We were lucky to catch up with Alison Prehoda recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alison, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
When I was 26 years old, I took one of the most significant risks of my life. I worked in two high-profile corporate companies for most of my young adult life. They provided growth in my personal and business development But also showed me the toxic environment of large corporations. Then, in November 2013, I took a job at Nike Headquarters. This was a significant opportunity for my career and was an appreciated change of scenery after working in the tech industry. As I walked onto campus for my first day, I was excited as this could be a life-changing opportunity. And possibly where I build a long-term career. With ambition in my eyes, I was determined to work my way up the corporate ladder.
Like many people who started at Nike, I signed a year contract as an admin for the talent acquisition team. Nike is a challenging company to get your foot in the door, and I was thrilled to work with a team with access to the entire campus. Being a contracted employee means you have one year to find a full-time position at Nike, which also means networking. As soon as I started, I quickly realized that it’s everyone’s person for themselves. My team was incredible, helpful, and supportive in helping me understand the culture of Nike. However, my boss was highly toxic and had a reputation for being challenging to work for. After four exhaustion months of frustrations, high anxiety, and depression, I wrote nine pages of documentation reporting my boss’s behavior. And I ended up leaving the company after intense back and forth with HR. Not only did I not have a job lined up but. I also had no clue what I was doing. I just knew in my gut I couldn’t work in a job that wasn’t providing a healthy working environment. And didn’t treat people with respect. I had no clue where my next paycheck was coming from and how I would make it. But all I knew was I couldn’t work in Corporate culture anymore. And taking this risk led to me starting my business!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi, my name is Alison Prehoda, and I am the founder of Walk A Poochie. I started my company after I voluntarily left my corporate job. Before starting my own business, I walked a few dogs in my apartment complex to make money while working on opening a tech business. Within a few months, my clientele quickly grew, and I noticed a lack of quality dog walking business in my area. I created a company that would provide a superior dog walking experience for both dogs and their families. Over the next couple of years, Walk A Poochie expanded from just me as the sole dog walker to now having several employees.
As a small business, I am passionate about creating a community with my clients and staff. Employees are a big part of staying afloat and can provide services throughout the Portland Metro area. I wanted my employees to have a work-life balance and feel appreciated for their jobs. I work hard to make sure they are making living wages and trying to create career paths for them in this industry.
My industry has been challenging over the last three years, especially during and after Covid. Working from home became the new normal, and not many people needed dog walking as it became their break from work. As society has started moving to the new normal, we started to find new services to offer and started working on creating fun social media posts. I have owned this company for nine years. During those nine years, there have been lots of ups and downs. This job is highly physical and emotional as your walking sometimes upwards of 15 miles a day. And you become very attached to your dogs. Dog walkers must be able to walk in all weather conditions and be highly aware of their surroundings.
Employees are trained for four weeks before they are even allowed to take on their own routes. We require every new client to have a meet and greet. And require all new employees to meet the owners of the dogs they are walking. Training our staff is essential in this industry as we want them to feel comfortable with their dogs and our dogs to feel comfortable with our staff. Building long-lasting relationships with our clients is very important to me and why we have stayed afloat for many years.
Over the next year, I am working hard to grow this industry, provide new services, and grow our social media following. I have mainly been word of mouth for many years, but we are expanding our social media. And hopefully starting some fun social events for our clients. Owning a small business isn’t easy, especially because you wear many hats. You face many challengings in staffing, taxes, money, clients, etc. But I wouldn’t change a thing, and I love owning my own company.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
For my industry, the best way to source new clients is through word of mouth and apartment complexes. I quickly learned that becoming friends with the leasing office was a great way to generate new business. They put our business cards in all their welcome packages for new residents. For example, Portland has many little areas that have multiple apartment complexes. I would become friends with all the leasing agents, who then provided our cards to all residents with dogs. Then we would be assigned two or more employees to those apartments to provide the service. I am an extremely social person, which also helps promote my company.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Over the last three years, I have had to illustrate extreme resilience. Like many small business owners, I was never taught how to deal with a worldwide pandemic. When the pandemic started, I had no choice but to close my doors until we knew more about what was happening. I went from having nine employees, over 100 clients, and averaging 60 walking daily to nothing. My bank account started to dwindle as we continued to apply for financial aid and kept staff on, as we were told it would only be a month of closure. Lo and behold, it was two years of nonstop up and downs. In my first year of the pandemic, I worked seven days a week to keep my business open. I was lucky to receive financial aid, but the inconsistency of clients’ work schedules faced challenges. Slowly but surely, we started seeing clients returning and more people using our services again.
As we continue to face challenges in the present day. I would say the last three years have shown me how resilient I am, and I hope this year I see the pick-up my business needs to stay around for another 10y years. I still face challenges in paying down the debt I acquired over the last three years, trying to keep up with all the crazy amounts of taxes we have to pay, and ensuring my staff is making enough to survive. The world is more expensive, and it’s taking a toll on the small business owners. But I love what I do so much; it keeps the drive and resilience alive. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.walkapoochie.com
- Instagram: @walkapoochie
- Facebook: Walk A Poochie