Paws and profits: Five Enterprise Nation members who sniffed out success
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Posted: Wed 9th Apr 2025
5 min read
For many entrepreneurs, the pet industry has been the perfect playground to test their ideas and achieve remarkable success.
Whether due to redundancy or just dreaming about spending more time with their fur babies, these business owners turned their skills and passion for animals into thriving pet businesses.
1. Sarah Gleave, Meg K9 Custom Dog Leads and Meg K9 Paddock
First up is our recent Member of the Month, Sarah Gleave. This serial entrepreneur’s businesses all revolve around her passion for dogs.
She is the founder of Meg K9 Custom Dog Leads and, over the years, has also run a dog rescue centre, boarding kennels, a secure dog park, Meg K9 Paddock, and is also a published author.
In her interview, Sarah shares her journey, challenges and successes – from featuring on Dragons' Den to celebrating over two decades in business – offering valuable insights on resilience, product development and business growth.
2. Sarah and Wil Valovin, Yorkshire Pet Portraits
A chance discovery of a picture of a dog in a costume led to a side hustle business for Sarah Valovin and her photographer husband, Wil.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Wil's usual method of income was no longer possible, so the couple took Yorkshire Pet Portraits full-time. They are now providing hundreds of portraits of pets as superheroes, historical figures, sports stars and more!
Sarah shares the inspiring story of her business and how the Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme has been “revolutionary”.
3. Rebecca Linnell, The Country Dog Hotel & Spa and Enterprise Nation adviser
Rebecca Linnell is affectionally known as ‘the dog lady’! For the last 20 years she has owned, fostered and rescued dogs of various shapes and sizes.
In May 2016, she decided to combine her experience and love for dogs to create The Country Dog Hotel & Spa, which offers the canines it boards a unique luxury.
Through relentless dedication and minimal advertising, she built a thriving business that quickly reached capacity, underscoring the demand for premium pet care services.
4. Siobhan Henderson, Furwalks
After over 10 years of sitting behind a desk, dreaming about spending time with her dog, Siobhan Henderson began working on Furwalks. Her main focus of the business is the pets’ happiness and giving back the love that they give out to the world.
Siobhan is a dog walker and sitter providing one-to-one dog walking in Witney, West Oxfordshire.
Read more: How to start a dog walking business
5. Mandy Lucas, Farm Animal Welfare Consulting and Enterprise Nation adviser
Mandy Lucas is an animal welfare expert with over 20 years of experience in positively impacting the lives of farm animals across the globe. Although she had the privilege to travel the world to look at animal welfare on farms, she said she wasted a lot of time.
Mandy visited these places to look at the animals but came straight back home, not really exploring any of these countries.
She said:
“I got very tired and didn't have any passion for what I was doing. Then, an opportunity came up in 2019, where I could be given redundancy. So, after over 35 years of continuous employment in the world of corporate business, I took a leap of faith and set up my own consultancy in May 2019. With it, my passion for work and life had returned!”
Mandy now supports brands that use animals in their supply chain. So whether they eat them, wear them or use them as textiles, she helps them use these resources responsibly, understand where they come from and the practices that are involved in creating them and help set appropriate policies.
She is also the Devon and Cornwall Local Leader.
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