There is no faceless company behind it and no investors to answer to, just a product we look after personally and improve based on what walkers actually tell us. It handles the business side, from scheduling and invoicing to chasing late payments and applying cancellation fees, so walkers can spend their time where it belongs: on the walk.