A bright purple house with a bright yellow car and an even brighter smile lets you know that you’ve come to the right place if you’re looking for Roberta Livingstone’s Purple Paw Grooming Salon. If your canine companion doesn’t have you smiling before you enter the salon Roberta’s “Great Dane” sized personality and approach to your pet will certainly have you beaming in no time. Equally at ease, confident and masterful with the smallest of show dogs to the largest of the family “Heinz 57s” Roberta is a shining example of an entrepreneur successfully living her passion.

As always, Roberta answers the phone with a giggling: “hello, this is Purple Paw” when I call to ask her a few questions for this article. This time, she has the canine comedy equivalent of Laurel & Hardy with two Wheaton Terriers, each with their own unique personality. Playing the role of the set-up man today is Tucker while Riley delivers the punch line in a way that is only understood by “dog people”. Over the next couple of minutes Roberta delights in telling me how these two “wheaties” are her favorite customers… that is until I ask about her other regulars.

It is quickly apparent that all of her clients are her favorites. Just as each human customer represents a unique selling opportunity that will be based on building a solid, trusting relationship, Roberta takes the same approach to each and every one of her canine clients. And make no mistake, it is the dogs that are the clients; their humans (whom Roberta knows as “Riley’s mom” or “Tucker’s dad” are the client’s personal assistants to the real superstars.

Roberta followed the grooming path as a proud parent of two…now three Standard Bred Poodles (Lilly, Coleman and 7-month old Isabella). As distinguished show dogs these animals have very precise grooming needs. However, Roberta found difficulty over the years finding a groomer that had both the talent and, more importantly, sincere love for dogs. So, in order to fulfill her own pets’ needs as well as to fill a particular gap that she saw in the pet grooming industry Roberta became certified as a professional groomer and set out to achieve her dreams.

With her personality, skills, confidence and massive growth in the pet care industry Roberta can get a job anywhere. Roberta proudly explains why she opened her own business: “All my life I was answering to someone else. It has been a dream of mine to do what I want and what I love.” With that passion and solid skill set and with help from Community Futures Purple Paw was founded last fall.

Initially, Roberta envisioned a pet-grooming salon that offered full pet care attention, a “U-bathe”, doggy accessories and a line of home-baked canine cookies all to provide various income streams to support her business. “All my research showed that it takes, on average, at least two years to build up a grooming business to the point where you have enough clients to be self-sufficient” explains Roberta about her initial business plan. The pride is clearly evident when she goes on to say: “after less than a year I am too busy with my clients to have time to even think about baking cookies.” And this suits her just fine, as it is the time spent with her canine customers that is most rewarding.

Purple Paw offers ranges of grooming related pet services from a “u-bath” to quick trims and nail clipping to full grooming of your pet by Roberta. And, unlike many other pet groomers you can stay and interact with your pet and Roberta while she works. Roberta wonders “what goes on in other places where they take your dog to the back and tell you to return in an hour?” “I know people don’t take their pets to groomers because of this. I want people to feel comfortable with me working with their precious family members and I can only do this if they can see me” she explains as a response to her competition.

Through a strategic advertising approach where Purple Paw concentrated on inexpensive and direct to target market advertising the business has built a loyal clientele from throughout Vancouver Island. “Dogs come from everywhere on Vancouver Island to see me,” Roberta describes her client base. “And the people in Port Alberni are so generous and loyal!” She goes on: “From the 200 pound English Mastiff who visits me from the lake to the 15 pound Shitzu in Cherry Creek to the 50 pound SPCA-adopted all-Canadian dog in South Port; it all makes me happy.” This anti-breedism approach has also helped set Purple Paw apart from many others in the grooming industry.

“A dog is a dog. I love all breeds and all shapes and sizes,” Roberta says with a smile before telling me more entertaining stories about particular clients of hers. When asked about the current hysteria and paranoia about different types of dogs in the media lately Roberta bluntly says: “To pick on any dog is insulting. It’s a result of poor people training. It doesn’t matter the type of dog. If the people don’t socialize it properly or instill acceptable patterns of behaviour then there will be a problem”.

Roberta goes a step further and shows me the scar and yellow bruising on her arm that remains more than a month after an unprovoked bite from a 10-pound Pekinese that wouldn’t let go. “Did you know that the American Staffordshire Terrier and other so-called pit-bulls are the only dog noted by the American Kennel Club as the ideal family dog? They are smart, easy to train and great with people; especially kids.” Luckily for all small dogs Roberta doesn’t hold grudges or paint them all with the same brush just because she had a negative experience with one in particular.

With a growing client base Roberta is now working hard at finding a balance between her small business and her self. As much as she loves her clients she knows it’s important for her to spend time away from her shop. As a home-based business she found it incredibly difficult to remove herself from her business - especially during the first six months. Like most new entrepreneurs Roberta thought she always had to do more. “I felt like an imposter,” she says with a sigh. “I needed to build my confidence. I needed to be able to listen to my satisfied clients and I needed to listen to my heart”. Roberta found time to do this by keeping regular business hours and when the phone rang after 5pm to let the answering machine pick up. As most content and successful entrepreneurs will tell you Roberta also finds non-business related diversions. Not surprisingly, she relaxes by spending time with her own dogs.

Roberta Livingstone has worked hard at establishing a living from her dream. She will also admit that things became easier when she also started to work smarter. Working smarter meant not trying to do everything her self. After a few months Roberta realized there are great support contacts throughout Port Alberni. For Purple Paw Grooming Salon Community Futures was a great support. “Honestly, I didn’t think I’d survive without their help.” Roberta says. Community Futures consistently “gave different and positive perspectives” about her business when times were tough and that she can still pick up the phone to ask for advice.

For anyone exploring small business for them selves Roberta offers these 3 ideas to focus on:

1. Do something that doesn’t seem like “work”.

2. Do it on your terms as it is your dream - you and only you can fully understand your dream.

3. Be sure that you love whatever you do so that when times get tough or sales are slow you have that inner passion that prevents you from giving up.

With those wise words, as if on cue, in comes Rosie, another “all-Canadian girl” mixed breed dog ready for her Purple Paw pampering.

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