A pet business usually runs several service lines at once, and they have quite different cost structures.
Revenue
Grooming revenue — labour-intensive, per appointment. Boarding revenue — capacity-driven, priced per night. Daycare revenue — capacity-driven, frequently recurring. Retail revenue — food and products. Add-on service revenue — extras sold alongside the main service.
Boarding and daycare are capacity businesses: revenue is bounded by how many animals you can hold, so occupancy is the number that matters. Grooming is a labour business bounded by groomer hours. Blending them hides which constraint you are actually hitting.
Daycare in particular tends toward recurring bookings, which makes it the most predictable line — see recurring revenue.
Cost of delivery
Groomer and handler wages, grooming supplies, food and bedding, cleaning and sanitation, and the cost of retail goods sold.
Cleaning and sanitation is a genuine cost of delivery here rather than premises overhead, because it scales with occupancy.
Insurance is trade-specific
Beyond general liability, this trade carries cover for animals in your care — a bailee policy. General liability does not cover an animal you are looking after being injured, which is the exposure the business actually has.
Overhead
Premises and kennels, booking software, insurance, marketing, admin wages, utilities — which are unusually high in boarding because of heating, cooling and laundry.
What this setup gives you
Revenue and margin per service line, occupancy against capacity for the boarding side, and the retail margin separately.
