Chaz Olajide on how her stylish pet accessories website turns over six figures in sales.
Chaz Olajide's tips for success:
- Clarify your purpose
Having a definitive mission - to amplify the voices of women and BIPOC-led brands - helps crystalize my company's unique selling proposition.
- Try storytelling
Telling the story of our mission helps customers relate to us in a personal way.
- Stick to your mission
My mission acts a compass, helping me navigate partnerships and collaborations.
When Chaz Olajide brought Winston her small, feisty, scrappy Schnauzer home in 2013, she was struck by two things: the scarcity of fun, contemporary dog accessories, and the stunning lack of diversity in the pet industry, from veterinarians through to the imagery used by pet brands.
“I’m talking [about a lack of diversity everywhere:] bloggers, even stock photos of people with dogs,” she remembers.
And so Olajide set about creating Sir Dogwood, a welcoming, pet-focused space “for people who look like me,” she says, “for voices that sound like mine, and to move the needle so the industry looks different.”
Olajide spent a year researching the concept, while working as a communications manager at one of Chicago’s contemporary art museums, before launching Sir Dogwood in 2016.
Today the six-figure brand ships more than 1,300 orders of dog accessories, from cardigans and collars to shirts, scarves – even sunglasses – to pet owners around the world annually.
Bringing brands on board
While it might have been the gaping lack of diversity and a mission to amplify the work and voices of women and BIPOC-led brands that drove her to start Sir Dogwood, Olajide’s pitch when initially approaching brands she wanted to stock didn’t include a discussion about diversity.
“What worked for me was to focus my pitch on my vision and aesthetic for my shop as well as convincing brands to agree to smaller minimum quantity orders where possible since I was just starting out,” she says.
It was an approach that resonated with smaller brands, as she explains: “For the most, part smaller brands seemed to get it; larger brands were not as keen to work together because I wasn't interested in the old-school retail model of having a brick and mortar [space]”.
Curating a unique aesthetic
Sir Dogwood stands out from other pet brands, both by being a BIPOC-led brand and because of its contemporary range of products. “I want to align our look with what you might see in women’s wear and children’s wear – and stay away from paw prints. People aren’t used to seeing that level of quality for dogs,” Olajide says.
And she is constantly researching new brands. “I gravitate towards those that not only put out high quality products with a clean, modern aesthetic, but [those that] feature unique designs or styles I haven't seen anywhere else”.
The importance of original imagery
Once Olajide has taken on a new brand, she makes sure the accessories are presented in the best way possible by photographing them on cute pets.
While her first dog Winston is no longer here, Beatrix, who joined her family in 2019, features heavily.
"Photography is a visual tool with which we can underscore our aesthetic."
“Photography is hugely important for the brand; it serves as a visual tool with which we can underscore our aesthetic,” says Olajide, adding that original photography also helps on social media.
“Most of the images of Beatrix on our socials were taken by me; a handful are taken by a professional photographer we use once or twice a year for branding shoots.”
Partnering with pet brands
With limited advertising budgets in the early days, Olajide had to be creative to get the word out about Sir Dogwood.
That’s where partnerships came in. “One of our main social media strategies is taking advantage of partnerships as much as possible, really identifying like-minded brands and leveraging each other’s audiences. Giveaways are low cost, and we see increased followers and a return on investment immediately,” she says.
Last September, for example, Sir Dogwood joined forces with three other brands – nutritional dog food brand Sundays For Dogs, and treat brands CocoJune and Littlest Pet Bakery – to offer a giveaway. That day, Sir Dogwood and saw its highest levels of social engagement for the month.
The power of PR
During the 2020 Black Lives Matter civil-rights movement, the brand started being included in lists of black-owned businesses that ran in NewYorkMagazine.com, Buzzfeed.com and Elle.com. This not only delivered “social proof” (or proof that others love Sir Dogwood and its products) but new audiences too. [In fact] we see an immediate increase in traffic to the site directly from each piece of online press we receive.”
Since 2019, sales have doubled each year, and Olajide is proud of the support the business offers pet welfare charities including Chicago-based One Tail at a Time, which is not only working to make pet ownership more accessible but also addressing the lack of diversity in veterinary care.
The importance of accessibility
For a brand focused on diversity, accessibility was an important consideration for Olajide. She partnered with Afterpay in 2018, saying that it was clear that payments being over time was a “huge trend”.
"Afterpay removes the barriers between browsing and purchasing."
“I wanted to make sure I was accommodating those shoppers [who wanted to spread payments]. People love flexibility and I wanted to give them that in how they wanted to pay. It removes the barriers between browsing and purchasing.”
While Sir Dogwood has grown to be a success, Olajide, who now lives between Chicago and Amsterdam, says the biggest personal challenge has been overcoming ‘imposter syndrome’. “It affects me personally, rather than the business,” she says. “It’s a mind shift, [for me], to begin to [recognise] all that I’ve achieved.”
Olajide’s top tips
Having a definitive mission – to amplify the work and voices of women and BIPOC-led brands – helps to crystalize my company's unique selling proposition. Our core values and beliefs are integral to our business and a reflection of everything we do.
Storytelling is a key element of our branding, and telling the story of our mission helps customers relate to us in a more personal, evocative, and emotional way.
My mission acts as a compass I use to navigate potential partnerships and collaborations (deciding on whether or not to partner with certain organizations or whether to align my company with a particular brand, for instance).
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