Countersign Pet Boarding Confirmation Letter Made Easy

Countersign pet boarding confirmation letter

[Music] you have found authentic business adventures the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners a custom land past episodes of the authentic business adventures program can be found in the podcast link and draw in customers calm we are coming to you from the Sun Prairie community radio studios underwritten by Bank of Sun Prairie my name is James Kate I'm an entrepreneur author speaker and helpful coach to small business owners across the country today we are welcoming / preparing to learn from Greg Altman owner of lucky dog daycare Greg how are you doing today I'm good nice so lucky dog daycare I just get the impression that you get to hang out with fun dogs all day long I wish I was with dogs all it's not the case in the beginning it was the case sure it was just me and if I had a loving dogs I was doing quite well alright Wow things have changed you're a little bigger no I'm a lot bigger sure now you're looking at 50 dogs a day that is a lot of doors without fail sure what I like to spend all day with 50 dogs myself sure yes but it's a little much to deal with fair totally fair so I have a staff that spends more time with the dogs than I do but I so how long have you been doing this 20 years have you really two decades of taking care of dogs holy cow November 1st 1998 wow that was like the birth of the internet they're just after social media hmm not a thing not really that meant talking to people are picking up a phone which I like doing yeah fair totally fair better versed with that I feel like we'd be a better world if we were but yeah that's the topic for another time so that means that you have seen some ups and downs over the past 20 years with the economy right we had some rep calm stuff we had some hose-down stuff had some down times yeah that Fannie Mae that whole sure period the 2008 sure 2010 economy was very tough great gas prices only affected me greatly when guess was $4 you know there's $1 a gallon and drive an SUV yeah they had to start making choices do I fill my tank with gas or do I take my dog to take you really wide pull him out completely or do all right go from two days a week to one day a week so I was sure you know I was stuck with the cancerous thing was actually affecting me more than anything I think getting a more fuel-efficient vehicles through that's like let's get rid of the SUVs let's get back to day care right but yeah that whole timeframe was interesting I sure I used to watch gas prices uh-huh so then I could also tell customers well if you're looking for a good gas price right I got this one where to go the great but uh save that's two cents well people were looking to see right it'll cost you five dollars to get there with that boat you drive exactly you're driving a suburban you know sure get used to putting in right 80 bucks yes your movie eight thousand pounds of pure love exactly for the dogs pure love for the dog right so me so it's interesting because from my point of view I guess I always wondered what is what is the value of your dog right I feel like people that'd be one of the last things that people would cut right they would cut their cable cut for the most part you're right okay for the most part you're right sure that the dogs are always gonna be reversed that's why even during the bad economy time sure and I haven't had a lot of them right but I've had a few sure we all have right exactly exactly so then you um have you been in the same place this whole time I was at a different location initially okay about I'm gonna say I was in the town of Burke okay at that time sure I mean some probably now previously literally I am five minutes from where Maya from knew the location okay other locations close proximity I'm sure they're close but that was another thing that hurt me was when I moved ah because people are you say or whatever or they have a certain routine I'm sure they drive mm-hmm to the day care drive to work sure it's amazing what that five minutes oh yeah shift and location did so I went move present location mm-hmm that was right when the economy was having its issue Oh perfect I mean the gas prices were high sure those are my two biggest factors okay in the 20 years that that was my big my big blood sure why mention I guess from some of the networking groups and business groups that have been and when we change locations and sometimes that's just for you change in a restaurant there's something like that you just expect 20 percent attrition right off the bat yeah even if they're across the street from each other a lot people hate change yeah which is we do because so that was that was tough I probably lost easily 50 percent oh my god that's a punch in the gut well I also moved into a facility that I had to basically was starting overhead I made I had a redeveloped my wheel sure to speak Wow went from a well-oiled machine to right I had a real squeaky wheel that I had all right all right so that take some time how long ago were we talking here well that would have been to thought well it would have been 2010 when I made the move Wow in the middle of it was right in the middle of the whole thing was a nine I was starting up sure make a move so yeah all right what better time so you know people followed and then you know the wheel wasn't working quite the way the the other wheel was insurance so they you know they move right there's nutrition okay that's fair I can it's interesting because I remember the time I started my business from 2006 and at the time the 2008-2009 I feel like unless you were a stockbroker or someone that was really invested you didn't necessarily know how bad it was you heard stories and stuff like that but it's interesting you didn't it will least for me I didn't really see it yeah I mean I felt that and the business felt it right I really didn't feel it until you're talking about the stockbrokers yeah Knox I'm so office and I saw my toys yeah hey what is this weird my portfolio girl what's going on here so I put this money away so you guys can make me money that's what you cost me money he's not there yeah yeah yeah when you make more money just having the the money sit under a mattress right she's done that if only we could know if only we had known right yeah it's an interesting I just remember that time that you weren't you knew that something was going on but you didn't necessarily don't was that bad correct and then you see some other businesses dropping the businesses dropped all the time so nature the game yeah make sure the Beast so to speak again is it yeah interesting because I'm reading some old motorcycle