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By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
March 29, 2001; Page T5
Here in an unfinished subdivision in Ashburn Farms lives a spoiled rotten dog. So says the sign in the manicured garden next to the front porch.
Abby the yellow Labrador retriever isn’t the only spoiled pet in Loudoun County. While adults are at work, children are at school and families are on vacation, Carmen Velasco and her crew of pet walkers and sitters with Kit & Kaboodle Pet Care Service are busy exercising, washing, feeding and pampering the four-legged member of the family.
In a little less than six months since starting her business, Carmen Velasco has more than doubled her conservative financial forecast, pulling in more than $15,000 in sales.
As she and Abby bound up a hill to head indoors on a crisp spring day, both looked equally content. Velasco’s life as a human resources official never included strolls through scenic trails and wet kisses from furry friends.
Abby received her usual treatment before she was permitted to tromp into the spotless, beige-carpeted house: a rubdown with a waterless shampoo that Velasco buys by the gallon.
Abby’s owner, Kim Latkiewicz, a manager at a human resources software company, was one of Velasco’s first clients. After noticing that her dog was gaining too much weight, Latkiewicz called in Velasco to walk Abby for at least a half-hour three times a week while she was at work.
Latkiewicz learned about Kit & Kaboodle not long after Velasco took out her first newspaper insert at the beginning of November. That first flyer brought so much interest that by Thanksgiving, Velasco was working from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and turnng away potential clients.
Velasco soon started hiring help and today has five pet sitters and one-soon-to-be horse sitter. “I expected that I was going to have to hire people,” she said, “but not in the first six months.”
Like any business owner, Velasco is glad to be in such demand. If she sometimes feels overwhelmed, it is nothing compared to how she felt as part of corporate America. After 13 years as a human resources manager, Velasco found herself with four herniated disks, the result of bad posture and long hours at a computer.
While she was on temporary disability leave, mending her back and spending quality time with her three cats, she did some soul-searching and realized that she needed a career change. The only thing she knew that she was passionate about was animals.
By the time she was ready to go back to work at BAE Systems in Rockville, an hour’s commute from her Leesburg home, she was asked to head up the benefits department in the middle of open enrollment, with no staff, longer hours and weekend work. Instead, she took a severance package and went into the pet-care business, despite the skeptics in her life.
“My significant other laughed at me and was ready to have me committed,” she said. “He apologizes profusely now.”
Before investing $3,000 of her savings to start the business, Velasco researched the market for pet-sitting in Loudoun County and wrote up a business plan. ”I knew people here could afford it,” she said, “ and with Loudoun County growing as fast as it is,” more families and dogs are on the way.
Jim Joynt and his wife, Maureen, who have lived in Leesburg for two years, fit the profile of Kit & Kaboodle’s target clientele.
Both work long hours – he as a sales representative for a technology company and she as a manager at a long-term care facility – and they have an 8-year-old cat named Bently and a two-year-old Chow mix named Austin.
“I felt bad, particularly for our dog,” Jim Joynt said. “You treat your animals like family and hate to have them cooped up in or the house without being taken out.”
Velasco walks Austin almost every day and pet-sits when the Joynts go away for the weekend.
Dog walks are $15 a visit, and the price of pet-sitting varies, depending on the how many times a pet-sitter comes to the house and the number of animals. Pet-sitting prices range from $15 – one visit a day for a cat – to $47 for three visists a day for a dog. An overnight stay costs $65.
Velasco’s walkers and sitters work part time and include both stay-at-home mothers with children in school and a college student who helps during holidays. Her walkers earn $8 a visit and are on a bonus program based on their client evaluations.
Velasco has 70 clients – some recommended by local pet-walking and pet-sitting businesses like her own as they grow beyond their ability to provide service.
Velasco promises that 3 percent of her profits will go to several animal-related nonprofit groups. When clients sign a contract with her, they can choose from her selection of nonprofits.
She has spent about $2,500 in marketing, which includes inserts, a few ads and signing on with Welcome to Loudoun, an organization that introduces local businesses to new residents. She also visits veterinarians, bringing doughnuts to their offices and fliers for their clients.
Wherever the economy is headed, Velasco sees nothing but an increase in the need for her services, since many Loudoun residents have long commutes and longer hours. “A lot of my clients are just as I was,” she said. “I am still working long hours, but it’s gratifying. I get to run the show.”