Haute Dog Hospitality

Just in time for National Dog Month, the latest episode of “Through the Door” features Megan Comfort, Small Business Manager at Nevada State Bank, in conversation with Lisa Imbesi, owner of Pawsh Palace — an all-suite, state-of-the-art luxury pet care and wellness facility in Las Vegas where the dogs are the VIPs. A former nightlife hostess, Lisa set out in 2015 to create the Ritz-Carlton of pet hotels, offering five-star service to four-legged guests.

In this episode, she shares how she turned her vision into a thriving business in a city known for world-class hospitality. From launching a boutique brand to keeping high-end canine clients (and their humans) happy, Megan and Lisa dig into every detail of what it takes to succeed in the luxury pet care space.

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Transcript

I’m Megan Comfort, Small Business Manager at Nevada State Bank, and I am extremely excited to talk to my next guest.

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This is a podcast. Back up a little bit. This is a podcast where we interview business owners and we get their experiences and kind of their take on running a business in Nevada and some of the lessons learned along the way.(...) We are going to be talking to Lisa M. Bessie. She is the owner and operator of Posh Palace. It is a full-care dog facility.

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She's been around since 2015 and is continuing to grow her brand and her presence here in southern Nevada. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Yes. So we normally start these off by just hearing a little bit about your origin story and how you decided to make that plunge into entrepreneurship. So tell us a little bit about that. Well, the concept of Posh Palace started because I was always traveling. I loved my dogs. They were my little babies before I had an actual baby.

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And I just felt every time I went away that my dog was getting sick, he was depressed, he or she was.(...) I just felt really bad and guilty when I was leaving. So I wanted to make something that was more of a vacation for them as well, not just drop them off, put them in a cage, they come back. You don't know whether they've ate or had a good time or any of that. So my original concept was to have this big facility.

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And I wanted to do a doggy beach club, like comparing. Oh, that's fun. Like Vegas. Vegas style. You go on vacation. Right. Right. That's fun. But I was having a hard time finding somebody to lease to me. So that's where I started selling my house. Really? Why was that? They just couldn't get on board with the idea or the concept?

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That. And then it was, you know, I was much younger. I don't know if I maybe it could be possibly that I was a woman. It was a new business. So I did find it a little challenging to get a building lease to me.

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And so I started small out of my house and then eventually outgrew it. And then I found this one location and the landlord, he didn't want to lease it to us.(...) Least it to me as well.(...) But we had a kind of a idea to pay him six months in advance for the rent. And that's kind of what got him to do it. Okay. So I find that interesting because a lot of business owners are when starting out, you generally don't think of that as being like a pitfall or a challenge that you go through. Right. And then you realize, wow, I'm actually having to sell and convince people on the idea. Exactly. And see if I can't get them on board. Right.

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Well, I'm glad that you were able to figure that out. Coming out six months of prepaid rent is not an easy thing to do. Right. So it's good that it kind of gave you the chance. And that's your first location where you are. That is where this is the first location. Yes.(...) So then tell me about how that's kind of grown. Well, so that was definitely a learning experience. Building things for the dogs was challenging because you don't think that they will destroy everything, but they do. So now we're on our second. We're doing all the indestructible material. And I call it almost like a $100,000 lesson. Yeah.(...) Like you learn what works, what doesn't. But that's part of being a small business owner is figuring out what works and what doesn't. What was it? Did you make more of the things like yourself and it wasn't as durable? Or did you just buy things that you thought would last and it was really more for like maybe at home, like one dog, not. Exactly. Yeah. I think that my perspective was I had small, medium sized dogs that wouldn't do damage to certain things. And then we had these big dog comes come in and they just tear up everything. And other dogs have separation anxiety and they can jump the room. So it was really me just being wanting to make everything homey and cozy instead of using the right quality things at first. Yeah. Yeah. OK. That's yeah. Those are the things that you wouldn't necessarily know until you have to buy them again. Right. You have to figure out what to buy. Right. So well, let's back up like a little bit only because when you started this business, it sounded like it was an idea. But was this something that you knew you always wanted to get into? Like it kind of came out of just seeing your own family members, like your furry family members, right? Coming with stress and you're like, man, did they have a good time or I'm having to leave? I know I had a dog and we had to leave a lot.(...) And every time I came back, I could tell they're like, yeah, you're home and I can sleep. And it seemed like they slept quite a bit when they were home.

