We were lucky to catch up with Tiffany Buck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tiffany thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I get asked the question all the time, “how did you think of the idea of a cat lounge?” I always jokingly tell people I just wanted more cats without having more cats at my house, ha! My real answer is, seeing cats cooped up in kennels scared and sad breaks every piece of my heart. My goal is to adopt all of the cats out of shelters and bring them into an environment where they will thrive while they wait for their forever home. Having them in an environment like this will increase their adoption rate by over 60%. It warms my heart so much just knowing that our small business can make such a good impact. I left my corporate job of 7 years making over $40,000 a year to open my dream. I only get paid now in fur balls and kitten love, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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

We are Nine Lives Cat Lounge and Adoption Center. We are licensed as a pet store, so we adopted kittens and cats of all ages out of shelters and bring them here to our lounge where they are acclimated into a colony of cats and let into a room where they can run free and be themselves. They aren’t scared or mad trapped in a kennel, potential adopters or just people that want to relax and hang out with a room full of cats and see them all in their natural home setting environment where people can meet their actual personalities. We get people of all ages that come into our lounge; little kids whose parents are watching them closely to see if they behave well enough around lots of animals before they bring one home to live with them, college students that are away from home and missing their pets, and older people who are brought in to help relieve the stress of their lives. Detached and completely away from the cats is our Nine Lives Cereal Bar, there we have 90s themed cartoons playing all day, unlimited flavors of cereal and various breakfast items, and our coffee bar included in where we have the most flavor options in the area! We strive to make our small business a destination when traveling to or through Joplin.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I don’t think about it as building a clientele, I think of it as building friendships. I’m not usually one that puts myself out there to create friendships, but in a business like this it’s almost like the cats do it for me! Me being an introvert I also struggle with finding conversation or keeping a conversation, but when we’re talking about the cats or just in the lounge hanging out with them, I don’t struggle at all! I’ve met so many amazing, cat-loving people that are just like me since we’ve opened Nine Lives. These are friendships I know I’ll be able to carry with me for the rest of my life.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

We do have many streams on revenue at our business, but unlike other businesses anything bought at our lounge and/or cafe goes directly back to the cats; food, litter, vet appointments, and bringing new cats in! We pride ourselves in figuring out as many different types of revenue as possible so that our cats can be well taken care of. We charge a very cost-effective general admission to go into the lounge to play with the cats, we make and sell all of our own t-shirts, we have our own merchandise wall where several different vendors bring their items to sell on our wall, anything sold in our cafe (drinks, smoothies, sodas, food items) to toward the cat’s care as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ninelivescatlounge.com
• Instagram: ninelivescatlounge
• Facebook: Nine Lives Cat Lounge and Adoption Center
• Other: Snapchat: Nine Lives Cat Lounge Joplin TikTok: NineLivesJoplin