Article by Casey Blevins, Unleashed Joy Intern
Hello! My name is Casey Blevins and I’m the new summer intern at Unleashed Joy. This internship is another step towards earning my Agricultural Business Management degree at West Virginia University. With one semester left before graduation, I would like to soak up all the real-world business experiences that I can. I currently have another internship for the Department of Resource Management at West Virginia University, so I split my time between Maryland and West Virginia. Now I know that Unleashed Joy might seem like a strange internship for someone who is majoring in agricultural business management, but that is just the name of the major. The main focus is business management, it’s just taught using agricultural examples.
Unleashed Joy intern Casey Blevins with her rescued German Shepherd, Chloe
So why this internship? Working at Unleashed Joy is the perfect opportunity for me to experience the ins and outs of a small business – from the day-to-day operations, to learning QuickBooks basics and using social media to our marketing advantage. As well as gaining the work experience that I need, I am truly interested in learning the specialty dog training methods and care that are taught and instilled in Unleashed Joy’s Daytime Playtime dog daycare and training classes.
So far I have just been working at Daytime Playtime, the doggy daycare portion of the company. I sometimes pick up or drop off any dogs that are attending that day and, while at the Unleashed Joy facility, I assist in monitoring all the dogs to ensure proper play, dog safety, etc. I also play with the dogs and make sure everyone is getting enough attention and playtime in. There can be up to about 10 dogs there at one time so I will take each dog out to go to the bathroom and get some fresh air.
Now that it has been a few weeks I will start to learn the other aspects of the business. I will start attending training classes, and from that I hope to learn the techniques of positive dog training. I have my own dog and I know that with training her I would only feel comfortable using these positive methods. I’ve noticed a change recently in the amount of things that dog owners are willing to do for their dogs, and I think that positive dog training will be the most desired form within the next few years. Dogs are like family and as dog owners we only want what’s best for them. Aside from the training I will also be starting to look at and learn about the marketing, financial and technological aspects of the business. I hope to pick up some fundamentals there that I can build on in the future.
As far as the learning the technology aspect, I use technology and have a basic understanding of it and can pick things up pretty quickly. However, I am unfamiliar with how businesses typically use technology to their advantage. Technology plays a large role in the finance and marketing areas of the business. I hope to become more fluent with programs such as QuickBooks, the aspects of web hosting and how we can use technology and social media to promote this business.
So by the end of this summer I want to know Unleashed Joy as a business inside and out. From the daily operations, to financial management, marketing, positive training, and Daytime Playtime doggy daycare, I want to be familiar with it all. I will have a few more posts throughout the summer, so check back. At the end of each week you can find me at Daytime Playtime and, starting this week, training classes! Hope to see you around!
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