We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melissa Nardone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Melissa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Would you say you are more focused on growing revenue or cutting costs? We’d love to hear how you think about these two critical drivers

Growing revenue and the ability t0 cut costs are both important but as a small business owner I have to focus on growing revenue until I have the buying power to cut costs in a significant and measurable way.

I started Lowcountry Dog Treats three years ago when we moved to Charleston. It was during the height of Covid and the job market was not promising. I started selling our products on weekends at a few local farmers markets. I never expected my small business to be more than a side hustle. All that changed when I was accepted into the Charleston Nigh Market. As one of the top tourist attractions in Charleston I now had the opportunity to showcase my product to many thousand people nightly vs a few hundred at the farmers markets. This grew my revenue exponentially simply by the exposure I was given.

Melissa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Before moving to Charleston and starting Lowcountry Dog Treats I owned a successful dog walking and pet sitting business. I have always loved animals and started baking treats for my furry clients as a thank you for their business and to show my appreciation. My clients loved the treats and started asking to purchase them. Then Covid hit. My company went from doing a minimum of fifty walks a day to zero. A few months later my husband, Robert and I decided that if we were going to have to start over it may as well be in Charleston.

Lowcountry Dog Treats started with four biscuit flavors and the goal of providing homemade, healthy, and delicious treats for dogs. Our english bulldogs, Tank & Harlequin will eat anything. This does not make them the ideal taste testers so we found the most finicky pups in the neighborhood to taste our treats. After several attempts I got the recipes right and I launched the business with Rob’s help. As my business grew identifing customer needs and wants and identifing industry trends was very important for continued growth and customer satisfaction. For us this included adding to our assortment. We now offer grain free options, jerky, woofles, doggy donuts, and barkuterie boxes. We have also branched out to dog toys including handmade snuffle balls, snuffle mats, and ropes. Of course we can”t leave out the cats so we now have cat treats and toys too.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients for us is our existing clients. There have been so many times that someone buys our treats and then brings their family or friends over to buy treats too. Dog lovers happily share information about the products they love

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Ecommerce is an intrical part of my business. Since a large percentage of my customers are in Charleston from out of the area I needed to give them a way to easily purchase more treats for their dogs. My original site allowed the customer to email me to make a purchase. This required a lot of back and fourth to get addresses, give shipping quotes, generate invoices, etc. More often than I want to admit customers were lost in the lengthy process. About a year ago I invested in a true eccomerce site that allows customers to shop, compare items, and complete their transaction all at one time. This has increased online sales over 50%.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lowcountrydogtreats.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/lowcountry_dog_treats/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lowcountrydogtreats