The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 68 - Posh Pups NWA: Premium Grooming at Your Doorstep
When Luke White's favorite mobile dog groomer moved away, he faced a common pet owner dilemma: how to get quality grooming without the hassle of traditional salons. His solution? Create a premium mobile grooming service that comes directly to your driveway in a striking British-themed bus complete with royal corgis in the windows.
In this engaging conversation with the B-Team, Luke reveals how frustration with traditional grooming services for his golden doodle sparked an entrepreneurial journey. After watching his sister deliver an exceptional groom that impressed even his highly critical wife, the light bulb went off. Drawing on his sister's 15 years of grooming experience, Luke created Posh Pups NWA – a mobile service prioritizing quality, not just mere convenience.
Despite being just five weeks into operation, the distinctive double-decker bus is already generating impressive demand throughout Northwest Arkansas. The self-contained grooming salon features 75-gallon water tanks and battery-powered systems that eliminate the need for home hookups, creating a seamless experience where pet owners simply schedule an appointment and their freshly groomed dog returns to the door 90 minutes later.
The discussion covers everything from pricing structures (based on dog weight) to the company's three-tiered service model offering baths, trims, and full grooms. Luke explains why certain breeds like doodles require more maintenance, the practicalities of mobile grooming logistics, and his strategic partnerships with local pet businesses. Most compelling is his vision for expansion – what began as a single-bus operation could potentially grow into multiple vehicles and locations.
Whether you're tired of wrestling your reluctant pup into the car for grooming appointments or simply appreciate innovative local businesses, this episode offers a fascinating look at how identifying customer pain points can lead to entrepreneurial success. Listen now to discover why Northwest Arkansas pet owners are lining up for the Posh Pups NWA experience – and how you can save 20% on your first appointment by mentioning the B-Team Podcast.
Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Safran, with my co-host, matt Morris, and our permanent guest, rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business the B-Team Podcast Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, josh Safran, with our permanent guest.
Speaker 2:Rob Nelson Boy. He's chipper today. He is.
Speaker 1:That's what three weeks of vacation will do for you. Three weeks, yeah, how many weeks? Like three days, about three days. I didn't even recognize you. Three days a vacation?
Speaker 2:Was the rest just travel the other three weeks? No, it was a run up from there for three weeks. It was like six days. From three days to six days We'll get to the truth, and Matt was supposed to take care of some stuff while I was gone, but it clearly didn't happen.
Speaker 1:Oh boy.
Speaker 2:My phone was blowing up the entire time.
Speaker 1:Well, and our co-host is Matt Morrison. We're here every thursday for all things bentonville, business and bourbon. Uh, matt, do you want to just open this up today? I've never had this before, bob, you said it's good it is good I've had it.
Speaker 2:It's been a while since I've had it, but it is definitely good. Yeah, okay, I saw it on the shelf and I was like I've never had it.
Speaker 1:You saw it on the shelf in a store, or you saw it in your allocated bourbon closet shelf and said I'm going to bring something for the guys.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not going to bring you anything for you guys, I didn't think so. I thought he was bringing a lot of beer today. I did too Well. I mean, I was going to See how I poured the gas first.
Speaker 1:He's learning after a season and a half.
Speaker 2:You haven't even introduced him, so I'm going to. So the second guest next. I never even thought about it gotta be rob thank you good thanks, sir.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.
Speaker 2:Josh is like good, just a splash, just a splash until I saw it, yeah, until I find out if I like it. Well, cheers to our guests, cheers, cheers. And to we got some Noah's Mill Smells great. Ooh, that's good. Is it good? Yeah, I remember being good.
Speaker 1:I kind of regret breaking it. Hey, pour another splash for everybody.
Speaker 2:This is good. This is like where we bring all the good Will bourbon in here.
Speaker 1:So where's Russ's tasting notes on this? Because this is interesting.
Speaker 2:I pick up a lot of vanilla beans Cracked vanilla bean. It might be cracked, but it's vanilla bean, it is really good, it's got a lot of flavor, it is.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we're here to introduce Luke in Posh Pups, nwa. I've known Luke for 10 years, maybe 12 years, so Luke's been at Shadow Valley valley. He's been a teaching pro for there for a long time and he just got the entrepreneurial bug recently. Yeah, so he opened and you have a dog and you have a dog and I have multiple dogs and my dogs. Do you have three?
Speaker 2:three dogs, six kids one wife, one ex-wife yeah, partridge, partridges and pear tree.
Speaker 1:It's a lot.
Speaker 2:So what is Luke? Does he train dogs? So he I mean, I had a Matt's moving service move a couch to your house, because your dog ate your couch.
Speaker 1:So I mean you may need to talk to him. He's training a lot. He doesn't do training yet. All right, so we're going to digress here for a second.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you never know, though, we're going to digress here for a second. I'm coming out of Shadow Valley the other day and I'm like that looks like Matt's truck, but there's all these couches stacked up and tied down like Sanford and stuff. I'm like what is he doing? Josh was conveniently.
