David Carter is
following his passion, working with dogs and offering positive dog training
thanks to support from St Helens Chamber’s start-up team and the Enterprise Hub.
From a young age David
grew up with a family dog in the home and always had a passion for training and
caring for his canine companions. After the death of their first family dog,
David’s family started adopting rescue dogs, all of which David took to training
and behaved exceptionally.
After the passing of
one of their rescue dogs, David decided to get a puppy, Flash, so he could have
the challenge of training a dog from birth and demonstrate what you can achieve
using only positive training methods.
Prior to starting his
own business David worked in an administration role, climbing further up the
managerial ladder. He realised he wanted a job that made him feel a sense of
achievement, so began the journey of setting up his own business.
David explained: “I
first approached the Chamber with the hope of getting some sort of funding and
advice to get the ball rolling.
“Starting a new
business, I didn’t know what I was getting into, so the most important thing
for me was to understand the business side. I’d never done my own taxes and
didn’t know how to get started on that.
“I understood how to realistically make a
business plan, but the support from the Chamber opened my eyes to a depth of it
that I didn’t see.
“There are things you
don’t know about until you look into it in a certain way. The support helped me
to look down the right avenues and investigate the right things so that I could
find an accountant and a bookkeeper who could give me advice.
“When it came to the
specifics of working with dogs the Chamber weren’t necessarily the right people
to talk to, but when it came to running the business, liability insurance and
VAT rates, they really opened up my eyes as to how much more work goes into the
process.”
David was invited in to meet with a dedicated
business start-up adviser to discuss his business plan and attended a series of
free start-up Workshops, designed to teach him the tools for becoming
self-employed.
“The guidance I
received from my start up adviser Steve was really useful. He helped me to
narrow my view from this scatter brain idea of ‘I could do this and this’ to
break it down and say ‘yes, you could do that, but is it productive in the
short term, if you focus on x you can cover all your bases – marketing, income,
expenditure.
“He really helped me
to align my goals and come up with a realistic frame so we could start at A and
work to Z instead of the other way around.”
Superdogs offers a
range of Dog Training classes including one-to-one sessions, residential
training and group sessions, as well as training the dogs, Superdogs also sells
equipment such as leads and balls.
When he initially
visited the Chamber, David went in with some very ambitious plans of opening a
dog hotel, spa and restaurant with a menu for humans and a separate menu for
their canine friends.
“When I first met
Steve the first thing I said was ‘I think I need North of one million pounds’
and he just laughed. Looking back now, I would too.
“I didn’t know what
the Chamber was about, I just told him this is my ultimate goal and what I want
and he helped me to narrow down that 25 year goal and make it into a more
realistic 5 year goal.
“Within the first year
Superdogs has quickly surpassed what I thought we’d achieve, I’ve gone from
having no intention of taking on staff to now tripling the size of the business
with two extra staff members.
“We have recently
expanded into Warrington and the Wirral, as that is where one of my new
trainers is based. We are tackling the North West first and then hopefully one
day we can take on the world. I’m looking to rent or purchase a field so we can
have our own space for outdoor classes.
“I have also been
working closely with No More Kennels a luxury dog spa and hotel in Warrington
where we deliver some of our group sessions. They have a really great set up
with an indoor AstroTurf that we use to train the dogs.”
David has aspirations
to grow the business over the next few days with the hope of one day owning his
own premises and spa. He also plans on training a team of show Superdogs to
educate people about traditional dog training methods.
St
Helens Chamber is part of Enterprise Hub, the enterprise gateway for business
start-up support in Merseyside. Offering expert advice and support to
anyone thinking about starting a business including help to:
- Understand the
process of starting a business
- Research a
business idea
- Build a
comprehensive business plan
- Develop a
marketing plan
- Create financial
forecasts to understand the costs of running your business and potential income
- Identify sources
of finance to get started
Enterprise Hub is part funded by the European
Regional Development Fund and offered FREE to residents of the Liverpool City Region. For more information on how to get support to start your business call 0151 706 8113 or email enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk
