We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Demi Webber a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Demi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

My mother is my hero. She was a successful entrepreneur and a powerful woman. I think I always knew I would become an entrepreneur myself and saw it as being “in my blood”. From a young age my mother would take me to many company meetings, social events, interviews, business errands. I did not realize at the time, but she was teaching me through osmosis. I now have community connections because of her. It would then, and still does now, make me so proud when I heard people say “that’s Linda Webber’s daughter”. She taught me so much, and not all of them grand. Some were simple, polite actions such as when in a meeting, if someone offers me water, accepting it is a way of breaking the ice and making a connection with the person. She was the one to say from the beginning that my pet sitting geography would be important. She came up with my slogan, “We will love them when you have to leave them.” I would call her daily for advice and guidance. My mother was brilliant in marketing and advertising. Since her passing, I feel I have become more like her. I hear her words all the time. Things like, “it’s not what you make, it’s what you spend”, “pick up every item on your desk and think, who can I delegate this to?”, “it’s not whether or not it will get done, but how many hoops you will have to jump through”. “Ounce of prevention, pound of cure.” She was my biggest fan, and I am so lucky to have had a mother like her.

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 was working a full time office job when I was asked by someone if I could stay a couple nights with a pup while they went out of town. I fell in love with caring for the animal and decided then I would pursue pet sitting as a career. It wasn’t long before I was able to focus on pet sitting full time due to the amount of work I had available to me.

We offer home visits and overnight stays. It is important to us that our clients can enjoy their time away knowing their most precious ones are cared for and being loved. Additionally, since we are coming into the owner’s home to care for their animals, we are house sitting too! We go above and beyond for our clients and that’s how I want it to be. We bring in the mail, roll out the trash, water plants. If a dog picks up a bunch of pricklies in his coat, I’ll stay past the visit time to pick them all out one by one, or if a dog rolls in dirt, I will stay to clean him up so the owners do not come home to a mess. I’ll vacuum around the litter boxes and refill bird feeders. We do so much that the owner may not even know we do, but I know we did it and it feels good knowing we are providing exceptional service.

What sets us a part from others are the connections we build with our clients. We do not use a portal to communicate with them. They have our personal phone numbers so we can always be reached. We send a photo and/or video of their furbabies during every visit. That way the owners can see how much fun their animals are having fun on our playdates. We have become so close to the animals and their owners. We are good to them and they are good to us. We are blessed with the best clients!

How’d you meet your business partner?

My business partner is my husband, Kyle. He was a teacher when I started the business. He saw me grow Playdates from the ground up. He was looking for a new career path and spoke to me about joining the business to help expand it. I was hesitant at first, but it was the best decision we have made yet! I had trouble letting go of the reins at first, but I had been stretched thin at that point. In fact, it had been a year of my not being able to accept new clients because of how full my schedule was. After all, I’m just one person. I needed help, and Kyle was the perfect person to become my partner. He had watched me cultivated this business, so he knew what I put into it and learned from watching me. Kyle left teaching in 2021 to join me full time petsitting. Since he has joined we have gained around 100 clients and now have two employees!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

At the beginning, I had a part time job personal training while I grew pet care clients. I needed a second job, as I recommend to have another source of income for anyone starting a business from the ground up. With my part time job and what I had in savings, I had the money to obtain a business license, get business insurance, hire an accountant, and order business cards to pass out. I made a profile on Care.com, gained one client from a prominent neighborhood and from word of mouth alone I gained the clientele I needed to leave my second job and pursue petsitting full time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://facebook.com/playdatespetsitting
• Instagram: playdates_petsitting
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/playdatespetsitting