April 3, 2017

Meet Charlotte Bell of Yellow Brick Road Doggie Playcare and Gym, Inc. in South Bay

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Bell.

Charlotte, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was an animal lover trapped in the sterile world of corporate America. At my last “real job”, working as a vice president in a bank in Beverly Hills, I had 2 disabled dogs who could not safely be left home alone. With the aid of a security guard (and fellow animal lover) I was able to sneak my dogs into my office during the day so I could keep an eye on them. One day, my “partner in crime” popped into my office and tossed a copy of the LA Times on my desk, suggesting I read the cover article about doggie daycares, and telling me “this is what YOU should be doing!” This was in February of 1998. Within 6 months, I left my job at the bank and opened the first doggie daycare in the South Bay in Manhattan Beach.

The first couple of years were terrifying! The concept was not known locally and I heard the local bar was taking bets on how soon I would go out of business. On many nights I just prayed for the courage to keep going. I would arise well before dawn, head out to walk dogs for private clients, get to my daycare at 6:30 AM and tend to my 2 or 3 dogs all day, then after closing at 6 PM, go back to walking dogs until late in the evening. My Godsend was when the local newspaper heard about my business and did a story on me….and dogs began pouring in!

After 13 years in Manhattan Beach, I needed a larger space for our booming clientele and wanted to pursue my larger dream of dog rescue. With the help of a client who was a realtor, and a very understanding landlord, I found our current huge and beautiful building in El Segundo and moved into a space 10 times the size of my original facility.

Now we have 7500 sq. ft. of open space for all our precious fur-babies to run and play indoors and outdoors, as well as a 6000 sq. ft. gym for agility and obedience classes and space to house the rescue dogs I get from local shelters. And I have LOTS of help with over 30 wonderful kind employees who, like me, feel privileged to spend their workdays in the company of dogs. It’s a glorious way to make a living!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Easy….No! I had little savings. The concept was unknown. I worried all the time if I was going to make the business a go. I worked alone since I could not afford help. I was exhausted all the time, working 18 hours a day, and 7 days a week.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Yellow Brick Road Doggie Playcare and Gym, Inc. story. Tell us more about the business.
Yellow Brick Road is my large facility in El Segundo, where we do all our training and boarding and rescue work, as well as doggie daycare. I turned my previous location in Manhattan Beach into a daycare-only business for just little dogs and renamed it Munchkinland. So we have 2 locations. The smaller facility is a great space for timid little dogs. Both facilities are cage free with areas to run and play indoors and outdoors under close supervision.

I think we are most known for our great service. We consider all our clients to be friends and do our best to accommodate them in every way we can – early and late pickups and arrivals, working with special needs dogs who are blind or deaf or unable to walk, helping out with training, and lending a caring ear regardless of the problem.

And we put dogs first ALWAYS! Most of the dogs we rescue from shelters are the old and disabled ones who would not make it out alive. We have lots of these little souls living with us permanently. Our clients see that and I think it shows them where our priorities are.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
HUGE!!!!!! I was miserable in my previous bank job but had no idea how to change my direction in life. What were the odds that I would end up at a building with a security guard who would introduce me to this concept??

When I was looking for a space for this business, I called every real estate agent in the yellow pages. They all said I was nuts, except for one guy – who found my space in Manhattan Beach for me, a place not even on the market – that he just happened to know about.

When I was still at the bank, I had a mortgage on my home with an interest rate of over 12%. I knew I would not be able to afford those monthly payments if I left corporate job so I began calling around to see if I could refinance at a lower rate. When I called the Real Estate Loans office of the bank I worked at and told them what business I wanted to open, they volunteered the information that they had just financed a doggie daycare in Hollywood and actually had the contact information for the San Francisco Humane Society which published a free “how to start a doggie daycare” manual! Since I had NO IDEA what I was doing, I contacted them and got their manual which told me exactly what to do.

I knew that I had to complete a refinance BEFORE I left my corporate job with a solid income. As it turned out, the refinance closed the day before I left my job.

I worked alone to set up the space I rented for my daycare in Manhattan Beach. I was on the roof with tar, put the flooring down myself, and laid bricks for a walkway, everything…… I had run an ad in the local paper that I would be opening on a specific date so it was critical that I make that deadline. The afternoon before, the painting was not done, the indoor fencing was not up, the place had not been painted, no sign…and I was desperate. Out of nowhere, a neighbor from my house in another city walked by and asked how I was doing. When he saw my plight, he took off and came back with a carpenter and a painter. We all 4 worked until midnight….and my business opened its doors ON TIME the next morning!

The newspaper article was total luck and put us on the map!

Years later, when my space was bursting at the seams with dogs, one of my clients was pressing me to expand and I was resisting him out of fear of making that leap. We were standing outside talking and he told me to turn around and look. A perfect rainbow arced across the entire eastern sky. That was my omen and I said “I’m going to do it!” I needed to find a name and logo which incorporated that rainbow and since I had always been drawn to the Wizard of Oz, decided on Yellow Brick Road. (The rainbow is central to our logo.) After we had moving into the wonderful space in El Segundo which we currently occupy, I noticed that we are located on the corner of El Segundo Blvd. and KANSAS STREET! What are the odds of that?

The words of the well-known quote by William Hutchison Murray were known to me before I began this process and have guided my steps the whole way:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”

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