"Pet"ting it All on the Line

Posted December 9, 2008, 10:16 am in Career


She had a successful career and could have sat back and let life pass her by. But Donna Moore had a dream and risked it all to follow through -- quitting her job and starting a new company that's really gone to the dogs. And cats.


Moore designs and manufactures pet-themed products, everything from books and greeting cards to playing cards and board games. And you've gotta love the company's name: Chateau E.I.E.I.O. Moore, a Growing Bolder member, also donates 10 percent of her net profits to animal-related, non-profit organizations.

Moore says she had to make a decision -- stay with a job that made her unhappy or risk it all to find what really made her feel alive. Is it scary to take on the tough economy? You bet! But Moore tells Growing Bolder, "I won't be deterred from my dream of having my own business, with my own products that are whimsical and entertaining. Creating products that bring a smile to someone's face and generate funds for animal-related non-profits has given me the validation I was looking for."


And she's already succeeding, selling several products to big name stores like Barnes & Noble, Bullfish of Winter Park, Florida, Uptown Dog, Miller's Hardware, the Orlando Art Museum and more.

Moore is a great example of the Growing Bolder spirit. She tells us that when she founded her company in December 2005, she did so to reaffirm to herself that she was going to be successful -- in her words, "make it happen." Moore says, "I made a commitment to myself that every day, I would do at least one thing that took me closer to my goal, no matter how small that one thing was. It could be writing something, researching something, brainstorming -- anything was OK as long as I made time to give it thought."

In fact, the original business plan called for Chataeu E.I.E.I.O. to be a boarding house/dog park, but the housing market and economic troubles of the last few years were too challenging. "To keep my dream alive, I began working on my book. I just started writing names down. Then I started researching what different words meant and it grew from there."

It's a project that grew from a love of animals. "Growing up, we had a plethora of pets," Moore says. "For a long time, my jobs kept me from having pets, as I traveled a lot. One day, I decided that I had compromised enough and got a bird. Then I adopted two cats. Then I got a dog."


The menagerie continued to grow, although these days, Moore is down to one cat -- "the sweetest little angel" -- and two dogs, Lily and Lola.

So what is Chateau E.I.E.I.O all about? Here are some of the products that will be in stores soon:


"Naming Your Pet," a book that lists names and descriptions of the type of animals that might be best suited for the names.


A 2009 Animal Antics calendar, which lets you in on what's really happening in our furry friends' brains.

"Color Your Pet" is a coloring book, and Moore even offers pet sympathy cards called "From the Big House," which let animal lovers say goodbye to their pets.

Moore says she's also getting ready to unveil pet playing cards and a dice game, all through Chateau E.I.E.I.O. Her Web site is now up and running at http://www.chateaueieio.com/. "Pets absolutely own your heart," Moore tells Growing Bolder. "I can't imagine life without them. And for me, what an inspiration they have been."

Want to learn more? Visit Donna's Growing Bolder profile page!


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