We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marcus Thompkins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marcus below.

Marcus, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The things that impact our profitability are the cost of airline ticket prices which always fluctuate depending on how much time we have from booking trip to delivery date. Our staffing payroll are also a challenge as things that are out of our control can affect delivery times and hours our pet attendant’s work. This is a business where every cent matters and you have to be aware of what things might effect your bottom line in advance.

Marcus, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been a business owner for over 24 years in various industries. My beautiful wife of over 27 years is also my partner in business. We have been pet owners for over 30 years and when faced with challenges of finding a way to get our dog from North Carolina to Texas in a safe, quick and reliable manner. A idea was born! We provide a safe airport to airport in cabin pet service both nationwide and internationally. We are USDA certified, insured, bonded and 5 stars on google. What sets us apart is our genuine love for what we do. It’s shows in our approach, interaction with our clients and the pets themselves. All of our pet attendant’s are either pet owners, former veterinarians or have some previous experience dealing with animals. We take the fear out of the entire process.. it can be very challenging with every airline having different requirements especially as it pertains to international travel. We are most proud of what our breeder’s and customer’s say about us. How they trust and appreciate everything we do. It’s a lot of hard work that goes into what we do. Our experience just makes it look effortless.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

What has worked for us is honesty, transparency, trust and the desire to provide world class customer service. These are things we don’t take lightly and are deliberate about when dealing with each of our clients. To start there are so many transporters who don’t answer the phone, dm’s on social media or inquiries from their website. I hear this a lot from potential customers. You have to give people a reason to hire a professional. A lot of people think you can just get a carrier and get on a plan. It’s not that simple. There’s a lot of planning, preparation and time management that goes into what we do. We have clients who are athletes, celebrities and CEOs. Their time is valuable. If you say you’re going to do something you better do it. They respect our professionalism. Our growth has been attributed to word of mouth from one breeder to the next. And every breeder is not our client. We have a standard of who we are willing to work with.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Our social media post and interaction are deliberate. When we first started out we would just post pictures of our trips with the airport we delivered to. It did nothing for our growth. We decided that our page need to be distinctive to our brand first. So we opened up an account on Canva which opened up the way and post we could design. We started making post answering questions related to dog and cats that people might not know the answer too. We wanted to show we are a subject matter expert when it comes to dealing with furry family members. We also started posting videos of our travels, interactions and customers reviews. The positive feedback we started receiving let us know we are on the right track.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.RockStarPetzz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockstarpetzz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RockStarpetzz/