Cameron McEntire of Woofie’s On 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business
Have Fun! Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously — Not everyone gets to work with family — this is a huge blessing! Don’t let the day to day stressors keep you from remembering that. Be thankful you have a family willing to work with you and have fun. You want to look back in 50 years on this time as joyful and fun, so make sure to make that a priority! We like to set a goal and celebrate each milestone with a nice bottle of wine and delicious dinner 😊
As a part of our series about 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cameron McEntire.
Cameron McEntire proudly co-owns Woofie’s of SE Greenville with her husband Eric. Her journey began with her dog Finn and wanting to find grooming solutions for him while working a full time job. Looking for a new challenge, Cameron and Eric began their Woofie’s journey. Originally from Williamsburg, VA Cameron is a University of South Carolina graduate where she studied Hospitality Management.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Both my husband and I were looking for a change in our careers. We both looked individually for years, but nothing worked out or felt right. Finally, we decided to look at different opportunities to start/own our own business and that’s when we found Woofies. We fell in love with the idea of a franchise, adored the people we met at Woofie’s and eventually decided to take the leap!
Can you tell us a bit about your family business and your role in it?
My husband, Eric, my father (also, Eric) and myself own Woofie’s together. We all play a different role that allows us to have our own lanes & divide and conquer tasks that need to be done. My husband does still work a full time job as a pharmacist, so his role is bigger picture items — payroll/ taking care of issues with the van/ insurance/ etc. I take care of the day to day — hiring/ training/ managing staff, etc. And my dad is a part time dog walker & business mentor 😊
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
When we initially started Woofie’s Greenville, the plan was to have Eric handle the bulk of the operations and for me to help with social media and other tasks that came up. However, about 6 months in he had a career opportunity open up to him that he couldn’t turn down. So in the matter of days I was running Woofies and taking over all daily responsibilities. It was not the plan, but has been extremely rewarding.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I think the biggest lesson we have learned is to trust your gut, and know it’s ok to say no. Whether that be clients, staff, events, etc. It is easy to say yes to everything when starting out — but there were hiring decisions we both felt weren’t the best fit, but hired anyway. There have been clients we knew weren’t a good fit, but scheduled anyway, events we said yes to that didn’t align with our vision, but went anyway…. And all of those things proved to be a headache and a half. Listen to your gut, allow things to build slowly if you need to.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
With Woofie’s Greenville specifically, we as the owners are the foot soldiers for the company right now. We take every call, send every email, meet every client at consults, walk dogs, pet sit, etc. so our clients know us and know they can reach us when needed. We are building trust with each client and hoping they will be with us for the long run.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We just got our 2nd van and are focusing on filling that schedule up right now. Excited that we have expanded our fleet! Hoping we can use a van at more events this summer
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are
grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
The wonderful thing about a franchise, is there are multiple people going through the exact same thing you are, or are a couple of steps ahead of you and have been through it. We have formed friendships with other owners and rely on them for advice or to be a sounding board. I have loved having a group chat with a few of the other women to lean on for support, and to be there for them as well.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
People’s pets are their family. I think by loving on their furry babies while they are away, knowing they are in good hands is a gift. Our staff is passionate about their jobs, and they create relationships with our clients on their own and it has become a beautiful community.
Ok thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main parts of our interview. How do you define a family business? How is a family business different from a regular business?
I define a family business as a business where 2 or more members of a family are working together towards a main goal.
A family business can be husband + wife, parent + child, siblings, etc. While there are employees that are not in the family working for the business, the nucleus of the business is family members.
Regular business can still have partnerships, but it is missing the family aspect.
In your opinion or experience, what are the unique advantages that family owned businesses have?
I think the biggest advantage in having a family owned and run business, is the people closest to you understand what is going on in your life and there isnt much need for explanation. I think if I was running Woofie’s by myself and Eric had never been involved it could be easy for him to build up resentment with the amount of time it takes away from our family. But because he is on my team, and we are working towards the same goal there is an understanding that somethings take precedence right now. Because my dad is also involved, I lean heavily on both of my parents for extra support — whether that be child care or picking up a dog walk.
What are the unique drawbacks or blindspots that family owned businesses have?
Learning how to separate business time and family time. Prioritizing time away from Woofie’s where we can solely focus on our kids or marriage.
We had to learn how to stay in our own lanes, and how to communicate when we needed to talk about the others’ responsibilities. It is a definite learning curve, and one that has to be met and handled sensitively and respectfully.
What are some of the common mistakes you have seen family businesses make? What would you recommend to avoid those errors?
Prioritizing work over family. At the end of the day, this could all be gone tomorrow and if that does happen, you need to make sure the people who you want around you in the bad times will still be there. Make them matter more than work.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders of family businesses to help their employees to thrive?
Take care of them. Listen to them. Create a plan for them within your company so they feel valued. Without good, hardworking employees your business cannot run efficiently.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean with a story or example?
I find the best leaders are the ones who are willing to get in the trenches with you. Leadership is showing your team you are not better than any of the work you ask of them. Tell them they are valuable, but show them even more.
What are the “5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business”?
- The foundation of your family needs to be strong from the start — Building/owning/running a business will not fix underlying issues or fractures — it will bring them to the service. Be sure you are willing to have hard and uncomfortable conversations and that your relationships are strong enough to withstand those.
- Define Your Responsibilities & Stay Within Your Lane — When we find ourselves not thriving as a team, it is typically because someone has overstepped. It is important to define roles and responsibilities and to stick to the tasks that are yours. Inserting yourself in someone else’s duties can come across disrespectful or a lack of confidence in their ability
- Build a Strong Team — At the end of the day, you can only do so much. Get comfortable growing your team and delegating. Your team will thrive, and your relationships will thrive when you are able to focus on other things. We tried to juggle everything ourselves for the sake of the bottom line, but at the end of the day — we want this to be a sustainable business, and in order for that to happen, we have to welcome help.
- Common Goals — I think it was important for us to have the same goals in mind, name them, and work towards them together. At the end of the day, everyone will bring something different to the table, so if you can ensure everyone is using their strengths to reach the same goal, everyone will feel the success when you reach them
- Have Fun! Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously — Not everyone gets to work with family — this is a huge blessing! Don’t let the day to day stressors keep you from remembering that. Be thankful you have a family willing to work with you and have fun. You want to look back in 50 years on this time as joyful and fun, so make sure to make that a priority! We like to set a goal and celebrate each milestone with a nice bottle of wine and delicious dinner 😊
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
Taylor Swift — the girl is a business genius
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Spreading the love of Jesus.
There is nothing in the world that can make anyone feel better or more loved than that.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Follow us on instagram at @woofiessegreenville or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WoofiesSEGreenville.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
