[ad_1]
For Carolina Ayala, owner of Furry Paws Dog Day Care in Humboldt Park, small business ownership is a family affair.
“My parents immigrated here from Mexico, so out of the 50 years they’ve been here, my mom has owned a restaurant for 37 years,” Ayala said. There are several businesses that myself and my siblings are running – five companies in total. So it’s in our blood to be like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be the boss and become an entrepreneur and start your own business.'”
Ayala said her family encouraged her to join the dog day care business when she had her first child. She has seen some ups and downs since then.
“When I first started, the doggy day care industry was very new,” Ayala said. “So it skyrocketed and then eventually, over the years, it was still high, but the epidemic hit and we hit rock bottom. People were working from home, people stopped traveling. “Day care was like a luxury, because if I’m at home, why should I send my dog to daycare?”
Until then, Ayala had funded Furry Paws on her own—but when the pandemic hit, she began looking for small business support options.
“I was referred to a small digital grant from Verizon, and that was one of my first attempts, and I thought, ‘OK, what are my chances of being awarded?’ I said,” said Ayala. “And long story short, I was rewarded.”
Dogs at Furry Paws Dog Day Care in Humboldt Park. (WTTW News)
Ayala said the $10,000 grant will allow her to add services such as grooming and boost her social media activities. And her customers, it’s touches like these that make Furry Paws stand out in a crowded field.
Maggie Donahue, whose dog Freddie spends a few days a week at Furry Paws care, said: “Now that I can see what’s going on at daycare and where Freddie is in the picture on social media, the confidence has grown. “When I have a place like this to send him to a place that he loves and they love him, it’s like family, so I can’t put a price on it. I highly value this business. “
“The reason our neighborhoods survive is because of our small businesses,” said Nicole Smith, whose dog Landon has been at Furry Paws since he was a puppy. “You don’t get the same customer service, you don’t get the same love from a big corporation. We couldn’t have a dog without Furry Paws. We feel confident in them and know they will be loved all day every day.
Ayala encourages small business owners to look for outside sources of funding to help them get their money out of the doghouse. The Verizon Small Business Digital Ready grant is accepting applications through May 12.
“Small businesses like mine, we don’t really have a lot of resources or platforms and I started putting my pride aside and looking for help,” Ayala said. “Working here and running my own business and still being a mom is like my biggest thing — being able to do what I love and enjoy and that’s dog daycare.”
[ad_2]
Source link
