Episode 313 - Disnifying Your Doggy Daycare with Luke Millington from Stay n Play

The Poodle to Pitbull Pet Business Podcast

Strap in folks, because todays guest has a brilliant pet business story AND an even more amazing doggy origin story to share with you... I'm talking to Luke Millington, the CEO of Stay N' Play Doggy Daycare, who have two branches in Radcliffe and Bury. He grew up in Stretford with his older brother Kyle, and enjoyed playing Rugby and trying to play football... When he was 15 years old, he was sitting watching TV at a friends house Luke was attacked by a dog, and had to have 200 stiches and 6 hours of micro-surgery to fix his face. This transformed him from being someone who would cross a street to meet a dog, to being terrified of dogs for the next two years. He has has a ton of jobs including Macdonalds - which he LOVED - then as a manager at Pizza Hut, Millies Cookies, a Juice bars, and in retail. His family members have always ran business, so Luke always had an interest in business, which led to him doing his grooming and training qualifications, and in 2016 he opened Stay N Play Doggy Daycare. Luke shares how he employed a multi-media approach to promoting his daycare, including posters, social media, networking and his website. This strategy took him from 2 clients on day one, to being full within six months, and in 2019 opened a second location which also offers hydrotherapy. Tune in to discover;

• How chance conversation on a beach in Turkey led to Luke launching his dream dog business..
• Why you need to 'sell your staff' to reasure your clients, if you want to be able to step back from the business.
• How Luke initially advertised his daycare through networking and using 'guerilla' marketing tactics.
• The pricing mistakes Luke made, which you need to avoid if want to be able to quickly scale a pet business.
• Why Luke believes in doing research and surveys before opening a pet business - so you can tap into the local demand with the services you offer.
• Where they offer daycarre, grooming, training and pets as therapy services, like emotional talking therapies and reading therapies .
• Luke also shares how a visit to a local hospice inspired him to start offering pets as therapy services, which led to Luke developing a program which operates in four schools where he helps children struggling with emotional, talking and reading therapies!

This is a super insighful and inspiring episode, and you'll love listening to Lukes story, enjoy!

To find out more about Luke and what he has going on at Stay n Play click here now

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