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And you you got photos every now and then from like the place that I used. But you never really knew if they had fun. Is that like did something happen with a former career where you're like, you know what? I want to just go into business for myself. Like how did that process happen? I think it was a little bit of a combination of who I wanted to be and also not wanting to work for somebody,(...) wanting to.

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I like being in charge of certain things and my days off, even though I don't get any days off, you know, I don't know. I just really wanted to work for myself. But then I definitely saw that there was nothing in Vegas. I went and I researched everywhere. And I thought that they were like jails for dogs. It was not cozy. And then I tried the boarding at somebody's house. And then half the time she was gone when I would try to come pick them up. And so there just wasn't really what I wanted. And I love to travel. So, you know, I wanted to be able to do that and not feel bad and come back and have like a five hundred dollar debt bill every time because I don't know why my dog's sick or.

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And also I'm very clean. So I wanted things to be a certain quality and like funniness and where I boarded my dogs.

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Yeah. So then, OK, first location. One other thing that I've noticed about your company is you have a great presence on social media. So that's kind of problem one, right? Well, first problem is you've identified there's a need for what you're looking for. There are other people that are like you that have these family members that they're going to be boarding and they want them taken care of. They want them in a nice facility and they want to know that this is just as much as a vacation for them as it is for you.

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And so that's kind of problem set number one. Then the second is just getting people in the door and like customers actually coming in consistently. Was that part of like social media? Was that part of your strategy? Is it part of your strategy? Yeah, I truly believe that's how my business started.(...) I think that it was even when I was small and I had dogs staying at my house.(...) My thing was that I would tag every single person. This is just when stories were starting, you know, not tick tock or any of those other things. So I would just tag people and they loved it. And then it actually almost became a full time job because people are like, oh, I didn't see my dog on the story. Is everything OK?(...) Like, no, everything's fine. We're just busy making sure everybody's got it. I want to reshare. Right. I want to reshare the photo. So it's become kind of custom customary for our customers to expect it.(...) And my idea was to be a little bit more sassy. I wanted I wanted to be trendy. I wanted to just make people laugh instead of just like the same old dog pics. I just wanted to be sassy. So it was just like a different vibe. And that's what I tell my my staff. I say, be as sassy as you want. You know, push, push the borders, push the push the limits to a certain degree. Yeah. And they love it. They enjoy it. But that's definitely how I built it originally. See, I love that uniqueness of the business and taking something like social media and really just ingraining it in your company.

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So for those things, I know that we talked about social media. Do you use like a separate third party firm to kind of help you manage it or do you go through like training protocols with your team? It's really hard to keep those things consistent. Right. And you don't necessarily want to destroy the autonomy or flexibility that you give people.(...) Like, that's one thing I've noticed with some companies, they're like, I have to approve every post. And I'm like, wow, that could be a full time job. Like, how do you get anything else done? It is and it took quite a bit of time to get that down.(...) But it came with training and also hiring the right people.(...) Nowadays, I feel like people spend the majority of their their free time on their phones, scrolling and making videos. And it's kind of fun to do it with dogs, because who doesn't like to see cute dogs or funny videos and things like that. So that was just about training my staff, like what looks good, what doesn't look good.(...) You know, we've definitely had some where I'm like, delete, delete, you know, panic ones. But yeah, nowadays, it's it's it's just kind of like cut and paste. And we show the brand, we show them the page, the website, and we hire the right people, I think, and train them the right way.

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Tell me about the hiring process. That is something that is a challenge for most business owners, hiring and finding the right culture fit and the people that are not there just because it's a job. Right. And are not there just because it's their breathing person, they show up. That's, I've heard that quite a bit from business owners sometimes are like, well, nowadays, it's just, are they going to show up and just come to work. But really finding people that are passionate about what you do. Is there anything unique or special that you've kind of learned along the way to hire the right folks? Oh, definitely. I have a phenomenal management team. I have an HR person and I have my general manager who's now is my director and they they learned a few tricks about how to actually reach out to people in the industry and whether they're looking or not, you know, if their resumes are on indeed or just anywhere. It's more about people who are might not be looking, but they might have a great resume and just reaching out and say like saying, hey, this opportunity is available. Would you be interested? And most of the time they say yes.(...) Or another another thing that's also worked for us is when people come in to apply, those are usually the people that like love your business that they want to work for. They know your brand. They're like, oh my God, I want to work here. Right. So somebody who we will give opportunity to people who don't have experience with dogs just because everybody needs to start somewhere.

