Dogtopia - Dog Daycare & Boarding

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Mom Inventors

February 2007

Virginia resident Amy Nichols had a successful - but unsatisfying - five-year career in telecommunications sales when she got the itch to start her own business. She considered many options - including staying in her current field - until she finally decided to go with her heart: dogs. Six years later, she's built a highly successful dog daycare and spa franchise business called Dogtopia. She is definitely barking up the right tree - her original location alone grossed almost $1.5 million in 2006! Here is her story:

Describe your company and your service.
Dogtopia is a dog daycare and spa franchise designed with the busy dog owner in mind. We look and operate much like a child care facility, with large, brightly colored rooms with play equipment and toys. Dog parents drop off their dogs in the morning for daycare and pick them up in the evening. We also provide boarding services, with a lot of our canine guests staying for long weekends or while their owner is on vacation or away for work.

We even have "webcams" so that the owners can check in on their dog at anytime. Our customers love being able to see their dogs happy and playing with their friends. It takes away a lot of the guilt of them leaving their dogs while on vacation or traveling. While they are having a great time on their trip, their dog is having a great time too!

Why did you start this company and when?
I had always thought I would be a veterinarian, but after a reality check in college, I decided that I was more business-minded than scientific, and pursued a business career instead. After spending a little more than five years in the telecommunications industry, and achieving quite a bit of sales success, I decided that it was time to follow my heart and pursue my dream of owning my own business. I looked into many options; including staying in the telecom industry, but what I really wanted to do was work with animals - particularly dogs. Dog daycare was a growing trend on the West Coast in 2001, and a few entrepreneurs had opened one on the East Coast - I checked out as many as I could and got really excited. I knew it was a niche business, something that I could make my own, and I was confident that Northern Virginia was the perfect market - there were a ton of people just like me - successful, but very busy without a lot of extra time to take care of their dog.

What were your initial goals?
In the very beginning it was to have enough dogs attending daycare that we could pay all of our bills. Everyone that worked there knew the magic number - 33. We knew when we hit that number that we were on our way, and that I could also start taking a paycheck. We hit it pretty quick - I believe it was in our 5th month.

Describe yourself and your family. What is your background and how does it relate to your company?
When I started the company six years ago, I was engaged to be married - to a very supportive and understanding man! Mike did not grow-up with any pets, but he very quickly learned to love dogs, especially my inspiration, Griffin, my Boston Terrier. We adopted another dog a few months after we were married - Bodhi, a large collie mix, and I knew then that I had converted him! It is still a long way though from owning two dogs, to managing a facility with 50+ dogs per day, and investing everything you have in it.

Mike and I are both very driven, and as much as we wanted a successful business, we also wanted a family. Ironically, on the first year anniversary of our business, I found out I was expecting our first child. Our general philosophy on life seems to be that once we feel like we have something down, it's time to add something new - it keeps things fresh, exciting, and we are always learning. Our son, Aidan, is now three. As with Aidan, at around the first anniversary of starting to franchise the business, we decided it was time to add to our family. We are expecting our second child in early June.

Have you ever experienced an epiphany that changed the direction of your life?
As I mentioned before, I have always wanted to work with pets - especially dogs. Even though I was in the midst of a very successful career in telecommunication sales, I found myself miserable - the funny thing is that the one thing that always made me feel better was taking my dog to the dog park to watch the dogs frolic and have fun together. I also loved looking at the puppies in a local pet store. After a particularly frustrating day I found myself staring in the window at these puppies, and decided it was time to follow my heart. I truly felt that if I worked hard enough and did my research I could make it work - and I did!

What process did you follow to develop a prototype?
We created the prototype dog daycare facility by trial and error. My first location in Tysons Corner, VA has really been our guinea pig. We have used every kind of flooring, cleaning product, and air filtration that exists - some were costly, some worked out really well from the beginning. After five years of running that facility, we feel that we have a solid model for our business, and that's partly why we decided to offer franchises. We thought about other entrepreneurial types of people who would love to start a dog daycare facility. Then we realized - why should they make their own mistakes and learn the hard way, when we have already been through it?

What process did you follow to determine your service's marketability?
Initially I looked to myself as our potential customer - somebody who is busy, but who still wants to have a dog. This is somewhat of a luxury item, so we also had to have a local demographic that has disposable income. I knew that we had thousands of potential customers, and as the dog daycare industry has grown, so has the popularity, and we now have a much wider customer base than I would have ever imagined.

