Blaire Thompson,Owner
As a child, dogs always played a key role in my life. I dreamed of working with them when I was older, just wasn’t sure in what way. After high school, I went into the corporate world working for a bankcard processor. I wasn’t living up to the potential I had once dreamed. I just kept calling it “the real world”. My uncle, Dan Fike, pulled me aside on our family vacation and told me he always saw me working with dogs. He told me I still had time to make the career change. I took what he said to heart, but just didn’t know what avenue I could go down. Once I started working in accounting, I would find myself at the office from 7:00am- 8:00pm. On my drive to and from downtown, I would think about what career I could have with dogs. Then one day it hit me… My poor dogs were home alone all day. I knew I wasn’t the only one with such a demanding career. We basically live to work nowadays, right? I started to work on my business plan for my first business. I was going to offer in home pet care services. I would go to people’s houses to walk their dogs and care for them while they were at work or traveling.
Once I felt confident in the business plan, I quit my job, cashed in my 401k and hit the ground running. I would spend my day stuffing paper boxes… Yep, I am one of those annoying flyer people, sorry… but it worked! I started getting clients left and right. I worked 365 days a year… yes that includes mornings, daytime, nighttime, weekends, holidays, literally all day, every day! I loved what I was doing, so I didn’t mind the hectic schedule. Unfortunately, the downside to being so busy took me away from my family and friends. I missed out on holidays, family functions and friends. I felt horrible letting them down but I had a bigger goal I was working towards and knew it would be worth it.
After four years of being in business, I realized I couldn’t keep working myself the way I was. I decided to put my long-term plan into action... I wanted to build a dog boarding facility where dogs could come and just be dogs. A place where they weren’t kenneled all day, nervously awaiting their parents return. I wanted them to be happy and excited to come see us. A home away from home. It took me two and a half years start to finish to build Big Red’s Bed and Biscuit. I’m beyond proud of the services we offer, our facility, what we believe in and my team. Big Red’s stands for everything I believe in when it comes to our four legged family members. We are one big happy family here!
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