Starting a Reputable Business
A Familial Background and How Julie Started Her Poodle Business…
Growing up, we never had much, and neither did my parents. Julie, who worked a desk job as a legal secretary came from a family of farmers. Vaughn, her spouse also grew up on a farm and went into an accounting career. Money was tight, but it became even tighter when they decided to have 3 children: Rachel, Jordan, and Me (Rebekah “Bek”).
Julie had to find “side-gigs” to maximize her ability to provide for the family. This meant anything from reselling things on eBay to partnering with local breeders to help advertise and rehome puppies. Because Vaughn was so allergic to dogs, she pushed to purchase her own poodles in order to stabilize her income. The foresight Julie had in doing so was such a big blessing to our entire family.
“It all started with a love of dogs, and a need to provide for my family”
A very tumultuous time in our lives came. 2006. Julie & Vaughn had just decided to divorce, and Julie’s oldest daughter Rachel had just been diagnosed with cancer. 2007. The recession was right around the corner, as well as a big flood in our Rexburg apartment. Julie was laid off from her job, and everyone was strapped for cash. Vaughn, Erik, and I were struggling too. We were homeless and extremely poor from our apartment flooding. Any extra income past taking care of ourselves during the flood, was pushed toward funding Rachel’s fight against cancer.
We did have a few poodles at the time, and their additional income helped tremendously! Julie, with the help of her late-mother Nadine, were able to provide for the family, and Rachel was able to eventually recover after several years in the hospital. Luckily she also met Reino close to this time, and she was able to have a partner to rely on. “It all started with a love of dogs, and a need to provide for my family.” Idaho Jewels Poodles was beginning to get its start amidst the most stressful time in Julie and her family’s lives.
Building Trust and Going Above and Beyond from the Ground Up…
It could’ve been easy for Julie to do the bare-minimum when starting her business, but she decided to turn it all around by pioneering and prioritizing health-testing for poodles. Back in the day, most breeders were not health testing their parent dogs, and Julie became skeptical that the diseases like PRA-PRCD & DM they said were “gone,” may not actually be gone. After doing research and finding the right companies to test with, Julie’s poodles became extremely desirable to breeders and pet-owners alike as they knew they were getting healthy dogs by choosing Idaho Jewels Poodles.
Julie continued to build relationships with both local breeders in Idaho, and she expanded her reach to breeders in Utah. She helped them advertise by using her platform, helping them do health testing, and getting them more profits than they were able to get all on their own. She could’ve been in it for herself, but she wanted to pay back the education that these local breeders gave her by helping them as much as she could in return.
Hiring Extra Help…
There comes a time in any business where it becomes impossible to do it on your own. While Julie still had help from me and Reino, it was becoming increasingly harder to do so especially with more demanding schoolwork for me as I was still growing up. She decided to hire a local high-schoolers to help her with the dog chores while she could continue on perfecting the business side of things, and helping out her local dog breeders. She met a really great hard-working family of girls eager to help out. These girls, Nikecia, Brindy, and Brecklyn have been such a blessing in all of our lives, and have become like adopted daughters to Reino & Julie.
Within the past couple of years, we also hired Kristin along with her son Arik. Kristin is Reino’s sister and she’s been a massive help as I have started stepping into more managerial duties. She is head of caretaking around here, and she is very knowledgeable about the going’s on of the house and making sure everyone is cared for. Her son Arik is also very hard-working and he’s been able to help Reino with hard house-maintenance so that we can keep our home safe for the dogs to live in.
It Comes With Time and Personal Connections…
Good Reputations come from going above and beyond to satisfy and impress your customers. Julie has done that, as well as revolutionized the breeding industry as a whole with her priority on health-testing and paying back favors to those who have helped her in the past. These kinds of reputations require considerable time and personal connections with their clientele. While we work our hardest and are very well-known in the poodle world, we also know that we can always do better and there’s always more to do! Here’s to the future!
