066- PawsInn with Dennis Nelson
Summary:
Dennis Nelson got into pet care through purchasing two pet care companies in New York. It was a difficult transition and learning process for him, but one that has fueled a deep passion. Because of his experience in running his business, he wanted a better way for pet sitters to promote their businesses. So he started PawsInn. Join us today as Dennis shares his passion and vision for a great new platform.
Topics on this episode:
History of Paws In Chelsea and PI Paws
What’s it like buying an existing pet business
How 2020 has been
Why he started PawsInn.com
Why it’s good news for pet sitters
Main take away? We’re always looking for ways to expand and new platforms to promote our businesses, PawsInn is a great option!
About our guest:
Having had a variety of different pets growing up, from budgerigars, ducks, cats and dog, have always had love for our companions from the animal kingdom. My career started in finance, and then took a dramatic shift when I resigned and bought into Paws in Chelsea. I now run three pet businesses, which includes Paws Inn, and continue to look for opportunities to help the communities around me through different ventures.
Links:
Email Dennis - dennis@pawsinn.com
Visit the website: www.pawsinn.com
Check out PI Paws and Paws in Chelsea
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Check out our Covid-19 resources
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, people, service providers, pet, platform, dennis, services, pause, question, pet sitter, support, dog, effectively, clients, bought, list, owner, team, professional, care provider
SPEAKERS
Collin, Dennis
00:17
I'm calling and I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional,
00:20
an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.
Collin 00:29
Well, hello, everybody and welcome back to another Friday episode today. We're so thankful to have Dennis Nelson on owner of paused in to discuss a little bit about how his business has been impacted with COVID. And a really neat project that he's been working on for some time now. Dennis, again, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself to our audience and tell us about who you are what you do.
Dennis 00:52
Thanks, Colin. So yeah, as you said, I'm Dennis Nelson. You know, I'm the proud pet parent of a Your old German shepherd and five year old tuxedo kitty. You know, I've been I've been the owner of paws in Chelsea which is a pet hotel doggy daycare in Manhattan and a doggy daycare in Weehawken in New Jersey for the last four years. And you know, I've been I've been toying and toying with this project called paws in to kind of try and improve the, the the pet owners landscape and access to pet service providers, which is kind of know why you and I speaking I suppose.
Collin 01:33
So. Tell us a little bit more about paws and Chelsey MPI pause.
Dennis 01:38
Sure. So pausing Chelsea is is a business that was that was founded by a lady called Sherry field in 1993. She used to be a vet tech or vet assistant in in Manhattan. And she you know, she she figured that the landscape for pet care in the city and in New York was one was a little rough, let's say, you know, they didn't have necessarily the same sort of daycare facilities that we now kind of take for granted whether you know, dogs kind of play during the day while while their owner's parents are at work and for the most part, any boarding or at that point, you know, they kind of call them kennels, I guess they still broadly do any kennel facilities were all in crates or cages for the individual pet and she figured that she could improve that in a way that would effectively allow the the pets and the dogs that were, you know, in a unit together in a in a play room together during the day and happened to be staying the night You know, they were okay together, you know, their behavior was good and they could actually get put up and sleep together in the same room. You put beds and blankets down and they would all kind of hang out together in the room so that it was it was a much warmer and more friendly and by Knowing she she ran that business for 20 odd years, she she then expanded it to a second one in Soho in New York. And then you know, it I won't mention her age but the you know, at some point she decided to, to retire and started looking for someone to kind of go with the businesses. And that's kind of where I that's where I came in. That's where my adventures of pet sitter pet care provider started. You know, I was I was an investment banker for 10 years prior to that. I'd always loved cats had never really understood how I could have a dog given the job that I had the hours that I work and the typically the dense urban centers that I lived in. So you know, sometimes my friends or my wife joke that I bought a I bought a pet hotel daycare, so that I could have a dog Probably putting too much in too much credit to my, to my bank balance, you know, or to my, to my finance, you know, I wanted to learn, I wanted to learn from her I did not know how to run a business to begin with my particularly specifically did not know necessarily the best practices of how to run a pet care business. So one of my conditions on taking the business over from her was that she had to stay on for nine months to help teach me and I think that was a that was a great point that we, that we agreed on because she, you know, this was her, this was her love child her love interest. And, you know, she she and I still speak regularly five years later. And given the current situation you know, she's as concerned about the businesses as before she found the right person to buy from so it's, that's that's kind of how it started, you know, important period of pauses was a different owner. It was a a couple of things. Friends are they built that in, in 2009, and I bought the business probably about a year after I bought was in Chelsea again, they gave me financing. They they were both pregnant at the time. So they were, they were looking for a quick exit. They, they didn't have that many people interested to buy the place. So I kind of got a good deal on that as well, because I told him the number that I thought I'd give to them, they couldn't find anyone to beat it, and then he's getting closer and closer to today. So they kind of said, Okay, we're law, we'll sell it to you. And it's been you know, it's been a blessing. Both businesses have been a blessing for so many reasons.