Speaker 1:I was out of town, Matt had to move a couch for my wife. That's the story and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like man, what's happening, I've got to change the topic. I've got to get into the album.
Speaker 1:But you guys know how much I like when Diana comes over and does massage at their house. All about the piece where you know leaving the house and doing these things, getting the dogs in the car for grooming is a royal pain in the ass. They're scratching up the windows and it's a mess. So Luke just started a mobile dog grooming service and I know there's others out there. We'll talk about the pros and the cons and benefits, but how did you get started with this?
Speaker 3:So the backstory I have a 75 pound golden doodle myself. Then we had a personal groomer that was a mobile groomer in the area. They basically butchered stop group man. She did a good job. We got we got butchered before that of multiple places. That and you know, with golden doodles we don't want max to look like a poodle personally, so when you're taking them in and you're, you're telling them what to do, they're kind of doing their own thing and then you come back out with the product and go wait, hold on or they're like oh, the dog was matted so we had to cut all the hair off.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a big one too, he's fired up.
Speaker 1:today he's going for it.
Speaker 2:His dog Patch. He wouldn't come around for like two days. They'd cut him too short, embarrassed. Yeah, I remember I mean rob and I.
Speaker 1:We went to get a haircut and we we used to have hair like josh, and then you started going are you gonna start a mobile uh haircut place for us?
Speaker 3:the more we keep talking pet training josh, you've changed the business model.
Speaker 1:You've been up for three weeks.
Speaker 2:You've changed your business model imagine a pretty cool van pulls up in front of your house. It's loaded with bourbon, maybe a little music, some LED lights and you go out in front and get your hair done. Give them jobs.
Speaker 1:A hot shade of LED lights. Well, we have the podcast going on. The thought bubble's going red, yeah, oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I bet you it would crush.
Speaker 3:Licensing issues. We thought about it, didn't we?
Speaker 1:There you have it Mobile hair cutting became a hot topic during COVID, but you can do it with a lot of licensing issues to being able to do that.
Speaker 3:That's interesting.
Speaker 1:Yes, so, anyway, before Rob takes over the whole podcast, I want to go back to you. Yeah, I'm sorry I forgot. I was like let me get my folder out.
Speaker 2:We need to get to the next bullet point, we got his name, what he's doing, and then it went wheels off, that's it.
Speaker 3:Wheels off.
Speaker 2:Drinking bourbon?
Speaker 3:You never know where it's going to go right. So, yeah, so we had a good experience. We got a grooming that we trusted that was doing a good job. She went from her mobile business independently and would come to our house. And then we had to go to her house, which was downtown Bentonville at the time, which again is miles away, so that became more inconvenient. And then she got pregnant, stopped grooming completely. So then we're out, and so we started calling around to all the mobile dog grooming businesses. And it's a you know month, you know you're on a wait list, you know three months, and it was just impossible to get him in. Um in the meantime, my sister has been grooming dogs for 15 years, but she's in oklahoma, so we drove up there and had my sister do it and um, uh, kim is the biggest critic on the face of kim is your wife.
Speaker 1:Yes, shout out to kim, great home decorator, by the way, great home decorator.
Speaker 3:She did my basement she's fantastic, very, very true. Um, and you know, the minute my sister, carisha, had finished the grooms, she comes out and says that's the best gram he's ever had. So the second time the light bulb went off it did. Yeah, the thought process has started going that way, but the second time it went off I approached Gretchen and said would you want to start a grooming business? Let me get all the research done, all the logistics and, if you're in, I want to base this around the quality, not the mobile. You the quality grooms, not the rut, not the mobile. You get a shaved dog right now, groomed side of it. So it just kind of spun from there. I mean also, it's been probably about 10 months in the process and we've been open for five and a half weeks now oh wow, so okay.
Speaker 2:So it's super new and pops, pops.
Speaker 1:You got a english theme, like it's wrapped, like yeah, so like a double decker bus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was oh, that's cool the branding was a really big part. Starting out the research for me, looking at what everybody else was doing and you know everything is kind of cutesy and cartoony and everything else and I just went, no, we're going to do this, we're going to make it stand out above everything else from the branding perspective. And the name it's one of those things I'm laying in bed. Name popped in my head. I go that's it. I want to research and make sure that nobody else has it.
Speaker 1:It's marked.
Speaker 3:Went from that to the design side and just set up within that first day of like I want it to be this as far as the logo and the branding Ran with it from there.
Speaker 1:But the English thing to me is it's got like this upscale. It's always like past the gray coupon, the commercials back in the day. It's got this premium looking feel to it. Yeah, definitely, and to your point, and this is sort of the Just Place business model versus the other places. It's you want a premium, high-end experience, or do you want a haircut? Exactly, and that's exactly what you've created here this premium, high-end experience in an area that there's good disposable income and people, dogs as much as they care about themselves. Very much so, if not more.
