Today we’d like to introduce you to Dede Lally
Hi DeDe, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
8 years ago, I opened a little dog daycare business in South Austin and called it Pups & Pals Pet Lounge.
Prior to opening in the Fall of 2016, I tried for months to find a lease, applied for 3 potential lease properties only to be denied for being a young, inexperienced girl with a business idea, a little turquoise binder with a business plan in it, which included pictures of dogs and pictures of kennels, and my social media strategy which everyone ignored 🤔🤔🤔, and the most outrageous high interest scam of a loan for $60,000 that a sketchy online bank gave me! One of those banks that if you don’t pay it back in time you get royally screwed. You see, I had no assets, no home to put up as collateral, no proven concept, no business tax returns, and I was only 24 years old, so obviously I was laughed out of like 12 different banks. Landlords were absolutely uninterested and I don’t blame them.
Luckily on my 4th attempt to lease a property I found a little yellow house up for commercial lease on South 1st Street and the owners actually liked my little business plan in my little binder. My realtor helped me secure the lease and a few months later, on November 14th, 2016, Pups & Pals opened!
I’d like to say, “I never knew it would grow into what it has today…” but that would be a lie! Becuase the truth is, I always knew that Pups & Pals would be a success because the people of Austin Texas love a few things very much: They love their pups. And they love supporting small businesses. So my gut always told me that Pups & Pals would work!
I followed my gut and quit my Master’s program in Graduate School when I was more than half way done (Sorry Dad!) Quit my job I had been at for two years and loved. And took a big risk!
I opened Pups & Pals in the Fall of 2016 with little experience and learned as I went. And grew the business little by little. I opened a 2nd location in the Oak Hill area of Southwest Austin in the Fall of 2018. So now I had 2 locations to operate which came with more challenges, more risk, but more reward.
Then, fast forward to today. This July, 2024 was the opening the brand new beautifully designed mega facility at the original South Park location! We have created the most beautiful, spacious, SAFEST, dog boarding and daycare facility that Austin has ever seen. I’ve been under construction for two years. Our new facility is complete with a full fire suppression sprinkler system, 12 security cameras, 61 Luxury Suites, an indoor play room, 2 lucious dog play yards, and the same top notch, impeccable care for each and every pup that we are known for.
I owe my success and my growth to my amazing clients who have supported my small business over the last 8 years. We are so proud to offer such a beautiful facility for their fur babies to enjoy, and to keep them healthy and safe. We may look very flashy now and have an appearance similar to the big corporate dog daycares with our big new facility, but we are still a female owned, local small business, a true “Mom” shop, with the BEST staff you could ever imagine!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest struggle I faced was the COVID era of 2020 and 2021. Prior to the onset of Covid, my business was booming. I had 2 flourishing locations, a stellar reputation in the community, applications from eager staff rolling in daily, a plethora of dogs filling my dog suites with their reservations. I felt truly on top of the world. I had made it through the first 4 years of business with almost no issues. I had opened a 2nd location of my business in 2018 and by the 2020 new year, that location was smooth sailing. I was really hitting my stride. I re-invested a lot of money into improvements at both of my locations and was really proud to be always growing and always improving. I also had a lot of free time for the first time. After 4 years of grinding, I was feeling very comfy. I was taking a lot of time off. With Pups & Pals locations both fully staffed and with people lining up at the door to work there, I was able to delegate responsibility to my managers and start to enjoy my life a little bit more. I started to pursue music again, which has always been my passion, besides dogs. I also had developed a little bit of an ego I must say.
But then, Covid hit in March of 2020. This was a rude awakening. Because I had been reinvesting so much into the business and making so many improvements, I had no savings. So when my kennels went from full and waitlisted to empty, this was a big wake up call. I had no choice but to lay off the majority of my staff. Which honestly ended up being better for them in the long run because they could collect unemployment paychecks and extra stipends which ended up being more than their salaries with me!
I applied for the government assistance loans for small businesses affected by covid and received both the PPP loan and the EIDL loan, and this allowed me to breathe a little bit.
