Central Bark Doggy Day Care

By Mark Adkins, Business Opportunities Journal. Feb 2009.

Speaking with successful businesspeople in the pet related fields, one is quickly struck by a common theme: “passion about pets.” Obviously, they must get the business-side right. But it is the passion for pets that I find interesting. I recently interviewed Central Bark Doggy Day Care Cofounder, Jackie Jordan. She had a lot to say about passion for dogs, as well as about the growth of the business. -- Mark Adkins

BOJ: How did Central Bark Doggy Day Care come about as a company and then as a franchise?

Jackie: I have been running my doggy day care locations for almost 13 years. I started with one facility back in January of 1997 in blue-collar Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when no one had ever heard of doggy day care yet and everyone said it couldn’t be done. It was a challenge to get people not to laugh at me! Eventually, I was able to get a home equity line of credit to start my business. I opened my second location within the next 2 and a half years. I opened my third within 2 years after that. It’s done nothing but grow.

In the process I always thought of the idea of franchising but wasn’t sure if that’s the route I wanted to go. I had a friend who was in the MBA program at the University of Chicago and he did a venture capital challenge class which was a competition. You come up with an idea, a business plan, a new one or existing one you want to take to a larger scale. So he said “Well lets do doggy day care,” and I said “OK, fine I’ll help you.” So in a world of high end technical, medical, computer and all that kind of stuff, we were presenting doggy day care. Everybody thought it was funny and cute but we kept making the different levels of the competition. We kept getting approved and getting approved and passing to the next level. So finally we’re in the finals of this competition, and we presented to a room full of venture capitalists. They really liked the concept but they didn’t feel it was a VC type of opportunity but was more of a franchise model. They wanted to acknowledge the plan so we won a fourth place acknowledgement. They really only had first through third but they created fourth because they liked the idea so much!

BOJ: Did you just continue to grow the business organically?

Jackie: Organically. We decided that it was something where we could get investors but we wanted to try doing it on our own. We didn’t want to give up any kind of shares or any control of our business and our concept and our dreams. So we have done it organically. We’ve invested in ourselves.

BOJ: Did you have an interest in pets or dogs in particular before this?

Jackie: Oh yeah. I grew up with pets. I was awarded a lifetime membership of the Tri-County Humane Society in the sixth grade for my volunteer work. I’ve just always, always been involved with pets and I do have an undergrad in veterinary technology that I would never use working per se as a vet tech but I do use my knowledge daily in my business and just with my own pets. I own three dogs now, or I should say they own me, and a cat. We are very passionate about our pets.

BOJ: So when did you start the franchising?

Jackie: About 4 years ago.

BOJ: Where is the company now in terms of franchise locations?

Jackie: Well we’re 32 sold; we’re in 8 states. All of our stores are open now, except for 5. We were very committed to maintain at least a 50% open-to-sold ratio because we just felt that it was very important not to just be a selling machine, but to actually open our stores and help them in the process. Its one thing to sell franchises and another, especially in our industry, to open them. You know, because of zoning and we’re not doing widgets, we typically have to have special use permits. It’s a process, it’s not like we can just pick any type of building we want and go in. There’s neighbors and there’s landlords. There’s the health department. It’s quite a process so we’ve really honed our skills on what to look for and where to be, and what’s going to work for us as well as what’s going to work in the community. So we’re really proud of the fact that in the past year we have opened 14 stores, since 2007.

BOJ: How would you describe the business model of Central Bark Doggy Day Care?

Jackie: There is not another model out there like us. Others are more of a glorified kennel that offers a Day Care. We’re really truly a Day Care. We offer 5 core services, but our bread and butter is the dog Day Care. I’d say 65-70% of our revenue is on Day Care, then the rest is icing on the cake. We also offer sleep overs. We don’t call it boarding. We don’t call it kenneling. It’s sleep overs because your dog has to be part of our Day Care program in order for them to sleep over. So it’s very different. There are a lot of glorified kennels out there that will try to have the Day Care component to it, but we are truly the Day Care model. The reason why we choose to do that is because it’s what’s best for the dog. Anytime you have dog-to-dog interaction there are potential problems. If you’re not putting the right dogs with the right dogs. People can not get along and argue, but the way dogs argue, it’s with their teeth, so we want to make sure that we’re screening the dogs really well, that we’re putting the dogs with the right playmates and making sure that we’re creating the safest, healthiest, most nurturing environment that we can for the dogs. We’re about the dogs, so the dogs have to come a minimum of once a week in our program. We don’t take the “Gee, it’s convenient for me to get the dog out of the house because the cleaners are coming today” kind of customers. We’re committed, and our customers are committed to what’s best for the dogs. And it’s a consistent program. The dog comes consistently, most of our customers use us a couple of times a week, with a minimum of once a week. The dog knows the environment, the dog knows the staff, the dog knows the routine, the dog knows its playgroup.

