Founders Feature: Precious Doggo

Precious Doggo

Tell us a little bit about Precious Doggo.

Hi, my name is Santa and I'm from Latvia, Europe. I was studying to become a veterinarian but after working at clinic more than a year I realized that becoming a veterinarian wasn't quite for me. I thought there had to be something more in life. I tried different areas of veterinary practice, but they didn't work out. This is where Precious Doggo came in.
Now it's our small family business that I'm working on together with my fiancee Mike and our little CEO french bulldog Vivi. Precious Doggo is Vivi's brand where you can find beautiful dog collars and accessories and different type of dog blogs with useful information for dog owners.

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What led you to start Precious Doggo?

Actually it was a long time coming, as we wanted to share our experience with Vivi with the world because she was not the usual lovey-dovey doggo. I'm pretty sure every dog owner says the same thing about his/her doggo :D

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So we started our dog blog. It wasn't anything much at first, but as we're joking now "at least we started."
Even though we had an idea that we could turn Precious Doggo into something more than just a blog, we never knew how. After a lot of trials and errors, research and countless mistakes, we started our eCommerce store.

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What have been some of the greatest challenges you've experienced as an entrepreneur, and what did you take away or learn from those experiences?

I think many will be able to relate that seeing no results at first was a huge challenge. A lot of times we were questioning ourselves and if it was even worth continuing because of self-doubt, tough competition, not making any money and so on.

At that point we realized that you cannot compare yourself with others. All you see on social media is the success, but no one is showing you the struggles and hardships they went through to get there. You need to be consistent and you will reach your goal. It might take days, months or years, but if you keep going you will reach your goal IF you stay consistent. So I would say that actually most of the challenges were created by ourselves in our minds.

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What kind of growth have you seen at Precious Doggo? What do you think helped drive that growth?

The growth has been immense. If I could show you how our website, blogs, or posts looked early on you would probably laugh and I would laugh with you.

We started as a blog (main idea was affiliate marketing), then we went to social media, then email marketing, and finally to eCommerce selling where we started producing all of the handmade collars and scrunchies.

I would say support from my fiancee was a big driver of our growth, since he was the only one working so that I could fully focus on Precious Doggo.
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Do you have any techniques, tools, or words of wisdom on how you successfully engage your customers?

No matter what you do, always go the extra mile for customers. Be truly sincere, always give more, and show that you truly care. Just avoid using some pre-made templates, answers or even bots. If you treat your customer the way you would want to be treated you will see amazing things :)

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Why Precious Doggo? What sets you apart?

To be honest, there are so many amazing small business owners in our niche that it's so hard to answer this question, but I would say that everything that we make is made with love as we truly make each product like it would be for our Vivi.

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Who or what has been your biggest influence in starting your company?

I would say my fiancee was the one who made the first step as he started an affiliate marketing course which was created by Stephan James. He bought it and I was shocked because this course was so overpriced BUT I'm glad he did as it jump-started everything that we have done to this point.

What advice would you give to someone that is just starting their business?

Don't listen to nay-sayers and always believe in yourself and that you are good enough, and you will succeed.

Be super clear on what you want, and create plans (weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly). Whenever you have an idea WRITE IT DOWN. And don't wait for the perfect moment to do something, the best time to do it is right now.
But the most important advice I can give you is invest in yourself. Read self-education books, listen to podcasts with successful people, meditate, and be super grateful for what you have.

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What does the future have in store for Precious Doggo? Is there anything you want us to know about?

We have some interesting plans ahead. A lot of new product lines, charity events, partnerships and maybe even some vlogs!

That's all for this week's edition of The New Yak Times! And a huge thank you to Santa and Precious Doggo for sharing their story and tips. Tune in next week and subscribe below!