Hi cat friends,
This message took me a while to write, because I wanted to make sure I covered all of my bases in the body of this message. I will accept all of your questions as I’m sure there will be many.
The Cattery is doing fairly well, all things considered. Nowhere near as well as some of the more established places near Calgary and Edmonton (apparently the phones are ringing off the hook because of travel opening up more), but things are looking up. 2020 and half of 2021 were dark days for the Cattery, and understandably so. One way or another, we all suffered through a lot, didn’t we?
Back in September 2021, my private investor (I knew her as my mom) passed away unexpectedly. It was shocking. I can tell you the nurses at RDH did not see it coming and were just as floored as me. The nurse who had to make that phone call could barely keep it together. I decided to say nothing on social media because I didn’t know what the future held. I was also quite angry about it as there were some questions to be asked regarding leadership and resources (outside of the hospital), but I won’t get into that here.
The Cattery saw its first client (her name was Kitty) in late July of 2016. Cattery revenue doubled the following year. It doubled again the following year. 2019 saw a very slight increase but I blamed that on the recession that started in the summer of 2014, and the promise by many economists that by 2019 things would be great again. I think a lot of people tapped out their credit and decided to pull back on spending and vacations in 2019. In January and February of 2020, there was a surprise 34% jump in revenue, which was going to pave the way for a banner year (yeah, I know… 2020 is probably my fault). Over the past nearly six years, I got up every day and went to work just as happy as I did on day one. This is not a stressful job.
The plan for the Cattery was to move to an acreage once the financials were aligned to make it happen. But now that this cannot happen (at least not as it was intended to work for me), I have had to start working on strategies for the future. Any good business person always thinks ahead and has exit strategy scenarios. I had many different scenarios laid out the day I first opened.
So let’s rip off the bandaid right now. The lease for the Cattery space ends at the end of September. While things are always getting a bit better (always new clients discovering this service), there are only two feasible options for me at this point. One option begins today, which is to sell the Cattery (in the meantime the Cattery will operate business as usual!), and the other would be a damned shame but without a buyer for the Cattery, I would have no other choice but to stop accepting bookings past the end of August (with some August bookings spilling over to September). There is one extremely unlikely third option but I’ll get into that a bit later.
Let’s unpack this.
Let’s start with the worst option: closing at the end of August. As I said, it would be business as usual right up to the very end. I would BEG of you not to take your business elsewhere until after the Cattery closes, as it would do a lot of harm to the Cattery for no reason. Nothing about the Cattery will be different right up until the final guest departed. I would accept bookings throughout August, some of them spilling over to September (as expected). This would give me time to dismantle the condos on Side B (a simple but tedious process) so that when Side A was cleared out in early to mid September, I would have time to dismantle the rest of the condos and complete the removal of everything from this space by the end of that month. The reason I would have to do this has everything to do with the fallout from losing my mother, who was the silent partner and investor. Prior to her passing, the plan was to combine our forces, sell my house and move the Cattery to an acreage, not even using her pension to do so but as I’m an only child, she had given the green light to use some of my inheritance as part of the down payment. Before you ask, no – the banks have shown no interest in helping the Cattery get to an acreage where my overhead would be cut in half. Now that this option is out, as a single income homeowner I cannot survive having a mortgage AND a commercial lease forever unless by some miracle I could get the word out to SO many Red Deer cat owners that the Cattery existed, making it so I was ALWAYS busy. That day will come, but not soon enough for me.
Now, the more hopeful option: selling the Cattery. How would that work? The Cattery is in the black. By that, I mean it pays for itself even when things are slow, but the slow months are tough on my personal finances. Keep in mind, the one huge mistake I made when I first started the Cattery was to not secure an adequate budget to advertise (I have a good plan for that NOW but I cannot execute on that plan). There are roughly 20,000 cats in Red Deer (based on stats Canada) and the Cattery has seen around 600 of them. Every month I hear one or two people say, “We didn’t even know this was a thing!” and every month, the Cattery gains new clients. Every new client is the potential for a repeat client. The more this happens, the more regulars are staying at the Cattery. As I type this, there are 6 regulars (8 cats) staying right now as well as 3 new clients (8 cats). The Cattery capacity is 30 cats (18 regular condos, 4 family condos). Eventually you’re likely to be turning people away during times of the year you’d think would be slower times, like at Calico Hills near Edmonton. There are three dog boarding facilities that also board cats within 20 mins of here, but no other cats-only, so there is HUGE potential for this business to keep growing. But, barring any outside help, this is simply as far as I can take it. I am not married (that is unlikely to change anytime soon), so I do not have the advantage of those with a two-income household.