Collin 05:39
That's fascinating. I love hearing that, that you know, you have this passion and you just were looking for some way to be involved. And I can't imagine that transition of not having not knowing how to run a business, let alone a pet care business and then winding you know, and then having to have them within the span of a couple hears. And so what was going through your mind through that transition period? What was that like for you?
Dennis 06:06
I couldn't possibly tell you what was going through my mind other than kind of gritted teeth and determination. You know, there's a lot that goes into it. Right? You know, there's there is just for starters, typically when you kind of come into a business new, there will be change in the team, right? There are a lot of people that get accustomed to a certain management style. And that's not for better or for worse, it's just, you know, people are used to a certain manager and and how they kind of interact with with the team. And, yeah, a new owner or a new, a new kind of boss effectively comes in and, you know, I was trying to I was probably soft, to be honest, I was probably sorry. Because I didn't, as as as I said before, I didn't necessarily know how to run a business. You know, I was I was focused on on learning, you know, I was entirely hands on right. So I put myself into the shift, right I I work, I work, the overnight shift I work, the, the handler shift, I work, the receptionist shift. I was I was really just trying to learn, learn what was necessary to really just get to grips with with what is needed. Right. You know, and that was different to both previous owners at the time. And I'm sure that they both did that time beginning of when they built businesses, but perhaps the team that had put in place, you know, because there was normal attrition, that the team that was in place closer to that the end of the tena. We used to bosses that kind of were a little more hands off, and it trusted them. You know, I was in there, doing what I was told and then asking why we had to do certain things certain ways just just to learn. Now, that isn't necessarily a comfortable place for people to be in to answer questions on everything you're doing, and that, you know, that led to that led to a fair amount of team changeover and no, as as a, as a small business owner, and if you are short staffed, you know, it falls on you to, to pick up those hours pick up those shifts. So, you know, I think there was there was a time about a year into my first interpose in Chelsea, where there was a to those two days where I had zero help. Notice I was running the resection, I was running the dog handling and the overnight back to back 48 hours. So that was crazy. And you know, as a beginning of your question, What are you thinking during that time? Thinking is it I give up my cushy, cushy investment banking job for for the right reason, and, you know, never really never really doubted that it was the right response. Have I was happy to I was happy to do it then I was happy. Let's call it the learning rather than the hardship
09:08
because I knew it was for the right reason.
Collin 09:09
Before COVID what kind of services were you offer?
Dennis 09:12
We did dog grooming, cat grooming, doggie day Cat Dog Boarding path boarding dog walks from office at a tea dog walks from our customers homes.
Collin 09:23
That's quite a lot going on there.
Dennis 09:25
That's one of the stores Yeah. Is the on the on the store. The one we we open? We don't do cats. We don't deal with cats. We just the owners never built the infrastructure. in Chelsea we have we have a dedicated category and Catherine, what's it like keeping all that organized? If you have the right people that love what they do, and a strong sense of training and systems and organization? It's okay. I you know, one of the places that I borrowed money to take the business over was actually from a gentleman that you know Does retail operations and he came to, to look at the store to try and give me any sort of advice and it terrified him, he was very scared of kind of everything that it takes because as as I'm sure you and your listeners are very, very well aware, you know, every single pair we are caring for, you know, can and likely will have specific instructions of how to look after them, whether that's, you know, eating schedule or medication schedule or walk schedule,
Collin 10:29
there is a lot,
Dennis 10:30
right. So you just have to kind of understand what the base parameters are, and you know compassionately work around them.
