Three years ago, the idea of running her own business was just a dream for Zhanna Mykhalets. Thanks to her persistence and love for animals, that dream has now become a reality.
Zhanna used to live in an apartment, but her family later built a private house. Before a fence was installed around the yard, animals from the street began coming in, and the family regularly fed them. It was Zhanna’s sister who suggested that this care for animals could become a source of income. Gradually, Zhanna’s love for animals grew into a business. She opened a pet boarding service called Hvostyk Home, initially offering only a limited number of spaces.
“People started contacting me when they were going on holiday or travelling for work and had no one to leave their pets with. Many of my clients are not local residents but internally displaced people from eastern and central Ukraine,” Zhanna says.
Over time, there were no longer enough places for everyone, and she began considering an expansion of the business. This year, she participated in a business training program alongside other participants, aimed at strengthening the economic independence of women from military and veteran families in the Khmelnytskyi and Lviv regions. The programme was implemented as part of the Women, Peace, Security: Acting Together project by the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, with financial support from the British Government and the assistance of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Office of the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy.
After completing the course, Zhanna wrote a business plan and received a grant from the Ukrainian Women’s Fund. With the grant funding, she established additional spaces for animals, purchased pet food, and increased the number of available accommodations by threefold. Her home now offers 14 well-equipped spaces for cats and dogs. The indoor spaces are equipped with air conditioning and a mini pressure washer, while the yard features a lawn mower and a video camera for monitoring. On average, clients leave their pets for about a week.
Zhanna promotes her services through websites and social media, but the most effective advertising comes from people who have already used her pet care service.
“There is little competition in this field, but there is a strong demand. I gladly take in animals, usually for a few days at a time. Even though they are not my own, the animals feel cared for, and I easily build trust with them,” Zhanna says.
Zhanna plans to continue developing her business and creating comfortable conditions so that all places in her pet hotel are consistently occupied.
