Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Keith Zeiler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Keith, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
Pet Retail is a competitive and challenging segment to play in. Pet food makes up the majority of a store’s sales, but also yields the lowest margins. Pet food manufacturers and distributors frequently raise the sales price and cost of their products, shrinking a retailer’s profit. Competition can be fierce – big box stores, online retailers, specialty diet services, other local players – all factor into the equation.
To be profitable in this segment, a retailer needs to make their business an integral part of the community they serve. The business must be more than the place where I buy my dog or cat food – it needs to be a destination, offering an array of products and services that are missing in the community. The business must reflect the values of the people it serves; it needs to have a clearly defined mission and perform actions that demonstrate that commitment.
And, more than anything – the business must be a trusted advisor to those it intends to serve. It must always put the interests of its customers ahead of a quick profit. Being a trusted advisor brings word of mouth referrals; these customers become the loyal supporters who stand by you through thick and thin. And, when they trust you – and you consistently act to maintain that trust – they open their hearts and wallets, paving the road to your success.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Keith Zeiler. I’m an army brat from Alaska who has lived in Europe and throughout the US. I’m one of 6 children, falling right about in the middle of them. In a family this big, you had to work to stand out and have your voice heard. I wasn’t the best student in school. I didn’t go to college. But, having grown up in a military family, I learned to talk to people and make new friends quickly, as we moved frequently. We didn’t have much growing up, but we had love and parents who taught us right vs. wrong and the value of hard work.
Before starting my pet business, I had worked corporate jobs in telecommunications and insurance. Although I always did well and advanced, I knew that to be truly happy, I needed to do my own thing. I met my spouse in 2000 and in 2001, with his encouragement, I began a career in real estate. I started with a budget of $1,000 and a real estate salesperson’s license in Washington state. The early 2000’s were a turbulent time, but also afforded great opportunities for people who wanted to buy homes. Homes were plentiful on the market and money was cheap and easy to borrow.
My spouse and I knew hundreds of people that were in their 20’s and 30’s that were reaching the point in their lives where buying a home was becoming a reality. I networked through these people and quickly had a successful business. During this time, I also learned the value of building trust to nurture relationships. And, I stayed in touch with the people I had helped, who then sent me more and more business. I frequently advised people against taking shady loans or buying more house than they could handle – I put their needs and best interests above my own immediate financial goals. And, within just two years, my spouse had left his corporate job to help run our own brokerage. We were consistently ranked in the top 1% of agents. Life was good.
After 10 years in the real estate business and my spouse having spent most of his life in the Pacific Northwest, we decided that we needed a change of scenery and a new challenge. We needed to grow more as human beings and take a new risk. That decision led us to Austin, TX in 2013. Before moving to Texas, we adopted two Shiba Inu dogs, Kona and Kylie. They became our whole world and after visiting Austin and seeing what an amazing dog culture existed there, we decided that we should start a pet-related business. Wanting our dogs to live their very best lives, we decided that no matter what we did, health and wellness had to be a pillar of our mission.
This process took some time to figure out. What exactly did we want to do? Boarding? Daycare? Retail? Some combination of those? We each took “placeholder” jobs while we worked on our business plan. Finally in 2017, we had a plan in place and found an opportunity to buy a small boutique space near our home in east Austin. The area was completely underserved for pet owners, but dogs and cats were in abundance all around us. We decided on a name, our logo, our design aesthetic and got to work building out our space. We networked with other independent pet retail owners and friends who had contacts in the business. We found an amazing mentor in a neighboring town who was an open book about his business. We were so grateful for his help.
Our store was just 600 square feet when we opened, but the anticipation of this little shop had been building for months. I ran the business with my Mom and a very dear friend, who volunteered hundreds of hours to help me get it on its feet. My spouse kept working in his industry so we had the stability we needed while things got going. Within 9 months, we were bursting at the seams and ready to expand. Fortunately, the space next door to us was available and we were able to knock down a wall and triple the size of our store. We added a pair of self-serve dog wash rooms and greatly expanded our selection of healthy food and treats, as well as toys and all of the other supplies a dog or cat parent needs.
Before launching the business, I studied and became a certified pet nutritionist. I used this knowledge to carefully research and curate our product lines, being careful to provide the very best options I could find that would be accessible to as many people in our mixed socioeconomic area as I could. I hired some great people who shared my passion for pets and we developed an in-depth training program so that my new employees could leverage what I had learned and would have the knowledge they needed to provide tried and true advice. We quickly became known as a place to go if you were having problems with your pet – allergies, digestive issues, skin issues, etc. Word got around fast.
To continue growing the business, I leaned into processes I learned in real estate – like sending every new customer a hand-written thank-you note for shopping with us and including a little incentive to bring them back into the store. Wanting my store to be a destination, I needed to do more than just have supplies and dog washes. As a lover of frozen yogurt, I thought that this might be a great addition to offer our furry customers. I experimented with several formulas and eventually came up with just the right one, with rotating flavors. I made soft-serve froyo using goat’s milk, a popular and healthy digestive supplement for dogs and cats. I made it every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With the long, hot Texas summers, it became an instant hit. My social media was abuzz with customers posting the cutest pictures of their pets eating my froyo. To add to the destination vibe, I added a bench outside under my store’s sign and began decorating the wall around it seasonally. It made for the perfect photo opp to post on social media.