Collin 10:40
So what's 2020 been like for you and your team, your businesses, um,
Dennis 10:46
it has been a challenge, a very large challenge. You know, my focus has been on trying to keep my team positive and motivated and in the future. He asked about the future. You know, I'm trying to maintain the morale, you know, for one of a better word, because I know it's difficult for everyone, you know, specifically. March was was was terrible from a business perspective, you know, both businesses have effectively been decimated. No, I know. There's this talk of restaurants and things like that taking 50% reductions in sales and stuff like that. I'm, I'm closer to 95% reduction. And I actually so I closed my new jersey store. At the end of March, I kept my Chelsea store open, because we used to we actually still had pets whose owners couldn't come back into the city to take them you know, a few of them were still abroad. So I kept I kept daycare and hotel side of it open. But I mean, you know, we if I'm normally running out Anywhere from 40 to 60 pets per day at each store, I was running in the end of my idea ended March at about, you know, three to four. And, you know, I have now reopened my my jersey store and we're kind of on the same number. But the reason I reopened was a couple of my team members weren't able to get their unemployment benefits or to, you know, typically for reasons of either identity theft or benefits associated with certain disabilities. So I kept them on my payroll. So, you know, we had the conversation that, you know, initially we closed to avoid the spread of COVID. But they were both comfortable that if we were able to kind of put together a system of operating that wouldn't expose them that they were happy to go back to work, if not just to get out of the house and play with the dog. So I actually have two team members, you know, who won't be Each take the you know, the morning shift or the afternoon shift Monday to Friday. But yeah, I mean, I mean, it's decimated the business.
Collin 13:06
I can't imagine having to, to work through that, especially with all these different locations and stores. And then in the number of team members that you're that you have here, what was their response through that as, as the changes came in? And as you know, everybody was having to adapt. So we have, as I'm sure you know, most other businesses have, we have group chats that we can try to communicate as much as possible, you know, at the beginning in March,
Dennis 13:34
you know, a lot of restaurants started to shotting fire people. So, no, there were rumors and people wondering what was going to happen to them. I tried to tell them that I would hold on as much as possible. No, I could see that the the number of dogs that were coming through, were not enough to kind of breakeven and cover their, their payroll, but I told them, I'll do my best Then there was conversation around the government kind of stepping into to help small businesses. And that actually there would be additional incentives or additional support for those that were will put on unemployment. So, you know, a lot of the team actually asked to go on unemployment to get those extra benefits because they weren't getting the same amount of ours, as they previously were. So go, you know, of my team in total across two businesses of about 28 people, I think all but five went on unemployment. And I think I think that concern really just comes comes down to whether or not they're going to have a job to come back to, you know, because, I mean, especially the business in New York and Chelsea, you know, rent is, rent is brutal. So, you know, my landlord has not, has not given me, you know, official support. And of course, no, there have been other measures of support. You know, the New York State postponed sales tax collection, which helped a lot helped him that first month and the PPP loans helped eventually when they came through, no, I didn't I didn't get I didn't get it in the first round. But I did, I didn't second,
Collin 15:12
what's been the response of your clients in the community in your areas,
Dennis 15:16
um, you know, I don't want to put anything against my clients, you know, they are supportive in the way that they can be, you know, I would never want to or expect them to do more than they have to or need to know. At the beginning, we we actually had a small handful of clients who, you know, went beyond the necessary and bought packs, right, they bought a care pack, they bought bought boarding packs to try and kind of help with our cash flow. I stopped them doing that at some point, just because it was getting to the point where, you know, I didn't want them to be putting into my put putting in money in something that I couldn't promise that, you know, I would have a business there too, too. Kind of repay them for that, you know, I, I kind of told everyone that if you buy packs now you will have unlimited time to use them. Whereas typically they will expire anywhere from three to 12 months. You know, they were people that were there were clients that were posting support online, on Instagram, things like that. But, you know, again, it's everyone's going through this in their own ways and with their own challenges. So I don't, I don't want to expect anything, right, people are stuck at home. People don't necessarily have job security. So you know, I would not expect them to be paying for services that that they don't need right now and today,
Collin 16:42
right. Yeah. And it's, it's always one of those. It's, it's never expected. It's always a pleasant surprise when we do support you and it's, it's, as you said, it's not a knock against those who didn't or weren't able to or anything like that because it's not expected. And it's always nice whenever, when somebody does, and that's not to use that to discount people who either didn't say anything or weren't able to or anything like that. It's just some, some help and some are able to, and that's okay. And as a business owner, that's a, that's where our mindsets need to be. And that's, that's kind of hard, like, Oh, I was always there for you doing all these services. And now I really need you it's, well, that's not how this street works most, most of the time, we just need to be thankful for those wonderful ones that are there.
