101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers (Paperback)

by Joseph Nigro (Author), Nicholas Nigro (Author)
Key Phrases: pet care trade, pet masseuse, doggie summer camps, Start This Kind of Business, Pet Nosh, Brick-and-Mortar Pet Retailing (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers furnishes readers with a comprehensive roster of the finest and most unusual entrepreneurial, career, and moneymaking opportunities in today's colorful pet care trade. The authors provide current and prospective entrepreneurs with user-friendly and tested counsel on starting and succeeding in each one of the businesses presented.

With a wealth of resources it provides invaluable information on initiating and prospering in these endeavors:
-Pet photography service
-Doggie daycare
-Dog fashions designer
-Cat furniture manufacturer
-Gourmet treat maker
-Dog walking
-Pupperware parties
-Pet grooming
-Pet party organizer
-Dog training
-Pet-specialty arts and crafts
-Pet affiliate website
-Vet technician
-Importing/Exporting pet products
-Catnip farmer
-Pet grief counselor
-Aquarium maintenance
-Breeders (fish, small animals, birds, reptiles, etc.)
-Pet shop (live animals: birds, tropical fish, etc.)
-And many, many more

Appendices offer concise information on key business start-up issues, fundamental business planning tips, and numerous selling and promotional resources.

About the Author
Joseph Nigro: Joe's singular success story unfurled under the vast umbrella of the pet care industry. In 1979, at the age of only 19, he, along with partner Rich Covello, purchased a mom-and-pop pet food and supply store. Located in the New York City borough of Queens, it was aptly named Pet Nosh. At the time, the author was a Fordham University student. His initial career plan, if you could call it that, was to "make a living" out of that one store. ;In less than three years time, however, Pet Nosh had leased a warehouse and was operating as both a retailer and wholesaler of pet products, keeping pace with the rapidly changing marketplace of the early 1980s. A second Pet Nosh store opened its doors in Yonkers, New York in 1982. This location is widely credited with hosting the first-of-its-kind "Have Your Pet's Picture Taken with Santa Claus," the brainchild of both Joe and his partner. ;Approached by the Petco Company in 1996, Joe and his partners agreed to sell their Pet Nosh stores to the retail behemoth for $19.1 million. Pet Nosh's final year's sales were $26 million (and projected to surpass $32 million during the year of the acquisition). The deal was officially announced in the spring of 1996. ;As an independent businessperson in the pet care trade for 17 years, Joe experienced life on both the retail and wholesale frontlines. His work brought him into close contact with groomers, dog trainers, breeders, humane society employees, veterinarians, et al-the denizens of the trade-as the business of pets transformed itself from a sluggish non-entity into an unstoppable juggernaut. ; Immediately upon the sale of Pet Nosh, the author was hired as a consultant for Petco, specializing in merchandising. His experience in evaluating new pet products-from foods to accessory items-and properly marketing them to maximize their sales. ;Finding himself semi-retired at the age of 36, Joe is now a small business consultant and personal coach specializing in retailing. He has done consulting work in the pet care trade for such giants as the aforementioned Petco, as well as independent, smaller pet-related businesses (retail pet food and supply stores), specializing, again, in evaluating pet products and properly merchandising them to maximize sales. ;As a personal coach, the author has advised individuals (salespersons, distributors, and marketers) for such well-known companies as Iams and Nestle. Joe has also dispensed counsel to men and women interested in starting a variety of businesses, including a "pet gymnasium" and the importation of pet products from China. ;Joe (with Nicholas Nigro) is the author of The Everything Success Book (Adams Media/F+W, 2003).;;Nicholas Nigro: Nicholas Nigro is a veteran of the pet care business. Wearing a variety of hats in the trade, he labored in every imaginable capacity through all 17 years of independent retail chain Pet Nosh's existence. He actively participated in conceiving innovative store promotions, as the pet owner fast evolved into the pet parent. ;One highly successful store promotion featured a customer contest. It was headlined: "What's In a Name? A Pet's Name?" It asked patrons to submit brief essays on how their pets got their names. (Why was that dog named "Jif," after a brand of peanut? How'd that parakeet come to be named "Don Ho," after a Polynesian songster?) In fact, the contest generated so much interest and enthusiasm that it spawned an independently published book entitled, A Cat Named Rush Limbaugh, A Dog Named Howard Stern. This short work of pet names and the stories behind them was the brainchild of the author, but credited to the fictitious, cartoonish pseudonym of "Francis Pfaff." Nevertheless, the trailblazing title was reviewed in the November 1997 issue of Cat Fancy magazine, which said: "This book is not only entertaining, it also provides inspiration to the pet owner who is searching for the perfect pet name." (At the time, there were no competing books dealing with this whimsical subject matter. Today there are several titles devoted to pet names and their histories.) ;After Pet Nosh sold its network of stores to the Petco chain, Nick joined the eBay revolution in its infancy, selling myriad collectibles in cyberspace. This led to his authoring The Everything Collectibles Book (Adams Media/F+W, 2002). ;With a B.S. in Business Administration from Manhattan College, and membership in the New York chapter of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the Honor Society in Economics, Nick subsequently authored The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book (Adams Media/F+W, 2002). Finally, Nick is the co-author, with brother Joe, of The Everything Success Book (Adams Media/F+W, 2003).;

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sphinx Publishing; 1 edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572486341
• ISBN-13: 978-1572486348
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #393,164 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Businesses for pet lovers, April 10, 2008

By	Julie Corsi "IL bookworm" (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers What You Need to Know about Starting and Succeeding in a Pet Business of Your Own is a great reference for anyone who loves pets and is thinking about turning that qualification into a means for making money.

The money spent on pets has more than doubled since 1994, creating a multi-billion-dollar industry that is even more lucrative than the human toy industry. 101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers lists a wide variety of moneymaking opportunities from something as simple as dog walking, to careers which require education and training such as pet grooming and pet masseuse.

Authors Joseph Nigro and Nicholas Nigro are well qualified to write about this subject. Joseph began his entrepreneurial career with pet shops which he was eventually able to sell to the Petco Company in 1996 for $19.1 million.

101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers interested me on a personal level because I am one of those people who turned my love of animals into a business - Internet Pet Supplies - Internet Pet Supplies has been selling pet treats and pet supplies on the Internet since 1998. [...]
I would recommend this book, it is well researched, well written, and offers some very imaginative ways of making money.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Businesses for Pet Lovers, September 22, 2007

By	Tammy Leber "T. Cheek" (Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Good book for those looking for an animal-related career, lists lots of possibilities. Seems to come from reliable source considering author owned the pet store that became PetCo.

3.0 out of 5 stars Eh, March 25, 2009

By	Coco (Matawan, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

Not what I expected. A bit too simplified and it seemed as if the authors were attempting to include too many topics regarding owning a business all in one shot here.