The Paid Leave Podcast

The Owners of a Dog Treat Company Talk Small Business and How Paid Leave Helps.

• The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority • Season 3 • Episode 22

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Pets are like family. The dog treat business had a good year in 2024.  The market value exceeded expectations, reaching $8.3 million. The trend is set to continue, with the market projected to reach a whopping $14.2 million by 2034.

Laurie Surprenant and Amy Kenkel are the co-owners of the dog bakery company, Leaps and Bones. They talk about the struggles starting the business in their home, and the hardships and rewards of owning their own business. They have built a family culture in their business with most employees being there at least for 5 years and some have been there since the beginning. They are such big supporters of CT Paid Leave because they want their employees, who are like family, to have real benefits. They have had employees use the CT Paid Leave program and realize the benefits it gives to small businesses and their workers.

To get in touch with Leaps and Bones you can call 860-212-2305, or to find out more please go to: 
All Natural Dog Bakery/Dog Cake Bakery (leapsandbones.com)

To apply for benefits or more, please go to: CT Paid Leave


https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US



https://www.facebook.com/CTPaidLeave



https://www.instagram.com/ctpaidleave/



https://twitter.com/CTPaidLeave



https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ct+paid+leave

Nancy Barrow:

Hello, Connecticut and welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. The title basically says it all. I'm Nancy Barrow and I will be delving into this new state program and how it can help you and your family. This podcast will give you information you should know about Connecticut Paid Leave, and maybe just a little bit more. Connecticut Paid Leave brings peace of mind to your home, family and workplace. Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. July has many pet observances and here are two of them. July 5 is national pet Remembrance Day and July 31 is national Mutt Day. And in addition to that, July is National Lost Pet Prevention Month. And this all leads us to our two guests, Laurie Suprenant and Amy Kenkel from Leaps and Bones the Dog Barkery. Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast Laurie and Amy.

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah, thank you.

Nancy Barrow:

Walk me through your business partnership. How did how did that start? And and how did you figure out what you wanted to do?

Laurie Suprenant:

So we're married. And in a way, we were both corporate people. And I loved my job. I was working in manufacturing and in a position for a local company that ultimately got, went nationwide. And Amy called me up one day and I'm gonna let her finish the story and said, I quit my job. And we said, okay, because we always had said we were going to be able to survive on one income. And ultimately, what ended up happening was, she can finish the story, but she was baking biscuits for people in the neighborhood. And she looked at me and said, I want to start a Dog Biscuit Company.

Nancy Barrow:

Like did you just, did you tell her you were gonna quit? Or did you do it and then tell her?

Amy Kenkel:

No, no. I just said I'm done!

Nancy Barrow:

Really? Wow, I applaud you for that.

Amy Kenkel:

So on the ride home I did. I said I'm just I'm I'm over it. And I'm, I think I'm done with corporate I'm done with the policies, I'm done with the politics. I just, I'm I'm ready to do something different, and go in a different direction that's going to make ultimately me happy and, you know, bring the environment happier at the end of the day.

Nancy Barrow:

Do hear everybody's going, oh, man, I wish I could do that!

Laurie Suprenant:

Well, I don't know if I'd recommend it all the time! We were in a position where we could financially do that. So the next steps were okay, you're baking biscuits for everybody in the neighborhood. I need to put together a business plan because how are we really going to sell biscuits because you can't just who's going to come on mine? You have to at the time, SEOs were so critical. It was It wasn't as a continuous scroll. It was it was page number and things like that. So my background was in marketing and management. So in a week, we created the business plan, went to a local bank, and said, this is what we want to do. They said great, got us an SBA loan. We actually went down to Evergreen Walk on a weekend we were like, let's just look at spots. And the security guard there, the head maintenance guy happened to say, we have a space open, you want to go see it. Opened it up. Within a week we had a signed lease, a temporary lease. We weren't permanent there until seven years ago. And ultimately great everything's going well. We're going to open, you know, in in October, and then the recession happened. And the SBA pulled the loan.

Nancy Barrow:

That's 2008?

