James Tanner grew up in Miami, Florida, attended Miami Dade Community College, and then Appalachian State University , where he majored in Physics. "Having a physics degree was not my goal in life," Says Tanner," rather I used laws of physics in applying those concepts in the various businesses i opened and operated." Mr Tanner's first foray into entrepreneurship was opening his first Photo Lab in
his hometown of Miami immediately following his tenure at ASU. Having success in the Photo Lab business in Miami, Tanner soon returned to the city of his alma mater, and opened the largest Photo lab in Boone, North Carolina, which he operated for 4 years before selling to a large conglomerate. Fresh off his success, Mr Tanner shifted to what was to become high technology, namely, the emerging PC industry. While being at the forefront of the technology renaissance, Mr Tanner became one of the first Inforrmation Technology Specialists in the Southern United States. Seeing that the business world would soon be completely digital, Mr Tanner began to host websites, along with consulting companies and walking businesses into the digital age. In the mid 1990's Tanner got engaged to a dog lover. This was the begnning of a love affair with animals of all kind. From Farm animals, to birds, to man's best friend. Mr tanner devoted nearly half of his time seeking solutions for the tens of millions of pet animals in the US. In mid 2005, Mr Tanner was commisioned by North Miami Chamber of Commerce to handle all the IT for the large Miami city. In this city are a number of animal rescue organizations, including the Humane Society. Having 4 dogs of his own, he began to experience the challenges that dogs and dog owners faced in the simple but essential exercise of grooming and cleaning his own dogs. His fiancee' was primarily responsible for groomimg the families 4 dogs. But when she was diagnosed with cancer, Jim saw the difficulties and the physical toll washing dogs at hm took. As it is said, necessity is the mother of invention, and in this case, but for the tragedy of cancer, The Blacktie Dog Grooming Station probably would have never been created or invented. Watching his lover strain and suffer washing the dogs was enough for JIm to undertake an easy on the body, easy on the cleanup and easy on the dog solution. Three years later JIm had a working prototype. But it was too expensive to produce. Between caring for his fiancee', working full time in his IT career, and developing his dog washing unit, Mr Tanner developed 7 prototypes, the final of which is now " The Blacktie Countertop Dog Grooming Station"