Speaker 3:If not more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's Matt, ours is yeah, we have an expensive $100 dog at the vet for a week, it's fine. But yeah, it's just, they're part of your family and that's what you do. And it's the same with grooming. I mean it's a big deal because we're all busy and when you can have someone like you come and do that and you get home and that's one less thing on your list to do.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine Carrie's working out of the house today. The van shows up, the dog goes in and it comes out. How long does it take? Typically An hour and a half to two and a half hours. Van's parked outside, it comes back inside, you hand him the Venmo piece and you're done. Yeah, I mean, what's better than that? You don't have to leave the house for anything.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yeah, I have the red healer that I need to have you come over and clean him up.
Speaker 3:We will.
Speaker 2:You got some, we've had so far.
Speaker 1:Well, before you got here because you were late as typical Rob already booked himself with an appointment not for himself, for Bo on next Wednesday, just like that, I mean, he's already a client.
Speaker 2:Yeah, done, done, done, deal, done and done. Yeah, I need to have him. Maybe I can have you. Come do Roscoe afterwards.
Speaker 1:Or maybe you can bring.
Speaker 2:Roscoe over to Bobby's. Ross go over to Bobby's. He sheds more than and I'm sure that helps with shedding if you keep up on the. It does On the. If you got hefty sandbags that's a big deal. I'm sure he does brush them twice a day. Yeah, never the dog gets more attention than you at the house. Like you pet him, it's like Chevy Chase with the sap and you're like it's just hair everywhere.
Speaker 1:The dog is more expensive than a Rolex right now, from the way I understand it.
Speaker 2:It is he is yeah. Right, so, but now I think that's a. I can't wait to see your. I want to see. We're going to have to get a picture to put up on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll put a picture up, and he's in Shadow Valley all the time, so you go, oh time, so you oh, there's the van like. There's the van bus, what do you call it?
Speaker 2:there's the bus and it's hanging out and while you were waiting, you could have had that all up here. You know to be giving him a plug during the podcast. There's another idea.
Speaker 1:We'll edit that. We're not ever. We'll edit that in. You guys are, we just have?
Speaker 2:the pro. We're prodding you. No, like the day of the day of a podcast, josh, he texts us about a hundred times. He's like make sure you do this, make sure you do that, do this, just show up on time. Clearly, that worked. That's all I asked.
Speaker 1:Show up on time. Clearly that worked, luke. Maybe I should be like my wife and send them no responses and then nobody will show up. But last time Matt was supposed to bring a guest and we're sitting here. And we're sitting here. I'm like is your guest showing up? He texts her and she goes oh, I had the wrong day, so sometimes you have to stay on top.
Speaker 2:That was my fault. It wasn't my fault. So how has the first five weeks?
Speaker 3:been. It's gone well. I mean, I think most businesses, when you open up the first week, potentially it's going to be one of the busiest ones that you have. And that held true for us. I think we did 23 or 24 dogs on the first week and with all the connections, that's where all that flooded in. So we're like all right, let's plug these in, let's try to get our you know our format going on, how this was, and then after that it toned down a little bit, but not very much. So prediction for you know, for me it was we would drop off, you know, second and third week and we'd have a little bit of time to kind of fiddle with things and, you know, make some changes and it really.
Speaker 3:You know, it's a good problem to have it was yeah, I'm averaging you better start start looking for a second van. Oh, yeah, that's if if I could do it right now, it would like that it's finding that second groomer that's going to buy into bidswim. You know that's, that's my big one. So you know there's only two risks in this that that can kind of kill us off, and that's losing the groomer, yeah, and crashing the bus yeah, yeah yeah, those two things.
Speaker 3:so you know there's there's a few little leads out there that I'm looking at and you know, if we can get another really good groomer in buy into it and they've got a client list, we're ready to go right away. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yes, grace. So I have a question Like how do you become a dog groomer? Like is there a school for it or you just learn? Is it about a second job?
Speaker 1:about a second job. Sounds like he's interviewing for the second job. This is it, I'm getting. I'm getting. I mean it's an interesting question, rob's your guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rob's out, out. He's like I have two boys that I could get in In, just like in. But I mean, how do you become a dog groomer, like I mean for it, or are you just?
Speaker 3:trial and error. There's certifications. My sister kind of went on the base side. She started when she was younger as a bather, so it's kind of a part-time job and yeah, like backstory for us. Our family has been involved with like actually there is pet training, if you want to call it that, but my granddad was a horse trainer. So you know, all of our family kind of leans towards animals in some type of way, whether it's, you know, just having dogs.
Speaker 1:You were a horse trainer too, weren't you?