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah, we had already signed the law. We had already signed all the paperwork. We couldn't get out of it, at least for a year. So we took everything we had in savings and said we're going to do this. And that's how the company started.

Nancy Barrow:

Did you hire other people? Or was it just you two with the?

Amy Kenkel:

Oh no, it was the it was us? It was just us. Yeah, and lots of family members and neighbors. Hey, you remember all this cookies we've made last three years? Get over here!

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah, a one deck electric pizza oven put in our sunroom, and my parents would come over after work. I would get home from work and bake or go work at the store so me could come home and bake. It wasn't until about a year in that we hired our first employee so it was all friends and family. I remember one friend being there. 3am sitting on the couch going Are we done yet? Just you know because we were literally one traying it and it was it was

Nancy Barrow:

And you only had one type of biscuit to start?

Amy Kenkel:

Oh no! We had we had several different like flavors of cookies. Okay, it was kind of our making all the different flavors. Obviously it was not the easiest. It was small portions, small batches.

Nancy Barrow:

Did you try it out on your dogs?

Amy Kenkel:

Oh of course our neighbors dogs, our dogs everybody's dogs. We ate them ourselves!

Nancy Barrow:

Because times were hard! (laughter)

Amy Kenkel:

Let's face it, we didn't have time to make anything else (laughter)!

Nancy Barrow:

Right. So you hired your first employee when?

Amy Kenkel:

2009. Yeah, we hired an employee for the store. And that gave us a little more flexibility for me to go and do some baking.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah

Laurie Suprenant:

And that's Alicia, she's been she's now our manager at Evergreen Walk.

Nancy Barrow:

Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. Wow!

Amy Kenkel:

Yep and then six months, I think we had one or two other part time employees at Evergreen store. My Uncle. And then we actually hired we were finally excited. We could hire a part time baker to help with the baking. And who was that? And that is Samantha, who is still with us. Alicia's little sister.

Nancy Barrow:

Oh, my Oh my gosh, that is so funny. So you've really kept this really tight knit group?

Laurie Suprenant:

Yes , Yes and not by design just by who was available at the time. Yeah,

Amy Kenkel:

Samantha has been with us for 14 years and Alisha 15 years.

Nancy Barrow:

So it says a lot about who you are. And like, it does, though, because, you know, people don't always stay that long.

Laurie Suprenant:

Correct. Especially in retail. Right? I will tell you the turnover in retail, you're averaging 90% turnover. And that was one of the focuses that Amy and I came into it was It wasn't designed this way, we have an all female company, we we put applications out just women apply. We you know, and but our focus was on not making people feel like we felt in corporate, because no matter what we did, or how we did it, it's never good enough. And so you As females? As females, particularly as females, I can cite several instances, but we never wanted to make our employees whether they were male, female, or, you know, whatever, we didn't want to make them feel like they didn't matter. So our focus always was on putting our customers in the employees first. And then sales will come from that. And I think that's why we've been so successful in keeping people we're ahead of like, the Federal wage thing just came down. We didn't even have to worry about that. Because if I'm paying my people well, and they can live in their communities, then the community hopefully will support us.

Nancy Barrow:

And they're gonna stay. Yeah, if you're, if you're giving them a great environment. And it's not, I mean, I'm sure it's stressful. But, you know, it's not a corporate position for them. But it's, it's a great position for them. Like how great to work in a dog. You get to play with dogs! I mean, really, honestly, that would be great. I mean I'm remote, so I do get to play with my dog all the time!

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah, it is. But we also have structure like just recently, we've been putting a little bit more structure into things as we get a little bit bigger. I think right now we're at a good size, I don't foresee that we're going to expand too much more. But yeah, the hard conversations have to happen. But they have happened like more like family. Yeah, because our employees on the average have been with us five to five to 15 years that we don't have any affiliation or beyond some part time, folks. We don't have any, any employees that have been under five years beyond.

Amy Kenkel:

Except for maybe a store manager who we just it was a new store

Laurie Suprenant:

Right a new store, a new store in Southington. So, so for us, it was critical to create an infrastructure of support so that we wouldn't be dealing with turnover and potential loss of customers because of because of that, because we did experience some of that the very beginning. And we learned our lesson about, you know, like not hiring friends and not hiring. You know, there's all these are like, Oh, great, we'll hire you, uh uh yup nope!