magazines from that 2009 to 2011 now and some of the articles that they're talking about they just there's mention in just what every article of what the crappy economy right which is so interesting because it because motorcycles people were selling them for next to nothing because they're just trying to cut their expenses rsjs I remember reading this thinking this is no big thing big thing turns out I was wrong so yeah so life goes on so you back up and rolling business is going good you get your business going with the the less than squeaky wheel I imagine it took a few years to get back up and even just people aware that you moved in stuff like that it took multiple years sure so I'm at a point now where yeah it's it's running it's running smooth sure that's awesome and you have from the dogs that come to your place is it all variety all right so you get the little tiny yuppie dogs and they have it those little dogs are very strong they have to be they do with fifty dogs okay there's a reason that scrappy was called scripted correct so you how big of a space are they in in the the exterior the outside just ballpark I won't I won't get a tape measure anything please don't okay few acres okay all right know you've got inside you have outside I'm primarily an outside daycare right I know like people understand that when they come and take a tour I like to think that the dogs would prefer that I think that's where dogs want to be you want to be outside sure they want to swim they don't climb on stuff yeah so you got a you have a pool I have an above-ground pool it's deep enough that the labs are swimming and sure diving for balls and that's happy that's awesome so I know when it gets to be 90 degrees or whatever they can cool down water games run through a sprinkler sure no clothes well very cool come inside and play where it's air-conditioned sure you know have their humans nice that's not so so generally speaking is it tough to corral 50-ish dogs or is it do they after they've been there routinely they kind of get along and it's it's pretty easy every dog has to start you know with a trial day sure I like to have them for a whole day okay because that way I can get I can start to get a good feel what the dog is like they're not gonna show me all their all their tricks sure but it gives me an idea whether they're gonna fit in with a group of dogs sure not every dog is meant for daycare sure okay just the way it works makes sense so we go through that first day and then things go well then they just they come for another day and another day and sure no if certain days don't work for them then we try and pair them to a day where that mix of dogs sure might fit them better oh just based on size weight personality I'm answers now least attitudes okay maybe personality's bigger deal than a weight I imagine it is okay they lose weight when they're they're directed fair that's all psyched yeah I can remember so we've been taking Kirby our dog over to your place for since she was with us I don't know my neighborhood of eight years old it does it does so I can remember bringing her back when she was a puppy and she would fall asleep on the way home you probably thought something was wrong oh my god no I loved it my rules that a tired dog is a good dog and she is only reinforced that rule so we do everything we can to tire her it is the objective so yeah after eight years this easier way easier now than it used to be so yeah that's cool that's cool you got a good good group of people good group of dogs that's fun I do I've got a great staff nice you love dogs I bet they have two yeah they have two no allergies here prerequisite sure oh geez take your pills all right so tell me is it it's gotta be relatively tough to staff for a position like this you know oddly enough you would think it people would be banging down your door I work to work with Chirag Fran and the and it is difficult to find all right people that want to work because it's a physical job hi Ben you're outside mm-hmm you know if it's raining it's raining if it's snow sure know if it's hot Johnson right we have weather you have to be able to deal with the elements and you're on sheriffy so it's alright a lot of work sure and I mentioned there's some some dogs need I just being able to tolerate the noise I guess barking dogs and all that kind of stuff they get used to that okay sure sure interesting it's gonna be kind of fun it's a lot of fun I hope they're having fun it's a lot of fun I can tell from your social media pages that you have a lot of people just love dogs they love dogs cats all I can stuff cats we won't mention today cuz whatever I have a cat do you really have a cat his name's Carlos Carlos stick I forgot about Carlos he lives there he's great alright alright but you do not take care of cats it's the taking care of the dog just strictly dogs dog dick here we want to give you any animals that I'm running around here okay animals that are running around doing stuff having fun swimming right not the cats mo okay fair enough so in 20 years beyond a couple bad seasons of some economic challenges and gas prices knowledge as what are some of the other changes that you've seen well we don't it's actually social medias the big one of the big ones or me that's awesome okay when he started shirt day they didn't have it I had a web page right you know and that's kind of what helped sure Drive everything right you know to find customers then yeah it was a little sure different interesting okay it's a web page it was word-of-mouth assurance that clinics thing you know things like alright alright um you know now you have the social media and you can pound your message jollity yeah you guys are showing videos of the live videos of the dogs running around their detriment when i first started in madison there was one other one other big hairy dog daycare besides me really knew I was wow it was totally unheard of okay I mean if you were in San Francisco that was relatively I mean that's kind of work at its star so hold on a second here you're talking let's just say let's just roll back the clock thirty years ago if I'm in Madison nothing nothing what did people do they just had a dog chew on all their stuff they had a dog eat their couch I my careful that's crazy yeah nothing Wow all right so 20 years ago it was you and one of the company and that was it the you just paved the way for a little bit more competition because now you're seeing a few more they're popping up sure interesting okay but I'm one of the very few that has so much outside space you I can tell you just from the other places that I know that offer this you have a lot going on you get the pool you got cool