The services offered at this bank are:
- Social area / Accompaniment: caring for the elderly, shopping, accompanying the doctor, etc… Socio-cultural, sports, educational activities: hiking guide, one-off computer classes, accompaniment to the cinema,… Home repairs: fixing a plug, arranging plants, hanging a picture,… Help at home: vacuuming, teaching how to cook a recipe, DIY, walking animals,… Well-being: advice, physical health and exercise, yoga, tai chi, meditation, boat trips,… Transport and help with commuting: errands and purchases, medical appointments,… Activities in the community: collaboration with associations, mediator, interpreter,… Other services: passing notes on computers, administrative tasks, animal care,…
As you can see, the activities that can be carried out are very general, but we have the option of obtaining animal care in the "Other services" section.
b) ANIMAL DIGNITY.
This bank is different from all that can be seen since, as can be seen below, it only works with and for the rights and care of animals.
The definition of your system is as follows:
The different activities and services that can be demanded using this time bank are the following:
- ATTENTION TO PEOPLE: accompanying children to school or different activities, reading stories or playing games, caring for the elderly and / or sick, accompanying the elderly to the doctor, reading books to the elderly, taking care of things on the street,… CARE OF THE BODY AND OF THE HEALTH: to give massages, reflexology, relaxation, care of the hair,… DOMESTIC TASKS: to make the purchase, to cook, to sew, to do small tasks and domestic repairs, DIY, to take care of animals and plants,… COMPUTING: to pass work to computer, computer advice,… TRAINING: support for homework, music, painting, drawing, decoration…
It can be seen how the option of caring for animals and plants is offered in the “domestic chores” section, but in a very generalized way.
3 OTHER PLATFORMS
There are other methods of receiving or performing services related to pets. The main web portals working in this sector in Spain will be named below:
- Gudog - Your alternative to the Dog Residence. GoHoliday - Find a trusted caregiver near you! EasyFamily - Leading Domestic Service Seeker DogBuddy - Find your perfect Dog Sitter. MundoAnimalia - Helping you to fully enjoy your pet.
Although these platforms offer the service that is intended to be created, they do not offer the opportunity to make hourly payments as time banks do.
4 SYSTEM ANALYSIS
Analyzing, on the one hand, the concept of time bank and its operation and, on the other hand, the structure and service offered by the platforms studied above, it is intended to mix the two concepts in order to create an innovative platform whose purpose will be to offer a tool which users can use to offer or obtain services in the field of pet care. This system will also try to include specialized pet stores, veterinarians and kennels which will obtain different types of bonuses as part of the system such as stable monthly income. In exchange, they will be asked (only to stores and veterinarians) to offer a discount to users who want to exchange the accumulated hours for discounts on their products or services.
Kennels will be part of the system only to create social impact, raise awareness and receive economic benefits (such as donations) without having to
offer any kind of service or product
4.1 PROBLEMS DETECTED
Some of the reasons for which it has been decided to carry out this study is due to the problems detected in today's society, such as:
People who need someone to take care of their pets when they are not at home.
- People who cannot walk their pets for physical reasons People who do not know how to educate their pets and need help People who cannot continuously pay an animal sitter
The main objectives that will be taken into account to carry out such a platform will be:
- Create a time bank based on animal care. Use the hours as a payment method among users. Search for shops and specialized services for animals that want to be part of this platform. Offer the possibility of making donations to kennels through the page website in order to create a social impact on the current state of the kennels. Offer the possibility of using the hours to obtain discounts on services and products for pets.
4.3 HOW TO DO IT
4.3.1 EXTERNAL AGENTS
The platform will develop this service in collaboration with pet shops, veterinarians and kennels who will get a bonus by joining the platform.
To make this collaboration possible, the following two points will have to be taken into account:
- The system will need the support of a web portal and / or a mobile application to enable transactions between users. It will require a high participation of citizens as users and as animal caretakers since both the provider and the client will be their own users.
4.3.2 FIRST STEPS
Users who wish to be part of the system must register on it using one of the available platforms.
They will be required to provide personal information and verify their identity through a social network (linking the account).
They must pay € 6 when registering which will be transformed into income for the platform and external agents.
The user will receive an hour as a bonus for registering in the system.
4.3.3 TRANSACTIONS IN THE SYSTEM
Users of the system will be able to carry out a series of transactions among themselves in order to obtain / offer services or obtain discounts on products / services in stores or veterinarians.
Some of the main points of the system are the following:
Get hours:
- Users can perform services for other users thus accumulating more hours in their account. Users will be able to buy hours from the platform paying an amount of € 6 an hour.
Spending hours:
- Users will be able to spend the hours requesting a service from other users. Users will be able to exchange the hours for discounts in pet stores that are part of the system. Users will be able to exchange the hours for discounts in vets that are part of the system. send hours to the kennels that are part of the system as a donation.
4.3.4 GENERAL SCHEME OF THE SYSTEM
Figure XX shows the general scheme of the system. We can see how on the one hand we have external users who want to be part of the system, on the other hand, external agents who offer discounts on their services / products and also kennels and, finally, the system community that exchange hours between them thus creating a circular economy within the system.
4.3.5 DISTRIBUTION OF REVENUE
As previously stated, users will have to pay € 6 to be able to be part of the system and / or they will also have the possibility to buy hours using any platform.
This amount of money will be distributed as follows:
- € 2 will remain in the system to keep it alive, thus covering essential expenses. € 2 will go as a donation to kennels who want to be part of the system, thus offering them the opportunity to earn extra income monthly. The kennels will be able to use the hours received as donations from the users in discounts on animal products or in visits to the vet. € 2 will go as a form of payment to the stores and vets who want to be part of the system, thus offering them monthly benefits. These agents must offer discounts to users who want to redeem these hours on their services or products.The discount that will be applied will depend on the number of hours that the user can spend and the number of users that the system has, since these agents must cover the amount of money discounted with the monthly income that they will receive by new users or by users who buy hours.
5. CONCLUSIONS
From the study carried out in this document, the development of the system is seen to be viable in a legal framework such as that of Spain and also in the economic sphere.
To conclude the report, it is necessary to name some of the benefits that the system provides in terms of its use:
- The specialized stores for pets, veterinarians and kennels will obtain stable monthly income and also publicity for their business. Users of this platform will be paying for services from other users in a different way, using the hours as exchange currencies and without using any other type of currency. The system can create a feeling of awareness among the population regarding the current state of the kennels in the area. Users will obtain a new way of obtaining discounts on specialized products or services for pets. It will be an innovative system based in the concept of time bank and pet care.
6 AND LINES OF FUTURE
As future lines, the viability, scalability and efficiency of the business could be studied internationally, starting with countries with a higher rate of pets per inhabitant and more developed ones.
The study of the same business model could also be analyzed, but applied to the elderly or newborn babies.
7 REFERENCES
Malaga time bank - http://bancodeltiempo.malaga.eu/ Online time banks - http://www.bdtonline.org/ Animal dignity - https://communities.cyclos.org/dignidadanimal#home Time bank de Albacete - http://bdtalbacete.blogspot.com.es/ Casa de la Dona time bank - http://dona.quartdepoblet.es/index.php/banco–del–tiempo/ Jobs for caregivers of dogs Care - https://www.care.com/
- CronoShare job offers - http://www.cronoshare.com Trusted domestic staff familiafacil - http://familiafacil.es Find trusted care near you! holidog - http://es.holidog.com/ Your alternative to the Gudog kennel - https://gudog.com/ El PaísLa Información.com
