Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Nelson.
Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started On Paws Professional Pet Services a few months after I started staying home with my oldest daughter. She was about 8 months old at the time. I only expected to be able to stay home with her about a year, but I wanted to be able to be with her as much as possible and watch her grow and be involved in her life, so I started looking for ways to make more money and still have the flexibility to be with her.
A few years before I had a child, I had thought about starting a pet sitting company but didn’t have the time or availability at that moment in time. But when I started staying home with my daughter I did, so I set out doing some research on best practices, insurance, pricing and everything that goes into having a pet sitting business. Once I had all of that information together, I started planning, I registered as a business with the state, bought insurance and started marketing my business.
It took a few years to really get off the ground but once I figured out how to get listed on Google and boost SEO, the business started to take off. And of course, the reputation I had built with the clients I did have was starting to get around, which helped the business grow immensely.
My husband eventually joined my team and then we started to add more staff as the business started to grow.
A year or two after starting the pet sitting side of the business, I decided to also offer boarding and doggy daycare in my home, in addition to pet sitting in client’s homes. We offered this in our home for several years, until it started to grow too much for our house to accommodate. So, in 2021 we started looking for other locations to move that side of the business to and by August of that year, we moved into our current location at 2710 Hunter Rd, in San Marcos.
Both sides of the business have continued to grow and we now have a team of 10 employees, that includes myself and my husband, Jon, that work between both our in home pet sitting side of the business and the boarding and daycare side of the business.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been far from smooth. It took a couple years to really get off the ground because I didn’t quite understand SEO until about a year and a half into the business but once I grasped that it started to take off and was pretty smooth for several years.
Then COVID hit and our business is mainly contingent upon clients traveling. People stopped traveling and we no longer had much of a business for several months. We had to use SBA loans and grants to help us get through the tough times. But, we emerged out of that without too much damage to the business. Once people started traveling again business picked back up and grew.
After opening our facility, we had some trouble getting it off the ground. We would have a few good months, then a few slow months. We also had to learn how to scale it safely for the dogs and our employees. Which took a lot of trial and error with systems and procedures. But now, 4 years into opening the facility, I feel like we have found the right systems and procedures that help the dogs have a fun and stimulating time while being safe for everyone.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about On Paws Professional Pet Services?
On Paws Professional Pet Services provides in home pet sitting and dog walking where we come to client’s homes and care for their pets in their homes. This is great for pets that do not do well away from home. They can be pampered and get specialized attention directly from our staff of sitters.
We also have a small boarding and doggy daycare facility. This facility is in a house, and even though it is solely used for caring for the dogs, we try and make it feel like a home away from home. There are comfy chairs and cots for the dogs to rest on, they get plenty of indoor and outdoor monitored play time with the other dogs and can come and go into the yard and the house. They also get lots of love and attention from our staff, plus structured rest time throughout the day.
We pride ourselves on being honest and transparent and providing the best quality care we can. We try and learn from mistakes and make improvements when we find we haven’t lived up to client standards. We want to be a place in the community that clients can trust with their pets and their homes, we want to set the standard in pet care in our community, we strive to remain affordable and available as much as possible to our clients.
What matters most to you? Why?
Trust. I want clients to know they can trust me and my staff so I’m always honest and up front about everything. If we find something wrong, we communicate it to clients. If we feel we are no longer the right fit for a client, we tell them immediately. If we make mistakes, we communicate those immediately. Our business works with some of the most precious things to people, their pets and their homes, and that is a responsibility we don’t take lightly. In our hiring practices, in our training and in our service, we strive to hire the best, most honest people, we train them to take care and respect with client’s pets and homes and to be honest and truthful in everything we do.
Pricing:
- 30 Minute Pet Sitting Visit $27 per visit
- Overnight Boarding $38 per night
- Doggy Daycare $27 per day
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.onpawspetservices.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onpawspetservices/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onpawspetservices/
