Becky Bartley didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. She just liked pets.
But like many before her, she saw a need and she filled it.
Now she wants to take Trooper Pet Veterinary Nursing across the continent.
Bartley’s Trooper Pets was recently named small business of the year by the Barrie Chamber of Commerce. Two years ago, Trooper won the chamber’s service business excellence award.
“The recognition, even just to be a finalist, it’s just absurd the doors that open and the value that it brings,” says Bartley. “It really sparks, a good six-month post-awards.
“And it’s very motivating.”
Bartley explains that she had her heart set on being a veterinarian, but abandoned that path after her first year in university. She then registered with Georgian College’s veterinary technician program in Orillia and knew she was in the right place when, on the second day, she was able to work with dogs.
She began working at two veterinary clinics and decided to offer a nail-clipping service at her home starting in 2016. It took off.
“I realized really quickly that there was a correlation with animals in clinics that would be aggressive … those same pets, when I did their nail trims at home, they didn’t need extra the sedation or the muzzle or equipment or the extra hand,” she says.
Meanwhile, she went back to school for message therapy for pets. In 2020, she launched Trooper Pet Veterinary Nursing.
Bartley clearly remembers working in a general practice one day when they were unable to give a particularly stressed German shepherd its 30-day arthritis injection. Every time the dog came back in, it became more aggressive, she says.
The owner was unable to muzzle him or get him out of the truck; the staff wasn’t able to get near the dog. The doctor made arrangements for the owner to return to sedate the dog.
Bartley had already drawn the medication and suggested to the doctor she swing by the dog’s home on her way home to see if he would be more amenable to the injection in a different setting.
“The same dog that tried to eat me three hours before, literally laid on my lap and I just did it. And he just kind of looked at me like, ‘what the heck?’ But that was it,” she recalls. “That was a light-bulb moment. And it’s not one-shoe-fits-all, because some dogs like coming to the clinic. But there are definitely those animals that have white-coat syndrome, just like we do with the dentist.
“I never woke up one day and said I’m going to be an entrepreneur.”
Bartley, with a team of four, does all the services within the scope of the veterinary technician, everything from basic grooming services to blood collection. And it’s 100 per cent mobile.
And she’s excited about the future.
She’s been involved in small business incubators with the goal of expanding.
“My goal is to take over North America,” she says. “I want Trooper Pet Veterinary Nursing to be a recognized brand.”
She envisions her business as a complement to veterinary clinics that she can licence to others.
That goal informs the decisions she makes now, she says. While implementing new software, for instance, she considers how it can be scaled for future use.
“There’s some mornings I wake up and think I’d like to have a 9-5 job,” she says. “But I wouldn’t love it … I love being the boss I’ve never had.
“I love that I have employees that love their job.”