Dennis 17:29
Exactly. And, you know, it's one of those things that I've thought a lot about to myself, right, there's, you need to be comfortable with, with the service that you're offering or whatever you're doing in your life as a business owner or as a professional or as a friend or family member, that you know, you are doing it for the right reasons and with with effectively love in your heart. And that you know, there is no expectation of reward, you know, in the future, right. So, as specifically what i what i can refer to here, as I mentioned that there were there were a couple of teams members that weren't able to get their unemployment benefits. And even though I was closed, I was not going to leave them out to dry. Right? I was not gonna leave them out to dry, you know, even though they weren't working, we were closed. I'm not gonna let them go hungry. I'm not gonna let them stress if I if I can. No, and then the question, then you have to kind of present yourself as if, if these team members, you know, when the environment turns economy recovers, you know, if they aren't up and leave, they get a better job, you know, am I going to feel hurt by the fact that they have kind of tried to? Well, they have found an opportunity that at that point in time, give them something that I'm not giving them even though I help them in this tough time? I can't think that way. Right. I need to think that what I'm doing right now, today is for the right reason, and, you know, I expect nothing of it in the future. And that's, you know, same with the client, the customer. I can't think that I was I was here for them and therefore they should be here for me. No, oh, We are wearing this together. And in the past, we were both benefiting from the situation. So I do I don't expect as you said, it's an it's a nice surprise and, and when those when those packs were being bought by those handful of people, you know, I had my heart in my mouth. Um, you know, it can be emotional when you get that sort of no pleasant surprise and show of love
Collin 19:24
thinking back over the last couple months, I was curious about what what are some lessons that you're taking from COVID whether that's personally or for your business?
Dennis 19:34
is a good question. I don't I don't know necessarily the answer to that question. To be honest. You know, I think I think I think we took a lot for granted. You know, I think that's, that's the only lesson I can take and how do you apply that lesson across it? You know, is is it about you know, keeping more cash in the company count is about having a smaller team or or not making promises that you can't keep? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question to be honest.
Collin 20:10
Yeah. And he said, like, not taking things for granted that can work itself out in so many different ways. And I think as we look to what this recoveries going to be like we can, we're really going to start seeing how those lessons apply or where some things are going to start bubbling up. We're still really kind of in the thick of it. And it's, it's so hard to really see where the past fits in moving forward, backwards. Exactly. Shifting gears a little bit. You have started a project that I find really interesting, and I want to know a lot more about so. Tell us more about pause in and where the idea for it came from.
Dennis 20:55
Yeah, absolutely. So you know, this is something that I've been excited for a number of years. Now, and you know, it took me a while to to start the project and it's taken me a while to kind of grow the project, but effectively pausing pausing was intended to be a for is intended to be a platform that is all encompassing of all pet service providers, and a place where no pet parents can really educate themselves and inform themselves about the pet service providers around them. Now, where did this come from? This came from a little, I guess, I guess, from frustration. You know, I would hate to say that this came from a bad place but we we as pet service providers are typically limited to a to a number of places of acquiring customers. And you mentioned some of them in in your, your common client questions. Episode. You know, it's wag its rover. It's Yelp. It's cat, oh calm. And I feel that, you know, all of those have certain pitfalls that are easily manageable. And most of these pitfalls come from the business either needing to cover costs to all of the services that they're trying to provide, or trying to make money out of the situation. And this is, you know, in frustrated that, I guess that latter part is what frustrated me that, you know, I would love to see a situation where pet parents could, you know, make an informed decision based on available information without having to worry about the money of it. Right. And what I mean by that is, you know, whether it's right wag or rover, you know, they either fix the fees or take a large percentage, whether that's 40 to 50%, you know, across the customer and the service provider, or even kind of restricting the people you know, if you ever get if you're a professional establishment, I'm not listing on web and I had a lot of dog walkers who, you know, would walk their clients dogs to my daycare and then pick them up as well. And I often asked them, I was like, do you use wag? Do you use rover? And I said, No, because, you know, I want to set my own prices, and they take so much margin. And that got me to thinking that, you know, the people who are going on to these service providers, and I don't mean the pet service providers, I mean, customers know, they are missing out on a lot of these effectively career professionals who don't see the value of these platforms for the customer acquisition, you know, so does that then mean that who does that then mean is listing on wag or rover and again, this is not, this is not a shortage of people who do this on them. But I would love to provide a platform for exactly all of those people, and not take the money out of that pocket, right. We all make, you know, way too little already for what we do and the responsibilities that we take. Notice I just wanted to create a platform that enabled everyone to list for free, speak to the people that they want to speak to, you know, I will not stop the communication between a pet owner and a potential service provider. And you know, I'm happy for those people to organize the booking and pay for the booking off my platform. I don't need to capture any of the economics and the economics, you know, if you do choose to play pay by card on my platform, you know, the platform is set at 199 plus 3% 3% is effectively just a pass through of the credit card charge. And the 199 is intended to cover the cost of me writing a check, you know, for that payment. It's really intended to be a easy to use free alternative. He's on the platform.
