Dog days | A chat with Persephone Cabaniss, co-founder of Agatha & Louise in Portland
Founded: May 2005
Employees: Two
Startup costs: $35,000
Revenue, year one: $150,000
Projected revenue, year two: $250,000
Contact: 879-7297
399 Fore St., Portland 04101
www.agathaandlouise.com
Tell me about Agatha & Louise.
We specialize in decorative items and gifts for dog lovers of all ages. We have a lot of kid's stuff ˆ— plush dogs and puzzles and all kinds of fun toys. And for adults, we have cards with every dog breed, needlepoint pillows, ties. One thing that we specialize in is custom items. We have house signs that are hand-painted, so they can have your dog's exact likeness on them. We have little decoupage plates, where you can have a photo of your dog in the center. We also do custom watercolor portraits.
What led you to start the business?
Agatha & Louise is a dream that we've had for a long time. My husband, Gray, and I would always travel and find the dog store in every town. A lot of times we'd find that the stores would have stuff that we weren't really into, so we knew that we wanted to start something like this. And so we decided to do it. I had a baby and we decided, "Well, let's change everything."
Agatha & Louise are two dogs ˆ— one's an Irish terrier and one's a pug. They're not actual dogs but [they're on our sign out front.] The Irish terrier is named after my husband's late mother, Agatha, and the pug is named after my grandmother, Louise. My grandmother left me pearls so they're both wearing pearls in the picture. We just really felt like they were two strong women who gave us a real love of beautiful items ˆ— and of dogs ˆ— so that's how this got started.
How did you finance the launch of the business?
We had some money of our own, and we got a loan from our bank.
How do you market your business?
We just recently have begun advertising in more magazines around town and in Bark Magazine, a national magazine. And we just launched a website a month ago. You can actually buy things off the website, so it's a great outlet for us.
What are your plans for growth?
Well, the website is one thing that we're really focusing on. We've found that it takes a while for people in town to know that you're here. So we hope that over the next year we can make ourselves known more in Portland. We're going to be doing more advertising and we also hope to become more involved with organizations around town, doing charity to help dog organizations.
What is your competition and how are you different?
Well, when we came into Portland we felt like there were already great dog stores in this town. We didn't want to overlap with what they do ˆ— we have one line of collars, we have one line of dog coats, one line of treats. So our competition ends up being a little bit of [those stores], but it's also gift shops. I think we carry really fine quality dog-related gifts. We want to find the highest quality items that also have beautiful designs.
What are some of the challenges of the business?
The marketing is an aspect that neither my husband nor I have a background in, so that's been an interesting challenge. We're trying to figure out where we want to market ourselves and how we want to market ourselves. We have to explain a little bit of what we are in our advertising because we're not just a leash-and-collar store, you know? So one of our challenges is to come up with a way to let people know what we're about without coming into the store.
Who are your customers?
In the summer we have a lot of kids coming in. We have a big bed filled with [plush] dogs and the kids love that. And then it's the baby boomer generation. Their kids have gone off and then they have these dogs who are the love of their lives. That's a big market for us.
What's the dog breed that people are always after?
The Boston terrier and the boxer are really hot right now. They're in fashion. We didn't know that those would be the hot dogs.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to kelson@mainebiz.biz.
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