Chris Nelson’s experience in the pet industry started at the age of 17, when he began breeding parrots for stores. His first job was at a local store where he eventually became the manager of their second location. After majoring in veterinary medicine with a focus on biology and aquaculture at Michigan Technological University, Chris transferred to Florida and found himself once again in the pet industry when a business acquaintance needed help launching her store.
Chris set up the entire store from scratch; he handled all aspects of the business from build-out to ordering, hiring and training employees, payroll, accounting, advertising and marketing. As the store progressed over the next four years, and his experience grew, he was hired by a local pet supply distributor.
There he was responsible for selling to and educating his accounts regarding new products to increase market share through product placement. He also coordinated advertising, promotions, and special events for both individual stores and entire territories. He worked with manufacturer representatives to assist his accounts in growing product lines such as Nutro Max, ProPlan, and Sensible Choice dog foods among others. In the twelve years of wholesale sales, he frequently was top salesman and built up his territory by offering extensive product knowledge, excellent customer service, integrity, loyalty, and dependability.
When a friend started to manufacture a line of bird toys and asked for help in marketing, Chris and his partner set up the bird toy distribution company and branched out independently throughout the entire state of Florida. They were able to grow the business to more than double the distribution.
Upon leaving wholesale sales and distribution, Chris joined Pet Supermarket and managed a chain store for them for four years. In 2002, one of Chris’ best friends and mentor offered him the position and challenge of overhauling Pets Unlimited—his forty-plus-year-established business into a more functional and profitable venture. Chris worked mostly at night for four months tearing down walls, setting up new gondolas, merchandising everything and creating new traffic flow patterns.  Chris supervised and trained employees, coordinated human resources, ordered supplies, merchandised the store, and participated in sales and consumer education. While fulfilling his role at the pet store, an opportunity arose to purchase a small pond maintenance business, which he incorporated into the pet store. He was able to double the maintenance business in the first year and grow the store’s pond supplies business by twenty percent. Chris excelled in pond construction and maintenance. His expertise in water chemistry, filtration mechanics, and pond design was self-taught. He also handled all aspects of training/supervising employees and bookkeeping for the business. | 