Collin 24:42
Yeah, because I think of the number of pet sitters just in my area. So I can't imagine what it's like in the New York area, and others around the country of people who aren't listed on any service that the only way you find out about them are word of mouth, and to help elevate those people. service because they are career professionals. They're providing excellent service and getting them connected with more customers is a is a wonderful thing to do.
Dennis 25:09
Yeah, and I mean, to be honest right now I on the on the polls in Instagram account I now have it's something I take pride in it's a little silly, you know people will probably look at it as a marketing ploy when I am now following 1423 people, probably 1400 of those pet sitters are professionals. And I haven't looked at every single one of those profiles. And it's amazing to me, you know, the number of people that are out there just taking pictures and loving animals. It's crazy. It's you know, if you multiply five pictures times, you know, 1400 professionals were at 7000 7000. Those who have passed that I've kind of looked at it like a lot of a lot of these people are, you know, trying to find a place to promote them. Right, whether it's instagram and they have 50 followers, or, you know, it's very difficult for people to kind of promote themselves on on Google or Facebook or, or even Yelp, just because of the density, right. So my idea here is to try and kind of pull all of that out in a very easy to use matter. No, I don't want to introduce the hurdles of creating accounts of registering emails, because a lot of these hurdles, turn people away. Right. And I don't want to necessarily, yeah, I don't want to walk into the trap of, of filtering service providers, either. You know, my intention, you know, again, as you come to talking about in your common your common client questions is, I want you guys to, to differentiate yourselves, whether it's through bonding, whether it's through the training and certification you've taken, What experience do you have with medication? Now, what are you services and what do you charge now, to me, it's on on the service provider. slider to show why they are the best. And to me the care that they will, they will put in that profile will shine through in terms of the care that they give to the animal, that is something I feel will differentiate. And to me means that I don't necessarily need to be kind of background checking or anything like that, because I don't want to do that and have to then charge people the money that everyone else is charging, you know, that's that's the critical difference.
Collin 27:28
Well sure, because most of that process is already taking place on a smaller scale and it sounds like all pause in is doing is getting it a little bit more more exposure and then putting it on the pet care provider and the pet owner to handle the rest. And will the brain handle the processing of payments handle the transaction of paperwork and all that stuff? And just leaving them to it?
27:54
Exactly. That's exactly right. You know, I'm I'm if I'm achieved matchmaker.
Collin 28:03
I am curious, what is the connection, if any, between positive calm and the the physical locations that you run?
Dennis 28:12
That's a great question. And I could I could answer that question in a variety of ways, legally non morally a lot. Right. The it's what I learned from pausing in the brick and mortar was that there are so many pet care providers out there, and so many of them who love what they do, and who aren't necessarily finding the right attorney or getting the right attention through word of mouth, and not wanting to give up that, you know, big portions of that their livelihood, the existing platform. No, and to me that that hurt, right, that was frustrating to see that situation. You know, I come from from the developers that I worked with to build the platform they they often ask, you know, are you going to To guarantee bookings if someone cancels them, and I said, No, no, if someone in New York or someone in New Jersey has had a cancel the booking by someone else, I will more than more than happily extend, you know, my personal facilities if they need it. Right. But that's not the point of the platform. The platform is to provide a a marketplace a meeting place for the for the pet service providers and and the professional. You know, in theory, my two stores I just two other pet service providers listed on the platform,
Collin 29:32
right, because this is not a new york new jersey specific Listing Service. This is the idea for this is to be a nationwide Listing Service.
