I love stories about business owners that give back to the community that their business is a part of. Hair dressers that donate hair to make wigs for patients with cancer, mechanics who perform free basic maintenance services on the cars of elderly residents in their town, or restaurant owners who serve meals to the homeless – these are the people that go above and beyond every day to help others. The rest of us should strive to be as generous. Nancy Guinn is doing just that.
Guinn opened her business, Dog Krazy, in Downtown Frederiscksburg, Virginia in 2006. Her goal was to provide the best pet products she could find to help dog owners keep their pets healthy and happy. 9 years later she is a certified pet nutritionist and her store sells everything from top quality dog food to a wide variety of natural and homeopathic remedies for common dog illnesses. Dog Krazy carries safe and healthy products for puppies, senior dogs and any pup in between.
Aside from running Dog Krazy, Guinn also runs a charity called The Fredericksburg Pet Pan Tree. They recently became a 501C3. The charity helps pet parents who have fallen on hard times and need a little help to care for their animals. It is named after a German shepherd, Triana a.k.a. Tree, who Guinn rescued from the Fredericksburg SPCA.
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Now, Guinn is trying to expand her business to encompass her other passion: animal rescue. At Dog Krazy she advocates about animal rescue to her employees, customers, and anyone that will listen. Unfortunately, the space she is in now is not set up to be able to host adoption events. They are currently at max capacity, with no room for even a few kennels.
The store does many events throughout the year to raise funds to help animals in need, and Guinn gives back to rescue operations any chance she can – but she wants to do more. Her goal is to open a second location in a space where Dog Krazy can host events for the many rescue organizations in the Fredericksburg area. She says customers are constantly asking if her store sells puppies. The pet shop label is not one that Guinn wants associated with her business. She wants her new location to be known as an “Adopt Shop.”
Guinn is hoping that there can be events held every weekend at the Adopt Shop to introduce customers to some the dogs in shelters and foster homes in the area. During the week she wants dogs in foster care to come and spend the day at the shop so that people can come in and meet with them. These dogs wouldn’t get much exposure at all in foster homes and pet stores, but at the adopt shop people would come in to meet them every day.
Guinn had finally saved enough money to start her Adopt Shop this year, but then she hit a bump in the road. Her rescue dog, a bullmastiff named Nova, was diagnosed with cancer and Guinn spent thousands of her savings to treat her beloved pet. After months of surgeries and chemotherapy, Nova is now caner free, and Guinn is thousands of dollars short of her goal.
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She doesn’t want to put off opening the Adopt Shop any longer. Guinn has found the ideal location for the new business, but it will take about $75,000 to get it up and running. The space was formerly a restaurant, so it will need a lot of remodeling. She has started a campaign on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo to continue with her endeavor.
She hopes to raise $25,000 through the campaign. She is also launching a “Krazy Dogs of Fredericksburg” calendar to help with the expenses as well. She says that between the website and in-store donations she has received more than $4,000 so far.