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, if you want to retain the friendship? Ya know.

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah but I mean, she, you did most of the work. I just came into it seven years ago, I'm more of the back end. And kind of the infrastructure person and the development person. She's the front end of the business really.

Nancy Barrow:

Which is really interesting, and how do you measure success in a small business? Like, what does success mean for you? How does that look to you?

Amy Kenkel:

Ya know, it's funny, because actually, success is a day to day variable. So what is success today may not have been our success, five years ago, and we always talk about that, even with our staff, what is going to what do you consider to be successful? And so it's funny, because one day, it could be, you know, I got up and tied my shoes (laughter). The next day is, you know, we hit it out of the park a park! We did an event and it, you know, overdid all of our expectation. And, you know, we hit our monetary goal, we hit everything that we wanted to, and we had a huge turnout. And that's exactly what we wanted to do. So every day is just a different goal on what is going to be successful for you.

Laurie Suprenant:

Overall profit, isn't it for us, I would love to be super profitable. But we're fighting the big boxes we're fighting you know, what I would call the people that come in and want to do what we do and think they can and they just they they start replicating. And that's the biggest form of flattery because it means we're doing everything right. But we have to stay ahead of that. So success to us isn't about always the profit. We have to pay the bills we have to be able to live, but we make sure we put more money into the business into our people's pockets before we take. Secondly, what can we do that nobody else is doing. So success to us is being on the forefront of the pet industry and not lagging. behind and just doing what everybody else is doing.

Nancy Barrow:

Talk to me about like your relationship with the WBDC (Women's Business Development Council? How did that start?

Laurie Suprenant:

We signed up for grant. I had a meeting with them. It was a required meeting. And we were at the store working the floor. So I'm not on video and somebody I can't remember if it was Fran, oh, Laurie can you turn your video on. I'm like, nope I can't but I'm listening. And that's how it started. We applied for grant, they called us and told us we we were awarded the grant. And then from there, it was just it snowballed. I don't know why they keep picking us. I don't know why? We keep saying like, we're not the best people! No, but I really, you were though. And so I remembered you guys from her event at the Capitol, and you speaking and I was like, oh, that's, that's so good. That's so good. And that started my mind thinking about and then when I saw you at our event, I was like, Oh, this is just a slam dunk , I gotta have them on! Because I feel like as women, it's really important to support other women. And and you really support Connecticut Paid Leave, and we'll get to that as well, because you guys are really big supporters of Connecticut Paid Leave and always have been. And, and, and I thank you for that. Because I think that's really important, as you know, as industry leaders in a small business, you know, that's really important for us, that small business really know that this makes them competitive. So I'll and I'll talk a little bit to that. Because benefits were always important to me, like, every time I went for a new corporate job, I would, I would negotiate my benefits. So I know people think you can't, but you can't leave. And yeah, healthcare is pretty standard, but I could negotiate my time off things like that. And so for our folks, everybody gets a certain amount, if they're full time. And I know that laws are changing around that too. And, and we're taking a look at that. But what was important for us was that people knew they could utilize paid time off to take care of something if they had to, whether it be a family member, a child, or what have you. Now, on the flip side, it would come out of their PTO, because that's how it was structured how it works. And then Connecticut Paid Leave came in, and I sat down with all of our employees, I said, look for$1, a pay period, or however much it was, I said, you are going to be able to any year, if something happens, take time off. And you're going to be paid at a rate like you work for a corporation, okay, you can use up your your your paid time off, then you go there and you've gotten extended, I think 6, 12 weeks, you know, so I said just be cognizant of the fact that in a year, you keep getting that so every year it flips over. So that's we explained it to them in a way that it's an added benefit, not an added cost, right? Exactly. As we are getting older, our parents are getting older, their kids are getting older, something will happen at some point, and you're going to have to use that. And we had it happen seven years ago with my dad getting sick. I mean, 12 years ago, or 13, with my mom getting sick. So I and you've had that experience. We know from our parents and our families, there's a need for that. And if you're not in corporate or or you were part time in a restaurant, you weren't getting it.

