Kristin Larsen

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Kristin Larsen is an American entrepreneur. Kristin started Diva Dog Bakery in 2020.^[1]

Career

Early Career

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Diva Dog Bakery

Kristin started Diva Dog Bakery in 2020. They detail the beginnings of their company in their Starter Story interview: ^[1]

Q: How did you get started on Diva Dog Bakery?

Before Diva Dog Bakery™ was a program, it was my dog treat business.

Not long after graduating college, I was working full-time and trying to work my way up the corporate ladder. On the side, I had started a fun hobby/side hustle baking healthy dog treats, which started simply because I wanted to feed my dog a cute, good-for-her cupcake for her birthday.

I really focused on taking a regular dessert and turning it into a gourmet lookalike dog treat. I created dog-friendly cupcakes, s’mores, and brownies, just to name a few!

I was making a few hundred bucks a month selling to friends and family, but I was so focused on being a corporate success that I didn’t think of taking it beyond that.

That is until the Great Recession came along and BOOM. No more corporate job!

I had to suddenly scale my little side hustle into a full-time income to keep a roof over my head.

Pretty soon, Diva Dog Bakery™ became a full-scale business. I sold in multiple places to be as diverse as possible.

I started selling in-person at the local farmers’ market. As my business grew, my amazing parents set up a booth at a different farmers market across town so we could be in two locations at once. Additionally, I also sold pre-orders, so customers could pick up their order at either location.

Fun fact, this was back when technology wasn’t quite up to par as it is today with using our cell phones as pay terminals. We relied on cash, the occasional check, and an old-fashioned credit card swiper!

I also hopped on Etsy to grow my business nationally. I loved waking up to new orders and seeing the word ‘sold’ over and over again.

This turned out to be quite successful, so I hired a web designer to build my Diva Dog Bakery website. Again, online shopping looked a lot different 10+ years ago. It was quite challenging creating a website with a shopping cart, processing orders, and creating a shipping system.

It was a great learning experience and helped me land quite a few wholesale accounts across the country to various pet boutiques.

I was even invited to participate in the Emmy Awards gift bags!

I followed this path for several years until I got back into the corporate world (which I eventually quit for full-time entrepreneurship!). I wound the business down as life had other plans for me, but I always knew I would revive the business in some way.

Trust your systems. If you’ve honed something that you know works, don’t be afraid to duplicate the process and try it for a new project. If something works - and works well - keep it simple. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

In 2016, I launched a program that teaches students how to start a side hustle as a Pinterest VA (virtual assistant) called Become a Pinterest VA TODAY!. The program is based entirely on my success as a Pinterest VA, and it’s been on my to-do list ever since to do the same thing for a dog treat business program.

I’ve learned so much since launching that program and I wanted to see if lightning could strike twice by applying the same techniques to launch the Diva Dog Bakery™ program.

Source ^[1]

References

Contributors

Contributors to this article:

• Pat Walls, Founder @ Starter Story