Dennis 29:44
Exactly. Yeah. And we know we're we're still small. We're still very small now but I do have I do have service providers listed across a number of states now i i have recently been trying to gain traction here in in California in Southern California. Yeah, we actually had a couple of marketing events that were, had to be postponed because of the COVID situation. But I do hope to create some traction here. And so the capital, and I think that's the, that's going to become the strategy, right is to draw attention to the platform amongst service providers. Because once I then have a critical mass, and it doesn't have to be a big number. You know, even if I have a small handful of service providers, I can then start my search engine optimization and marketing strategy to promote the business in those areas. Because right now, you know, if I have two providers on the East Coast, you know, five providers in some of the northern states and you know, six providers, I don't know what the numbers are, but on the west coast, it's very difficult for me to effectively market and bring attention to the service providers, which is my which is ultimately my goal.
Collin 30:59
That's one question. I had what kind of promotion or SEO is going on behind the scenes with the development team, for the for the platform of pausing, because I know that is something that a lot of small business owners, especially in pet care struggle with mightily, is how to get their name out there.
Dennis 31:17
Yeah, and I'm not a genius in that, right. I'm not I'm not the expert in marketing by any means. There are people who have been doing this business a lot longer than me, who will have a lot more experience, you know, the intention, again, really, really is around creating a certain basis of service providing and pushing, pushing that out, whether it's, you know, there's so many filters through through social media that you can apply to to make the dollars expand as effective as possible, whether it's through, you know, demographic analysis, whether it's through geographic restrictions, and I've been doing that in a small part. But again, you know, once we have that critical mass that that will increase in mind intention has always been actually to, you know, use some of the money that I can that I can make myself from, from my existing physical businesses and kind of put that to grow this business out until it's a little more self sufficient.
Collin 32:12
Now on the on the money side, I know you've touched on it a little bit here. But is there ever a way forward where you would see pause in costing money or or taking a cut of services other than the, the, what you've discussed as far as we're processing payments?
Dennis 32:28
No, I mean, you know, it's not, I want to throw that out and be ballsy about it, it would defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to accomplish. You know, and I don't I don't want to pretend to be an ultimate villain, erotic hero, however, you might say. But, you know, the idea of this has to has to remain that it
32:49
is a
Dennis 32:50
platform where people can, can can list their services for free, interact with people for free, and they're all the ways they're always other ways that you can try to pick up Some financing to help support the business if necessary. Now, whether that's through through advertising and it doesn't necessarily have to be paid for advertising. So for example, Yelp you know, you can you can sponsor your post Google, you can sponsor your posts so that it that it shows higher in search result, potentially that that's an avenue but I don't really want to go down that avenue, you know, you can also have product placement, right. And I could, in theory in the future, attach a marketplace tab where, where people can buy and sell products, or I can, I can have all the retailers kind of list their products and take a cut out of that there are a lot of ways to make money from a platform to cover the costs that don't involve charging the pet service providers. And that's, that's the goal.
Collin 33:47
I just wanted to have the listeners hear the heart and the intent. Once again, of this being a place you know, whether it's another place or the place that you choose to post your services. If that's something you have been struggling with, or have been looking for new places to post services that this is this is sounds like it's gonna be a really neat and wonderful option. And hopefully,
Dennis 34:12
you know, I mean, the type of thing that I'm hitting Listen, I'm here to work with people, you know, if it's not working for certain reasons that if there is feedback or kind of friction and how it works and how people feel that the offering is set up, I'm here to hear that, get help and fix that
Collin 34:30
as a pet sitter. What would be I? Again, I think you've touched on this a little bit, but just to clarify it, hit it on the head one more time as a pet sitter, what are my obligations to pause in? If I list my services on it? Is there any information that is taken or any, any part of services or anything like that, that would have to be given to pause in to be a good person? No. That's fine. I think I like them.