BOJ: Is this what attracts customers to you?

Jackie: I think so, and that’s something that we have to screen out with the franchisees. Are you in this because you want to make a quick buck? Or are you in it because you have a passion for it and you want what’s best for the dogs? We’ll screen out franchisees that way and we’ll screen out customers at the store level. You know, if you’re not committed to coming once a week then this isn’t the program for you.

BOJ: What is the ideal franchisee for the business?

Jackie: The ideal franchisee is somebody who wants what’s best for the dog and who has a passion for dogs. You can like dogs, but to be fully ingrained in them 24/7 basically, I mean you’re constantly with them and you’ve got to love what you’re doing. It would be like somebody who doesn’t really like kids being a day care provider. It just wouldn’t work. That would not be fun for either the child or the provider. You have to really love what you do. We look for people who want to give back to the community and to local rescue shelters and humane society type organizations because that’s a big part of who we are and what we do.

We raise money for our Dog Bless America Program. It has taken a number of different routes throughout the years. Right now what we’re working with is the Prison Dog Program so we raise money to provide dogs to the prisons that in turn train the dogs as service dogs for veterans who are coming back from fighting in wars. It’s a win-win. I’ve picked up dogs that have been trained by the prisoners, I’ve dropped dogs off to prisoners. I’ve talked with these people and they say this is the best thing that’s ever happened. One quote from one prisoner out East said “I can’t take back what I did yesterday but I can make a difference for what I do tomorrow.” That just was really insightful to me because he’s in for life for murder, yet he’s doing something good. He trained a dog that we then transported out to somebody in California who needed a service dog. It’s just absolutely amazing. That’s something that we’re really proud of with our organizations that our franchisees help to support that as well as locally.

BOJ: Is this something that anyone from any walk of life can succeed in if they have the right passion?

Jackie: We have accountants, insurance backgrounds, airline pilots, flight attendants, computer backgrounds. We’ve got franchisees from a variety of backgrounds that just decided they were successful in their professional career and decided “You know what? I want to work for myself, I want to do this, I want to be with my dogs.” We’d prefer to have someone with some business background, some business management background, because you have to have some basic knowledge on how to run a business. But we also help with that as well. We give them a lot of training in dog behavior and dog training and even first aid and things like that for the dogs. But they still have to come with a basic understanding of dog behavior and be able to manage a pack of dogs.

BOJ: Do you have a formal training program for new franchisees?

Jackie: Yes, three weeks. Two weeks are at our corporate headquarters, and one week we’re on-site with them.

BOJ: What is it about Central Bark Doggy Day Care, if you can put your finger on it, that would make potential franchisees want to consider it?

Jackie: I think it’s a couple of things that we’ve heard from in the sales process when franchisees come to our Discovery Days. We encourage them to go check out other business, other dog care or pet related businesses because we really want to make sure that this is a model that works for you. We are in partnership for the next 10+ years and we want to make sure it’s right, that it’s a good fit for you and a good fit for us. So we really encourage them to check them out and when they come back to us, the biggest thing that we hear is the passion. You know, “this place was all about selling,” or “this place I didn’t get warm and fuzzy about.” We really are a different group. Somebody came to us and said “We want to buy a ‘master franchise agreement.’” We’re not about that. The biggest thing that I found as an individual store owner is that people are giving you their kids, they want you to care for their kids, their four-legged kids, and they want to know who’s behind that counter taking care of their kids. So if you’ve got this big investor who’s opening up all these different stores and there’s not really a personality behind it, I think it’s a detriment to our business model, so we’re really about the people who are caring for the pets. That’s a big difference between our franchisees and franchisees that go into a different kind of franchise system.

BOJ: Do you have an advertising and marketing cooperative program for the individual franchisees?

Jackie: Yes, they pay in two percent of their gross revenue for the national marketing fund. So we produce ads and materials for them to use at the store level. We use that to continue our website. We do a bimonthly newsletter for the stores. We’re not doing radio and TV ads necessarily. We’re still very young so that fund is minimal. In the metro Milwaukee market, we’ve got 14 stores so we encourage them locally to join together and do things that way.

BOJ: How have current economic conditions affected individual locations and the franchise as a whole?