staff yeah way more space in a lot of places in fact our office is by another place that I don't know how they fit all the dogs in there maybe they just throw them in a shoe box or something like that hang on for days yeah who knows but yeah you have a lot of real estate so that's super cool I do because man you want the dogs to have space to run around that's how they get the exercise sure cool cool so 50 dogs I want to ask you the question that everybody's thinking in the back of their mind that's a lot of poop it's a lot of poop what do you do like how do you take care of that so that dogs aren't stepping on a track in it all that kind of stuff it gets pretty much picked up as they go it's okay doubt that so it's essentially a constant constant okay so if you can't handle poop then this is a tough job that's it you know I'll tell you an interesting story I wanted a dog pretty much my entire life and I didn't have one when I was kid my wife knew I wanted a dog she wanted a kid I really didn't want a kid so one year for Christmas she gives me this book from Cesar Cesar Millan Cesar Millan yep about training a dog and I thought hey why would I need a training dog Manuel was in hide on my dog lo and behold she's like we can get a dog and my one pause was it'd be super awesome to get a dog but I gotta pick up poop I'm not a fan of picking up somebody else's poop dog or otherwise right it's true so one of the reasons I didn't want to kiss this well because that comes with the territory as well so now you have a company you can hire I did actually kink yes I do I do I I coached them or one of them yeah so they're cool I totally understand that but my dog Kirby specifically is not a fan of pooping where I want her to poop of course not so she likes to poop in other people's yards Kirby which I'm not a fan of right so he's like I go running with her every morning to tire her out and I used to do everything it could I learned that she had to move before she got her juices flowing right okay so I play catch with her and stuff like that and she learned oh you're just trying to loosen me up here so we'd be out there for 15 minutes but that is only Kirby right so we'd be playing I was like it's 15 minutes I got to get rolling so we get rolling and so I apologize to everybody in my neighborhood but you're in a neighborhood so there's airplanes that go over people are mowing the lawns when you want to hang out on your deck so I apologize but it's a neighborhood life goes on I pick up the poop so we're all gonna tear up that was gonna be my question totally pick it up yes yes you have to I even pick up other dogs good stuff cuz for you I feel like they left this mess and the neighbor whose yard that is doesn't know whose dog that was you might think it's your dog so yeah so I'll just be neighborly so you are welcome to who's ever dog taking care of them but that was I imagine that every business has their challenges right restaurants you got groped you people that are hungry dog daycare you got volumous amounts of poke so you just got to take care of that yeah that's a 50 dogs that's a lot of poop it's a lot so all right so it sounds like you're people are cool taking care of that and they get the play with a dog so it's all good absolutely what are the challenges do you run into you know really it's it's getting making sure you have 50 dogs all right that can coexist sure I mean they have to share space that's fair it's like 50 kids on a playground sure they have to share the space right share the toy right they don't have to like each and every one that's their right and they have to understand when someone doesn't want to play with them that they go okay sure all right there's somebody else it's also nice if they know then we can help them you know I get a say your people are super cool cuz I'll walk in to pick up my dog and I'll be like hey I'm here for Kirby and they're like Kirby and they'll go and I'm thinking I've never seen you before it's clear that you work here but how it like this is not the only dog you stay here it's true and if you're if you're averaging 50 dogs a day we got five days a week let's say that's 250 dogs how do you remember that many dogs names stamp is great with names how you learn I mean sure just you're repeating it crazily so the names come pretty quick but they also know besides your face sure they know a car you drive alright so that's how Kirby's inside all right were you gonna ask sure dog because we want to see from outside who pulls off all right James is showing up get that dog cage is there with the princess there we go Kirby said sure alright clever clever clever so beyond the getting 50 dogs that that can handle each other tolerate each other play with each other in the space what other challenges do you run into you've got the staffing we talked about that yeah you've got the sir times the bad times sure these are good times because students are back so I had great I have a lot of mm-hmm students go back a month or two you get back then I'm you know low on on staffing and sure and you just start looking alright you know the general the rigger has the regular business stuff this the regular business stuff sure okay that's typical every business has got I can tell you from experience know businesses rainbows and moonbeams I would in my business planning classes it's interesting because I get the impression that some people some students believe that whatever magical business they are starting will be all rainbows and moonbeams but after they go through their plan we I wish it was well to a point you know but reasonably it has to be a challenge otherwise you'd have way more competition it is a challenge sure it is a challenge because you have the whole you know financing issue sure you know me kind of make things run sir unfortunately I get to deal with a lot of the tough paying the cost of my boss that rather be with the dogs sure you know I'm behind the scenes more no that's okay that's okay I was just I was just talking with a candidate that that we hired today for calls on call and I was telling her the interesting thing is our clients a lot of them will invite you our employees to Christmas parties they don't invite me I'm the guy that sold them and I'm the guy that they complain to if there's ever an issue but I'm not the one on the front lines for them day-to-day so in their world if everything is going well I don't exist which is fine totally fine it's totally fine love your staff that's the name of the game that's then I did my job that's what you want yeah sometimes if they don't then they're gonna come hey James right sometimes I feel like a bench person and they don't know their name this