Exploring Life & Business with Amy Oostveen of Wagging Riders

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Oostveen.

Hi Amy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I was growing up, I would sell golf balls on the golf course that I grew up on. I would gather the cans from the golf course for extra money. I would make and wrap peanut and jelly sandwiches to the golfers that came through. I was always interested in being an entrepreneur. I started a business from scratch when I was 31. After trial and error, I grew the company to three locations, a license to franchise and over half of a million dollars. After 11 years of owning my own business, I made a decision to close the doors and / or sell the business. I was ready to move on to the next chapter of my life. I was in year 4 of homeschooling my son and year 1 of homeschooling my daughter. I had just gone through a divorce and a rebuild of my company after I lost everything during Covid. In 2023, while I was homeschooling my son, I helped him start a dog walking business. That business got pretty busy, he was making awesome extra cash, and it gave us something really cool to learn about during homeschool! In November of 2023, my sister sent me an Instagram reel of a dog bus. The second she sent it to me, I showed my son and decided we were going to buy a bus. In December, we bought a bus and on January 29, 2024, we started Wagging Riders – The Dog Bus! We have been in business for over a year and have 5 full routes along with offering boarding out of our home.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being an entrepreneur is never a smooth road! In my first business, it was all trial and error. I had no idea what I was doing so I would come up with ideas, try them and if they worked, I would keep them and if they didn’t, I would adjust them so they would. I was a single Mom so struggling to balance my work and home life was always present. When I was in the building stage of my business, I was teaching so much and running the business. I was sleeping at my studio and back then, everything was done by hand due to the lack of technology so being at the “office” was almost always needed. Challenges arose while I was managing almost 50 staff members as i tried to cater to each staff member, and had to fill in each time they weren’t able to be at their job. When Covid hit, I lost everything, I lost my company, my income, my community. It was so tiring rebuilding as I had to do that while I was going through a divorce and had just had a second child, now being a single mom of two.

As you know, we’re big fans of Wagging Riders. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Wagging Riders is a dog bus! We run a route and pick up dogs at each of their houses, take them to a place to play, and drop them each back off at their houses. We are known as dog wranglers, the party bus, and have a blast doing what we do! We specialize in helping dogs build social skills while giving their owners peace of mind and flexibility. We are a mother and son duo that incorporate training into our business model. We are very proud of our brand (that just finished getting trademarked) because we created and built it Our prices are affordable and our service is top notch!

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I remember growing up on my golf course and having so much fun. We got to drive carts around on Sundays while looking for golf balls and then we would sell those golf balls on the course. It was fun for us kids and fun as a family.

Pricing:

• $28 per dog bus adventure
• $50 per 24 hours for boarding

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wagging-riders.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waggingriders/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Wagging-Riders-61554584346103/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WaggingRiders