Lifelong Passion for Pets Fuels Woofie's Co-Owner Amy Reed

by Allison Wyckoff

Sixteen years ago, Amy Reed and Leslie Barron were neighbors who shared a love of animals and frustration over a lack of good options for high-quality, reliable pet care. When they traveled for work, took vacations or needed to spend longer days at the office, they were left scrambling for a company they could trust with the keys to their homes and the care of their dogs. They were also both ready for a change. So they took a risk, quit their corporate jobs, and started Woofie’s ® to provide the solution they had sought – a professional, personalized approach to pet care with customer service at its core.

Reed knew that plenty of people wouldn’t understand when she took a huge risk and quit her job in the tech industry to start a business around her love of pets. But she had no passion for her job, and by following her heart she has helped create a successful, award-winning company recognized for its premium level of pet care.

“Find a way to live your life and find something that you love, that you have a passion for,” Reed advises. “While you’re working a lot, you’re doing something you love. You’re around people you like; you’re around animals. It doesn’t feel like work … I think back to my days of sitting behind a desk at a corporate office and I can’t imagine going back to that.”

Woofie’s emphasizes trust and strong relationships with clients and pets alike – qualities Reed and Barron found lacking in the market when they started the company. Their services include pet sitting with multiple visits per day, in-home overnight care, ‘Bed & Biscuit’ overnight care (a pet stays overnight at a sitter’s home), dog walking, mobile pet spa (grooming services), and pet first aid and CPR classes.

To ensure services are personalized to each client and pet’s needs, a member of the Woofie’s management conducts an in-house consultation to learn about the pet, the care they need, the home and to answer questions. Clients also receive regular updates via the Woofie’s app, which allows a client to see walks, daily reports, pictures and other updates throughout the day. The Woofie’s policy is to go above and beyond to meet customer needs so they don’t have to worry about their pets. If a client has to stay late at work unexpectedly, for example, they can call and their sitter will do another visit that day.

One of their goals is to help people find the flexibility they need to be able to do the things they want to do in life without worrying about their pets. She’s most proud of the times she hears from a client that they can finally take a vacation or be at work without feeling guilty because they know their pets are receiving great care.

“Clients call or e-mail and say they couldn’t take their vacation if they didn’t know that we were taking care of their babies. We’ve had clients who had not taken a vacation in a year or more because of a previous bad experience leaving their pet alone,” Reed said. “So building that trust with them and having them say ‘you’ve really allowed us to get way’ – that is so rewarding."

Great relationships with clients have also informed the expansions Woofie’s has made over the years. The company added mobile grooming after a number of clients had asked about it. “You always want to be open to what clients have to say. A lot of the time they give you your best ideas,” Reed said. “Mobile grooming has been a great offering, all one-on-one, very calming for the pet. It allows the groomer to bond with the pet, and offers more convenience for the client.”

Customer input has also motivated the Woofie’s team to grow the company after customers coming to the company’s northern Virginia location kept asking when the company was going to move into surrounding areas. Reed says she and Barron chose to grow via franchising because it supports the focus on customer service that is key to Woofie’s success.

“With franchising, the franchisees own that business, and I think that’s very important for a highly personalized service like Woofie’s,” Reed said. “You are building relationships with the clients. You are members of the community, and you are caring for people’s pets, and that is a huge responsibility.”

Woofie’s looks for franchisees who embrace and understand that this is a business rather than a hobby, and who will go above and beyond to take care of the customer.

“We’re a passion brand. You have to have the blend of the two – love of animals and of the business,” she said.

Reed also likes that the Woofie’s approach provides franchise owners and employees with a lot of flexibility. “For the owners, a lot of the work can be done from home. And for the employees, we see a lot of teams of groomers or sitters made up of family members – a husband-wife team or mother-daughter team. And they’re working, but also spending time with family. In-house, we are big believers in providing a flexible work environment. Not that rigid corporate structure and I couldn’t be happier to say that.”

For more information about Woofie’s franchising opportunities, visit https://ownawoofies. com/the-opportunity.