person they start describing great this person looks like it right okay I got it you just feel like a bench though cuz you're like and on the sidelines of a game right like the players are doing all their thing but I'm supporting these players while they're sweating and crying right I get no love though I get chipped and just you just take the hearing yeah I just needed a shoulder 10,000 I still get some love because I am in the front you are certainly so my customers do see me certainly important to me right because I don't want to be forgotten no that's fair I think the the individual it comes to my business they they want to see great wanna make sure that I am involved with the dog sure that's fair that's fair so let's shift into marketing because you got some more competition but we also have Sun Prairie's growing I think at a rate of like 10,000 people a day or something like that based on traffic it feels like crazy yeah so I mean I with people come more dogs and stuff like that right but there's more noise you mentioned social media I was just thinking the other day how did they go I was at a mallards game okay we're at a mallards game and the mallards have this huge TV screen that behind just in the outfield I guess they call it huge TV screen yep and it's showing adds the whole time so I'm thinking hold on a second man I paid for these tickets we got to deal with these ads just constantly being inundated and the ads are for radio stations which are essentially making their money by plane and right right which is just pure stacking up the ads right so I'm thinking of hold on a second now 20 years ago how would that radio station get the word out right cuz there was maybe there was a baseball team 20 years ago but it certainly wasn't as big as the male ertz's I don't even think there was twenty years maybe not but maybe but the radio station still had to get known so was it billboards I mean social media really wasn't the thing internet was barely a thing how are they getting the word out and maybe it was TV because there were just three channels right or four channels whatever now that's kind of going by the wayside people have their their Netflix or Hulu or whatever so they do everything they can to get rid of commercials so I'm like from a marketing point of view Marketing your business 20 years ago - now tell me what you do now from a marketing point of view you know I haven't changed a whole lot okay you know I have I mean I we have Facebook sure I have the website mm-hmm but a lot of it still is word-of-mouth okay clinics sure clinics tell me about the effect clinics okay make sure vet clinics ok sure all the vet clinics that's your head that you're around but my benefit right now is I've been around 20 years that's a while so the name is just the name Greg it lucky dog is just no lean it's just there it's sure Kleenex okay she's fair it's there okay those are starting out fresh you sure you're good yeah they're gonna know social me so if I let's just say I moved to Sun Prairie I'm a new family and I got my my pooch or - how do I hear about you do I hear about you from - if you didn't live in some Prairie and you went on to the city's website sure you'll find me that way oh nice okay it's a little logo sure that's there and they click on the logo and it just shoots them well very cool - my web page okay not a member of the Chamber of Commerce yet but that's that's coming so sharable can find me mm-hmm that way okay so it's just awareness through the old-fashioned channels more or less for me yes okay fair there's nothing wrong with it there's nothing wrong with that I you know to a point there's probably a value of trust and again I'm not the techie sure I have to make sure that is someone within my staff sure enjoys doing that great so I can't ask them mm-hmm with a little guy delegate there's nothing wrong with variations sure sure interesting so from I guess from the website point of view you you had a website right from the start you said right 20 years ago I probably went the first three years okay without a website and then one of my customers was a developer sure you know you need to do this and thanks for telling me I'm doing it wrong here we go basically yes I went okay fine let's do it all right fair super cool you know it's evolved I see you have camper of the month have you always said camper Louis a camper the one okay super cool are there other I think he's been there well Koosman camp is Aman yeah yeah yeah yeah it's probably been a couple years but yeah it's hard to be multiple times well you got 250 dogs in a row yeah yeah there's a lean there's only 12 months needs to campaign for me she has told me not the princess to do this no vote if you wanted I don't care I'm gonna hang out on this cushion right look over my land here um so what have been some of your favorite things about owning the business that you have you know obviously I'm just gonna say the dogs and obviously I love dogs so it hopes so to a point it's a dog business right you know I really enjoy besides my staff I really enjoy my customers nice I like spending time with my costume you're talking about the people know people okay the ones I pay for the dog sorry it um I like my time with the humans sure oh nice I'd like to know what they do for a living right it I've developed what I think to be a vir a home-like environment sure so the owners feel really comfortable coming in and sharing things at the end of the day it actually is a meeting place for people to shirt and hang out and talk nice fun I bet you hang around occasion I do I do no one's cool you got some good people there some good customers all that jazz so I feel ya it's comforting and there's a trust factor yeah you know you're leaving your dog at a daycare correct which means that um banking on two things one that my dog is gonna be tired when she comes back and two that she was taken care of right whatever that means well this is also why when someone's interested in using my service mmm part of my requirement is they actually the owner actually comes in Sharon takes a tour ah silly okay I want them to see it see how it runs mm-hmm then you see it and as I tell them you're leaving your kid mm-hmm with me mm-hmm much like if you're leaving your human child totally yeah you're you're gonna go and take a look at where you're gonna leave leave your dog right and pressure you're happy with it mm-hmm you know I tell them go and look at more than one sure you know because not all of us mm-hmm are the same totally actually very different right even my I do boarding okay and even my boarding setup is totally different than a traditional boarding kennel okay host well my