Andrew Colsky
Bakes Homemade K9 Pooch Treats Entrepreneur Turns His Love for Animals into a Successful Business
Minding My Business
Look to your left, look to your right. If you’re walking down a neighborhood street or in a park, you’re bound to see someone walking a dog. Dogs of all colors, shapes, breeds and sizes have captured the hearts of millions of owners. They seem to be more than just man’s best friend. They’re considered family members by many owners. So why not treat them special like any other member of the family. This was Andrew Colsky’s idea when he started K9 Cakery, a company that bakes homemade treats, including cakes and biscuits for dogs. After months of research with dozens of recipes, Colsky and his team developed a delicious line of products that look like people food but are made for a dog's digestive system. "One might say that he has baked up an entrepreneurial idea that is bringing in the dough." Armed with a unique idea and a keen business sense, Colsky has the appreciation of dog owners around the country. Colsky’s fourlegged clients are barking up a symphony of thanks, too. His pooch products are made from all natural products including, yogurt, carob and peanut butter and other delicious ingredients. “Even people can eat them; they’re just not as sweet," says Colsky. In addition to various baking mixes, he also creates fun-shaped baking pans. K9 Cakery offers a full line of dog bakery supplies for homemade dog treats, including birthday cakes and icing. His products are sold around the country by businesses that specialize in providing all-natural food products for dogs.
lover, the opportunity came along where I was looking into other things to do that were interesting, and I started to do research online to learn how internet businesses worked. I figured that the only way to do it is by setting up a store on the internet and learn by doing. I started by selling something everyone would want to buy, and I actually started out by selling cookies for people. It was about Christmastime and I thought if people want to buy cookies, maybe I’ll sell something for dogs too. I did a lot of research, set up a website and lo and behold, people started buying things from the website except they were buying the dog products, not the products for people.
Colsky shared with Exceptional People Magazine his passion for making products that appeal to his customers. Monica: What inspired you to go into the business of selling cakes and other treats for dogs? Andrew: I'm an attorney by trade and have practiced law for over twenty years. It’s an environment that’s very combative just by the nature of what it is. Being an animal September-October 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 37
Minding My Business
So I decided to research it further and started learning about dog bakeries and what’s happening in the dog industry in terms of the demand for natural products. I started from there with a small dog bakery selling baked goods online. I realized I had all these ingredients that are hard to find and thought people may want to purchase them, and sure enough everybody started buying just the ingredients rather than the finished product. So I expanded my research on the ingredients and found there was a major problem with people wanting to learn how to make a frosting for dog treats and cakes. No one seemed to have an answer to their questions. I found one product that dog bakeries were using. They said they used yogurt and carob. But when I did some research, I found that what they use is really sugar and fat with a little yogurt and carob powder and the icing would melt. Being the problem solver that I am, I had to find an answer to this problem. So I began learning all about healthy foods for dogs and experimenting with hundreds if not thousands of recipes. I finally figured out an all-natural yogurt frosting for dogs that dried hard and was healthy. Once we put that product on the market, it quickly won an industry award and that really took the business to a new level. Monica: How long did you conduct research to find just the right ingredients? Andrew: I started from scratch. I knew nothing about the business but when I start researching something, I go at it until I come up with answers. I’d say it took six to eight months before I finally came up with the final version that we sell now as our Fido’s Frosting products. There was a lot of learning in terms of different ingredients, what they do and how they work together, where you find natural ingredients and are they fine for dogs. There were a lot of questions that had to be answered and then lots of trial and error. Monica: Do you consider the business that you’re in a unique one. Are there many businesses or companies around that do what you do? Andrew: I had done a lot of research and reading, and as far as I know, there’s nobody else doing exactly what we do. We are a full service dog bakery supply company, which means we’ve got specialty shaped baking pans, specialty ingredients and mixes. Everything we do is designed to support anything from a single person who wants to bake a cake for the dog for its birthday to the commercial bakeries that sell treats in the retail stores and everything in between. An interesting thing that I noticed within the last few years is we’ve been in this economic slump and you’re watching people get foreclosed on their homes and you’re watching businesses close and all sorts of negative financial things happening. At the same time in a bad economy, I was watching dog bakeries open their second and third locations, new dog daycare facilities and spas. It clearly said to me that this is something people are interested in. They want to treat their pets right and they want to provide them with healthy alternatives. The bakeries were pretty much on their own before, and now we supply a lot of people with the products they need. People are buying better quality foods for themselves and because dogs are considered part of the family they are also providing them with quality food. They don’t want to treat their pets with food containing ingredients they can’t pronounce or don’t know what they are.
