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What Ever Happened to…
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 22, 2001; Page LZ05
Loudoun Extra often profiles new businesses or those in transition. In an occasional feature, we check to see how those companies have fared and how life has changed for their owners.
This week we revisit a man who was seeking permission to start a distillery in Fauquier County, a woman who left corporate America to walk dogs and a mother who turned her chaotic life into an organized one –and tried to sell that to other moms.
Kit and Kaboodle
Carmen Velasco’s business, Kit & Kaboodle, is a year old this month. Despite the slow economy, her business is proof that there isn’t anything someone won’t do for a dog.
In her business plan, Velasco projected $14,000 in revenue – “If I was lucky” – during the first year. In fact, she pulled in $85,000 and made a profit right off the bat.
“Yes, we made a profit this year. My accountant was surprised. I was surprised,” she said, adding that her accountant is tallying the amount now.
Velasco and her growing staff of pet sitters spend their days exercising, washing, feeding and pampering the four-legged animals that so many consider family. In March, Velasco had just five pet sitters working for her. Today, she has 10, but she wants 15 because the number of clients has more than tripled since March.
Although she often feels overwhelmed, it is nothing compared with how she felt after 13 years as a human resources manager. She left her job – temporarily, she thought – to work on healing four herniated disks, the result of bad posture and long hours at the computer. But during her leave, she realized that returning to work at an office was not her calling anymore.
Her new calling is so successful that she has scratched her plan to incorporate horse sitting into the business. That would involve too much extra work and too much liability, she said.
But she started something she calls the Bed and Biscuit. One of Velasco’s sitters has a farm in Lucketts, where she keeps one dog at a time while its owner is away. The cost for the visit, during which time the dog hangs out as part of the family, is $21 a night. Velasco hopes to open a larger B&B that can handle more than one dog.
As a result of its growth, Kit & Kaboodle last month received the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce Small Business Award in the home-based business category.
“I am very, very happy,” Velasco said. “I am shocked that it took off as well as it did, but no matter what stressful situations come up in this business, my bad days are never as bad as they were when I was in corporate America.”