From redundancy to her own boss

Stop the car!

Shirley's love of animals goes back as far as she can remember. She still laughs about the day she made her father-in-law pull over after he'd accidentally hit a bird. "I took it home and nursed it back to health," she says. "Watching it fly off happy and healthy again was such a lovely feeling."

That instinct to care for animals never left her , but life, as it tends to, had other plans first.

When her daughter was born in 1985, Shirley's days filled up quickly, as they do for any new parent. She earned a little on the side walking a local lady's dog, but bills and responsibilities meant she needed something more reliable. "I never imagined I could start a dog walking business," she admits. "And even if I had, where would I even begin? There's so much to learn, so much to think about."

A dream put on hold

The idea of working for herself wasn't new to Shirley - she'd grown up around it. Her father had always been self-employed, starting out as a painter and decorator, moving into wedding photography, and then, around 1995, launching his own dog walking business.

"I envied the life it gave him," she recalls. "He spent his days with all sorts of lovely dogs, he was genuinely happy, and he had plenty of time for family. But for me, it always felt like a dream I couldn't chase. Where would I start?"

The turning point

By 2017, Shirley could see that redundancy was becoming a real possibility at the company where she'd worked for 17 years. Rather than dread it, she began to see an opportunity. When the offer of voluntary redundancy finally came in July 2018, she took it - and decided it was time to do what she'd always wanted: be her own boss, looking after animals.

Naturally, the usual worries came flooding in. How would she find customers? Promote herself? Recruit staff? What licences would she need? How many dogs could she safely walk at once? And how on earth would she build a website?

"Google was useful for the answers," she says, "but there was just so much to learn. That's when I found We Love Pets. Their website was full of genuinely helpful information, and it didn't take me long to look into their franchises."

"I get to be just like my Dad!"

For Shirley, the franchise was the missing piece. "I get to live the life my dad had - content, happy, self-employed, but without the fear of failing on my own, because I've got an award-winning company behind me, supporting me and cheering me on. They want me to succeed as much as I do. I honestly can't wait to get started."