When I graduated college my father told me I should always be the first one in the office and the last one to leave. After working in the social work field for a year doing just that I managed to be fired not once, but twice, because I was basically making my coworkers "look bad". At that time I decided to reevaluate my career and took a break while I waited for the next opportunity. In the interim I was going to "take it easy" and do something I loved. Growing up I had many different pets and a family dog that I loved dearly which led me to begin walking dogs in the burbs. To make a long story short, I came to understand the opportunity I had been waiting for was already there. Finally I understood that I could be my own boss like both my parents had done and so I started my own pet services company, Pet Care Plus, in 1998 serving downtown Chicago.As I began I found that being one of the first in an industry is not easy as there is no blueprint for success. That's why I relied on the concept of superior customer service from the start. There was no request that I wouldn't at least consider to make my clients happy. With this philosophy we soon managed to make a name for ourselves as a leader in the pet services industry. We always go above and beyond for our clients and our employees. This is so important because with great employees I am freed up to focus on business development and being a small business mentor.I am truly blessed to have found something that I love and am passionate about early on in my career. While the road has been long and hard I always recall something I read near the start of the journey. The saying that would keep me going was “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” I truly believe this and it is what keeps me going to this day and drives me to help others achieve that same goal in their small businesses.
Listed skills include Dogs, Customer Service, Event Planning, Public Speaking, and 22 others.
