We were lucky to catch up with Ari Perez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ari, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

I handle all of my own social media marketing on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat. I’m very tech savvy and my day job is a recruiter, so I have an entry-level marketing background. I love taking pictures of my dogs and puppies to post across all of the platforms and engage with clients or potential clients as well as other breeders. Some of my videos or pictures are cute, some are funny, and some are just for advertising purposes. I love being able to handle all of the social media on my own because for me it’s a lot of fun! My account on Instagram used to grow followers a lot faster than it does now, but I believe that it’s due to the algorithm changing as well as not posting as consistently as I would like.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been breeding Frenchies for about six years. It all started when I first bought one just as a pet. I grew to love the breed so much that I wanted to be able to produce frenchies with similar temperaments and quality to share the breed at its best quality with others. Unfortunately, there are a lot of “backyard breeders” out there that are not producing Frenchies with high quality features or looks, bad temperaments, and most importantly health issues. I take all three of these categories very seriously, so it is my goal to always produce high-quality Frenchies with good health, and great temperaments! I am proud that I have built a successful business from the ground up by myself and can now produce almost every color there is in frenchies as well as fluffy frenchies without sacrificing the health or structure of the dog. I spend a lot of money and do a ton of research to select the right dogs for my program and because of that, my customers are satisfied with healthy and beautiful puppies.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The first litter I ever produced was a nightmare! Because the vet did the C-section too soon in the pregnancy and I didn’t know any better being a brand new breeder, all of my puppies died except for one. Based on that experience from the heartache to the financial burden, I almost did not continue breeding. It was very stressful on me to lose them one by one as I was spending thousands of dollars to try to save them. Breeding is definitely not the faint of heart! Luckily, I had a good support system as I became friends with other breeders, and they reassured me that this kind of thing does not happen very often. I persevered through that experience, and I’m so glad I did because I love what I do!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

It took me about two years to buy enough dogs to start my program with because Frenchies are very expensive and when you are buying top quality ones with correct structure, temperament, lineage, and excellent health, you’re going to pay top dollar! I saved as much money as quickly as I could, and bought them one at a time over the course of two years. After that, I started buying one here and there, but I also started keeping my own litters to start and continue my own lines.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Columbineridgefrenchie.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/columbine.ridge.frenchies