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But that's definitely like, well, we'll take the younger ones that are walking in who might be the first job and we can train them the way we want them to.

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And then we'll also check references for sure. All the past employers and making sure that they have longevity there.

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References are important for us. That's that's something that I think a lot of businesses just ask for or it's just naturally on a resume. But then you don't tend to really check bigger companies. Yes, but smaller companies, they either don't have the time or they don't do that or just I always tell business owners just Google. Like if you just Google a person or just look up some of their accounts, assuming they're not private and just having an understanding of what type of individual like what's their personality when they're not at work. Those things can go a long way and kind of help you find good people.

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Also, looking at their social media, they can give away a lot.

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You know, they don't realize that employers were a lock, but we do check and see. And if we see certain things that we don't really want to be representing us, you know, we've had some people who also did only fans applying to us. We're like, absolutely. You're like, that wouldn't be a good fit. Right. Exactly. It is interesting. Social media has really kind of taken a different approach to it's made so many things like more dimensional, multi-dimensional, I guess. You know, there's always been these different dimensions and roles that individuals have had. But now with social media, there's so many different things and there's so many different things that you could join in. Right. That really just make it unique to where you can really understand a person through just looking through things. I actually feel bad for people that are like high school reunions and things like that because I'm like, I don't need to go to high school reunions. I already know what you're doing. I already know what you've been up to because we follow each other on Facebook. So I don't need to go anymore. Exactly.(...) Okay. So then tell me more about where you are with the growth. So you finally get into your location. You are recognizing that you've found this vein in really kind of cultivating the right branding and messaging that you're looking for. A lot of it having to do with social media, which most people are on. And that also kind of does two things. It improves your brand message, but then also it gives your customers something to look forward to when they're on vacation and things or they see that their dog is tagged in something. And they can kind of check up on their dog and then hiring the right folks. But what about you as a business owner? You kind of started out of your home and moved to a new facility. And now you're on this path of growth. Can you talk a little bit about that and how your role has changed? So, yeah, it took a little bit for me to stop trying to do everything. And that's kind of where that's challenging as an entrepreneur to actually give the reins to other people because you want things done a certain way, but you're never going to grow unless you do trust people. And the minute I started doing that was when I was able to look into other locations and trust that there might be some bumps along the way that might not go extremely the way I want them to or exactly the way I want them to.

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But now I don't even think twice about my first location because it's kind of like on autopilot.(...) I've got a great team. And I also noticed that people don't like to be micromanaged.

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When they're doing things wrong, I'll kind of jump on and micromanage them for a little bit. And then I back back off and then they're like, okay, okay, I don't like that. So I'll just do my job the way it is.(...) But yeah, letting other people do what they're hired to do and not micromanaging them.

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And then, yeah, focusing on what I'm good at, which would be being an innovator and coming up with crazy ideas that you'd never think to do in dog hotels and in the dog industry. And focusing on that has been a challenge, but getting better at it. Yeah. Hey, it evolves. You're more of the visionary friend. So you mentioned your management team and how you kind of rely on those individuals. Did they grow into that role with your company? So they had been working for you for a while and you saw the potential.(...) I really feel like if you have somebody good, you can teach them and you can teach them the way you want it done. I mean, it's definitely a challenge. It took quite a few years to get some of my staff to where they are. But now, they don't even ask me questions where I'm like, hey, what's going on? They're like, well, you know, I got this. Don't worry. So it's nice to have that, but you just have to teach them and trust that what you're teaching them, they might be doing better than you would do. Some of the handling customers,(...) I might have a little less patience nowadays with a toddler running around where other people, that's their job.

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Yeah.(...) That's funny. That reminds me so much of my husband's companies and the folks that we have running those businesses because they do. They do it a lot better. Now, I find myself always apologizing for asking a question. I'm like, you probably emailed me or I probably have something, but I'm just going to ask it because they do really run those companies and they know how to do it better than I do.

