The Dogsmopolitan Story
Our IDEA✨
It all started on our vacation in 2013. Stressed from our jobs, we sat on the beach in Domburg, watched the many dogs and said to ourselves: Somehow we're missing a dog shop here.
We then sketched out the first rough business plan in the beach cabin and since Domburg has always been our favorite place, we said to ourselves in the best "Goodbye Germany" manner:
We are starting a company and emigrating 😜
A wild ride
This was followed by intensive competition research in Germany and the Netherlands. This included counting dogs on the streets of Domburg, keeping a tally of people coming out of a shop with a shopping bag, making phone calls to hotels to find out how many nights were booked with a dog, surveys, calculations, etc. and completing the business plan.
And during our research, a shop in Domburg became available ... And no matter who we talked to about our idea, everyone thought we were crazy and nobody (including banks) believed in our concept.
And yet we said to ourselves:
WE ARE DOING IT NOW!
BUT THEN THE SHOP WAS GONE🤦♀️
And now?
The idea and the concept were there. The business plan was ready. But there was simply no shop available in Domburg.
So time passed and we continued working in our jobs. But still completely convinced of our idea, we said to ourselves: This can't go on like this! We scraped together every euro, Viola quit her job and we opened our first store in Germany.
Opening Dogsmopolitan
We opened Dogsmopolitan in our hometown of Krefeld on an incredible 40 square meters.
And: We were completely overwhelmed by the feedback from our customers and the press also thought our concept was great.
Word of our store concept quickly spread in the dog community. The idea of opening a second store quickly came up. And when our customers from Düsseldorf kept giving us feedback that Düsseldorf was missing a Dogsmopolitan, we took the plunge and opened our second Dogsmopolitan.
Dogsmopolitan Düsseldorf
Wow! We now had twice the space available in our new Dogsmopolitan concept store in what is probably the most beautiful part of Düsseldorf, Oberkassel. And here too, our concept was well received and the press, including television, thought it was great too.
Call from Holland🇳🇱
The estate agent from Domburg called and told us that a shop was becoming available. But we would have to come tomorrow or the shop would be gone straight away.
We left on Friday, looked at the shop on Saturday, racked our brains on Sunday and then said yes on Monday.
Chaos 💥😵💫
From now on, there was complete chaos and sleepless nights. Where would the money come from for a new shop? How would we set up the shop? What goods should we order?
Organization, new cash register system, Dutch law and peculiarities. Where do we live? Language barrier and learning Dutch. To do this, we had to separate ourselves from the first store in Krefeld and clear it out and close it at the same time.
Opening of Domburg
Crazy! Our idea on the beach became reality. On July 1st we opened Dogsmopolitan in Domburg.
We simply opened the door, without advertising etc. We were only there once 🐶 No employees and open 7 days a week.
But we were rewarded for our courage. Dogsmopolitan has now become the first port of call for many people on a Zeeland holiday with their dog 💕 and we have gained the most wonderful employees you can imagine.
In 2023, we even expanded and made a breakthrough to the neighboring shop.
We are already looking forward to your visit in Düsseldorf or Domburg.
