Construction Temporarily Took 81% Of Our Leased Space, Destroyed Most Of The Infrastructure Of Our Business And How Kamp Kanine Survived And Thrived

2018 Kamp Kanine a humble family owned small business located in Encinitas California entered into a lease extension that included language for agreeing to future construction encroachment for a project that was years away from breaking ground. In December 2022 the impact of that contract was felt when the construction project resulted in losing 81% of our yard space utilized for doggy daycare service. Almost all our infrastructure was destroyed, fences, gates, yards, water supply, parking areas, restroom in the office and a service area for grooming eliminated.

We went from having 15 yards to place dogs to three, and no area to evaluate new potential dogs for daycare. Our office was moved a short distance on the property and construction at times was a serious hindrance to clients being able to drop off and pick up their beloved dogs. The construction equipment, noise and personnel was a detriment to potential clients evaluating our business for possible daycare.

Overnight Kamp lost 45% of it’s daycare and grooming revenues and no space to evaluate new dogs.

Kamp had a strong core of clients and in recent years built a strong internal culture based on the golden rule of treating others like you want to be treated and John Maxwell’s “How Successful People Lead” model.

A lot of intellectual mobility was required to survive the drastic changes and get on track to grow quickly during the construction and property shrinkage limitations. Kamp changed how we evaluated new dogs, and had to learn to reimagine, test and adopt new operational procedures and execute our business model and marketing on the fly. During 2023 Kamp was able to access about 60% of our former footprint. and in late 2024 we were able to get a total of about 75% of our former space back.

2023 Kamp revenues declined by about 45% over prior year but had put into place some of the components to experience drastic growth.

2024 Kamp Revenues grew by about 40% over prior year

2025 Kamp Revenues up about 60% over 2024 Q1 revenues

What did we do?

Doubled down on continuing to build a strong internal culture. This resulted in new and existing clients experience on a personal level to be as warm and inviting as a small-town business where the staff knows your name and have warm chats with you and comprised of excellent operational standards of an excellent, large, fast moving and efficient corporation that invests generously into its employees and infrastructure.

One of our great clients was generous enough to gift me the Geno Wickman “Traction” book and this philosophy was aligned with my business values and vision for the future. Kamp built its revamped structure around this business philosophy.

Core Purpose: Where every dog is family

Clarifying Our Proven Process:

1. Free Evaluation

2. Separate dogs by size, age, energy and temperament

3. Six yards to place dogs

4. Dog(s) will be with well socialized dogs

Stating Our Core Values And Having Operations That Reflect These Values At All Levels:

1. Excellence: The quality of being outstanding

2. Integrity: Honesty & Transparency. Maintain ethical standards in all business dealings

3. Simplicity: Easy to do business with. The master makes the difficult look effortless, simple and easy

Understanding And Focusing On Marketing Kamp Kanine’s Three Uniques:

1. Drop off and pick at the client’s convenience

2. Six yards to place dogs based on their size age, energy and temperament

3. Cage free socialization all day

Added a Guarantee: Your dog will experience a large outdoor truly cage free environment and have an active day with select socialized dogs

Relentlessly optimizing our new client funnel and pipeline to quickly, efficiently, and effectively converting dog evaluation requests into clients. Our goal is to respond to email and text messages within 60 seconds and take all client calls live during our operating hours.

Marketing, added a new website, added YouTube channel, added advertising on google ads, added reach outs to clients who have not been in for two weeks with a personal and personalized text, expanded onto more social media platforms. Multiplied our Google reviews by 3X plus and raised our rating from a 4.7 to 4.9.

These actions resulted in:

2024 revenues were about 40% higher than 2023

2025 revenues are about 60% higher than Quarter 1 of 2024.

Plus, Kamp Kanine was voted best doggy daycare for 2023 and 2024 by Ranch and Coast magazine which covers the northern coastal area of the general San Diego area of Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Rancho Santa Fe, Cardiff, Encinitas, Carlsbad and Oceanside since 1964.