Working With Animals Is What Joanne Lee Loves Best

From following her boss’ instructions in her earlier jobs, Joanne Lee is now making numerous selections at paintings on a daily basis.

Lee, 32, is the executive advertising and marketing officer at JomPaw, a Malaysian on-line platform that provides an actual house surroundings for pets, and connects puppy fanatics with puppy carrier suppliers.

It used to be based in 2017 through Lee’s buddy Agnez Lim – who’s the CEO of the organisation – when she realised that there have been no longer pet-sitting services and products in Malaysia. Within a month, Lim couldn’t stay alongside of the overpowering call for, so she roped in two of her pals, Lee and Ngan Szu Mun (leader operations officer) to lend a hand out.

“Agnez and I were in the same college, and we aimed to be vets. That didn’t happen but I graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science from the Australian National University in Canberra so I worked in a hospital as a lab technician,” Lee says.

“From there, I realised it’s an excessively mundane process that barely had any touch with other folks, so I didn’t really feel fulfilled. I sought after to be able the place I may just be in contact with other folks.

Lee merely loves her process as leader advertising and marketing officer at JomPaw. Photo: Joanne Lee

“I was lucky that the hospital then put me in marketing and development, and that’s how I started my journey in communications,” Lee explains, including that she spent 8 years in PR and communications throughout more than one industries.

“It’s my first time working with friends, and I had thought about it long and hard as we might end up becoming enemies. But we share the same values when it comes to problem-solving, so it has worked out well and we rarely argue!” says Lee.

In truth, Lee says, their friendship has modified in an excessively sure approach wherein they get to peer each and every different on a daily basis and are a lot nearer, in comparison to once they had their very own jobs and infrequently noticed each and every different.

As leader advertising and marketing officer, Lee’s duty is to force logo awarenesss via bloggers, off-line occasions, pet-related occasions and puppy expos. She works with a virtual group to get a hold of virtual content material.

“There are competitors locally but we are the only pet service that requires a meet-and-greet. We are ‘match-makers’ and, at the end of the day, it’s about trust. We believe in getting the customer to meet up with the pet-sitter to ensure that both parties are comfortable,” Lee says.

“I’ve been here for two years now, and I would say it’s very different from my previous job where I didn’t have to make decisions. Here, we are masters of improvisation, and there’s a lot of thinking and brain-storming.”

It wasn’t simple for Lee at first, as friends and family weren’t encouraging.

“They were concerned about me wanting to do my own business and the fact that I won’t be able to draw a salary for some time.” However, through the years, Lee says, they changed into extra satisfied.

A puppy lover herself, Lee says she’s glad to have animals be on the centre of all that she is doing, and when she misses having her personal puppy – she used to deal with two canine who’ve since handed on – she will be able to tackle pet-sitting instances.

Besides pet-sitting, additionally they be offering pet-boarding, puppy taxi, dog-training and dog-walking services and products.

“My usual day starts with a cup of coffee, then we do a sales update meeting, find marketing opportunities for dog-training, look for partners with online players, partners with similar-industry players, and also match-making of pet parents and sitters.”

With an amazing selection of shopper enquiries, Lee says, they’ve recruited an agent to lend a hand them within the match-making, to permit her and her two companions extra time to concentrate on the trade type.

While Lee is house through 8pm on a daily basis, she says her lifestyles now may be very other as she is answerable for her personal timing and he or she will get to begin paintings at 10am.

Lee says their final function is to supply higher services and products to all of the puppy oldsters and construct a puppy fanatics’ neighborhood. “Recently, we raised RM600,000 in total from a combination of Penang i4.0 Seed Fund, Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd and pitchIN Crowdfunding,” Lee says.

“At the end of the day,” Lee issues out, “it’s about pet education. In other countries, pets and their owners are sent for obedience classes and there are guidelines, but not locally. So, we are trying to find ways to educate Malaysians on responsible pet ownership.”

The Paper’s People is a fortnightly column about Malaysia-based on a regular basis folks who do what they love. If you’ve somebody to counsel, electronic mail us at star2@thestar.com.my.