ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – After the pandemic darkened her business in 2020, a local dog groomer has re-emerged with a new location.
Angie Johnson has been grooming and taking care of dogs for 35 years. Thanks to a long-term vision, a lot of patience and a ton of sweat equity, her business, All Paws Beauty Salon, will reopen after three years at 4326 Sandy Hollow Road, Rockford.
“When you can’t work for two months, it’s really hard,” she said of how quickly the pandemic took its toll on her operation.
In early 2020, her business was really starting to take off. Then came March 20 of that year. When Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that Illinois would be under a stay-at-home order the next day, Johnson’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. One by one, her clients canceled, revenue quickly dried up and she closed her doors.
”I had to make a really tough decision to shut it down and go work at another facility,” she said.
For three years, Johnson rented a small room at Pampered Pet in Rockford so she could keeps some of her clients.
“And now it’s time to reinvent,” she said.
And although grooming was her bread and butter, Johnson said it was especially hard saying goodbye to the dogs that were part of her day care and boarding operations.
“It was tough,” she said. “It was kind of like losing a family member. Lots of tears.”
While the pandemic was a very uncertain time for All Paws, it did bring Johnson’s daughter and a friend into the business full time.
“I was working a different job before I started with my mom,” said Bailey Johnson. “And with COVID happening, it kind of pushed me to kind of go with her [so we can] do this mother-daughter kind of thing.”
Jenna Tripp has been grooming dogs for nearly two years and is also joining the team.
”We’re all just kind of going from a small place to much bigger place,” Tripp said. “We’re really happy about it, and we all work really well together.”
Johnson said while she will no long be in the boarding business, she plans to reopen her dog day care once she gets established at the new shop.
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