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Minding My Business
Monica: You’ve said the ingredients that you use in your pet food products are harmless to humans. What type of ingredients do you use? Andrew: We have a series of cake mixes made with whole wheat flour as the base, and they are also wheatfree and gluten free. We have different flavors for treat mixes, and we have the different frostings that can be used for the cakes and the treats. We have yogurt, carob, peanut butter and we offer different flavor options for the yogurt such as blueberry and banana. We offer champagne during New Years and eggnog during Christmastime. We have lots of different flavors, depending on the time of the year. We have so many clients who purchase the products and before they give them to their dogs, they taste it for themselves. I tell them that “If you were to go into your grocery store and buy a cake mix for humans and then you bought the cake mix for the dog, the one for the dog is so much healthier it’s unbelievable. If you read the ingredients on our products you’ll know what it is right away. They are not chemical based. They may not taste as good to humans because we use very low to no sugar in many cases. Our frosting, which dogs go crazy for the taste, is somewhat bitter to humans, even though it’s all human ingredients. It’s just designed for dogs. The primary goal is to use healthy and quality ingredients. Monica: What do you attribute to the success of your company? Andrew: We’ve been in business maybe a little over a year and a half. Like any business when you first open your doors you usually start off slow, but we probably started off a little faster than some other businesses. I believe it’s because we have products that people were looking for that didn’t exist before. So we were filling a demand in the marketplace where there was no competition. We work very hard to build a reputation of solid customer service and support. We don’t leave our customers hanging. There are many businesses today where after you buy something and as soon as they have your money, that’s it. There is no support and it’s very frustrating. We’re interested in building a long-term business and solid customer base, and we work very hard at it. You can rate all of our products on our website. We listen to our customers. Monica: How do you plan to continue to grow the company? Andrew: We have a lot of new items in the works, and we’re trying to do it in a reasonable, manageable way. We have products that are designed to come out by the end of the year that are going to be more for the retail marketplace, so that the pet shops and smaller stores, boutiques and gift shops can carry our products. We’re also continuing to develop unique solutions to some of the issues that dog bakeries experience. Our short-term goal is building our products for the retail marketplace as well as expanding our product line for customers. Once we have that down, then we will probably expand into providing treats for different animals as well. Monica: Would you recommend that the dog owner actually read the list of ingredients? Andrew: I always tell people to read the ingredients not only for your dog but for yourself. It’s important to know what you’re putting into your body.
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Minding My Business
Monica: Do you plan to continue your profession as an attorney or do you plan to run the business full time? Andrew: The business is where I’m headed and like anyone who has started a business will tell you, you must be able to pay your bills and fund your needs. There’s a transition period that you go through. The business is growing quite nicely. We’re selling to many different countries around the world. You’re going to reach a certain critical mass where you have no choice but to be doing business full time just to keep up. Monica: You have certainly built a successful business
and it can only continue to grow because there are so many people who are looking for natural and delicious products for their pets. Andrew: We’re really trying to service our customers and our market. It’s a lot of risk on our part to manufacture new things from scratch because there’s a lot of cost involved, but it's something that there really appears to be a desire for, and no one has been able to fill that market yet. Our goal is to provide those services to that market. It’s exciting to watch the business grow; it’s exciting to open up new markets that weren’t serviced before. With all the people in the industry and customers that I deal with, it’s very different than what you find in the legal practice. All the people you’re working with in the dog industry are happy. They want to work 40 | Exceptional People Magazine | September-October 2011
with you and they’re excited about doing things. In the law business, it’s pretty much the opposite. So it’s nice to come home and sort of want to wag your own tail. Monica: That’s a great way to put. I wish you much success.