boarding is only open to the daycare client okay because when a dog is doing an overnight with me mm-hmm they are part of the daycare okay so that's a whole lot better than yourself or in a room sure and get out a few times a day sure and there are many really good traditional kennels fun here I feel they're part of the daycare group even exercise all day surely tender in their room is for nap time uh-huh bedtime okay so they're tired sure and they know the staff Brent they know the dogs it's it's a vacation for them right basically right so mom and dad are off you know somewhere Mexico each grain their dog is at lucky dog nice having fun right that's cool like that so then the dogs can actually stretch your legs do the thing right and not have to deal with their mom and dad exactly like I said mom and dad you know they pay the bill well they're paying the bill for all the other all kids are like the dad it's constant kids are not a savings account that is for sure uh so let me just uh let's shift into some previous time here um at what point in your life did you decide that you're going to start a dog daycare by total chance total chance all right I'm from the business world okay I used to live in Milwaukee and I had a sales promotion company as small CEO small from comp okay sales promotion like trinkets and stuff not like that I would come up with custom type ideas okay I would pitch it to a corporation sure and I would build it okay give an example example one of my clients at that time was Harley Davidson okay My partner and I designed a telephone okay and the shape of their gas tank okay there's a one-piece Sherbourne and would look like their gas tank right there there's more go on it okay babe sure it's something that they would market through their their stores gotcha so I pitched this idea to that man down it you go through a whole process so sure a storyboard and prototype and a whole bit but that was the type of stuff that I would enjoy a scene okay but after doing that for a long time I got kind of tired of the long time we talked in 10 years 5 years and years years okay you know I got tired of the corporate okay setup basically and dogs for my passion this was your own business here's mine I had no idea about this okay on me how long and you never knew that I had no idea yeah no this is interesting the audience is learning as I am this is cool it was a lot of fun in the beginning I bet Oh sounds like fun but it was difficult if they could work on a project mm-hmm for a year and then say nope and nope and you've you've actually spent money yeah sure him the prototypes and the whole bit you could just be done all right so long story short I just was getting really tired sure what I was doing all right I love dogs mm-hmm and I used to travel from Milwaukee to Madison okay to do training classes with my dogs mm-hmm and I ran into somebody who had a boarding facility I'd mentioned that if they were ever looking for somebody yeah to buy or just a list at work okay just give me a call because I'm more than ready darn it all everything and move sure and what's the school in Madison so I all right you know I like you know the territory all right lo and behold it happened huh sigh me you know sold everything sure in Milwaukee I moved to Madison and I worked at a boarding facility for a while and then the daycare aspect just ah let's kind of fell into it sure all right I'll gamble again just ready to gambled before I'm ready my sales promotion company yeah I'm gonna gamble again okay and I'm gonna start this this daycare sure so you owned your own business for we took in 30 years easily easily something by myself I'm sure yeah so when is the last job that you had where you worked for someone else uh I worked for a company called Carlson promotion first it was K promotion okay known as Carlson marketing that's what it ended up this Carlson marketing okay what they do mom but what do they do I don't know if they're still around they're probably still around but they were an ad specially sales promotion company that's okay I kind of learned sure some of these other things okay um they developed like airline catalogs and catalogs for miller brewery and oh sure you know United Airlines all right just like that sure so that's what that's the last person I worked for in sure esteem then I walked out of that door and started my own ha and you had a business partner with this one I did okay when I did he was the he was the artist okay you know he would do the storyboards sure if I had a we needed a model Milt he would build the model sure and then our next step was he would take it to race someone to have it manufactured of working sure if a working model so were you essentially the idea man he was the artist kind of thing yeah kind of okay I mean we would sit down and sure it all sinks back and forth but yeah and were you cold calling on Harley Davidson or these companies yeah and you're saying Harley look I got this telephone idea you got to hear this pretty much yes and they would say all right come on in let's talk all right you'd go in and you know you pitched the idea I'd always have something to sure them just give me an idea yeah like the old ad days sure have to have a board right ready have to see does it go well I gotta they have to see something sure cuz not everybody's gonna picture it right interesting and they had green screen monitors back then social we didn't have jump drives back then so that this is so interesting to me so then if let's just say Harley says yes are you getting paid a lump sum for the idea is it residuals based on sales they basically would say they would place an order okay cut an invoice and say hey I want so many thousands are these developed okay and so you have to find manufacturer and everything correct oh oh it's fun okay that was fun all right cuz you're taking something making a radar yeah to making it real sure wow that sounds kind of cool but eventually I imagine your relation of so many places guess they know so many times yeah or you see things like you pitch an idea and it's no mm-hmm and then all of a sudden you see what you pitched yeah you see out in a store okay oh so then you started to realize once things were going well yeah ideas would be taken oh so you pitched they said thanks yeah a door and if they were a big enough company it didn't happen a lot but it happened enough that you think all right you know certain companies would just bypass you yeah they would take it in in-house because the companies also grew and even bigger and they can do many of these things they could do Sherman house interesting ok so you know times change alright yeah like dog did you just did the