Speaker 2:Well, I used to have horses. I thought you used to. I wouldn't call him a trainer. I got fourth out of four. Just say I got fourth.
Speaker 1:Leave it at that Leave it at that Fourth out of 100?.
Speaker 2:Leave it to the imagination.
Speaker 3:I might fourth yeah, leave it at that, leave it at that Fourth out of 100?. Leave it to the imagination. Oh yeah, it might make sense to put it in there. But yeah, so she started on the bomb and kind of worked her way up Right, and so that was all in-house experience for her, and then get it certified and kind of moving on from there.
Speaker 2:So she didn't take that route as far as going to school for it. But there are, you know, schools out there for it as well.
Speaker 3:Easiest breed to groom, hardest breed to groom. Doodles are the worst, because I mean, it's just curly hair, double coated. You know, mats, they're just. They've got the most, most upkeep. What kind of dog you asked? Doodle.
Speaker 2:But who's better, and at bo's age did we say tuesday or wednesday last week he's like the Tasmanian devil, but he doesn't have the curly hair. He still has that puppy hair that's still straight, it's a little wavy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's got some curl in it. It's got some curl. He's trying to downplay what the service is going to be.
Speaker 2:We haven't even talked pricing yet. Google's are actually expensive, right? I thought. If you heard on the podcast, the first person who called in was free. Is that?
Speaker 1:Roldan, that's why he came today he wanted to be mad into it if anyone's going to get the deal today, it's going to be me.
Speaker 2:Well, and the other thing is is it different for dogs? Like when you go see, say you come to rob's dog or my dog yeah do you look at it and say, okay, every, you need to do this every two weeks or every six weeks, like our dogs? It would be different for what they need or is it just what the individual wants?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean you're, you're on a with doodles. It's better to be able to three to four week rotation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's just how active they are. They jump into the pool much.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, If you wait late late.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, exactly Okay.
Speaker 3:But it's, it's the brush routine in between and you know if you're.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to change what I said.
Speaker 2:We didn't get to the prices yet. The price keeps going up. We've got a good one Fish on Fish on.
Speaker 3:I got a doodle and a red heeler that wants to kill everything, that's a good one too, that'll take a little longer to try to bite you. Those kind of dogs. Just put a muzzle on it, right you can. Yeah, yeah, we do have some. It's trying to get around the face at that point.
Speaker 2:Once you try to, you know, groom that side, just be like a beard it looks great here, but right here it's just not no, wouldn't like yeah, I want to have you, I want to have you come, do them also, just hold on hold.
Speaker 1:We haven't asked pricing yet because rob doesn't care. But for for you it may be like can I get a, buy one, get one free.
Speaker 2:He's a golden dog, now you know. So I mean the golden dog Matt's got to protect his investment.
Speaker 1:That's another day, another podcast, maybe with the cameras off.
Speaker 2:So basically, do you guys? I know you're five weeks in, but do you just do like a say Rob wants to do it every two or three weeks? Do you do like a package where he does like a yearly service?
Speaker 3:We do a three-week career, we can go out. Six months is what we go right now. So if you want to do a three-week career every three or four weeks, we can go.
Speaker 1:Is there a price discount for that?
Speaker 3:We don't right now, but we're doing the 10% off first-time client discount and then we're going to build into that. So we're kind of sealing everything out right now, just being for a very short time, and then, if we did go for a six-month package deal, that's something we've talked about and we'll definitely.
Speaker 2:Because I think it's like the bug guy or the fertilizer guy. It's the same kind of thing they're like. We can all do it ourselves, but you either don't remember and then you wait too long and then you have four rounds to catch back up, whereas if you're on schedule with them, you're like okay every three weeks, bo's getting his hickory down.
Speaker 1:He shows up at your house like hey hey, I'm on my way.
Speaker 2:That's the the big part.
Speaker 1:That's nice, because we all get busy with life and then you're so far past all right, the dog was supposed to go every four weeks, but it's going every 12 weeks because you're too busy to do it. If he's just showing up every four weeks, right, just fantastic. So is it all a cart like? If I want the nails clipped, is it a different price than a wash, than a cut, or how do you? How do you place everything we?
Speaker 3:have. It's a three type price structure. So you've got bath, bath and trim and full. Yeah. So bath is self-explanatory, but we will clip nails and, do you know, brush out and try everything. The bath and trim is basically a sanitary. So wherever they get dirty, so face pause, um private area right in those ranges, and so you're not touching any of the body and you're not cutting head, ears, things like that. Um nail trim and everything is included in that as well. And then you've got full growth, which itself it's mandatory. Okay, um specialized a la carte stuff would be nail grinding. So if you would grind the nails, uh, that's what my dog needs.
Speaker 1:My dog hates for their I mean, which pain in the ass like they have a tiny pug and she hates nails clipped so it has to be grinding, which is probably more pain in the ass for you as well, uh, it depends on the dog, you know.
