We were lucky to catch up with Becca Bjork recently and have shared our conversation below.

Becca, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

My business provides wedding pet attendant services; this is a very niche business and few people know that a company like ours exists. I had seven weddings in my first year, and I have a little over forty this year!

There are a variety of factors that played into my growth as a business. First, I left my comfort zone and networked with other wedding vendors. This happened in a variety of ways. I started looking for wedding venues, photographers, & other creative wedding specialists like live wedding painters, floral preservation, etc. I sparked a conversation either in-person or via social media messaging to get advice, establish a relationship, and help promote each other. I also went to networking events and wedding fairs and even connected with wedding vendors to make my business known. Sometimes I drove on my days off to tour venues and got my business on the venue’s radar to promote to their clients if they inquired about having their dog on-site.

Additionally, I invested in professional software services to increase my professionalism and efficiency with client documents and communication. While this seems like a small step, it led to significant changes. This allowed me to create professional and enticing documents showcasing the value of my business to potential clients, which helped lead to more booked weddings. However, I realized that I needed to let potential clients know what we do as wedding pet attendants to draw them in; therefore, another investment I had to scale up my business was to schedule and plan a branding shoot with a photographer, wedding venue, makeup-up artist, models, and dog models from a rescue to provide a behind-the-scenes view into the details of what a wedding pet attendant does. This includes transporting your pets, brushing/grooming them, dressing them, taking care of their essential needs such as feeding, hydrating, pottying, exercising, assisting with placement and attention in photos, assisting with the dog’s aisle walk, and more.

Becca, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started Becca’s MN Pet Care to provide dog-loving couples with a way to include their furry best friends on their wedding days without being responsible for their care. I found this service gap when I got engaged and wanted my two rescue dogs at our wedding, but I didn’t want a friend or family member to care for them while trying to celebrate. Also, as much as I wanted them there, as the bride, I didn’t want to care for them on my big day.

As a wedding pet attendant company, we are a “day-of-coordination” service for our couples’ dogs; we take care of everything from transportation, caring for all basic needs, assisting with photos, walking the dogs down the aisle, caring for the dog during social hour, and overall guaranteeing a committed focus to the safety, health, and well-being of our client’s dogs.

I am most proud of the compassionate care our consultants show every human and dog client. We provide a service for our clients that will create lifelong memories, and we are so happy to be a part of that. Recently, we won Minnesota Bride magazine’s “Best Pet Attendant” of 2023 based on votes from our clients and vendor friends. More than anything, I am proud of this award because it shows that we treat our client’s pets as if they are our own, and it shows how much our clients cherish having their best fur-ends by their side on one of the biggest days of their lives.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The most significant source of new clients is our website which can be found via Google. I update our website consistently, and we provide clear and transparent information covering services, packages and prices, client testimonials, and more.

However, the lead source that is growing the most exponentially for us is vendor referrals. All the hard work put into networking, creating relationships, connecting with wedding vendors, and establishing a reputable name for our company is starting to be seen.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building an audience on social media has been a struggle, and I am still very much in the thick of that struggle. One thing that I have found that is working for us is to send every booked client an email asking them to follow us on our business social media accounts to see behind-the-scenes footage of their dog at their wedding. To coincide with these, we also post behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of every wedding on our stories and tag our clients. By tagging them, we alert them to our account and allow them the opportunity to share the post on their own stories, reaching a whole new audience of potential clients for our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beccasmnpetcare.wixsite.com/petcare
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beccas_mn_petcare/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Beccasmnpetcare
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-bjork-675b3b107/
• Other: Email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Sara Dawn Photography Whitley Sanders Photography Kelly Reeves Photography Cameron and Tia Photography Anna Behning Photography The Fladebos (Nicki + Jacob Fladebo) Fresh Face Photography Whitney Lubeley Photography