Atlanta entrepreneur expands sights to doggie website
When she created Doggie Aficionado magazine, Tamika Goins targeted a specific demographic: Affluent dog-lovers with disposable income.
Three years later, Atlanta’s Goins has launched a new endeavor, this one aimed at anyone who has ever searched for a pet sitter, a dog walker or even the best pet stain remover.
In other words, an online community for canine fans.
PoochCity.com arrived late last month , offering visitors a shopping mall, marketplace, notices about event meet-ups and a portal for pet adoption – all in the hope of simplifying the search process for time-crunched pet owners.
“The pet industry as a whole is still relatively fragmented. From an online perspective, there are a number of great sites that do a couple of things very well, but the goal was to bring the shopping under one virtual city,” Goins, 36, said.
So why focus on dogs?
Although the allure of PoochCity.com stretches nationally, according to Goins’ research, Atlanta is one of the top 10 dog-household cities.
“When I was ready to put this into motion, the pet industry was the fastest-growing consumer industry in the country behind consumer electronics,” she said. “People don’t think of the pet industry as this growing, thriving business until they step back and think, ‘How many people do I know with a dog?’ It’s not recession-proof, but people who think of their dogs as members of their family aren’t going to stop feeding or bathing them.”
Membership on PoochCity.com is free (so is perusing the site without signing up) and information or events for any city can be listed under the “City News” tab on the site.
The first round of major marketing for PoochCity.com will commence this week with a billboard campaign in San Diego. Goins expects to start advertising for the site in Atlanta in February.
A native of Louisiana, Goins worked for more than a decade in business marketing in northern Virginia and Atlanta, where she arrived 11 years ago .
She started the Powder Springs-based marketing, publishing and web development company, BeCause, Inc., in 2006, and in between overseeing a staff of nine and balancing a mound of work responsibilities, Goins is mother to two children under 3 years old and two dogs, a chocolate Labrador and a Jack Russell/beagle mix.
No wonder she jokingly says, “Call me a crazy woman,” when explaining the next aspiration on her checklist – holding a series of business camps for high school students in Atlanta this summer.
“I did my first business plan in high school,” she said. “I have a strong love and passion for business. Growing up, there weren’t a lot of business people readily available to me or programs to help fill this thirst. So if a child has a natural interest and passion for business and basic financial practices, what a great time to start instilling these things in a kid.”
And though Goins has PoochCity.com and these upcoming workshops in her front window, don’t think she’s lessened her focus on Doggie Aficionado.
The magazine, she said, has increased circulation from 75,000 at its inception to 105,000 currently and published five times in 2010 – an increase of one issue.
“These are all my babies,” she said.
About the Author
Melissa Ruggieri has covered music and entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2010 and created the Atlanta Music Scene blog. She's kept vampire hours for more than two decades and remembers when MTV was awesome.