Speaker 3:It depends if they're sensitive to the paws, you know if they are, then that's a little bit trickier. But um, I said, so far, even with the dogs that have been fairly tricky, it's's gone well, so it hasn't really put us behind too much.
Speaker 1:So is it priced based on size of dog?
Speaker 3:Yes, by pounds.
Speaker 1:Okay, so his 15-pound dog is going to be for a base is how much?
Speaker 3:I think you're looking at about 115. For a Fulker, that's more than the. Jets.
Speaker 1:And then so a 50-pound dog would be up another.
Speaker 3:You're incrementally coming up, but 50s you're getting into the large signs, so 135 oh, so it's not after, look it doesn't? It doesn't go up too much? No, you're getting in the giant like uh, you know, 100 plus pound dog and you're getting to about 205 right now question for you.
Speaker 1:So if matt decided he wanted to get himself groomed like, can we do that?
Speaker 3:Can we hose him down? I would have to ask my sister. You do a whole body.
Speaker 2:We can groom the Italian. Does that go by the pounds? If not, we can't do that.
Speaker 1:We have to figure out where that is we don't have that category. That's an Austin menu special we have to talk about that that's an off-the-menu special.
Speaker 2:We have to talk about that one. Let's just put him under the St Bernard.
Speaker 1:He'd be like a pressure washer as well.
Speaker 2:A pressure washer.
Speaker 1:I'd love to see that. Well, maybe I wouldn't love to see that, Never mind. Rob asked me offline. He was embarrassed to ask this question. But do they do the anal gland stuff too? They do.
Speaker 2:He's asking you need it it's not a cabin, has to get that. I think they do that as well. Yes, we do. Yeah, we do that. Say, why then he doesn't run your, uh, his butter across your carpet? I think they get like smell or something, don't they?
Speaker 3:oh, it's disgusting it's uh, it's god bless your sister yeah, that's not her favorite thing to do. Oh, I bet.
Speaker 2:Does she like Northwest Arkansas?
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's loving it. She didn't move here though.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So let's tell that story.
Speaker 1:She's driving from Oklahoma when out in Oklahoma.
Speaker 3:Oh so not too bad. It's not too bad of a drive back and forth, but she's feeling it.
Speaker 2:It's a solid hour if everything, everything's good, so yeah, so I'm on that so luke rob was asking you.
Speaker 1:So what's the anand glad thing? Because he had never heard of this before.
Speaker 3:No, so it's just an extra one. From what I know, when it does drag across the carpet it's trying to expel. So they would do that in the in the wild, but they have rough surfaces so it would actually semi-expel. Um, but any vet or career has to go in and actually squeeze the gland, otherwise you're dealing with a harp and josh is obviously know about oh yeah, it ain't good, but I going to need an extra special animal planter.
Speaker 2:Correct me if I'm wrong, it's just certain breeds, or maybe it's certain breeds that it's more pronounced.
Speaker 1:Yes, I would say that Because my wife's sister had a I don't think that dog. That dog needs one. We're going to up the price for next week. He needs a double animal. I was like your dog needs one.
Speaker 2:Although your Kevin. I know they need them all the time. Kevin's a mess, the bulldog needs it. And then my wife's sister had a bass at home.
Speaker 1:They would always need them, yeah, but the smell is horrific, it's terrible.
Speaker 2:It's a bad deal, sir, but Josh just had to bring it down a little approach.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to help Rob. He didn't know what he needed to ask for. My dog doesn't have that problem.
Speaker 2:Not that you're aware of. He's a juvenile.
Speaker 3:Yeah, doesn't come in yet. I guess I hit more of an adult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't remember Patch having that issue. No, I think you should pre-check.
Speaker 1:He was a big golden doodle.
Speaker 2:He was 75, 80 pounds.
Speaker 3:Max is 75. He's not terrible, but he will. Then you just start going. No, we're going to go to Don, it's just that you get that whiff. Like I said, he's not too bad, so maybe the duels are on the really bad side, but you might get lucky.
Speaker 2:You're going to have to put that on one of your little TikTok teasers. Are you getting that whiff that you're gonna have to put that on one of your uh little tiktok teasers? Are you getting that whiff? You're out. We could have kevin on there with the phone and then the double decker buzz coming here's all your marketing, right here this, this is perfect, and. Rob's face like.
Speaker 1:What? What's that smell? It's first time smelling that. It's great, it's bad. Do you have any? So do you have the we always talk about, like the Northwest Arkansas? Stay at home, moms, the ones that, like, we talked about on some of these podcasts. Are they standing there like, oh Muffy, please don't Like. Are they coming onto the bus with you? Are you having a hard time getting them to go?
Speaker 3:No, you know, we haven't had we haven't had too much of an issue with that. Yeah, it's, I think if you've got a protective pet parent.
