We were lucky to catch up with Julie & Jon Hamm recently and have shared our conversation below.

Julie & Jon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

My husband, Jon, and I run our breeding business. The whole business started with a trial litter that would decide whether we wanted to move forward or not. Breeding is not the easiest job in the world, especially depending on the breed you have. Not only is it a challenging job to breed dogs, you are also doing it with your spouse. Whelping puppies requires a significant amount of time and an incredible lack of sleep. The first two weeks can be intense and there can be arguments simply because of lack of sleep. The way we whelp our puppies is by being with them 24/7 for the first two weeks they are alive. So Jon will do two hours with the puppies and I will do two hours of sleep, then we switch. We definitely want this to be a family business and for our children to be involved. Our youngest, 15 years old, helps out by watching the puppies once they are at least a week old so Jon and I can sleep in our bed together. Our older daughter, 22 and her fiancee, 24, are our partners in business. We co-own several dogs with them and are helping them learn the business. We love working with them since they love learning about the business and how it all works. Unfortunately, we did try working with our oldest daughter, 24, but that did not go anywhere. Of course there will always be some tension because it is a family business but ultimately when you have partners, family or not, there has to be cooperation and compromise.

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

I am Julie and my husband is Jon. We started breeding French Bulldogs in 2021 and have been going strong ever since. We got our first girl Talula with the intent to breed her. My husband had to talk to me into getting a French Bulldog since I like big dogs. He assured me that Frenchies are like big dogs that are stuck in small dog bodies. With that being said, we ABSOLUTELY LOVED having our first litter and it has grown since then. We offer stud services for people who want to get their female pregnant, we offer AI services, and we ship semen if needed. We also make French Bulldog candles and wax melts. All of our puppies go home with a puppy pack which includes a Frenchie candle. I would say we are most proud of how much we have learned during every litter. If we ever stop learning, we should stop breeding dogs. We are also proud of the customer service we provide. We want all of our clients to be as much a part of the process as they can be. We make a point to send pictures and videos regularly to keep our clients up to date.

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

I would have to say that our most recent story throughout our journey is a wonderful example of our resilience. We recently brought a new dog in to our home and everything was going great fro the first 3 weeks to a month. Then, one day, she started vomiting and having diarrhea. Which turned in to bloody diarrhea. We immediately took her to our vet and learned she had Parvovirus. She was then in the ER for 48 hours on 24 hour watch. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Parvovirus, it is incredibly contagious and it is not uncommon for young dogs to pass from the virus. Sine we are breeders we also have a litter of young puppies at home that have not had their vaccines. During the time that our new girl was in the ER Jon and I cleaned the house top to bottom, moved the puppies to a new space in our home, and had to keep our girl quarantined once she was able to come home. That also meant there could be no contact with whomever was working with the big dogs and the puppies. The amount of discipline required to ensure our other dogs and puppies stayed safe was immense. It was difficult but it shows how dedicated we are to ensuring the health of our dogs and puppies.

How did you build your audience on social media?

This is a wonderful question because it is not simple to build a following on social media these days. With so many creators out there you have to find a way to stand out. I would say we have built our social media following through posting our daily lives with our dogs. We want our following to view us as normal people that happen to have a bunch of dogs. We have an account that allows people to see how much we love our animals and that they are our family first and business second. We make a point to post regularly and engage with our followers. We also run giveaways and share other small businesses on our stories. We find it to be important to support other small businesses not only like ours but other local businesses. We are of the mindset that supporting other businesses only builds positive relationships. If I had to give any advice it would be to be true to your brand and post content that isn’t over edited. I do genuinely think that showing the love you have for your brand shines through.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jandjfrenchiesllc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jandjfrenchies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JandJFrenchies/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hamm-82870267/

Image Credits

I took the pictures.