by Derek Helms
photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
On one of Lawrence’s scorching summer mornings, a rambunctious two year-old black lab named Frankie confidently trots to the counter of Pawsh Wash. Nails freshly trimmed, coat washed and teeth cleaned, Frankie sits, raises his eyebrows and glances at Sarah, his owner.
Frankie waits patiently and his eyes begin to dart between Sarah and the turnstile of handmade treats.
"What," Sarah jokes. "Is looking that good not enough of a treat?"
"Oh, come on," says Amber Nickel, Pawsh Wash owner. "A little treat never hurts."
Sarah concedes, both to Frankie’s cock-eyed plea and Nickel’s subtle urging, and fetches a frosted cupcake.
"Making dogs and their owners happy is such a great feeling," Nickel says. "It’s so cool to do that for a living."
AMBER NICKEL MUST HAVE BEEN A GREAT BARTENDER.
Her smile is omnipresent, she doesn’t let much get to her, and her dry humor keeps others on their toes. After graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in journalism, she spent days in local media as a producer and nights behind the bar slinging beers to locals.
"You know, I loved bartending," Nickel said. "You meet the most interesting people, hear great stories and become everyone’s best friend."
Amber and her (only slightly) older sister Nicki were both living a good life in Lawrence. Amber was using her degree and havinga blast behind the bar and Nicki was happily employed as a nurse, working at the Douglas County Jail. The two were young and enjoying the world of young professionals. Something kept eating at them, however.
"Following an entrepreneurial spirit is really our family business," Amber said. "The passion and drive to be our own boss was instilled in us by our father at a very young age."
Both girls remember the initiative of their dad, a serial entrepreneur. He was an accountant, restaurateur and consultant.
"He would always tell us ‘if you have a good idea, someone else will probably agree with you."
The girls had the drive, but didn’t know what they wanted to do. A trip to a dog wash in Kansas City with Nicki’s yellow lab changed everything.
"Nicki’s lab is huge," Amber says. "I love Chance (the yellow lab), but washing him in the bathtub or with a hose just, well, it sucked. We heard about a place in Kansas City that had pet washes, so we drove over to check it out. Needless to say, we thought it was pretty awesome."
When the trip to Kansas City to wash Chance became a regular thing, the proverbial light bulb went on. "On the way back we always talked about how dog-friendly Lawrence is," Amber said. "It really seemed like all out friends and neighbors had dogs. That thought led to how great it would be to open a dog wash."
Like most entrepreneurs, Amber and Nicki thought about the idea. A lot.
"We would call each other with ideas and thoughts," Nicki said. "It’s really easy to have the ideas. The work begins when you try to implement them." As expected, the girls’ dad was keenly interested in the idea.
 "The thought of opening a dog wash was really kicked into gear by our dad," Amber said. "He did the research on the actual number of dogs in Lawrence. He sent us these great numbers of pet owners and habits he had found. Seeing those figures really sold us on the idea."
Finding space was tricky. Yes, the shop would need room for industrial cleaners. Yes, the shop would also need space for retail sales. Parking was a must.
"Well," Amber says rather bluntly. "We needed a space that had close proximity to a good spot to poop and pee."
Downtown was scouted, but the thought of clients trying to cross Massachusetts Street with their dogs was disconcerting. The girls even considered buying wagons for clients to use as a transport for their pets. The shop’s current location on Wakarusa, with its proximity to the dog park at Clinton Lake and many family-friendly neighborhoods, was a natural fit.
"It has great parking and green space for poop," Amber says. "As nice as a lawn outside the shop is, it certainly doesn’t eliminate accidents. We joke everyday about it being a two, three or even six or seven poop day."
With a location set, financing secure through a line-of-credit and their own pocketbooks, the sisters took the leap into starting their own business. Pawsh Wash opened in the fall of 2005 as a self-wash dog cleaning company. They offered limited retail, but that has changed.
"People really like the self-wash option," Nicki said. "But we quickly saw a great opportunity to grow by offering full-service cleaning and expanded food and equipment."
The girls and their staff learned the proper and most efficient dog washing and grooming techniques. They increased their pet food supply, improved their selection of leashes and toys and started stocking beautiful gourmet treats. Learning on the job has been the best business lesson the Nickel sisters could as for.
