July 2025 Animal Services Grant Awarded to Campfire Cutz Campground Dog Grooming

Video Transcript

Jama: Hi everyone, this is Jama with WomensNet and I’m excited to introduce our July, 2025 winners. This month our business category winner was a business that does work in the animal services industry. So thank you so much, and we’ll get right into the interview. April, please tell us about your business, (and it’s a super cool and exciting one)! And then tell us what state you’re going to be going into today?

April: We we’re originally based in Virginia, and we started going out RVing and ran into a lot of people that needed to have their dogs groomed. We have a brick and mortar at our home base. So a lot of people were saying, Hey, you know, it’s hard finding somebody to groom our dogs while we’re out on the road. So I’ve been working on the idea for about five years to get out there and help a lot of the full-timers and seasonal campers. So we travel right now on the East Coast to different campgrounds and set up for a weekend or a week to be able to help get some people and get their dogs groomed. So we are actually headed to Tennessee today to go out to Pigeon Forge.

Jama: Wonderful, what an exciting business you have! 

Jama: I have a question for you because I would think that having a business on wheels and also just going into the different campgrounds, you have to manage so many aspects of your business to have it run. Can you tell us a little bit about how you keep everything organized or any strategies that have helped you? 

April: Yes, actually our home-based business, we started with our Wix website. So we had a different program that we do appointments and point of sale and different things in our home base, but I wanted it to all be linked together so it would be easier instead of sending somebody to another place to do point of sale. So we ended up going through Wix. We do all of our appointments through there. We schedule the different campgrounds through there as well as point of sale through there as well. So everything’s in one place. Of course social media, we advertise through there and to help get the word of where we are going be at because it’s very fast paced. Where we’re going and different things, I just keep it on my phone, on my calendar, that’s the only way I can keep it all in track.

 

As soon as we sign up with the campground and know the dates that we’re going, then I go back to the website set up to where people can schedule those appointments. And then also updating our website of different places that we’re going. It’s changing every time because in the early spring we only had a couple of places and now we’re booked up through November in different campgrounds. It’s ever changing. So it’s easy with, with having the Wix program to be able to go in there and change that even when we’re on the road.

Jama: Awesome. Thank you. I’m also imagining too, that with new campgrounds being built or being updated that you will continue to have this service- and how convenient is it to be able to get this service at an RV park!

 

Jama: I’m really excited about this question, about a lesson learned story that you wish somebody would’ve told you instead of having to experience.

April: So I would probably say that the one thing that we noticed is that we had already had a camper to start the business. And my original idea was to get a toy hauler. For those that don’t know what a toy hauler is, it’s one that has an extra garage in the back and convert that toy hauler into the grooming salon. And my husband was just a little bit worried about spending that amount of money because it is a large amount to get one of the toy haulers. So we did end up getting a grooming trailer. So now we’re with two trucks and two trailers. And at this point we are wanting to go ahead and get that toy hauler. So I think that in the long run, financially, that probably was not the best decision. So where the lesson was learned was we were both kind of concerned, is it going to take off? Are people actually going to like our idea? We just had our year anniversary and at that point we realized that people really like the idea. Everybody keeps coming and saying, Hey, this is a million dollar idea. And we kept like, I need that million dollars to be able to go forward!

Jama: Very cool. Thank you so much for sharing that. And that is a wonderful lessons learned story. Congratulations April. We’re so excited about everything you’ve already been doing, and that you’re going continue to do, especially with this additional grant funds. And so thank you so much, and we appreciate you taking the time.