Jackie: Well time is taking its toll. People are nervous. At the store level, our stores that are a little bit more mature, they seem to be doing fine. For the most part, they’re not taking a big hit. Some customers lose their jobs, some are cutting back. Instead of two times a week, they’re cutting back to one. But we’re still getting new customers in the door. So I can’t say that it’s made a significant impact on those stores. The newer stores, the growth is a little bit slower than what we were experiencing, but they’re still growing. So we’ll see. I wish I had that crystal ball.

BOJ: Some say that pets might be more recession resistant, because in times of trouble, people need more emotional support, more companionship. Do you think there’s some truth to that?

Jackie: Absolutely. Over the 13 years that I’ve been doing this, I think about what kind of economy we’ve had. It’s been good and it’s been bad. We went through 9/11 and that was a tough time too for our country and we continued to grow during that time, so I think that there’s some truth in that, that people are going to not cut back or not stop providing for those that they love. And well, their pets are who they love. That is their baby. So they might financially be forced to cut back a little bit. People who have had to drop out on those rare occasions were like “I’ll be back when I get my job back” or “I have to but I don’t want to.” It’s very emotional for them. | BOJ

Central Bark Doggy Day Care

of shares or any control of our business and our concept and our dreams. So we have done it organically. We’ve invested in ourselves.

BOJ: Did you have an interest in pets or dogs in particular before this?

Jackie: Oh yeah. I grew up with pets. I was awarded a lifetime membership of the Tri-County Humane Society in the sixth grade for my volunteer work. I’ve just always, always been involved with pets and I do have an undergrad in veterinary technology that I would never use working per se as a vet tech but I do use my knowledge daily in my business and just with my own pets. I own three dogs now, or I should say they own me, and a cat. We are very passionate about our pets.

BOJ: So when did you start the franchising?

Jackie: About 4 years ago.

BOJ: Where is the company now in terms of franchise locations?

Jackie: Well we’re 32 sold; we’re in 8 states. All of our stores are open now, except for 5. We were very committed to maintain at least a 50% open-to-sold ratio because we just felt that it was very important not to just be a selling machine, but to actually open our stores and help them in the process. Its one thing to sell franchises and another, especially in our industry, to open them. You know, because of zoning and we’re not doing widgets, we typically have to have special use permits. It’s a process, it’s not like we can just pick any type of building we want and go in. There’s neighbors and there’s landlords. There’s the health department. It’s quite a process so we’ve really honed our skills on what to look for and where to be, and what’s going to work for us as well as what’s going to work in the community. So we’re really proud of the fact that in the past year we have opened 14 stores, since 2007.

BOJ: How would you describe the business model of Central Bark Doggy Day Care?

Jackie: There is not another model out there like us. Others are more of a glorified kennel that offers a Day Care. We’re really truly a Day Care. We offer 5 core services, but our bread and butter is the dog Day Care. I’d say 65-70% of our revenue is on Day Care, then the rest is icing on the cake. We also offer sleep overs. We don’t call it boarding. We don’t call it kenneling. It’s sleep overs because your dog has to be part of our Day Care program in order for them to sleep over. So it’s very different. There are a lot of glorified kennels out there that will try to have the Day Care component to it, but we are truly the Day Care model. The reason why we choose to do that is because it’s what’s best for the dog. Anytime you have dog-to-dog interaction there are potential problems. If you’re not putting the right dogs with the right dogs. People can not get along and argue, but the way dogs argue, it’s with their teeth, so we want to make sure that we’re screening the dogs really well, that we’re putting the dogs with the right playmates and making sure that we’re creating the safest, healthiest, most nurturing environment that we can for the dogs. We’re about the dogs, so the dogs have to come a minimum of once a week in our program. We don’t take the “Gee, it’s convenient for me to get the dog out of the house because the cleaners are coming today” kind of customers. We’re committed, and our customers are committed to what’s best for the dogs. And it’s a consistent program. The dog comes consistently, most of our customers use us a couple of times a week, with a minimum of once a week. The dog knows the environment, the dog knows the staff, the dog knows the routine, the dog knows its playgroup.

BOJ: Is this what attracts customers to you?

Jackie: I think so, and that’s something that we have to screen out with the franchisees. Are you in this because you want to make a quick buck? Or are you in it because you have a passion for it and you want what’s best for the dogs? We’ll screen out franchisees that way and we’ll screen out customers at the store level. You know, if you’re not committed to coming once a week then this isn’t the program for you.

BOJ: What is the ideal franchisee for the business?

Jackie: The ideal franchisee is somebody who wants what’s best for the dog and who has a passion for dogs. You can like dogs, but to be fully ingrained in them 24/7 basically, I mean you’re constantly with them and you’ve got to love what you’re doing. It would be like somebody who doesn’t really like kids being a day care provider. It just wouldn’t work. That would not be fun for either the child or the provider. You have to really love what you do. We look for people who want to give back to the community and to local rescue shelters and humane society type organizations because that’s a big part of who we are and what we do.