Nancy Barrow:

No FMLA you could get time off and you get your job back, unpaid, hey, I know so many women come up to us and said, Ah, we just missed the cut off with my baby. You know, I just had the baby like, before this came around. I'm like, I'm so sorry. But it took a while for it to pass. So there was there was advocates there since 2012. And it took a long time for it to pass seven years.

Laurie Suprenant:

That's what kills us. What kills us is how can you be against supporting a family or a an individual, you'd rather see them homeless and hungry, and not taking care and having to take care of somebody. Everybody assumed parents are just going to give people Oh, you're taking care of me I have money to give? Well, that's entitled, not all of us have money. And I mean, we're business owners, and we're not rolling in it. I wish we were but we're not. So the the reality of the situation is you have the haves and the have nots, the haves never see it and the have nots have to deal with it.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah and I do feel that it's so important, like you said, in every aspect of your life, something's going to come up, you know, unfortunately, you know. If it's a baby, or you're adopting or fostering, those are great, those are great reasons to take bonding, right, and you get up to 12 weeks, right? You know, and we're finding that partners are taking 43% of partners are doing it as well.

Laurie Suprenant:

That's amazing, Which is fantastic. And it's probably just gonna go up because the more the word gets out, people are gonna say, Oh, why not? Right, you know, right. Why not? I'd love to support and have you know, some time to bond with this child. Yeah, because they do see a difference. So when you are such a big proponent of Connecticut Paid Leave, who was your first employee that used Connecticut Paid Leave? We had a baker employee that over the course of four months, her grandmother, who was like her mother had become more and more ill. And what happened was the week before Christmas, got a phone call. They had put her in a rehab center. And the Rehab Center said, Sorry, even though the doctor said, No, no, no. Don't send her home. They said sorry. And she had full insurance, by the way through the state. So and she was the A state insurance like years ago. Yeah. So it paid for everything. They were like, no, she's, she's, she needs to go home. And they literally told her employee, she's coming home this afternoon, figure it out. So within she, she literally was sobbing, so we're like, what's going on? What's going on? She said, they're sending her home to pass away. There's nothing more we can do. So I said, Oh my god, we're gonna get an advocate call for hospice. Nothing. So they sent her home that afternoon, she had to leave, leave. And she's like, I don't know when I'm going to be back. I'm like, It's okay. So she went home, got everything set up for grandmother, and they brought her in an ambulance that afternoon. We got the paperwork to her the next day, and she started the process that week.

Nancy Barrow:

Wow. So it was easy for her.

Laurie Suprenant:

Absolutely simple for us and simple for her. Yeah.

Nancy Barrow:

And so how long did she take off?

Laurie Suprenant:

The full 12.

Nancy Barrow:

I love caregiver leave because it doesn't say you have to be blood related. It could be by affinity. So if you're married, or not married, and you know, you're just living with someone, but they're like a spouse, you know, you can take time off to care for them if they have a serious health condition. And it doesn't matter like your best friend who is like family, like my best friend is in LA if something happened, you know, you can take care of them. So I think our definition of family is so broad that it's really a beautiful thing.

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah and the nice thing about Connecticut Paid Leave is it delays their unemployment benefits, say, say they can't come back after 12 weeks, they then can utilize the secondary benefit may not be as much money, but it allows you to extend. So it's really changed the Small Business workplace that we're not losing people to having to give them a choice of leave or stay. which that happens quite frequently in small businesses, and especially service industry, retail industry, they just don't have the capacity to or the heart to deal with things like that. Not Not, not in the past. So yeah, it's a huge benefit for us to as business owners, because our other employees see we're like, here you go, you need the time, go. It doesn't matter if it just happened today go. And they really respect that I think even even the employee that did utilize it, she just always told us and still does that. She it's just you She said you guys have been probably the best bosses I've ever had. Because you worked with me. I had children. I had my life was not uncomplicated. And Amy and I, yeah, we have a complicated life. But we don't have kids. So we,

Amy Kenkel:

I think our entire staff rallied around her too. I mean our entire staff were like, your hands are full, you go do that. We're gonna pick up the pieces and make sure that, you know, we make it through the Christmas holidays. Yeah, it was a week before Christmas. And so there was a lot going on.

