Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Virag
Hi Joseph, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I bought a mobile pet grooming franchise back in 2000 up in CT. Escaped the franchise but stayed in the industry with my own units. I started building mobile pet grooming trailers and vans to sell to other pet groomers up there in 2005. After struggling for years up there eventually losing everything I left the family there and moved to McKinney with literally only what fit in my car in 2016. I relaunched the business here in McKinney and now have grown it to a successful and fast growing enterprises here reaching heights I couldn’t achieve in the North East. We continue growing exponentially and have been blessed to be able to purchase property and I’m now working to move into a new and larger space than the current 6 shops we have long ago outgrown. The move cost me my marriage but my children followed me to TX and now the future looks promising,
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
08 caused a BK and foreclosure. With 2 small kids in school it was tough. Keeping them in the same schools is embarrassing when all the parents know what’s happening. No family or friend support so it was a challenge. What doesn’t break you makes you stronger. I keep the business going on life support as we tried to turn things around. I had to make some kind of move in 2016 and I saw the opportunity that the Pet Industry offered. Mobile grooming was growing and continues growing at a great clip.
I read an article a couple years before that listed McKinney as a top place to live. So I packed up the car and moved to DFW. I bounced around living in short term hotels for a few months and then I said to myself you came here to go to McKinney so why aren’t I living in McKinney.
Apartment and shop for the business were rented. Business rebounded and actually improved. I was able to buy a house. Continued growth has now enabled me to purchase land for us to build my own shop on.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We built a niche business in the Mobile Pet Grooming industry. We built it into a brand name among the few out there. It’s a small community. Gryphon Trailers. Expanded to add Concession Vehicles and Tailgating vehicles
Gryphontrailers.com
UGroomConversions.com
Paradise-trailers.com
blacktoptailgating.com
and invented a product with a friend
ACSaftetynet.com
We are looking to expand to add the service business local to DFW
Woofwoofgrooming.com
and a franchise nationally
PremiumPaws.com
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Latchkey kid and we lived on a lake so summer or winter we were in or on the lake. Fishing, swimming, hiking, canoeing, skating etc.
Pricing:
- trailers Starting at $20,000
- vans at $35,ooo
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Gryphontrailers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/viragjoseph/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088059259038
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvcdZYHaEtDgnmtcngua9DQ
- Other: https://Gryphontrailers.com
Image Credits
Joseph Virag
