Like minded Partner for a Dog/Pet Business

[Amberon12]

Hi, my names Kev i am 39 from Cheshire. I am a director of a Traffic Management company which has been up and running for over a year I have been in the industry for 15 years. But my passion for the industry is waning as it’s just not what it used to be anymore and payment terms from clients are getting more ridiculous and getting paid, on time, late or not at all are getting more and more common.

They say follow your passion if you want to start a business and I have always been a big dog lover. So I have a few ideas around this, I would ideally like to offer multiple services so would love to speak to anyone who is similarly interested or of the same mindset and has the same passion and would like to share some ideas around. If you are a dog groomer/ dog trainer etc working for someone else but have a desire to start something yourself maybe but are a bit worried, scared unsure.

Please contact me on my email [email protected] to discuss in more detail.

 

[The Byre]

1. Avoid partnerships like the plague. They only bring trouble in the end. We get several cries for help as a result of partnerships going wrong every week!

2. A passion for dogs is not the same as running a dog-based business. I work in an industry in which people with a passion try to get into all the time. I do not share their passion. For me, it's a business. I was in the music business for a long time and it was just a business. C&W? Hip-hop? Funk? Classic rock? Classical? Yer, whatever - it's all just an annoying noise and the people making all that noise tend to get annoying sometimes as well!

3. I too love dogs - but not all dogs. I love Great Danes and GSDs, so I rescue those GDs and GSDs that otherwise would have to be put down. The ones that are deemed too dangerous and/or too destructive to be kept in a house or with people. The ones that attack every other dog. They invariably settle down and become happy members of our motley tribe, live in the house and get on wonderfully with one another. But I would run a mile from running a dog-based business. They are what gives me a great deal of pleasure - they are not a business!

Traffic management is boring. Good. That makes it a good business to be in. Good businesses are often boring. The numpties are all lined up ten-deep at film studios, recording studios, music venues, third-world shops, doggy care homes, animal parks and all the other 'passion'-based gigs. Nobody wants to be the guy who empties septic tanks or runs a fleet of bin lorries.

We are now heading into festival season - so who do you think gets paid more and gets more regular work - the groovy and windswept guy who runs the sound mix in the big control tower halfway down the audience field, or the guy running crowd control and security? Go on - take a guess!

P.S. I see that you were involved in a previous company of the same name that failed - a sign that things are far from what they should be! Perhaps taking the business in a new direction (i.e. pivot) would be a good idea, rather than flogging a dead horse. Quite which direction that could be is your problem, but we are heading into a great recession and companies are going to go down like dominoes!

 

[UkAppCoder]

Traffic management is boring. Good. That makes it a good business to be in. Good businesses are often boring. The numpties are all lined up ten-deep at film studios, recording studios, music venues, third-world shops, doggy care homes, animal parks and all the other 'passion'-based gigs. Nobody wants to be the guy who empties septic tanks or runs a fleet of bin lorries.

For 50 years, many people spend nearly half of their waking hours doing something they find boring and soul-destroying in order to end up with 16 years (on average) to do something they enjoy.

Since I was 16, I have spent the vast majority of my waking hours doing things that I am passionate about.

Now, I might not end up with as much money in the bank as many of these people when I retire, but the extra money I would have had in the bank would have been spent on ... er ... well I'm not sure what it would have been spent on because I will continue to do what I've always done anyway - science and art!

I realise that this might sound a bit strange on a 'business' forum, but business is not all about trying to make as much money as you possibly can! There are other things to consider.

 

[The Byre]

I realise that this might sound a bit strange on a 'business' forum, but business is not all about trying to make as much money as you possibly can! There are other things to consider.

As much as I agree with you - the trick is to find a work-life balance. I enjoyed running a news agency for 12 years, even though it was stressful at times, but it was good stress.

The downside was that it gave me no free time and I was away from home sometimes for days at a time, schlepping around the world, meeting people I didn't like to discuss subjects I wasn't interested in! But I was providing a service to people who needed vital trade news and market information from Europe to the English-speaking world. As a gig and as gigs go, it was considerably better than a poke in the eye with a pointed stick.

Yes, I could have done more profitable things like share and options trading, or commodities futures and I suppose I could have earned far more emptying septic tanks and renting out Portaloos (I know a young guy who does this and it earns him a great deal of money!)

Sometimes our passions coincide with profit - writing AV programmes in C++ springs to mind as I know another young guy who does just that - and that is just great. It is finding that niche that is the trick to life!

 

[japancool]

I prefer cats.

But seriously, a "dog-based business" could mean a lot of things. We're planning a pet accessories business, which could be regarded as dog-based. I think you need to specify a bit more detail.

Now, personally, I have no passion for pets. But a lot of people in the UK do, which makes it a great market.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I'm inclined to agree with @The Byre here- to the extent that 'dream' and 'passionate'are actually red glass words to me in a business plan.

That said, it does very much depend on what you are trying to achieve, broadly the difference between making a living doing something you love vs building a meaningful business.

 

[Frank Wessely]

Hi, my names Kev i am 39 from Cheshire. I am a director of a Traffic Management company which has been up and running for over a year I have been in the industry for 15 years. But my passion for the industry is waning as it’s just not what it used to be anymore and payment terms from clients are getting more ridiculous and getting paid, on time, late or not at all are getting more and more common.

They say follow your passion if you want to start a business and I have always been a big dog lover. So I have a few ideas around this, I would ideally like to offer multiple services so would love to speak to anyone who is similarly interested or of the same mindset and has the same passion and would like to share some ideas around. If you are a dog groomer/ dog trainer etc working for someone else but have a desire to start something yourself maybe but are a bit worried, scared unsure.