evolution right things change sure interesting all right well that's uh I have some sample stuff that is so cool I'll show you I'm impressed with this this is awesome yeah I had no idea that you had this other background yeah stuff going on so that's cool um shifting back into the the dog daycare thing from a marketing point of view you probably have a ton of ideas and stuff like that from this other stuff you did maybe you know it's it's a matter of howdy how do you develop actually it's kind of hard you have a daycare right and how can you make that evolve and be the natural thing was adding boarding mm-hmm I want it to be different than sure competition X or everything else that sure that's out there so your your constant trying to find a way to reinvent mm-hmm what you already have mm-hmm and I think I've accomplished that sure now I asked me in five years what I've done I'm sure I'll have to change something again and changes forever man never I always tell people man businesses are like a tree if they're not growing they are dying so you don't want that no no no that is not ideal uh what else we got for you we got oh my gosh there's so many questions and I've limited time so that is just pick one here search we talked about challenges did what is your least favorite thing about owning the business least favorite is if you have a situation with a dog mm-hmm that this isn't a good match okay they didn't get along with some of the other dogs there's you know someone that their dog doesn't fit um okay in daycare so like your dog bit someone did something not even that I mean that's tall sure I mean accidents happen you've bred 50 kids run around barren stuff happens one the the owner of that wants their dog to be in daycare mm-hmm but they just don't fit for what reason make sure is super shy or more they're very defensive okay they could be a fear biter all right that's the hard part telling someone that this isn't sure a good fit mmm-hmm because then they feel rejected on some level it's it's hard yeah how would you feel if I told you that you know it doesn't work for Kirby it'd be weird so she's pretty much a free Rock it's probably the least favorite thing for me to do sure it's it's hard no that's fair doesn't want them knowing that I've tried to do everything I could do mm-hmm and if it doesn't work this is why right and I'd like to have some form of a solution mm-hmm for them mm-hmm I don't want them to leave Ryan Sam well it's in everyone's best interest that they can stay but in the end correct and if it's at the expense of 49 other dogs correct and sometimes it just doesn't work and sure times it it evolves that you know might take a few visits for me to really understand sure the dog but that's probably my least favorite thing is sure that's fair that's a that's a big one so I would say that's fair uh what is the most expensive mistake you've ever made in business on the presumption that there's no okay that would be investing you know over a year in a project sure and money yeah and how much would you stick in one of those projects we talking couples a grand are we talking you're talking more than that okay I mean if you're actually taking as the point of where you're prototyping you're developing a working your actual working model yeah yeah you got 15 20 grand invested in this and they're saying thanks for the idea not that high okay you know you could be talking thousands Wow all right so no sure where's that money coming from all right all the yeses just like real estate agents right you wonder how much why they charge so much is because a lot of people said no well that's with every salesperson really the yeses have to pay for the nose you just hope you get more yeses you can you can divvy it out more so when you get to know it's okay you always tell my students you can totally charge a million dollars for your stuff then you only get the check don't yet you only have to sell one you have to ask a lot of people but whatever it is it's a big thing yeah what are some of the things that you've had to learn the hard way staffing staffing okay tell me about that I just think that it's it's it's hard to find mm-hmm a group of people that all get along again it's like the dog fair hand totally forehand I'm a small group of people mm-hmm it's so important that we all sure like Rea each other right respect each other sure because we're sharing space right that's really hard to do and surely as as they look at prospective employees that's part of the thing that we have to look at well that's huge are they gonna fit in yeah and it could come to me with a great resume great but are they ultimately gonna play nice mm-hmm nice with everybody else is it good no culture the business is a huge thing is gonna work sure hand there have been people that we haven't hired mm-hmm even though they were qualified I'm sure this the fit just personally what he was isn't there I'm sure I know who works for me great because we're close mm-hmm yeah you don't want to hire one person it's not a good fit and all sudden you get well they was really correct then you have different furnish you sure or you got the hole he said she said thing and that's a or she said she said he said he said whatever in our personal chair internships all this drama yeah and we don't want Ron no no drama forget enough drama with the business end that's probably the toughest Bahrain thing is getting a really the people that sure like to be there and need to be with the humans sure the other you have their employees so was the assumption when you first started your business that you hire some people because I I can tell you I had that assumption you hire some people you pay some people they do the job life goes on I had no idea that employees came with baggage you know either did I okay so I'm not alone tonight because you know my my other business experience I didn't have employed sure had a partner you know everything else I contracted out for mm-hmm so that was a totally different feel I'm sure when he started the business it was me all right and it was just me sure so that was fine makes it easy I was you get along with your second argue with myself and that's okay so then yeah then I'm hiring it right it's totally right new to me all right so you hire someone they drop the ball and you run real quick Suren hiring is a fine art Oh huge and I'm constantly mm-hmm learning you know actually I've got a great operations manager she does the whole sure of everything okay and I get to that there are two stages to okay your job here they so they made it past the operations manager they're gonna you know they're gonna meet with Megan and sure and I have a chant they're