We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful April Henley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with April below.
April, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
The path to success for Dogs On The Run was never about attaining wealth or growth. It was about the process of continuously seeking to be better than traditional pet care options. Scaling happened as a natural response to our unexpectedly sudden success in supplying the demand with the hole in the market. Originally, my company was a personal passion project. Once I learned that the community desperately needed a greater level of professionalism in the pet care industry, it became our mission to be the best. It all started with taking a risk. I had to trust that someone other than myself could be and would be reliable, trustworthy, and understand my belief that pets come first and no one should ever go without care, PERIOD.
Dogs On The Run continued to scale slowly. Typically, with professionals that I knew personally, extremely well and had worked with previously. By not having the expectation or pressure to grow, I was able to see the issues that came up and evaluate them carefully to come up with a practice and system to prevent problems in the future. I continued to learn, educate, empower others and pivot services as I saw fit to best service clients. Integrity, trust, and sincerity is what our business success was built on, genuine relationships with clients and professionals. We never cut corners, and strive to deliver more than promised. Our nurturing relationships have been the #1 ingredient to organic growth in all our 19 years.
April, 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?
Dogs On The Run is a Pet Care Concierge Company that eliminates the stress of interviewing multiple candidates to provide services to pet parents. Our Concierge Department listens and evaluates clients needs and learns about an ideal situation for them and their pets. Then we match pet parents with a DOTR licensed, bonded, insured, and experienced pet care professional from our network.
Over the years, we have come to realize the importance of having our Admin team behind the scene, offering support to professionals and clients. Not only are we taking the strain out of finding a professional for clients, but we are also eliminating all the stress of scheduling, invoicing, marketing, mediating, educating, and supporting DOTR pet care professionals. Dogs On The Run has created protocols and implemented software to ensure that no pets ever go without care.
The thing that separates us from our competition is that we have been in business for 19 years as a local, woman-owned business. We are not a multi-million-dollar software company that has a database of possibilities that you have to shop through in hopes of finding someone compatible with your pet care needs. Dogs On The Run delivers a high end, boutique service that is personalized to each client and does the work for clients.
Dogs On The Run has achieved a critical goal of building the right team. Our Admin team and network of professionals are loyal, hardworking, flexible, trusted partners with transferable skills that have been integral in our success as a company. Without the right characteristics in our professionals, we wouldn’t be able to have the same level of client satisfaction. Our clients recognize the extra steps taken to ensure the happiness and safety of their pets at all times, and know our level of care is only possible through true compassion.
I am most proud of reinvesting all profits into building capability; we have NEVER borrowed from a bank or investors. This meant taking risks, learning from losses, and remaining fearless in the face of adversity. We are grateful to have had this ability, and that this success evolved Dogs On The Run to foster new possibilities on its own.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
In the late afternoon on March 13th, 2020, the phone would not stop ringing. Multiple clients were calling to cancel their reservations for upcoming vacations, postponing their daily dog walks, all because the world was shutting down due to the Coronavirus. At first, we all remained hopeful that this was just temporary. Day by day, week by week… more and more cancellations rolled in. Dogs On The Run began to lose professionals because there wasn’t enough work, and they needed to pay rent and feed their families so they had to find work elsewhere. It was absolutely heartbreaking.
During the pandemic, I spent time reflecting on whether or not I should close the business and go into another line of work. But, in my soul I knew this was where I was supposed to be. So, my Admin team and I worked on building systems (that we have in place today) to streamline and promote growth. We saw that every family was getting a dog during Covid. We saw the endless possibilities to rebuild and serve the community where it needed us; we no longer feared a doomsday!
Our loyal and loving clients continued to support Dogs On The Run, even though many were not using our services. This validated the love for our services, the trust in our principles and it’s what kept us going.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Putting this much heart and compassion into a business can be strenuating, but we pride ourselves on never losing sight of our purpose: we do this for the love of animals. After we survived the pandemic almost killing the company, I took time to reflect on what we have built. We have created an amazing and loving community; a community of people that have the ability to love something other than themselves. We all feel so lucky to be surrounded by amazing humans and pets. I knew that Covid could have been the end, but in my relentless heart, I believed I could not only rebuild, but be even stronger and better. I not only had confidence in myself, but the professionals that were left standing by my side during what was one of the darkest times in my life. The support and optimism is what helped me remain positive, explore, and dream about the possibilities. I knew that in order to succeed I needed to remain flexible and be patient. I continued to communicate with clients throughout the pandemic and asked them how we could help. Our team was open and willing to do anything needed to service the community, especially in assisting the front line workers to the best of our ability. The goal was to serve and solve problems for those in need, it was not about the money or making a profit. We now see the pay-off of our compassion and determination; we are back where we were before Covid, only now with more experience, purpose, and confidence that we are growing in the right direction.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DogsOnTheRun.com
- Instagram: DogsOnTheRun
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dogsontherun/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/april-m-henley-58422013b/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dogs-on-the-run-carlsbad-3