Please contact me on my email [email protected] to discuss in more detail.

Hi Kev, I have just sent you an email.

 

[MBE2017]

For 50 years, many people spend nearly half of their waking hours doing something they find boring and soul-destroying in order to end up with 16 years (on average) to do something they enjoy.
I realise that this might sound a bit strange on a 'business' forum, but business is not all about trying to make as much money as you possibly can! There are other things to consider.

Couldn’t agree more, if this is what is right for your “Why”

In an ideal world this would apply to everyone but in reality it does not. I have had a mixture in businesses, my own I love and enjoy, mainly because I answer to no one and like to have fun whilst working.

Early jobs in my youth, watching grown men reduced to tears over a bad week of sales figures in the weekly meetings, I soon realised I was never going to work for anyone else for long. I always remember thinking the week it was my turn to be scolded, that saying, “well the sun will come up tommorow” might not be the correct answer, but I am not the crying type.

Everybody has their own dream, my advice, try it and see if you can make a living and be happy. If you can, you will be ahead of 90% of the rest of people.

 

[UkAppCoder]

Mark T Jones:
I'm inclined to agree with @The Byre here- to the extent that 'dream' and 'passionate' are actually red glass words to me in a business plan.

I think I understand what you mean, and I can understand perfectly why you would need to be very careful when lending money. However, as @The Byre said above, "sometimes our passions coincide with profit".

I would go a little further than this and say that passions can be exploited in order to produce profits.

Someone has a passion for art. This passion can be indulged by producing 'artwork' (commercial art). Not really art, but near enough to keep most artists happy. Commercial art can be profitable to varying degrees. Years ago, traditional sign-writing was about as well paid as the building site trades. Airbrush illustration was lucrative providing you went to the right people - truckies, bikies, young lads with hot rods, etc.. (Damned computers and software has all but killed these arts and crafts now, but there are new ways for artists to satisfy their passions.) Also helps to be in the best locations. I worked out of Sydney, Australia.

As @The Byre suggested, artists shouldn't be too greedy for job satisfaction. After youth, art college, etc., they should forget about spending every waking hour on producing pure 'paintings' from first principles. There's no profit in that unless you have a big name amongst the critics in the fine art industry. It's just a "dream" for most artists - even the most skilled.

Mark T Jones:
... it does very much depend on what you are trying to achieve, broadly the difference between making a living doing something you love vs building a meaningful business.

Why does it have to be "versus"? I think it is entirely possible to earn a living from a meaningful business which originated from having a passion for something, and furthermore to expand such a business within the limits of the industry.

For me, passion cannot exist without the need to seek out and overcome challenges. But there can be profit-blocking problems here too:

project nearly complete -> project holds no more challenges -> some passionate people find it difficult to continue -> they park the project and find fresh challenges in a new project -> result, no profit ...

I've experienced this countless times. However, I'm aware of what's happening psychologically, so I am able to complete projects - especially if I have commitments to other people, and perhaps with a little nudging from the client!

I would say that for someone like yourself, you would be much better off with someone who has passion plus a sound business plan, than you would with someone who has only a sound business plan.

So gimme some money!

 

[The Byre]

As @The Byre suggested, artists shouldn't be too greedy for job satisfaction. After youth, art college, etc., they should forget about spending every waking hour on producing pure 'paintings' from first principles. There's no profit in that unless you have a big name amongst the critics in the fine art industry. It's just a "dream" for most artists - even the most skilled.

I have to deal with all sorts of artists, both musical and visual. I would never suggest that they should compromise their art. It is their very artistic soul that is the product.

An example - my mother, when she was not being a school teacher and headmistress, painted. She produced dozens and dozens of cheesy pretty landscapes and seascapes and these sold extremely well. Then one day, she painted a portrait of the teddy bear she had since she was a little girl. Battered, torn, chewed by dogs and repaired again and again, wearing a little kilt, that bear had soul.

It was the greatest painting she had ever produced - yet she hid it away. She didn't like it. It was too sad. It reminded her of the past she was trying to forget. We have both - the painting and the teddy bear that sits alongside the picture.

But it was the only true art she ever produced. If she had painted more pictures like that, she would have been a great artist. As it was, by painting 'popular' paintings, she failed as an artist.

I have a painting by the sculpturer Jacob Epstein of his Moroccan 'muse' in our hallway, alongside another two paintings of naked ladies. One is some Russian ancestor of mine, the other is just a thing I picked up on eBay for under £20. All three are art. All three reveal a great deal about the artists and their lusting after the voluptuous bodies of the ladies therein featured.

Some music is great art and some is just popular entertainment.

Some movies are great art and some try, yet fail and fall into that abyss of entertainment. Some, like 'Porky's Revenge' make no pretense that they are in any way anything other than entertainment. Pam's Labyrinth, Nomadland and Loveless are great art - and commercial successes. They reveal something about the artist, something that the artist possibly didn't realise they were revealing.

Entertainment says little or nothing. Art has something important to say. But the artist must function. I know many great artists who just do not function and therefore fail.

 

[fisicx]

On the other hand, you can do something that pays the bills and save your passion for something that delights your soul but is never going to make you rich.

There is no single answer two this thread. Everyone will take a different path, some will succeed in their dream, some will just meander along, some will fail. That’s just how it is.

 

[antropy]

Most people like cake, doesn't mean most people should start a cake business.

You need to make sure that as well as being passionate about something, there is the potential for profit and that you have skills in the area before you start a business in it.

Paul.

 

[HouseReno]

I already have a job but this would be my dream dog workig with dogs, good luck with your new venture