Let’s look at the kind of buyer I would be seeking. It would be someone who was in it for the freedom of owning their own business. Someone who loved cats and wanted to continue learning more about them. Here’s an example: you aren’t happy at your job, but your spouse (male or female) generates enough income to cover all the bills at home. You have been employed because the extra income affords you and your spouse a more comfortable lifestyle. So you quit your job and take over the Cattery. I won’t talk numbers here (this would be the first step after contacting me about your interest to buy the Cattery), but with your spouse covering all the bills, that leaves you free to cover the Cattery bills using the revenue generated by the Cattery. Once you cross that monthly threshold, all additional revenue is gravy! While the current Covid situation is skewing my numbers (January and February, for example – they were still JUST into the black), the summer months and long weekends are where you WILL pull in big numbers. August 2021 was the best month the Cattery has ever seen. You might find you’re making LESS net income than at your previous job, but you will be SO MUCH HAPPIER as a business owner where you have no boss, and you will have GREAT clients and even greater job satisfaction. Stress brings illness. I have rarely been ill over the past six years. I don’t even remember the last time I had a cold. I still beat my alarm almost every morning and I don’t dread going to work. You also have the potential to do as I planned to do, which is move the Cattery to an acreage. If you do that, your overhead will be HUGELY slashed and you will be making money hand over fist.
Here’s another scenario: Maybe you already DO own an acreage, with or without available space to move the Cattery. If you have the space, perfect. Maybe it’s an oversized garage and you want to convert it to a cattery. It can be done. We can actually move all of the cat condos to a new location. Assuming the garage is under 1,000 sq.ft. we could find a way to store the condos that wouldn’t fit, and when you decide to expand, those condos would be ready to go. I will help you set it up. If you don’t have the space and can afford to build it, do that! Again, I will help with design and setup. I’m not going anywhere and I want the Cattery to succeed well past my own expiry date! It would be my pleasure to help.
There is a third UNLIKELY option for my future with the Cattery. I am not holding my breath. If you are reading this, and you or someone you know has an acreage within 15 mins of Red Deer, with a suitable outbuilding on your acreage (about 1,200sq.ft. or more) that you’d be willing to lease out to the Cattery, let’s talk. If my overhead can be dropped SIGNIFICANTLY, it gives me the ability to continue doing what I’m doing.
You might be asking, “What will you do when you no longer have the Cattery?”
I already have that plan in place, and some of you are already aware of what that is.. Purroducts Central! I would be remaining in the pet industry, shifting gears to go full time with cat lifestyle products. Very complimentary to the Cattery, if you think about it. I would still be promoting the Cattery on my social media pages and I would ask to have some of my cat trees consigned for sale at the Cattery (after all, we’d have the same client base)! Truth is, I have identified a huge potential for building custom made cat trees, scratching posts (GOOD ones), catios and actual CAT ROOMS (yes, two requests have come in already, and I didn’t even advertise that I could do them) for pretty much the entire Alberta market. In short, cat lifestyle products and services. There are simply not enough hours in a day for me to put a lot of effort into it on a daily basis, while still running the Cattery. This has been happening from my small shop at home. It would mean my overhead would be my existing mortgage and home-based bills. And it’s the kind of business that could indeed expand in the future. But it would be a much more conservative approach to building a business, whereas the Cattery was a leap of faith that stumbled out of the gates but quickly gained momentum.
I want to thank everyone whose cats have called the Cattery home over these past 5.5 years, and that it is my hope that if I cannot keep steering this feline vacation resort ship, I will find someone amazing who can!
Central Alberta Cattery, as a business, is a wonderful opportunity for someone who wants to be their own boss!
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