Balanced Growth Starts With Who You Serve

Most conversations about “balancing profit and social responsibility” stay at the level of slogans. Brands put cause campaigns in their marketing, donated a percentage of proceeds, and hoped it would be enough to signal that they cared.

In reality, customers and employees are paying close attention to whether a company’s daily behavior matches its values. Nowhere is that more visible than in the pet industry, where the stakes are both emotional and practical. Pets are not abstract “consumers.” They are family. People want to know that the brands they choose honor that relationship.

On The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Joe Dent, CEO of Everything Pets, a division of Loyalty Brands, which includes Zoomin Grooming, Salty Dog, Cooper Scoopers, and Hike Doggy. Joe brings more than three decades of experience across pet retail and franchising, from running thousand-store operations to leading focused, service-driven brands. His story is a clear example of what it looks like to build a business that is unapologetically profitable and genuinely purpose driven at the same time.

Profit And Purpose Are Both Non-Negotiable

When Joe talks about balancing profit and social responsibility, he does not treat them as competing priorities. He sees them as two parts of the same promise.

On one side, there is a clear economic engine. Franchise partners need strong unit-level economics, support systems, and growth paths that allow them to build real wealth and independence. On the other side, there is a deep responsibility to animals, pet parents, and local communities.

Leaders often get stuck by overcorrecting in one direction:

• Chasing margin and cost cutting so aggressively that they lose emotional connection with customers

• Or pouring all their energy into community work without building a sustainable business underneath

Joe’s perspective is simple. The healthiest brands do both. They follow proven systems, watch their numbers, and still let passion for pets lead the way. Profit becomes the fuel that allows them to keep serving at a high level year after year.

Designing A Pet Ecosystem, Not Just Individual Brands

Everything Pets is built as what Joe calls a “pet ecosystem.” Each brand solves a real problem for pet parents in a way that adds convenience, care, and community.

• Mobile grooming that comes to the customer’s driveway and reduces stress for anxious or aging pets

• Brick-and-mortar salons that act as a local hub where people can stop in for a treat, a belly rub, or a conversation

• Services like poop-scooping, pet sitting, and dog hiking that keep homes safer and pets healthier while giving busy families peace of mind

The throughline is thoughtful design. These are not random services bolted together. They are pieces of a system that makes it easier to be a good pet parent when life is already full.

Social responsibility is built into the model, not layered on top. Clean yards reduce environmental risk for kids and pets. Regular grooming catches health issues early. Group hikes give dogs exercise and socialization they would not otherwise get. The result is a business that creates value for communities every day, not just during a campaign.

Stories That Redefine Success

One of Joe’s favorite parts of the work happens on ordinary mornings. A bright blue Hike Doggy bus pulls into a neighborhood, and dogs who recognize the color practically sprint to the door. Some sit watching out the window waiting for their turn. The joy is obvious before any revenue is counted.

Another story involves an older dog who can no longer go on hikes because of health challenges. The team still takes time at pickup to sit on the floor, offer affection, and make that dog feel included while they load up the younger sibling for the trail. No one sends a report about that. There is no line item in a dashboard for “fifteen minutes of love on a Tuesday morning.”

Yet those moments quietly redefine what “success” looks like. They build trust, loyalty, and emotional connection that no discount can replicate. They also remind franchise partners why they got into the pet world in the first place. Profit matters, but it is not the only scoreboard.

Systems That Turn Values Into Habits

Good intentions are not enough to sustain social responsibility at scale. Joe is clear that what separates consistent brands from inconsistent ones is systems.

At Everything Pets and across Loyalty Brands, those systems include:

• Clear top ten operating practices for each brand that are known to drive outcomes

• Routine follow-ups with customers after services like hikes, grooming, and lawn treatments to check on the experience

• Structures that allow franchise partners to grow into multi-unit and area roles when they are ready

• A franchisee and groomer-first mentality that treats frontline people as partners, not just labor

There is also a simple principle that runs through all of it: FTS, “follow the system.” In Joe’s experience, the franchisees who thrive long term are the ones who follow the model ninety-seven to ninety-eight percent of the time. There is room for local nuance, but not for casually rewriting what works.

By embedding care into the system itself, Everything Pets keeps social responsibility from becoming a side project that depends on the mood of an individual leader. It becomes the way the business runs.

Scaling Empathy And Purpose Across A Franchise Network

A common concern for leaders is whether empathy and purpose can scale across dozens or hundreds of locations. Joe’s experience suggests that they can, but not by accident.

The foundation is clarity. Everything Pets and Loyalty Brands anchor their work in simple mission statements, including “Have fun improving lives” and “Make pets as happy as they make us.” Those phrases are not copy on a wall. They are active filters for decisions.

From there, scaling purpose requires:

• Choosing franchise partners who are genuinely passionate about the work, not just the numbers

• Creating growth paths that reward long term commitment, not short term extraction

• Encouraging franchisees to build relationships with local rescues and community organizations

• Celebrating stories of impact at conferences, in internal communications, and in everyday conversations

The biggest challenge is not getting people to care. Most pet entrepreneurs already do. The challenge is aligning that care with disciplined operations so that empathy is visible in every customer interaction without sacrificing financial health.

When Love Becomes A Business Strategy

In the pet world, love is not a metaphor. It is the engine.

The explosive growth of the industry over the past few decades is directly tied to how people now see their pets - as family members who deserve safety, joy, and attention. Everything Pets leans into that reality instead of pretending it is purely transactional.

For Joe, love in business shows up in tangible ways:

• Staying close to franchisees and frontline teams and listening to their stories

• Designing services that reduce guilt for busy pet parents and improve quality of life for animals

• Holding high standards for how pets are treated, even when that makes operations more complex

• Helping partners build lives they are proud of, not just units they can sell

Love does not replace discipline. It informs it. It keeps leaders honest about who the work is truly for.

Key Takeaways

• Profit And Purpose Can Strengthen Each Other
  Sustainable growth comes from business models where financial success and community impact are built together, not traded off.

• Design For A Whole Ecosystem, Not One Transaction
  When brands work together to solve real problems for customers, social responsibility becomes part of the daily service, not a side initiative.

• Stories Are Strategic
  Everyday moments of care and delight are not just “nice to have.” They build trust and loyalty that compound over time.

• Systems Make Values Real
  Clear operating models, follow-up routines, and growth structures are what turn empathy and responsibility into consistent habits across locations.

• Love Is A Legitimate Leadership Lens
  In people-centric industries, love is not a soft idea. It is a competitive advantage that attracts the right partners, retains the right customers, and keeps the work meaningful.

Final Thoughts

Balancing profit and social responsibility is no longer a future aspiration. It is the standard customers and employees already expect. The question for leaders is whether they will treat that balance as a marketing angle or as the core design challenge of their business.

Joe Dent’s work with Everything Pets shows that you can build a franchise system that grows, scales, and remains deeply human at the same time. When you follow the system, honor your mission, and keep the well-being of people and animals at the center, profit stops competing with purpose and starts amplifying it.

Check out our full conversation with Joe Dent on The Bliss Business Podcast.