You could have knocked Maddie MacDonald over with a feather when her name was announced as a winner of a major award at the recent Quinte Business Achievement Awards (QBAA) 2021 in Trenton.
The Brighton resident was named as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year for her Bark Buddies Shop Canada pet accessories business at the QBAA. She remembers the process fondly, including her name called at the black-tie event hosted at the Hero’s Landing Banquet Hall in Trenton.
“I received an email that you have been nominated for the award and you have no idea who’s nominated you. Then you’re invited to come to the gala. It was kind of like going to the Emmy Awards or places like that. You have no idea that you’ve won until they open that envelop and say your name,” said MacDonald.
“It’s just such an experience, you’re sitting at the table and you’re having your meal and you hear your name and it’s like ‘Oh my goodness’. Never in a million years did I think they would say my name and when they did I was just flabbergasted.”
And, receiving the Quinte business award was affirmation that all the decisions she’s made since opening her online business in May of 2018 have been the right ones.
“I am so grateful and humbled to have received this award. It means so much. It means that I feel that I’m going down the right path and the right way,” she said.
On Nov. 26, MacDonald and another Brighton-area QBAA award winner Bev Woods of Codrington (Not-for-Profit Business of the Year for her Gift from the Heart charity) received recognition and congratulations from Brighton Mayor Brian Ostrander and from Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini at the Brighton Municipal Building.
MacDonald explained she began Bark Buddies Shop Canada as an off-shoot to her ongoing pet-sitting business. But, upon hearing from her clients of the need for quality pet accessories, she took the leap of faith.
“So it was spinoff from my pet-sitting business that I started in 2011. Customers were asking ‘where can I get a good collar?’ and ‘where can I get a bandana?’ ‘where can I get toys my dog can play with?’ and so from there I just did some research, got a sewing machine and practised for a month,” she explained.
Bark Buddies Shop Canada sells hand-made, bandanas — which are best sellers — bows, collars, leashes, ID tags and so much more. Business, said MacDonald, has been good, as she receives many orders from international customers as well as local ones.
“It’s been great. I ship worldwide, which is fantastic, and my local customers have actually been growing tremendously, which I am incredibly grateful for, and I’ve been able to do a few more local markets this year so that was great. I was able to get out there and people where able to see my products in person instead of just online,” she said, adding that her international orders come in from such places as the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, London, England and many more.
She notes the success of her business has relied on quality, custom-made pet accessories that stand up to wear-and-tear on a daily basis.
“My collars specifically they have different, unique designs that you can’t find anywhere else. Some of the designs have actually been designed by myself so they are unique to Bark Buddies itself. The quality of them, I’d like to say that they’re very durable,” said MacDonald.
What’s in store for MacDonald and Bark Buddies Shop Canada? Well, literally it’s getting her items, including harnesses, collars and toys into stores. “That’s the big dream to have my stuff in stores. By the end of 2022 is my goal,” said MacDonald who’s entrepreneurial skills were honed since having a babysitting and dog-sitting business at age 12.
For more information on Bark Buddies Shop Canada, log on to barkbuddies.ca.
