Pet Owners Flock to Lidia's For the 'Magic Touch'

You know you have a successful business when you don’t have a website, yet you’ve managed to build a strong following in a very short amount of time just through word-of-mouth.

That’s certainly the case when it comes to . The Cross Creek Boulevard shop has enjoyed a huge following ever since it opened nearly five years ago. “We started to advertise, but once customers started talking, we stopped,” said Lidia Santana-Armstrong.

Lidia’s customers said it’s no surprise the business does well. “I actually followed her from a (a different) store she was working at,” said Ann Gable, in to pick up Jack Frost, her bichon frise. According to her, Lidia truly is special.

“She does have a good touch, she’s very gentle because Jack is a very gentle dog,’” she said, adding that Mr. Frost always looks forward to his visits to Lidia. “He’s always very calm when I come to pick him up, he never has any signs of trauma.”

It's such comments that make the Armstrongs very happy, as they designed the shop to be as relaxing as possible.

“This is just not a business to us, this is Lidia’s life,” said Lidia's husband and business partner, Kevin Armstrong, as he pointed to all her awards and certifications on the office wall, going all the way back to when she was a teen living in the Dominican Republic. "When you go into a regular grooming salon, they're kind of sterile. But when you walk in here it's just like a living room. ... Our whole idea was to make it seem like the pet was walking into a home, and not some place where they would get stressed.”

Though business is great, Lidia's husband said it took a lot of planning, dreaming and just plain hard work to get the details just right. Oddly enough, it kind of all started on Sept. 11, 2001.

Lidia's husband was working just across the street from the Pentagon as a systems engineer when the terrorists attacked it. He and Lidia had already been thinking for some time about making some fundamental changes to their lives. At the time, Lidia had been working as an animal groomer, something she had been doing all her life. Knowing Lidia's dream was to open her own pet grooming salon one day, the Armstrongs decided to do just that.

“I also had an MBA and so I really wanted to see if I had one,” Kevin said with a laugh. After crunching some numbers and talking to friends, they decided to move to Tampa. “It took us about three years and four trips to get down here because we scouted Hawaii, California, Florida, looking all around for a place that was warm and where the numbers worked,” he said.

About 98% of their business is dogs, though they also groom cats.

Lidia’s offers all types of services for pets, including haircuts, flea and tick shampoos, as well as gland, teeth, nail and ear cleaning. They also can demat fur, and dye it as well. They also honor special requests.

More Information
Address: 10341 Cross Creek Blvd., Suite A
Phone number: (813) 907-5080
New Tampa Patch directory listing: