Meet Robert Nager of Decadent Dog in Needham, MA
"After 14 years of corporate sales and business development, the time had come for me to make a serious change. I had traveled nationally, working with senior executives from leading organizations like Disney and Target. At first, the travel and expense accounts were fun. However, the glamour quickly vanished and left me with feelings of stress and doom in anticipation of going to work the next day. In the last few years of my career, I had been working for start-up technology companies which was exciting - but risky. I had endured layoffs and got news of yet another one in April, 2002.
"I made the decision to take the summer off so I could walk dogs - a job that had always fascinated me. I made a list of potential names for this new enterprise, selected my favorite name, and printed out price sheets and business cards. Soon my days were filled with dog hair, mud and more love and affection from my canine clients than I knew what to do with. By August there was no room in my schedule for new clients and I realized that it would be impossible to tell all of these families who trusted me that it was time to 'go back to work.' A good friend quickly pointed out that what I was doing was, in fact, a real job. I decided to see where it led me.
"That was almost 6 years ago and Decadent Dog has since assembled a staff of 15 - one of the most respected and admired in the area. Our hard work and focus on client needs has brought us an enormous amount of referral business. Best of all, we have a blast every single day! Yet no organization is perfect and that’s where I really appreciate my prior corporate training; being able to respond quickly and completely when problems arise has helped us earn the trust and loyalty that every pet-care company so desperately needs to survive.
"Benefits? For me they are quite clear. What other job would I work harder than I ever have while feeling like I haven’t worked for more than ten minutes in six years? I still cannot believe that people actually pay me to hang out with their dogs all day! (Shouldn’t it be the other way around?) Each night I get excited thinking about going to work the next day. This is the perfect career for me."
