Today we’d like to introduce you to Marisa Gomez.
Hi Marisa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area. My parents were divorced, and I moved around between Mar Vista and Long Beach growing up. After graduating high school in Long Beach, I moved to Venice to live with my mom. I always had a passion for animals as a kid. At 19, I was going to SMC and saw an ad for a receptionist job at an animal hospital and interviewed. I was hired with no experience and began my journey into animal care. I learned a lot about animals and properly caring for them working there. After that, I worked at Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital as a receptionist and was eager to learn more. I was extremely lucky to work alongside some very caring and knowledgeable veterinarians and veterinary technicians that showed me how to medically care for animals and help in ICU, surgery, and pharmacy. While working at the animal hospitals, my deep love for animals developed. I came to understand them better, and my compassion for them grew. I got to know clients at the animal hospitals, and they offered me jobs pet sitting or dog walking their pets on my off time. I loved the idea of spending more time with the animals, and I started taking a lot of jobs.
In January 2012, I decided to strike out and start my dog walking and pet care business. At that time, I lived in Long Beach and would sometimes drive two hours in traffic to Beverly Hills to service one client. I spent a lot of my extra time at the library in-between clients since I didn’t want to drive all way home. Business was slow to pick up at first, but eventually it gained momentum through word of mouth, and I was soon working twelve-hour days, seven days a week. In 2014, I hired a full-time assistant/pet caretaker to help with the new clients.
I hired a few more people to help service our clients in 2015. Leticia (Leti) worked with me part-time at first and then hired on full-time. Leti became my right hand in the day-to-day operations of the business. My mom was also instrumental in the early days teaching me bookkeeping and helping me put together contracts and hire contractors. By 2015 the business was starting to take off from referrals and word-of-mouth, and I had six people on staff.
While my business was growing in the Los Angeles area, I was living in Long Beach. In 2016, my boyfriend and I moved to Culver City to grow the business. We married a year later in our favorite place, Big Sur. About that time, I started doggy daycare at my home. Daycare was a great success, and I hired on a marketing team in 2018 to help us better service clients and grow our social media presence. That radically transformed the business. We now had a pet sitting software giving our clients full reports with maps after each visit! Leti was promoted to manager in 2018.
My son was born in 2019, and that radically transformed my husband’s and my life. The business was really thriving by then, and I was very fortunate to be able to stay at home and raise my son while running the business. My husband traveled frequently for his work in marketing. Then 2020 came, and Covid-19 changed all of our lives. Those first months of lockdown were extremely difficult, personally, professionally, and financially. Like everyone else in the world, my clients were extremely apprehensive and most were staying at home. We were all full of uncertainty, and I wasn’t at all sure that BarksNPurrs would survive. Our clients showed us such incredible faith and humanity during that time. They stayed with us, they checked in on us. My husband was laid off during the start of the pandemic, so he and I started working in the field to keep us afloat.
We fought hard to stay alive and by end of 2020, we were starting to gain momentum again. In December 2021, we decided to invest in a fully equipped grooming van to grow the business and expand services to our clients. We were thrilled to celebrate the new service on our 10th anniversary in business.
I’m proud to say we have 12 dog walkers/pet sitters, two groomers, two office administrators, and a social media coordinator on staff. We have an incredible team of experienced, dedicated, caring, conscientious, animal-loving professionals. We built our reputation on providing the best care to pets and the highest level of service, and I am so proud of our growth and success. Grateful for all the wonderful mentors, clients, staff, family, and friends that have helped make me and BarksNPurrs what we are today.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have definitely been some bumps along the way. Starting a business was one thing – learning how to keep everyone happy and stay current was another! Finding the balance of clients’ needs and timing was always hard to figure out, but eventually we found a rhythm with scheduling. Understanding the ebb and flow of clients was challenging, but I learned that I had to believe in what I built and what sets us apart. The nature of the work makes staffing a challenge. Thankfully, I have good connections with people working within the pet care field and we have built an excellent team. We are always on the lookout for qualified pet care professionals! The most challenging aspect of being a business owner and a mom is work/life balance. When you own your business, every call is important. I had to learn boundaries, balance, and how to increase efficiency to grow.
It has been a journey with ups and downs, but such a rewarding one. I’ve seen so many animals grow up. They sleep with me, walk with me, drive with me. My son has been nuzzled and licked by dogs since infancy. I’ve cared for them, but really, they have been caring for me, nurturing me and my loved ones. They’ve brought joyful memories and lasting relationships.
As you know, we’re big fans of Barksnpurrs Petcare and Spa. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a dog walking, pet sitting and mobile grooming company. We take pet care to a whole new level! On the pet care side, we offer in home visits to care for pets while our clients are away. We have cared for dogs, cats, bunnies, reptiles, birds, hamsters, and chickens. We also offer daily dog walking and dog hiking in the Los Angeles area. All our visits come with a full report emailed to our clients after each visit. Our reports come with time stamps; GPS tracked map of walk along with pictures. Our staff is licensed, bonded, and insured to give comfort and show our level of professionalism. Most importantly, we show compassion and responsibility in how we take care of our clients both animal and human. We try to customize care by having one or two staff members meet with our clients, meet the pets, take detailed notes so we have everything we need to provide the best experience and set our clients at ease while their pets are in our care. The animals that we take care of are someone’s family members and quickly, they become a part of our family too.
We extended our services just this past December to include mobile grooming. We have a fully equipped grooming sprinter van that comes to you for convivence and comfort. Knowing that your pet is right outside your door while getting groomed with high-quality products and a skilled groomer is a great option rather than going to a pet salon. Mobile groomers get to focus on one dog at a time, giving us the extra time to spend with that one pet rather than going back and forth from one pet to the other. We are the kind of pet care company that when you are in need of help with your pet(s), to care for them, feed them, walk them, take them to the veterinarian, get them groomed or bathed, we are here with familiar faces.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was very energetic and outgoing. We moved around a lot. By the time I was in the 5th grade, I had been to seven different schools. During the constant moving around, I found a lot of comfort in animals. I respected animals for their loyalty and how they seemed to know when you needed a snuggle. I was an energetic and outgoing child, but I wasn’t put in sports and didn’t have an outlet for it. I had a hard time focusing in school and was diagnosed with ADD. Work and exercise changed my life. I worked in hair salons, bagel shops, and record stores before finding my true passion caring for animals. I used to walk fifteen dogs in twelve hours. The walks and the commitment to the animals helped me build and maintain a healthy lifestyle through my twenties. I am still constantly on the move – and now chasing after a curious and independent toddler.
Pricing:
- $26 half hour dog walk
- $34 hour dog walk
- $30 kittie visits
- Starting at $75 baths
- Starting at $125 for full groom (full body hair cut and bath)
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: barksnpurrspetcare.com
- Instagram: Barksnpurrspetcare
- Facebook: Barksnpurrspetcare
- Yelp: Barks N Purrs Pet Care and Pet Spa
- Other: other IG- Barksnpurrspetspa
