Self employment - time to admit defeat??

penny_pitstop

I am a self employed dog groomer and have been for 4 years now.
I currently work (on average) 7 - 10 hours per week and have a part time job along side my self employment of around 6 hours per week. I am VERY lucky that my other half supports me financially and in every other way.
I put alot into my small business (not just money) but I'm only this year staring to make a 'profit' (a VERY small one!)
Since I started up there has been a massive increase in competition, mainly franchises and high street shops etc, where as I am a one man from home operation. No amount of advertising has halped me, I get all my new customers form word of mouth but it is slow process. Yes, my customer base increases each year but only by a few.
I love what I do but don't earn enough money and struggle to find part time work that doesn't interfere with my self employment.

Is it time to admit defeat and move on? It would break my heart but no one can exist on thin air!

My other thinking is to start a small cleaning business with my sister. We have both worked in the cleaning industry since we left school (yes that was a while ago!) so we know the trade and know there is work out there for good reliable domestic cleaners. We have discussed it before but never made the move. I could do this and still carry on with my dog grooming.

Any input would be great. Thanks in advance.

nonnatus

Could you not run your grooming business in the evenings and at weekends whilst it's still so small? I would imagine there would be plenty of people who would prefer to get their pet groomed outside office hours anyway!
This would leave plenty of 9-5 time to earn money in a different way.

Mistral001

Many sucessful business people, in fact many would say most sucessful business people have had failures in their early careers. Look at Dragons in dragons Den for instances.

You will have learned a lot from the dog grooming business that will help you in other businesses.

It seems that the big businesses are getting bigger and the smaller ones smaller these days it would seem.

However, I can see one main advantage of something like dog-grooming over say cleaning for the one-man-band. You will always be dealing with individual private customers. There is no contract work and no public sector work as far as I can see. That is a big bonus ffor the self-employed. Cleaning does have public sector and contract work which the smaller firms cannot really do because they do not have the resourses. So perhaps you could not expand much without coming up against a lot of competition from the bigger firms.

pinetree

Hi penny pitstop, just a few ideas, maybe find a niche that other groomers dont have eg specialising in nervous dogs, selling accessories collars etc, maybe having special offers, vouchers, have one groom and get the next half price, also if you're not already on twitter this is great for local businesses by following your local newspaper, radio station, dog related people etc and go from there, hope this helps

paulwf

If you're in year 4 and only getting 7-10 hours of work, competition is increasing, profits are tiny and advertising doesn't help then that doesn't sound good. The idea of doing it at the weekend or in the evening sounds like a good solution though.

If you love dog grooming perhaps you could look at getting an employed position at one of the competitors? That would be more hours, guaranteed pay, holiday pay and SSP without any stress.

Savvy_Sue

Plus if all your new business comes from word of mouth, then 'introductory' offers are probably a good way to go: small amount off your next groom if you introduce a friend, similar amount off the first groom for each new client etc.

Are you charging enough, btw?

Oddjob

I would go the route of doing the grooming in the evenings and weekends if you don't already. I wish the person who baths my dog would do him in the evenings, it would make things so much simpler. You could perhaps leaflet local firms, offering this service to their employees, then that would free up more of your time in the day for other work if necessary.

terra_ferma

being self employed is very tough, particularly if you have any overheads. You need to have a proper business plans, take a hard look at your business, and work out all the figures.
How many clients/sessions would you need to make the profit you want to achieve?
How long will it take you to get to that point based on past history? Are you able to wait? Can you speed it up?

The suggestions of looking at your charges, and also trying to add other income sources, like selling dog accessories sound really good.
Good luck

ohreally

My hound gets groomed every 4-6 weeks, the girl who does him makes a good living doing it and is booked weeks in advance working 5 days a week. I once had to try and book a different groomer for a friend and all the places I tried were booked well in advance.

Just goes to show you.

MummyMummy_2

When you say work on average 7-10 hours is that you just doing the grooming or does that include you actually working ON your business too? Its the norm to make a loss your first year, draw even your second year and third year to make a profit isnt it? Looking at it that way you dont seem too bad?

Without offending you... Are you good at what you do? Can you improve? Is there additional qualifications you could take to improve your services? Are you a people person? Are you friendly?approachable? Alwqys have a smile? Do you look professional? Clean, smart uniform? Have you checked out the prices of your competition? Are you in line with your area average?

Have you got a website? Is it a professional looking website? Have you had somebody proof read it for you? Theres notng worse than seeing stupid spelling errors on a website... If you cant spell how the hell are you going to be able to carry out the work i need You to do kwim? Have you registered yourself on all the free sites/dictories such as yell, bt, gumtree, netmums etc etc. Have you got business cards printed out? Do you give them out to peope? Have you been to local shops on your area and asked if you can leave them there/do a business card/price list swap? Have you done a leaflet drop? Have you done any introductory offers? If word of mouth is your best advertisement then have you rewarded your customers for promoting you? If not, do areferal scheme so many refers gets your customer a whatever or for every refer they get a whatever (i dont know how your business works or your costs so dont kNow what you could offer people that works for you but is worth it for them too). Encourage people to name drop you and reward those customers who are good enouggh to name drop you. Do you have a loyalty scheme? I assume dog grooming is like hairdressing and beauty? Nails grow back and hair needs cutting again? If so, why not do After so many whatevers the customer gets a reward? Encourage them to come back. Do you take email/text numbers? Do you send regular updates and 'exclusive' offers? Can you offer anything different to your competitors? Dog minding service? Pet walking service? Pet accessories? Fancy/imported dog treats? Do you go into peoples homes or do they come to you? (dont know what equipment you need etc so not sure if moile is even possible?) if you could be mobile but arent have you considered including a mobile service too? Charge extraand really push the whole convieniance thing? Could you get yourself in the local paper for a section every now and again on pet health/grooming? Can you partner up with if you cant/dont want to offer a dog minding service companies who do offer one and do an offer they could pass to their customers who drop their dogs off? Maybe a package deal dog stay and a groom ready for customers return etc? Do you have facebook? Do you use it? Do you name drop to everybody what you do? Can you put notices up in your part time job place? Cn your partner put a notice up on in their work? CAn friends and family do the same for you? Do. You have signs on your car to advertise what you do? Have you been to local dog walking routes/fields and handed out a business card/price list to those walking dogs? Can you do anything like a raffle donation for an animal charity? Usually charities advertise who donates such and such a prize so thes potentiwl for people to read/hear your name for a small donation kwim? Can you do block booking discounts to get the money upfront to invest in new training/products/bigger advertising projects? Is there any animal calender occasions like i dont know national dog day for eg. that you could do some fun advertising for? Have you been through your client list and sent a little note to those who havent been for a while with a welcome back offer? Have you sent out questionnaires for previous users to fill in for you to get some feedback on what you do well/what you could improve on? X

barrymung

I'd suggest maybe doing a little bit of everything would be the way forward and also cross promoting your services.

For example, you could introduce a dog walking service and a poer sitting service. You could promote your dog grooming business to your dog walking customers and vice versa.

Dog owners are always in need of cleaners so you can cross promote here too.

If you could get all of your existing customers to buy one of your other services you could double your business, etc.