Diane Mastrull: Chesco woman's pet business clawing to stay ahead

Wearing a T-shirt with the laid-back message "Poop Happens" and a wrist tattoo made of paw prints and a heart, Amy Parsons seems the picture of whimsy - until she details her lows as a small-business owner.

Those include losing her family's four-bedroom Cape Cod in East Whiteland Township to foreclosure 2 1/2 years ago and the 20 percent drop in business experienced by the dog-day-care portion of her multifaceted Canine Creature Comforts in Malvern.

The latter came about a year after the recession hit. Parsons started losing customers as layoffs wiped out their income - and thus the need for someone to watch their pets.

So much for the less stressful career Parsons, a former telecommunications executive, thought she had moved into when she opened Canine Creature Comforts in 2006.

"It's a different type of stress," she said during an interview this month as one of her seven dogs, Basta, a four-year-old Italian mastiff, sat at her feet. "I always tease I used to work with cold-blooded animals. Now, I work with warm-blooded ones."

The 42-year-old Buffalo native worked in telecommunications for nearly 20 years, focused on starting up offices and new ventures. At her last employer, RCN Communications in Princeton, Parsons established a wholesale division before being downsized.

The loss of the high-pressure job would be for the better. Parsons had been diagnosed with a painful autoimmune condition aggravated by stress, and her doctor "told me I needed to seriously consider finding a new career," she said.

Parsons started researching what had "always been my passion" - animals. She learned that the pet industry was constantly growing, with the service side the fastest-rising segment.

"She picked a growth industry," confirmed Ernie Post, director of Kutztown University's Small Business Development Center. "It's been fairly recession-proof. Dogs and cats are very popular."

The center has operated a Chester County-area support office for entrepreneurs and would-bes at the Exton Library since 2000. Parsons took advantage of it to help craft her business plan.

When Canine Creature Comforts opened in 15,000 square feet of rented space at the Great Valley Shopping Center on Route 30, it initially offered dog grooming, training, day care, and supplies. The $130,000 in start-up costs were covered, Parsons said, with her and husband Terry Cummings' 401(k) savings.

But with overhead "pretty high," including a monthly rent of $16,000, the company of 16 employees was in need of an infusion of money for operating capital about a year into its existence. Contrary to what she heard on television and radio commercials, banks were not lending, Parsons said - a point Kutztown's Post echoed.

"Despite what the banks may tell you, very few banks, commercial banks, are doing any lending to start-up businesses," he said.

Parsons said her corporate work had not prepared her for that: "I didn't understand how difficult it is for a business to get financing," especially a service business that rents rather than owns its property. "We had to become extremely creative."

So the company restructured from an "S" corporation to a "C" corporation, which enabled it to issue shares of common and preferred stock in 2007. Parsons and Cummings are owners of the common stock. Six customers bought all the preferred shares, for a combined money-raising effort of nearly $100,000, she said.

Parsons and Cummings also took out a second mortgage on their house, then refinanced it with an adjustable-rate mortgage. To their horror, the interest rates on the $450,000 they owed rocketed to 12.5 percent from 5 percent - changing their monthly mortgage payments from $2,200 to $4,800. They made the decision to lose their house to foreclosure and "move forward."

The parents of two daughters - one in college, one about to start - are now renting a three-bedroom house in Charlestown Township. Cummings, who worked full time at Canine Creature Comforts when it first opened, has returned to the telecommunications field to augment the family income.

About two years into the business, Parsons added boarding services at Canine - with an employee who sleeps over, and even allows the more well-behaved "guests" to share the bed - to help offset the losses from the more recession-vulnerable day-care operation. Both boarding and training (considered more of a necessity than a luxury) represent the most promising areas for growth, she said, especially as the local economy continues to struggle.

Parsons has already made a number of changes to trim operating costs, and she is trying to renegotiate Canine's monthly rent, which already had been reduced to $11,000 from the original $16,000.

Earlier this year, she turned to clients with another call for financial help. Among those enthusiastically responding with a $5,000 loan was Allen Herron, 66, of Malvern, a retired elementary-school teacher and owner of Lucy, a 3-year-old German shepherd that has benefited from Canine's training classes and is a regular participant in its day care.

"It was nice to have a chance to invest in a business that you use all the time," said Herron, who is repaid in monthly installments and gets Canine discounts. "We're both making out with this."

As of July's end, total sales were up 7 percent over last year, and annual revenue is on track to exceed $800,000 by the end of this year, which has Parsons breathing a little easier. But she is still frustrated over the lack of banks willing to help.

"Five years into the business, we're a cash-flow-positive business," she said. "I still can't get a business loan from a bank."

Amy Parsons talks about the career change that has her catering to canines. Go to www.philly.com/businessEndText