That’s the heart of pet care business cash flow: revenue moves with the calendar, but rent, payroll, utilities, and insurance don’t. To dig into how successful owners manage that gap, we spoke with two people who see it from opposite sides of the table: Stephen Biles, founder of Dogs 24/7, the cage-free daycare and boarding company he’s grown to multiple locations across Arizona, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania since 2009, and Ashlee Moore, a pet care lending specialist here at First Financial Bank.
Know Your Rhythm
Ask Stephen about his slow season, and you’ll get an interesting answer: he doesn’t really have one, and that’s by design.
“When I started my business 16 years ago, daycare was always the focus,” he says. “Boarding is very cyclical when it comes to the macro economy. When times are good, people travel. When they’re worried, they don’t travel as much or for as long. That has an impact on boarding and on staffing. Daycare, on the other hand, is non-cyclical. It’s often a necessity for people. So, I don’t have an off-season. I have a steady flow of dogs every day because of my focus on daycare.”
The holidays and summer still bring an influx of boarding dogs, but the swing stays manageable. Stephen aims for 55 to 60% of revenue from daycare, and his cage-free daycare dogs naturally feed into his 24/7 cage-free boarding model.
Ashlee sees the same pattern play out across the businesses she works with. “A business that offers boarding, daycare, training, and grooming is going to be less vulnerable to a slow winter than one that relies heavily on boarding,” she explains. “Knowing the revenue streams that drive your business, understanding those numbers, and planning make all the difference.”
The Wake-Up Call
For Stephen, the lesson arrived early. “In January of 2010, after my first Christmas holiday season, I needed a couple of employees for daycare, and I noticed there were so many experienced people in the market looking for work,” he recalls. “It was because my competitors had laid them off after the holidays. I knew then that daycare was the answer to cash flow stability and staffing stability.”
That connection between cash flow and staffing is easy to overlook. When revenue reduces after the holidays, many owners feel forced to cut hours or let good people go, then scramble to rehire and retrain before the next rush. Stephen built his model to break that cycle entirely.
“If you invest in a robust daycare program, you won’t have to go through the endless cycles of hiring and laying people off before and after the busy holiday seasons,” he says. “Your staff will love you for it, and it builds greater loyalty and longer tenure with your team.”
Think in Years, Not Months
From the lending side, Ashlee sees the same challenge catch owners off guard again and again. “One of the biggest challenges is that many expenses remain constant while revenue changes depending on the time of year,” she says. “Rent, utilities, and similar costs are largely the same no matter how busy the season is. A lot of people, especially those new to ownership, tend to focus on planning for the busy season while forgetting the slower time of year.”
The fix starts with a full-year view. Map your expected revenue month by month, using last year’s numbers as your baseline, then lay your fixed and variable expenses alongside it. The months where the lines cross are your pressure points and knowing them in advance is what turns a scramble into a plan. If you’re building this discipline for the first time, our guide on how to make a small business budget that works walks through the process step by step.
“When we look at cash flow, we’re typically looking at annual numbers, not just a few months,” Ashlee says. “The businesses that handle slow periods well are the ones that budget for seasonal trends, know their cash flow history, and have multiple revenue streams. It’s all about preparation and consistency.”
Build Reserves
A cash flow projection tells you how big your reserve needs to be. If your projection shows a gap between revenue and expenses across your three slowest months, that’s your savings target, and the busy season is when you fund it.
A practical approach many owners use: set a fixed percentage of peak-season revenue to move into a separate reserve account each week and treat that transfer like any other bill. The discipline matters more than the exact percentage. Reserves built automatically during the busy months become the cushion that keeps payroll steady, vendors paid, and stress low when bookings dip.
And reserves do more than bridge a predictable slow season. As Ashlee points out, they’re also your first line of defense against the surprises no projection can capture, from a kennel cough outbreak to an economic shock.
Lines of Credit and SBA Working Capital
Savings alone can only stretch so far, especially for growing businesses that are reinvesting most of their profits. That’s where seasonal business financing tools come in.
“Whether it’s a line of credit, working capital funds, or additional cash reserves, it’s important to have funds available not just for the slow season but also for unforeseen events,” Ashlee says. “The key to any of this is planning. The worst time to try to obtain a financial safety net is after you need it. That’s when owners can make poor decisions that negatively impact the business. Having a safeguard in place before you need it allows for flexibility and peace of mind.”
A business line of credit works well for short, predictable gaps. You draw what you need to cover expenses during slow months, then pay it down when revenue returns. For larger or longer-term needs, SBA working capital loans offer extended repayment terms and competitive rates, which keep monthly payments manageable while you smooth out your revenue cycle. As an SBA Preferred Lender, we’ve seen these loans help pet care businesses not just survive seasonal swings but grow through them.
Timing matters more than most owners realize. “It’s never too early to start talking to your lender, even if it’s just to ask questions and gauge options,” Ashlee says. “A typical loan process can take several months, sometimes longer. A conversation with your lender in January, when things are slow, may not provide relief until it’s too late.”
In other words, if your slow season starts in January, the conversation should happen in late summer or early fall.
Know Your Numbers
When you do sit down with a lender, clean records make everything faster and less stressful.
“The best thing owners can do is maintain clean, current records year-round and know their numbers,” Ashlee says. “That includes P&Ls, balance sheets, debt schedules, your business plan, and personal financials. I also encourage people to establish key performance indicators and know where they stand compared to industry standards.”
Good records pay off well beyond financing, too. They sharpen the day-to-day decisions that shape your business, and they put you in a position to move quickly when an expansion opportunity appears. If your bookkeeping setup could use an upgrade, our overview of small business accounting for pet care businesses covers the tools and habits to keep your books lender-ready. Since most small business financing involves a personal guarantee, it’s worth understanding your Personal Financial Statement before you need it.
The Best First Step
If your slow season is on the horizon, start with the projection. Map your income and expenses through the year, identify the gap, and decide how you’ll cover it through reserves, financing, or new revenue streams.
Stephen’s advice for anyone starting a grooming, boarding, or daycare business applies just as well to established owners: “Diversify your services. Go into it planning separate revenue streams from daycare, boarding, grooming, and enrichment or training.”
Then bring your lender into the conversation early. “As a lender, one of my favorite things to do is work with owners to find solutions for what they want to accomplish, whether that’s expanding, acquiring, or managing cash flow,” Ashlee says. “We’re a team, and we want you to use all the resources we have so you can be successful.”
The off-season is coming either way. The owners who plan for it get to spend those quieter months improving their business instead of worrying about it.
Ready to build your cash flow plan before the slow season arrives? Connect with Ashlee Moore and the pet care lending team at First Financial Bank to explore financing options tailored to your business.
