Press Releases
A Case for Entrepreneurship Over Employment
DoodyCalls Helps Class of 2011 Get a Leg Up on Starting Their First Business
April, 2011—For many students graduating this spring, the occasion will mark a parting of ways with the halls of academia and an entrance into a new reality. What graduates will have the most of is knowledge, enthusiasm, flexibility and time. What they will have the least of are job prospects. If there were ever time to break away from the pack and start a business of their own – it's now.
To new college graduates, starting a business may seem like a path reserved for their parents. In reality, it's not as difficult as one might think.
"New grad or not – nearly every first-time business owner finds the idea intimidating at first," says Jacob D'Aniello, the University of Virginia graduate who started his now wildly successful company, DoodyCalls, just one year after leaving school, "but it doesn't always have to be."
Although there is no perfect recipe for successfully starting up a business, there are certainly key ingredients. A look into the latest reports by the International Franchising Association (IFA) suggests the franchising industry is getting the formula right. According to the IFA, franchise businesses are said to be poised for strong growth in 2011 and are likely to expand at their fastest rate since 2007.
"The beauty of a franchised business is that you don't have to start from scratch," D'Aniello says. "Instead, you get an already developed business concept, support system and brand – you get a serious head start."
One of the lower-cost franchise opportunities on the market today, the price to open up a DoodyCalls unit ranges from $32,230 to $59,420. Starting this year, the company is making it even easier for entrepreneurial hopefuls to get their foot in the door of the $48 billion dollar pets-services industry by reimbursing every new franchise owner with $12,500 to put towards marketing their new start-up.
Headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, DoodyCalls has positioned itself as an entry-level business specifically geared toward first time-time entrepreneurs. The company, which was founded in 2000 and began franchising in 2004, now totes 36 franchises and 58 locations nationwide.
DoodyCalls specializes in picking up where pets "drop off" – and business is booming. By recent measures, there are now over 77 million dogs and 93 million cats owned as pets in the United States. Moreover, nearly 62% of all US households today own a pet. This means 62% of the entire population is doing something they don't want to do. "When nature calls, we answer," the company says proudly.
To get past the less-than-glamorous subject matter and build DoodyCalls into the nationally recognized pet services brand it is today, the company has mastered the art of whimsical marketing supported by serious public relations. They have twice been named to Entrepreneur Magazine's esteemed Franchise 500 list and have received attention by hundreds of other news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Associated Press, Forbes Magazine and a long list of others.
On the subject of getting started in pet waste removal, D'Aniello says, "I never thought it was gross. I never thought it was not gross. I simply saw a spreadsheet, and when you look at the spreadsheet, the numbers work."
MEDIA CONTACT
Marc Samson
DoodyCalls, Director of PR
434-422-9181 (direct)
msamson@doodycalls.com
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