We recently connected with Cara Callaway and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Cara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

There were times in the beginning, after I had quit my day job that I wished someone would still just had me a paycheck once a week and tell me what to do. That was 23 years ago and now I couldn’t be happier as a business owner. In the beginning when I was just starting there were times of financial uncertainty and wondering if my student list and the business would grow, and there’s more to being a sole business owner than just being your own boss. All the answers have to come from you, all the problem solving has to come from you and all the income has to be generated by you. The business has grown considerably over the years and now I have three other trainers working for me and dozens of students and everything usually runs pretty smoothly. It’s been many years since I’ve longed for someone to hand me a paycheck and I love what I do.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I had never really participated in any sports and I was not really competitive, but here I was in my 50’s after spending 32 years in law firm management and administration, starting what would become the largest dog agility training center in Southern California, Jump City Agility, in 1999. And it was all unplanned. I hadn’t had a dog since my son was little but I had moved into a house with a big yard and decided to get a dog. I wanted to do lots of fun things with “Teddy”, an Australian Cattle Dog, so enrolled in an agility class. Agility is a sport where dogs run obstacle courses at the direction of their handler. It can lead to competition or it can just be something fun you do with your dog in once a week classes. While I was not the best handler at first, Teddy was an amazing dog who really took to the sport and we ended up traveling the country to many AKC agility championships where we did very well. Teddy was the top Australian Cattle Dog in agility for several years.
During this time, I started teaching where I had been taking agility lessons . The owner of that business was primarily interested in fast, competitive dogs, but I was a firm believer that the sport was good for all dogs and all handlers so I decided to start my own training center. Agility was just getting started in the US in the 90’s and quickly became very popular. Jump City grew rapidly and I soon had to add more trainers and increase the number of class hours and it’s been that way for the last 23 years.
I love what I do and never get tired of seeing people become more bonded with their dogs. I get a lot of rescue dogs in the training and many have significant issues like fear, shyness, lack of confidence. Because of the positive, fun and rewarding nature of agility training, I have never seen it fail to correct these issues. This alone keeps me going in the sport and I will never forget the student who came up to me after a few classes and thanked me for giving her back a “real dog”.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I was in my mid 50’s and had been in law firm management and administration for 32 years when I discovered the sport of dog agility. I had never dreamed of having my own business and was very happy and successful working for law firms. Then I met a dog…. Just for fun I started taking agility lessons and fell in love with the sport. After a couple of years I surprised even myself and became a pretty good teacher of the sport after having considerable success in the agility competition arena and was encouraged to start my own training center.
Getting my training center started overlapped with my law firm job and I’ll never forget the day I decided to go full time into agility. While I was excited to leave the confines of an office job, there were worries about being able to support myself and being able to handle everything on my own. This was a huge change in my life but I have never had a moment of real regret and things just keep getting better and better.

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

Probably the best source of new clients is word of mouth. I treat all my students equally whether they have an unruly dog or one that is a natural athlete. Giving each student my undivided attention and helping them become the best they can be with their dogs is really appreciated and word gets around. My web site has a class registration form and one of the questions asks where they heard about Jump City Agility. Many answer the internet, Google search or Yelp. I don’t advertise on any of these platforms or pay to be listed first. I’m also not the only choice of agility trainers that are listed on these sites..

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jumpcityagility.com
• Facebook: Jump City Agility
• Yelp: Jump City Agility