PANDEMIC SETBACK
Pet boarders having a tough time
For a year, Ashley Horan has been struggling to keep the lights on at her pet boarding business as travellers remain few and far between.
While airlines and tourist destinations suffer, the places offering staycations to the furry friends left behind have been the forgotten businesses during the pandemic, said Horan, who owns Everydog and Cat in Rouleau with her husband, Lonnie.
“We don't have a big voice. People don't think about how we're doing and we're all trying to be really stoic about it,” Horan said. “But we're struggling. We don't have any business, and that's a hard thing to talk about.”
In mid-march 2020, as Saskatchewan began shutting down, all the bookings Horan had for the rest of the year were cancelled over a single weekend as people became uncertain about their travel plans.
Business picked up a little bit through the summer months as COVID -19 cases slowed and people took holidays, but fall brought a renewed plunge in customers. In the 10 years she has owned the business, this was the first year the space wasn't fully booked for Christmas and the summer months.
“There aren't enough bookings for us to pay all of our overhead ... so it's actually better for us to be completely closed than to have like one dog at a time or two dogs at a time. We actually save money by being closed.”
That's just what the business has had to do for now.
Horan's last furry guest went home on Friday and she said she will not be taking any new dogs until the borders open and international travel resumes.
Her business is fuelled by both domestic and international travel, but she said the “big bookings” came from those leaving the country for anywhere from a week to two months at a time.
Louise Yates, co-owner of K-lane Kennels in Kronau, also saw an immediate drop to zero income when the pandemic hit. In the year since, business has come and gone in small waves over the typically busy seasons, but is always a far cry from what it had been, Yates said.
With 19 years already sunk into the business, Yates said she has been able to weather the financial hit better than new businesses. Still, it has been a tough year.
“For anybody that starts a small business, you know, all the advice is your first years are the hardest and I would beg to differ. A pandemic is the hardest,” she said.
“Until people travel again and need a boarding service for their pets, our business isn't relevant.”
K-lane Kennels has remained open and welcomes new guests, but Yates has also turned to renting out some of her space as a private off-leash dog park to help bring in extra income.
Horan, too, has had to diversify her income streams to outlast the pandemic. She and her husband already had a “hobby business” making custom leather dog collars. When the number of dogs they were looking after dropped dramatically, they started pouring themselves into that business.
As revenue from the collars grew, Horan said they made the difficult decision to permanently close the cat boarding side of Everydog and Cat — a much smaller portion of the business than dog boarding — so their collar-making studio could expand into that space.
“Everyone's kind of throwing out some different ideas to try and get some extra business,” Horan said. “I don't know how long some businesses can hold on for, you know. At what point do you just go, `Oh boy?' ”
You know, all the advice is your first years are the hardest and I would beg to differ. A pandemic is the hardest.