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It's interesting when you give people the room to innovate and kind of create their own process, what they come up with. I'm always surprised by that, which is silly because you would think that if you could do it, then there would be other people that would be able to do something like that. And oftentimes when you're in the minutia, it's just so easy to just be able to be like, nope, you know what? I'm just going to take care of that. Never mind. Or let me tell you how I need to do it. Did you have a mentor or someone that kind of taught you along the way to the trust factor? Like, hey, you have to trust. What happened in your business where you're like, you know what? I have to stop doing everything. Or did an employee tell you? I always love those stories. I have that. We have a girl, Kennedy. She's like, Megan, I'm going to tell you that you need to stop messaging me. I will and I'll get back to you. I'm like,(...) OK. I'm like, all right. I guess I'll just stop then.(...) I've had I've had some of my previous bosses that are now my my customers, which has been pretty exciting.

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I worked for MGM International for a while,(...) Hakusan Group and then Light Group. And then I worked for somebody who he was my former boss, but everybody was scared of him. And he came into Posh Palace and I was like, what are you doing here? Like, am I in trouble? Like, you know, like I kind of like he's like, I'm picking my dogs up. And I was like, oh, like, what do you think? And he kind of did his little walk through like what he did. And he's like, you have you have a phenomenal business. He said you need to put up four more in Las Vegas and you need to do it now. Otherwise, somebody else is going to do it. And when he said that to me, I was like, well, how do I do that? How do I how do I be in four places at once? And he said, you know, do you have somebody that you trust that can really run one location and you have other people you could teach? And I said, yeah, I do. And he's like, well, then you give them a little piece of the pie or, you know, you give them you pay them higher. And that's how you do it. He's like, because if you don't do it, somebody else is going to do it. So really, like, it stuck with me. And that's that's what we're on right now. Yeah. I mean, I have goosebumps. That's that is a very sobering fact that you're like, wow, if I don't do it, someone else will. And you realize that your concept and the care that you have for your clients and the pets that they drop in,(...) you want it to be you. You don't want someone else coming in, maybe not having that same approach or care. I think about that a lot in my world, even in banking is I want to be able to help every single person. And I want to make myself available to every single individual that needs something. But I can't because I'm only one person. So how do you replicate that with so many other people so that they do the same thing and feel the same way? Right. So what is the next step for posh palace now that the first location's autopilot running itself? And then now you have your mentor telling you, hey, if you don't open up more, someone else is going to do it. Right. So we're on we're on to location number two. And it's it's absolutely unbelievable. This this project, because it's more than I could have imagined what we kind of did, like the the ideas we have.

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It's opening up probably within two weeks. We're doing like a soft opening just for like our friends and family and our our current customers because you know how it is when you open small businesses. There's a little kinks you got to work out. Yeah. But the way that I designed this one was more of,(...) you know, we have an indoor pool with a waterfall.

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We've got like a clear playground that the dogs can climb on and you know, you can see them playing. It's it's very very high end. But there's also little things that like we put in there that you wouldn't think of like the water in Vegas is you know, it dries out the dogs. They get allergies. So we have like a UV filter in there. Oh, wow. The pool. So they're they're they're not going to get all itchy and you know, have more allergies from the chlorine. So yeah, we've got that up up and going. We've got all luxury suites. And then I've also got another concept that I am really excited about. I really haven't got to talk too much about it because it's really the first of its kind in the United States.

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My my business partner who is the owner of cactus pet hospital. He is studying more like skin care for dogs and you know, everybody has patches and dry skin and then allergies. So we're we're innovating laser technology from Korea, where instead of giving dogs, you know, allergy medicine and I'm sorry, sort of just giving them band aids for the issues that they have, we're actually going to try to correct the problems.(...) So it's like allergy testing, giving them actually what they're allergic to and then using these lasers to not use medication to get them off antibiotics and things like that.