We raise money for our Dog Bless America Program. It has taken a number of different routes throughout the years. Right now what we’re working with is the Prison Dog Program so we raise money to provide dogs to the prisons that in turn train the dogs as service dogs for veterans who are coming back from fighting in wars. It’s a win-win. I’ve picked up dogs that have been trained by the prisoners, I’ve dropped dogs off to prisoners. I’ve talked with these people and they say this is the best thing that’s ever happened. One quote from one prisoner out East said “I can’t take back what I did yesterday but I can make a difference for what I do tomorrow.” That just was really insightful to me because he’s in for life for murder, yet he’s doing something good. He trained a dog that we then transported out to somebody in California who needed a service dog. It’s just absolutely amazing. That’s something that we’re really proud of with our organizations that our franchisees help to support that as well as locally.

BOJ: Is this something that anyone from any walk of life can succeed in if they have the right passion?

Jackie: We have accountants, insurance backgrounds, airline pilots, flight attendants, computer backgrounds. We’ve got franchisees from a variety of backgrounds that just decided they were successful in their professional career and decided “You know what? I want to work for myself, I want to do this, I want to be with my dogs.” We’d prefer to have someone with some business background, some business management background, because you have to have some basic knowledge on how to run a business. But we also help with that as well. We give them a lot of training in dog behavior and dog training and even first aid and things like that for the dogs. But they still have to come with a basic understanding of dog behavior and be able to manage a pack of dogs.

BOJ: Do you have a formal training program for new franchisees?

Jackie: Yes, three weeks. Two weeks are at our corporate headquarters, and one week we’re on-site with them.

BOJ: What is it about Central Bark Doggy Day Care, if you can put your finger on it, that would make potential franchisees want to consider it?

Jackie: I think it’s a couple of things that we’ve heard from in the sales process when franchisees come to our Discovery Days. We encourage them to go check out other business, other dog care or pet related businesses because we really want to make sure that this is a model that works for you. We are in partnership for the next 10+ years and we want to make sure it’s right, that it’s a good fit for you and a good fit for us. So we really encourage them to check them out and when they come back to us, the biggest thing that we hear is the passion. You know, “this place was all about selling,” or “this place I didn’t get warm and fuzzy about.” We really are a different group. Somebody came to us and said “We want to buy a ‘master franchise agreement.’” We’re not about that. The biggest thing that I found as an individual store owner is that people are giving you their kids, they want you to care for their kids, their four-legged kids, and they want to know who’s behind that counter taking care of their kids. So if you’ve got this big investor who’s opening up all these different stores and there’s not really a personality behind it, I think it’s a detriment to our business model, so we’re really about the people who are caring for the pets. That’s a big difference between our franchisees and franchisees that go into a different kind of franchise system.

BOJ: Do you have an advertising and marketing cooperative program for the individual franchisees?

Jackie: Yes, they pay in two percent of their gross revenue for the national marketing fund. So we produce ads and materials for them to use at the store level. We use that to continue our website. We do a bimonthly newsletter for the stores. We’re not doing radio and TV ads necessarily. We’re still very young so that fund is minimal. In the metro Milwaukee market, we’ve got 14 stores so we encourage them locally to join together and do things that way.

BOJ: How have current economic conditions affected individual locations and the franchise as a whole?

Jackie: Well time is taking its toll. People are nervous. At the store level, our stores that are a little bit more mature, they seem to be doing fine. For the most part, they’re not taking a big hit. Some customers lose their jobs, some are cutting back. Instead of two times a week, they’re cutting back to one. But we’re still getting new customers in the door. So I can’t say that it’s made a significant impact on those stores. The newer stores, the growth is a little bit slower than what we were experiencing, but they’re still growing. So we’ll see. I wish I had that crystal ball.

BOJ: Some say that pets might be more recession resistant, because in times of trouble, people need more emotional support, more companionship. Do you think there’s some truth to that?

Jackie: Absolutely. Over the 13 years that I’ve been doing this, I think about what kind of economy we’ve had. It’s been good and it’s been bad. We went through 9/11 and that was a tough time too for our country and we continued to grow during that time, so I think that there’s some truth in that, that people are going to not cut back or not stop providing for those that they love. And well, their pets are who they love. That is their baby. So they might financially be forced to cut back a little bit. People who have had to drop out on those rare occasions were like “I’ll be back when I get my job back” or “I have to but I don’t want to.” It’s very emotional for them. | BOJ