Help from dog owners reqd please

renegade

Some dogs need specialized experienced groomers, like my Bichon Frise, not every groomer will do them. He is collected /returned from home, goes every 3 months the charge is £30.00 for shearing , hand head trim, nails clipped.

heretolearn_2

I'm a little bit worried about your costings as well and the scope for this type of business to prvide enough profit for paid staff plus an owner.

staffing costs: at 18k, you have to factor in an actual cost of roughly +15% to cover employers NI and other costs, so that's £1725 a month by itself. Then you have to give them 20 days hols plus bank hols - are you going to close down on those days with resulting loss of income, or employ a temp to cover with increased costs.

Other factors you may not have considered:
waste costs, you have to pay for commercial waste collection, it isn't included in rates. Ours is £1 per binbag and that's a pretty average rate. How many of these would you use a week?
Accountancy costs. Can you run a PAYE sceme or will you have to pay someone else. End of year accounts and tax-returns etc.
Phone/website costs
what we call 'staff welfare' - i.e. loo rolls, t bags, milk, biscuits, soap, towels, staff birthday card/cake, christmas box of chocs. Small amounts individually but it adds up. I'd say ours averages about £80 per person/per year.
replacement of broken/obsolete equipment

kaz.w_2

Hi ... Just to let you know it costs me £40 once a month to get my golden retriever groomed, it is a mobile grooming service and he is groomed in the van outside my home.... the young woman who does this is always booked up ... I do believe you could make a good income out of this ... I think you should consider going mobile ... its one option .

lynnemcf

I get my dog groomed every 6 weeks at a cost of £17 ... if you want to attract the owners that have the high maintenance dogs you need to have a top class groomer with excellent skills and "doggie" contacts (they breed or groom to show standard). My preference is for grooming from a van, its convenient for the owner, and the van is a great advert ...

MrsTinks

My main concern is - if something happens and your FT groomer quits etc... do YOU have the skills to actually do the job? Because if you don't and the groomer is sick - short or long term - then you have to let clients down and they will go elsewhere... that is lost revenue both short and long term...
A friend of mine is a Vet and basically if she's off sick then all ops are cancelled and clients go elsewhere... so she works even when sick unless she's REALLY ill... but an employee wouldn't have THAT dedication to a business...

Unless you know for sure you could get a fully qualified groomer at short notice ofcourse...

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i was a profesional dog groomer for over 20 years...

in theory its great to have apprentices etc... but once they are qualitfied, they will more than likely start up on their own..

It is also not as simple as 'training' someone up, as there are some VERY naff dog groomers out there, and they have been so called trained and gone to collage... unless they have the eye for it etc.. then you will have customers coming once, and then never returning..

on a very good day, myself and an assistant would do 15 dogs, and yes it was hard work... but we did have a routine, admitedly not all of those 15 dogs were hard work to do..

Alot of people think its easy money....... well its not....unless you have a genuine interest, i would say dont bother...... leave it to the people, who really do know dogs....

missm29

Hi i have 2 cavalier king charles, i get them groomed about every 3 months, the place i go to charge me £50, but usually its £27 per a dog, she only does small dogs, shes converted her conservatory, she empties their anal glands, cuts their nails, cleans teeth and trims inside their ears....she styles them according to show standards, i remember the first time she asked if i wanted the trousers kept on, she meant the fur on the back legs. I'm well aware i can get it done cheaper if i went elsewhere, but i completely trust her to keep my dogs safe and get the feeling its not just a money making thing for her....shes dog mad, has a few of these little white fluffy dogs, i forget the breed. I prefer to stick with her, my dogs know her...rather than going to a bigger place with different staff.

Surely the best option would be to work from home and provide the personal touch, rather than big premises with the quick in and out attitude. I would rather pay for good service....people are funny about their dogs.

A mobile service would be good too, have used one in the past, she charged the same and took the dogs back to her house to be groomed and then returned them, less hassle for me when i was heavily pregnant, but i prefer my usual lady and my dogs are going there monday.

miffyhugmuffin

We take our dog to the groomers once a month, it costs £30.

Sagz_2

I've taken my dog to the groomers twice for a clip (he's 14 years old now), and it cost £25 a go.