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There's a lot to lots of things. Well, not just you're not only just focus on the fun part, you're actually focused on certain things that you know, affect and the quality of life for a dog and the owners if they can't seem to figure out the solution to it. Right. That's really amazing. That's your kind of your venturing into a complimentary industry is what I would call it where it's like you have your industry that you're in right now and then you're utilizing that knowledge and kind of the information that you have here over to something else that's really going to help do more good for animals. I think with Posh is also that I wouldn't sell or do anything that I wouldn't give to my own dogs. So I really do the research on like the products and the food that we're selling. And I also like to work with other small businesses. I have Dog & Whistle, they make all our meals. So it's like a room service thing for the dogs and he's local. So they're just like little things that we do that are more of like a, I don't know what the word of it is, like a sincere touch or... I feel like it's more like the four seasons than anything else. It's interesting because you are bringing all the things that we get to do as humans, right? Into a world where it's probably common for their owners to do that when they're at home, but not necessarily when they drop them off somewhere. So you're just being an extension of the lifestyle that they're already accustomed to and have, which is really neat. Well, probably even a notch up. They're like, the dogs are really like, let me go back. Like, why are you picking me up? I don't want to go back. The itchy dogs and all that stuff. So yeah, we're going to have all these really...(...) It's not going to be like a veterinary center where you have, you know, shots and vaccines and surgeries. It's really just a wellness spa. So they're going to come in feeling better than they did when they left. Yeah, overall wellness and continued prevention. Right, right. And then getting them off, you know,(...) antibiotics and things, antibiotics, apoquo, steroids that is going to cause, you know, liver failure when they're older and, and... worse things and actually correcting the problems that are just... Yeah, the consequences of, you know, fixing one ailment is generally, it leads to others. So if you can approach it in a very healthy way, that's nice. And yeah, I don't think that doesn't exist. I can't think of it existing in Southern Nevada, at least. I'm sure I'm not as in tune with the industry. So maybe there are other people that are kind of trying to figure it out. But overall, I think this is a great place for that. Right. The laser concept is something newer to dogs.(...) And my vet actually went to Korea to go study and they're coming next week to train us on how to do everything.(...) But they said that they really don't have anybody in the United States that's doing this and they really want us to be the innovator of that. So I'm excited. And I think that I definitely have that capability of introducing things to the animal industry and solving problems long term rather than just short term. Did you always have an eye for, like, the future things you talked about some of the ideas and things? That's part of being a business owner is having those ideas and that vision and that path. Right. Is this something that you already laid out, like strategically in a plan? You're like, when you were in 2015, like, I'm going to do this and then accomplish X, Y and Z? Or is this something that you just kind of identified the opportunity as it came up? Like, how did these things fall on your lap or like that you come across them and figure out where to take your business next? Well, in, I guess it was 2013, I owned a med spa and I sold that. So I've always had that, like, wellness industry and pets have always been my, you know, like, they melt my heart. I love animals. I think they're better than people to some degree. Yeah, but I think that I was giving a service and I realized that, you know, it's providing people what they actually really needed. And so many of my customers are like, thank you for creating posh and doing these things. And then it's also come from me as a pet owner, what I've experienced. And that's dealing with dogs with allergies and how much money I've spent and still not knowing what they're allergic to or figuring out or fixing it and really trying to get people to do what they need. I tried this treatment over at Cactus Pet Hospital, which is what we're moving over here. And it was a bath soak. And, you know, I noticed it worked incredibly. And I was like, we need to, we need to introduce this, you know, so that's where we're at with that. And, you know,(...) anybody who's tried the treatments so far are just blown away by it. So yeah, I love that you focused on all the things that you do, you're kind of doing yourself, you're not entering into an industry that you know nothing about, or, you know, not an animal owner yourself, or pet owner yourself, like you actually are going through your own experiences and using that as ammunition to fuel kind of the trajectory of where you're taking the company and the business.(...) So are you looking at continuing to expand? Oh, absolutely. So well, tell me about the second location, because I know it's not open yet. But going from one to two is really hard. I feel like after you have done that, it seems like business owners are more like, okay, I figured out I've unlocked the recipe of creating more locations. But it really is that one to two going from two to four to six doesn't seem as difficult. Right. What are some of the things that you've learned going from one to two locations?(...) You can't I'm sure you're still learning. Yeah, I'm definitely still learning. It's time management. It's that, you know, nothing is ever really done when it's supposed to be done. And trying to always keep my cool, even when I'm like, extremely stressed out, you know, you want to, you just are overwhelmed.(...) There's so much to do and so little time to get it done. It's just kind of trying to manage and having a healthy way to manage that stress and stay organized and also delegating, trusting my staff to get things done. How do you do that? How have you figured out time management and organization for yourself? I know that that's, to be honest with you, probably one of the number one things that I see in business owners is those two things or they get more challenging over time. And the bigger your company gets gets even harder.

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Learning how to say no has been one. It's still a hard thing for me to do because you get invited all these different things and you want to go and you don't want to let people down. But absolutely like putting your time first instead of other people's time.

