MY BIZ: Cedar Rapids couple doing what they love

CEDAR RAPIDS — Dea Jo Ray’s career took an unexpected turn about a dozen years ago.

“It was time for me to go back to college to learn more about graphic design,” she recalled one recent morning. “I was about 42, 43, then, and I thought I didn’t want to go back to college at 43.”

A lifelong animal lover, Ray, 55, had been pet-sitting for friends and family.

“There was plenty of people who did boarding. Nobody offered in-home care back in 2010,” she said. “I just had a goal that if this doesn’t take off in six months, I’m going to go back to college, and this just ballooned, because nobody offered in-home pet-sitting then.”

Darryl Ray mows the lawn at a client’s home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Darryl and his wife Dea Jo Ray operate a pair of businesses, The Yard Dr. and The Petsitter, which offer yard care and petsitting services respectively. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

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Dea Jo Ray feeds pets dogs at a client’s home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Dea Jo and her husband Darryl Ray operate a pair of businesses, The Yard Dr. and The Petsitter, which offer yard care and petsitting services respectively. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

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Dea Jo Ray pets a bearded dragon lizard at a client’s home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Dea Jo and her husband Darryl Ray operate a pair of businesses, The Yard Dr. and The Petsitter, which offer yard care and petsitting services respectively. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

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Dea Jo Ray feeds a bearded dragon lizard at a client’s home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Dea Jo and her husband Darryl Ray operate a pair of businesses, The Yard Dr. and The Petsitter, which offer yard care and petsitting services respectively. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

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Darryl Ray mows the lawn at a client’s home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Darryl and his wife Dea Jo Ray operate a pair of businesses, The Yard Dr. and The Petsitter, which offer yard care and petsitting services respectively. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

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Dea Jo Ray cares for a tortoise at a client’s home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Dea Jo and her husband Darryl Ray operate a pair of businesses, The Yard Dr. and The Petsitter, which offer yard care and petsitting services respectively. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

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Ray’s business, The Petsitter, was well-established when her husband hit a similar crossroads. Darryl Ray was managing a Marion pizza restaurant in 2019 when surgery required him to take some time off.

“I tried to locate somebody to do our lawn, and the price was so astronomical,” said Darryl Ray, 57. “I thought, ‘If they’re willing to do that to me, some of these companies are doing the same thing to other people.’”

After recovery, Darryl Ray began doing yard work for some of those other people, launching The Yard Dr. that fall. As a fallback, he continued to manage the restaurant for a while.

“I was burning the candle at both ends,” he said. “I went from three to 11 clients, and it just took off. It was stop doing that, or stop doing the restaurant. We decided if we’re going to put the effort in, let’s do it for our business.”

Growing business

While Dea Jo Ray operates the Petsitter on her own, both are co-owners of The Yard Dr.

Both businesses offer a range of services and prices, allowing customers to select what they need. At The Yard Dr., the Rays do everything from seasonal cleanup to power washing, painting and snow removal. While Darryl Ray maintains some large commercial properties, he focused on smaller residential customers to grow the business.

“A lot of times I can do four residential jobs in the time it can take me to do one large account,” he said. “Sometimes it’s wiser to take those smaller accounts. You can do more in that one day.”

It’s not all dogs and cats for Dea Jo Ray, who’s cared for pythons, tortoises, backyard chickens and bearded dragon lizards.

“I always do a meet and greet ahead of time,” she said. “I learn what the dogs like, and it gets us on the same page. I don’t think I’ve ever started a job without meeting the dogs and cats first.”

Long days

It can make for some long days in the busy season.

“I usually start my day at 6, and I’ve gone as late as 11 at night,” Dea Jo Ray said. “During spring break, if I have multiple families I go to, I usually let dogs go out three times a day. I might get a two-hour break in between, then I’m out again, taking care of all the clients, then I get another two-hour break and then I’m out again.”

The Yard Dr.’s no-job-too-small approach builds lasting business, the Rays have found.

“We might start out mow-trim, and they’ll call up and say, ‘We need our yard cleaned up, can you trim the bushes?,’ ” Dea Jo Ray said.

“It’s being in a relationship with the client,” Darryl Ray said. “After the derecho, we did some fencing, we did some tree clearing.”

The couple do most of the jobs themselves, although Darryl Ray may call on their son and a friend for larger jobs during the busy season. Both advise would-be business owners to focus on something they enjoy doing.

“Do something you have a passion for and love because your entire life is going to be thrown into it,” Dea Jo Ray said. “I love animals, and for me it’s not that I have to go to work again, it’s I do what I love.”

As for Darryl Ray, “I love to see the before and after, especially going to a property where they say, ‘Can you just clean this up and give me a nice clean look?’ And you get there and you have volunteer trees next to the fence line. When you get done and you see that person with a smile on their face and that appreciation, that’s great.”