Were there any setbacks in development that had to be overcome?
Particularly in the first year, we found that we had to "tweak" some processes as we grew. We have large facilities - our first store is almost 9,000 square feet, so getting the place clean from top to bottom and keeping the dogs and our employees safe and happy can be quite a juggling act. But again, through trial and error, and by always being open to change and new ideas, we have refined our processes to where everything runs fairly smoothly now.

What was the biggest learning curve in terms of developing your service?
As the business grew, so did our need to have more employees. I remember feeling a distinctly different tone when our number of employees reached more than 12. I just didn't feel like I had the same relationship with my staff after we hit that point. When you have a small business, your relationships with your employees are key. It's critical that they feel a responsibility to not just their job, but to you as a person. Continuing to foster and develop those relationships has been paramount, and I didn't always realize how important that was. Employee satisfaction and retention is an ongoing and never-ending job!

Through what markets are you selling?
We are primarily a retail company, but with franchising I now have two kinds of clients - my customers that bring their dogs to our two corporate locations, and our franchisees, who look to my team and to me for guidance in all aspects of their business.

What secrets have you learned in terms of publicity and marketing your service?
Our business is very customer-service focused, and it is not something that people always "get" from a traditional advertisement. Public relations has been a huge part of our business, as people seem to have a much better understanding of what we do when they read a feature story about us in a publication or see a TV segment, plus it also goes a long way towards "legitimizing" what we do. We have also found that it is very important for people to know more about myself and the staff - they want to know who they are trusting with their dog. To that end, the website has played a huge role, as well as attending local pet events where we can meet pet owners in person.

What was the biggest learning curve in terms of marketing?
Thankfully we did not spend too much initially in terms of advertising, but probably that's because it's very hard to convey our service with an ad. I spent a lot of time and money on our website from the beginning, and that has probably been one of our best investments.

How long did it take to get your service from idea to market?
I incorporated the business in June of 2001 and opened for business in June of 2002. Most of the time was spent trying to find a location. There were plenty of great spaces, but not a whole lot of landlords who were willing to put upwards of 50 dogs in their building!

How have you managed to juggle the roles of business owner and mom? What falls by the wayside (laundry, work-out, etc. etc.)?
We try to stay pretty balanced at our house. My husband and I always work as a team. From the time we get home from work until Aidan goes to bed, it is all about him. Once he is asleep, both my husband and I tend to get on our laptops, but having dinner together, doing bath time and reading him his bedtime stories is something that we never compromise. As I have told fellow business owners, no one is going to die if they don't get that email returned by 8 p.m.! My husband and I also trade-off if the other has something they have to take care of, or really wants to do - it is teamwork at the office and at home.

As far as laundry and cleaning, as soon as we could afford a cleaning service we hired someone to come in every other week. The laundry piles sometimes gets high, but it's great not having to deal with cleaning bathrooms on top of everything else that we have to juggle between personal life and business!

What kind of support system do you have in place personally and professionally?
Having a support system is so incredibly important when you have your own company. The old saying that "It's lonely at the top," could not be more true. No matter how dedicated your staff is, they're not the owner, and ultimately you have to make all of the tough decisions on your own. My husband has recently come aboard full time, which has been a huge help. He was always a good listener, but now that he is there day in and day out, he can also offer his opinion and ideas. He also doesn't mind doing some of the "heavy lifting" so to speak, and will take care of issues at our stores, etc, when needed.

I also speak with an Executive Coach once a week to keep myself heading in the right direction, and sometimes just to vent. He has coached many other executives, and has owned his own business, so he relates with many, if not all of the issues that I encounter. I want to continue both the growth of my company and my own growth professionally. The coach helps keep me focused on my goals - both personal and professional.

How did you finance your business (personal contributions, loans from friends & family, loans from bank, credit cards, outside investors?).
One of the biggest factors in making my business a reality was that I had bought my first house at 25. I really struggled with the mortgage that first year, but by the time I met my husband, the house had appreciated significantly, so that when we bought a house together I had a nice little nest egg to put toward my business. Even with having more than half of the money I needed to get open, it still took going to seven banks before I got approved for an SBA loan. No one wants to be told no, and it will really test your commitment. But I was determined and I eventually found the right bank for my business and me.