While the pandemic was devastating to many businesses in Austin and around the country, it was an amazing opportunity for me. Tech-heavy Austin meant lots of people working from home – isolated and lonely. Our shelters emptied out. I created an adoption program and placed flyers with our local Humane Society. With a minimal purchase, I offered newly adoptive pet parents up to $75.00 in free products – food, treats, supplements, etc. By walking these customers through the store and explaining the benefits of the products we had to offer vs. what you might find at the grocery store or a big box store, I was able to educate these new clients and share my expertise. This led to lots of referral business and this program is a cornerstone of our business to this day.
For our 1 year anniversary in 2019, I really wanted to give back to the community that had given me so much. I planned a vendor market and a doggie (and cat!) drag show. We set up in the vacant lot next door. We had maybe 25 vendors of all types, a stage, DJ and well-known local drag queens to perform and MC the show. We raised money for a local LGBTQ charity and dog rescues. It was a huge success! This has now become an annual event, drawing nearly 1,000 people and more than 50 vendors each year. We also worked with our food vendors to secure tons of food for our local shelters and sold loaded, hand-made holiday stockings that customers could donate to long-stay shelter dogs. We did photos with Santa, the Grinch and even Tom Turkey at Thanksgiving. I delivered people’s orders in an Easter Bunny costume. I did whatever I needed to in order to get our name out and people into the store.
The pandemic also afforded us the opportunity to capitalize on a soft commercial real estate market and to secure a great lease on a second store in another overlooked area of town. This time, my spouse joined me full time as the General Manager and really helped to drive growth in this store. We networked with surrounding bars, restaurants and apartment communities to get the word out about our business. We offer our apartment partners curated move-in boxes for dogs and cats; new residents love getting these with their new home and it helps them to connect with a local pet store when they are new to town, or this side of town. We also offered “pet of the month” boxes that apartment communities can use to build a sense of community with their residents and again, put us at the center of those activities. We work many local events and markets, handing out tons of free samples and products and just talking to people about their pets and nutrition – never selling, just educating. This approach has been very effective.
Today, we have two operational stores and a third location under construction in a major new mixed-use housing community. Residents there have been eagerly awaiting it to open and we have been very busy engaging with this new community, being a staple vendor at all of their events. We even bought an ice cream truck so we can take our froyo on the road and to these events.
We now have a staff of 15 and offer competitive wages, a huge employee discount, health, dental and vision insurance, and we just rolled out a 401k plan. We’ve trained and promoted several employees into higher-level positions, providing career paths to those who share our vision and want to grow with us.
My spouse and I never had any formal business training. What we did have was an ability to talk to people, a passion for our pets, open eyes, a keen sense of what was lacking in our community and a commitment to hard work and innovation. This has paid off well for us and we are very excited about what the future will bring.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
We have worked many channels to obtain new clients. As I mentioned before, we work lots of events and markets around the city, where we can interact one-on-one with new people. We network with local restaurants, bars and apartment communities where we provide and maintain a free “cookie jar” of dog treats in exchange for placing a banner advertising our store. We offer new resident move-in boxes and pet of the month boxes. We have earned nearly 600 5-star reviews on Google, which helps to attract new customers who may have recently moved here or adopted a pet. We network with our local shelters and the Humane Society so that our adoption program flier is included in the paperwork for every newly adopted dog or cat. Each of our stores has a “photo op” wall that’s decorated seasonally that customers love to post pictures at. We encourage customers to take pictures of their pets with our froyo or enjoying that new treat or toy, or showing how sad, but cute they look in the dog wash. We post all of these pictures to our social media accounts. We also post notices around pet food recalls and promote educational information. Our following has been steadily growing and our followers are very interactive. We always ask new customers how they heard about us. Google, referrals, social media and events always rank the highest.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met my spouse and business partner in Seattle in 2000. We were introduced by mutual friends. There wasn’t an immediate love connection. But, through a series of events, it became clear that he was the one for me. My car caught on fire as we drove home on our first date. I bailed out of the car, leaving him in the passenger seat (hey, it was only our first date!) He stopped the car and was fine.Turned out it was only a minor fire and no one was at serious risk.
A few days later, I was in a serious car accident with my roommate at the time and some of his family. Tragically, one of them did not survive the accident and I was seriously injured. When Tim found out that I was in the trauma center, he brought me balloons and flowers and sat with me for a bit every day when he got off of work. My parents flew me to Alaska to recover at their home and we fell out of touch. But, once I got back I decided to give him a call and we’ve been together ever since. This spring will be 24 years. We were married in Seattle in 2012, being the 101st same-sex couple to be issued a marriage license in King County, WA. We were married a few days later.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pawsonchicon.com
- Instagram: @pawsonchicon
- Facebook: @pawsonchicon
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/paws-on-chicon-austin-2