The 32-year-old quickly racked up a pile of clients - fueled by the surge in pandemic adoptions - and realized he could make enough to do the job full time, so he quit his teaching position and started Parkside Pups. While charging $20 for 30-minute walks, he quickly grew a regular client list, and in July of 2019 decided to walk fulltime and started Parkside Pups.
By the end of the year he'd earned $35,000 - nearly as much as he'd earned teaching in a year in half as much time. Josephs told The Post business waned when the pandemic closed down NYC, but that it returned immediately after New Yorkers came home.
Though he lost his health insurance when he started his own business, he is taken care of under his wife's non-profit job.
'I'm amazed by the lifestyle I can have as a business owner,' Josephs said.
He has since hired five full-time employees, works with five freelance walkers, and walks dogs from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan, and is soon expanding into New Jersey. A New York City man quit his $40,000 per-year job as a teacher to walk dogs full time, and now pulls in $120,000 and bought a house with his earnings.
Michael Josephs previously taught at a special-needs school in the Financial District of Manhattan, and in 2019 started walking dogs on the side to supplement his income.
He said one perk of the job was wealthy clients regularly offering him their vacation homes upstate or on Long Island for use.
'People are really hospitable,' he said.
Josephs said that though he misses his students, the freedom of his job and the time it gives him to spend with dogs is worth it.
'I love this business - it's always been about the pups for me!' Josephs said.
'They give you excitement and loyalty. There's not many downsides to that.' Michael Josephs previously taught at a special-needs school in the Financial District of Manhattan, and in 2019 started walking dogs on the side to supplement his income.
The 32-year-old quickly racked up a pile of clients - - and realized he could make enough to do the job full time, so he quit his teaching position and started Parkside Pups.
In the past three years, he’s added several employees and puppy training and overnight puppy-sitting to his business, officially known as Parkside Pups.
Now, along with the regular walking fees, he charges $60 an hour for training and $65 a day for the sitting. He added that he undoubtedly stays busy, and despite the fun of the job, he never dogs it. In this line of work, you have to go all-out.
“I love this business — it’s always been about the pups for me!” he told the Post. “They give you excitement and loyalty. There’s not many downsides to that.”
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