Before my wife took ill several years ago, we ran a small-dogs grooming business. It had evolved from the experiences gained from grooming our own Shih Tzu; and also from leads we’d picked up on dog walks as other dog owners observed our handsome ‘little lion’ with his beautiful coat and topknot, and asked about our groomer. We’d also read Robert S. Whitman’s book on small dog grooming. While UK Dog Grooming School provides an excellent summary of how to set up a dog grooming business, we also offer our up-close-and-personal experiences and suggest you combine both sets of information in your quest.
Choosing a Name:
I knew enough from my own entrepreneurial experience to use the 3M technique of choosing a name. It needed to be:
- M memorable;
- M ellow; and have
- M ass appeal
I also followed the advice of a business associate. He ran a company called Argood Alarms in Windsor. How did he pick the name? He wanted one that people would see first when looking through the telephone book.
In our case, we wanted a small, personalized business so our choice of name was A Pawsonal Touch.
Developing a Business Plan:
We started preparing a plan by describing our business using the following prompts:
- What exactly is the venture?
- What are the objectives?
- What service is provided?
- How unique is the service?
- Where will the venture be located?
- When and for how long will the venture function?
- Who are most involved in starting and managing it?
We also knew we needed to make some predictions for the future of our proposed business based on relevant data. The prime reason, of course, was to minimize risk. To accomplish this we proceeded to devise a question and answer organizer based on four sections: (see images below)
- Market Analysis
- Operating Strategy
- Resource Analysis
- Financial Strategy
Marketing Strategies:
A market strategy explains how you intend to meet your marketing objectives. The means by which you can meet these objectives, however, depend on how you manage your marketing mix. This mix should include the following:
- Product/Service- decide how you differ from the competition e.g. more features such as pick-up and drop off; retail dog scarves (my sister made them and we retailed them; included free with the first visit)
- Promotion- decide how you will communicate the major benefits; special deals, coupons, advertising; audio or print advertising; long or short reminder
- Place/Distribution- decide how you will increase market coverage beyond friends and neighbours e.g. use of yellow pages, flyers (see image below)
- Pricing- decide when you will use cost-plus versus demand pricing e.g. charge by hour: removing fur mats is time consuming; charge a set fee for baths and nail cutting; premium pricing for pad treatments, special skin treatments etc.
Other Critical Tips:
We soon discovered things to do and things not to do. Probably the most important to-do item was listening carefully to what the customer wanted, followed by keeping the site well lit, clean and fresh. We also insisted that the clients' dogs be up to date on the important core disease vaccines, plus the Bordetella vaccine for kennel cough.
Because we could, we insisted on payment in cash: no checks or credit cards. We also insisted on seeing the dog before the first grooming session. And because we could, badly behaved and uncared-for dogs were not accepted.
Unless it's a hobby, it's also critical that good records- financial statements- be kept to monitor for profitability.
That said, our suggestion to anyone considering a small dog grooming business is go for it. Regrettably, we are no longer in business, but we constantly get inquiries generated by the phone book advertisement.
Sources:
- Robert S. Whitman. How to Make Big Money Grooming Small Dogs. Protective Specialties Development Group. Philadelphia, PA. 1995.
- Setting Up a Dog Grooming Business. UK Dog Grooming School.
James Gibson - James Gibson is a retired teacher and small business owner. He is a published writer and has a wide spectrum of interests.
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