Speaker 2:you know, no, angie would Well probably like the first or second time. It's probably bad, and then after that they probably the dogs and the owners probably get angry Every time the owner is there, the dog is worse.
Speaker 3:Oh, I bet, oh, of course I'm certain. So you know it's too excited to see the parent it wants to leave, but we haven't had too much of an issue with that at all. We've had to call some of the owners back onto the bus to kind of show them certain things, and one of them was the dog that was biting a little bit, and it was a great dog. It was a little, it was more defensive.
Speaker 2:What's this dog doing to my leg? I'm like hey look.
Speaker 1:It won't let go. Can you get it off?
Speaker 2:That's just a lot to finish, Clark.
Speaker 1:Luke's now lifting up his arm and showing the fight marks there.
Speaker 3:It's under the table. But you know, the dog was a great dog, but we think it had been treated poorly at a groom before and it was not anywhere near as bad with me when I got on the bus, but it didn't like my sister so it might have been a female right where they had Cause.
Speaker 2:Usually it's the opposite. Usually they don't like males and they, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we just had. We're real, real transparent. We're not trying to hide anything. If there's an issue, the owner is going to come on board and show up. Um, and then the same thing with you. Know, when you talk to somebody, ask them about the dog, you're kind of saying, how bad is it? Yeah Right, are you asking questions beforehand? Yeah, okay, so we have. Whenever you sign up for a room, you go through questionnaires and we've got to have details and notes on the dog, from temperament to coat type. You've got all kinds of things. He's starting to back out.
Speaker 2:Let me give you Angie's email.
Speaker 1:You can send that question to her. You can pass it on. Yeah, I'm out, rob's blind now. Rob is out and I ain't no blind, so I'm out. Yeah, wait, we gotta do that can we talk about the bus again? So you bought a bus from a builder yeah but now obviously the bus had to be totally remodeled inside for the like. Did you pull out all the seats? What kind of renovation do you have to do?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's. You know if you're getting, uh, if you get a blank canvas, then you're just starting to scratch. This is a guy that's been building bus for about seven or eight years and his wife groomed as well, so his background on it was trying to arrow through his wife's business. So he had a good idea of, like you know what? So we use an inverters and batteries instead of a generator. Um, you know what? So we use an inverters and batteries instead of a generator. You know types of you know utilization for the sinks, like configuration and everything else. So I had a pretty you know extensive conversation with this guy and he showed me a lot of his previous builds beforehand. So it was him and his brother-in-law that built the bus. So I got comfortable with him after, so the bus was built specifically for dog grooming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, after. So the bus was built specifically for dog grooming.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, okay. So you didn't have to do a whole lot to it. Didn't have to do anything for that. Oh, okay, I just flew up. It was outside of Cleveland and drove it all the way back.
Speaker 1:So you lucked out to find a bus that was actually used for the purposes that you needed it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot around.
Speaker 2:Surprisingly, it's not you base, I know on facebook I'm sure people are like, oh, let's get into the dog mobile grooming business and build the bus. And then six months later they're like oh, they're not for me yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:So there was a decent amount of inventory out there. But it was trying to figure out who to trust, so I bought our used car, you know, yeah, so we're not, we're not getting built ourselves. So the this first one, yeah, it's like starting any business right. There's a lot of research, trial and error and now this. There's a few little things I would change. On the bus when we go into the next one, I've got a uh friend of my brother-in-law's that used to build ambulances and he's locked on for being my builder for the next one. So then I can get a blank canvas, we can go in there and just design it ourselves, and now I know enough about it. We can really move along and start going from there. You know, from the local side. So that's, that's been a huge. Obviously, your contacts are the biggest and are you so?
Speaker 2:are you like, is the bus all self-contained? Or do you like, hook the hose up for some when you get to the house, or you're just, you have all?
Speaker 3:no, yeah, it's got a 75 gallon um fresh 75 gallon gray tank. Nice, you know. It's like I said, the inverter battery from everything in there. You know, as far as your.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're just pulling it up in the driveway and you don't have to bother me again, other than for my credit card.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's pretty much. It Probably credit card is on file.
Speaker 2:And it can be.
Speaker 3:Yep. So yeah, everything we get into, we try to make it simple as possible. So, yeah, everything we get into, we try to make it as simple as possible. You rub that and it's, you know, open communication with the owners, and you know, being in the tennis industry and dealing with a lot of people myself, that's you know.
Speaker 2:Have you had the?
Speaker 3:conversation yet with him that he's ready for pickleball. I'm just saying he's played, he's played. It may not be what he wants to do, right.
Speaker 1:He doesn't think he's playing.
Speaker 2:They're trying to get me to stop tennis from my injury?
Speaker 1:Really, they want me to think I should move to pickleball because I'm 53 and I can't handle tennis anymore?
Speaker 2:He's being let out faster.