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And then, you know, getting up a little bit earlier staying up a little bit later,(...) you know, just skipping skipping nights out on the weekends like there's been so many Friday nights and that's usually what I do is that I just I work, you know, I'm painting or I'm putting things together, you know, just sacrificing and that's, that's definitely what it takes.(...) It's not you can't just cock out on the weekends, you know. I know you graduated into probably never really being able to leave town that much.(...) And going into just working on something that you love, though, which is nice.(...) That I ended up getting my husband, a lot of nice folders and things like that, that I thought he would utilize because he's a writer, he isn't a technology person. So me, I was like, Oh, there's the share doc. We have all of the to do's go in there every day. It's live. You can change it. Other people will see it. That's really nice for you to use.(...) The checklist manifesto is something that I think I've heard other business owners talk about. I've listened to as well. It's really unique. Something satisfying about crossing something on your list. It's really nice. And having those getting it out of your brain and on to something and kind of constantly moving that around and prioritizing. It seems like that's something that I think has really helped a lot of people with when they have a lot of things going on. And the time management thing is definitely difficult. So outside of, you know, saying no to going out and doing things like that. Is there a way to do that? Is there anything that you do from an organizational perspective that kind of helps you with managing your responsibilities and your priorities on getting things to a deadline? Because as you talked about, everyone else's deadlines typically get a little longer. It's yours that starts to get truncated because you got to make up for that lost time. I think definitely prioritizing, like you had said, what's what has to be done? What's what's in a time crunch?(...) And making sure that your team is doing exactly what they need to get done, whether it's marketing or partners or the build out. You just have to kind of stay on top of everything.

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And not I've noticed whenever I kind of let anything go, it definitely evolves in a second. You're like, how did that happen? Right. So you got to always make sure you stay on things.

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And my original director of operations was she was a former Marine and she worked in the fire department area and her and her husband, they were Marines. They live in Texas now. But everything with them was, you know, military based management.

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So everything was like, can you figure this out on your own before you go and ask me this question? What are your solutions?(...) And then don't come to the don't come to your boss until you have those things that you have to present to them. So it's all about like chain of command and having the idea and solutions before you just go and ask questions. That's definitely helped like with our operations. And it makes your staff kind of feel a little bit more, more important, I guess. Yeah, and empowered. I completely agree with that mindset of having people really think through a problem set. And if it were theirs,(...) how would they approach something or what would they do? Even if it's, okay, I don't know what to do. You know, I don't know what to do. But it's at least you have put some effort into figuring it out and saying, and you can articulate this is at least what I've tried to do to figure it out. And I still can't come up with a solution. I feel like it improves job fulfillment. You know, people feel really good, especially when they are able to figure things out. That's one thing that I find really interesting about the younger generations, I don't see them so much problem solving a whole lot. Everything that we've kind of developed has been so system like and process oriented. Step one, step two, step three, and you know, go down the line. But what if step four happens before step two? And what if you have to go out of sequence because something happens? Or what if, you know, you can't necessarily follow the same process every single time. Having the ability to really think about that and focus is on on how to do it. It just makes them faster to more efficient, figuring out ways to do things better. Right. So it was that director that kind of brought that concept to you and was like, Hey, you really got to, we got to look at doing this for the team. Yes.(...) And I it's kind of how we train everybody.(...) You know, I I've trained my managers to train their staff to come up with a solution before they go and ask you because you'll just you know, you won't get anything done. If everybody's just in your office asking you a million things. I'm sure you're very familiar with that. Yeah.(...) Tell me about the planning or the the training that you do for your employees a little bit. Do you hold regular meetings just to keep everybody on the same page? Or when you think about communication, the flow of communication, how do you make sure that things remain consistent and to the brand and that you don't get anyone going off script in some negative way? That's definitely a challenge for us, especially being 365 days a year. 20, like we have staff 24 seven. So there's no, we never really close dogs. It's always, you know,(...) we have, we use a like a chat. We use WhatsApp, which is okay. Yeah, we just kind of stay organized in that and we have shift notes. So in the morning times,(...) the overnight, I'll tend it will give the am.

