Why Garrett Dewan Is Expanding His petbar Franchise in Austin

When Garrett Dewan and his wife, Aisling, started thinking about their next chapter, they wanted more than just a new business. After years in the corporate world, Dewan was ready for something more personal — something they could build together and truly feel connected to. That search led them to petbar, a boutique pet grooming franchise that felt like the right fit from the start.

“It started with just wanting to own our own business,” Dewan said. “I’ve been a corporate guy for a long time, and we started thinking about creating some level of passive income on the side, giving an opportunity for my wife to get involved in something and for us to kind of build something together.”

The couple explored several franchise options with the help of a consultant before narrowing it down to petbar.

Franchise selection process

“We’re animal people,” Dewan said. “We have three dogs and two cats. So the idea of the dog wash and grooming concept was something I had never really seen before. You’ve seen a one-off tub here and there in a shop, but a whole store dedicated to bathing and having bathers was a new idea to us. We thought, ‘Hey, this is pretty cool.’”

They flew to Dallas to meet the petbar team, visited several locations and left confident in the brand and its model.

“We loved the shops — it just looked like a great model. So, we felt pretty good about getting behind it,” Dewan said.

Austin location launch

Their first location, petbar Austin-Cedar Park, opened in September 2023. It didn’t take long to see results — but that didn’t mean it was easy.

“It was a lot of learning. We’d never done this before,” Dewan said. “You go into a business like this and you find out you’re your own marketing, your own accounting, your own hiring team.”

The key was finding the right people — and giving them the tools to succeed.

“We got very lucky at the beginning with the first two groomers we hired,” Dewan said. “They were extremely talented and great with social media. They started creating little videos and reels that we shared on Instagram. Those started to get spread around, and people were coming in and showing us the video like, ‘Hey, I want my dog like this.’”

The Dewans also focused on building a team that worked well together and cared deeply about the customer experience.

“We did a lot of fit and feel when hiring to make sure there was a gel — that people would get along,” Dewan said. “We just stayed focused on those core things: good quality grooms, a staff that worked well together and keeping the clientele as happy as possible.”

That commitment shows in the numbers. Cedar Park now boasts a 4.9-star rating on Google with more than 350 reviews.

“To me, the measurement of repeat bookings, membership count and Google are really the client feedback,” Dewan said. “If you do the right things in the business, keep people happy and let the word of mouth spread, the other pieces will fall into place.”

Expansion plans

In 2024, the opportunity arose to purchase a second location in nearby Austin–Lakeline. While the store hadn’t previously performed well, Dewan saw potential — and a chance to apply everything they’d learned.

“I felt like Aisling and I had figured out a bit of a formula for how to make this thing work and grow,” he said. “We knew what we were doing enough at that point that it felt like a good time to expand.”

The store’s online presence had been neglected, so the team wasted no time building it back up.

“With Lakeline, from the very beginning, we started pushing every client who came in the door: ‘Hey, you’ll get a free nail buff if you give us a review,’” Dewan said. “We went from almost nothing — I think it’s up to 150 reviews now. So we knew where to focus.”

Now operating two petbar locations, Dewan is thinking about what comes next.

“If we can get Cedar Park and Lakeline exactly where we want them to be and be steady for a little period of time, I think South Austin, Mueller, West Lake, Tarrytown, Allandale — there’s definitely opportunity,” he said. “We did sort of have three in mind when we went into this initially.”

But for now, the focus is on continuing to build something customers and their pets can count on.

“It’s an awesome business to be a part of,” Dewan said. “The clients are fantastic. You get to know the dogs, you get to know the people. I had one lady call me one day — I thought I was getting a complaint — and she said, ‘I just wanted to tell you how much I love your team. You’ve done a great job hiring.’ It’s those kinds of moments that are pretty special. I don’t think you get that in a corporate environment.”