Ryan Oller and Jennifer Hope of Pet Wants Scappoose & Vancouver

Meet Ryan Oller and Jennifer Hope of Pet Wants Scappoose & Vancouver

Both Ryan and Jennifer brought experience in sales and business development with them when they made the decision to purchase a Pet Wants franchise. Ryan specialized in business development and selling meat and seafood for an upscale grocer all over the world. Jennifer worked in office management in the radio industry, as well as for her family’s franchise business in the window covering industry. 

Classmates throughout junior high and high school, Ryan and Jennifer reconnected at their 20-year class reunion and the rest is history. It was not long after that reunion that Ryan joined Jennifer working for her family’s business where he served as the General Manager for three territories of a Budget Blinds franchise, while Jennifer was the Office Manager. 

There came a time, however, when Ryan asked Jennifer, “Are we going to do window coverings the rest of our lives?” He describes himself as a “go-getter with a lot of ideas,” and Jennifer was convinced that the only way he would be satisfied professionally was to run his own business. Because he had a desire to get back into a “need industry,” one that could withstand economic downturns, etc. Ryan returned to his roots and began to research grocery-type business opportunities. 

It was when he stumbled upon a “half-grocery store, half-sporting goods store” in Alaska that Ryan started thinking of ways to adapt that model to his interests. Influenced by his love of his dogs, Ryan considered a half-grocery, half-pet store concept. This eventually evolved into researching pet supply business opportunities and this is how Ryan and Jennifer discovered Pet Wants. 

Why did they choose Pet Wants over other pet supply franchises? Ryan said that he was really drawn to Pet Wants because the concept seemed both recession-proof and COVID proof with its contactless delivery system. Also, Ryan notes, “I came from a high-end organic grocery, and the fact that Pet Wants offered a high-quality pet food product unique to the marketplace appealed to me.” 

Opening their first Pet Wants in August 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Ryan and Jennifer admittedly asked themselves, “are we genius, or crazy?” Well, it appears genius. Ryan and Jennifer now own three Pet Wants territories, including Scappoose and the entire city of Vancouver, and have set five franchise records in their first year of business. 

Ryan and Jennifer are not shy about their goals for their business. “When we first looked into owning a franchise, Ryan said he wanted to own the West Coast,” notes Jennifer. While they didn’t plan to expand into multiple territories quite as fast as they did, they jumped on the opportunity when they could and have not looked back. 

Their territories, Scappoose and two territories that make up the entire city of Vancouver, span “two different states with a big river running between them.” Because the Oregon market doesn’t really identify with the Washington side and vice versa, Ryan and Jennifer have chosen to operate under both names for marketability. And they “absolutely would like to expand more.” 

Ryan says his favorite thing about owning a Pet Wants franchise is “the freedom to construct our business as we see fit from the ground up.” After all, Jennifer says, “we are building our own dream, not someone else’s.” They credit Ryan’s business development background with giving them ideas to help them grow their business. When he was working with others to grow their business, he recognized that “I can lead a horse to water but I can’t make them drink. Here we get to do everything as we see fit.”

Pet Wants has provided the brand and the product, but Ryan and Jennifer went into franchise ownership knowing that “this was going to be us building our own business.” Ryan and Jennifer say that their previous work in a franchise system prepared them for the amount of work required for them to meet their goals. “We want to be the number one franchise in the system. That’s our goal and we spend every day working towards that goal.”