BITES
WORTH BARKING ABOUT
From
The Ottawa Citizen (Careers, Entrepreneurial Spirit)
August 1999
by Jeff Buckstein
 Four years ago,
when Sara MacLean purchased a puppy named Bailey,her only thought
was that the female Siberian Husky would make a nice pet for
her family of three.
But it didn't take long before
she discovered how quickly Bailey and a second dog, a Giant Schnauzer
named Cinder, became the centre of their lives. "We used
to go on vacation to nice, exotic places, but once we got our
dogs, we only went on vacation where we could take them with
us. We even bought a van because it was easier to move the dogs
around in," says Ms. MacLean.
The dogs would play a second
role in her life.
The former financial services
branch manager has embarked on a rather unusual entrepreneurial
career - catering to canine tastes. As sole proprietor of The
Barking Biscuit Company, Sara now spends most of her time baking
and packaging a variety of dog food recipes from her Kemptville
home.
The 38-year old London, Ont.
native embraced the idea of running her own business after taking
a severance package in a 1998 corporate reorganization from Royal
Trust, for whom she managed a suburban Ottawa branch.
"I wasn't so sure I felt
passionate about banking anymore. I had done it for a long time
and was good at it, but after 19 years I'd got into a routine.
It was a great opportunity to think about what I wanted to do
and sort of shake up my life a bit."
She realized that becoming an entrepreneur might not be such
a quantum leap after all - that her former career had, indeed,
already provided her with many of the skills to succeed on her
own.
"Being a branch manager
is really like running your own business in a way because you're
responsible for sales, marketing, training people and coming
up with creative ideas to get customers in the door," she
says.
It also gave her the chance to
fulfil a long-held dream of living in the country. "Because
I wasn't tied to a specific job any more, it just seemed like
the perfect opportunity to see what we could do about where we
lived." So after selling their home in the Sandy Hill district,
Ms. MacLean, partner John and her 12 year old son Cody, moved
to Kemptville.
While putting together a business plan, Ms. MacLean began to
investigate whether there was some way to indulge her love of
dogs and discovered that "baking biscuits seemed to be something
I was capable of doing myself and having fun with."
The first order of business was
determining the right recipes - to satisfy the dogs as well as
the health concerns of their owners. Ms. MacLean decided she
would use all natural ingredients, without preservatives. Today,
her menu boasts several recipes for dogs, including "Barkin'
Bagel Bites" with, among other ingredients, dried apples,
cinnamon, whole wheat flour and eggs; "Say Cheese Twists,"
shaped like a breadstick, with parmesan cheese as the main component;
and natural peanut butter based "Peamutty Barks".
Developing those recipes created
some interesting times around the household, however. "My
own pets (now including a third dog, Mulligan) would be under
my feet the whole time I was baking the biscuits. I was constantly
tripping over them." Although the animals soon realized
the baked goods weren't for them, to this day, "when I'm
packing the biscuits and they hear the cellophane of the bags
being put through the sealer, they'll come sit by me in hopes
of getting any leftovers."
But the four legged household
members weren't the only ones to keep an eye on.
One of the first recipes Ms. MacLean worked on was peanut butter
treats. Being dog biscuits, of course, they didn't contain any
sugar. "The first time I tried them, I didn't make them
into a shape. I just made them up into balls and squashed them
with a fork like I do with peanut butter cookies and put them
out on the stove to cool down." Later that day, however,
"John complained that they tasted a little bland. So now
we tell people that we test recipes on John before we give them
to the dogs, because we don't want any adverse effects for the
dogs. As long as nothing happens to John, we figure they're OK
to try on dogs."
Although Ms. MacLean initially
tried to design her own business logo, "I quickly came to
realize that it wasn't going to be professional looking, so I
got some quotes from different graphic designers." She found
Image One Graphic Design, who produced a colourful and humorous
scenario of a biscuit being tossed to a dog. "That, to me,
was well worth paying someone for."
The efforts have paid off with
many types of customers. There are the regulars, for whom Ms.
MacLean's biscuits are the only ones their dogs will eat; casual
customers who will buy a bag for their dog as an "extra
special treat"; and people who purchase biscuits as a gift,
either for their own or somebody else's pet.
Although most regular customers
are located in the Ottawa Valley, she's also sent biscuits as
far away as British Columbia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, and
even Italy. "It's a novelty gift item that makes people
feel good," she says.
The biscuits are also sold at
fine food shops, pet stores, and veterinarians' offices, complete
with a humorous and informative menu.
"It's a cute little list
that is well done," praises Laurie of Pembroke, a regular
customer. As the owner of a four year old Miniature Schnauzer,
Ms. Rinn is happy that "Spencer" enjoys all the recipes,
particularly the Say Cheese Twists, but says she is also particularly
pleased that her dog is being fed nutritious, "all natural"
food without preservatives.
Sara encourages burgeoning entrepreneurs
"not to be afraid to try new things," adding, "I'm
so glad I made the change, broke out of my mould and tried something
new that I find fun. You spend so much time at work that I think
it's important to have some fun at what you do."
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