Speaker 1:It's almost time. Luke's a very good tennis player, but he's been teaching and coaching at Chatham Valley forever. He's a good tennis player and a better instructor, so it's fascinating that you said I'm going to just get into a new business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it just steamrolled. It was just one of those ideas popped in your head. I started to justify it, for you know I'm going to be OCD about all the things that I do. If it looked too risky, I'm not touching it. If I didn't have my sister, I would not have done it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's key, right very, because if the groomer's gone, I mean there's not much you could do. We have something, yeah, we have nothing.
Speaker 3:So the family-based side of that, and in our conversations, I mean, I think we probably had three or four conversations where I said, okay, car like, are you sure? Yeah. I said this is real. I'm going to Cleveland. If you tell me yes, now I'm going to go buy stuff and I'm going to start getting the business set up.
Speaker 1:So is she a co-owner or an employee?
Speaker 3:She's an employee. Okay, yeah, we'll work through as we start to expand, because the goal is to not just stay with all of us. We're looking to expand and go outside of Northwest Arkansas. So as that materializes and that will change our role later on, you know, in the business, but right now it's putting out the quality and getting everybody to. You know, kind of see our brand. You know know that we're established as far as a solid business in the area and it's kind of going there.
Speaker 1:As out of Matt's TikTok idea. Do you have one other marketing things you do at this point?
Speaker 3:Oh, so we've partnered with.
Speaker 1:Cano Dorks. Shout out to Max and Don Bachman. We had them on early yeah yeah, so smart.
Speaker 3:And we were talking about that before the business actually even came into play. It was just an idea Max and I were talking. I said, look, I just kind of want your feedback being in the pet industry. And then it went from that to okay, if you do it, maybe we can link on so that easily. Brilliant 10 months a year ago, yep, and so we're just starting to do that now. This month. We'll be there the 20th of June.
Speaker 3:So, you'll do stuff right in their parking lot. Yeah, we'll go there once a month. Yeah, we'll do that. We've hit farmers market downtown Bentonville, had the bus out there. You know promotional pictures given out.
Speaker 2:You know discounts to mark because there's no one walking around the Pam's market with their dog that's pretty yeah tumbleweeds go to go to Lowe's or Home Depot. Everyone has to bring their dog or XNA. I mean we're all guilty.
Speaker 3:So it's been. You know, the promotion of the business has been quite easy, especially with the bus. If we just take it and you know we're going to have lunch and then we take the bus, we'll leave it out there, we'll get questions about it. People have walked up to us just to even question what it was, you know, and then having discussions with people from that point but yeah, we've had probably in the last couple of weeks at least three or four people that saw the bus contacted us from that and it was basically they were like we just want to use you because of the bus.
Speaker 1:Is there a QR code or something? I assume there's plenty of branding on the bus that's down the road.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I haven't got the QR code on the bus yet. That's something we're going to add. But we've got all of our socials. We've got the website. I'll write it to this Brilliant.
Speaker 2:Love it, I love it yeah.
Speaker 1:And you're already thinking about expansion.
Speaker 3:I mean, is it something you could franchise at some point, or is that just so far down? I wasn't starting this as, in looking at it from Carisha's perspective, she did it on her own and I think that would have just been her income. That's what she wanted to do. But for me it was definitely more expanding the brand and getting something out there that wouldn't be seen in other states and cities. It was a bigger picture view from the beginning. It was a bigger picture view from the beginning, but start off putting the product out and then slowly start the expansion. So it might be 2026 before I get another grooming bonus and set it up that way. I mean, that's not that far away.
Speaker 2:It isn't that far away.
Speaker 1:You can get your grooming license. Between now and then you can partner with schools.
Speaker 2:Right Partner with some grooming schools. Oh, you hear with schools, right? Right, partner with, like, some grooming schools? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's, there's so many avenues out there for us to take that. Yeah, there's there's so many connections with different businesses. Um, you know, even throwing out today to the social media post about partnering with canine and getting more business kickback to to work with us just from that. So, yeah, that's why it's limitless, almost you know anything.
Speaker 1:Um, I say this to myself with the gems because I wish I had done this. Anything you're saying five or six weeks in and go. I should have went in this direction or I missed this opportunity and you're gonna think about it for the next bus.
Speaker 3:Um, uh, I think for the bus it's just the modifications on how to make it more efficient. You know, lay out how to create, you know, more space. Not components are a big deal. Also, you know, you're jammed up in ours where the components are maybe in the wrong area. We'll lose a little bit of space from that. As far as, yeah, if I look at it, I don't think I would have done too much different. That's good. Yeah, I really don't. Do you have a picture of the bus?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2:You need to do one of those gents events where everyone I mean we talked about the yearly members should probably get a free groom.
Speaker 1:I mean probably should get a free. Gents should probably free every three weeks. Yeah, I think so. If you have every three week haircut, you should get a free three week grooming, right, I mean, why not? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I mean, come on, that's one of them we took outside.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry oh that's really cool. Yeah, we're gonna. We'll put the bus up on the on the podcast.
