We recently connected with Angelina Santiago and have shared our conversation below.

Angelina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

This was actually an easy one for me. For my pet concierge business, Nubby and Company, I named it after my fur baby, Nubby, who had recently passed away after 14 years. I wanted a way to keep his name alive. As for my photography and videography business I pretty much just named it after myself, Angelina Arabella Photography Productions.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Angelina and I’ve worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for about 10 years. In February of 2020, my dog Nubby passed away. He was a big part of my life for 14 years and I took his passing very hard. Although I know that he knew he was loved and cared for, all I could think of was how I wished I had spent more time with him while he was here. It ate me up inside knowing how much my career took up a lot of my time, especially with all the overtime hours I had to put in, and it really made me think a lot about the time I was putting into my family and loved ones. That’s when I decided I was going to quit my career and start my own business that would allow me the time and freedom to work on my own schedule so I could spend more time with my family.

That’s when Nubby & Company was born. The following month in March of 2020 I had resigned from my job and started my business. Little did I know, a pandemic was about to happen. So the timing most definitely wasn’t the best. Most people were home and definitely didn’t need pet services since they were working from home. But I didn’t let that discourage me. I found a decent amount of clients who were very busy, even working from home, who still needed someone like me to just help care for their dogs. Dog boarding was (and still is) my most popular service since a lot of people also had more time to travel. So I still somehow managed to keep myself busy and run my business. What sets me apart from traditional dog boarding businesses is that I do everything from my own home. So the dogs in my care are always cage free and can comfortably roam around just as they would if they were in their own home. I have since expanded the business to now offer dog treats and care products such as skin balms, and shampoos. I also have a local grooming business who sells my products out of their store which is pretty cool.

Aside from that, I started a second business in 2022 named Angelina Arabella Photography Productions. Just as the name says, it’s a photography and video business. I’ve always had a passion for photography and making video content so I decided to give things a go and make a business from it. I’ve always been asked by my friends and family to be the one to take the photos or make a cool video since I was pretty good at it, so I think that’s really what initially pushed me to start doing this as a business. In order to set myself apart from other photographers, I aim to be more of a ‘boutique style’ photographer. Most of photographers are ‘shoot & burn’. Meaning you pay them to take photos, they do some basic edits, send you the digitals and you have pictures you can send to friends, family, and social media. My sessions come in 2 separate parts. First is the photoshoot session, followed by the viewing and ordering session. For the first part of the session I take the pictures and I stay as long or as little as needed, so there is no time limit or rushing through it. Then I’ll take some time, usually a week or two, to cull and edit photos. Then we meet for the second part of the session where I present you with the all the photos (sometimes I’ll print a few samples), and you pick the photos you like best. This is where I encourage you to buy prints whether that be wall frames, canvases, photo albums, ornaments, etc. Basically, I want the photos to be used as art and displayed in peoples homes. Something you can walk by, look at, and be able remember that moment. Rather than having it sit on a hard drive and forgotten. But I do always offer the digitals in addition to prints as well.

I also am doing photography for businesses as well and have been taking photos of houses for realtors, and even home construction progress photos for home building. As for the videography part, I’ve been mostly working on social media projects, and interviews for local businesses. So things like reels and YouTube content. I even joined the social media team and TV production team for my local church. Some recently exciting news for me was that I studied and passed my test for my FAA Remote Pilot License. So now I can legally fly drones for business purposes which I am excited to add to my services for my clients and prospective clients.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for me for both of my businesses has been to utilize social media platforms. And I don’t just mean instagram and facebook, although those are the most obvious ones. I have used the Nextdoor platform which is a great tool for getting your local neighbors to learn about your business and who you are. But there are so many others that can be used specific to your business. If you like to sell handmade items, utilize Etsy to grow your customer base. If you own a dog sitting business like me, you can use Rover or Wag to get your name out there and eventually build long lasting relationships outside of the platform like I did. It really all depends on what you do, but there are so many platforms out there that can help you get your feet wet if you do your research.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

For my pet business I do make my own pet products. I’d have to say that working in pharmaceutical manufacturing for most of my career has really been a key factor in how I was able to do this so easily. I started in a position where I was formulating and making pharmaceutical products hands on from scratch, and have worked my way to the tippy top in the Quality Assurance department where at that point I knew how everything needed to be done from start to finish. So I had all the knowledge from personal experience which includes formulating products, which ingredients are needed, balancing the pH, labeling requirements, lab testing requirements, documentation, and much more. I also have personal contacts who are chemists and scientists that I can reach out to if I need any help which is a huge plus.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.angelinaarabellaphotography.com AND www.nubbyandcompany.com
• Instagram: @angelinaarabellaphotography AND @nubbyandcompany
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/angelinaarabellaphotography AND ww.facebook.com/nubbyandcompany
• Other: My Personal instagram is @angelina.arabella

Image Credits
Angelina Arabella Photography