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Shift a rundown and then the am shift will meet with the pm shift at two o'clock and you know, like switch.(...) And then so we're just keeping everybody in the chain of commands and they have to read what's going on what what is being laid down the line to them before they can start so they they're aware if there's a dog that's sick or anything like that or we have an upset customer or happy customer or you know, just a little bit of a conversation. Yeah,(...) who deals with the customer complaints when you have them? Is it just you or do you have I actually don't. Okay.(...) I try not to because my personality is you know,(...) as you know, I'm a New Yorker. So sometimes we're just straight to the straight to the point and you know, or I have people that are just more patient and sweeter and they're that's their specialty and like you just couldn't yell at them.

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So I have my my few managers that are very well trained on how to deal with that. And, you know, we want to understand what the problem is and not just, you know, argue with them like there's something that's bothering them. And maybe they don't understand our end of it. So just always try to work through whatever we can resolution to make everybody happy. Yeah, I feel that during conflict, that's when you really solidify great relationships. It's really how you handle it. It's not necessarily giving the other person all the things that they want, but taking a genuine approach to caring about the issue that they have and trying to come up with a solution that's fair. Right. Right. For everybody. Like how would you feel if you were in their shoes and vice versa? Yeah, the conflict discussion is always interesting because it's not often that you actually have employees or find people that are able to do that. So it's really great that you have that because normally it's something that kind of bubbles up to you. And then hopefully you don't have very many. And so you're the one kind of feeling on that. We've been lucky lately, you know, last year was scary with like the dog flu that was going on. You got to explain to everybody, you know, but we were fortunate because we have really good protocols and the minute anybody sees anything, you know, so we've we've got that locked down, which is great. Well, and you talked about the cleanliness factor to which of your facilities, which I could tell is definitely something that's top of mind for you guys, because it doesn't smell like a dog place at all. Right. Like you go in and you it's interesting. It doesn't. I'm always like amazed by that. But I did read on your website that you use air filtration quality. Hospital grade. Yeah, we have we have great ventilation, which costs quite a bit of money. But, you know, it definitely helps with keeping everything sanitizing clean. And even with our new spot, we have, you know, the pool, which is going to get a wet dog smell. So we've got all that in there and he's using a good contractor that kind of knows what works and what doesn't is always always a plus. Yeah, you're using a contractor for your second location. That's someone that helped you on your first. No, the first we basically just did the shell. So I, I didn't do it the right way, because I didn't own the building.(...) I didn't have any TIs or anything like that. So we built out. But this this time around, I had somebody do it the right way because I've made the wrong mistakes and it's actually costing me more money and time in the long run. What if I would have actually used the right stuff and done it the right way with, you know, somebody who is probably not the cheapest. That's also one thing is like you get what you pay for. Like with anything, I think that you could go the, you know, the thumbtack route and do everything. You're wet, you're only, or you could actually have somebody who knows what they're doing and it saves you a lot of time and energy.

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Yeah. Well, so tell us about the second location, because that is a little bit more unique in the sense that when you did venture out and grow, you knew that anything that you were getting, you wanted to own. And so you're obviously building that one out to really be the experience that you want for your clients. It's different when it's yours, too, because you, you know, it's like, you know, it's yours. It's not somebody else's building that you're building out and putting all this money into.

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I just wanted it to be all of the bells and whistles. And I wanted it to really look like a posh palace. And also, it doesn't hurt that my on the med spa side, that my that he has like impeccable taste. He loves everything. Restoration hardware.

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So when we did, we used his contractor who built out his veterinary center and he did everything like the the proper way, like, you know, is all of the the rules that I didn't even know of, you know. Yeah.(...) And that's so he found that person because that is another thing that's difficult when you're vetting their parties and people to work with is who really has the expertise and the experience that's going to line up. Did you take a lot of time interviewing different people for that new location and making sure that you're working with them? I did. I think I interviewed about like six different companies.

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And the reason I liked the one I'm using now is because he he's always so, you know, he's just honest and straightforward.

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I know of quite a few other businesses that have used him.

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And if there's something that happens at the other vet center, they he fixes it. You know, he's he's on it. So it's always good to have somebody that has credibility, especially in that industry. Well, and what I like is you're focusing on the experience of really something that Jonathan Jocelyn said in our episode that we aired the second episode, where he said when people come into his place, like, what is the first thing they see? What is the first smell that they have? Those things and just making sure right off the bat, when people come in, they understand the difference between posh palace and anyone else. That's really hard to nail. Right. How did you learn that that would be important? Is that something naturally that you just figured out or I took a visual merchandising course in college and a lot of the just the way that they explain things. It it stuck with me, I guess.(...) I also love love interior design. I love anything design. I like to do the marketing stuff. So that's kind of more my specialty is marketing and and interior design things.

