Ep. 145 – From Stagnant to Soaring: How One Dog Daycare Owner Reignited Her Profits After 20 Years

Have you been running your dog daycare or pet resort for years, making a decent living, but wondering whether there’s still another level of growth available to you?

Are you so familiar with the way your business operates that you’ve stopped noticing the opportunities sitting right under your nose?

And what if the biggest opportunity to grow your profits, attract more clients and make your business more valuable isn’t some fancy new marketing strategy… but something you’re already sitting on?

In this week’s episode of the Pet Boarding & Daycare Podcast, Dom takes listeners behind the scenes of a private consultation day with Kim Buchanan, owner of Fetch Dog Resort in Zionsville, Indiana, and winner of Dom’s Marketer of the Year Award. Kim has been in business for 20 years and, before joining Dom’s coaching world, had reached a point where she was making a comfortable living, working around four hours a day and describing herself as semi-retired.

But although the business was doing well, it had stopped growing. After discovering enrichment and joining Dom’s coaching programme, Kim began transforming her business, introducing new services, increasing revenue opportunities, developing her team and stepping into a more strategic leadership role.

Now Kim has a different goal. She wants to make Fetch Dog Resort as profitable, sustainable and valuable as possible, giving herself the option to retire or step away within the next five years. Dom spent a day touring her facility, meeting her team, exploring the local community and identifying opportunities that Kim had become too close to the business to recognise.

They discuss how to generate more demand, build relationships with influential people in the community, create a predictable pipeline of new clients and develop the systems that could make Fetch more attractive to a future buyer.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Why Even Successful Pet Businesses Leave Money on the Table – How 20 years of experience can sometimes make owners blind to opportunities that an outsider can spot almost immediately.
How Enrichment Transformed Fetch Dog Resort – Why introducing structured enrichment allowed Kim to offer something different, increase revenue opportunities and create a more fulfilling experience for dogs and staff.
The Power of Stepping Out of Your Business – How Kim moved from working in the daycare to developing a general manager, an enrichment manager and a stronger leadership team.
Why Your Existing Clients Could Be Your Biggest Growth Opportunity – How deeper relationships with your best customers can introduce you to influential people, potential referral partners and new opportunities in your local community.
How to Make Your Dog Daycare More Valuable and Sellable – Why building predictable lead generation, improving profitability and reducing owner dependency can create a better business, even if you have no immediate plans to sell.
Why Fresh Eyes Can Fast-Track Your Business Growth – How an experienced coach, consultant or mastermind group can help you identify blind spots, challenge old assumptions and find shortcuts to achieving your goals.

Remember, the Doors to the Dog Daycare Success Academy – the only international pet resort mastermind in the world – Are now OPEN!

As this episode goes live, Dom is at the Pet Boarding & Daycare Expo in Hershey, and the doors to his Dog Daycare Success Academy (DDSA) are opening for a limited time.

Kim’s story is a fantastic example of what can happen when an experienced pet business owner gets access to fresh ideas, expert coaching, a supportive network of ambitious owners and practical systems for growing a more profitable business.

Find out more and apply at petbusinessmarketing.com/successacademy

Huge thanks to Kim for sharing her story and giving us an insight into how she grew her business. Find out more at Fetchresort.com

A huge thank you to Canine Lab Testing for sponsoring this week’s episode.

Did you know most dogs carrying parasites show no obvious symptoms, which means an undetected problem can spread through a busy daycare or boarding facility before anyone realises there’s an issue.

Canine Lab Testing provides a quick, affordable and reliable way to collect samples on-site and receive results the next day. Their partnership with the National Veterinary Diagnostic Lab helps facilities protect the dogs in their care, reassure clients and potentially turn faecal testing into an additional revenue stream.

Find out more at caninelabtesting.com

Episode Highlights

[01:42] – Dom introduces Kim Buchanan, her Marketer of the Year Award and the purpose of their private consultation day.
[05:22] – Dog News: from canine Sunday roasts to doggy caviar and £550 VIP experiences, what luxury restaurants can teach pet businesses about premium services.
[09:12] – Kim introduces Fetch Dog Resort and explains her goal of building a business she can retire from or step away from within five years.
[13:10] – Why Kim’s business had stagnated after 15 years, despite providing her with a comfortable living, and how discovering enrichment changed her thinking.
[15:46] – How Kim moved into a CEO role, developed her management team and used enrichment to create additional revenue opportunities.
[19:01] – Why successful pet businesses need to keep evolving, including Fetch’s membership model, service positioning and potential rebranding.
[20:31] – The unexpected value of touring Kim’s local community and discovering opportunities that demographic reports alone could never reveal.
[24:51] – How Dom and Kim plan to build a more predictable client acquisition system that will also make Fetch more attractive to a future buyer.
[28:29] – Kim explains how coaching has reignited her enthusiasm for the business and made her feel more confident about its future.
[33:24] – Dom’s advice for creating your own business growth plan, getting fresh perspectives and surrounding yourself with people who can help you move forward faster.