A Chicago Paralegal Turned Dog Boarding Into a $32,000 Side Hustle in One Year

Alison Chan, a recent law school graduate in Chicago, was told she'd need to quit her full-time job to have a real shot at passing the bar exam, but giving up income wasn't an option — she still had a car payment, rent on her South Loop one-bedroom, and food and vet bills for Addy, her adopted papillon-chihuahua mix. Already paying other people to walk Addy through the pet-care app Rover, she realized she could flip that around and board other people's dogs in her own apartment while she studied, creating a Rover profile in 2021.

Three years in, she made $32,000 on Rover in 2022, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, and was on track to average $3,750 a month in 2023, all while keeping her full-time job — now a remote paralegal role — and using the Rover income to cover monthly bills while her salary went straight to savings. "When I did my taxes last year, I realized my side hustle was like a second salary," says Chan, 29. About $250 a month of that goes back into stocking food, treats, and beds, which she says is part of why she can charge more than nearby competitors.

It took about a year and a half to find a workable model. She initially charged around $35 for overnight stays, undercutting competitors, and after covering food, beds, toys, and Rover's 20% service fee, little of that was actual profit. She learned to set boundaries the hard way, including one incident where a client's dog chewed through its travel carrier and relieved itself throughout her apartment; she now screens every new dog beforehand with questions like whether it's crate trained, has shown aggression, or can be left alone for three hours.

Once screened, dogs move freely around her apartment while she works her day job, and she structures three two-hour drop-off and pickup windows — early morning, lunch, and after work — so boarding doesn't interrupt her paralegal hours; she says she puts in up to 40 hours a week dog-sitting, though much of it is passive supervision during the workday. Tightening up her systems let her raise prices and build repeat relationships: her Rover income nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022 and kept climbing into 2023. She now charges about $80 a night, boards up to three dogs at a time on top of her own, and also picks up walking, at-home drop-in visits, and even wedding-day dog-nannying gigs through the platform — work she plans to keep even after passing the bar, since she'd be walking away from steady income and an established client base she's grown attached to.