{"id":997,"date":"2021-06-28T11:20:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T10:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.recruitireland.com\/advice-centre\/?p=997"},"modified":"2023-04-14T17:36:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T16:36:26","slug":"a-business-idea-was-born-when-two-friends-were-walking-their-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recruitireland.com\/advice-centre\/a-business-idea-was-born-when-two-friends-were-walking-their-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"A business idea was born when two friends were walking their dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"article_body\">\n<div class=\"article_bodycopy\">\n<p class=\"no_name\">Many people took the opportunity the pandemic presented to get a dog. Working from home made it possible for many who had wanted one for years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">It\u2019s a feeling businesswoman Portia Quinn can relate to, or at least her kids can.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">The former Hong Kong-based financial journalist moved to London to set up a nanny agency, before returning to Dublin in 2012 to raise her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">Almost as soon as her kids could talk, they howled for a dog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">\u201cI have four girls and they asked me for a dog every single day for years. They had dog books and drew up a dog league table, with points for friendliness, barkiness. They really, really wanted a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">Eventually, she relented, and got a golden retriever, or rather \u201ca 10-week-old bundle of fluff\u201d. The kids were ecstatic, though it was hard to tell. \u201cThe girls took one look at him and started screaming and crying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">They called him Marley and, as it happened, one of Quinn\u2019s friends, Robin Thompson, had one called Harley, an older dog with joint issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">The friends were talking about how the right dog food might help while out walking their dogs up Killiney Hill one day and, that was it, a new business idea was whelped.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">Following extensive research with both\u00a0Teagasc\u00a0and\u00a0Bord Iascaigh Mhara, they developed a premium sustainable dog food range \u2013 Harley &amp; Marley Planet Loving Pets \u2013 based on fish and designed for optimum canine health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">Quinn enrolled in a Start Your Own Business programme at her Local Enterprise Office just as the first lockdown was announced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">\u201cThe biggest challenge starting the business was having children, from 12 to five, home-schooled around me and trying to manage their Zoom calls without having enough devices to go around, plus a youngest who just wasn\u2019t interested in all the wonderful programmes\u00a0RT\u00c9\u00a0was putting on for kids,\u201d says Quinn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">\u201cI put a little table beside the kitchen table so she could do her \u2018work\u2019 beside me. That lasted until 10.45am and that was it, her attention span finished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">Despite the distractions, the juggling and the learning, she didn\u2019t just get one premium dog food brand successfully launched during Covid, she won an order for a second, Dogs Love Fish, from\u00a0Aldi\u00a0too. So now what?<\/p>\n<p class=\"no_name\">\u201cI\u2019ve amazingly supportive friends who encouraged me throughout the past year. Soon as I make some money I\u2019m taking them on holiday\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"row\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018The biggest challenge starting the business was having children&#8230;home-schooled around me and trying to manage their Zoom calls without enough devices\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":4108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-future-of-work-2021","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A business idea was born when two friends were walking their dogs - RecruitIreland.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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