True business growth isn’t about doing more, it’s about letting go. As your company scales, holding onto control limits progress. By trusting experts, building a strong team culture, and focusing on what actually improves the business (not just grows it), you create a more sustainable and resilient operation.
When I first started my business, I thought I needed to be good at everything.
Every decision. Every process. Every detail.
I said yes to everything. I was deep in it. And honestly, in the beginning, that worked.
I had just opened Club ULD (U Lucky Dog), a dog daycare and boarding facility in Denver, and I was in it every single day trying to make it work.
When you’re just getting started, you want people to choose you. You want to make things easy. You don’t want to turn anything away.
I was Club ULD in those early days.
But at a certain point, that approach stops working.
Because growth doesn’t just add more clients. It exposes everything you’re trying to control.
Where This Really Started for Me
I didn’t open Club ULD with some perfectly mapped-out business plan.
It started because I had a really bad experience.
I was heading to Mexico. I had three dogs, and one of them had severe allergies. He was on allergy shots, daily medicine, and he had to wear pajamas to protect his skin.
We dropped them off at a large boarding facility near the Denver airport.
On paper, it looked great. Private suites, cameras, even a shuttle. It felt like the best-case scenario.
That evening when I arrived in Mexico, I checked the suite cameras.
My dog didn’t have his pajamas on. He was itching nonstop. And the suite they were in was filthy… with animal waste.
That was it for me.
In that moment, I knew I wasn’t going to trust someone else to care for my dogs again.
And then I started thinking… how many other people think this is just how it is?
That’s what led me to start Club ULD.
The goal was simple: build something better.
The Part People Don’t Talk About
When I started, I didn’t overthink it. I found a warehouse and went for it.
That’s how I operate. If something feels right, I move.
But once it was running, reality set in.
In the beginning, I was in everything.
And that part makes sense.
What I didn’t realize is how hard it would be to step out of that later.
Because growth changes your role.
You can’t be in everything anymore.
A lot of people say they want to grow. But what they really want is control.
And those two things don’t work together for very long.
I had to learn that being the founder doesn’t mean being the expert in every room.
It means knowing what you don’t know… and what someone else can do better.
The business got stronger when I stopped working in it, and started working on it.
What This Looks Like in Practice
In a service business, trust isn’t something you declare. It’s something people feel.
It shows up in the moments that aren’t convenient.
When something takes more time, costs more, or would be easier to just let slide… and you don’t.
As we grew, I had to face something honestly:
I’m not a dog expert.
I didn’t go to school for this. I didn’t have that background. I started this because I cared.
But there were things I didn’t know that actually mattered.
So I reached out to people who did.
Trainers. Vets. People with real experience. People who could read situations better than I could.
The business got stronger when it wasn’t dependent on me trying to be everything.
And that’s what people feel.
Not a post. Not a promotion.
Just how the business actually runs.
Building a Team You Can Trust
Hiring is one part of it. Culture is the other.
From the beginning, I had a very low tolerance for what I call poison.
Mean-girl energy. Gossip. Pettiness.
That kind of behavior slowly breaks a team.
So I made a decision early on — it doesn’t stay.
It didn’t matter how good someone was. If they brought that energy, it wasn’t going to work.
At the same time, I trusted people to do their jobs.
If I hired you, I believed you were capable.
I’m not going to micromanage… but I’m also not going to ignore behavior that undermines the team.
That balance created something I’m really proud of.
We have team members who have been with us for years. People who grew with the business. People who took ownership.
Because when people feel supported — and expectations are clear — they show up differently.
And in a service business, that’s everything.
Your team is the experience.
When Growth Isn’t the Right Growth
Even with the right team, things don’t run perfectly.
Growth puts pressure on everything.
And one of the biggest lessons for me has been learning not to chase growth just because it looks good.
Some opportunities sound great on paper.
But I’ve learned to ask a different question now:
Not “does this grow the business?”
But “does this make the business better?”
Because not all growth is the right growth.
Final Thought
Growth doesn’t just add more to your business.
It changes your role in it.
I started this at 25, figuring it out as I went, after realizing I couldn’t trust what was out there.
Over time, that meant learning how to lead, how to build the right team, and how to step out of the middle.
Because the business only works if the people inside it do.
And if you protect that, you can actually build something that lasts.