But, it was time to grind again. I went from having free time and strumming on my guitar every day, to working from open to close at my business every day just like I had done for the 4 years prior. I had had a taste of the “sweet life” of being a successful entrepreneur who had “made it,” for about 6 months, and then was thrust back into the grind that was similar to opening a business for the first time. So I worked every day, 14 to 16 hours for an entire year. I loved what I did, so I wasn’t upset. But it was stressful. It wasn’t the exciting “working every day because I’m building a business” feeling. It was the “working every day because I have no staff, and even if I had staff I couldn’t afford to pay them right now,” the “working every day because I have no choice, I have so much money on the line and I have to make sure my business survives this.”
The anxiety was paramount. Not knowing what this COVID thing really was, or how long it would last, or when it would end. Would this be the new norm? The information was changing every day.
This was the first era that I felt that I kinda missed having a “boss.” I was the person that everyone was turning to. My former staff, my current staff, my clients, all looking to me for answers every day. I had to make decisions without even understanding the full scope of what Covid really was or what the outlook was. I wished that I could just “clock out” and leave a list of problems for my boss to deal with tomorrow. But there was no boss to schlep things off to. Only me. That was the toughest year of my life. But we did make it through and I learned so much.
I learned to have SAVINGS first and foremost. To know that a pandemic or an economic crash could happen at any time, and I need to be prepared. That was the biggest takeaway. To be more prepared. And to be more humble.
We’ve been impressed with Pups & Pals Pet Lounge, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a doggy daycare and boarding facility with 2 locations in South Austin. We have been in business for 8 years. We are truly a small business, like a “mom and pop shop,” however, there is no pop here, so it’s just a “mom shop!” 🙂
We are known for our amazing customer service. We have created a loving environment where dogs feel that it is their home away from home, and our clients feel that too. We prioritize the health, happiness, and safety of the dogs in our care and we treat them as if they are our very own.
We prioritize play time for dogs. There are a lot of boarding facilities where dogs are cooped up inside spending most of their time in a kennel and only getting to go out 3 times per day. At Pups & Pals we run doggy play groups all day long in our beautiful green grassy play yards! We prioritize maximizing play time and not just keeping pups cooped up inside all day.
We have very spacious play yards with beautiful overgrown oak trees providing plenty of shade to keep the pups cool. We are located in the city, but offer the outdoor nature and beauty of the country.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
This is not exactly the correct place to write about this, but I do want to mention something special about my company and one of my missions at Pups & Pals.
We are an all inclusive work place. I have always desired to one day own a work place where all employees and clients feel safe. I have worked for companies in the past and in workplaces where there was racism, sexism, sexual harassment, homophobia, etc. When I embarked on the journey to become an enterprenuer, one of the most important missions for me was to create a company culture of inclusivity, and a work place where everyone feels supported, heard, valued, and safe.
My employees range in backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, races, sexual orientation, gender, etc. We are a very colorful bunch. At least 50% or more of my 41 employees are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. We have several transgender employees who are undergoing transformations with their bodies and lives. We have members of the staff who have pronoun preferences that do not match their exterior. They are welcome, they are safe, they are valued, and they are in a work place that sees them and their beauty, and does not discriminate. We promote from within and are proud to be a workplace in which members of the LGBTQIA+ community receive promotions and move up the ladder. Two of the managers are transgender individuals.
We have members of our staff of many different ethnicities including white, black, hispanic, latino, asian, indian, puerto rican, etc.
We have a member of our staff who is deaf. She has taught us all sign language. She has worked at Pups & Pals for almost 6 years, and at the South Park location where she is employed, many of our long time employees have become fluent in sign language. She teaches us 10 new signs per week.
We proudly fly the LGBTQIA+ flag year round at our facilities to ensure that all clients walking in for the first time who may belong to this community immediately know that we stand with them. We also just recently incorporated the flag into our logo on social media.
Pups & Pals has become known in the LGBTQIA+ community as a great place for members of this community to work, thrive, develop careers, learn, and grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pupsandpalspetlounge.com
- Instagram: @pupsandpalssouthpark @pupsandpalsoakhill
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pupsandpalssouthpark and https://www.facebook.com/pupsandpalsoakhill
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pups-and-pals-pet-lounge-south-park-location-austin
