We Survived 2020

We are more than halfway through February 2021, so it seems as good a time as any to write the first blog in many, many months and after our business’s worst year yet: 2020. COVID. Seriously. Go away!!

Turns out hen you have a business that sort of depends on people leaving their houses for extended periods, and then the government tells people not to leave their houses for extended periods due to a pandemic it can be...detrimental. And it was/is detrimental to our business (no surprise there). Since last March, each month has been worse than the last and January 2021 was our worst month in business since 2016 thanks to the events surrounding the inauguration causing additional closures. The hits Just. Keep. Coming. Get it together, America, for the sake of Wanderpups!

The cold, hard truth is that we are operating at 30% compared to this time last year. Our team has gone from 18 to 5 dog walkers. Many of our clients have stopped walking with us not only because they are home, but because they have lost jobs and suffered financial hardship as well. It’s been a lot.

There have been SOME positives. I had a baby last May, mid pandemic (that was fun), and if it weren’t for things slowing down I wouldn’t have had the time to enjoy her as much. We lost a lot of business, yes, but we were allowed and able to stay open throughout the pandemic as pet care was deemed an essential business. We found out that we have an amazing community that continued to support us for many months even though we weren’t walking their dogs. Finally, I was forced to really examine the business, my goals, and how to rebuild, diversify and pivot. Perhaps more difficult, forced to decide IF I WANTED to rebuild, diversify and pivot.

Still working out the details on how, but have decided to stay the course. We will continue to operate and rebuild Wanderpups as we have known it since 2013, but will also be working on new things to ensure we aren’t destitute if something else happens—put some eggs in other baskets, as they say. The goal is to always bring value, information and awareness to my local and online community.

The first thing is to actually dust off this journalism degree that’s been dormant behind leashes and keys and business plans and get this blog going to provide valuable content for my readers. . So follow me on this journey filled with dog tips, facts, the challenges of owning a small business, probably the occasional off topic rant about whatever is bugging me that day, and maybe , just maybe, the dog-centric investigative journalism the world didn’t know it needed. It’s gonna be SO FETCH!