gonna go through things mm-hmm next step is to spend sure if you always with me okay playard OSA they can actually see what they entail you actually see what the job is okay like alright you know that it is working right 50 it's fifty dogs alright there's more to it so I conduct my interview right on the play yard and Megan conducts hers all right in the office so what are some of the things personality wise did you figure out over the course of this few hours I'm looking to really to see what their interaction is mm-hmm with the dogs okay are they nervous mmm-hmm are they do they have the ability to tell a dog not to jump on them hmm are they comfortable there we go picking up poop sure you know there's that right how how did they how are they physically within sure in the yard all right that tells me a lot we able to have a conversation with me and be aware rate their surroundings sure because when you are out there with 50 dogs you need to be aware of yeah constant yeah yeah you're basically so brain you have a conversation and be aware of what's going on what all right probably the hard way I imagine sometimes you hire some bad times you can tell right away sure when they get to the yard aspect you can they interview well inside but it doesn't work they're just covering just doesn't work I've had that before here you really where someone's actually gotten outside and just basically frozen oh just froze it's not ideal no no we're gonna cut this one short right let's maneuver you interesting do you have a favorite customer story you're putting me on the spot I am that's that's the authentic business really putting me on the spot I honestly I can't I can't think of 120 years I imagine there's there's a lot of stories good and bad I imagine I what I never saw was they did have a customer that was a juggler okay and I never got him to come in with his his bowling pins okay I always wanted wasn't juggling puppies or anything no no okay great dog all right uh-huh like that was his job sideline sideline okay see you learn things about your customers it was a sideline right shuttle that it's so bizarre to me there's got to be a love of juggling can you make any money in this one oh you probably can Oh is he still around his dog unfortunately passed away oh no I'm sorry only they haven't gotten another one okay they haven't I haven't seen him sure but I do see I still I still think about him all right let's get him on the air cuz I wouldn't think about his dog Clifford sure he was a big red dog Big Red Dog oh that's awesome um you mentioned your competition and I can see there's competition popping up left and right so can you tell me what the relationship that competition has with each other and you is it cordial do you guys stay out of each other's way did you guys slash each other's tires well you know yeah we don't keep cars I've heard it all from from different businesses and I'm just curious about this one there's not a whole lot at least on my end mmm-hmm I'm aware of sure who's popping up where things are but there's not a whole lot of it's not a lot of communication education okay um I wish them all well you want them to do well right I don't want them to have problems because if one has a problem it starts it'll reflect sure on the group right so I'm never taking my dog I take care because I take them to succeed I'm sure I still want people to view mine as being right you're better that's all right and the way to go and I think I am sure better in a lot of ways it's why I tell people to go and mm-hmm look at places sure you'll make your judgment call mm-hmm all right sure that's alright that's cool all right oh this is a tricky question Kenna would you would you consider your employees to be family friends part of a team or merely transactional it's actually easy it is alright for me sure okay family family okay tell me about that again I'm a small girl sure and I know so we can say small how many are we talking here in a ballpark we'll just say twelve okay not twelve all all the time sure but you know let's just say it's twelve it okay that's it's a small enough girl sure that if they're in school I know where they're going I what what their major is I'm sure I know what their home life is yeah okay we actually get together outside of work as a group as a group okay and do things and just like a quarterly thing or a monthly thing or whenever the spirit all right this this past Friday we got together and we had a bonfire together oh really yeah well very cool so we enjoy each other's alright aren't to me that's that's family I care about their lives mm-hmm problems sure I want them to feel comfortable about talking to me you're going to sure to Megan and talking to Megan oh great so interesting a family all right I like it I like it it's always been like that for me my my mom had her own business my grandparents had their own business and they treated all of their employees sure as family all right the environment that sure that I like is it ever a challenge then to let go of a family member once they dropped a ball too many times it's always a challenge to let somebody sure going something sometimes it well not always sometimes that's necessary sure you know for whatever reason right yeah it's hard to say goodbye all right sure that's fair that's fair actually the ones that are moving on right yeah all right it's it's hard and sometimes they they come back all right you know a good example is we always do a pumpkin-carving every year okay we all get together all right we carve pumpkins surely they have a potluck and we have a lot of fun there are people that no longer work for me mm-hmm that will come really back just to carve a pumpkin uh and see sure it's still wrong oh very cool so yeah that's mammy that is totally family that's me a little family reunions on there that is awesome uh-huh but another fun question I'll put you on the spot with how do you make decisions give me a give me a for instance uh for instance you are choosing an employee comes to you and says they want to raise their DS employee how to make the decision how do you make the decision like again it's how long have they been there because I do sure annual okay all right so if they're gonna come to me before that mm-hmm review I'm gonna put it back in their lab all right see you need sure I need to pitch it show me you're working you have to sell it to surance it's not only selling it to me it's also selling it to my operations man sure okay cuz there is a change sure fair let me let me know if there's a change all right let me give you another one let's just say landlord wants you to sign the lease for X time well like you made the decision right