How much money have you invested so far? How do you feel about that?
I personally invested about $80,000 in the first location, and got a loan for $75,000. Even with that, it was really tight, and we did a lot of the work ourselves - between my husband, my parents, and my two brothers, we painted the entire interior of our facility at least once! We knew we couldn't put up walls, but we could paint, and we knew it would save money.

Since opening our first store, we have added another location and franchised our concept. Franchising is a complex business system, and I wanted to make sure I hired the best company to work with in creating our legal documents and operations manual. We have probably put another $100,000 back into the company personally, as well as all of the profits from the first store go to support the franchise and second store. Currently we are in a major growth phase, so I expect a very different financial picture in another year or two, once we get more franchises open.

What is your company's current financial picture and what are your projections?
One of my initial goals was to get our first store to gross over a million dollars annually. Most people wouldn't expect that from a dog daycare center, but we were able to do it in our second full year open. We have continued to grow that store and grossed almost $1.5M in 2006. Our system-wide projections for 2007 are $3.3 million, which includes our two stores and our franchise company.

What has been your greatest success or "high point" in the process?
There have been a lot of great times in this business, but one of the biggest high points was the national press we received as a result of our first Dog Wash. We held a charity dog wash to raise money for care packages to send to military working dogs and their handlers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a phenomenal success - we raised more than $9,000 in one day. In addition to all the local press, we were also featured on CNN around the world. I was really proud of my business, my all-volunteer staff that day, and myself. We did something great and were recognized for it - you can't ask for much more than that! Since that event, we officially incorporated it as a charity and named it appropriately, "K-9 Support, Inc." We hold an annual Dog Wash at all of our locations and regularly send shipments to the hardworking men, women, and dogs located in the Middle East.

Have you experienced a "low point" and if so, how did you rally yourself to get back on track?
I have to say that my lowest point was having to let go of a long-time employee last year. She had been with me from the beginning and I considered her a friend, but she was no longer growing professionally. She wanted the big title and big pay, but was just not the person I needed to help move the company forward. She also didn't want to continue in her previous role where she was very effective, so I really had no choice. Since then she has been replaced and we are in a much better place as a company. When you have a relatively small management team - I have five people on mine - every single one of them is crucial to the company's success and growth. Her inability to do her job affected everyone else, and no matter how much I worked with her, sent her to training, or did her work for her, it didn't change the fact that she wasn't the right person for the job.

Who has been your biggest source of inspiration? What keeps you going?
My biggest source of inspiration has been the awesome women I have met through the National Women's Business Center. It is not a very large organization, but it draws from a big talent pool in the Washington, D.C. area of female entrepreneurs. I took their flagship course, "Up and Running," in 2001 and it really helped me get focused on what I needed to do to open my business. One of the coolest things they do is have a large spectrum of members, and in 2005 I was asked to join their CEO Council. This is an elite group of women who own businesses that gross over a million dollars per year. The group meets monthly to discuss a large variety of topics. We talk about everything from balancing work and home life, to employment law and financial management. There are women in our group that have businesses that gross well over $100 million per year. That's an awesome group to hang out with - the wealth of knowledge, experience, and inspiration that they offer is priceless.

Did anyone in particular help you along the way?
I am a pretty motivated and determined person, but I would have to say that the person who has "helped" me the most over the years has been my husband. Most of his helping has consisted of being a good listener, but most of the time that is all you need - just someone to listen and be there for you.

What advice would you offer other moms developing their businesses?
Take plenty of time to research the industry, the market, and your customer - but don't be afraid to pull the trigger when you are ready. And most importantly, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader - enthusiasm is infectious and people will get excited about your product or service simply because you are.

Learn it, live it, love it!

Is there a resource that proved to be invaluable that you would like to share with other moms?
This is a pretty obvious one for most people, but the Internet has been a fantastic resource for me before, during, and after opening my business. It is how I stay up to date on the latest trends in our industry, how I stay in-touch with business peers, and how I continually learn. If you have something you are interested in, there is a resource on the Internet that supports it - whether through Yahoo groups, Squidoo lenses, or just a search in Google, the information and help are out there ... if you are willing to spend the time looking.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Just that it is a true honor to be included amongst the great Mom Inventors on your website!