Laurie Suprenant:

She was a critical member she was she did all the decorating. Like she was like, kind of the creative genius behind the candies that we do and things like that.

Amy Kenkel:

Correct and so it, you know, but everyone kind of picked up the pieces and ran with it. And like we said she was able to still enjoy the holiday. Yeah, instead of thinking it was going to be an awful time. Yeah.

Nancy Barrow:

And it's wonderful that it's not a financial burden on employers. In other states employers do have to pay into it. So we're really lucky in Connecticut that it is employee based and like small businesses don't have that financial burden, either. You know,

Laurie Suprenant:

That's huge!

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah. It's, it's, it's really, it's really nice that we have that you know, and that it's employee funded, and that's why they have the right to use it.

Laurie Suprenant:

And it should be I mean, as a small business, I wouldn't be able to afford to do it. But the employees are paying just to recruit they're going to recoup it at some point. Yeah, it's not like you're you're putting money in the bank and you're never going to see it. It's it's going to come back twofold.

Nancy Barrow:

What advice would you give to someone who's starting a small business?

Laurie Suprenant:

As a female?

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah.

Laurie Suprenant:

Don't back down from the banks. They can be buggers. You're a female walking in. There's 10 strikes already against you. A male walks in he could be wearing joggers. Oh sir, sit down. Here's the paperwork. US it's we've got to jump through hoops and meet with VPs and and all of this process. And then we just get the run around, run around run around and and we

Amy Kenkel:

We even talked about that at the Capitol. The first time we went in, they were like, Oh, your dad needs to sign in. Like we're 35 or 40 years old. We don't need the dad to sign for us.

Laurie Suprenant:

It was disgusting Yeah, it was disgusting.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah really that's shocking, actually. And and, and you know, that's why the WBDC is so great. They do offer grants.

Laurie Suprenant:

Correct.

Nancy Barrow:

You know, and they will offer you help.

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah yeah, in fact, we're meeting with them about the the upcoming grant for the people who have already gotten a grant. So We're hoping to kind of capitalize on that to, to increase the productivity. But yeah, it's it's, it's awful. The one thing I can say about the financial industry is women need to rule it because I am sorry. And I'm not to be more We're not against men, I just, we are given a different. And we talked to a friend of ours, who was male who walked into the same bank got totally there. And his business was just starting out. And we were proven. And he had a totally different path. And I went, Hmm, you know, so you have to ask yourself and part of like, Connecticut Paid Leave, who supports the women. It's like we all want to to, I mean, I don't want to stay home. I know people that do want to stay home, it's great for you what I want to do, that's the democracy of the world. What you want to do you doing what I want to do, I do. But if you're not supporting women, and you're like, oh, they're the baby makers, they have to stay home. No, they want to bond, but they do want to be in the workforce. So I have seen so much in my career of people being like, let go and things like that. It's just women still aren't seen as equals, especially in entrepreneurship. Know your value, put it on paper, and don't deal with a bank that gives you the runaround. Go to the next one, I guarantee there will be a bank that will work with you. But don't don't take just one bank.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah I think I think that's really good advice. How can people find you? Where are your locations so that people can find you?

Amy Kenkel:

Um Well, our main store is Evergreen Walk.

Nancy Barrow:

Leaps and Bones

Amy Kenkel:

Leaps and Bones in South Windsor. And that's where we started our first store. Then we're also in Southington, and that's our Leaps and Bones 2 location, at Factory Square Yep. And then, because we had those two wonderful locations, we needed to expand our baking capacity. And ultimately, we have the Barkery now The Dog Barkery by Leaps and Bones In Manchester at the old CC Feeds building. Correct. And so those are our our locations. And the all of our baking is done at the in Manchester. And we always encourage people come in, check us out, you can actually see our bakers in action. See what we're doing smelled wonderful smells, maybe not liver day, but most days, and it's amazing to see what what actually goes into dog cookies. And everyone says, you know, your bakery is amazingly clean. And i t's we run it like a human bakery, you will come in I mean, I bet kids would love that.