changing locations or or to expand or to add I don't know what equipment you need for a dog but let's just say should we get a bigger pool or whatever just some improvements of some kind with its software I don't know some big business decision things easy okay we're in this building if they come and they want a bigger lease that I have no problem sure that's an old breaker sure the other thing is like a bigger pool or software or whatever yeah now you're talking dollars to cents yeah so his capital expense you you have to you have to look at you know where your positives or negatives you know how long is it gonna take to actually pay for itself okay so so it's not necessarily emotionally driven it's more logic based it's gonna be logic based okay you may be known again there I'll be honest there our emotional decisions sure dot the pool would be possibly an emotional sure I want a bigger pool everybody wants a bigger eyeliner who right yeah one that's fair to talk to it like you have to write as why would they want to just cuz more can be in there at once or at they can spread it out all right my luck is I'd have to would need all of youse one just to check how you do it um so you got these dogs you have dogs your boarding seven days a week yes 365 yes okay so when do you take time off I don't know after 20 years is still working I I don't I keep telling myself it's gonna happen sure okay my customers keep me asking what are you gonna take some time off right it'll happen I have I really like what I do okay that's good so I like getting up in the morning that's all right I like going to work out there's a lot of people take vacation that do not so like being with the dogs I like being with the customers sure like being with my staff all right do I need a break yes sure and the time will come all right well at least you got an hour here so that's cool you know we're talking business so I guess that's not necessarily a break yeah but this is fun we're talking dogs okay we're having a good time so that's all that matters um what is next for a lucky dog daycare you've been around you've expanded well the boarding which is expanded now I can board up to 50 dogs that's a lot of dogs a lot of dogs yeah so right now it's getting the word out about that um that's starting to do quite well sure which is nice the next step for me which I've been toying with is I would like to add grooming okay so I'm gonna add try Nana not sure business within the business so some more dog services yeah no you do training as well right I do private training okay I don't de Graaff group classes okay at the moment okay um but he do private stuff so for the dogs that they have some issues or certain certain issues that every dog is an issue group classes are a must sure and it's not necessarily for the dog okay it's more so for the human sure to be taught right and then when there's specific issues sure like if Kirby had needed to be taught how to walk better on a leash I mean something very specific sure you know people pull me in for that okay and that's what I enjoy doing doing one-on-one with with an owner and sure dog again you're working on a certain issue all right with a goal sure that makes sense okay so that's cool um where can people find you imagine you have a website got the website okay lucky dog daycare lucky dog - dick here calm okay and then phone number two four nine five eight nine - awesome so yeah then an email info at lucky dog - daycare calm that's easy enough and then you would almost think the company name was lucky dog and then you have social media pages amazing Facebook Facebook same thing the lucky dog okay lucky dog a carrot you'll find it yes super cool last question I have for you is what advice would you give to a person that was considering starting a business of any kind make sure it's something that you're going to enjoy alright you know elaborate on that a little well there's nothing worse than doing you know starting something mm-hmm and fine you know it you don't like it one of you get up in the morning sure net or if it's if it's again you've got the pros and cons are gonna have the difficulties right and starting anything sure it's you want to be able to get up in the morning and enjoy where you're going that's totally fair and if you can't do that you got for me for me even if you're making a lot of money yeah where's the wars be enjoying what's the point or is he injured yeah I get it I get it I'm very wrong I'd like a lot of money and enjoy what I do no one I said I wish I had less money I really have too much maybe Jeff Bezos or something I don't know where to put my billions so I appreciate you coming on Greg this has been super cool thanks for having Greg lucky dog - daycare comm info at lucky dog daycare comm right where are you located for the people that want to know eight five five capital dry alright which is essentially just off 151 in the st. Mary's clinic here of Reiner Rhodes okay Clinic sure Woodman's is another all right landmark but I'm right by that st. Mary's Cheryl so easy on Easy Off people are community on Easy Off sure very cool people driving down from Columbus and they pull off 151 I'm sure the dog off they go in a man and they go to work noise so very cool awesome well thanks for being on this has been a blast this has been authentic business adventures the business program that brings you those struggles stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land coming to you from the Sun Prairie community studios underwritten by Bank of Sun Prairie my name is James K diamond and authentic business adventures is brought to you by calls on call offering call answering and receptionist services for small businesses across the country on the web at calls on call comm as well as draw in customers business coaching offering business coaching services for entrepreneurs in all stages of their business on the web at draw in customers calm and of course the bold business book a book for the entrepreneur in all of us available on Amazon and wherever fine books are sold we'd like to thank you our wonderful listeners as well as our guest Greg Altman owner of Lucky Dog daycare in Sun Prairie Greg thanks again for being on here this is awesome thanks for having me find us area and 103.5 Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. Sundays at 2:00 p.m. as well as at Sun Prairie Media Center com past episodes can be found morning noon and night at the podcast link found at draw in customers calm thank you for listening I want you to stop thank you for listening I'm going too fast here we'll see you next week I want you to stay awesome and if you do nothing else enjoy your business [Music]