Our Journey So Far 6 Months On !

I cant believe its now 6 months since we launched Pets Holiday Swap ! 22nd April 2011 it all started I remember the excitment of 'going live'. Our dream of launching a website for Pet Owners and their Pets giving them a choice of pet minding options. This idea came from our own experience of owning 2 dogs Mork and Mindy who HATED us going away and leaving them in a kennels. The guilt we had was unbelievable worse then leaving 'the kids' when they were young ! On top of everything else the cost ---------------------so why not 'swap' with other like minded Pet Owners ?.

Getting the website together was hard work and since we started we have tweeked it a number of times as we find out what YOU the Pet Owners want. We are still changing things and adding items and I guess this will be ongoing as we want to make it as user friendly as possible and also give you what you want not what we want

30th April 2011Trying to get the website known is the hard part. We started off in Blackrock Market Dublin  and met some lovely people over the weekend and got loads of encouragement from the other Stall Holders and you the public. Thank you to one and all !

7th May 2011Thank you to our local SuperValue in Killester who suported us and let us have our stand in their store for the morning.

17th June 2011 We then took ourselves off to Kilkenny  to the SE Garden Show and again met lots of lovely people at the show.  We also got a lovely write-up in the Kilkenny Advertiser .You can see pictures on our Facebook page. 
 25th June 2011 we could be heard on Radio1 on The Business with George Lee who came out to our house to interview us and Mork and Mindy ---------listen to the interview on our website and you can tell who were the stars of the show !!! We recieved many good wishes by email, phone calls and texts. Again thank you to all !

August 27th 2011 took us to Malahide Castle and a charity event which will be held every year around the country called 'Take The Lead'. The weather was horrible and the turnout was poor but those who did go had a geat day .

26th September 2011Our last event in our first six months was my interview on TV3 Ireland Morning AM . It was a great experience, my first time in a TV studio and to be there to talk about the website was unbelievable. If any of you missed it you can hear it on the Blog or on our Facebook. I think this explains very well about what we are about and trying to do.

Along this journey we were leaving our leaflets in different areas of Dublin. We had a great day in Rush, Skerries , Donabate and Portrane during the summer.
To sum up our first 6 months ------------- it has been a lot of hard work (which we did expect ! ), we have met lots and lots of lovely people, made new friends, finding out bit by bit what Pet Owners want,lots of baby steps in trying to reach our goal.
Our aim for our next 6 months...................lots more hard work !, to travel to other parts of Ireland & meet more Pet Owners, to get known Nationwide,to have a VERY large database of you the Pet Owners in order that you have lots of people to 'swap' with and so we can get offers for our Members on Pet Supplies and Services,to continue to improve .

WE NEED YOU THE PET OWNERS TO JOIN AND TO GIVE US YOUR COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS SO WE CAN ACHIEVE WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO. PLEASE TELL ALL YOUR PET OWNER FRIENDS THAT MEMBERSHIP IF FREE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.