Laurie Suprenant:

They do. We also have a machine that decorates cookies. And when it's when it's running, it's usually during the holidays. Oh my god, all the guys are like, this is so cool. And I'm like I know, right? And we're online leapsandbones.com. So yeah,

Nancy Barrow:

That was my next question is it online. Any final thoughts about Connecticut Paid Leave and Leaps and Bones?

Laurie Suprenant:

I just think that business owners have to take a step back. I know we're always in the thick of things, especially because we don't have HR people, and everybody to handle all the stuff to fight against something that's beneficial to your people, is to me anti why you should have been in business in the first place. So.

Amy Kenkel:

And I agree with that. I mean, it's harder to find new staff and train new staff than to keep good staff. And we have proven that that's why our staff have been with us for so long. You have that rapport, you know, that they're what their strengths and weaknesses are. And you can play according to that. They're not just warm bodies in a position, it's you, you've got to have your team with you. And ultimately, if I lose them, I'm having to continue to rebuild the team. It's more work on me than anything else.

Laurie Suprenant:

I always tell my managers and I say, I will go in and clean a bathroom, you clean a bathroom, the point of that is, is that you are no better than anyone that is an integral part or a cog in that business. Because the person that cleans the restrooms, makes sure that your customers are happy going into a restroom, that person and even incorporate the person that's running the warehouse, makes sure that you have product going out the door. So if you look at people in a less judgmental way, and not based on old, hierarchical, awful, like lenses, then you'll really understand that we are only as good as the whole.

Amy Kenkel:

And I mean even all the way down to our staff. I mean, we've got some terrific staff, we've got some even autistic people we've brought in who we've worked with the state on other programs to get them.

Laurie Suprenant:

We call them differently abled differently. Your mind works geniusly it just differently that's all.

Amy Kenkel:

They are, you know, they have come in and they started with cutting cookies and helping bag and I mean, some of them have been one girl particularly she's been with us for six years now. And she's got her own apartment and everything and so it's just we're happy to see her succeed. And ultimately, that's what we want to do is build a better community also.

Laurie Suprenant:

I was just gonna say, we're just a community based business that wants to do good by the community.

Nancy Barrow:

I want to say kudos to you for doing a fundraiser for the state trooper who passed away and you know, going to your website you do see you're very involved in the community.

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah we actually the the final donation, the one donation we're actually going to make to the GoFundMe that the state police put up and and we didn't contact the family we just felt as a community business in Southington that we could do something that could help in any way. Not not try to take over the attention just how do we get them something that that can help? So if they give to us, we should be giving back to them.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah. And thank you for using Connecticut Paid Leave, I know that you have so many

Laurie Suprenant:

We love you guys

Nancy Barrow:

Employees that might be able to use it now. If they're having kids, or if they get sick, or they have to have surgery or they get in a car accident. You never know!

Laurie Suprenant:

You never know. I tell people every day you don't know what's gonna happen when you walk out the door. Right, waking up on on the right side is a good thing ( Laughter) !

Nancy Barrow:

I want to thank my guests Laurie and Amy from Leaps and Bones. Thank you so much for being champions of Connecticut Paid Leave you've, you've been awesome to us. And good luck with your wonderful business. I hope it flourishes. I hope you have more stores that are opening up.

Laurie Suprenant:

Well, thank you for having us. I know Amy and I love being able to talk about things that help our employees in the community so.

Nancy Barrow:

Well we thank you so much for always being so generous, and thanks for being on The Paid Leave Podcast.

Laurie Suprenant:

Yeah, thank you.

Nancy Barrow:

For more information or to apply for benefits go to ctpaidleave.org. This has been another edition of The Paid Leave Podcast. Please like and subscribe so you'll be notified about new podcasts that become available. Connecticut Paid Leave is a public act with a personal purpose. I'm Nancy Barrow and thanks for listening.

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