Tell us about your gourmet dog treats small business!

At Puddles Barkery, it’s all about the dogs! Our Seattle pet treat bakery creates healthy, preservative-free treats for your next hiking adventure in addition to Cakes, Cannoli, and Pupcakes for every celebration. You’ll love the treats because we choose local, health-beneficial ingredients for each recipe. But your dog will enjoy them because they are taste-tested and approved by our super picky husky, Kora. 

We also crochet hats for dogs and humans and donate 15% of hats sales to local animal rescues quarterly. We ship around the USA, plus you can order online and pick it up from one of our 20+ retail partners to save on shipping costs. We are also at the Ballard Farmer’s Market every Sunday and participate in other in-person pop-up events too.

Tell us about yourself and your team!

While you know about my talent for baking and crocheting, I am also a Soprano and I sing with the Seattle Choral Company. I also love to go hiking with our dog, Kora (this is her favorite thing in the world). You might be surprised that Kora is my first dog. I went absolutely head over heels for her and I’ve learned a lot about interacting with all sorts of dogs at my booth. I love all our furry companions.

I’m lucky to be assisted by my virtual assistant Hallie, my baking assistant Kara, my market assistant Sammy, and my content writer Janelle. Their talents have helped Puddles thrive and grow along with allowing me to have a life too.

I also have to thank the other small business owners who have been co-mentors and friends with me through my journey; Marika, Lauren, Erika, Freya, Amy, Laura, Phebe, Ellise, Malia, Whitney, Robin, Nathan, Eric, Shay, and more. From brainstorming ideas and solutions, consoling me on failures, and celebrating with me on successes, the friends I’ve made along the way have been invaluable.

What were you doing before you started your business?

I had gone to college for Music and Psychology at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. I worked in clothing retail and in in-home care for people with disabilities during college. Then my first job out of college was in a credit union in Albuquerque, NM. When I moved to Seattle I worked as an Administrator in a few different industries including property management.  

What made you want to do this?

Kora was the reason I started. I solved the problem we had of finding dog treats that were high-value for her. Why is this? Kora is more adventure motivated than treat-motivated. She is happy to refuse a treat if she doesn’t feel like it, or if she thinks you have something better. 

How did you get started?

I started experimenting with recipes for gourmet dog treats in 2014. I decided on the name Puddles Barkery in July 2014 and registered the business then. I continued to finalize my first 4 treats, including getting the guaranteed analysis and registering them with the state of Washington before I activated my website and started selling treats in February 2015.

I wrote a blog on the progression of Puddles at our 7-year mark: 
https://www.puddlesbarkery.com/blog-1/2021/7/6/puddles-barkery-is-7-years-old 

What does a typical day look like for you?

I have a few different types of typical days.

Baking Day – it’s exactly that. Mondays are our full baking days of about 6-8 hours, mixing dough, rolling dough, cutting the dog treats, and then storing dog treats to be packaged later. We also have about 4 and half days for baking pup-cakes per month. I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks these days.

Event days – We need about 30 minutes to pack the treats and supplies, drive to the event, use at least 1 hour to unpack and set up our booth, work the event, then 30-60 minutes to pack up and leave the event. After the event, we check inventory and package or plan to package treats for the next event. Ideally, I try to use my foot spa after a day of standing at an event. During the events, I crochet the dog and human hats in between customers. 

All the other stuff – I try to hit my emails at least 1-2 hours per day. This is one of the hardest tasks at times, especially if it was an event or baking day. Then there is time for social media! I try not to spend more than an hour per day on socials and will try to schedule posts a few at a time so I can spend 1-2 hours a few times per week instead of more time each day.

January is taxes – preparing for tax season with all our documents (1099s, excise tax, sales tax, etc) plus renewing business licenses and insurance.  

Where do you want to end up & what goals do you want to achieve?

I want to grow Puddles into a regional PNW staple. It would be great to get a physical location to supply our Seattle area customers and have a localized range in the PNW where many of our dog moms and dads have similar health values for the dog treats and food they give to their dogs.

What are some more memorable obstacles you’ve had to overcome?

Not having a physical storefront forced me to find in-person events and other small businesses to collaborate with as a pickup location in order to get my products close to my customers. Not everyone considers the benefits of partnerships. For both parties, you can develop by asking small businesses to be pick-up locations. Because of the storage issues (needing freezers/refrigeration), it was harder to convince large businesses to buy perishable products (at least when I started in 2014). Now many pet supply stores have freezers for raw food, so it’s not as hard to see the benefit of fresh treats.