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

Hi Gina, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

After making the decision to launch my own brand and business in the pet space, the first order of business was to create a brand name. With a background in SEO, I knew I wanted to make sure that my brand name and URL would be designed to reflect favorably in the SERPS and I wanted it to be representative of me in some way. With the long-term vision of having a brand that services pets (not just dogs or cats, but also horses or fish or birds, etc) I decided that “pet” needed to be in the name. Next, since I was born and raised in Texas, went to college in Texas, and still live in Texas, I felt it was something that represented me. Wrap it up with “Company” at the end…i had my new name, Texas Pet Company. A quick availability check on a domain register showed the URL was available, and I did some initial searching on Google to see if the name was taken and what search results came up. To my pleasant surprise, it was clear. The next step was to check the trademark registry, and it was clear.
So I started my project to create a logo design so that I could register the name and mark and start creating my product labels.
I spent a few months researching, evaluating, negotiating, and creating partnerships with manufacturers. Then I was off to the races to start producing products.
While in production, next steps were to create a website and marketing materials.

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

I have been in the E-commerce space for 24 years. I worked for a major online sporting goods retailer for 17 years and a CPG brand for 4 years, both private or family-owned businesses…the idea for Texas Pet Company came from a lifetime dream of owning my own business. I had been working my tail off 24/7 for other people to have the freedom and financial security to do as they please. So I thought, if I work this hard for someone else, imagine what I can do for myself and my family. So after creating a plan with my partner, I worked long nights after a full day at my corporate job and weekends to lay the groundwork for my own brand and business. Since sports was a love of mine and I had already done that for 17 years, I decided that my love of animals was a perfect space to launch my own business. I researched the space and decided an all-natural, made in the USA, small-business, minority-owned, LGBTQ+ owned approach would be my presentation. We are lifelong animal lovers so it was a match made in cyber-space. Pet supplements, single-ingredient, and 2-ingredient treats were important to those who love their pets and want to provide them with long-healthy lives.
I created the brand name, logo, brand guidelines, built a website, researched products and created labels, found sourcing, managed ordering and fulfillment, etc.
After getting all my ducks in a row, I quit my full-time job in February of 2020. And yes, you know what comes next…COVID. I honestly thought I had made a mistake quitting my job especially after the country (and world) shut down, however, fate had other plans.
Along with COVID came a major increase in online purchasing and with families staying at home there was an influx of pet adoptions. So, the result was I grew faster than anticipated. A very good problem to have.
My current sales channels now include TexasPetCompany.com, Amazon, Walmart, Wish, Etsy, Ebay, Faire and social carts like Google, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

The only 2 companies I have ever worked for had strong private-label programs. From sporting goods to canned goods I was familiar with the process and knew that it was a viable production process for my brand. My life partner also has a background in quality assurance, and had experience with private label manufacturing, so that made for a great sounding board as I started to create the product lines for my brand.
My biggest challenge was to find a manufacturer who was willing to work with a start-up brand and had low MOQs.
My philosophy when working with any company, whether I am the customer or I am the vendor, I seek to create partnerships where both parties are supporting each other and can work together to achieve goals. I have found that if you are honest and flexible and have open lines of communication, both parties will be better off in the long run. It does not work if you are just a number on a client list or if one party dictates all terms. Long-term partner relationships are the goal.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

My products are sold on TexasPetCompany.com, and they are also available on Amazon, Walmart, Chewy, Ebay, Wish, Faire, Etsy, and social stores like Facebook/Instagram, Google, and Tiktok. My philosophy is always diversification, and to not put all my eggs in one basket. Amazon is known to be a challenging platform to sell on, and they are judge-jury-executioners, so they can pull your store down from one day to the next, so being available on multiple channels helped minimize the risk of “disaster”. Examples as simple as my website being down, or Walmart or Chewy’s website getting compromised, or even a complete change in direction from the social media companies if they decided to eliminate their marketplaces.
My original marketing plan had a grassroots channel, but when I launched we were in the middle of the COVID shutdown so I postponed that initiative until this year. So far we have done 2 grassroots events that were positive so we will incorporate more for next year.
Additionally, we have a project being finalized to have a wholesale program for boutique and niche brick-and-mortar stores that would like to be able to sell our products.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://texaspetcompany.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TexasPetCompany/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TexasPetCompany/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/texas-pet-company/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TexasPetCompany
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@texaspetcompany/
• Other: https://texaspetcompany.com/linktree/

Image Credits
Gina Perez