Engineer balances new business with day job

LIVERPOOL — Odean Dyer spends his days as a member of the Department of Engineering for the city of Syracuse.

At the same time, he’s working to grow his newly launched business, Furrever Friends, a boutique store for pets.

When asked about the challenges of having a full-time job and working to grow a new business, Dyer puts it bluntly: “I would say, honestly, this is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”

Furrever Friends operates in a 1,500-square-foot space at 330 First St. in the village of Liverpool. The store opened March 1.

Furrever Friends is the “doing business as” name of KO Worldwide, LLC, a company Dyer formed with a family member whom he declined to name. Dyer is the majority owner, he says, but declined to say what percentage of the business he owns.

“I’ve always been very business-minded, very business-oriented. I’ve always wanted to become an entrepreneur,” Dyer says.

The Liverpool location is a reincarnation of a kiosk business that Dyer operated at Destiny USA between April 2013 and this past February, before he had to abandon the kiosk because of a higher rent.

Undeterred, Odean set out to find a new space for the business and found his current location in Liverpool.

Dyer leases the space but declined to name his landlord.

Dyer used his own assets to cover the $45,000 cost of restarting the business in Liverpool, which includes inventory, he says.

Dyer hired three part-time employees to operate the store during the week. He also checks in with the business in the evenings and works there on Sundays, he says.

Suppliers for Furrever Friends include Beverly, Mass.–based Pet Edge, Inc. and Easton, Pa.–based Phillips Pet Food & Supplies.

“We have items that you can find both in your regular pet store and also items that you can’t find anywhere else,” he says.

The items that he contends are available only through his store include customizable collars, leashes, and harnesses. Furrever Friends also offers pet shirts, toys, jewelry, and pet foods.

The business has a website (www.ffpets.com), which generates about 60 percent of Furrever Friends’ revenue, Dyer says. The store will ship products internationally, as long as the consumer pays the shipping costs, he adds.

“What I want is for this business to be stand-alone and not need the Internet,” Dyer says.

The family member who serves as the company’s minority owner designed the site, he says.

The store also makes use of social-media outlets, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, he says.

Dyer has specific revenue goals for his first year in business, but declined to disclose them.

He does hope to generate enough revenue to consider donations to nonprofit organizations that focus on pets.

“I really want this business to be family oriented, community oriented,” he says.

Dyer, a native of the Bronx, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University in 2010.

He pursued an engineering degree because he likes “building things.”

“I like seeing things start from a seed and grow into … a full-fledged product,” Dyer says.

Following graduation, Dyer worked at the C&S Cos. in Salina from 2010 through August 2013, when he joined the city of Syracuse.

Interest in pets
Dyer’s interest in a boutique pet store originated from a night at home in early 2013 with his girlfriend, Svetlana Grant. As Dyer recounted it, her dog was barking and jumping around.

“It just kind of hit me,” he says.

The dog was wearing a purple shirt bearing a heart that said “I Love Pamela,” which was the dog’s name.

Beyond that, Dyer also remembers a day of shopping with Grant and noticed the love she had for her dog.

“She ended up buying more stuff for her pet than she did for herself,” Dyer says, noting that she complained about not finding the products she really wanted.

Dyer researched the possibility of opening a boutique store for pets, networked with contacts in the pet industry, and opened a kiosk called “Furry Friends” at Destiny USA.

When the mall raised the rent for the Kiosk last fall, Dyer decided to pursue a different location for the business.

He declined to disclose his monthly rental fee for the Furry Friends kiosk.

“We couldn’t justify … paying that amount with the amount of foot traffic that we were getting and the amount of sales that were getting,” he says.

Along the way, Dyer began to learn about his customer base, saying they’re people who love their pets and are “financially stable.”

Dyer and Grant searched for space possibilities in suburban areas, including Liverpool.

While walking around Liverpool in mid-December, he saw a sign on a building indicating available space.

Dyer noted that he liked the foot traffic he saw in the area, even in mid-December.

He called the number listed on the sign, and spoke to the property owner who lives nearby. Dyer made his rent payment the next day, he says.

He then spent the next few months handling the renovation work in the space to prepare for the March 1 opening, he says.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

SMALL-BUSINESS SNAPSHOT

Furrever Friends
330 First St.
Liverpool, N.Y. 13088
Phone: (315) 218-7368
Website: http://www.ffpets.com

Type of business: Boutique pet store
Year founded: 2014
Employees: 3 part-time
Owner: Odean Dyer (majority owner)