Published Dec 2, 2008
Wagville is a Los Angeles doggie boarding and day care facility founded and run by Harvard grad and former lawyer Julie Shine. Like the other WMB subjects, Wagville isn’t making enough money. We quickly learn that:
- The company does little to no retail business, despite having a large (and cluttered) storefront
- Check-in takes minutes on a slow system
- There are no facilities for people, just for the dogs
- Employees are unmotivated and ill-tempered
- Julie cannot motivate staff and may be a micromanager
- There are 27 employees in a business that’s caring for no more than 60 dogs at any time, and the costs add up - in one month, Wagville did $90,000 in sales but had $65,000 in payroll and so couldn’t make a profit
- Julie is focused on providing a service to dogs, not on making profit
- Julie is carrying crushing credit card debt in order to keep the place running