Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Senafe.
Lisa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up with a passion for all animals. I knew I had always wanted to end up working with animals in some capacity. I was fortunate enough to be in the mortgage industry to learn more about finance and the business side of things to connect the passion I had for dogs and cats. The idea came about when my two cats had cancer and I started looking at what I could have done different for them. I looked at the food I fed and realized that I was buying the most expensive food thinking it meant that it was the best in quality. I quickly learned that was not the case and I wasn’t giving them a fighting chance to thrive. That experienced fueled my goal to create a place to shop for your dog or cat and not have to turn every bag around and make sure it’s safe for your pet. I created the Bentley’s Food Promise: No Corn, wheat or soy; No By Products; no chemical preservatives and No Food or Treats made in China. You can walk into our stores and know we do the research for you so you can mix it up and rotate different foods, treats and products and know they are a good choice for your pet. The first store started in Arlington Heights in 2008. Two years later we opened our 2nd location. Two years ago, we had 7 locations, we now have 82 locations and in 10 states. My Husband, Giovanni, and I partnered with Marcus Lemonis from The Profit who has helped fund our growth and our vision. He has been a great partner to work with and a wealth of knowledge to us. Our growth has been fast but purposeful. Our mission is to get the better options out there for your pet, to walk in our stores and have an experience unlike any other, to know you can trust our educated team members to guide you through our products and work with you if your pet has an issue. We love our customers for life, not just for the first visit.
Our customer service and attention to their needs along with the fun events to bring your pet to makes a destination place for our customers. They love to come in and bring their dog for a special outing. We spoil every dog or cat that comes in our door. We are now offering online ordering at petstuff.com to expand our audience and give convenience to our current customers as well. We are always looking at new ways to improve our pet parents experience in store or online.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our growth has been a challenge. When you go from 7 locations to 82 locations, no matter how prepared you can be there will always be bumps and situations to learn from. We are very employee focused and sometimes it’s hard to keep that focus when your growing at that rate. I make it a point to visit stores each week so I am reminded who is in front of customers and dealing with our processes. Talking to our team members in the stores keeps us grounded, they are the ones that keep our customers coming back and we better give them the tools to do so. I love having flexibility at all levels at our company. We learn something new and a better way to improve each day. So no, no road we have been on is smooth but that’s what keeps us on our toes and look forward to improving.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have let go of some things sooner. It’s hard to know and trust others right away when you were the one doing the marketing, ordering, schedules, managing people, deciding on new products. I should have trusted others and corrected if needed vs trying to do it all. Sometimes it’s hard to let go and grow, especially at our pace.
Also correcting things faster as we learned, sometimes you get so caught up in being busy that you don’t realize how much time could be saved if you took one day to fix a reoccurring problem.
Contact Info:
- Website: petstuff.com
- Email: info@petstuff.com
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