"If we don’t have something you are looking for, let us know," Amber said. "We will find the product, or the best answer to your question. We learned early on that making the customer happy, even if you can’t do it immediately, is absolutely the top priority."
Return customers build the bulk of Pawsh Wash business. Making dogs look good, it turns out, makes their owners very happy.
"We try to be as full-service as we can," Amber said. "A lot of our customers appreciate our proximity to the off-leash dog park. They can take their dog to the park, let him or her run around in the grass and mud and stop here on the way home to clean up and get a treat or fresh bag of food."
Kristin Piper is one of those long-time, loyal customers. She has been bringing her dogs, Simon and Zoe, to Pawsh Wash for 5 years.
"The dogs absolutely love going to Pawsh Wash," Piper said. "I really don’t even consider washing them at home. Once you take your dog to see Amber and Nicki, it’s hard to do it in your house again. My dogs, Simon especially, can be crazy. Having someone else do the dirty work to get them clean is awesome."
The result of a job well done is, well, more jobs. As Pawsh Wash became established in Lawrence, the strains of success started to
creep in. Amber and Nicki had to increase and consistently train staff, increase food orders and buy (over and over) new vacuums.
"If I had known then what I know now," Amber said. "I would have bought stock in vacuum cleaners. Seriously, we go through those suckers!"
As the business continues to thrive, Amber and Nicki have had to make some difficult decisions. The desire to expand services and increase their market share created a need to free some cash. At the beginning of the year, Nicki stepped away from Pawsh Wash and back into her former nursing career.
"It was really a very difficult decision," Nicki said. "I love being with the dogs and helping the customers everyday, but I also missed life in the nursing world. When my old job became available, Amber and I had a long talk."
Nicki is still involved in nearly every aspect of the business and may be even more excited for the future of Pawsh Wash than Amber.
"Well, I miss it everyday," Nicki said. "But I don’t have to clean up dog hair anymore."
Amber has embraced her new role and solo shop director.
"To be an independent business owner, in the town I love, working with people and animals that I love," Amber says. "I’m not sure it gets much better than that."
|
22 Comments
鬼に金棒
転石苔を生ぜず
Howdy! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.
knobend
One other thing I would like to say is that in place of trying to match all your online degree programs on times that you finish off work (because most people are exhausted when they get back), try to arrange most of your instructional classes on the weekends and only a couple courses on weekdays, even if it means a little time off your weekend. This pays off because on the saturdays and sundays, you will be far more rested plus concentrated for school work. Thanks a bunch for the different ideas I have realized from your blog site.
candy ai girlfriend
The next time I read a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my option to learn, but I actually thought youd have something fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you can fix if you happen to werent too busy looking for attention.
candy ai free trial
Good day! I know this is kinda off topic but I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest authoring a blog article or vice-versa? My blog addresses a lot of the same topics as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit from each other. If you are interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Wonderful blog by the way!
One thing I want to say is before getting more computer system memory, look into the machine directly into which it can be installed. In the event the machine can be running Windows XP, for instance, the particular memory threshold is 3.25GB. Installing in excess of this would just constitute just a waste. Be sure that one’s mother board can handle an upgrade volume, as well. Thanks for your blog post.
Pretty great post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wanted to mention that I’ve truly enjoyed surfing around your weblog posts. After all I?ll be subscribing in your feed and I’m hoping you write again very soon!
A round of applause for your blog post. Want more.
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is fantastic blog. A great read. I’ll definitely be back.
Casino en ligne France
Your house is valueble for me. Thanks!?
Mon casino
Incredible! This blog looks exactly like my old one! It’s on a entirely different subject but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Excellent choice of colors!
great points altogether, you just gained a brand new reader. What would you recommend about your post that you made a few days ago? Any positive?
Hey are using WordPress for your site platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you need any html coding knowledge to make your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!
Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favorite justification seemed to be on the internet the easiest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people think about worries that they plainly don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks
Another thing I’ve really noticed is the fact that for many people, below-average credit is the response to circumstances outside of their control. As an example they may have been saddled by having an illness so they really have high bills going to collections. It could be due to a employment loss or inability to do the job. Sometimes divorce can truly send the money in a downward direction. Thank you for sharing your ideas on this web site.
I would like to thnkx for the efforts you’ve put in writing this web site. I’m hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing skills has encouraged me to get my own web site now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings rapidly. Your write up is a good example of it.