Woman, 30, quit law career and now makes ‘thousands’ more a year working half the hours

A woman left a promising legal career to become a dog walker, and says she now earns more money while working far less than she did before.

Liz East worked as a paralegal in criminal defence for four years, trying to pursue her dream of becoming a criminal defence lawyer.

However, as her career progressed Liz, 30, realised that she was becoming increasingly drained by the long gruelling hours, leading her to wonder if law was the right option for her.

Liz, from East Sussex, made a brief switch over to consultancy before she decided to start a dog walking business, and has never looked back.

"It was quite a negative and difficult environment to be in I would say," she said about her former law career. "Sometimes I'd easily be working more than 12 hour days. I felt older than what I was, every day I thought 'is this my life now?'."

She added: "I think there's this pressure in the corporate world that unless you are breaking your back that you're not doing well and people think you're slacking.

Liz says she now make more and works less (Kennedy)

"It's not a life, there's so much stress and people don't enjoy it. But people stay because the money is good, it keeps you drawn in.

"When you're in the corporate world, you're just a grain of sand. It's very easy to get swept up into it. If I'd stayed I would've burnt out."

Liz had spent six years on her law degree, but decided after four years in the profession that she had had enough.

Now, business is booming in her business for dog walking and dog boarding, and Liz says that she is making far more than she did in her previous career, and has halved how much time she works.

She got started by working in a pub while she built up a base of clients, soon finding that there was high demand for dog-walking.

After a year she is taking out between 20 and 30 dogs on approximately four walks per day, charging £14 an hour for the service, meaning she can take home £300-£400 a day in turnover.

Liz says she is much happier in her new job (Kennedy)

"My husband does dog-walking and dog-boarding and he loves his job," she said. "So being around somebody who's so passionate about what they did, I thought 'why am I dreading work every weekend and working these long hours?'

"I'll always have my degree and can always go back to it at some point. Not that I think I ever will because I love what I do so much."

Although she is now making more than she was before, Liz says that she didn't get into dog walking for the money.

"I'm on thousands more per month than I was working in corporate and do half the hours I used to," she said. "But if people do this job because they want to earn more money, they're not doing it for the right reasons.

"You should do it because you want to be outside and want to be with dogs. I love getting up and going to work.

"Life is short, don't stay in a job where you're unhappy. Just make the change and go for it, I've not regretted it for one single second."