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I think that just I have an eye for that. Yeah. Which is not and everybody does. And you can definitely tell with certain places. But if you don't, I would suggest having somebody who does do it for you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, specializing, right? Like everyone has their own specialty. So being able to just be honest with yourself, I'm like, this isn't my specialty. I need to. And it's going to make a difference in the way my business performs. So I'm going to need to find someone that can do it. Right. Absolutely. What about just future growth? Because you mentioned, you know, the trajectory. And I love what you're doing with the second location. It's kind of posh palace, you know, initial your first location out of your house. Then you graduated up into finding a lease location. Now you are in going to be in your own building. That is really all the specifications and everything is to the standard of what you believe posh palace would be. And then also the wellness factor that you have going on. All of these things kind of require you to strategically plan and cash flow manage right for the growth. How do how is that something as a business owner that you kind of do? Like, what's your thought process around that? Well, it was it was a little scary, you know, just taking this extra leap. But like, I know that I have a demand there. So there's a lot of people that are like, we cannot wait until this opens up. And, you know, running my numbers, making sure that if anything were to happen, that I could actually carry the second if if we weren't good for the first year on, you know, on the first location. So definitely like looking what wig over my head. It's also working for free for a little bit.(...) But you you focus on the financial aspect of your business, not just like you mentioned, design and marketing. That's something that you are really interested in. That's really where your passion lies. But you don't ignore the financial piece of it. That's extremely important. So where did you learn or understand that? Is that something that you learned through prior work experience or coming into it? Because it sounds like everything you've done, you really have done knowing I need to be conservative with my capital and the way that I kind of approach these things, because you you don't want to fail. Right. You don't want to be in a position where you're going to be reliant on someone else telling you yes or no. And that's going to be the decision for your business. Right.

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You know, I looked at things with my I have a really great CPA and bookkeeper. She manages me every month. And, you know, she's like, you're going to you got to do this. You know, you know, what's going on?

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So I have I have somebody who really helps me with with that end, kind of like no one where I'm at with my P&Ls and the growth of things. We're turning away business, then it's probably time to, you know, open up another location. Yeah.(...) It it definitely I know that it's not something that could that's going to be profitable right away. So I'm also prepared for that.(...) And that that's just with any business. A lot of people aren't and they panic and they freak out, but you have to prepare for it. So it also comes with, you know, working with Nevada State Bank, who has helped me tremendously with, you know, the build out and planning and, you know, getting those right loans that, you know, you have that cushion to kind of even that didn't go according to plan. Like we had hoped. But, you know, yeah, it happens. And it really is about how you come to the table and kind of resolve and work through things. But that I like that you have that conservative approach. I think that that is one of the things that makes your business so unique and really on to something that I think is going to be really fantastic, because you are such a great operator. You really thinking not just about the all the amazing ideas in the marketing and really that stuff that kind of is the virality. Right. Is that a word? The virality of things and the things that you do that are going to get your name out there. But you're thinking about conservatively, how do I budget manage things realistically? When am I going to get into the black? How do I conserve that cash? How do I make sure to make my next move? And what does that look like? And what's my return on investment? Simple calculations like that that you have to think about as a business.

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It's definitely challenging. And, you know, just having you have to have a little bit of a cushion to, you know,(...) I mean, it's always easier said than done. But it's like when you do get low, you're like, oh, my gosh. But, you know, it'll I think anything that you kind of put your, you know, you work really hard at and plan and put all your energy into.(...) It's obviously you can fail, but I've done this in the past. So if I'm going to put all my focus on this, you know, I have a really good feeling about it. And I know there's a need for it, too. Yeah. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited to see the next locations and this new upcoming location. It sounds like it's going to be amazing. I haven't been by it yet, so I can't wait to see it open. I have no more pets, but I'll still come by and hang out with all the dogs that might be there. Right. Now get your pet therapy and yeah, exactly. I'll bring my kids. So really, yeah, crazy. And they'll be like, I don't do it. People, they can leave. You can't leave your children here. Right. But thank you so much for being on through the door. The insider's perspective on running a business.