Speaker 1:It's super premium looking yeah, so each one.
Speaker 3:We have Pennington Bear in the window and one of it in this one. So the next one we're gonna kind of allow. Like you know, what other English yeah icon can we put in there? Hold it up to the camera that's um.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, probably easier. Look there, look at you right there, bobby isn't that cool. I like that.
Speaker 1:It's the same but I'm sure everybody says it's driving by. What is that? Yeah?
Speaker 3:right about you what you are, yeah that's so cool you know, the london skyline side there's there's a lot to it our actual logo. We had kind of a you know proof that came back in that I wasn't happy with you know, and that was the initial. If you look back on Facebook you'll see it on there, like on my Facebook, and it just sat and I went this isn't good enough. My sister had a text to me, my older sister that lives there, natasha, and she's like I'm not. I don't want to hurt feelings, but but you need that.
Speaker 2:I don't think this is good. Yeah, you need that. Yeah, correct.
Speaker 3:So she got with one of her friends and the logo now is one that she made. You want those?
Speaker 1:people to give you that feedback now. Oh, 100%, Otherwise, like I really felt this way, but I don't want to tell you no, no, tell me now I can fix it, but if I don't know, I can't fix it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's where there's not really regrets from a branding or from the start of the business on how things have gone. There isn't anything really. I would have changed because I've had that feedback. That's good. So once she did this, I go Tash, that is it. I'm like we've got to use that, like that's 100% what we're locking in. So we got all the formats up, we got that over to Sign Studio to be used for the wrap and, you know, started to kind of mess with the proofs for the design of the bus and the majority of it we had like I want you know, specific things like the dogs in the windows, paddings and all that, all the corgis, the royal corgis, and then the whole setup. And then the designer did the london skyline on the bottom and I'm like, oh, my god, I'm like this, this is it, like that's, that's gold, you know like we're.
Speaker 2:We're done. Yeah, you know what you need next farmer's market you need to wear an austin powers, you didn't? Yeah, baby, you can hire Matt he would come out and do it for you. You walk out of the van. Yeah, baby, I've got to do this that is great.
Speaker 1:You walk out of the van going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, baby that would be great. I mean, at first I was thinking you'd need a Jaguar like he had the payment, with the flag on it, bobby, I mean at first I was thinking you'd need a Jaguar Like he had payment with the flag on it.
Speaker 1:Bobby, what's the question that every podcast has? Yeah, that you always ask.
Speaker 2:So when someone calls you up, and this is for the viewers, and we've got a lot of viewers, a lot of viewers, a lot of viewers, a lot of viewers.
Speaker 1:They're the best viewers ever.
Speaker 2:They're just great, great viewers. You just got to respect our viewers. Yeah, if someone calls you up or reaches out to you and says they heard about you here on the B team, what can you do for them?
Speaker 3:We're doing a first-time client discount at 10%. Okay, but if they come out with all counts, we'll do another 10%, ooh, 20% 20% for the B team.
Speaker 1:Ooh, better get a full carry and get this booked. It's done.
Speaker 3:Have to use the, but if they come out with all counts, we'll do another 10% 20% for the B team, better get a full carrying. It's done. Have you used the B team code? That's right. It's for everybody but Rob, because I don't know about his dog. His dog's a big dog, it's a $200 dog.
Speaker 2:You need a 20% off. You just have to say B team and the code's Bobby. Yeah, that's Bobby. Yeah, the code's Bobby. That's awesome, that's great. We have a lot of guests that have come on here and even a year later they still are getting you know hey we heard about you on the B-Team.
Speaker 1:That's great I went to a good sense sub shop the other day. I hit the guy. He goes oh my God, you know how many people are coming through. We were saying on the B-Team podcast.
Speaker 2:Back in 1998, during the day, and while we were there, angie and Jake came in and she was like what are you doing here?
Speaker 1:What are you doing here, yeah? I mean it's not going to be Joe.
Speaker 2:Rogan be really cool, yeah, and you can use it on your social as well too. Yes, cool, yeah, that'd be great Website Instagram.
Speaker 1:Tell people how to find you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's poshpupsnwacom for the website, poshpupsnwa for all the socials.
Speaker 1:Print and scram at Facebook Cool cover that you want to chat about with anything we missed. I think we can come pretty much everything. So I heard matt's gonna run your tiktok. Matt's gonna come out and do the austin powers. Yeah, we don't have the tiktok yet. Shall we shag now or shall we shag later?
Speaker 2:shag the dog. There's another advertisement. You can have him coming in the shag and being like you got the anal gland thing I mean yeah, you can turn around. You clean the kitchen, baby. On that note, luke. Yeah, thanks for coming.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me, guys appreciate it.