285: From Finances to Felines with Wendy Thomson

How do you manage your finances? Wendy Thomson, owner of My Three Cats, spent over 20 years as an accountant. She credits her background with her ability to get her business off the ground quickly during Covid. She joins the show today to share her experience of growing quickly, why we need to understand our finances, and why she decided to start a cat only business. She also shares what she looks for in a good hire for business.

Topics on this episode:

• Why finances are important
• Understanding your income
• Why go cat only?
• Hiring strong team members

Main take away? Pursue areas where you have experience in, so you could be more confident in your ability.

About our guest:

Wendy has lived with cats since childhood and has never been without one or more in her family. At age 13 she volunteered for the Cats Protection in Warrington where she cleaned out pens and helped to feed abandoned kittens. She adopted two cats of her own - Clarence and Alabama - in 1996 and has since owned cats of every temperament and age, from tiny kittens to old ladies, and loved each one with the same passion and care.

During one particular two-week holiday she put her cats in a local cattery. In those pre-mobile/pre-internet days Wendy had no contact with the cattery during this time and spent much of her holiday worrying about them and missing them. The cattery was lovely and cared well for them, but on her return her cats were thin, anxious and timid due to the stress of being away from home. They hadn't eaten very much and had been withdrawn during their stay.

Once home it took them several days to trust Wendy enough to settle back into their routine. She couldn't bear to move them out of their home again and from then on relied on friends and family to feed the cats at home when she went away.

Wendy began cat-sitting in 2016 and her service soon became incredibly popular. Each new client said that their cats were so much happier staying at home, and less stressed and anxious when they went away. Wendy's friendly, caring nature and her life-long passion for cats continued to attract cat-owners following recommendations from others and the business grew from strength to strength.

By 2019 Wendy was at full capacity and still the bookings were coming in. Determined to look after as many cats as possible she decided to recruit a small team to help offer cat-sitting services to a larger area.

Wendy now works with her amazing team to care for cats across the whole of Warrington. All team members have been carefully chosen and are all cat-owners themselves, fully insured and vetted, with an abundance of feline experience.

She is passionate about both the physical and emotional care of all cats and understands their need for routine and independence. My Three Cats has an exceptional 5 Star record and all the feedback they receive tells them that the cats they care for are much happier staying at home when their owners are away. Owners return to find their cats calm, relaxed and happy (They often wonder if they've even missed them!)

Wendy lives with her partner and children in Thelwall, with their cats Coco, Billie, Ronnie & Reggie.

Links:
hello@mythreecats.co.uk

Website: www.mythreecats.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/MyThreeCatsWarrington

Instagram: www.instagram.com/mythreecatswarrington/

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Full show notes and transcript

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