Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Migdal.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jamie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started my first business, Out-U-Go (a dog walking/pet sitting company), back in 1994. After five years, I wanted to learn more about dogs, so I sold the company and headed to Arizona to become a dog trainer. I then opened AnimalSense Canine Training and Behavior and started training dogs full time; a few years later, I started CanineLink (now FetchFind Academy) as an offshoot of AnimalSense, and as a way to formally train dog trainers (I love teaching, and I love helping people learn.)
While I was running the CanineLink programs, I found that a great deal of my time was being spent giving career advice, and helping people make connections throughout my extensive pet industry network. It became increasingly clear to me that there was an abiding need for greater staff professionalization and safety in pet care services, as well as the need for employers to more easily and effectively hire, train, and retain employees. And so, FetchFind was born.
As a four-time pet industry entrepreneur, I am intimately familiar with how hard it is to find and keep, good employees for pet care service positions. Part of the reason I sold my first two companies is compassion fatigue, which is something we normally associate with rescue and volunteers, but it’s an issue in well-established pet care businesses as well. If you look at my business ownership trajectory, you can see that I’ve gone from a completely hands-on (dog walking and pet sitting) to completely online (FetchFind) business model. But, I do remember the stress of taking care of animals full time and in many cases learning the hard way about how to provide for their basic needs effectively and compassionately. What FetchFind aims to do is assist everyone who is caring directly for animals to understand, on a deeper level, what the animals are telling them so that they can work safely, efficiently, and correctly. A good worker has good tools – and we want to provide those tools to the over 600,000 estimated pet care business in the world.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road, but it hasn’t been a relentlessly bumpy one, either. Like many non-tech people new to tech-enabled companies, I made some very expensive mistakes right out of the chute. What I’ve learned is that you (and your team) have to be tech-literate enough to effectively manage and control your technology and your technology providers.
The advice that I have for young women (or anyone starting out on the entrepreneurial path) is that you have to do a lot of due diligence and research, but that you also have to trust your gut when the time comes to make a decision. It’s easy to get caught up in the “mentor-apprentice” glamour, and I made my biggest, most expensive mistakes because I let someone else browbeat me into making decisions that weren’t right for me or my company. Mentors may know more about business, but they don’t know more about YOU. No mentor or advisor is going to pull you out of the morass if things go south because you took their advice instead of your own. It’s your company, and you have to take ownership of your failures as well as your successes.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with FetchFind – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
All four of my companies were built to enhance the lives of people and animals, and my heart and focus have always been helping people live better lives through their relationship with their animals. I thrive on communication and connection with others, and I thrive on facilitating communication and connection. I am fortunate to have found a career and life where I am able to blend my love of people, animals, communication, and connection in the most meaningful way possible.
All of my companies have been pet-centric: first dog walking and pet sitting (Out-U-Go), then dog training (AnimalSense), then educating dog trainers (CanineLink), and now educating pet care service providers (FetchFind). I’m really proud of the depth of experience and knowledge my entire team brings to the organization, and how willing we all are to turn our hands to anything that needs to get done (even if we have to learn new skills from scratch). I’m also proud of how much key staff has been with me through multiple companies.
Which women have inspired you in your life? Why?
My biggest inspirations are the kick-ass women who work with me. They come from diverse backgrounds, with different skill sets, but every last one of them will dig in and learn new things whenever needed. When one of us starts to flag, the others will circle round and give a boost or a helping hand until things get better. I see how much they all believe in me, and the mission of FetchFind and their confidence gives me strength every hour of every day.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1720 W. Division, Chicago, IL 60622
- Website: www.fetchfind.com
- Phone: 872-802-4114
- Email: hello@fetchfind.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fetchfind/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FetchFind/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fetchfind
- Other: https://twitter.com/k9entrepreneur (Jamie’s personal twitter)
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