Tailored dog Care and Adventures for all my four and two legged friends

Interview

Can you tell us about your journey from idea to company?

I always had the idea to open my own company. I think it's almost everybody's dream who has a passion for something to develop it yourself. I have worked for many years in tourism and have always worked with dogs. For my whole life it has always been my favorite animal. Then I have worked in research for several years with dogs and wolves, behavior research. In Austria, then for Stockholm University. Then my journey led me to Kiruna, where I worked with sled dogs. So, I have throughout my journey covered  many areas of working with dogs. When I came down here to Umeå from Kiruna and started studying I joined a few network meetings which was more a casual talk with SLU Holding. And I told them about my idea, that I always wanted to open a company and would like to offer some touristic part. I'm interested in just talking with people, share all my experiences because many people cannot even have a dog or just want to go once for dog sledding and be a part of this world. As I have so many years of experience in tourism and dogs, I thought I can actually quite uniquely offer a company  with quite a lot of services.

In what ways have you received support in your entrepreneurial journey?

First of all, of course the support that SLU Holding thought that my idea was actually a good one, that they found it was unique.Then we had several meetings, so they helped me with applying for all permissions etc. I speak a little Swedish, but not so good. So, language wise they helped me a lot to translate and to know to whom I have to talk to. So, I received support with all these things to find my way through bureaucracy, and then when we had mastered all this bureaucracy and administrative things they actually supported me very well with marketing.

They helped me build my homepage and even arranged for a professional to work on it with me. On top of that, they supported me with other marketing materials like flyers and business cards—basically, everything related to marketing. They also helped me on the legal side of things. A lawyer helped me understand and put together all the necessary background information, like terms and conditions and other legal documents. They helped with everything from marketing to legal matters, and of course all the bureaucratic things you don’t even think about in the beginning. It was a huge help, and I’m incredibly thankful for that.

My family also supported me a lot. They helped with things like taking photos and offered ideas and supported me with the services I offer. That meant a lot to me. I also have a half-brother who helped out after the support from SLU Holding ended and I was up and running. Last summer, I organized some marketing events—like bringing my dogs to local places, including a music festival. My brother designed a large banner for me, like a big poster, and it turned out amazing

What tips do you have for students who have an idea or are considering starting their own business?

I think when you're starting out, it really depends on the type of business you want to build—but no matter what, if you have an idea, don’t keep it to yourself. Talk to people about it. Go to networking events—like the ones SLU and other universities offer—and share your idea. Maybe some people will be interested, maybe not, but it's always better to try than to keep it to yourself, because otherwise, you'll never know. And also, if you talk to people and go to these networking events you meet new people and maybe you can improve your idea.  Just this talking about it also really helps a lot, so that I would say is the first step.

Of course, there are many more steps that follow, depending on what kind of idea you have. But I think the first thing you should do is just go out and talk to people. And maybe not only in network meetings, but also in general. Because I think it's the same as in research, the more you talk to other people, maybe you even get other ideas because you see and hear things from different angles. I think that's very important.