We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kevin Singleton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kevin below.
Hi Kevin, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Before I started Yearning Wild Treats & Chews, I worked full time for a railroad. In order to live the lifestyle that I wanted for my family, I was working 2-3 overnight shifts (8-10 hours per shift) a week, in addition to my 40 hours a week during the day. All the extra time away from my wife and young kids was starting to take a toll on me. I wanted to find a way to make the extra income, while also being able to spend more time with my family. I started brainstorming ideas for a side business. I wanted something that I could do mostly from home, something that my wife and kids could also be involved in. Something that maybe the kids could even take over when they get older. I had a few different ideas, but nothing seemed to be the right one for me and my situation, and I didn’t follow through with any of them.
Then the pandemic hit. Being an essential worker, I continued to work throughout the height of the pandemic, but I was spending a lot more time at home. The overtime at work dried up, and my employer had the workforce alternating weeks on and off in order to decrease the risk of covid. This all added up to the perfect scenario for us to finally follow through with adding a dog to our family. My wife was working completely from home, I was spending a lot more time home, and the kids were at a perfect age. We wound up adopting Kenzie, a 4 month old Mountain Cur puppy that was found abandoned in Mississippi with her mother and litter mates.
As we welcomed Kenzie into our family, we started looking into the different types of food and treats currently on the market for dogs and puppies. We were alarmed to learn about some of the ingredients that are found in some of the big name products. After we settled on an appropriate food for Kenzie, we started focusing on treats. Being that Kenzie was a puppy and new to our household, we were spending a lot of time training her. We wanted a high value treat that wasn’t packed full of ingredients that we couldn’t pronounce. We tried a few different limited ingredient and single ingredient treats that are commercially available. While we were mostly pleased with a few of the different products we purchased, we still felt like we could do better.
So what did we do next? Well we started making our own treats! We started with a few different single ingredient treats made from meat or organs. We were blown away with the response that Kenzie gave us to our homemade treats. She became much more excited about training and treat rewards when we started using our own homemade treats. She quickly got spoiled and started turning her nose up to a lot of commercially available treats. We were so glad to know that our own treats were not only a more valuable reward for her, but also much fresher and healthier than what we were using before.
It was at that point that it all clicked inside my head. We’re already making these treats for own personal use, it wouldn’t take too much to scale the production and begin to sell our homemade treats to the public. I mean, who wouldn’t want to give their pups locally made limited ingredient treats with no preservatives? I sat down one night and started researching the legal ins and outs of making and selling dog treats. I spent hours on state and federal websites and explored some online forums. I ended the night by forming an LLC through an online service and so began our family business journey with Yearning Wild Treats & Chews!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Kevin, and I am the owner and founder of Yearning Wild Treats & Chews. I currently reside in the Hudson Valley region of New York State with my beautiful wife Kerry, my two wonderful kids Kevin and Kayleigh, and our perfect pup Kenzie! I’m an avid outdoorsman, and I love spending my free time outside hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping, especially when the family tags along!
Our business mainly focuses on supplying our customers with small batch, preservative free, limited ingredient dog treats, and naturally shed antler dog chews. In addition to the treats and chews, we also make rope dog toys, and various crafts from antlers. Some of our antler crafts include bottle openers, wine stoppers, corkscrews, keychains, and more.
We are very proud of the business that we have built over the past few years. The biggest thing we take pride in is how we give back. Shortly after forming our business we became the first business in New York State to earn 2% for Conservation Certification. We volunteer time and we donate money towards conservation causes and organizations. One of the best things we do for that is our camp sponsorships. Every year, we sponsor 2 kids to attend an Environmental Education Summer Camp that is put on by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When we first started our dog treat business, our original focus was single ingredient dehydrated meat and organ treats. This is what we started with when we started making them for our own dog, and what we gave to friends and family to get feedback on. Once we perfected a few recipes, we began the process of getting our treats tested and approved for legal sale. We quickly found out that the type of treats we were making required additional steps, additional fees, and additional testing compared to a traditional biscuit style dog treat. Not only did we have these additional steps and fees, but we hit a few speed bumps along the way with getting our meat based treats approved and registered with the state. This put us at a stand still and left us with a new business that we already began to advertise that couldn’t legally sell what we set out to sell.
We didn’t know what to do. All we knew was that we couldn’t let these speed bumps hold us back, we needed to keep moving forward. We continued to work with our state Department of Agriculture and a food science lab to get our meat treats approved. But while that was going on behind the scenes, we researched other treat options, had a lot of conversations with the Department of Agriculture, and networked with other similar local small businesses and found 3 different ways to keep pushing forward.
The first step was to develop some quick simple recipes for fruit and vegetable based treats, as well as a biscuit style treat. These treats had a much simpler registration and approval process, and we were able to start selling these ones much sooner. This wound up working out great in the long run, because our biscuit style treat turned out to be our biggest selling treat to this day.
Second step was to start selling elk antler dog chews. After all of our research and conversations with the state, we found that dog “chews” didn’t require the same drawn out process that the treats required. We were able to build a relationship with a wholesaler and ended up being able to supply our customers with bigger and better quality antler chews than the big box pet stores for a fraction of the price. This also worked out great in the long run, as we are now known locally as the “go to” for antler chews. We’ve expanded to various types of antler chews and they make up a good portion of our sales now.
Third step was to team up with another small dog treat business in our state and work out a deal. In short, this other business was already established and had a meat based treat that was very similar to one of the treats we were working on getting approved. The woman who owned the business had already been established and had her treats approved. So we were able to buy her treats wholesale from her and sell them at the same retail price that she did. In the long run, this deal turned our biggest local competitor into a friend and a long term business connection which has proved to be beneficial to both of us.
All 3 of these pivots in to different products helped make Yearning Wild Treats & Chews in to the business it has become today.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I personally believe there are 4 main points that helped build our reputation within our market.
Number 1 is our physical presence. Although we do sell on our website, the majority of our sales come from in person events and markets. Over the last 2 years we’ve built a loyal following at our local farmers markets and other events. Being able to see the product in person and being able to have a conversation with the people that make those products is not something that everybody can do all the time. By seeing the same people and remembering their names and their dogs names, we give them a personal connection to us and our products. We appreciate the business our customers give us, and we make sure they know that.
Number 2 is the quality of our products. All of our products are handmade locally, and our treats have limited ingredients and no preservatives,
Number 3 is our no fuss money back guarantee. If a customer isn’t fully satisfied with any of our products, we offer a full refund with no hassle. This gives people confidence in their purchases.
And number 4 is giving back. We give back to conservation causes and organization. We sponsor kids to attend an Environmental Education Summer Camp, we donate to other local causes and fundraisers, and we even occasionally run our own fundraisers. This year we’re sponsoring a little league team as well. People know that part of the proceeds will go to help the environment, wildlife, and local causes.
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Image Credits
All my own pictures