The new Maidstone Dog Walking Company
At the start of this year, I had a job wobble; I woke up to a grey sky full of cold January rain and a day of 19 dogs requiring walks. I was tired, past tired actually I was exhausted. What most people don’t see behind the scenes of a little ‘cottage industry’ business such as dog walking and pet care is the paperwork, the balancing of time and the non-stop worry of a lack of money.
Of course, I loved my job still; I loved the animals, the time outdoors (yes even in the rain) and the control but I hated the worry of traffic, (which with the Maidstone one way system and the constant battle with Operation Stack Stuck is a really big issue).
The feeling of panic when a client cancels unexpectedly, for them it may be a holiday, for us it is a bill that needs to go to the red with the hope we can quickly pick up a replacement.
The time balance when a client asks for a walk on the day and your entire schedule goes out of the window.
And the annoyance of having to turn work to people you don’t know because the people you do know and trust are equally as full. Because although you may be quiet on Mondays, you just can’t fit in that extra dog on a Tuesday and the dog is going to need care all week long.
It isn’t just cuddling kitties and stroking puppies! So I wobbled for a couple of months, and then in March I received 21 new enquiries. OK, so there were some silly ones, dog boarding (a service we have never offered), training in Wales (WHAT!) and a cat visit in Gravesend which would cost me more in petrol than we could ever make for our usual visit price. But I had to hand most of those enquiries over to people I knew nothing about; I’m naturally a worrier, so I worried that those people might not have the knowledge, ability or insurance and so I worried more and more each enquiry I sent out.
Sooo I decided I had three choices…
1) CLOSE.
2) CHANGE.
3) PUT UP AND SHUT UP.
So as you can guess change is afoot. We have never been a hobby business, we have always taken it deadly serious. But now we are officially a deadly serious company with employees. It is a great big scary change, and I understand that it may make existing and potential clients nervous – after all, it isn’t just putting your babies in the care of one person anymore. BUT that’s a good thing; in fact it’s a great thing. We can cuddle more kitties and stroke more puppies. We can fit in more last-minute walks and visits. Although awesome, sadly even we can’t fix Maidstone’s traffic issues, but we can get to three different areas at once so hopefully if OP Stuck is enforced we will still be able to turn up on time.
So Poppy and Pals Pet Care Ltd is now in metamorphosis. From a small pretty little hungry caterpillar to hopefully a great big beautiful butterfly.
