On The Fourth Day Of Business: The solo businessman behind a growing Newcastle startup

The fourth day of Bdaily’s 12 Days of Business feature is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than with our very own (entrepreneurial) calling bird?

Granted, we were a little stumped with this one. Should we speak to an influencer? A solo businessperson with a mission behind them to propel their startup or side hustle into the future?

Well, we liked the idea of speaking to an entrepreneur behind a rather small business who has just set up his/her own company in 2019, slowly but eagerly building up their customers, one chirp at a time.

All of the content you see, the ideas behind the brand, reaching out to potential customers… All down to a single person, a one-man-band.

With this in mind, we got chatting to 27-year-old Dale Parker, owner of incredibly adorable dog Buddy - who sparked the idea of his dog shampoo business Buddy Bubbles. Dale runs this all himself on top of his full-time job; read our chat below.

Can you give us an introduction on who you are and what your company does?

“My name is Dale Parker, I am the owner of Buddy Bubbles, [which] is on a mission to impact pets, people and the planet positively. We want to do this by creating a fun-loving brand that crafts eco-friendly dog soaps and grooming products.”

What has been your biggest achievement of 2019?

“Becoming a dad in February has to be at the top of the list, it’s been the most wonderful year and one that I will look back on with very fond memories.

“Apart from welcoming baby bubbles into the world, I also launched my business in January. Over the year I have gone through the many ups and downs of starting a business, I am pleased to say I have ended the year on a massive high.

“I took a few months out to reformulate the recipe and recently came back for the 12 days of Buddy Bubbles at the beginning of December.

“I am happy to say we have had the busiest period of the company’s history. We have seen a massive surge of new customers coming in as well as increasing our average basket size by more than 50 per cent.”

If you could go back to the start of 2019 and tell yourself what you know now about your business, what would you say?

“Take your time and be patient with the process.

“I think it’s so easy to try and grow rapidly in this day and age, to rush and try and get everything done as quickly as possible. I’ve learnt I need to work a lot more smartly, take my time with certain tasks and remember that life is long.

“We now live in a fast-paced world where you can order something online and it gets there the next day; you can swipe right and instantly get a date on your phone… It’s easy to get caught into this trap with your business.

“You want to get everything done as quickly as possible, I’d tell myself it’s better to take your time with certain tasks and to slow it down a few gears.

“You have a new baby, a full-time job as well as your business and everything in between… Don’t be so hard on yourself and remember to enjoy the journey.”

What are your company’s plans for the new year (and decade) ahead?

“After the Christmas break, we will be back up and running with our brand new website.

“We will be planning to increase our customer base, develop more products for the range whilst making sure we have as many laughs as possible along the way.

“We always make our social media as fun as possible, you can watch our #dailypaw episodes on Instagram everyday.

“In the next 10 years, our aim is to become the Lush of the dog world. We want to create an eco-friendly dog grooming movement that will reduce plastic waste, produce amazing pet skin care products and spread a little bit of bubbalicious positivity along the way.

“It’s exciting to see what we’ve achieved in one year, I cannot wait to see what we achieve in 10!”

How are you going to celebrate Christmas this year?

“It is our first Christmas with baby bubbles. The family is already on a high as we all cannot wait to watch her open up her first presents.

“The thing I’m most looking forward to is watching family members’ expensive gifts be put to one side in favour of playing with the box. The perfect end to a rollercoaster 2019, bring on 2020!”

Follow this series on @Bdaily’s Twitter via #12DaysOfBusiness.