Teenpreneur Skips College to Build Pet Care Company

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

What's up? Welcome to "Side Hustle School." My name is Chris Guillebeau. In today's story, a young entrepreneur goes from walking dogs to owning a multi-city pet care company. Along the way, she learns to navigate the challenges of sales, bookkeeping, transitioning to an employee model, and at least at first, building a kennel in her parents' backyard, leading to dogs barking night and day. Now, at the end of the story, we'll look at an all too common mistake in growing a business.

This is something I see so many people do, and it usually creates issues for them later. But much of the time, it's totally avoidable. And the person in this story has been smart about taking steps to avoid falling into this trap. So we'll talk about that at the end. Remember, work smarter, not harder.

Teenpreneur skips college to build pet care company. That story's coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]

Just about any eight-year-old can walk a dog. But how many of those kids turn a few bucks into a full-blown business that's hiring employees by age 20? Well, that's exactly what Catherine Cockrell did.

Catherine loved walking dogs for her neighbors, and once she was old enough, she got a job at a kennel. It was there she realized there just weren't enough pet care options available in her community. As a high school sophomore at that point, Catherine's parents very kindly, and perhaps somewhat naively, let her set up a kennel in the basement and the backyard of a family home. She spent $97 in her first order of pet gear, a number that seemed huge at the time. This allowed her to install a dog grooming station in the basement while that backyard was converted into a dog park.

Since she was just 15, Catherine's pet care prices were set low, which brought in business. And as the home-based after-school operation grew, dogs barking all hours of the day and night became a real issue. So once business was booming, Catherine's parents encouraged her to move the entrepreneurial endeavors to a new location. She continued to operate happy hound pet sitting all through high school. Then when it came time to go to college, she chose to go a different direction.

She set a goal of only working for herself, moving out and proving she wasn't crazy for not taking advantage of the college fund her parents had saved up. This felt like a gamble since nearly all of her peers were going on to higher education. By age 19, Catherine was making her own living and then moved out of her parents' house/dog park. By age 20, she was hiring team members. And by age 23, she had a second branch in the works.

So let's take a look at some of these details. Happy Hound currently offers dog walking, pack hikes, pet taxi, and pet sitting. Each service has charged a per-visit fee with a premium fee added for holidays. Clients can interact with the business through an app called Handler, which handles booking, communication, and billing. Pet owners receive a photo of their pet from each visit and can even access remote check-in and check-out while they're away.

Before bringing on the team members, every responsibility in the business fell on Catherine's shoulders. But now there are four pet sitters at the original branch and she promoted one of her employees, Mariah, to branch manager about two years ago. Mariah keeps up with the finances, the office work, client contact, and sitter communications. Another sitter helps with office work as well so that Mariah can take days off. Today, Happy Hound brings in $15,000 a month in high season.

Revenue in the business can be seasonal, so sometimes it gets down to $6,000 a month in low months. For this reason, Catherine carefully times any major expenses, pays her sitters only on commission, and maintains a savings account year-round. Ongoing operating expenses are about $1,000 a month. That includes her website, some advertising, and equipment. Catherine spent much the past year replicating her business in a new location.

By analyzing her website's Google presence, she saw which nearby cities had the highest search volume for Happy Hound's specific service. With some further market research, she could also determine which cities were underserved. By setting up a strong backend, she was ready to hit the ground running. That meant updating the software, creating ads, updating the website, starting an online presence for the new city, and networking. Replicating the business has been more challenging and slower going than she expected, but things are turning around.

By learning from this situation, she plans to help her team members create their own branches down the line and potentially franchise the Happy Hound company. Still in her mid-20s, Catherine's early dog obsession and high school side hustle has already resulted in a decade of experience. [Music]

Okay, so what is this all too common mistake that I mentioned in the beginning? Well, first of all, Catherine's done a wonderful job in avoiding it, but the all too common mistake in growing a business is bringing on employees or making financial commitments that are dependent on a certain level of revenue. I should say bringing on employees too soon because ultimately a lot of businesses do have employees, but in this story, Catherine was wise to pay her pet sitters on commission, which sounds like a per walk or per visit for appointment situation, instead of a salary.

And that way, if the dog walking biz is booming, they get paid more, they do more work, they get paid more, but so does she. And then during the off season, she's not locked in. So when you have a situation where your income is uncertain, which is the case for the majority of new businesses, why set yourself up for failure with expensive commitments you need to meet regardless of how much money is coming in. The more you can do to keep your overall operating expenses low, especially when it comes to payroll or anything that definitely has to be paid no matter what, the less of a risk you'll be taking and the more flexibility you'll have. That's what I would encourage you to think about today and apply in whatever way makes sense to you and your goals and your vision.

So inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to the happy hound biz, are at sidehustleschool.com/1036, 1-0-3-6. Tomorrow's our weekly recap. We've got a bunch of stories next week, including several that I am really excited to bring to you. So I hope you're subscribed.

My name is Chris Guillebeau "This Is Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the Onward Project.