Dennis 34:58
No, I think okay. There are certain aspects of information that we gather to be a pet service provider, you have to give me your name, your address, your phone number, email address, and I think I am more or less, that's kind of the extent of it, I believe you probably have to list at least one service, just create your profile, but it's really bare bones, bare bones, minimum, right. And everything beyond that, whether you're including photos, whether you're include including testimonials, reviews, pricing, you know, all of that is intended to provide you with the flexibility to differentiate yourself. You know, your obligation to me is, is simply that initial account creation. And then if you do complete a booking, which is paid for through the website, then I do take my 199 plus 3% of the cost. But again, you can take that book and you can have that booking. You can agree with booking through and communicate with your client on the platform and have that as cash or check off site. Now that that's between you and the customer,
Collin 36:04
and it's that flexibility that just is really cool because one of the things with the bigger platforms like wag rover is that they have this lock in tendency are they right were they going off off platform is really really highly forbidden and actually gets you kicked off if you go off to if you do it too many times. So
Dennis 36:25
it blows my mind right you know, if the intention is if waggers intention is to create a, an environment where where you are just matching people and you know, helping out and taking some economics from it, why would you do that? I don't get it. I do get it. It's because that's how you you know, create the market share that created and you know, make it very difficult for for other businesses to come and disrupt you. Hopefully that's what I'm going to do.
Collin 36:51
Now. One of the questions that I had that I'm not sure if anybody else would would care to know about but you said you have some people working on developing It, but what what what is the support look like in as far as like for the long haul? What What is their track record for developing things? And how is support given?
Dennis 37:09
Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to name the developers happy fun corporate on website. I just liked that name. So people and honestly, they've been very supportive they've done a lot of work with with fairly major companies. So they weren't cheap by any by any means, but I wanted to make sure that what I was building was good. You know, they have regularly pushed me to understand how I'm going to get attention to this website and platform and get service providers on it. Because, you know, they typically don't work on projects that they don't believe will be a success. But, you know, they they bought into, you know, they their pet owners themselves, and they bought into kind of the rationale and they saw the this or the potential or the platform to be an important part of that service providers landscape.
Collin 37:59
And I hope that helps. provides some some comfort to listeners who are thinking about listing on here because it takes it can take effort to invest in getting posting and working on a new platform. And so to provide comfort that it's going to be there for a while, and that there are people dedicated to working on it and making it the best that it can be.
Dennis 38:18
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's, it's something that they, like I said, they're constantly on me on me telling me to raise awareness for it, which is, which is great. You know, they are they are, themselves a good company, and they a solid company and professional, right. They they provide me a lot of support that provided me with a lot of insight into how these things work, and how to kind of optimize the user interface in a way that, you know, as I kind of said in one of the earlier questions, if there are any frictions, and this is on them, and we're going to fix it. But yeah, it shouldn't be you know, we invested some money to have it tested and even in that testing process right there was a lot of people that said this is this is cool. When is it going to go live? Wait, go live soon.
Collin 39:06
Well, very cool. I'm very excited about this and the trajectory that it has. Dennis, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing with us about your business and you know, the really neat story of getting into pet care from an investment banker, and then this platform that you started in the passion that you have for it. if people have questions and they want to reach out to you or maybe check it out. How can they do that? I mean, to check it out and see it's hopefully fairly straightforward right now it's just web based but the you know, if you go on a browser on your
Dennis 39:40
on your phone, it should be fairly well structured as well. It's just pausing calm again that's pause in calm in terms of getting getting in touch with me it's Dennis at pausing calm. That's Dennis with a double n. Again, that's that's listed on the website and all you know if you submit that contact form on the website is coming directly to me. So, you know, I'm here. I'm here to answer questions. I'm here to engage and interact with people. You know, I'm here to make this a success for all of us. So yeah,
Collin 40:09
we're calling it it's been fantastic. You know, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to tell my story. You're very welcome, Dennis. And we hope to have you on again to fill us in on the status update and touch touch base again soon with you. Yeah, I would love that. I love that chance. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. I think Dennis's story is just absolutely fascinating. Many of us have been growing our businesses to the point of where we hope to sell it one day possibly to go on and do other things or do more things with pets. Dennis's story is on the other side of that someone coming in and buying a business so that he could be involved with pet care, which is something that a lot of us might not think about as really happy that Dennis was able to share some of that his experience and what that was like for him. I also think that his venture into positive calm is something that will greatly benefit all pet care providers, something that is open and honest and is very straightforward for both us pet care providers and the potential clients out there. That's a good thing. We don't want to be behind walled gardens and we are all looking for more opportunities and ways of getting in front of potential clients. And so I think this is a great way to move forward with that. So give it a look. Check it out. And as Dennis said, reach out to him if you have questions or concerns and to determine whether it's right for you both Megan and I will be back on Monday with a new kitchen confession. Until then, have a good weekend.
