My Star Story – Beltway Barks

In October of 2018, I decided to leave my part-time job and pursue one of my passions, caring for dogs. I was tired of the many frustrations at my old role and wanted to have a more flexible schedule while attending college. This is why I started my small business Beltway Barks. Previously, I had done some dog sitting and walking for some of my neighbors and really enjoyed it, but the jobs were pretty infrequent, and I couldn’t rely on them to bring consistent money in. At the time, I lived in a large neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia. I felt that there was a great opportunity to start a small dog walking business. I chose the name Beltway barks because I lived just outside the capital beltway of Washington D.C., where I knew I could get a lot of business.

I knew this was going to be a challenging task, but I was ready to give it my all. My plan was to start out on the dog walking platforms Rover and Wag! to help me gain some clients and build more experience. In addition to that, I got to work designing business cards and flyers and learned a lot about creating my brand and selling my services. I began to post my flyers around the neighborhood and distributed my business cards to pet owners to spread the word.

I anticipated it being somewhat difficult to build a client base and establish myself, but I was lucky to be in a location where dog walking was in high demand, and there were plenty of opportunities. One of my biggest early challenges was driving to the walk locations and finding parking. I was able to find more clients and walk opportunities in D.C., but the frustrations of finding a parking spot and one that was free began to become overwhelming. D.C. is a very heavily trafficked area, and street parking is minimal and is not often free. It was also mostly parallel parking spaces, which was something I struggled with. Eventually, I made the decision to stay out of majorly trafficked areas around central D.C. and focused more on the neighborhoods closest to me, where parking was typically not an issue. Although this was a risky decision that could have cost me a lot of business, it worked out very well in my favor and saved me a lot of time and stress, and Beltway Barks continued to grow.

After a couple of months, I had a handful of regular customers and several more occasional ones. I was still using Wag! and Rover on the days I didn’t have walks from my Beltway Barks customers. One thing that really helped is that my first few clients told their friends and neighbors about my business, which allowed me to gain a lot more customers. This taught me that if I offered really outstanding services and focused on making my clients happy, they would spread positive word of mouth. I was really enjoying what I was doing and that I could be my own boss and create and adapt my schedule. I mainly focused on booking afternoon and evening walks because I had classes to attend in the mornings. I also realized that I was making near the salary of my previous part-time role in about half the hours. I also started to do some overnight dog-sitting with a select group of clients. I eventually got to a place where I had to turn down some clients unless they booked a couple of weeks in advance due to my availability.

Ultimately, creating Beltway Barks is one of my most significant accomplishments so far. I put a lot of hard work and effort into building this business and found many successes. I had the pleasure of meeting all kinds of dogs and people and made so many great connections. Learning how to manage all of my clients and modify my services and business to best fit their needs was also very valuable. I had to learn to deal with some more difficult owners and dogs, but I also enjoyed working with some really great ones. I had no idea the enormous impact this decision would make. This also sparked an interest in marketing and business and led me to choose digital marketing as my major. I loved the creativeness of building a business and designing the logo and promotion materials, and the challenges of gaining customers and figuring out how to adapt your business to best fit their needs. This experience taught me so much, and I am so grateful to have been through it. It was definitely challenging and pushed me to my limits at times, but I wouldn’t change it. I can’t imagine not starting Beltway Barks, and I am so glad I left my miserable part-time job because this work was so much more fulfilling, and it led me to where I am today.