Coming to The Dogs
Huynh Thanh Phong – M987Z242
Nguyen Hong Duy - M987Z218
Venture Opportunities
• Kris Price spent a lot of time travelling as an
exhibit manager for Nike and found it
challenging to locate a good facility to leave
her dog  The idea of Noah’s Arf was born –
The full service pet care facility to fulfill the
market need
Sound Understanding of the Market
• She started researching and visited dog day-care
centers and dog washes throughout the country
– Day care is a new business, offered currently only to dogs.
There are eight dog day care facilities in the Portland area
– None of these facilities offer 24 hour care making it
inconvenient for clients to pick up their pet by a specified
time.
– There are seven wash your own dog facilities in the Portland
area
– There are 73 grooming and boarding combined facilities and
18 dog training and obedience combined facilities in the
Portland area
 None of these business concepts that offered all of the
services she imagined for her venture did not exist.
Sound Understanding of the Market
• Target market: dual-income, traveling professional
families with hectic schedules who are trying to strike a
balance between the demands of their careers, personal
lives and their pets.
• Market need: there is a need for one-stop convenience.
• Market trend:
– professionals having their families later in life or deciding not to
have children at all,
– Workplace trend: working longer hours and more days
– Travelling professionals
• Market growth:
– The benefits of sharing our lives with our pets offers owners
affection, companionship and security,
– The nations 58 million pet owners spent an estimated 22.7
billion on their pets in 1999
Primary Points of the Emphasis
“To provide excellent animal
care in a pet friendly
atmosphere while ensuring
our customers, both pet and
owner, receive excellent
service in a playful safe
environment.”
Primary Points of the Emphasis
•
•
•
•
•
Superior Customer Service: 24 hour high-quality care and service.
– Overnight care.
– Day care.
– In-home care.
– Wash your own pet.
– Pet grooming.
– Animal behavior classes.
– Pet portraits.
– Gift shop.
– Special events.
– Special requests.
– 24 hour service.
Environment: provide a clean, upscale, odor free, enjoyable environment conducive
to giving professional trusting service.
Convenience: offering clients a wide range of services in one environment.
Location: provide an easily accessible location for customer convenience.
Reputation: credibility, integrity, and 100% dedication from 23+ years employment at
current workplace.
Dare to Seize the Opportunity
“Don’t you think you are getting in over your head?”
“ Why don’t you try to launch one thing at a time.”
“That’s not the concept.”
Problems
Solutions
- Never written a business plan
- Not a good writer
- Use Business Plan Pro to guide her
- Don’t have enough money for
investment
-Beside her own money of $70,000
- Sold her house
- donated her car to the business
- approach the SBA for a loan of $200,000
- Don’t have office
- Lease building
-Put money to decorate it as she liked
Sales and Marketing
• WOM: satisfied customers are the best marketing tool to spread
through Noah’s Arf brand and services.
• Advertising brochures to large businesses for bulletin boards,
offering a 10% discount for a limited time to build a client base.
• Local TV news shows contacted to feature our business as a
new service to the community,
• Direct mail sent to registered pet owners in the Portland Metro
area,
• Brochures distributed to hotels, restaurants, condominiums,
• pet stores, coffee shops, Washington Park Zoo, local
veterinarians, etc.
• Advertisements in the Oregonian, Willamette Weekly, Portland
Tribune, and Dog Nose , News newspapers.
• Web page
… the sweet fruits
• Hit the BEP within the first two months of
operation,
• Had Client base of 20 dogs that reside at
Noah’s Arf daily,
• Increased the facility capacity to 40 day care
dogs with the ability to logde 26 overnight
stays, and with nine kitty condos
• Employed two full time and four part-time
people and in need of one more of each.
Future Challenges
• The competitors might transform their
businesses as the same as Noah’s Arf’s,
• There might be new entrants in the market
due to the ease to copy Noah’s Arf’s business
concept, low start-up costs and high profit
market of pet care.
Recommendations
• Increase the coverage rate (Franchising is
considerable) in other potential cities as soon as
possible to fulfill the market needs and create
barriers for the new entrants
• Deliver more added values to customers
– Veterinarian technician on staff to administer
vaccinations on specified days and tend to any
unforeseen emergencies
– Internet access to watch the pet online
– Monthly newsletter
– Weekly play hour
– Espresso and juice bar
• Stress on customer services and customer loyalty
Thank you!