Wendy Trinh has always enjoyed working with animals. In 2014, she turned this passion into a business with Paws For a Moment LLC dba Furever Friends Play and Stay, offering doggie daycare and boarding services for cats and dogs.

“When I was younger, I didn’t have any direction,” Wendy explained. “I worked at a vet clinic and found it was more about treating sick pets and was a sad environment. I thought having a daycare would be more uplifting. Dogs come to play; not because they’re sick. After I had my daughter in 2013, I decided to open my own daycare so that I could support her financially as a single parent, show her that women can do whatever they want, and with the hope that someday she’d be proud of me.”

And those dreams have become a reality as evidenced by the level of awareness Wendy’s now nine-year-old daughter—who was just a little over a year old when the business launched—has for the business. “She tells people who are walking their dogs, ‘My mom has a doggie daycare. Here’s the address and phone number.’ I feel like that was my goal, and now I’ve reached it,” Wendy said.

Wendy is no stranger to entrepreneurship having also worked in her mother’s restaurant, and watched others start and run businesses after immigrating to the U.S. She acquired customers through networking opportunities with others in the pet industry and focused heavily on marketing efforts. She continues to rely on word-of-mouth referrals in addition to a strong internet presence and recommendations from vet clinics.

Today, Furever Friends Play and Stay has five employees and serves pet owners across Oahu, including military families. Wendy and her staff bring a sense of humor to their work, which customers have come to love. “Watching people’s pets—a lot of people are really overly serious, so customers get a kick out of our humor, social media posts, and sarcasm,” she said.

Wendy was first introduced to the MBDA Enterprising Women of Color Business Center through her fellow cohort members from Central Pacific Bank’s WE by Rising Tide program and has since taken part in the Center’s Small Business Marketing Bootcamp and Accounting Software Troubleshooting Lab. She appreciated learning more about Instagram algorithms, how to use QuickBooks, and found the instructors to be helpful and knowledgeable.

Looking forward, Wendy hopes to add more equipment to her facility in Mapunapuna. She also just had a small extension built outside for dogs to play and swim.

To her fellow woman entrepreneurs and small business owners, Wendy offers the following advice: “Whatever point in life you’re in, it’s never too late or too early to start on your dreams. People always say, ‘I’m not ready’ or ‘It’s too late.’ I believe SEO is also very important to a business succeeding. If customers can’t find you, then they can’t work with you.”