A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT OF RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS
Margaret Hughes spent 40 years jet-setting around the world as an American Airlines flight attendant when she accidentally stumbled onto a second career.
While planning a vacation to Europe in 1997, she arranged for family and friends to take care of her pets, but was looking for a place to take care of her travel companion’s cat. That’s when she discovered the Holiday Hotel for Cats Inc. in West L.A., which billed itself as the “Waldorf of the Feline World.” She loved the operation so much that she bought it the following year.
“The building was for sale and the rumor was that (the buyer) was just going to tear the building down. So I bought the place for $700,000. I’ve been investing since I was 12 and did very well, but part of it is a mortgage.
“I learned the daily routine, but I hired a staff of three. It’s sometimes difficult to get away from the place. I have (airline) seniority so I can give the flight away to another attendant to work at the Cat Hotel. I used to fly 46 trips to Europe a year but this year I’ve flown less than 10, although I still love it because the airline pays me to fly to London, have dinner with my friends and puts me up in a hotel.
“The busiest time at the Cat Hotel is (normally) Christmas, when I have 150 cats. The slowest time is mid-January through mid-March when there would be 35. Last year, revenues were over $140,000 and this year I was already up to $140,000 before Sept. 11. Things are falling apart right now. Nobody’s flying so they’re not leaving their cats with me. I might have to fly more.
“I normally have 65 cats this time of year but there are only 38 right now. I charge $16 a day per cat. But if they are a family of cats in the same cage, it’s $15 for the second and $14 for every cat after that.
“I spend $3,000 to $5,000 a year upgrading the facility and buying new things, like cat trees. But the biggest difference is how the cats are handled. We keep the cats safe, we play with them, we talk to them constantly. We know every cat by name. The customers are thrilled to death.
“We have a lot of celebrity clients who bring their cats in if they have to leave town to go on location. I had (an actresses’) two cats for six months.”
David Greenberg
