A Canine's Best Friend | At Manilow's Canine Playground & Doggie Daycare, dog owners place their cherished pets in trusted hands
Barbara Drury sells a product that’s hard to package and impossible to mass produce.
As a lifelong animal lover and owner of Manilow’s Canine Playground & Doggie Daycare, business is, in many ways, a matter of selling people a feeling — the peace of mind that comes from leaving their dogs in her care.
After eight years as the owner of a business that has been on a steady rise, she welcomes upwards of 30 dogs each day through her gates, most of whom bound through the door like they want nothing more out of life than a trip to Manilow’s, named after Drury’s first yellow lab. Even the shy ones come around quickly, thanks to Drury’s knack for understanding the behavior patterns of dogs and her ability to pair them up accordingly.
Having worked for many years in a doggie daycare in Littleton, she had her eye open for the perfect location to open her own — and she found it. Situated just a stone’s throw off Route 2 near the Target plaza in Leominster, the facility provides easy access for customers and high visibility for potential customers.
“It really is the best location,” she said, “and it took me two or three years to find it.”
A Simple Focus
The secret of her success lies not only in the fact that she treats each dog like a long lost relative, but also in the way she defines success. As long as she’s making her rent and staying afloat, it’s been like hitting the lottery to have landed in a career that lets her be around dogs, including her own, Baxter and Barry, who are the closest things to employees she’s ever had. The idea of diversifying or promoting or marketing holds little appeal, and she makes no claim about being a skilled businesswoman.
“I’ve always had a better sense with dogs than finances,” she laughs.
But she has learned to delegate the aspects of small-business ownership that she loathes in favor of doing what she does best, which is to simply care for the dogs. She barters with a dog owner who keeps her books and it’s really the only help she’s ever needed to keep everything running smoothly.
When clients’ dogs have been sick and had to be put to sleep, it’s Drury who shows up on their doorstep the night before to give the dog one last cuddle. When an older dog — one that Drury had known since puppy-hood — was in her care and took a turn for the worse, the owner made arrangements from her business trip for Drury to take the dog in for its final trip to the veterinarian.
And when dogs do pass away, Drury honors them with a picture on the wall and a short biography in her newsletter, which she sends every month to dozens of groomers, vets and her long list of customers past and present. In fact, it’s her newsletter that she thinks gives her an edge in a fairly competitive industry.
“People care very deeply about their animals, so it’s all about building rapport,” she said. “They need to know they can trust you before they’ll even think of dropping off their dogs.”
In the past, Drury had shared space with a dog trainer who led classes and sessions at her facility. But when the trainer left, she decided to try something new, adding a small grooming area where master groomer Grace Quinlan is on site to operate her own grooming operation, Canine Cuts.
Overnight Boarding
Another win for Manilow’s came only within the last year, when Drury was finally granted permission by the Leominster City Council to operate an overnight boarding kennel. But while she petitioned the city for some time to get permission for the extended hours, Drury has no plans for the future beyond doing what she loves.
“I don’t feel there’s a greater honor than to be a part of a dog’s life,” she said. “To me, this is much more than a business.”
If you’d like your business profiled in Small Business Corner, send an email to editorial@wbjournal.com explaining what unique story you have to tell. Please put "Small Business Corner" in the subject line.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments